#BUT YEAH EVERYONE PLAY HOLLOW KNIGHT

[musings-of-miss-j]

i love hollow knight i put a friend onto it and woke up to four voice messages sent at 2:58 am of her absolutely losing whatever shit she had left over mantis village

[starscreamingg]

Waug.......... it's real.......

When th. When the bug

[ded-lime]

what i think on the whole making vessels thing the pale king did

first of all this is not about excusing pk, however the 'me exploding people who say pk is an asshole and throws kids in a pit with my mind' is very true, aside from the fact that it's literally not what happened, pk's character is all about a guy who was in a desperate situation without a good solution and saying that he's bad for what he did is missing the point. just like the colour scheme of his palace bro is morally grey. there are things that i believe made his plan sound not as bad as it is before it's implementation, and some of my interpretation seems to differ to how it is more commonly seen (that i know of at least).

so what was the plan? place eggs in he abyss and let the void animate their shells and voilà got some vessels.

why have the void? well one reason is obvious - it's a natural enemy to the radiance of sorts, an opposite of light. another one is the supposed belief that a creature of void does not feel or think. also yes the idea is that 100% of them are empty, that's the foundation it is on. i believe that he has done some experimentation before making this plan(and possibly before the infection): he's the type to build and reasonably coming up with that shit requires familiarity with the void. so assuming that they would not feel pain or think could come from that, also not that insane for a god who gave bugs minds of their own to think that with walking examples of void constructs. so godly resilience and empty head, can't feel the pain he has to put it through and strong enough to contain another god.

why so many of them? the reasoning for that is the same as why any creature has many kids: most of them not surviving for long. not just the climb, but just not even being born (which i think most of them just didn't) or dying right after (instability such as turning to liquid or crumbling shell).

the climb so here's a thing i thought since playing the game years ago. the abyss memory is a dream and not quite literal. you hit an egg with a dream nail, every time you've done that you go to a dream, i don't see why this is different besides it looking differently. the real part being pk getting pv and fucking off. and climbing up in general i guess but you know that. i don't think the ghost was literally hanging on that ledge and literally falling off after some screenshake. it's a representation of ghost and/or every other vessel getting left behind and pv leaving. and getting charm about uniting the void right after plays more into it.

the climb in itself could be a way to see which ones are stable enough, could also be a culture thing as rotten eggs all around hallownest may suggest that they are a bit more like actual animals in regard to offspring. (don't forget that this is not human society we are talking about.)

the main fucked-up-and-feeling-guilty-about thing in this whole ordeal is letting the void consume thousands of your yet unborn children inside out and subsequently animating them with it or let radiance kill everyone and picking the first one. which is you know, sucks and is pretty fucked up and he did indeed feel guilty about it. well that and then the whole hollow knight ordeal later but that's pretty straightforward. does he realise that they are not empty? like yeah probably suspected it at the very least, but that's when you can't just drop everything you've done up to this point to save everyone. only thing that does is add more guilt and drama.

the things done and decisions made were not to be cruel or evil or whatever, we don't see what this place was like before the infection and for all we know he saw the future and still thought this was the best option. how fucked up would that be huh

[arc-misadventures]

For the Vtuber Au (if that's gonna be the name of it for not)

...has our dear Errantry Paladin ever played Dark Souls/Soulsborne/equivalent genre of games, if so how much rage has Jaune ever expressed in any form, if at all

Bonus question if you'd like to answer:

What his cute Vtuber model look like?

No, that’s gonna be the name of this, AU.

The VTuber: Of Bugs, and Rage

Errant: Hello everyone~! And, Welcome to the stream!

The Errantry Paladin started his stream with a smile across his avatars lips. People often marvelled at how expressive his avatar could be, only adding to help humanize the digital creation in their eyes.

~~~ Steam Chat ~~~

: Whoo! It’s beginning!

: It’s starting!

: What are you playing today?

: Hi everyone!

: There’s that winning smile that we all know, and love!

: How are you this day my liege?

:🥳🥳🥳

: He’s as handsome as ever!

: Sire my babies!

: Any thoughts on growing a beard yet?

~~~~~~

All as perusal for one of, Errant’s streams.

Errant: So I was asked… a lot. Honestly it more like begging, and pleading with me really to play a, Souls game. Like, Dark Souls, and the like.

~~~ Stream Chat ~~~

: We didn’t beg you.

: Suggested.

: Encouraged you.

: Certainly didn’t beg

:❤️I beg for you babies!❤️

: I beg for cake!

