The Plot For Jump Force Thickens

 Good morning everyone,

You know that feeling when you would expect to be told something but don't learn about it until about maybe an hour before hand? Yeah that basically my day yesterday!

Anyway, last night's stream of Jump Force saw an exclusive focus on the main story... outside of having to basically re-sync up my microphone and capture card's audio all on stream. On top of that my camera kept detecting things as being mostly 'blue' for whatever reason which threw off the settings for the green screen.

Still, I did finished Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 of Jump Force, where more characters are found and the realization that the villains of some of these Anime and Manga are going to be reoccurring battles became intriguing. Apparently there are two versions (I think) of a book Kane is using to cause trouble in the worlds, so I'm kind of interested to see where the plot goes.

Near as I can tell Red Exclamation Marks mean 'Key Quests' related to the main story and blue ones are side stories and missions, that probably add a lot of replay value to the game, and probably would keep me invested in playing it to complete all of them,

On the plus side: I did find the attire to have Nautea look even more like Android 18!

Big thanks to evilmher for the big raid during the stream! They were playing Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master over at twitch.tv/evilmher!

Also thank you to XSlevenKelevraX and Redman780 for following the channel during last night's stream!  

Following the stream we sent the fun over to sw33ts_gaming who was playing Paladins over at twitch.tv/sw33ts_gaming!  

Jump Force Achievements

1. The Big Bad: Cleared Chapter 2.
2. The Battle of Your Dreams: Cleared Extra Mission one or more times.
3. The Mysterious Woman: Cleared Chapter 3.

Twitch Clip Links

• I think he's dead... Nope... I'm Dead!
• That got close but it worked!
• That work out! 
  

Decided to pre-order Pokemon Shining Pearl... why that one instead of Brilliant Diamond? Well most folks I know went with Diamond, so Shining Pearl seemed like the alternative pick!  

My off-stream Final Fantasy XIV adventures saw the Main Story Quest being put on hold to focus on the Feature Quests... aka the Plus Sign quests, so this was basically going around finding dungeons and stuff to unlock to do and so forth. The biggest one was actually a story that kicks off the huge 24-person raids for the Stormblood content, which was confusing but fun. I might save a few of these to do on stream, but I think I skipped some from A Realm Reborn that could make for a fun Saturday night stream this week.

It's completely obvious that people who said 2016's Ghostbusters which was a completely train wreck are going to hate Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Take Brian Truitt of USA Today, who not only said the 2016 film was pretty good (which it wasn't) but went out of his way to rip Afterlife for it's nostalgia aspect... when the 2016 did nothing but completely do a re-tread of the 1984 film in every fucking way possible!

So the whole situation over at Activision Blizzard certainly raises questions about me and Overwatch on Sundays... and I'm still going to play Overwatch, it's just more of a explaining why. And in my case it's more of, I bought the game, I enjoy the game a lot, and at times Overwatch on Sundays ends up being the best stream statistically speaking for the week. The fact remains that there needs to be changes made over at Activision Blizzard regarding its leadership, and I hope the pressure from the three major gaming giants (Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo) put enough pressure on to force it.

Didn't realize that yesterday was the 500th day in a row I worked out using the Fitness Boxing games... milestones are awesome. Anyway today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Defensive Combo #2, Defensive Combo #1 and Double Combo  #1 for a duration of 28 minutes resulting in an estimated calorie burn of 438 kcal.

For tonight's stream I wanted to feature something on the PlayStation 3... but most of my PS3 Library are games I want do feature on the more 'prime slots' of the week (Mondays/Tuesday), so it would unfair to start something at this point So instead we're gonna use the Nintendo Switch, and we'll lead off with Mario Golf: Super Rush and then see where the night goes! We might even switch consoles mid-stream!

So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Kart Racing, Gears of War and Stormblood!

Good morning everybody,

Yesterday was work day that wasn't a work day so figure that out... but funny enough, I didn't get confirmation I would be working today until after I woke up... again, figure that out.

