#ALSO i have a ps2 but some games are fucking hard to find and are expensive to get physical copies of

[panicsimss]

figuring out how to emulate ps2 games because i'm EVILLLLL heehehe

[elendsessor]

oh might as well show off what i got the other day!!!

there’s no game stores easily accessible to me so going out is always a treat. wasn’t expecting to run into not only rain world merch at one of the stores, but also a boxed copy of drakengard :0

a boxed copy of drakengard 2 was also being sold but i was already starting to push the budget i set for myself and it was roughly $30 more so unfortunately not going for that. maybe if i find the disc somewhere. i may have the primal urge to collect things but i do have some self restraint.

really happy i found 1 though. i have a ps3 so i tried getting into 3 and it didn’t vibe with me tbh. maybe it’s because it’s a bit more mainstream anime-y? idk it just wasn’t my thing but i understand the appeal. it’s hard to describe. 1 felt more my style—i’m a big enjoyer of squenix’s earlier years before the mid to late 2010s when they became actual fucking evil they’re just shinra i swear. i also like how the leading lady is a fucking dragon who would probably cuss me out and call me a bunch of slurs because humans suck or something. ps2 to psp-era rpgs and action games are also a massive vibe.

this and i’ve had an interest in checking it out ever since a random retrospective got recommended to me. i thought i’d never get interested so i didn’t care about spoilers but. boy i was wrong.

came with the instruction booklet too!!! it’s pretty standard, has some unique art i haven’t seen before but it would be hard getting a pic. did come with this mail in raffle thing. remember when companies would do stuff like this? idk i miss instruction booklets even digital ones where there was actual y’know content and visuals and all that. if everything’s gonna be online at least make it fun!!! shocked though that nobody ever used this. don’t think it was pre owned either but being a niche ps2 game you usually can’t find anything outside of second hand copies without selling your organs.

gary has a friend now. a friend i almost accidentally tore the head off of because of how haphazardly i shoved them into my bag. sorry nightcat that was my bad :(

[islandsaoirse]

The breaking down of “retro” has been fundamental to games history and advancement. We kinda have to cope with the idea that a lot of what we consider Pop Games History and The Console Wars comes from…early AVGN inspired YouTubers who knew like the vibes about Nintendo in the USA during a very specific time period!….and not much else.

Why doesn’t the stuff that should feel retro now feel like that previous generation in retro? Besides being different consoles with different aesthetics i’d honestly argue that the games industry had grown, they existed parallel to the internet spreading and therefore our documentation on not just the consoles but fans and perceptions of games is just…way better documented. You can go right now to a Gamefaqs forum taking about how the Wii NEEDS m rated games, you can go back and see each viral flash game being covered by the popular let’s players of the time. It’s fairly normalized! We have kept the legacy of the Wii’s vibes, the PS3’s turnaround and Xbox Live Arcade kinda decently? Some holes in public consciousness sure but you’ll be hard-pressed to find the same sort of mythicality that is applied to “Nintendo beating Sega so hard they had to stop making consoles” or the Game Crash.

EA is in a very different state now than when it was the most hated company on earth but we remember many of the specific reasons *why* that was the case. Not everyone knows the specifics but it is remembered how Bungie left Halo and Xbox. But when we talk about Yamauchi’s extremely aggressive and even anti-consumer tactics that often fucked over third party devs and thereby Sega…well we don’t talk about that. It’s kinda just left at “Nintendo won!”.

The legacy of Sega as a console manufacturer exists in comparison to the idea that Nintendo not only won, but won definitely with the GCN or if you’re lucky you get the concession that “yeah Sega was bigger in Europe for the Master System and was bigger in Latin America for even longer and also was always pretty successful in Japan is very reductive! Because yeah sure the USA was and is the biggest games market,,,but that’s the case with most media and doesn’t justify historical revisionism that Nintendo absolutely plays into? Same with the games crash which sure happened and Atari collapsed but, games where doing fine in the UK? Ask people over there about Commodore 64 games and you’ll get many fond memories aswell as many influential games that are sfill absolutely referenced in modern videogaming! Look at how often arcade game design is dismissed as purely predatory penny pinching.

Ghouls and Goblins during the 00s was often dismissed as bad and unfair when really if it was released today it’d share much more discourse with Dark Souls than what we consider now to be bad and unfair.

And in reality I think a lot of the current talk about “the kids don’t know the PS2 had games” or “people forget Sega was and still is unbeaten in the arcade experience” and “Lack Of Our Generation Having A Retro Revival” really is just a testament and highlights to that reevaluation of retro games and the narratives surrounding the games crash and console wars eras

[toyota-supra]

hey do you have any pc car racing game recommendations

fuck I mean. my entire library probably. though honestly the most fun I have with racing games are emulated, but I feel like that should be separate.

art of rally - gorgeous rally game. tough to start with due to very tight controls, but really satisfying to learn. I've spoken lots about it here before, just look for the "#art of rally" tag. no multiplayer, in fact there's only your car on the road, but it's really really good

Horizon Chase Turbo - it's one of those SNES-style racing games where the car is (kind of) static on the screen and the road is the one moving. it can get pretty hard but I think it's worth it due to the amount of content it has. hundreds of different tracks, great music, a lot of cars that are each very different, a lot of modes, three DLC campaigns, and 4-player multiplayer in every game mode.

The Crew 2 - open world racing game with all sorts of types of vehicles. it has a GIANT map with different US states. I honestly prefer it to Forza Horizon. it runs pretty well for a game of that scale, honestly! only buy this on discount.

Circuit Superstars - top-down circuit racer. it's really fun! there's a lot of different car types that all feel very different, online works pretty well (I only played with a friend tho I cant find people online). my favorite thing about it is just doing laps on time trials to try and cut my record time. it is pretty fun.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed - Mario Kart clone with SEGA characters (and some cameos). I like it a lot over Mario Kart because of its tighter controls and its Mission Mode, which is where most of my playtime went towards (I especially recommend Drift and Traffic events). Online mode also works super well. (note: this game has crashes in computers with Nvidia RTX cards. please look up this specific issue to find a patch or just ask me to find it for you)

Forza Horizon 4 and 5 - open world racing games that don't run super well and have a lot of annoyances but they are The Big Ones for no small reason. impossibly huge car list, very good handling controls, and a satisfying loop. plus, in FH5 there's plenty of Fate liveries to find as I've been putting them in every car I have 💀

V-Rally 4 or any other rally game you find that looks good - V-Rally 4 in specific has a lot of annoying performance issues but fuck I mean it's pretty fun. gorgeous game, great controls (in a controller!), fun cars and rally courses. sometimes levels can honestly feel like roller coasters more than anything, as I've taught myself to just take corners automatically, without thought. it goes EXTREMELY cheap on discount (Steam is getting a big sale in a week btw) but there's other rally games out there like Dirt Rally (which I haven't played yet) that may be worth it over it. I don't know!

overall though it disappoints me to say, it's not very easy to find truly great car games on PC, at least nowadays. I do like these games, and there's some others I liked that I don't have much to say about (NFS Heat, Assetto Corsa, Pixar Cars) but I think for racing fans, unless you want Simulation stuff which I really don't, you've gotta keep old console games with you too. PS1, PS2 and PSP emulators are your friends.

also Grand Theft Auto V and Online are great car games but I do not care for their racing modes. I think they're boring at best and "oh my god I hope all of these people die" at worst.

THANK YOU for the ask I genuinely love talking about this stuff

[floor10ghost]

Rena Reviews Euro Demo 67!

I don't remember many demo discs I had as a kid, just this and one other come to mind right now (which I'm also downloading) - but I'm just gonna chuck my thoughts on revisiting this silly psx demo disc here! It was in the official uk playstation magazine, i used to play the shit out of it over and over but only remember a couple of the games on there. Maybe I'll remember more while playing, who knows!

look at this sexy fucking disc. This invokes absolutely nothing.

The playable games on here are:

Asterix: The Gallic War

Bugs Bunny & Taz: Time Busters

Chicken Run

Cricket 2000

Frogger 2: Swampy's Revenge

Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness

Re-Volt 2 (RC Revenge)

Time Crisis: Project Titan

anyway. Join me under the cut as i talk about each of these!

straight away LOOK AT THIS SCREEN

guys i think my demo disc has covid

the music is too generic to describe lmao but it goes very well with the imagery

anyway

Asterix:

I didnt grow up with Asterix! So there isn't the full nostalgic attachment there, but theres some *vague memories* here? Anyway I don't think I played much of this because it's dogshit.

It's a *VERY* rudimentary turn based strategy where you pour potions on provinces to reinforce them, then you enter an attack phase where the bigger number wins, then Caesar's Legions attack (fallout new vegas omg????)

