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sazorak · 4 years ago

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Every Game I Played in 2020, Ranked

2020. Boy, what a garbo year huh? Didn't actually play that many games this year all-in-all. Happens! My backlog is getting pretty big, but I just find it hard to focus on games when I could be working on something. Or put off working on something, as it may happen to be at times.

My arbitrary decision from years ago to only attach a numbered ranking to same-year releases is getting increasingly silly, especially given my propensity to wait on playing games until I’m in the right mood, but whatever. That order matters than the dumb numerical numbering anyway.

2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019

Later Alligator – 2019 – Steam – ★★

The style of this game is very cute, and the jokes are funny enough. But… ok, look, I’m not one to be precious about what is or isn’t a game. But this really isn’t a game. It’s a series of disconnected, unrelated challenges clipped from Atari Free Mini Game Collection 100, wrapped in a very non-interactive adventure-game. It’s cute, it’s kind of sweet, but it’s dull. Dull dull dull. There’s a pointless, mandatory sliding block puzzle early on that infuriated me by its mere existence. Them giving the ability to skip it because “wow you’re bad at this huh”, which, while accurate, also just sold the whole point meaningless of the “““interactive experience”””.

Also: when a huge part of your game is WOW WE ANIMATED EVERYONE REALLY GOOD, text boxes that reveal word-by-word, far away from the animations that occur when said characters talk? Kind of stinks!

8. Carrion – 2020 – Steam – ★★

What Carrion does well— the whole “You’re controlling The Thing and just rippin’ people apart!” shtick— is really neat. They made that bootleg The Thing animate real-ass good.

The actual game as a whole though? Kind of garbage. Imagine a Metroidvania with zero actual exploration, where every opportunity you have to venture off the path instead results in immediate railroading with constant, utterly inexplicable one-way pipes. It’s not that it’s linear, it’s that it actively slaps you when you attempt to explore. It’s very frustrating! Add the fact that the tentacle-monster-shtick makes challenging to actually, y’know, move around and control all your bits… the only reason I finished the game was due to foreknowledge of its extreme brevity.

I think if the game were more open and less obsessed with constantly handing out upgrades, as well as having less of a focus on pure combat, I think I’d have enjoyed it more.

SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays – 2019 – Steam – ★★

It is well documented at this point that I am both an active Gundam fan, and as well as an on-again-off-again tactical RPG aficionado. A SD Gundam game appearing on Steam with a good English translation and localization is… exciting, to say the least. That said, I have never had much context for this game series beyond the basic facts that the combat tended to be pretty well animated CG, and that it’s vaguely similar to Super Robot Wars. Turns out… it’s really different from SRW? I dunno how the rest of the series fairs, but Cross Rays is weird as hell.

For one, there’s zero tutorialization at all. None. Almost all of what I’m going to explain here is me figuring stuff out by trial and error, or by reading junk online. Gundam is insanely popular, you’d think they’d be interested in explaining how it all works, but… nope. Even Super Robot Wars has multi-level introductory bits for new folks to show them the rope these days.

So: Cross Rays is a tactical RPG where you can playthrough the storyline of various Gundam AUs. You can play through them in any order. These playthroughs are fairly literal translations of the stories. You take control of the lead mecha from those series, fight enemy mobile suits that show up in SRW-like tactical RPG combat, until all reinforcements cease. Pretty straight forward. There are occasionally mission variants like “prevent enemies from reaching X” or “prevent enemies from destroying Y”, but even those can be just reduced to “kill everything very quickly please.”

But here’s the thing: while there is a story progression, the characters in the story itself actually have no character progression. These characters and mecha are actually considered guests, despite it being ostensibly their story. Instead, you are able to field “permanent” mecha and pilots of your own choosing, which do have progressions. There is no plot justification for this or anything like it. The game does not recognize that it’s weird that during Iron-Blooded Orphans intro where nobody knows what a Gundam even is, you can have 25 Gundams show up at once and just fire lasers at everything. That’s because this game is actually about repeatedly grinding the same set of missions over and over.

Pilots are recruited by completing certain in-mission requirements. Mecha are acquired by either by getting enough kills with the progression-less “guest” mecha, combining mecha you already have gashopon-style, completing certain quests, or by leveling up mecha and then “evolving them”. This is the actual core of the game.

SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays is basically Disgaea, it turns out? You’re grinding story missions at various difficulty levels in order to complete missions, try to recruit specific pilots, equip them with stats and levels to make them stronger, and then hitting mecha together in a sort of quasi-SMT fusion system until you get all the powerful mobile suits you desire.

The combat itself is kind of… bland? There’s a lot of systems, but they mostly seem in service of making an already easy game easier, or burning through tedium. There are four different difficulty modes, because there’s not actually that many different missions you can play through. The expectation is you’ll just work your way through every story beat while ramping the difficulty up over time to where the “guest” mecha would not be able to handle on their own. In fact, letting the story mecha act out the story beats is actually bad after a point, unless you’re still trying to get those lead mobile suits, or if you’re trying to complete some mission requirement in order to recruit Named Wing Grunt Pilot #246.

There is something to the notion of “I want to get N and N and N and N on a team, piloting weird but powerful mobile suits, and just solo every Gundam AU in a row,” but the whole premise seems kind of against purpose. Why bother recreating story beats at all, then? It’s not like the game even acknowledges any of that going on.