Anyway last night's stream lead off with Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix, as we did a bunch of the cup races and unlocked several characters to use down the line. Haven't played it in months, but it was pretty fun to get back into it, using Korra as my main to get things done, we might actually play it against next week... I would like to get 3 stars on all the cups on the normal difficulty setting, so that is something to shoot for!

In the second half of the stream, Iceman joined in as we started up Gears of War 4, and it was nice to do this with a buddy, we tackled Acts I and II, and while I knew I was going to play as J.D., I'm surprised Iceman had Kait, who I didn't think would be the lead companion character over Dean. Managed to find a lot of collectables I missed in my first play through, but not everything in the first two Acts of the campaign... so much like with the other Gears games, a justified reason to play it again down the line! 

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Oldish22 who was playing Halo: Infinite over at twitch.tv/oldish22! 

Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix Achievements

1. We're in This Together!: Activate 100 chief skills
2. Fly Superthing, Fly!: Perform 25 jump boosts in a single race

Gears of War 4 Achievements

1. And Both of Us Are Back: Completed the Prologue in Co-op (any difficulty)
2. Come And Knock on My Door: Completed one Act in Co-op Campaign
3. Becoming Brothers: Completed two Campaign Acts in Co-op (any difficulty)
4. Hi, Mom: You visited Anya's Grave in Campaign. Inspired by the community.
   

Twitch Clip Links

• We're In This Together!
• Challenge Complete!
• Come On Zim! Let's Go Zim! 
• This is silly!
• It Was A Good Idea! 
• Getting Across!
  

My Final Fantasy XIV adventures saw the march towards the end of Stormblood (aka Patch 4.0), a large chunk done yesterday afternoon, picking up with The Price of Freed and going through to The Resonant. I have to say the Castrum Abania dungeon felt a little underwhelming as I was expecting to face and defeat Fordola there... but I had to wait until The Resonant to take her down, and to rescue Krile as well.That said, I have to say finding the Aether currents in the Lochs was a lot more aggravating than it needed to be with one requiring to go to the middle of the map to find a tunnel that leads to the northwest corner of the map in order to reach it... then this is compounded by the fact that there are a lot of places to fall from an elevated position, but not many ways to get back up where you need to be easily.

Of course after the stream, I went on to wrap up Stormblood and man, waiting for the queues for the final dungeon and trial made it a lot longer than it needed to be. I am rather surprised that Zenos merged with a Primal was the Trial and not taking him on directly, which was the dungeon. I mean, it makes sense considering we've seen that gimmick several times, but to me, a more one on one battle would have been a bit more satisfying considering the two times he kicked our butt for story purposes. Still... sad to see the Yda/Lyse will be no longer apart of the on going adventures, but Stormblood was really her story of growing out of her sister's shadow and being on par with the other major leaders within the game.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout featured Triple Combo #2, Intermediate Combo #1 and Biceps Shape Focus Combo for a duration of 31 minutes and an estimated calorie burn of 513 kcal

For tonight's stream we'll resume Jump Force, with the real focus being on the campaign and getting things done! We'll worry about the online matches hopefully long before the game's servers shut down in August of next year!

So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Lara Croft Is Basically Searching For The Holy Grail

Good morning everybody,

Work was a little short yesterday, but we got one assignment done that probably hung around a day or two longer than it needed to, and I did over production because of the shorter time frame, so it works out a bit for me!

Last nights stream of Rise of the Tomb Raider brought forth a realization... the Divine Source is basically the Holy Grail, and in several regards Rise of the Tomb Raider could be compared to Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, with how Lara is like Indy and following the path their father's started. That said, I don't think Indy quite has Lara body count in said adventures. That said... Jacob is so obviously the Prophet that it does make Lara seem rather silly when she sees a mural of him and doesn't put two and two together.

While little was learned about what the Divine Source really is, it's dangers are quite clear not to mention Lara feeling conflicting about what she wants and what is the right thing. There were several night action set pieces, and a handful of deaths.... one of which involved a bear. Now why is it the bears can eat so much ammo... I don't get it, particularly when shooting them in the face! 