At the end of the attack phase you enter a minigame, one of them is a 3d platformer where you play as Obelix

VERY bare-bones. There's no music *anywhere* in this demo. It's also all just very very slow. Won't be buying this when it comes out :/

Next up: Bugs and Taz!

This one is how I found the demo disc! It was one of the ones i played over and over, lets see if it holds up lol

There's thankfully a lot more to talk about here... and music!!!

This is a pretty standard 3D platformer at its core, but you can switch between Bugs and Taz, or you can play it co-op! I imagine that's how its meant to be played. If you're playing single player the other character stands entirely still, however you can hit the left bumper to summon them back to you.

You collect carrots throughout, as well as medallions that I imagine don't do anything in the demo. They seem to be your stars.

When you have enough carrots you can participate in a minigame, the one I remember is the Pelota against the Aztecs.

It's a fairly standard game, if you're playing single player though you *are* outnumbered - but it's not too hard anyway. You just steal the ball and try to throw it through the hoop.

The one I don't remember however, is

Baladi lessons? It's a fairly standard simon says type game but

it got gender in it

all in all, neat lil demo! I mostly remember finding rabbitholes and digging around in them because I thought it was insanely cool that bugs could go underground lol

Next up: Chicken Run!

this is the *other* game I played on repeat! But it *scared the shit out of me*. You'll see why.

So... this is a stealth game

You play as Ginger and you must *be careful of the dogs*

The entire demo is dreary with unsettling ambient music, why the fuck did they make the chicken run game a metal gear clone????

Anyway, you are quite literally a chicken being chased by fucking dogs. and if you get caught a menacing stinger plays as you see this

Was a bit much for me 2 year old heart i must say! Couldn't quite handle that!

Anyway, the stealth is really simple and easy, as one would expect. There's not much going on here other than childhood trauma.

Next: Cricket 2000!

yeah

Next up issss: Frogger 2!

Okay, I had no idea this existed at all. What the fuck?

Whenever I think of frogger sequels I think of those weird ps2 ones, but this is straight up frogger

Rather than the traditional level though you're presented with a themed gauntlet, such as the first stage, a garden themed one. You are tasked with saving frogger's children.

You might be wondering, what happens if you get run over by a lawnmower?

he explodes into chunks. What the fuck?

The second level is a haunted house

This is genuinely an oddity to me, I never expected them to try implement traditional frogger gameplay into something like this. Might play it on stream at some point, I'm intrigued. That being said, I definitely dont remember this. Pretty decent? The music fucking OWNS btw

NEXT: Ms. Pacman Maze Madness!

I had no idea this existed. But first I gotta say

REST IN PEACE MS PAC-MAN

she lives on in our hearts. Fuck pac-mom, ms. pac-man was where its at

Anyway this is. really *really* boring.

It's that era of pac where they clearly had no idea what they were doing, which still goes on to this day (i say this affectionately, i love pac-man) but this one was a fuckin MISS

It's trying to translate the mazes into something completely different, more a labyrinth than the single screen mazes of yore, with block pushing puzzles and launchpads, a gauntlet you must get through while collecting as many pellets as possible

and its really lame and boring im sorry. I like that the ghosts seem to wear different attire in each level, i like that my gal ms. pac-man is here

i dont like much else. its slow and tedious as hell

however

ROCKET LAUNCHER???? HUH???

Two games left!

Revolt 2!

I forgot to take screenshots but... this is an RC Racing game, it's really a cart racer with really confusing level design, a slight bump in the road will get your car flying across the entire universe and world. There's a bit where you drive under a jeep though which is pretty cute! @is-the-driving-good? No I'm afraid, ridge racer this is not.

Anyway I'm kinda rushing a lil bit because I'm tired and the last one is TIME CRISIS!!! ITS FUCKIN TIME CRISIS, DUDE!!! I love Time Crisis!!!

Time Crisis Titan

Alas... This was not the saving grace this demo disc needed. I can't get far at all for reasons I'll get into, but what *is* there is full of the silly janky charm Time Crisis is known for.

Love these silly models! Love em

Anyway, why is this on here? Why would you put *Time Crisis* on a demo disc? This *will not* shift copies, put it as a video or something, not as a playable demo! It's a fucking lightgun game, this is clearly made for a ps1 lightgun peripheral, but people are going to be playing this with a controller!

the crosshair is incredibly slow and it's VERY difficult to aim properly which is why i didnt get far, it's just... either someone is gonna not own a lightgun and see this and think its just shit, or own one and probably plan on getting it anyway, all that's needed here is a video feature showing it off, having it be playable is *a bad move*

this is likely a pretty good time crisis game! Most of the negative reviews I can see mention the beautifully crunchy graphics being bad so the gameplays probably fine, but by advertising it like this youre convincing people it isnt.

ANYWAY

this was disappointing lmfao

a fun trip down memory lane, but yeah none of these were really that fun at all. Thankfully, the PS2 demo disc I'm downloading has much more interesting titles. Will be doing the same thing with it when I can. I wrote this one over the course of a few hours, but that one will likely have more put into it.

If you read this far thank you very much lmao, and remember:

[sir-yeehaw-paws]

Top underrated/underappreciated videogames?

This is an AWESOME ask, and even though I'm a terrible judge of what's considered underrated; let me SEE.

IN no particular order:

1. Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords for PS2.

Developer: DS3 Publisher

Release: 13th November 2007 (I was 16, fun fact!)

Wikipedia Summary:

Nate's Play:

 I played the game a lot in high school. It's far more addictive than it initially appears. While I forget who my character was, if I find the right save space and memory card, I'll take some photos and add them to the post. I remember more than one insomnia night filled with my tiny CRT tv and PS2 with the lowest volume possible while playing this for hours. Granted, I only had like, 4 games as it was, but I'm pretty sure I purchased this game at Future Shop myself. Which does not even exist anymore.

Rest in Peace, Future Shop. (1982-2015). You might've merged with Best Buy, but you were to good for them.

As a result, this game was one of those things associated with incredibly specific memories and long nights accompanying my lonely teenage self.

Life happened, and then maybe just over a decade later, I booted it back up, found my character and completed the game entirely. As if years of not playing it hadn't mattered at all.

Maybe you're not underrated, Puzzle Quest. But you're special to me.

Although it seems the UK got the cooler cover!

Version I got.

UK Version.

And look! My real copy!

I post this on 'Rate My Set Up' and get roasted into oblivion.

And look more! My characters! I have 2 more but Tumblr is being ridiculous.

Achroma here is who I beat the game with, be nice to him <3

2. Choice of Games and Hosted Games

Developer: Various Independent Developers

Platform: Mobile

Release: On-going, continual.

Nate’s Play:

Yes, I’m talking about *gasp* mobile games here. But they are I’m told also available on Steam.

These two platforms are host to text-based choose your own adventure games that I am very fond of. Some I have more fun with than others, some I was disappointed by, and some I don’t like at all. But they’re from a variety of creators, engaging and entertaining. Some also include art now.

My Library in Choice of Games

My Library in Hosted Games

If you enjoy reading, character creation and something without a lot of hassle, I highly recommend these. While most are free to play (with ads) I tend to purchase the ones I like. Not one of them has ever been pricier than 12 dollars. Well worth it, in my opinion.

3.  Yakuza: Dead Souls (Ryu ga Gotoku of the End)

Developer: RGG Studios. Sega

Platform: PS3

Release:  9th June, 2011 (Japan, 2012 in NA and EU)

Fandom Wiki Summary:

Nate’s Play

Look, it’s not underrated in the fandom, and the controls are a hot mess. But the game gives you so much GREATNESS that it’s so hard not to just have fun with.

Ryuji is back with a GATLING GUN ARM AND A TAKOYAKI STAND.

Majima reacts to the Zombie apocalypse by having the time of his life.

AKIYAMA LOOKS LIKE THIS

credit: @essence-of-armbarring

and LAUNCHES THE BAD GUY INTO THE ZOMBIE PIT FROM A HELICOPTER

Haruka is cute and sweet, the game has it’s own unique cast members never seen in the main series and is just a wild ride the whole time.

THE GAME BROUGHT HANA CHAN BACK (Links to gifset)

KIRYU GETS A GUN THAT FUCKIN LOOKS LIKE AN ANTI MATERIAL RIFLE

DAIGO at, pretty much all times let’s be honest here.

Does a zombie apocalypse in my crime game make sense? No? Do I care? Not a lick. It’s a fun, wild ride. And it brought Ryuji back, I need to do a replay.

The only Yakuza game where the characters adopt Daigo’s idea of ‘fuck it, we all get guns’ ideology (Kiryu does take an entire third of the game before deciding ‘kill the zombies’ is acceptable tho, so that’s in character) and shoot.

4. Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments

Developer: Frogwares Ireland Ltd

Platform: PS4

Release: 2014

PS Store Summary:

Nate’s Play:

I downloaded and bought this on a deep seated craving need for a mystery game (I love those so much guys pls rec mystery games). Might not be a master class in development and it did end up with the occasional glitch from time to time but I had a good time playing it.

It’s not the most perfect game, but it wasn’t taxing, the puzzles were varied and engaging and I had a good time with it.

Could’ve run a bit smoother over all, but it never ruined the games for me and I enjoyed my time playing.

5. I can’t think of anything now so I’m going to flip this and go on a random rant about Vampire the Masquerades single player games.

I am aware that the series began as a TTRPG and maybe it’s better when played that way, but I’ve played a few of the single player versions in the app I mentioned above (Choice of Games) and I purchased *but disliked* the PS4 versions. Not ‘disiked’ as in ‘the worst games ever’ but in the ‘after each one of these I am largely disappointed and Swansong was so full of glitches it became unplayable and whydidIspend70bucksonthis ANYWAY

It’s odd to me that a series so about embracing the fun of being a vampire just..does not enjoy doing that? I understand the Camarilla and how you’re meant to be discrete and the entire concept being fly under the radar, or question the corrupt overarching power house but I every one of the VtM games I’ve payed through hasn’t really made that..engaging?

You have some *limited* choices, and you feel actively punished for being a vampire even if you never choose to do anything ‘exciting’ and obey your cloaked overlords. I’ve tried versions of playing as the outcast or rogue groups, but the games never seem to allow for me getting as..idk, vampiric or brutal as I might want? I’m a creature of the night. I don’t want to attend bureaucratic nonsense I want to have fun being a morally questionable blood sucker.

ANYWHO, I thank you for this awesome ask and I am (ok not really) sorry it got so long and rambling!

[nightmarist]

some video games i grew up with and love:

Rage Racer (PS1) - simple racing game, best OST

Azure Dreams (PS1) - pokemon dungeon crawler with dating and town building side quests. collect monsters, climb to the top of the tower to find out what happened to your father.

Alundra (PS1) - adventure fantasy rpg puzzle game. you Will need the guide book. beautiful art. interesting story. you enter people's dreams to save them from certain death while also trying to fight evil in the real world.

Brave Fencer Musashi (PS1) - silly action adventure fantasy, save the world from evil with two swords as legendary hero Musashi

SaGa Frontier (PS1) - Turn based JRPG, a bit clunky but fun. You choose one of 7 origin heroes, play their personal stories, and meet many other companions to defeat evil together. Only SaGa series game I've played.

Secrets of Evermore (SNES) - your dog runs into a laboratory, now you have to travel across time to get home and face monsters. The dog changes breeds and has special powers each level.

DISNEY. Lion King, Timon & Pumbsa, Toy Story (SNES) Aladdin, The Little Mermaid (SegaGEN) All disgustingly hard for Capitalism(tm) reasons but still very fun.

Heroes Chronicles series (PC) - fantasy strategy game series. Chess with monsters? Interesting but super simple story. One of my favorite games to zone out with.

Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven (PC) - Fantasy party dungeon crawling RPG, one of my favorites.

Myst (PC) - Puzzle game of the ages.

Syberia I & II (PC) - A good puzzle narrative game, well acclaimed.

Return to Mysterious Island (PC) - Another first person puzzle game. If u cant tell I really loved these. Good game, good anrrative, very short and not as difficult as previous.

Darkfall: The Journal (PC) - scared me as a kid. First person puzzle game with ghosts. Think of a gentler Myst or Riven.

Micro Machines (SegaGen) - Silly racing games. Multiplayer

California Games (SegaGen) - More silly sports games

Ballz (SegaGen) - A super silly fighting game. Everyone is made of little balls. Think of. Round minecraft.

Detective Barbie (PC) - Solving various easy mysteries

Barbie: Race & Ride (PS1) - Barbie & horses <3

Barbie: Super Sports (PS1) - Barbie skating, snowboarding, etc <3

Digimon World 3 (PS1) - Turn based adventure fantasy, love the card minigame

Digimon Rumble Arena (PS1) - Simple fighting game

Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (PS2) - Scifi/fantasy JRPG, interesting fighting system and lore. I otherwise have never played the other Star Ocean games.

Red Ninja (PS2) - Fun stealth game. Pro And Con: Main Character big titty ninja girl you can easily panty shot.

Yu-Gi-Oh: Duelist of the Roses (PS2) - I wish this version of YuGiOh existed IRL, I fucking love this system. I want to print out all the cards and a mat to play.

The Last Remnant (XBox 360) - A square JRPG. I'll be honest there are so many better games both play and lore, but the unique battle system stole my heart.

Additional games I love but I think are more well known:

Zoo Tycoon

Age of Empires / Age of Mythology

Kirby 64

Sonic, Sonic 2

Starcraft

Warcraft 3 (favorite warcraft game, 10/10 recommend)

Diablo 2

Jak & Daxter (Jak II, Jak III)

Spyro Trilogy

Kingdom Hearts (the first one mostly)

Mortal Kombat 3

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Castlevania: Lament of Innocence

Dragon Age series

I have every Final Fantasy up to XIII, but my favorites are V, VIII, IX, and X-2 in that order.

I also have every Silent Hill up to Downpour. My favorites are 1, 2, and 4.

Lore: I played Silent Hill when I was 6 or 7 years old and liked it even though I was bad at it. I played Tomb Raider when I was the same age and was too scared of the bear to ever get past the first 10 minutes.

[rin-yellow]

YESSSS THIS EXACTLY

Such wildly different feelings to the mechs and the settings too.

Including the ways the mechs are constructed, like Btech lets you customize the mechs, but to a point. The Battletech pilots are like knights whose armors are heirlooms built from lost technology and every fight usually means some priceless relic of ancient history is almost inevitably demolished each time whereas the Armored Core pilots are corporate dogs whose mechs are custom built and optimized for each situation in order to most cost-effectively beat the faces in of anyone who dares prevent their employers from maximizing their profits.

Also the GEOMETRY OF THE DESIGNS. Obviously in a doylist sense this is because Battletech's most famous mechs used to use (dubiously illegally) licensed Kunio Okawara designs (iirc) and so any further properties had to essentially use those as a starting point (leading to that boxy look we know and love), and Armored Core is VERY MUCH something that Shoji Kawamori laid the groundwork for. Yes I know Btech also used Kawamori's Macross designs as some of the unseen too, but more people probably remember the fact that the Shadowhawk is literally fucking Dougram lol

Iirc, it's kind of where that classic "American vs Japanese mecha" meme comes from. The one I will not be posting here because I'm pretty sure there was some racist stuff in that meme, sadly.

But like,,,

The Battletech mechs are very big and clunky looking with a real "this robot will STOMP on you" kind of vibe, whereas ACs have that speedy look that gves Jetplane vibes, and 'coz jetplanes are always so far away alot of ppl I know of tend to underestimate their massive sizes as well.

And so like the AC mechs give that insane feeling of adrenalin through and through because that's like what the pilot is feeling, the mech kind of IS their surrogate bodies and their fighting this insane battle of spiky meyhem for like three more seconds to live, essentially. Whereas the Mechwarriors have this slow "I'm in a walking piece of LITERAL HISTORY" vibe because they're built like old brick houses that real estate workers try to demolish in order to build a McMansion with a big ole' "I was here for 200 years and I'll be here for 200 more" kind of attitude towards themselves where every step is just YEAH it's a bigass robot and YEAH it's slow but that doesn't mean that the step isn't gonna shake that metaphorical real estate worker so hard that she'll find the true meaning of whatever awful winter holiday you wanna celebrate in your big stompy robot.

Idk where I was going with that.

But also AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I have not played the 6th armored core game yet I'm sorry,,,, I'll do it soon at some point but my ass is broke and waiting for it to go on sale. I've played the old PS2 and PS3 games with my brother tho and that's literally where I've gotten the vibes from lol. But I've seen a BUNCH of ACVI posting recently so I get the gist. Been loving the fanart I've seen circulating and I lowkey can't wait to get my claws onto the game in order to contribute to that.

Mechwarrior 5 was a bundle of fun though. Ik some ppl didn't think that but I thought it was. As were the old games those were great, even if some of them I had ta play a shitty emulator copy of them lol.

But yeah both games are insanely good.