If the point is that I’m supposed to be, like in other grind-heavy tactical RPGs, breaking the systems to my own end in order to proceed… why not make the missions you play challenges focused towards that? The story progression literally only exists to facilitate the mission-based unlock conditions, which makes all the energy put into making them JUST LIKE THE ANIME really damn pointless.

I like tactical RPGs, I like breaking RPG systems so as to beat hard challenges (I beat all the insanely hard extra bosses in FFXII for crying out loud), I looooove Gundam. I should like this. But I don’t really have the “god, I NEED TO FILL THIS LIST” gene that some folks have… except as an excuse to continue to engage in gameplay I enjoy. The gameplay here seems in service of the collection, rather than the way around.

7. Pokemon Sword: The Isle of Armor – 2020 – ★★★

Pokemon’s first foray into actually doing DLC is… a mixed bag. As a positive, they’ve improved the Wild Area concept I liked from the main game, and even brought back buddy Pokemon walking behind you. That’s neat. On the other hand: the actual progression in it is completable in like an hour, it doesn’t scale with you, so you’re bound to be over leveled for it, and all the raid stuff, while still conceptually neat, is just as flawed as in the base game. And so, you’re just left with even more new Pokemon to RNG grind on to continue to catch-them-all. Nah, I’m good.

Astral Chain – 2019 – Switch – ★★★

Platinum knows how to make good character action games. They’ve made a bunch of them. Bayonetta, Nier: Automata, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. They also know how to make some kind of mediocre character action games. Transformers: Devastation, Wonderful 101, their various shovelware character action games like Korra. Astral Chain falls somewhere in the middle, I guess?

Astral Chain has all the production of their good games. It has some stylish, cool action. It has a neat core mechanical idea, in that it’s essentially a two-character action game where you control both characters at once. It has a lot of the old mechanics from some of their best games brought in; witch-time last second dodging from Bayonetta, Nier’s shooting-and-slashing combination, the Zandatsu mechanic from Metal Gear Rising, even Wonderful 101’s multi-unit shenanigans. The setting is different, and there’s some neat world flavor all in all.

But, of all games I’ve played over the past few years, Astral Chain made me more vividly angry than any other. It’s not that it’s too hard— far from it, really, I found its combat incredibly mashy. No, the problem is that it has so many shitty mechanics slathered on that it become a chore to get to the “good bits”.

Why would you put forced stealth sequences in your character action game, especially when your movement controls are not suited for it?

Why the HELL would you put platforming sections in your character action game, constantly, especially when your stupid ghost buddy can accidentally yank you off the edge, your auto-combos can just throw you off the edge, or literally anything can knock you off the edge and make you lose life?

Why would you put so many constant excuses into the world to force me use the digital sensor in the game, that also makes it miserable to walk around while using it?

WHO THE LIVING FUCK THINKS THESE SHITTY BOX BALANCING MINI-GAMES ARE FUN???

These games are supposed to encourage me to perfect everything, right? Why keep putting fucking fights you need to complete in order to get an S rank behind backtracking, or Legions I don’t have yet? That isn’t adding replayability, that’s just wasting my time. There are even in-level missions that have fail conditions that you never even know about. Surprise!!! A lot of them involve chasing after guys and catching them with your chain, which is really obnoxious to do!!!! SURPRISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The story is just Bad Evangelion, straight up. Every story beat from Evangelion is here, executed worse. They also make your character have a twin just so they can have a character who can talk and feel emotions, because your boring-ass protagonist is stuck being an emotionless audience cipher. Cool!!!

Tetris Effect – 2018 – Origin – ★★★

It’s drugs Tetris. I personally don’t use, or have synesthesia for that matter. I imagine this game is better if you do. It’s an enjoyable enough experience but it feels incredibly slight for what I was expecting from it, or even compared to something like Lumines, which has tons of replayability by way of its difficulty. Tetris just isn’t that hard, unless you’re forcing yourself to do weird shit to get points. I WILL NEVER LEARN HOW TO T-SPIN. Never.

Castlevania Anniversary Collection – 2019 – Steam – ★★★

Kind of an unremarkable Castlevania collection. Neat that it has an official translation of Kid Dracula in there, but also… look, I prefer Metroidvania Castlevanias, OK?

6. Spelunky 2 – 2020 – Steam – ★★★

I’m not entirely sure why this doesn’t click for me where Spelunky 1 did. More annoying intro levels? Too many fiddly requirements for different ending-progression? Gameplay additions that just make things more annoying? Spelunky 1 was hard, but there was a kind straight-forwardness to it, even with its weird secrets, that made it much easier to grok and continue banging your head against. I’m just not having as much fun with this. Difficulty should be challenging, not a hassle.

5. Stellaris: Federations – 2020 – Steam – ★★★

This is the year that Stellaris just broke for me.

Federations itself is a good DLC; it adds some really interesting mechanics tied to various types of multi-national unions (the titular federations, as well as the Space UN), as well as the addition of unique “origins” that allow you to further specialize your gameplay. The origins in particular are a great addition that allows more specialization and roleplay.

I’m just tired of the sheer amount of busywork Stellaris forces you to do. Every DLC adds more junk you need to keep an eye on, and the fact that the AI doesn’t even bother with it (compensating with copious economy boosts in order to keep up) makes the whole thing frustrating. It’s like playing fetch with yourself; you just get tired of chasing after your own ball after a point.