Where we ended up in the story was heading towards a Archive where a map is supposed to be, and if this is anything like Tomb Raider (2013), then the Deathless Ones are going to be like Stormguard, ancient warriors that may be a pain in the ass to deal with... which probably means the shotgun is going to really come in handy. We'll see about that when Rise of the Tomb Raider is resumed on Monday's stream!

We pick up a new follower last night, vVRTRA, thank you for joining the crew!

Big thanks to Evilmher for the huge raid that actually extended my stream last night. Evilmher was playing  Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master over at twitch.tv/evilmher! 

Following the stream we sent the fun over to LifeWithStan who started playing The Witcher 3 over at twitch.tv/lifewithstan!

Rise of the Tomb Raider Achievements

1. Truth Seeker: Collect 25% of all narrative assets (relics, murals, and documents)
2. Firestarter: Defeat two enemies or more using a single Molotov Cocktail
3. Fluent: Reach max proficiency in one language
4. Good Samaritan: Complete 3 Missions
5. Taking the High Road: Light the signal fire in the Remnant Valley
6. Fall Guys: Kill 10 enemies by shooting them in the leg
7. Weaponsmith: Fully upgrade one weapon
8. A Helping Hand: Defend the Remnants from the Trinity invasion
9. English Pedigree: Headshot an enemy with an arrow from a distance beyond 25m

Twitch Clip Links

•  Lara... Time to run!
•  Effective!
•  They were not expecting that!

Successfully tracked  down brand new factory sealed copies of ESPN NHL Hockey for the PlayStation 2 and Jump Force of the PlayStation 4. The reason for adding both is this, first I thought I still had my original copy of ESPN NHL Hockey, but I probably traded that in for when ESPN NHL 2K5 came out... and as far as Jump Force is concerned, since it was announced for de-listing next year, figure it would be good to grab a copy that could potentially rise in value due to the nostalgia market, but that seems unlikely because of the general response to the game upon its initial release.

My Final Fantasy XIV saw basically the first half of the level 68-70 quests knocked out from The First of Many up to the start of The Price of Freedom, so the big things is that we saw Zenos have Fordola go through a procedure involving the captive Krile that seems to have given her the echo, then have her order a giant cannon to be fired at their own troops and basically set up for the next big push to capture the place where the cannon was fired from. Lyse is now defacto leader of the resistance, and everything is getting to where I'll have a show down with Zenos... in what will obviously be a trial... so that should be unpleasant. 

That said some of the side quests to get the Aether currents in The Peaks region are way to spread out to where you it's a pain to get to where you need to be. Square Enix really makes you earn flying... I'm really hoping that Shadowbringers is a little more resonable like how Heavansward was in terms of getting the Aether currents... and yes I am aware there is another area in Stormblood that I have not reached yet that has another set of Aether currents to find and I'm dreading that!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Difficult Challenge Combo #1, Difficult Challenge Combo #3 and Difficult Challenge Combo #2 for a duration of 34 minutes and a estimated calorie burn of 641 kcal.

I also recently reached out to Imagineer, the developer and publisher of Fitness Boxing 2, asking on if there any achievements being added because of the recent addition as 'Guy' as the trainer. Here is their direct reply.

Thank you for using the additional instructor 'Guy'.

There are no plans for additional costumes or achievements regarding the inquiries.

Thank you for your understanding.

We look forward to your continued support of our software.

■お問い合わせ

イマジニア株式会社

東京都新宿区西新宿2-7-1

I wasn't expecting to actually get a response from them, but I'll just assume because their website is in Japanese, and requites Google Translate to navigate it, they felt compelled to respond. After all, how many Americans are contacting them about Fitness Boxing 2? Now this reply was received via email, but I shall not post their email address

For tonight's stream, well at 9 PM Iceman will be joining us once again as we start up Gears of War 4! But for the first half of the stream, we may just mess around with something random! Not sure exactly what yet, but we'll be up to something!

So on that note, we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Lara Rises Again... Only To Fall In The Snow!

Good morning everybody,

Well a new day dawns on us, following a night where Lara Croft was stumbling around in the snow.