(Just waiting on someone to finally make a game about combining mecha because I seriously have not been able to find a good one of those lmao. 'Coz we got the slow mechs, we got the speedy mechs, but where tf are the smol mechs that smash together to become bigger ones lol.)

mechwarrior and armored core both bring so much to the table

mechwarrior is most often about strategizing an effective squad to survive and endure an onslaught of equally potent enemies and your skill as a pilot to simultaneously evade and do you best to keep damage from accumulating too heavily in any one spot while you’re also lining up and landing your own shots, and it ends up feeling like this beautiful slow waltz with the enemy as we close the distance and then drift apart as we both try to get into our optimal firing range and out of theirs while pressuring them with whatever you can. and (my favorite) endurance missions will last as long as you and your squad can survive, until you pull out due to significant damages or running out of ammo, whichever comes first. mechwarrior is a marathon, with an emphasis on strategic use of resources to make it to the end

armored core is a sprint. it’s making the mech that will smash through whatever is in your way faster than it can shoot at you because if it’s already dead it can’t hurt you, and it’s about constant brutal high pressure fights with enemies in every direction and prioritizing what’s more important in any given second and keeping an unconscious awareness of where everyone is relative to your very quickly changing location and it feels so much like the intense gundam fights. if mechwarrior is a waltz armored core is dance off where the loser dies

different vibes. both good.

[cun10294]

In my memories of FF7

I’m not a writer and never will be, I’m just simply a mere player.

:readmore:

I remember playing the game when I was 10 in 2004, it was the first time my home even had a PlayStation. Although before that, a nice cousin had lent me and my sis his PS1 for a week and we spend all the time to play Chocobo Racing together, so by some means I got a vague idea about FF thanks to that. At the time FF10 was already out and was praised for its beautiful graphic, but I don't have a ps2 so oh well. My father bought 2 final fantasy games which were 7 and 8, the 8 had better graphics and super cool opening sequence so my sister chose it and left me with the ugly one, haha. But well, I have plenty of free time back then and why not give it a try even though I didn't expect much, really. Back then I don't really know much about games, I play some like The Sims, Pokémon, Harvest Moon some other stuff but I hardly even think myself as a gamer ever and never be able to imagine how huge a game could be. So it's about how I started out in a city as a guy with spiky-hair and jerkass attitude (not sissy emo, seriously) and done some shady terrorist bombing mission, then suddenly fell down to a slum which is actually more colorful with all the brothel and crazy cross-dressing to a company tower with at least 10 different floor maps you can access, made you go from wow to wtf really fast, not to mention it was all so funny (while the part you following the blood stain is scary as f*ck). And all that already amazed me, until I realized all the places I have been through is just a small city, and I was really given an ENTIRE WORLD, that's really overwhelming to me, even when I thinking back about it now. And I'm serious to say, since the day I left midgar, my life has never stopped. After that is a marvelous journey about the memories, the world, unexpected events,....anything you haven't known before. I came to love everything about the game, the silly chibi model, the outstanding background, the humorous details, and characters, also the deepness of the story and everything. Even though back then I wasn't good enough in English, so there are many things I left out through my first playthrough (like how I don't know Reeve actually control Cat Sith and the fucking-hard to defeat boss actually the final one, me at the end was like: huh is it end? Why disc 3 so shortttttt!!!!). And yeah, I still remember how fast my heart bumped when I fought with that final boss, I reached the end at level about 58 but can’t defeat him until I trained up to 73, and supernova really was my nightmare! All that tension for a lifetime memory! It was really a miracle time when I didn't have anything besides myself and a PlayStation, not to mention I only have little chance to access to the internet or any friends to talk about ff7 with. I spent half a year for my first playthrough because there was simply a stage I got stuck at a point and didn't know how to move on. But maybe because of that, the game became so meaningful, with all that little Easter eggs for me to randomly discover. Then I went to grade 6 and fortunely met friends that also enjoy Final Fantasy (yet one favorite is 8, and the other is 9, I guess the myth that the first final fantasy you played will be your favorite is true indeed) but we have a really good time to share with each other, like how to get to a certain place with your Chocobo or have Vincent in your team. They all are wonderful times that I find them dearly precious any time I remember and feel grateful at heart to have played it, it feels like I'm not the one that chooses it but it actually choose me or maybe destiny want to lead us together? I don't know, but I sure know that ff7 will always be my top favorite how long the time could pass as I never regret to play such a masterpiece and become so biased about it hahaha

[dundunny]

Tales of Arise

Yeah, it took me forever to beat it. At some point in my life I was able to finish these games within a month of their release date, but I couldn’t find a PS5 at a reasonable price for the longest, plus it’s harder to have long gaming sessions when you’re an adult. Also the game sucked so bad I really didn’t want to play it. Spoilers alert.

So I need to preface this for anyone who doesn’t know me, but I’m a super hardcore Tales fan. Except for Innocence, I’ve beaten all the mothership titles multiple times. Part of the reason I’m going to be so hard in this review is I know Tales Studio can do better than this.

If I had to describe Arise’s problem in one word, it would be pacing. The first chapter in Calaglia was amazing, and if they were able to expand from that I would be satisfied. I think Arise suffers from the same issue as Final Fantasy XV: It has a solid foundation, but the presentation was awful. The overall plot and usual Tales twist was there, but because we never spent a long time in any area, it felt like rushed and unsatisfactory. Which is hilarious because the characters can’t stop talking, but it’s usually either things the player already has figured out or just empty, vapid conversations.

The best example of bad pacing is probably Law: When you first meet him, he’s brimming with anger for Zephyr because of his abandonment issues. Then literally the next scene with him he’s crying that Zephyr is going to be executed. I need a couple of scenes in between to soften this emotional turnaround.

I had the misfortune of replaying Vesperia concurrently with this, and it just made it emphasized how much better Arise could be. Not that Vesperia didn’t have its own problems, but you can see how much effort the developers tried in sewing the seeds of Alexei’s machinations and plots everywhere in the first half. That’s good planning on their part, which Arise just doesn’t have.

Other than that, I disliked the final bosses. One thing I appreciate about Tales games is you usually understand on some level what the boss is doing. Like in Symphonia Mithos’ solution to racism is to wipe out everyone except one race. Or in Abyss how Van is trying to destroy the world and replace it with clones to end the cycle of prophecy. They’re very extreme but you get where they’re coming from.

Both the Great Astral Spirit and Vholran are... eh. You never have a conversation with the Great Astral Spirit so you don’t have that same emotional connection, and I feel it was just wrong: It’s trying to save Rena but at the same time was responsible for its destruction? Like what’s that about? Vholran is very bland. Dude wants to control everything out of anger for his past. Whatever. There’s no depth to him.

I disliked a good portion of the party too. I wouldn’t say they’re as shallow as Zestiria’s characters, but some were annoying. The older I get, the less patience I have for tsundere shit, so Shionne’s nonsense got old fast. Kirasa pulled the same thing as Law, first hating her brother and then suddenly never shutting up about how amazing he was, and Rinwell was fucking obnoxious, first jumping on Dohalim for not knowing about Dhanan burial practices and then she herself didn’t know later. Really I think only Alphen and Dohalim were the only reasonable people in the whole party.

Sakuraba Matoi continues to do the music and I wish he didn’t. Dude clearly ran out of energy and steam starting the PS2 era. I heard the OST for this is 133 tracks on seven CDs. I don’t know how because I literally can only remember one song from the whole game. Really they should just get Go Shiina on board permanently. It’s a shame because I think the Phantasia and Destiny tracks were on fire, but Sakuraba hasn’t been of that caliber in a long, long time.

I still wouldn’t say it’s the worst Tales out there--I think that goes to Legendia and the developers have to work hard to beat that in shittiness--and there are some really positive parts. For example, this is a very, very visually appealing game. I remember when they first switched to 3D in Xillia instead of fixed-angle camera and I complained how everything either had right angles (in a cave!) or looked exactly the same. With the different environments in every area, you get a really different taste of what they can do. I had to actually stop and take in the beauty when I saw the frozen waterfall under the night sky in Cyslodia. Or the castle looming in the background behind the lakes in Ganath Haros. Or the solarpunk-esque style of Dohalim’s house. They did a great job.

They also had some memorable scenes. Migal turning into liquid and realizing that whole lake was dead people. Or Almeidrea being taken to the town square but then everyone else dying. Or when you find out the truth about Rena and how it’s all just a mirage. Props to them for that.

The battle system is also nicely streamlined. Starting with Graces they’ve been experimenting (well, they did also revamped fighting in Rebirth but that was shitty) and with the basic attack and dodge buttons moved to R1 and R2, it frees up circle, square, etc. for moves without affecting the joystick, i.e. in previous games it would be right + square to pull Demon Fang or whatever. What did really fucking annoy me was the CP part, although toward the end of the game finally I acquired enough that I wasn’t peeing my pants about healing. Also annoying is how the gel now aren’t percentage based. I liked that about Tales over other series because that meant I was still using the same healing items even at the end, but now I’m never touching an apple gel after the first chapter.

Overall I feel Arise was a step back. I still have hope for the next game--Zestiria wasn’t very good but Beseria was amazing--but I’m surprised at how poor this game was considering how long ago the previous installment was. Perhaps the pandemic really messed them up?