~~~~~~

Errant: Well, at least some of you are honest… or, claim to be…

Errant shot his chat a skeptical look before address the screen, and what game he was going to play today.

~~~ Stream Chat ~~~

: Aww he looks like an upset puppy!

: Who’s a good boy!

: Who wants the ball?

~~~~~~

Errant: Stop that! Ahem… So, in honour of your request, today we will be playing, ‘Hollow Knight!’ Now this is a game I’ve been looking forward to playing for a while now, I just haven’t had the time to do so. I stumbled across someone saying how great the soundtrack is, gave it a listen to myself, and fell in love with it, so I wanted to give it a go. And, since you asked me to play a, Souls game, and this game has been described as the, ‘Dark Souls of Metroidvania.’ And, since I’ve never played a Souls game, a Metroid game, or a Castlevania game before either. Well, three birds on stone.

~~~ Stream Chat ~~~

: Oh Hollow Knight hell yeah!

: It’s not Dark Souls but he will rage.

: This game is brutal.

: This game makes me sad.

: The music is damn good!

: Hed probably just curb stomp everything in a Souls game honestly.

: Id like to see that!

~~~~~~

Errant cheekily shrugged his shoulders as he gave a coy smirk as he explained his reasonings. Many in the chat we disappointed that he wasn’t playing a, Souls game, but what many truly wanted was to see their calm, and collected, Paladin rage. For the rage unleashed by the calm, and collected was a true sight to behold, and they were all looking forward to see it for themselves.

Errant: Enough stalling lets start it up. Lets see… Eh? Classic, Steel Soul, and Godseeker? Must be their names for the level difficulty. No wait… Classic: Normal Play mode. Steel Soul: No reviving. Death is permanent?! Is there a one life mode in this game?!

~~~ Stream Chat ~~~

: Yep!

: You gotta beat the game first before you can play that mode though

: Good luck

~~~~~~

He looked at his chat, then to his game with a shock look in his eyes. People played on such a difficulty, and won?

He could help, but wonder what it was he was getting himself into.

Errant: And, the last one: Godseeker: Challenge the gods of Hallownest. Is that a boss battle royal type of thing?

He looked to his chat, and saw people typing ‘yes,’ or the equivalent of that throughout the chat feed.

Errant: Okay… How many bosses are in this game then?

~~~ Stream Chat ~~~

: A lot

: Too many

: You’re gonna love them!

: Mantis Lords are the best!

: Grimm King is evil!

: 😍Mantis Lords😍

: all hail Gorb!

: You’ll die at least once to each boss

: Most likely

~~~~~~

Errant: Oh… Well now I’m scared. No matter, lets delve into, Hollow Knight then shall we?

///

Do you guys think this is a good way to integrate the stream chat reply? I think it does, but…?

Well, I ask for your thoughts after all.

As for giving, Jaune a cute, VTuber model. How about something more…

Ruggedly handsome? Roguishly charming? Somethings like that, he needs a different air about him.

Don’t you think so too?

[turian]

beloved gamer mutual & comrade @rhubarbspring tagged me to do a video game about me ( tysm for tagging !! truly loved reading all ur game thoughts. <3 ) explanations behind my choices under the cut.

(also, i had to cheat a little bit in the "you love, everyone hates" category, because i don't think people on tumblr hate da2, but one of my best friends despises it because of reused assets and combat designed more for consoles than pcs. and i can't remember any other controversial beloved games right now. the best i can do is games i love that i'm not sure anyone remembers? imagine ubisoft ballet? which, like. do people hate that. i don't think so).

tagging @cowsquirrel @malcriada @sakraya @ansburg @anoramactir + literally anyone i might have missed who wants to do this

favourite game of all time: so, look, i hate her as much as i love her. i always go back to new vegas even though i have a lot of criticisms of it - i had a realization recently after the release of the fallout show that while maybe i was projecting intergenerational trauma onto the game and using it to process some things, there is a lot in the game that is extremely imperialistic, even as it dabbles in anti imperialism. i can't get into all that here - better essays than i'm capable of have already been written on new vegas - but i also have to admit that new vegas taught me to see game writing differently, and helped me a great deal in improving my own writing. it's also just really entertaining playing later games by obsidian and picking out the new vegas elements. i think that new vegas gets praised too readily for being progressive when in reality it's only the most progressive game in the fallout franchise, and i think every time i return to it i'm noticing one more thing that'll kind of be making my eye twitch. but, yeah, i think it would also be dishonest to not include it here, regardless of my mixed feelings, because i keep going back, and because there are so many angles to it, and because i keep catching myself comparing other games to it.

