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cgbraincell · 3 years

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Eddie’s History

I will be adding some links to this when Pangea fixes their security stuff on their forums.

Eddie is a truly spectacular crested gecko. I personally feel that she illuminates the It Factor that highly sought-after geckos have in terms of structure, even though Lilly White is at the top of the list (alongside Charcoal, Axanthic, “Confetti” or “Mardi Gras” Dalmations, and the newly emerging Cappuccino). Her eyes are large and naturalistic, she has a relatively short snout, and a beautifully structured crown. Her babies have developed either similarly wide heads or very droopy crests.

This post is about her history.

Eddie is, as of writing this, a bit over 9 years of age. I was able to pull off a great deal of digging, which led me to the somewhat archaic but still running Pangea forums. I posted there hoping to find out more but my post was removed. I didn’t find out why but the amount of editing I had to do after posting it to get the picture up could have set off a red flag. Ask me why I like tumblr...

Born Edmonton in early/mid 2012, Eddie came from the now-inactive breeder “The Minagerie,” babies from Mina were referred to as Minalings. This particular Minaling was borne of the pairing of Andrina (Dame) and Captain (Sire). Edmonton ended up getting sold as a young one to another breeder known as Gex (link here of young Eddie when Pangea does the thing). If I recall correctly, Gex was hoping Edmonton was a male, and when she was not, later sold Edmonton to The Gecko Alchemist in late 2014. Edmonton became a very successful, proven breeder under Alchemist’s care. I have no idea if Eddie was bred prior to that point, but she was Good at throwing healthy babies.

In 2018, Edmonton was sold to a friend of a friend. Due to a tragic event in late 2020, Edmonton was placed into the care of my friend, who later adopted her to me. By that time I was already calling her Eddie. No disrespect, she is still Lady Edmonton, but I found it amusing and oddly fitting to refer to her with the nickname as, at the time, I was delving into the Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast mobile game and Eddie is...certainly a character.

Under the friend’s friend’s care, Eddie was paired with a fellow named Gabion. I will detail in another post the effects of the continuous living of the two of them (it’s not good). Eddie and Gabion successfully had four babies that were given to others. One of those babies, Baako, is now in the care of my friend, and she’s pretty, although appears to have some degree of arrested development in her growing up. She is not quite the size of her parents and her pins lower on her back are rounded instead of having developed into little spikes. I will get to see if this is just a matter of the pairing at a later date.

Temporary housing following the rescue of a great deal of animals, including this Fine Lady.

Although Baako’s parents both have much finer details, she seems to have taken this and grown up with some very chunky colors and patterns. She also has supremely droopy crests, but she is most certainly Eddie’s child.

Eddie is now fully retired in my care. I do have five babies from her, following her removal from her ex-mate, and I am excited to see how they will grow and develop. My profile picture is of one of the five that you can pry from my cold, dead hands and not a moment sooner. I adore him.

Here is a portion of a post I’d written elsewhere describing Eddie’s structure, which I am adding in as I simply cannot gush about this beautiful creature enough:

Eddie's Structure

At 9 years of age, Eddie is a variable weight ranging from 48-56grams depending on whether or not she is gravid and/or full of food, as well as 8.25"/21cm in length from nose to tail tip. Her crests are wide, extending beyond her head, and are beautifully shaped, drooping only slightly. Her pinning is not particularly long, but very well spaced, conical, and straight. Eddie's eyes are huge and naturalistic - this appeals to me greatly - and they are an ideal length from her nose as far as the community seeks. She has wide, thick toes, loose skin from age and weight fluctuation, and gorgeous wrinkles that take my breath away. Her tail is decidedly long, amounting to 45%+ of her length - I have not measured the exact proportion, but it's very lovely.

Edmonton has huge portholes in a beautiful cream tone, this tone is also present around her feet, knees, dorsal, and runs along her tail. When fired down she is a pale olive-brown, and this sort of pastel set of tones is phenomenal to me. Fired up, Eddie is a coffee brown, and set with her cream tones she looks like a dream latte. She may be a harlequin, but I admittedly get a little confused about some of the patterning. Her genes seem particularly strong and her babies are, with some variation, little copies of her.

#crested gecko #reptiblr #crestie history

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princess-sora · 5 years

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Review: Phantasy Star IV

Some History

Phantasy Star's a series that's been near and dear to me for over half my life. I first got into it via the Phantasy Star Collection for Gameboy Advance, a 2002 collection of the first 3 out of the original 4 games. 1 and 2 were good games for their time, and while they were mechanically rather archaic, their aggressive combination of fantasy and sci-fi captured my 13-year-old imagination something fierce. I'd never seen a setting like it. 3, though... some of its ideas were interesting to me, but not only was it mostly fantasy and very little sci-fi for most of its story, it just plain wasn't very good. I largely left it alone. I never beat any of the games, but they left a massive impression on me.

It wasn't until several years later that I'd discover that I was missing something. They'd cut Phantasy Star 4 out of the collection, presumably for cartridge space/budget reasons... and in doing so, I've since learned, deprived my young self of an incredible experience. When I first learned about Phantasy Star 4, I no longer had the ability to focus on an RPG long enough to complete one. Over multiple tries at it, I only ever got about a third into the game before drifting away. But, now that I can focus on things again, I decided to give it another attempt.

