Root squares

A campaign seeking ideas for Hanoi's street decoration and lighting for this year has been launched by the municipal Department of Culture and Sports. Children and their parents play at Ly Thai To Square in Hoan Kiem Lake. — VNA/VNS Photo Hoang Hieu According to the organisers, the campaign aims to create a joyful and exciting atmosphere for citizens on national holidays and major anniversaries of the nation, in addition to aiding the political and decorative tasks of the city. It is also set to contribute to preserving and promoting the national cultural identity and typical values of Hanoi as a thousand-year-old capital, creative city and city for peace, as well as meet the increasing demands of cultural enjoyment of citizens. Themed 'Hanoi -- Creative City' and 'Hanoi Congratulates the Party and Celebrates a New Spring', designs must be of high aesthetic, suitable to surrounding landscape, lightning systems and architecture. They are also expected to contain … [Read more...] about Hanoi launches city decoration and lighting campaign

While Bravely Second: End Layer continued the story of the original game, Bravely Default 2 is now hoping to continue the story of the franchise some six years later. The third (and slightly confusingly named) installment of the series will launch on Nintendo Switch this Friday, February 26, and producer Masashi Takahashi hopes to see it establish Bravely as a full-fat series home to independent but thematically connected stories and games. He and character designer Naoki Ikushima have also worked to marry the best parts of Bravely with lessons learned from Octopath Traveler, the last Switch JRPG that the two worked on, and player feedback has shaped that process at nearly every level. A return to form "While I am really proud that so many people have played the games and like the series, at the same time I also feel with each game we had a lot of points to reflect on," Takahashi says of the series thus far. "With Bravely Second: End Layer, we received a lot of comments mainly … [Read more...] about The making of Bravely Default 2, a return to form built on demos, mistakes, and Octopath Traveler

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is celebrating this week's launch of Bravely Default II with a new Spirit Board event. The event kicks off at 10 PM PT tomorrow, February 25, and introduces the four Heroes of Light from Square Enix's newest Switch RPG as Spirits. The heroes are paired up to make two different Spirits: Seth & Gloria and Elvis & Adelle. Each of those will appear periodically on the Spirit Board throughout the event. You'll also earn extra Spirit Points each time you defeat the new Bravely Default Spirits. The event runs until 10 PM PT on March 2. Bravely Default II launches for Switch on February 26. Despite the number in its title, it's actually the third proper installment in its series thus far, following the original Bravely Default and its sequel, Bravely Second. Bravely Default II is also a self-contained adventure, featuring an original cast of characters and story. Ahead of Bravely Default II's release, Square Enix recently shared a new trailer … [Read more...] about Smash Bros. Ultimate Is Adding Bravely Default 2 Spirits This Week

Square Enix's line of retro JRPGs continues with an all-new world and tale for Bravely Default, though some of the old problems persist. Sometimes, there's nothing quite so reassuring as a good old JRPG. This is a comfort blanket of a genre for players of a certain age, games that happily consume entire lazy afternoons curled up on a sofa as you slowly push numbers ever upwards. They don't come much more comforting than those producer Tomoya Asano and his team have made an art of in recent years; dipping into Square Enix's remarkable history of evocative greats, they've given us modern takes on the classic JRPG formula such as 2018's Octopath Traveler and 2012's Bravely Default. Such was the success of the original Bravely Default that it saw a small number of follow-ups, though this being the convoluted world of JRPG titling it's only now we're getting a Bravely Default 2 - that number denoting a clean break from prior games in the same way that each new Final Fantasy … [Read more...] about Bravely Default 2 review – a heady serving of nostalgia, and a theorycrafter’s dream

From Hallmark cards to ballads of passion, the heart has intimately been connected to love, affection, and romance for much of our human existence. How cardiac function and emotion first became associated is a fair question and the answer lies in our response to stress. So what happens to those feelings when we find ourselves in a constant state of stress and social proximity is a health hazard? If the complex physiology of being in love is closely related to being stressed out, could simplifying that understanding be the key to maintaining our personal and social stability? Understanding the Anatomy of Our Emotions We often mistakenly think of our brains as purely rational organs of cortical and higher functions. In fact, significant areas in our brains are not governed by linear processes often ascribed to cortical function, but rather, they operate in a more ambiguous manner driven by exchanges of hormones and neurotransmitters that can evoke emotions like fear , … [Read more...] about Is It COVID Stress or Is It Love?