I have to wonder if they’re pivoting towards a notional Stellaris 2 at this point? Might not be a bad idea for them, though it is weird with all they talked up adding more origins when Federations came out.

4. GranBlue Fantasy Versus – 2020 – Steam – ★★★★

This is probably the fighting game I got most into over the past few years. There’s just this nice, almost Street Fighter-esque ease of execution to the controls, and that Arc Systems Works 3D-as-2D style continues to just do work. I don’t give a single shit about GranBlue Fantasy (frankly, I think I’d enjoy this game more if it wasn’t attached to a property) but the characters are fun enough to play and look at.

The big problem here is two things: no crossplay, and no rollback netcode. In the span of a month, this game became a total ghost town on PC, and it doesn’t sound like PS4 faired that much better.

Ring Fit Adventure – 2019 – Switch – ★★★★

I’ve fallen on-and-off this game all year. At its heart: it works, it’s a fun exercise game. I don’t think it really feels like a “game” (in the sense that I’m not really coming to it for riveting gameplay or anything) as much as just a guided exercise experience, but… that’s fine? The in-game story is kind of flat, but funny in the fact of it existing at all. Buff Nicol Bolas and all.

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen – 2017 – Steam – ★★★★

XCOM2: War of the Chosen is a great answer to what XCOM2 struggled with. As I discussed back in 2016 (Jesus Christ), XCOM2 tried to push against player’s worst instincts by incentivizing them to keep being aggressive through a whole bunch of timers— which, kind of just weren’t fun given how much accidentally walking into an ambush could “ruin” dozens of hours of play. War of the Chosen dials that back in some intelligent ways, by instead making the encounter designs themselves, as well as much more grab-and-bail mission types, encourage players to push ahead instead. Smart!

The addition of the Chosen makes the game feel more alive, and they really do make missions harder— particularly early on. But they’ve somehow accidentally fell into the hole, where XCOM just… isn’t that hard? Early on it’s challenging, particularly with the resource restrictions and all. But they keep giving you more and more options (that aren’t especially meaningful choices) that make your team more and more powerful, without increasing the strength of the enemy as time goes on. By the five-hour mark, you basically know if you’re going to steam roll the game or not.

The amount of additional character and variety in the gameplay is great, I just wish it had a more challenging difficulty curve. Maybe make the meta-layer of when enemies show up more targeted to where players are at. If a player is doing well, ramp up the difficulty, if they’re struggling, pull it back a bit. I should always feel like I’m just barely keeping ahead with XCOM, not like I’m bored. And by the end of War of the Chosen, I was kind of getting bored, really. Oh well.

3. Animal Crossing: New Horizons – 2020 – Switch – ★★★★

This is probably the video game that I spent the most time with hours-wise this year. I’m not entirely sure why? It’s a nice evolution of New Leaf, in that the crafting, environment shaping, and general quality-of-life improvements made are quite nice. There’s clearly been some thought on how people play these games, and ways to make the experience less frustrating.

… and yet, they kept so much tedium in the game. Like yes, the schedule stretching is the point, I get it. As someone who for some reason decided not to play with the clock, I only just recently finished the fish, fossils, and insects for the museum. But there’s just so many weird, little things that just make it hard to keep coming back to it. It’s like… to what end? When I’ve unlocked everything, and basically seen the entirety of the item list at this point, and the holiday events all being the game meaningless collectathons…. Why? I’m not going to try completing the collection; the museum stuff is about my limit, really (and even the paintings I can probably pass on).

I guess even an idealized, digital representation of a quasi-domestic life has the spiritual emptiness of consumerism-for-consumerism sake. Thanks???

Hypnospace Outlaw – 2019 – Steam – ★★★★

I grew up on the internet of the early 00s. I had an AngelFire website, mostly consisting of shitty sprite webcomics and hosted Gundam pics. I remember when Google wasn’t really a thing and you would heavily rely on website compilation sites like the Anime Web Turnpike in order to find anything of value online. It was weird, it was wild. It was exciting!

The internet seemed so different back then. There was a ton of garbage online, but also, like… there was a sense of optimism to it. Folks were shitty, there was plenty of bad stuff online, but it felt so disconnected from the fabric of the physicality of real-life that it was at the same time a perfect escape.

I was young when I first got “online”, something like 12. I remember having this notion that the internet was going to be this great equalizer, that it had infinite potential to change how people behave and interact. Boy, huh.

Hypnospace Outlaw is essentially a splendid alternate universe GeoCities recreation, where you’re a volunteer moderator of a grouping of websites on HypnOS, an internet-analog you access while you are sleep. At the surface level, it’s mostly about poking around the weird alternate-historical version of the internet they created, full of kids feuding, bizarre historical divergences, and plenty of amazing bespoke weirdness. All of this is great; there’s an incredible amount of content that’s just great to poke at, listen to, and explore.

Below the surface, there’s also a rolling plotline about the ethics of this industry-owned platform, those who run it, and the way corporations handle new technology, new platforms, and emerging digital societies. There’s a late game turn that’s pretty damn affecting. And as someone who has moderator his share of internet forums in his time, trying to balance ‘do it for the community’ and what your ostensible ‘bosses’ require of you, it was kind of a weird throwback in more ways than one.