i think a lot about like........... how so many themes i can relate to exist within the narrative of new vegas, but that doesn't feel entirely intentional. like, benny is so real to me because ! he was forced to assimilate into this culture that was not his to survive. and ulysses as well. and like!!!! yeah idk. going insane. i feel very similarly about dragon age elves tbh i'm like okay i feel seen but also this game is racist! kms :') will be projecting hard and taking so much psychic damage

many such cases tho </3 baldur's gate 3 and their treatment of the gur is always going to be a mix of relatable and uncomfortable to me

favourite series: soulsborne! i like how bleak it is, love the theme of death and rebirth, love how thankless the games can be, and i also love how the combat reminds me of muay thai. had a coach explain something to me using dark souls combat as an example once. i didn't really get these games at first, until i saw my best friend playing - she is ridiculously good at them - and then i sort of realized that they're just combat puzzles, and that like... they're kind of about honing patience, i guess? and after that they really became my favourite.

best soundtrack: honorary mentions: mass effect and dark souls both have some individual tracks i revisit on the daily, and skyrim's secunda is beautiful. but hollow knight doesn't miss, and i love how every track matches its environment.

favourite protagonist: i grew up in a really dysfunctional somewhat criminal family so like... lol. i feel seen when i look at arthur morgan <3 him and charles are both close to my heart. john can stay too ig

favourite villain: SO okay, maybe this is cheating a little, but. the reapers from mass effect. went into that game with zero spoilers, and finding out that they were in fact cosmic horror games was so <3

this would probably have gone to new vegas except benny (and also ulysses + i think he's more narrative foil than antagonist, as is benny) literally did nothing wrong in my eyes and after that point it's like... who is the main antagonist? the ncr and legion both? like yeah they're interesting but...

best story: i haven't actually finished pathologic on my own yet. kind of obsessed, though. just feels responsible to put it here. honorary mentions to new vegas, some fromsoft titles, twd, imagine ubisoft ballet........ (i love her and i miss her).

i feel like a lot of story games i've played actually have garbage stories with good characters, which is why they're not here. baldur's gate 3 and ME, for example. or like... ME has a great story at first but they fuck up the ending so badly that a popular theory i've heard passed around essentially boils down to "it was all a dream!"

have not played but want to: i was actually supposed to apply for a job with the team that made these games !! i didn't because it would have required relocation to the US, but. idk i feel like they keep showing up, always highly recommended, and i think i own one? so yeah, i should really get around to that.

you love, everyone hates: again, i cheated on this one. i don't think people on here hate dragon age 2.

you hate, everyone loves: skyrim, detroit: become human, stardew valley (because it's a weird little cottagecore colonialism game but also because i don't really vibe with the art style and i get stressed as fuck in it because nothing is happening... it is simply not for me), and fallout 3 and 4 (because they're masquerading as games with choices but they fully aren't, they suffer from bethesda writing, and they are super unapologetically racist and imperialist). i mean like... not mad at any of my friends who like these games i just cannot play them. i don't really think any of the games on my list are unimpeachable, tbf.

favourite art style: disco elysium !! it's so <3 like, i also love it for other reasons!! but every time i play it i end up wanting to draw.

favourite ending: new vegas has four endings. i feel differently about them all, but the independent ending is very much shaped by the infrastructure the player assembles during a playthrough, and while it is maybe imperfect and very open ended in some ways i like how it doesn't really reassure the player. also, i really like certain elden ring endings and the dark souls 1 ending. and pathologic.

favourite boss fight: hollow knight has a lot i've really enjoyed (particularly hornet's). for elden ring, malenia is the fave, tho <3 when i defeat her i tend to feel really disappointed. like, get up. let's go again. parrying her is extremely satisfying.

childhood game: we like... found out we had some cousins which is wild because this has been a tiny family since Certain Incidents A Long Time Ago and they also had nintendo ds access and they were not into this game. and like... look, i'm not saying it's great, but it had dark souls ish combat? like, you could lock on? you could roll? and i ended up replaying it as an adult and being like. huh. not that bad.