Yes, indeed we started up Rise of the Tomb Raider last night, a boy was it a bit confusing in regards to how some abilities were being unlocked and when, as the prologue certainly lasted longer than I thought and the big reveal a good portion of what I playing may be told from a flash back perspective. It seems that way at the very least. It seems Lara has kind of gone loony as she goes all-in following her father's foot steps which puts her in conflict with a fanatical religious group is look for the Divine Source, an relic that seems as if can grant immortality.

Gameplay wise, Rise of the Tomb Raider plays a lot like the first game, but we have the hindrance of snow and the added elements of swimming sections, which gives me flash backs to how swimming was a big deal in Tomb Raider II way back in the 90s. Collectables seems to be a lot easier to find, and there are some in-game perks to finding ancient coins to purchase various items.

I should talk about the micro-transactions Rise of the Tomb Raider has, because it's clear there were some pay to win mechanics going on, which I believe is part of the PVP mode... that sadly was a trend for a long time folks.

Anyway, in terms of where I am in the story, I figure I'm maybe one-third of the way through, if a list of chapters was any indications. With luck, this could be a three-nighter like the first game in the Survivor Trilogy... but I'm not counting on that!

Big thanks to Kalenal for the big raid after her stream of Stardew Valley! Kalenal streams over at twitch.tv/kalenal and plays a lot of Final Fantasy XIV!

Following the stream we sent the fun over to LifeWithStan who was playing Dark Souls III over at twitch.tv/lifewithstan!

Rise of the Tomb Raider Achievements

1. Quite the Collector: Collect 150 cards
2. Reading the Past: Translate one Monolith
3. Following in Father's Footsteps: Enter the Syrian tomb of the Lost Prophet
4. Quite A Tumble: Survive the avalanche
5. Tougher Than She Looks: Survive a night in the Siberian wilderness
6. One-Sided Conversation: Stealth kill an enemy while he is having a conversation
7. Challenging: Complete any Challenge Tomb
8. Strange Acquaintance: Rescue Jacob from the gulag
9. Rapid Recovery: Heal yourself in combat 3 times
10. Twitch Clip Links

Twitch Clip Links

• The first oops of the game...
• It's a Bear!
• Ho Ho Ho I Got A Machine Gun!
  

My off-stream adventures of Final Fantasy XIV continued, first yesterday afternoon with the liberation of Doma and then seeing that Krile was captured by Zenos' goons... needless to say that jerk has a butt kicking coming his way! Also seeing Gosetsu go down was a big reminder of how Square Enix loves to create really likeable characters only to kill them off... I swear it's their revenge for those of us who found Aerith not worth a hill of beans in Final Fantasy VII. 

Of course the Final Fantasy XIV adventures continued after the stream, as I continued the Main Story Quest up through The Silence of the Gods which mean another Primal fight, in perhaps one the most confusing ones I've seen that used a new element where a shield of sorts needed to be trigger to avoid mega AOEs. I will have to ask Kalenal about that in the future before facing the 'Extreme' version of it.

Finally was able to get a lead on Volumes 4-7 of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig, so hopefully I'll be able to add them to the collection to complete that series.

Really excited to do another run of Gears of War 4 starting on Wednesday, as it was the first Xbox One game I finished last year when I got the console. To go through it with Iceman is gonna be a lot of fun I bet!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout featured Sway Back Combo, Straight Combo #2 and Hip Shape Focus Combo as the exercises for a duration of 31 minutes and an estimated calorie burn of 456 kcal.

 I can confirm that I am off work next Thursday for Thanksgiving. Maybe we'll do a long stream that day. 

Saw the trailer for Dragon Ball: The Breakers, and thank goodness it's not another re-telling of the Dragon Ball Z and Super series. Sure it looks like Dragon Ball's version of Dead By Daylight, but at least it's something different!

If Kyle Rittenhouse is found Not Guilty I will not blame anyone for being pissed, because that piece of shit went to Kenosha looking for trouble. In addition the judge is clearly racist and a Trump support whose bias was on full display.