Minecraft – 2011 – PC – ★★★★★

Turns out, Minecraft is really as good still who knew??? Started playing a bunch more of it this year due to Giant Bomb deciding to do so, and yeah: still good!

2. Hades – 2020 – Steam – ★★★★★

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again— Supergiant makes damn good games. I’d been holding off on checking out Hades until its full release due to my tendency to burn out on games easily, and I’m glad I waited. Hades is a fantastic rogue-lite experience. The way it makes narrative progression part of the reiterative, randomized rogue-lite structure is just perfect.

It’s got all the usual Supergiant bullet points. Great characters, voice acting, narration, and music. In terms of gameplay, it’s probably their least ambitious game— playing something like a cousin to their original game, Bastion— but it’s also been polished to a mirror sheen. It just feels really damn good to play, over and over and over.

That being said, the second (final?) ending feels kind of…. Tacked on? It’s fine as a goal to go for while continuing to do the game’s relationship mechanics for additional story bits, but it ends up feeling kind of unfulfilling compared to the payoff of the first one.

1. Crusader Kings III – 2020 – Steam – ★★★★★

I never could get into Crusader Kings II. Despite my interest, the sheer mechanical heft and unintuitive interface made the game a wall that I just couldn’t get over. I’m sure if I’d dedicated myself I probably could have learned it, but… ehhhhhh.

Crusader Kings III, on the other hand, has a good tutorial, a cleaned-up UI, and a very helpful highlight and tooltip system that make it much easier to understand how to actually play the game through resources inside the game itself. And, as it turns out: I rather love this game.

I mean, conceptually it’s an easy sell, isn’t it? Historical politics is something I enjoy broadly. I liked Stellaris but wish it had more narrative, roleplaying elements. They outright say that “winning” isn’t really the point of the game. Instead, it’s more about emergent storytelling and playing with the different systems and seeing what you can do with it.

My current game has had me taking the Haesteinn dynasty from its Viking origins into England, forming a London-seated Northern Sea Empire that encompasses all of Britannia, Iceland, Holland, Norway, and Denmark. I am currently working on hegemonizing Norse religious control over enough Asatru holy sites to finally reform the religion, such that more unified feudalization can occur. To that end, my current ruler’s predecessor invaded West Francia and conquered the whole of its territory, substantially reducing the foothold of Catholicism in mainland Europe… which seems to have kicked the hornet’s nest, given the Crusade I’m going to need to contend with next time I boot up the game.

Of course, a complicating matter is that my current ruler— the Emperor of the North Sea, King of Ireland and the Danelaw, liege of the King of Denmark, was elected from the extended Haesteinn family via Thing, the Scandinavian council of his erstwhile vassals. Where the previous emperor, the one who manufactured the invasion of Francia, was quite religious and beloved for his adherence to the old ways, I discovered as I took over as his successor that he really, really is into just boning down across Europe. We’re talking constantly attempting to seduce neighboring Queens and Princesses. His vassals are not thrilled with this. They also don’t care for his propensity for torturing people to death, constantly.

I had no real say in this; attempting to stay on top of a dynasty is kind of like riding a bucking-bronco, so many things are only tenuously under your control that some weird shit can happen. This is especially true when you use the systems that make it easier to maintain the coherency of your domain. The Norse religion encouraging concubinage results in you having a lot of kids, which means there’s a lot of domain partition going on (someday, primogeniture, someday). Naturally, using Thing election reduces that, but also makes you sometimes end up having to play Emperor Stabbo-Fucko because they thought he was the best candidate at the time. Hell, I thought he was the best candidate at the time until I discovered just how many people he’d be laying with on the low. But you just have to roll with it.

The way the game forces you to play ball with character traits is great. Doing things that match with the character’s traits makes them lose stress. Doing things against their character increases stress. Too much stress can force you to make the character take up vices (which can make them suffer health or opinion maluses, as well as altering their aptitudes), or even die outright. And sometimes those vices and attitudes can be boons, given they open up opportunities for different character interactions.

Emperor Stab-and-Fuck-Kingdom is perhaps the most relaxed person alive, it turns out, because his sadism makes him really enjoy sacrificing infidels, which makes the gods happy. It also freaks the fuck out of all of his vassals, so they’re a good supplicant mix of both appreciative of my religious sentiments and also utterly terrified of my skull piles. Some especially brave vassals occasionally try to assassinate me, but my lovers keep jumping in front of the knife and saving my life mid-coitus. Iiiiiit happens! :D

The game can be incredibly fun to just watch, as it becomes emergently weird. Georgia right now is incredibly Jewish in game. I’m not sure how that happened; I guess someone made a random Jewish guy into a vassal, who somehow moved up enough in the world to make it a movement? The Byzantine princes elected a Coptic as Emperor, which over the course of the decade resulted in very accelerated balkanization as Byzantium just lost its shit. The Middle East and notional HRE haven’t really unified in a meaningful way, so I’m curious how things are going to go if/when the Mongols unify and roll-on in.

It’s one of those “Just one more thing” games that can completely devour time. I have more than a few times checked the clock mid-game to see that it’s 4AM and that I’ve totally ruined my sleep schedule in the process of play. Oooooops.

I highly recommend checking it out if you’re curious; the introductory, pre-release video series Paradox put out showing off the game does a pretty good job of showing the core gameplay loop and also how weird it can get.