Also, was anyone else confused why the Vesper Rift in the postgame dungeon featured Xillia 2? Really weird. I did love how they kept that butterfly puzzle in the Symphony Rift. That was a nice, nostalgic touch.

[oodlyenough]

psychonauts 1!

I finished the original Psychonauts last night, by which I mean I reached the Meat Circus, instantly flounced and watched the rest on youtube.

I played the PS2 version ported to PS4 on my PS5 just like god intended for undoubtedly the smoothest possible gameplay experience :P "Press Start to begin" on a controller that no longer has a 'start' button really set the tone.

For some context, I first tried this game many years ago (on a Macbook no less), got frustrated by it quickly and quit. I've only come back years later after loving Psychonauts 2 so much. (Psychonauts 2 review over here.)

I am going to try not to make this post one big comparison -- feels kind of unfair, given how much time passed -- but it's uh hard because obviously that's my natural inclination and the context I was thinking of while I played.

Spoilers for game 1 and some nonspecific (tone/etc) spoilers for 2.

The pros:

Obviously the game is very funny. There were tons of lines I wanted to clip, or punchlines that surprised me. The script and story were surprising and full of personality. The game has a tone unlike any other game I think I've played... it honestly reminds me most of Invader Zim, lol.

I was about half-way through the game when I realized just HOW MUCH possible dialogue and NPC interaction there is, something I totally underestimated for a 2005 game. I've since been watching dialogue compilations on youtube, lol.

Because of the above I have to adjust my original opinion that the NPCs (specifically the campers) felt a bit hollow. This was my bad for not seeking them out often enough to keep track of their names and their lovelives, lol. I still struggle to remember any of their names, but I like that all of them had their own little subplots going on in the background of Raz's story, whether or not you paid attention to it.

The game is very creative. This was my favourite thing about 2, but the original gets bonus points for being, well, the original and pioneering these ideas in the first place. While I found some of the opening levels kind of bland/disappointing after seeing how grandiose stuff got in 2, Lungfishopolis was the major turning point into some really creative stuff.

Even when I was getting irritated by dying or having difficulty platforming, etc, the creativity of the levels was undeniable. Every level was very unique and distinct, nothing felt like a reskin. Lungfishopolis was probably my favourite from a design standpoint -- so funny -- and Milkman Conspiracy my favourite from a dialogue standpoint, every single line from the G-Men just killed me.

I like collectathon platformers, what can I say. I am a child of the Spyro era. I'm not even a 100%er I just like finding secret passages and ledges full of Stuff.

The matador outfit for Raz in Black Velvetopia was adorable

What the fuck the random turtle at the end of the game fahklfhkl

I thought the Gloria's Theatre level was also super cool, even if I had to look up a lot of the solutions on youtube, lol. Just a really cool concept and fun change of pace.

The cons

I don't want to harp on the clunky controls too much because it's a game from 2005 that I am playing on a 3-gen-later console... so... I try to adjust my expectations accordingly. But holy shit!!! The number of awkward jumps, times double jump just seemed to not work??, wonky hitboxes, the terrible lock mechanic for psiblast attacks, TK throw being awkward af, whew. Very frustrating. That platforming section to get the musket in Waterloo World was CRAZY difficult for me and for what ?? It's basic platforming... 😭 Grab the bar Raz you asshole. I was sitting there ragegripping my controller like YOU'RE AN ACROBAT!!!!

I hated the ammo mechanic and I'm SO GLAD it went away. There was nothing more agitating than ending up in a boss fight with no mental aggression left and being like Guess I'll fuckin die.jpeg

There were lots of "What the fuck" game design moments for me. The Linda bossfight, getting sideswiped by suddenly needing a power or item that seemed optional until now and having to grind arrowheads to do it, the nightmares in the Milkman Conspiracy ?!!?!, these kinds of choices would just tank my enjoyment as soon as they came up. I ran to youtube a lot to figure out a strategy.

The script, while very funny, shows its age in a lot of places. Not "just" in the awkward use of That One Slur or the weird extended "Indian burial ground" jokes, but in other stuff too. Raz and Lili's relationship gets off on a super weird and off-puttingly heteronormative foot basically from jump -- a shame, because by the end of the game, and in 2, I'm fond enough of them, and found some of the "girlfriend" gags funny. Having Raz of all people call Milla the "mental minx" had me like 🥴.

The whole asylum plot felt just kind of icky and insensitive at times, I'd even say kind of ableist.

Also the level design of climbing that fucking tower where if you miss a jump you may have to redo the whole thing I swear to god 🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪

How come the cut scenes look SO much worse than the gameplay lol? I mean, whatever, I'm not expecting majesty from a 2005 indie, but I don't think I've ever seen a game where the cut scenes look WORSE than the gameplay before.

The concluding scenes in Meat Circus and after felt kinda rushed to me. Not terrible or anything, but they gave me major vibes of "we ran outta budget and we gotta wrap this up asap", lol. In particular I felt like we needed more from Raz and Augustus than we got, and honestly I felt like the game *wanted* to give it to me but didn't really have time so we just got a handful of dialogue and now you gotta punch this giant butcher.

In conclusion

Overall I found the tone of the game more callous than 2... which took a lot of adjusting for me, since the heart and sincerity in 2 is a large part of what I loved about it. I don't think the game intends to be cruel but I also think it doesn't take its own concepts seriously enough to treat them with the kind of sensitivity they need.

A big example for me is Raz just bruteforcing his way into people's minds when they were inconveniencing him lol. Extremely happy they changed this in 2. I understand that in the end what he does in their minds helps them (mostly??? Boyd u good???), but sheesh...

Raz in general feels like he got a, uh, personality update in 2. To be honest I think this change is emblematic of the whole tone shift, as well as the changing sensibilities of 2005 vs 2021. I still liked him in 1 but I don't think I'd feel as attached without 2. It did make me really appreciate [plotline redacted] in 2 more though!

I'm happy this game exists and was able to find enough cult success to eventually lead to 2. It's creative and interesting and funny, but it definitely is showing its age. I feel like 2 took all these good ideas and expanded on them and made them better, which is exactly what you want a sequel to do. I would recommend Psychonauts 2 to anyone who enjoys platformers; I would only recommend Psychonauts 1 to someone who really liked 2 and is willing to suffer through dated gameplay as a result.

[dukebeelthazar]

Blood Omen 2 Review

Hey everyone!

I know it's been a while since my last post, but Taonpest and I were busy finishing our Legacy of Kain Marathon with Blood Omen 2. And I've beaten Blood Omen 2, hell, I've COMPLETED IT by drinking every single character's blood and opening every chest from every chapter! And to anyone who wants to make a LoK marathon, do yourself a favor and skip this game. There's nothing for it.

When I started playing BO2, I thought it was fine. I thought it was one of the most basic action game you would find on PS2 and I was fine with this. But that impression of low-budget yearly action game soon dissipated and became motoneous, frustrating and overall boring. Just to make things clear, I played the PS2 version of the game which is apparently considered the worst port of that game. And you wouldn't know how overjoyed I was when I read that.

One thing that strikes the eye is the graphics. They're okay for a 2002 PS2 game, but, the atmosphere, the aesthetic. There's nothing LoK about it. I know it's technically supposed to be a transition between Blood Omen and Soul Reaver, but to me, it looked more like a WarHammer Fantasy look-alike. The characters are...what they are. Kain and his massive man-tits looks pretty okay, but Vorador looks like an estranged cousin of Shrek who decided to live in the sewers instead of the swamps. Janos looks good. Another thing that sort of annoyed me were the FMV cutscenes. Soul Reaver and its sequel had beautiful FMVs that set the tone of the game and hyped you up. Unlike Soul Reaver, BO2's FMVs were made with the in-game models which makes some shots absolutely ridiculous. Once again, I like to think this is a budget stuff that happened.

Then, there's the actual game and story. Gee, I wonder what the plot could be this time. Oh? It's another revenge story, what a surprise. No surprise here, the story is not only barely existant, but somehow, even the dialogues are actually terrible. All that poesy and Shakespearian-talk from the previous entries? Gone. And it tries so hard to be serious that it's actually hilarious.

The actual gameplay can go fuck itself. The fighting mechanics especially are the biggest pain in the ass. It's clunky and unresponsive and most annoying of all repeating way too much. Every single fight (with the exception of some bosses) are down to the exact same method. You parry 3 to 5 attacks, dodge, attack, knock your enemy down, wait for him to recover, rince and repeat. So imagine spending hours doing the exact same thing with boring puzzles and frustrating platform sequences. I did like the Eternal Prison however with its claustrophobic approach that kinda reminded me of Resident Evil. And then Magnus came in, and what could have lead to a Nemesis-like encounter just fell flat because the AI in this game is as dumb as a brick, which means there are no actual consequences for you to mess around with Magnus. This leads to the boss fights, and if you've played any Legacy of Kain game then you won't be surprised when I tell you that they suck. If Soul Reaver's bosses are on the same level as Crash Bandicoot then Blood Omen 2 is Wrath of Cortex. They are that bad.