For tonight's stream we will be continuing Rise of the Tomb Raider, and the only thing I can say for sure is that Lara Croft will again be face down in the snow!

So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Just Sticking To It

Good afternoon everyone,

It's Monday, and one could say it's 'new game' Monday considering what we'll be streaming tonight

Last night's stream of Overwatch was a lot of fun as it normally is, a big focus being on Quick Play matches with just one Mystery Heroes match tossed in for shits and giggles. Big thanks to PandaSweet for joining in the matches for the entire night, where we played all three roles of Tanks, Supports and Damage dealers. Of course, with the New Blood Challenge Event, a perk for getting 27 points via 1 point for each match played and 2 points for every match won meant I picked up the new skin for Cassidy,. Also had four plays of the game last night, one as Moira and three as D.va.

That said some of the randoms Panda and I got stuck with left a lot to be desired, and I still to this day do not understand some of the logic, or lack their off, people have when it comes to using D.va's bosters to get to different points on the map, or rather, NOT using them. D.va is one of the few characters that can fly a bit so it means she can get to certain areas and take advantage of things to help the team by either pulling the other team away from a choke point or taking care of turrets. 

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Sw33ts_gaming who was playing Smite over on twitch.tv/sw33ts_gaming! 

Twitch Clip Links

• That's Goaltending Panda!
• Caught Her!
• Dva Triple Kill Via SQUISH!
  

My off-stream progress of Final Fantasy XIV  first saw me covering Main Story Quests from An Impossible Dream up through The Children of Azim which saw the first big dungeon in quite a while within the context of the Main Story Quest, and then meeting another set of people in Azim, which meant the wash rinse and repeat aspect of Stormblood came to the forefront once again of having to learn about, talk to and do quick tasks for the people of Azim who think they are destined to rule just because they live on the high ground.

Anyway, from there I continued the MSQ up to the start of How Tataru Got Her Groove Back, and it just dawns on me how much Final Fantasy XIV references other things for quests and such. The Naadam battle made no sense and I certainly wasn't prepared for the mechanic of taking out two not obvious targets to avoid an instant-fail. Look I get it that's a thing in various Trials, but in the single player scenario that's just not right man. Still got through it and the story is progressing to where we should be liberating Doma. 

Also found a series of quests that apparently lead to a Beast Tribe being unlocked... but it turns out I need to raise up a non-combat skill to level 60... that will take forever... needless to say that's going to wait until after I'm caught up on all of the main story of Final Fantasy XIV

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout had Block Combo, Waist Shape Focus Combo and Hook Combo #1 as the exercises for a duration of 31 minutes and a estimated calorie burn of 476 kcal. Here is the progress of where I am on the current EX achievements.I'm focused on within Fitness Boxing 2

• 339/365 Days For One Year's Hard Work
• 21/30 Hours For Karen's Contender
• 339/350 Stamps for Unparalleled Stamper
• 466,245/495,000 HITs for Monster Weight Puncher Lv. 5
• 80%/100%  EX Achievements for King EX Fighter
  

On a side note: I should hit 500 consecutive days since the start of the original Fitness Boxing last year this week. I'm proud of myself for sticking to it.

For tonight's stream, we'll be resuming the adventures of Lara Croft with Rise of the Tomb Raider, the second of what is called the Survivor trilogy, should be interesting as I'm going into it blind without knowing anything that's coming. Should be interesting.!

So on that note we'll see you later over twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Just Covering More Ground In The MSQ In Final Fantasy XIV!

Good afternoon everybody, 

It's a good thing I've been playing Final Fantasy XIV nightly post-stream, because if I wasn't, oh boy we wouldn't get anywhere on stream when I choose to stream it once a week!

Last night's stream was most certainly focused on the Main Story Quest, covering everything from In Darkness the Magatama Dreams up through Daughter of the Deep, and featured one big fight against a Primal, and to much dismay it was Susano... of course it had to be Susano, because I haven't t see references to that particular legend and myth enough over the years in other media! I would say that of the more recent Primal fights I've seen, the battle against Susano is almost unfair... then again I had the misfortune of being revived only to be killed against instantly twice because of where the mage was standing.