#GAME OF THE YEAR #GOTY #nonfiction #thinkpiece #2020 #Crusader Kings 3 #Hades #SD Gundam #Animal Crossing

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twitchesandstitches · 6 years ago

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i’ve had a few talks about the Angels of Neon Genesis Evangelion and how they fit into Crossthicc, and they’ve since given me some info on how AT Fields work to factor it into things, so here’s how they work in Crossthicc

firstly, terminology here: much as how ‘demon’ is a super general term for pretty much any supernatural being that happens to look like a demon (or even mortal beings, like tieflings, with a similar look) and that ‘fiend’ is the word we want when referring to actual entities of infinite malice and wickedness, the term angel is similarly broad. Entites such as those based on the actual Biblical Angels, D&D’s aasimar and celestials. the antagonists of Bayonetta, and other things are all around. Angel, however, is not that much of a general term, and where possible, they are given their own proper names since while you can point at a red creaturew ith horns and goat legs and go ‘demon’, the same cannot be said for angels, who come in a variety of forms. Sometimes they are voluptuous humanoids with curve gigantic even by this AU’s standards; sometimes they are multi-faced creatures that speak with the voice of Goodness itself and are profoundly alien in a way that makes even eldritch horrors look approachable.

But for brevity’s sake, i’ll just call the monsters of NGE ‘angels’ for short. In-universe, though, they are unlikely to have any consistent name, as few people realize they are related in any way whatsoever because of how different they are.

the Angels, as per canon, are incredibly old beings. They were not created as they are, though; in the very beginnings of the multiverse, there was a primordial race beyond all others, beings akin to modern lizardmen, dinosaur kings, and Argonians. This primordial race was the first true sapient, or the ones who survived to claim it. Pursuing transcendence, they found it, and they individually became divine entities, surpassing everything around them and transforming into beings of almost limitless power, their forms dictated by the purposes they assigned themselves.

the AT Field, which can be described in Crossthicc as the magical term for the distinction between ‘you’ and ‘that which is Not You’ (a very important thing in magic, as all magic is the soul’s influence on reality), has transformed for the angels. it has evolved, mutating and morphing, into a zone of absolute dominion, a sort of private universe around them where their will is law. They view this as a sacred thing of a sort, and while its hard to make general statements, it seems they have coe to view this dominion over their immediate space as preservation of who/what they are, in a very alien way.

Within this space, the angel determines physics. Attacks warp into being. Atoms sunder, spells unravel, and threats are annihilated. They are absurdly powerful, on the level of many gods; they have refined their understanding of Self for a very long time, and their alien understanding has developed to the point that within their AT field, they determine reality itself. Many magic users would love to figure out HOW they do this, as it would be a huge boon to sorcery. Even if an angel was inclined to convey such knowledge, it would be difficult for one to explain it, as they are profoundly alien creatures that genuinely cannot comprehend mortals any longer, and have long since lost the ability to really relate to most other beings.

They generally seem content to ignore other beings, lurking within the realms of magic and doing... something. They don’t work in groups, each one an entity unto themselves. They ignore each other, and anything they encounter; their vast power annihilates anything that would impede them, and anything that tries to communicate with them (even through violence) is viciously attacked in a kind of panic; they seem to dread the idea of the Self becoming diminished through mingling with another Self, and perhaps fear that they can change through inter-personal interaction.

Nevertheless. They may still yearn for companionship. Certainly, they periodically make things or alter worlds, even as their mere presence completely warps magic for miles around, and its hard to say why they do anything. Sometimes they ignore anything in their path, and other times they calmly attack everything they see, at apparent random. Guardian kaiju, such as Godzilla or Gamera, greatly detest them and often attack them on sight in pre-emptive self defense.

Appearance wise, Angels are super curvaceous, even if they’re not particularly humanoid; due to their raw power, they boast extremely feminine forms with ludicrously massive curves; they are often dwarfed by their own endowments, and these can manifest in some odd configurations; taur-style bodies with bizarre numbers of legs, an unusual amount of breasts, and wings resembling long hair wouldn’t be unusual. Assume that they look as much like monster girl-ified versions of their canon forms, if possible. In-universe, they are highly suspectible to the mental nergies of sapient species, and may be influenced to take on their forms, so they tend to look at least little like anything around them. If they’re near humans, they will look more humanoid. Near krogan, they will look like monster turtle things.

some angels really hate this and will become extremely hostile and attack worlds just to rid themselves of the offending psychic intrusion. Others don’t seem to care, but are just as dangerous in their drifting indifference.

And Angels are very, very, VERY large. With their sheer power, they are far larger than planets; within the magical realms where they can exist at full size with ease, it is hard to perceive them at all, only the drifting outlines of a massive breast, or a projected face-helm. Ships pass into their shadow, and remain in the dark for weeks even moving at full light speed. Within the material realm, though, it takes longer for them to grow to their full size, starting at planet size, and they continue to grow until they might dwarf galaxies, and they still grow. Their AT Fields are thus absurdly powerful, and an expanding zone of reality going completely bonkers as the angel works their strange will.

they can’t really be fought. They might be able to be killed, but it’s highly unlikely and probably going to make Very Bad Things happen. For the most part, they are a cautionary tale for the dangers of transcendence, approached recklessly.