I guess I should also mention the sound. Just so you know we played the game in French. Jean Barney and Benoît Allemane reprised their respective roles from the previous Soul Reaver installments (Vorador and Janos for Barney and Kain for Allemane) and it's great to hear them again. We also get VAs new to the franchise like the amazing Phillipe Dumond (voice-over actor of Keith David in French) as the Sarafan Lord and basicaly almost every male NPC from the game.

Unlike SR1 & 2 however, I thought the French Dub to be very hit or miss, making the poor dialogue looking even more dumber than it already is. I like to think this because of direction issues (voice acting for video games in France is very different than in the U.S or Japan) because you couldn't sound as deadpan and monotone as Uma. Maybe this is an adaptation choice? I don't know, but this makes her death scene almost funny to watch. Allemane is playing his dialogue in his usual Kain-fashion (though slightly less "jovial") but some of his lines sound wrong. And then, there is the actor that actually outshines Benoît Allemane: Phillipe Dumond. This man is 90% of the game's dialogue and each time, he delivers especially as the Sarafan Lord. There's also something weird around the end of the game where Vorador changes voice actors in the same cutscene or even mid-sentence. I think the voice-acting for this game was rushed.

That's all I'll say about Blood Omen 2. This game made me feel empty. It actually made me wish I played games I don't like because I think the problem comes from me and not the games themselves.

Blood Omen 2 is a 3/10/. Stay out of its net, brethrens.

P.S: I wish I could stream games, but I don't have the setting nor the actual physical place to do it.

[nmbr1kpfan]

hi guys im into homestuck again and i have too many headcanons of dave that i simply cannot keep to myself cause im a loud mouth its under the read more

also i tried really hard not to like STEAL anyones ideas cause idk where some of these came from but i saw them before and ive been thinking about them ever since

I HAVENT FINISHED HOMESTUCK YET SO SOME OF THESE MIGHT BE BS IGNORE ME IF THEY ARE LMFAO

dave strider is a bisexual demiboy albino poc 

he watches slime makeup mixing videos with karkat and laughs when karkat screams cause the colour is gross at the end

his fav colour used to be blue cause its the opposite of red and he didnt like his eyes, but now he said fuck u and reds his fav colour

he also had a phase where he despised the colour red, absolutely hated it

his eyes are like a bright red and he can see fine colourwise but bright light hurts and he squints, which is why he wears sunglasses (he also wears them cause he doesnt like his eyes but-)

DAVE MOST DEFINETLY SOUNDS LIKE GEORGE WATSKY, everytime i listen to seizure boy by watsky all i can think is “this is literally dave”

i feel weird explaining why cause i dont wanna trigger someone but he would have anorexia or BED (i have an ed im not just pulling this out of my ass so you know) even though he is skinny because of this hes naturally thinner than average 

relating to the last one he would hide apple juice in his closet i swear all he consumes is apple juice

god this guys horrible at expressing his emotions, he had to keep up a poker face his whole childhood so its just default setting and now he doesnt know what feeling is what and why its happening

dave definitely has insomnia cause (nightmares, not being able to get to sleep, not being able to stay asleep, the whole shabang)

i feel like he would fuck with a dress. like he makes a makeshift dress from like random clothes around and is like hell yea this is sick yk

secretly loooooves cats 

even tho hes albino he has some freckles you can see very faintly on his nose bridge, cheeks, and shoulders

maaaaaaad voice cracks. he gets super embarrassed by them

LMFAOO HE WOULD PROBABLY BE A SOUNDCLOUD RAPPER 

I JUST FUCKING KNOW THIS GUY WOULD WEAR THE SHIT I WORE IN MY TOP PHASE LIKE CONVERSE A FLANNEL JEANS AND A BAND TEE I JUST FUCKIN KNOW IT either a band shirt his like brand cd shirt or a random shirt with a pun on it cause its ironic also he has like 3 pairs of black skinny jeans

this guy would have a thing with old consoles. like ps3 ps2 gameboy ds any of that type of shit and he would bug people to come play games with him on them (his fav gam would def be crash bandicoot)

hes gotta do shit at like an exact time or else he wont do it like eating, playing a game, showering, ect

when he gets upset or like tired his southern accent would come out more

sometimes i see him having snakebites (the peircings not like actual bite marks from a snake) and sometimes i dont but i thought i would just throw this out there he def has earrings tho

most of the time all he does when it comes to laughing is a low chuckle, but when he finds something like absolutely hilarious he laughs super fuckin loud i feel like he would start wheezing too

in the winter he forgets just how utterly COLD it is so then he goes out in like jeans a tshirt and a hoodie and practically dies

he wears headphones or earbuds all the time youll never catch him not wearing them (and hes definitely listening to his fav rad beats, might start rapping too if youre not careful)

EVERYONE TALKS ABOUT POKEMON BUT I JUST FUCKING KNOW THIS GUY FUCKS W DIGIMON AYYYYYY digimons the shit and he would love it. dont get me wrong tho he likes pokemon too idk what his fav digimon and pokemon would be tho for digimon maybe tentomon or agumon

he has trouble with like rambling so when he realizes hes beein rambling he gets like hurried and flustered (?? idk if thats the right word) trying to find a good time to end the conversation

i couldnt find any way to word what i was thinking really well so i went to go look for someone else who explained it well and i found this here u go dave mf strider https://bunsoldblog.tumblr.com/post/19906628739/trigger-warning-many-disorders-potential-mental

uhhhh thats it ig ok bye

[coomerclones]

hi hello i am legitimately here asking you to do all of them. please and thank you. or whichever ones interest you, at least!!! (for the hlvrai ask meme)

DNBDKHBSVKH u kno what. i will thank u that'll definitely help me pass time LOL puttin it under a readmore;

How’d you find out about HLVRAI? > so i definitely saw it all over my dash when it first came out, but i didn't know anything about haIf life so i just kinda ignored it, i didn't really think abt it at all bc i was like 'oh this is hl related and ive never played that, so' but at some point my brother watched it on the suggestion of a pal (he knew more about hl than i did, but also not v much) and then made me watch it bc he thought i'd like it. then we watched it two more times afterwards w different sibs and during the third watch i really felt the fixation Activate in my brain LOL

Who’s your favorite character and why? > a hard question... i love them all v much. the first place is like a threeway tie between gordon tommy and coomer that kinda changes around - ultimately it's probably gordon, but tommy and coomer are so close behind him that it's hard to really say lol though coomer was my fav during the first watch, and tommy was my fav during the next two!

Who do you relate to most in the series? > gordon maybe kbdfjhb

What font do you use most? > the font i use the most PURPOSELY is heffaklump. this is because it is the n/eopets font

Favorite Scene? > i have no idea how im supposed to pick this when there are SO many good ones tbh like several came to mind oooaaa

Favorite Act? > probably.... hm.. the final ?? maybe even act 1 actually. idk they're all good for their own reasons

Favorite Line? > when i first watched it my fav was probably the whole coomer 'gordon, look out! hotted boobs up ahead! tits big ones' + 'gordon, titty boob huge fuck' but now... hm... god.. idk there are so many like good little lines ive come to appreciate very much kjjngjhbfvdf it's hard to pick One

Favorite Beverage? > my fav beverage that i have Commonly is a nice can of barqs root beer, my fav beverage that i only have on rare occassions tho is cola champagne! it's sooo good

Favorite Song (PASSPORT GUARDIAN, Dr.Coomer’s Bumpin Mix)? > AH ok i love passport guardian but it might be dr coomers bumpin mix, that gets in my head a lot kjfnjhbdf

Do you have a favorite headcanon or trope about any of the characters? > they're all neurodivergent and lgbt+ <3

Have you watched any other series similar to HLVRAI (Gorgeous Freeman, Freeman’s mind)? > no and i'm not rly interested in doing so

Do you drink soda? > hell yea

Do you think aliens exist? > hell yea

What toppings do you like on your pizza? > i usually like having a couple toppings at a time and it ranges depending on what i'm in the mood for ig? typically i go for like bacon or sausage or chicken or pepperoni, maybe some olives etc

What weapon would you use in a alien invasion? > idk kfjnjhdb i dont see myself as super likely to be doing anything besides hiding somewhere + crying but probably just whatever i could get my hands on rly lol probably smth generic if im picking a hl weapon tho im either going classic crowbar or hivehand (tho putting my hand into the hivehand sounds atrocious)

If you could be in any video game, which one would you be in? > if it counts im picking n/eopets. if it doesnt count im picking n/eopets the darkest faerie for ps2 if that ALSO doesnt count for some reason... idk probably just animal crossing lol, a nice peaceful existence

If you could memorize any wikipedia page by heart, which one? > the n/eopets wikipedia page would b really funny bc absolutely no one needs to hear me recite that

What’s your favorite video game right now? > currently ive been watching my brother play n/eopets the darkest faerie so im being reminded how much i love that game, so it's that i'm not actively playing anything besides Actual N/eopets right now so ;w;

Have you played any of the Half Life games? > yeah though not til after h/lvrai, and i only just played hl2 in january ! i still have to play the hl2 episodes, but other than that i did finish hl1, blue shift, opposing force, and hl 2 !