The Review

At its core, Phantasy Star IV is a traditional JRPG, with random encounters, turn-based battles, and a storyline with essentially zero player choice or agency. But it's an exemplar of the genre. Scenario design is overall very well-paced and conveyed; at no point did I feel like I wasn't advancing, or didn't know what to do or where to go. Aside from one specific point near the end of the first third, I didn't feel like grinding was ever necessary--if I felt like I hit a wall, there was some sort of side content to check out that'd get me back on track.

On the subject of side content, Phantasy Star 4 has plenty. The Hunter's Guild has a list of sidequests that open up as the plot progresses, which are a source of money more than anything, as not all of them involve combat. The Hunter's Guild quests are probably one of my bigger quibbles, actually. Like in a lot of RPGs, money ends up being essentially meaningless near the end, so it can be a bit of a gamble to tell whether you'll get anything worthwhile (read: experience or equipment) from the experience.

On top of that, a few of them have remarkably unsatisfying conclusions--off the top of my head, one ends up costing you exactly the amount you later get paid as a reward, and another gives you no money at all, though it does involve a boss battle. I still recommend doing them, however; there's a story to every one, sometimes amusing, and it all serves to make the world feel more lived-in and real.

There are a fair few side dungeons, too, beyond the one or two you visit as part of guild quests. They're optional as well, but almost always worthwhile, giving lore, good equipment, new skills for your Android characters, and often, challenging and lucrative boss fights.

Dungeons, on the whole, are very well-designed. They're generally a bit mazeish, but dead-end branches generally have something interesting at the end of them, and they're never particularly long. Where they really shine, though, is in their structure. The way that they're built gives a sense of place, that despite their gameplay-oriented layouts, they are actually the sort of structure thy claim to be. Caves and some underground dungeons don't quite fit this as well, but for the most part, it's a very strong point. One of the midgame dungeons--an ancient castle built on crumbling, deteriorating foundations--is my favorite example of this. The winding halls feel, in some way, like they were once the grand halls of their ruler. There are dead ends that are simply overlooks from the castle walls, or areas that would present paths if not for the ground crumbling away. They don't have anything at the end, but they aren't long enough to be annoying; it feels like they're just there for versimilitude, to add to the idea that this is a place, something more than a construct for the sake of gameplay.

The game's presentation is top-notch, as well. Sprites on the overworld are clear and well-animated, with cute little touches like every character's walk cycle being a different speed based on height or bulk, and in battle, backgrounds and sprites are *beautifully* detailed, with both party members and enemies having various different animations depending on what they're doing.

The sound design is especially excellent. The sounds of battle are satisfying and impactful, and along with the animations, this gives fights a fantastic "game-feel" that helps keep encounters from becoming stale. That's to say nothing of the music. This is some of the best music to come out of the Genesis' sound hardware, hands-down. It's (mostly) a far cry from the "electro-farts" some people describe the Genesis' sound as, and when it is, it's with a very clear purpose. The compositions are musically complex and fun to listen to, particularly the dungeon and battle themes, whose catchy, interesting tunes do a lot to make up for the fact that you'll be hearing them a lot.

The battle system is presented in a fairly standard style--you see your party members from behind, facing down the enemies, you queue up all of your actions, and the turn progresses roughly in order of agility. Your characters have a wide variety of abilities available to them, divided into two categories, Techs and Skills, both learned as characters level up. Techs draw from a character's pool of TP (basically MP), and are essentially this game's version of magic. Skills are a bit different--with a couple of exceptions, each character's skills are unique, with their own effects or gimmicks, but with the caveat that each one only has a certain number of uses until your next visit to an inn. The game itself, regrettably, doesn’t tell you what techs/skills do what (I suspect that’s in the manual), so don’t be afraid to look them up online.

There's a "macro" system in place, too, allowing you to set up specific sequences of actions for your characters to carry out during a round of battle. At first blush, it'd seem like a more complex version of the genre-standard auto-battle system, but there's another purpose: combination attacks. Certain techs and skills, cast in the right order without enemy interruption, can combine into a more powerful move. As an example, three characters casting the basic fire, ice, and lightning techs together on the same turn will combine to cast "Tri-Blaster," which does higher damage to all enemies. They need to be cast together without being interrupted by enemies, however, meaning you need to keep your characters' agility stats in mind when building and sequencing your macros. There are 14 combo attacks, total, and the game doesn't tell you any of them, so don't be afraid to look those up, either.

The story is fantastic--probably one of the best out of any game I can think of. It was meant from the start to be the end of the story, and it's a tribute and a love letter to the franchise's legacy, while still managing to be accessible and engaging for an unfamiliar player. It deals with death in a way that's rarely been matched, and it raises the stakes from 'investigating monster attacks' at the start to 'destroying ultimate evil' by the end in a way that feels about as natural as you can make that kind of escalation. The protagonist grows visibly over the course of the story, and while most of his his companions are somewhat shallower, there was hardly anyone among the cast I didn't care about, by the ending. The setting feels lived-in and even a bit alive, thanks to guild quests, incidental dialogue that's actually interesting, and various other worldbuilding touches throughout.

The Conclusion

I'm not gonna give this a number. But I will say that Phantasy Star IV is the first RPG I've actually felt driven to beat in years, and I recommend it with absolutely no reservations. In fact, it's on Steam for $1 USD. Buy it. Play it. You won't regret it, I promise.

#review #phantasy star iv #end of the millennium #retro #phantasy star #phantasy star 4 #rpg #genesis #megadrive #jrpg

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