That said, they ARE a species of a sort, even if a small one, and smaller angels (similar to canon ones) do sometimes appear. Lilith is responsible for these, and she is chiefly obsessed with reproduction. Rei may have been made through harvesting an ancient remnant of Lilith herself, though it must be noted that the Angels have no connection to humanity in any particular way here.

Angels are, ultimately, not a threat to face as much as they are a force of nature that can be redirected or at least inconvenienced, but their sheer power makes this an extremely chancey bet. The main factions (Fleet, Stingers, Ringers and Task Force X) can do so, but it’s likely to be so taxing its better to just run and leave them alone. Of these groups, the Fleet, with their transhumanist leanings, are most interested in them, and have figured something out:

the angels are lonely, and at the same time, too afraid to breach their ancient shields and dare to mix their Self with another Self.

The Task Force, for their part, are the only other ones involved with them actively; the Ringers generally ignore them except as a potential threat, while the Stingers have a policy of ‘look, you see one pop up, you run like hell’. the Task Force’s goals with them are unclear, but it seems that they are trying to pacify them in some way.

each Angel is effectively a power unto themselves; they don’t really have any common goals, drifting about and attending to their own weird whims, and their alien mindsets makes it VERY hard to communicate with them at all even if you can do something about their hair-trigger response to having their sense of self threatened through that. Above all else, they are genuinely alien in a way that makes a lot of people uncomfortable and breaks brains.

Pitable, perhaps, but nonetheless, very dangerous.

And Rei Ayanami is becoming one; humanoid, yes, more human than they are, but she is quickly growing in size, and her status as Endowed means that she is quickly becoming more of an uber-mother than Lilith is (thus making Rei more of an Eve). What’s more, the organic mechs operated by the NGE trio are apparentely pseudo-Angels mixed with human genetics and now fueled by Rei and Asuka’s own souls, effectively becoming their true bodies and the seat of their motherhood-fueled powers. Shinji has a more... complicated situation but something is going on there, all the same.

#/#//#///#////#/////#queued #twitchy ideas #crossthicc!Neon genesis evangelion

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panickypeachboy · 7 years ago

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RULES: Answer the questions you’ve been given, then write your own and tag 11 people.

//Under le Read More, because 11 answers for 11 questions is long!

1. What’s your favorite thing about your muse(s)?

Oh goddess I’ve answered this twice already, but here’s me gushing over his clothes, cuz the face is just cute. There’s just surprisingly okay/good design with Momotaro that is overlooked because of all the pretty ladies that do the fan-service.

2. What’s your least favorite thing?

About Momo? Or ever? I would say losing close friends, over drama. That’s impacted me a lot, and why I can get really anxious over rping. But if you mean an actual object/show, then disposed (but there’s still notable remnants) food. Y’know the stuff in the trash. I’m allergic to bananas and that’s the most common thing rotting in the there. Makes it real tough to breathe, particularly when it comes to class too.

Don’t worry, I do have an inhaler for those sorts of things but...it’s only one inhaler and I end up mixing up where I last placed it. I just hope to the goddess that I don’t have to deal with a disposed peel during class...

3. Seeing how they’ve lived their lives - if you were in their shoes, what would you do differently?

Honestly, I’m not too sure. I would’ve said I wanted to speak up against the others (i.e. bullies, the girls) more often, but that’s just against Momotaro’s nature...and how Japan culture works. Also I would totally try to (re)tame Momotaro’s mutated friends. Come on, that Chimera is awesome! Let the boy have an awesome steed!

4. How independent is your muse(s) from your control? How much do you approve of their actions?

Hoh boy, usually I’m like “Momo no”, so that’s pretty clear that I don’t have all le controls over him. He’s simple minded so there’s not much I would need to fuss over, I suppose. HOWEVER, I do have to restrain ourselves from doing too much in the subject of triggers/pstd, because I’m still learning about that...and not many folks are fine with muses suddenly attacking their precious muse just because they tried to be affectionate.

5. If you were friends with your muse(s), what would you do together?

We’d probably go visit animals at shelters and zoos...and befriend the crud out of them. Help care for those buggers, if possible! Also I would try to learn how to cook with Momo too, if he had my headcanon-trait of being a good cook.

6. What’s one of your favorite fandoms, and why?

H.ow to K.eep a M.ummy is one, out of the sheer fact that no one has produced r34 of it yet...or at least something that’s easily found. Also the fans are pretty cool with their enthusiasm and arts. I’ve seen some cute plushies of the main critters that are fanmade! ...I probably ruined that streak didn’t I?

Also the anime is adorable, and I look forward to reading the manga. I just don’t like the heavy focus on the protagonist. I wanted to learn more about the other peeps in the gang, AND THEIR MYTHICAL FRIENDS. Especially the baku and dragon.

7. Are there any fandoms that you want to interact more with? Any AUs that you haven’t gotten a chance to try out yet?

Utapri, and kinda Idolm@ster??? I don’t know I’m working on interacting with folks in this fandom because they’re neato folks, and I fallen in love with the idols! Gah! I had this headcanon for the longest time that Momo’s guilty pleasure is idol music, but he’s only remember how melodic the voices are, and not the names or faces! It would be really cool to well, have the boy be weak but not in a depressed manner, ya know? Actually I wanna see more muses fangirling over each other, particularly if one has a publicly known job.