Story rise, catching up with Yugiri in Doma certainly raised the stakes as the pattern of Final Fantasy XIV's story of arrive in a new area, talk to folks gave me a good idea of how the Empire is treating the people they conquered. There is that constant vibe of 'this is how it is,we're use to it' vibe plaguing the  Stormblood expansion when it when comes various NPCs which makes one question 'why are even trying to help these people. 

Still where we left off  on stream was about one-third of the way through the level 64-65 content, and I'm starting to notice that enemies out in the field are now starting to be able to attack me a bit for being within 10 levels of them, so the level scaling is starting to even out a bit.  Off-stream however, I continued things up to 'A Season for War' and this is when I noticed something about Final Fantasy XIV's MSQ as far as the Stormblood content is concerned.

It seems to me that every new area I go to, it's all about introducing the life style and culture of the local residents in a repeating pattern of 'Arrive, Talk To Locals, Do Tasks For Random Locals', so now I'm curious as to what the reaction to Stormbblood was when it was first released, because I have to think it was mixed. I mean compared to Heavensward, Stormblood is kind of a slog to get through.

Also out of no where, I started singing Desi Anraz's 'Santiago, Chile' when commenting on it feeling a bit chilly last night, so

Big thanks to Foxy_Melly, InsanityInc and Redneck_23 for resubscribing during the stream tonight! That was awesome!.  

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Daemonsw0lf who was playing Warframe over at twitch.tv/Daemonsw0lf! For those who don't know Daemonsw0lf  has done nearly the artwork for my channel! 

Twitch Clips Links

• Another Dungeon Conquered
• Finally past the The Pool of Tribute 
• In Santiago, Chile... Ain’t chilly anymore

A new week begins which means it's time for the Twitch Bits! This past week we played Overwatch, Tomb Raider, Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions, Gears of War: Judgment, Street Fighter III 3rd Strike, ESPN NHL 2K5, Jump Force and Final Fantasy XIV!

Kind of excited to play Rise of the Tomb Raider starting tomorrow night, and I've heard a lot about it over the years... but I wonder how much off an ability reset Lara is going to get considering where she was as a capable one-woman army she became at the end of Tomb Raider? Guess we'll find out tomorrow then won't we? And Speaking of Tomb Raider, I went back to it to pick up four more achievements bringing the total to 29 out of 50

Tomb Raider - Definitive Edition Achievements

1.  Feather Duster: 10 flying animals killed and looted.
2.  Widowmaker: 40 enemies killed with the shotgun.
3.  No Stone Left Unturned: All documents, relics, and GPS caches found.
4.  The Professional: All weapons fully modded and completely upgraded.

Watched The Golden Child last night, always liked that movie since I first saw it as a kid on a VHS tape back in the 80s. I do see why it under performed, but so much of it holds up as just a fun little adventure and Eddie Murphy is rather likeable in it.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Weaving Combo #2, Beginner Combo #2 and Straight Combo #1 for a duration of 31 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 470 kcal.

For tonight's stream we will be playing Overwatch as we do every Sunday, and we'll get in as many matches as possible to make sure we get the new Cassidy skin!

So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Jump Force Is Clearly Supposed To Be An Adventure Game

Good afternoon everybody,

You know, in my time working in Market Resaerch, I have come to really dislike trying to interview people from certain parts of the country... New England in particular... it's like everyone up there has a bug up their butt the size of a Texas hornet.

Anyway, last night's stream saw Jump Force finally taking center stage, and I certainly see why people were disappointed with it. Folks were expecting a new version of the Dragon Ball Xenoverse games where adventure took center stage, and believe me, with the plot Jump Force has, it would've have made so much more sense to go that route with it... but instead, you got a 3 on 3 arena fighter, that's okay and fairly easy to learn. I'm going to go out pm a limb here and say that some one on the development team for Bandai Namco clearly made the wrong call about what aspects of the Xenoverse games people liked... and with that in mind, the reception to Jump Force clearly explains why Dragon Ball: Kakarot exists.