Do you watch any of the gang (Wayne, Holly, Gir,etc)? > i mostly watch wayne and scorpy and the occassional baaulp stream - i used to watch a lot more baaulp when i was waking up earlier. i'd never Knowingly heard of any of them until h/lvrai tho !

If they make a second one, what is one thing you want to happen in it? > i hope they drinka nice refreshing soda (my way of saying idk! i dont want anything specific to happen, i'd just be excited to be along for the ride :) !)

What do you think is inside G-man’s suitcase? > some sort of void ig? i dont rly think about it a lot kffjknf

Is Chuck E. Cheese a restaurant or a entertainment center? > ¡ENTERTAINMENT CENTER!

THERE! finished... this successfully passed time and made me sleepy (exactly what i wanted) so thank u so much for asking me to answer them all LOL if anyone read all this ur a hero in my heart.. have a wonderful day

[icollectyoursins]

DIO x Small S/O NSFW

Anon asked for “Spicy dio ! Spicy dio!! Love the vampire man!”

Man, I think I’m good at writing smut, and then I do dialogue and I just... no think. brain empty. What character? What words? If there are any tips people have for staying in character with dialogue specifically besides watching videos of quotes from the PS2 game, let me know!

Dio loves to make sure his little pet is nice and full whenever he’s gone. Not much to it. Except that he doesn’t like to waste a single drop, doing what he can to keep you from... leaking.

Have a character, but no idea? Prompt list here!

Looking for more? Master post here!

WARNINGS: Butt plugs, size kink, blowjobs, anal, anal creampie, I don’t know what it’s called but using a butt plug to keep cum inside the reader, a brief appearance from the World.

Word Count: 1652

     You shifted your legs to feel more comfortable with the protrusion, then felt a small trickle down your leg. Your face turned bright red. That was what he used it for. To keep you full of his seed. To make sure you knew you belonged to him and no one else. You shifted back to keep the rest of it in. You couldn't imagine what he would do if he found out some of it got out.

     You carefully bent over the sink to stretch out a bit as you waited for the shower to get hot, trying your best not to hurt your already sore muscles which proved harder than expected. Not to mention the large plug in your ass, rubbing against your walls, reminding you of what happened last night. And the night before that, and the night before that. Your love/Lord, Dio had purchased a new toy for you a few days ago. He hasn't stopped using it since. Your poor plucker felt so used, tight from overstimulation and yet loose from his cock. What was he using it for? Anyone else would think it was to keep you like this which, although wasn't entirely untrue, wasn't its purpose.

     You were about to reach for something to clean with when the door opened. Dio stood completely bare, hand still resting on the handle. There was a spot of blood on his lip and a hungry look in his eyes. He looked at what you were doing then sighed. Slow, methodical steps made their was towards you. God, you hoped today wasn't the say he got rid of you. You had been so good for him recently and based on the past few days, you were almost sure he wasn't done with you yet.

     He laughed under his breath, cupping your cheek with his hand, claws just barely grazing your skin. You looked up at him, craning your neck, silently pleading for your life which only made him laugh more. He bent down to kiss your forehead, then moved behind you. A clawed finger was gently drawn down your back to where the plug sat. He made eye contact with you in the mirror before gently pulling on it making you moan, instinctively leaning forward. You were far too used to him coming up behind you like this, knowing what would eventually come next.

     Dio was amused by how obedient you were as well as the squelch of the plug meeting with his cum in your ass. “Do you want me to fill you, (Y/N)?” The hand that was curled around your face tangled itself into your hair, yanking back. You winced, letting out a small whine.

     “Yes, my love,” you said, knowing a simple ‘mhmm’ wouldn’t be enough for him and the sooner he fucked you, the sooner you could get into your shower. He let go of you, walking to the shower then turning off the water; a very clear hint that this wasn’t going to be your typical quickie. Not that you were surprised, he was usually like this after he fed on some poor soul (who thankfully wasn’t you). 

     He got back into position, large hands wrapping around your waist before his pelvis into your ass, catching the gem on the plug, lifting it up slightly. This caused more of his seed to drip out of you. He let out throaty chuckle, eyes getting dark. You were quickly turned around and pushed to your knees, face flush with the tip of his flaccid cock. The thing in your ass shifted, making you shudder. 

     You locked eyes with him again, taking the tip of his length in your mouth, sucking intently, tongue catching the bottom on every pull of your lips. Gradually, he got harder in your mouth. Your jaw was starting to get tired by the time he was fully hard, but you knew that he would do whatever he wanted regardless of how you felt, though showing you were enthusiastic to get your beloved lord off would make whatever he did next less severe. You stood up on your knees to fully appreciate his cock, licking from base to tip then slipping as much as you could fit in your mouth.

     You had gotten about three inches of the full twelve when he grabbed the back of your head, pulling you down onto him more. Three became four, then five, six, seven full inches. Then, you felt something teasing the bulge in your ass, pulling on the end of it, then pushing it back in. The World, controlled by Dio of course, was making sure your ass was good and ready for his cock. You moaned around him, pushing back in to the plug. Slowly, your ass was fucked, the seamen from before acting as lubricant, making a sloshing sound that was stomach turning.

     Once Dio was satisfied with how hard you made him, he order you to stand up, making the World disappear. For now. He turned you around so your body was braced against the vanity again. You could see the maniacal grin in the mirror as he slowly pulled the plug out from you. It was hard to not moan at the stretch. It seemed to go on forever, slowly getting bigger before it got smaller. You had thought it was done, but then he pushed it back in. He used his free hand to pin you down while you were teased relentlessly. He knew you were getting close, moans getting louder and more free.

     Finally, he pulled the plug out, tossing it aside. Large, warm hands gripped your waist as he lifted your small form with ease. He aligned himself with you quickly then thrust into your ass, relishing how little you resisted him. You mewled and keened, feet dangling off the ground as he fit his seemingly endless length in you. His balls eventually slapped against your lower regions, the tip of his cock making your stomach bulge just slightly. You were sure if he saw it, he would go feral.

     He pulled back, leaving just the tip in before thrusting in again. You screamed out his name which only egged him on more. He was quick to pick up the pace, lifting your up more to get a better angle to fuck your insides. Your arms scrambled to find something to hold on to, something that would provide some resistance so he wouldn’t have to do all the work.

     One arm wrapped itself around your waist, while the other reached for behind your knee. He lifted you up, giving you a quick bounce on his cock while his other hand went to your other knee, keeping you in the prone position. Your hands found their way to his hair, gripping onto him while he used your momentum to properly fuck your ass.

     Screams fell freely from your mouth. This new position made everything feel so much better, so much deeper. You were getting close, you only hoped that he was too. Dio growled in your ear, teeth raking the shell of your ear before he spoke.

     “What a good little pet. Do you want me to fill you? Tell me.” He purred. Through screams and breaths, you found it hard to speak, but somehow managed to tell him what he wanted.

     “Please, my lord. Please fill me. Make me swell.” He laughed coldly. You knew full well that this wasn’t the right hole for becoming pregnant, but you also knew how much he came, especially now with this new toy able to keep you full. His thrusts became more pleasing, dragging through your insides blissfully. With  a loud, broken scream, you came, white flashing across your vision. You were barely aware of him bending you over onto the ground.

     Slowly, he pulled out of you, carefully as to not spill too much seed, though, he would likely find someone to lick it up for him while you got him off some other way later on. When the tip was the only thing in you, he started pushing the plug in as well. With practiced hands, he pulled out, then filled your ass with the plug. You would never feel empty while he was around, he’d made sure of that. Soon, he would just keep you pinned to the bed, legs spread for him until the day you died. 

     Now on your knees, plump ass flush against his pelvis, he wrapped his arms around your neck, pulling you flush against him. You were helpless as he fucked into your limp, fucked out body. His release came quickly afterwards, hot seed spilling into you and flowing out the sides where his cock rested. Soon you felt a shift in you then became aware of the tip of the butt plug resting against your cheeks. He has stopped time to grab it from where he tossed it. 

     Dio lifted your small, limp body easily, holding you like a child as he walked to the shower, turning on the water. He couldn’t help the smile that had been spread over his face the entire time. You were so good for him, perhaps he should find you some other present to keep you full and needy. Something that required batteries.