An au I haven’t tried out yet is actually...Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. I did rp Momo as a pokemon...ONCE, but nothing mystery dungeony. Just a “what if he was reborn as a pokemon” or “experiment gone wrong” thing, and he had a human trainer too. Now I wanna actually find a better Pokemon to suit him and do them mystery dungeon stuff...maybe someday. There was this cool group verse!

That and I wanna try out a verse where Momo is a live-in servant/butler. Seriously I gave him too many traits that fit that sort of job...and I watched too much gakuen babysitters which has the amazing Saikawa. I hear Black Butler is cool too.

8. What was one of your favorite video games as a kid?

Lemme see, Melee is VERY popular, but I loved fooling around in that game, not being a competitive smasher with all them wave dashes. Actually there’s a fair amount of games I liked that are still popular amongst the internet so let’s go something more obscure:

Mario Party 3

Dunno how the fam got it, but that was the game me and my sister played a ton of as kids, and we still came back to it when the Gamecube was around. It was part of our like strange pseudo rping thing to jump around the games to emulate the activities our characters partake in. Start in smash bros, kick some rivals butts and go on adventure! Then visit Mario Party 3 to celebrate with a giant pizza! Oh no, we need to collect some goodies, let’s go do a round on one of the boards! Kick the impostor star’s butt again! Jump to another Mario Party to run through the dungeon and ride the bus! It was kinda our way of playing pretend...I think. Good times, which is why I see the appeal in rping, ya know?

9. What’s the best song you’ve heard for the first time in the past few months?

S.O.S, by Weaver. Holy cow it’s catchy, but like so amazing in its beats. A close second would be Nijiro ⭐ Over Drive! by Otoya Ittoki...I mean his va. I love me some energetic beats man.

10. What’s the best meme you’ve found in the past year?

Okay maybe it’s not exactly a meme but it can be a culmulation of memes...of sorts... Anyways, there’s a channel called “ColeyDoesThings” and she has a series of videos where she visits a room containing a representation of a fandom...represented by her donning various personas based off of personalities found in a fanbase. This series is called “Entering the ___ fandom”. While she can’t catch all the quirks of a fandom (because some are so freakin huge), this woman catches a lot the traits I’ve seen in the places she visits. It’s hilarious to me at least.

I highly recommend the Ship Wars video, at the very least!

11. Is there something you’re looking forward to in the next few months?

Yes. Hatchimals Season 3...oh okay, not a lot of folks are into the collectible toy things. Fair enough, YouTube has fostered the growth of creepy toy channels! I am hyped for obtaining Bayonetta for the switch sometime soon, the end of the semester...I think Blade Strangers is coming out within that time period and I’m hyped to see Curly Brace in that games! Also MORE AMIIBO. That’s all I can recall, at the moment.

Eleven questions for everyone else!

1. What’s your favorite toy from childhood? Do you still have it around?

2. Do you like to collect anything? If so, what is it?

3. Who’s one of your favorite YouTubers?

4. How did you first encounter your main muse?

5. Are there any headcanons for a muse that is related to a trait/experience of yours?

6. What’s your favorite thing to look up when it comes to researching for your muse?

7. Are there any characters (or muses) that influence your muse?

8. What is your favorite, very random, headcanon for your muse? Like something that seems improbable in canon, but is too hilarious/good that you gotta keep it?

9. A memorable, but sweet moment in rping? Could be a thread, or having fun with another mun ooc, or whatever!

10. Are you more keen on rping older muses, or younger muses? Are you fine with rping your muse at different ages?

11. What’s your favorite meme-related song? (i.e. Caramelldansen, Numa Numa, Levan Polka, Momotaro, Kobini Store, etc.)

Tagged by: @notevenjupiter, thanks a lot!! :D Tagging: @maracanight, @ultimate-impostxr, @plumeriaxskull, @patixntia, @gattaimuses, @pinkdressed, @yesfxckyxu, @inkybluez, @embersiisms, @niji-iro-melody, @zoolinguistics, @queenxfjustice, @ahogedetective, @hopeprevaiils, @jabberwockis-lupus, but anyone can do this, or not!

#meme time #notevenjupiter #long post #long meme #ooc #ooc meme

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dunkalfredo · 7 years ago

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Im in love with your vision of Infinite and Rookie and i want to hear some of your sweet headcanons about their time together. If anyone asked something similar, refer me to this post, please. Thanks!

alskdjnsjklnljkls tysm!!!! yeah sure ill share some headcanons. i did a post on a similar topic about a month ago but that’s more their individual personalities/aesthetics than actual relationship material so ill go ahead and add on some stuff here.

i should note that portions of this are based heavily off of the idea that they grew up together so prepare for some au territory at this point. my backstory for them is becoming so intricate jfc;;;;;; i really hope ur not disappointed with this answer i have like an entire pre-forces narrative planned out in my head at this point OTL if u were hoping for more general stuff just lemme know i can give you some more hcs for that (there’s already some but there’s also Backstory stuff that i can’t really explore through oneshot format)

this is entirely self indulgent tbhhhh anyways click that mf Keep reading button

there’s a lot of like. casual touch. lotsa hugs and leaning on each other and resting their chin on the other’s shoulder (or top of head depending on who’s who bc height difference) while looking over them at what they’re doing and its really rooted in their learning early on how much Gadget loves that sweet sweet Physical Contact (if u scratch behind his ears he will melt, guaranteed, you’ll have yourself a Boneless Gadget with a two-liter coke)

