Category: Niko’s Soap Box

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Banon

“Couldn’t hold out!? I have a bad feeling about this… ”

The leader of an anti-Imperialist group, the Returners. Banon grows curious about Terra after Locke brings her to the Returner headquarters. Believing that Terra can get them enough power to take on the Empire directly, he asks if she will negotiate with the Espers on his behalf.

That pretty much sums it up.
Banon joins your party for a little bit. And during that whole time, you need to make sure he doesn’t get KO’d. If he does it’s game over for you. You’d think the leader of the Returners would be at least a decent warrior, but no, all Banon does is talk, and cast Pray. That’s pretty much what I had him do, didn’t matter if he was at full health, Banon is casting Pray non-stop.

Later on Banon disappears. And we do not hear from him again. It does happen after Gestahl forms an “alliance” with the Returners. My guess is that Gestahl had Banon secretly executed after the rest of the Returners left Vector. Or he might have retired, and left to a secluded island where all he does is fish and drink all day.

What do you think happened to Banon?

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Heading to the Opera

Well, I started playing Dissidia Opera Omnia again.

And, I had to start from the beginning once again. But, it’s easier this time. For some reason all my Characters start at Level 70. Which isn’t bad at all. I’m not really looking into perfecting everything. I just need to get through the main game. With the Characters that I prefer over the others. My party consists of Fang, Setzer and Vivi. And, what a party it is.

So far I just entered Chapter 5. I remembered just part of the story. Other parts looked new to me.

Spoilers Ahead. (Sort of.)

So far, it looks like Onion Knight is the only one with a head on his shoulders. Everyone else is just blindly following Mog. And, from what I remember from the last time I played which was about 2 years ago or so. I didn’t trust Mog towards the end. I think I had gotten to Chapter 8, I don’t remember. But, Mog was starting to act suspicious. Allowing enemies to enter our ranks.

/End Spoilers

I gotta say, that Final Fantasy Record Keeper was probably the best mobile game that Square-Enix released. I used to play that one all the time. Putting a Final Fantasy Dream Team together, with 16bit graphics. If Record Keeper had a story to it, other than just being only battles, it would have been a lot better, but I’ll take what I can get.

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Sorta Sorting

Slowly going through bulk. I’ve had some Magic the Gathering bulk just sitting in boxes. Kardboard boxes that is. And then I bought another bulk lot. I started slowly going through them, listing them on TCGPlayer.com and eBay. (I still need to post a link to those 2. Soon, it’s on the Back Burner.) Some of you have come here through those sites.

I forgot where I was going with this.

I thought I had a point to share.

I’m enjoying it for the most part. I didn’t like going through Fallen Empires though. Different art for the same cards, and back with Fallen Empires there were no numbers on the cards. I would be sorting by name, not paying too much attention to the artwork, and then I would sort them again by art.

That was the process.

I am now starting on Guildpact. A couple hundred cards. Mostly Commons I think a saw a rare somewhere. I let you know on Instagram if it’s anything special.

Now, as we’ve been accumulating a lot of bulk. FFTCG, MTG, Pokemon, some Digimon and some other games as well, but not enough to mention. We’ve been toying with selling Bulk lots of played cards. Small and Large lots. If it’s something you’d be interested in, drop us a line and let us know.

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Wave 1 – Red Mage – 1-003C

Red Mage (1-003C) is one of the easier card to distinguish between Wave 1 and Wave 2. But first, let me give you the links from the guides from the introduction post that will help you guide your way.

“Distinguishing Final Fantasy TCG Opus 1 Wave 1 from Future Waves”

“Differences in Opus I Wave 1 Printing vs Later Waves”

All you have to do is look at Red Mage’s Colon. And, if you look at his face you’ll see that he is not excited about that.

Which one is which? If you check the colon right after the cost to pay for the ability you can see that the one on the left is lower than the one on the right. It’s that little detail that shows up on all the cards that have an ability with a cost.

And if you look closer, you can see that Red Mage’s hair is lighter in Wave 1 and darker in Wave 2.

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No More Sports Cards, For Now

How come I always thought “Mr. Blue Sky” was a Beatles song? Nope, Electric Light Orchestra. Sure, sounds like Paul to me.

Anyway, we did a Sports Card show last Saturday, and I always say I’m done with them, but a guy I know was setting it up, so I decided against my better judgement and got a couple of tables. I went with one of my kids who brought along his stuff.
We started the day out like any other day. Load up the car and, off we go.

On our way I decided I should look up the address, I got an idea of where to go, but couldn’t remember if I needed to turn left or right on Joliet Rd. Look for my phone, it’s not in my pocket, not in my car. Stupid me, put my phone on top of my car as I was loading the boxes in.

Turn around real quick, luckily we weren’t too far away. As I’m driving down Central I see my phone laying in the middle of the street right by the train tracks. Fun times, I tell you.

Well, I have a case on it. Hopefully it still works. Hazard lights on, exit the car, pick up my phone, and off we go. I take a look at it, no scratches nothing, phone still looks good. Try and turn it on, NOPE. Didn’t want to work.

We still need to get to the Card Show, so I figured I’ll make my way to Joliet Rd. and figure out which way I’ll turn one I get there. Of course I made the wrong turn, but that’s ok we still made it on time.

I sold 1 thing the whole time. Meanwhile I’m watching Mason and he’s selling cards left and right. I didn’t even have a phone to waste some time on. At the end of the day, I managed to pick up a bunch of Vintage Pokemon cards, and a new phone.