+ imagine ubisoft ballet ily

relaxing games: distance, injustice 2 (i main red hood & black canary but i like playing robin too. it's super imbalanced and they still haven't nerfed starfire !! and it's incredibly funny like good for her), dark souls 1, and elden ring.

stressful games: again stardew valley because i would play with friends and it was like oh god i need to leave. i do not know what to do, i am useless, i am understimulated

+ red dead online is not a good game to play without substantial backup . so glad i had horse insurance because if i hadn't my only friend in that world would be dead. that said, i did like to hunt in that game + play the fps levels with groups

games you always come back to: new vegas but maybe she'll release me someday. idk. also unfortunately i didn't include it earlier but i keep going back to the sims 4 and baldur's gate 3. and fromsoft titles because i sometimes just crave that combat.

guilty pleasure: new vegas again!!! i guess i kind of talked about my extremely complicated feelings when i first spoke about it, but yeah. there's just so much to unpack and i'm never going to forgive it for a lot of things. the horrors and the joys are both numerous but the joys will never not be tainted by the horrors

tons of hours played: elden ring + bg3 + new vegas + mass effect. i don't have the hours of new vegas and mass effect available tho as they are confined to a now dead xbox 360

[thewakingcloak]

The State of Things Yet to Come

The Ghost of Spacefarer Things Yet to Come is a hard guy to get ahold of, but I have at last wrangled him and tied him down until he wrote the blog post he promised:

The blog post he promised

I have looked into the future… where I am from… and ok yeah let's start off with the big news first! In the future… ProtoDungeon: Episode III will be on Steam!

That means you can wishlist ProtoDungeon: Episode III on Steam!!!!

And here's a little mini announcement trailer for just this occasion :) (and turn up the sound! I made a lil tune for this!)

So please go give it a wishlist!

Steam's inner machinations are something of a secret to everybody, but wishlists absolutely help the folks who make games. It's one of the most important ways you can help me, even if you're not sure you'll ever buy it. Wishlists get games seen, so please wishlist!

I'm really excited about this. This one actually my original plan for ProtoDungeon, to put each individual episode up on Steam and use the experience to improve… but I was talked out of it by a guy who was mad that Episode I wasn't a full-length game, and by his predictions of my failure. I switched to only publishing for free on Itch and decided The Waking Cloak and ProtoDungeon DX would be the only games I put on Steam.

I wish I'd never listened to that guy. He clearly didn't care about me, and I let his words and attitude control me.

The future is ever-shifting

There's a lot of things I've been doing because I felt like (and have been told) I should be doing. So for the future, I had been intending to really hit the ground running on all fronts, posting to social medias everywhere, launching tiktok and insta reels and youtube shorts, and generally pouring my efforts into "marketing."

I don't think there's anything wrong with this, but it's also… not me? It's not really what I want for my future. I've thought long and hard about this hobby, and I want to enjoy the parts I enjoy, and not let pride prevent me from letting other people take over the parts that I'm not really good at and don't have the time for anyway. Let's face it: my plate is full with my job, my kids, my house, taking care of my wife, chronic illness/pain, etc.

On top of that, I've been off social media for a long time now, and it's been so restorative. I don't fault anyone for being on any of them, and I'll poke my head up every now and then, but… I'm letting go of "making it" on socials. I can't keep up with the sacrificial requirements of the Algorithms. I can't keep up with the comparison game with everyone else making stuff on there. I had spent a lot of time curating my feed(s) so that I saw only wonderful people making wonderful art, and I still felt like I was always "coming up short."

The new plan: just post here on the devlog… just things I want to post. Focus on making my games and having fun doing it. I'm not gonna spend time finding the opportune moment to generate traffic or to say just the right things to sell people on playing my games or learn all the metrics and stuff. I won't post in every conceivable space hoping I'll get enough momentum to go viral or even just noticed.

Will that mean fewer wishlists, fewer followers, fewer people playing my games? Yes. And I'm content with that. I just want to enjoy the act of making games. I don't need to "make it big" anymore. I look up to folks like ConcernedApe (solo dev of Stardew Valley) and Team Cherry (small team behind Hollow Knight) and their lovely games and experiences, but I don't need to BE them anymore. I'm me, and I like being me.

Okay but what am I actually doing…?

Practically speaking, the plan is now as follows:

Publish ProtoDungeon 3 on Steam/Itch for $8.99, with a two-week launch discount of 15% (so, $7.64). I'd like this to be in Q1 of 2025, but I'm keeping things loosey goosey here

Publish PD1 and PD2 on Steam for $4.99 each, with the same builds as on Itch now (so they won't have Steam achievements). These might come before 3 is released, we'll see!

Continue with episodes 4 and 5, also on Steam/Itch--these will be significantly quicker to develop than 3, as they will be smaller and also will not require fundamental changes as 3 did. Pricing will probably be lower than for episode 3 and likely higher than episodes 1 and 2.