if it’s raining out gadget will insist on doing something that’s not just sitting inside all day but snugglin w/ infinite ends up tempting him into doing Exactly That lol

there’s a lot of companionable silence between them when it’s just Them Alone in a Room. sure they talk and chat and joke but there are so many times where it’s just,,, being Together,,, and enjoying being in the other’s presence as they each do their own thing

sorta going into childhood/backstory stuff but uhhhh:

starting freshman year of highschool they started just bein each other’s dates to school dances even though they were “just friends” for like half of that timespan . i love cheesy stuff like that im sorry bro i had to include that tidbit i know it’s super specific and particular to my own backstory for them but just, they’re best buds and they gonna have a good time at homecoming lol

please imagine: those cute pre-dance pictures that parents take at the stairwell or front porch or somethin right before their kids leave, but with gadget and infinite. gadget’s got braces and they dont really fit in his mouth and his lenses reflect the light in the photo and oops infinite blinked and his shirt is too big and tbh their suits in gen just don’t really fit them right, gadget’s shirt is untucked and infinite’s tie is crooked but it’s okay, they’re both smilin reeeeaaaal big (and besides they figure out how to look Aesthetically Pleasing by junior year)

summers were hot in their hometown (note: i grew up in the north so i know nothing of True Heat, bear with me on this one.) most evenings were spent out on gadget’s fam’s back porch, cold towels resting on the backs of their necks, sweat in and under their fur, and they’re melting into the wood of the deck, fan plugged into that one weird outlet on the outside of the house that’s really more a fire hazard than anything else but the cool air is nice. they’re just lounging around reading comic books and listening to music on infinite’s old zune (lots of mid-2000s punk rock bands bc what else were u expecting) and in later years when they’re in that teen puppy love stage they’re trying to cuddle but it’s TOO DAMN HOT OUTSIDE so they resort to like, gentle hand holding, infinite reading some pretentious literary work or whatever and gadget spacing tf out next to him

when they graduate and are assigned a partner to walk down the aisle with they still end up w/ each other even though technically the partners are chosen according to alphabetical order and they’re on opposite ends of that list whOOPS how’d they do that? (hint: last minute shuffling in line)

when they move outta their small lil home town and into The Big City (im gonna say that would be Sunset Heights to tie in some canon plot relevance) they move in together and share a flat. a) its more financially manageable to just split housing costs like that and b) it’s been a dream their entire lives to live together when they’re older so oh!!! they’re older now!!!!! time to live together

(okay that’s all for backstory stuff back to reg hcs)

neither can cook but its ok

it may seem like they bicker a lot but it’s usually either the like, joke argue of “what do you mean craft mac n cheese is gross take that back” or reprimands like “it’s one a.m. time to sleep u Fool” (self-care is important, lads). they actually communicate really well so high-stakes arguments aren’t super common (and when they do happen they dont tend to explode. i wanted to have them be the type that argue for understanding and not to prove they’re right, so that greatly affects the outcomes of their disputes.)

infinite loves to hum while he’s doing things, or just in gen, and his voice is very low and smooth and gadget looooooves it, so much. they’ll be, i dunno, doing some mundane thing, like maybe they’re out getting groceries or doin dishes or something (i love me that domestic content) and he’ll start humming quietly and it just, it really grounds gadget in a way that sometimes he doesn’t even know he needs till infinite does it.

anyone here ever played bayonetta? any a yall remember those bits where there’s a woman in bayo’s memories singing and/or humming ‘fly me to the moon’ all quiet and low? think that but just,,,, pitched down,,,, yeah,,,

the tunes are usually very slow and while not so much melancholy theyre just? i dunno melodic in the same lax, smooth-tempo’d way a lot of melancholy songs are? i dunno i like quiet, introspective infinite and aesthetics that reflect that

here’s a long one: about a month before infinite “goes missing” and forces happens, infinite lands a job at a local news outlet as one of the column writers and even tho he’s more into prose than journalism he’s so fuckin pumped. it’s mostly just excitement over not doing cashier work and having a money-makin outlet he’s at least somewhat interested in lol …aaaaaand the way ship headcanon works into this bullet is that when he finds out that he landed the job he so excited that when gadget walks into the room (it’s morning and gadget literally was just gonna get some coffee, he’s still in his pajamas, he’s got bedhead) infinite sees him and whoops he tackle-hugs him and then whoops he knocked them both onto the floor but its cool gadget kinda let it happen and when infinite tells him what happened and apologizes he’s now also super excited and happy for him so now there’s two (2) people screaming inside (and out) about this awesome development

here’s a short one: they wear each other’s clothes a lot

gadget’s v cuddly in his sleep so he gets really clingy w/ infinite when a) it’s early morning and they’re just waking up b) it’s Late o’ clock at night and they’re chillin at home or c) he’s Actually asleep and within like three feet of infinite

i dont really know how to end this lol i dont really wanna just start repeating myself and i might think of other stuff later but for now pls consider the following: when they sleep whoever’s big spoon ends up resting one hand over the other’s heart and it’s super sweet

oh and they smooch a lot (i told you this response was self indulgent)

#sonic forces #sonic the hedgehog #sonic forces infinite #gadget the wolf #rookinite #gadginite #buddinite #avanite #infidget #alsbdjslnjsknkds GOD #i keep adding new tags each time #anyways

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