     While in the shower, he gently cleaned the sweat off your body, groping your ass to keep you conscious. You were set on your feet, gradually becoming more aware of your surroundings as his tipped your head up to him, expecting the same kindness he showed you. Calmly, you kissed his hands while getting to work cleaning whatever gunk he had on him from before he walked in. 

    There was something about basking in your adoration, you devotion to him that made his feel like a child again, winning a rugby match. Nothing in this world that would ever take you away from him.

[serenedash]

I started rambling about my experience with kh and then it turned into khux and then it just turned into me rambling about Ryou and my art journey????? enjoy I guess,

it’s very long but there’s art in there :)

It’s funny to think about my kh journey as a whole tbh, I grew up watching my mom play video games, which included kh1 and 2. I wasn’t allowed to play the playstation2 we owned BUT I did have a gameboy so the first game I played was CoM (after my mom finished it ofc,) so I guess you could say I’ve always been passionate about kh “””side games””” lmao but I did fall off of kh very quickly bc again, I wasn’t allowed to play our PS2 and also I Am A Terrible Gamer I’ve Never Finished CoM I’m sorry you all had to find out like this, but then 358/2 came out when I was in middle school and!!! I didn’t care and I didn’t play idk why lol

Anyway, fast forward to high school I’m like 15 and my older sister, who HAS been keeping up with kh, has a wallpaper on her phone of roxas and ventus. And bc I haven’t kept up I say “nice roxas wallpaper” and she says “thanks but it’s roxas and ventus” and I proceeded to get so mad that I was determined to prove to her that her wallpaper was just roxas twice and then I fell down the BBS rabbit hole and suddenly I was reading about vanitas and then I’m reading the fan translations of the BBS novel and I’m crying??? I am sobbing???? and that’s how I actually got into kh for real lol we are vanitas stans before we are people,

It’s so funny how I thought I was some kh super fan, knowing all this stuff that I spent so long reading and rewatching cutscene movies, but I never once, SOMEHOW NEVER ever came across khx. It’s so absurd and bizarre I seriously have no idea how I never once encountered khx prior to khux. I suppose that has to do with the fact I wasn’t involved in the fandom? In early high school I had stepped away from fandoms as a whole and I didn’t have any interest in really posting content or interacting with fans anymore bc of how burnt out I was from a previous fandom,

but khux released! and I was so hype and excited for it! on launch day I was a senior in high school, I had ran around to every “nerd” and weeb I could find in school to ask them to join my party and fun fact about me is I have crippling social anxiety I literally refuse to start conversations irl so holy shit I was OUT HERE doing the MOST

My player just originally had my name (Matt) but everyone in my party had fun names so Ryou was born! High school was one big yugioh phase for me and ryou bakura is one of my favorite characters ever so it was just the logical name choice lol I quickly started creating Ryou, the character, as well. I was also leaving my homestuck phase and that + vanitas obsession made This character design (art circa 2016)

If y’all are familiar with my kh oc’s you might notice that keyblade now belongs to my kid Monty LOL

Anyway that got scrapped quickly for the chip and dale outfit (which is where Ryou’s trademark goggles are from <3) Goggles have been a staple of my character designs for a LONG TIME so like, it had to be done, (that’s a separate ramble about a separate oc tho)

OG Ryou was an interesting guy; he was a young party leader with this overwhelming responsibility on his shoulders bc of his status as a party leader. In his original story, he also struggled heavily with darkness, much like Terra but for Ryou it was more that the darkness was controlling him and not like a source of power like it was for Terra

A big part of early Ryou I kept, however, was the crushing awareness of loss. One of my party members (the strongest one at the time,) had left without saying a word and I was very confused and hurt. This was around the time the ephemera plot was happening so I decided to incorporate it into Ryou’s story; having him experience losing a friend to darkness since it’s so normal for wielders in Daybreak Town to just disappear, and this would unintentionally become a theme for both me and Ryou as khux friends would just randomly disappear.

I was desperate for khux at this point and I decided to watch the fan translations for khx and GOD, god, was I obsessed. I couldn’t stop thinking about the foretellers. And I’m not going off about that here bc I already did that, but I actually started entering fandom again! I did it slowly, I started on tumblr before this blog was made altho it was me sending anons to the few khux related blogs I could have lol a friend convinced me to get twitter where I got involved with the ffxv fandom, which led me to the kh fandom and eventually the khux fandom there which is what REALLY got me going on khux.

I joined discord servers, most of the servers I’m in are khux related, and from there I joined the khux oc rp (shout out to anyone there who might be reading this lol here’s some art from the beginning of the rp,)

It’s SO FUNNY how the RP influenced me so heavily. I hadn’t RP’d in YEARS, I used to have a strict no oc rp policy, but here I was? And the funny part is, I had barely developed Ryou. I had scrapped his original story and all I had was POST WAR Ryou so I literally had to reverse write him; I had only ever written him as a depressed, guilt ridden adult, but it was a fucking blast and I have such fond memories of this rp when it was active,

But anyway, this encouraged me to get more serious about art! I started drawing, writing, cosplaying, and roleplaying when I hadn’t done any of that stuff in a very long time. The first time I ever drew a background was for a deviant art khux competition actually LOL

also! I always think extremely fondly of the drawing I did of Aced in the keyblade war. It was also one of the first backgrounds I ever drew and it felt like my real starting point in the khux fandom. It got a ton of notes on here and someone wrote a tiny fic in a reblog which just made me SO HAPPY like it really felt like people were noticing me :) I was going to draw a matching Ira but!! I just never did!! One day tho, it’s on my art bucket list to redraw this along with Ira,

Aside from my personal growth, khux was great for my social life ngl, I made SO MANY friends online and got to meet a ton of people irl over the years! It’s crazy to think about all the people I now know and talk to? It honestly makes me really emotional. I’ll never forget taking the train into NYC and meeting up with discord friends. Going to conventions and talking with people about the latest khux update? Absolutely insane and those were some GOOD TIMES, if I thanked every khux friend or even just person who made an impact on me then we’d be here for a LONG TIME,

Fun fact, for my Lauriam cosplay all I needed to buy was the wig I just owned his outfit LOL also? Probably retiring that cosplay ngl people treated me like absolute garbage when I wore him and it led to a lot of confidence issues for awhile ngl. That’s probably one of the only memorable negative experiences I have with khux; it was great when khux people recognized me but for kh fans that weren’t in khux? They were FUCKING MEAN??? fuck kh fandom at large, I only care about khux fandom,

This leads me to another huge part of my experience in khux fandom: THEORIES!! I used to write SO MANY and oh my god my brain was so full all the time. It was a huge appeal for me in the fandom; I had been previously writing theory posts in the RWBY fandom and it just migrated over to khux for me lol I had done a ton of theorizing around Lauriam tbh, it was really the only reason I liked his character at all bc initially I did not care about the dandelions, anyone who wasn’t Skuld I was like “please leave Now thanks”

A funny part of khux fandom I never intended to be apart of is the MEMES, I really only started doing memes as stress relief bc college had me so busy all I had time/energy for was these quick little shit post drawings.

The first meme I made, file name “invi despair” LOL we need to get her a girlfriend smh anyway, I think in my senior year of college I did a bunch of rapid fire memes all in one month bc the stress of finals was getting so bad afdgfhdgf as far as I know my impact on this fandom will be my memes bc all I do now is enter a kh/khux server and introduce myself and I go “yeah I draw art. here’s a meme” and everyone goes OH YOU, honestly I am nothing if not a clown

I’ve talked so much idk where I’m going with this. Khux is just a good game even if the gameplay actually kind of really sucks yknow lol but it was the first game I played where I like, REALLY got into the meta and the mechanics. I used to read so much on the mechanics and watch youtube videos on which medals were worth pulling for. I was never a whale or a top player exactly, but I could rank well if I tried lol I’ve made it to the top 100 for solo rankings, my party has made it to top 10, and in pvp I’ve made top 300. I’m not the highest level in my party but FUCK do I know how to manipulate this game LOL

And with all that hard work, the strategies, the theorizing, the content I’ve made-- it’s been my life for 5 years. I’ve logged into khux almost every single day. At the end, I have logged 1820 days in khux out of 1910 days. Kinda crazy. Crazier I’ve never spent money on khux either lol the only “money” gone into it was one time my mom gave me a google play store gift card and I used it on my birthday for a VIP xemnas medal which eventually made it to regular pulls anyway but it was nice and a little treat :)

I’m not a gacha fan, I don’t care for it, so I don’t think I’ll be touching another gacha again. But for kh? This was pretty fucking awesome, even if it sucked a lot sometimes LOL It was worth it for the people I’ve met most of all I think. I would honestly be a completely different person without khux and that’s REALLY insane to think about.