That all said, I did enjoy messing around with Jump Force, and I am going to continue it, as clearly there are plenty of achievements that can be earned offline, the biggest concern will be the few online achievements requiring head to head play. I figure I could get the 30 matches done easily, but scoring 1 win against seasoned players will be impossible at this stage in the games life cycle, not to mention the issue with the servers not being the greatest as fare as I can tell.

But let's get back to why I believe Jump Force should have been an adventure game: its the story, you clearly have it established that worlds are merging, there is an evil force sending their troops everywhere, and you have a collection of heroes determine to stop it and the player plays as an original character who gets to team up with them to save the day. Between all the franchises involved with Jump Force, there could have been something huge in scope, with taking down multiple enemies using the full arena mechanics as your allies watch your back much like in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 1 and 2... but instead... we got what we got.

That said, our character for Jump Force is named Nautea, which means Navigator, and we styled her to look sorta like Android 18... and hopefully there are moves that can be unlocked that allow us to build up Nautea's move set to be similar to what I used on both Xenoverse games.

Graphics and sound are decent, but i do wish there was an English audio track for the game, yes I often leave or turn subtitles on for the games I stream, but for the few characters in Jump Force that I'm familiar with, I do prefer their English voice actors over their Japanese counter parts (Buu, Piccolo, Yusuke being the top three). The biggest drawback is the load times, as the loading screen comes up so freaking awesome it's not even funny.

More than likely we are going to keep Jump Force as a late in the week game, most likely on Friday nights until we clear all 9 chapters of the story.

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Kalenal who was doing a special bonus stream of Final Fantasy XIV over at twitch.tv/kalenal! What was unique is that they were doing DRS runs, where communication can only be with the members of the party or group that you are with, not with the extended Alliance... needless to say things got real silly.

Jump Force Achievements

1. Apprentice Warrior: Cleared Free Mission on Easy one or more times.
2. Seeds of Evil: Cleared Chapter 1.
3. Upgrade Apprentice: Performed upgrade at the Upgrade Counter one or more times.
4. This Party Is Just Getting Started!: Used emotions 10 or more times
5. Fashion Master: Obtained 50 or more avatar outfit parts.
6. Just Getting Warmed Up!: Raised an avatar above level 10 through battle.
7. Unite!: Raised ten support characters above level 10 through battle.

Twitch Clip Links

•  In Where A World Where A Ninja, A Pirate and Dumbass Must Unite...
•  Okay That Was Excessive
•  Nicely Done

In regards to my own Final Fantasy XIV adventures, I put in several hours knocking out a lot of the Main Story Quests listed as Levels 62-63, from 'Once More, to the Ruby Sea' up to the start of 'In the Darkness the Magatama Dreams'... where we learned about the Confederacy (great name there Square Enix), as well as the Kojin as well as gained access to diving underwater... which by proxy leads to using the mounts underwater for faster travel considering we cannot fly yet... I did find all of the Aether Currents in the area, and did a few side plus quests for a couple more... but geeze, it is plainly obvious that Square Enix didn't want people tearing through Stormblood... everything is so spread out, and reliance on swimming certainly made things rough to get around, plus there is a lot of exposition to get through.

I can safely say in terms of just sticking to the Main Story Quest, really haven't seen much in the way of Combat within the Stormblood expansion... certainly spent a lot of time clicking through dialog and watching cut scenes, and for sure there was one dungeon (The Sirensong Sea) done thus far. I did come across another one which is tied to an Aether Current side quest, and looking at the MSQ list, I know there is a Trial coming up which means major trouble on the horizon. On the plus side, I did find Yugiri's parents, which was a nice surprise.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Advanced Combo #1, Intermediate Combo #2 and Weaving Combo #1 for a duration of 31 minutes and a estimated calorie burn of 480 kcal.

For tonight's stream I will be playing Final Fantasy XIV as we're into the Stormblood content, so we'll do gradual progress on that, maybe dungeons or raids depending on how things shake out of course!

So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!