All of the above will be self-published!

Once those are complete, I will be working on The Waking Cloak, and it's here that I'm seriously considering looking into a publisher. I do want my games to be played by more people, and having professionals handle all the marketing and socials and console porting and other fine details would be such a burden off my shoulders. I've got my eye on a few in particular, but I'm putting more thought into this before I say anything else.

What about…?

Why are you working on ProtoDungeon and not The Waking Cloak? Trick question! (You didn't know you were asking a trick question, did you?) I say this a lot but it bears repeating: ProtoDungeon is helping me build up the mechanics and assets for The Waking Cloak, and is helping me get lots of practice with game design, as well as with art and publishing and so forth.

Will ProtoDungeon have spoilers for The Waking Cloak? Nope! The only spoilers will be purely mechanical, but I'm holding back a lot of puzzle concepts and a few mechanics for TWC itself. ProtoDungeon is a separate prequel story and has unique dungeons that will not show up in TWC.

What is ProtoDungeon DX? This will be the combination of all the ProtoDungeon episodes, with the early episodes rebuilt, and with additional content (like an overworld). I'm planning on working on this after The Waking Cloak. There will be some kind of discount based on your collection of individual ProtoDungeon episodes. I don't know how that works yet, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Whatever happens, I want to make sure it benefits y'all.

Why isn't ProtoDungeon free anymore? Simply put, because I think they're worth it. I've put a lot of time and effort and love into them. Also, I have a family to support, and this hobby is not free either! The episodes are short, yes, and that's why they'll cost less than a movie ticket.

Patreon? Development will be open and free as always, but patrons will get a first look (like with this post!) There are other goodies at higher tiers, too. And I should mention: funds go towards stuff like key art, publishing fees, and other minor operating costs. I was able to commission some wonderful art for ProtoDungeon: Episode III with y'all's support, but I've also bought some music tools (such as Chipsynth SFC), and I have a Studio Spacefarer P.O. box as an official address for legal reasons when publishing newsletters. I also am able to keep the main site, https://studiospacefarer.com, up with these funds. So, thank you!

To the future!

ProtoDungeon: Episode III has been a difficult beast to tame, partly because of fundamental changes to all the systems, but also because of where it fell in my life, amidst the pandemic and grief and changes and moving. It's become more important to me because of that, because it's a way to process everything. I had always known ProtoDungeon was about grief, but now it's much more personal.

I'm excited to work on things again. I look forward to sitting down and working out the details and adding the new ideas. I can't wait for y'all to experience it. Thank you for following along, and here's to future days!

Oh and did I mention…? please wishlist ProtoDungeon: Episode III on Steam :)

[hearthomelesbian]

ghost trick spoilers

BACK FROM GETTING GRICKED that game was really good...

experienced shrimp emotions abt sissel at the end bc as soon as he started meowing and saying how he just wanted someone to reach out to him my own black cat started meowing for attention. and so i died

^ also called that i was a kitty cat!!!! as soon as i saw that there was a second me and then that cat jumped out from behind the body i was like ohhh yeah. its all coming together

did not call that the lamp was missile. that one didnt hit that hard for me tho mostly bc like. well this is a completely different character now he doesnt act like missile at all

WHY DID LYNNE LOSE HER MEMORY... sissel and lynne should have been hanging out forever and ever... sissel is LYNNE'S cat... who give a fuck abt jowd. and also lynne still idolises him i guess bc her memories of that day are still inaccurate. sure

hated cabenella for the first like 3 scenes he was in for the crime of calling lynne "lynne baby" and forgave him as soon as i realised he was just calling everyone that i guess? (oh it was a joke etc.)

i wish we had met fiancee sissel... :(

the gameplay was really good and fun <3 but jesus christ when they first introduced the missile ghost tricks i struggled so bad. i really liked that there was no punishment for messing up and you could just retry again and again. bc i am #1 hater of being punished for failing otherwise i would still be playing hollow knight bc that was my one and only issue with it

anyway. *sissel voice* when youre mean to me this is who youre being mean to :(

[ask-court-genshin]

«FIRST EBG CONCLUDES...»

The "ghost" enters Lumine's room with a hollow expression on his face. The hydro eidolon, Kopi, looked up to him with an alarmed expression.

"Y-You?!?" They gawked. "You're not supposed to be here–"

"Stop the act, I know who you are." Dainsleif half-muttered, tired. "I know it's you...

... Ansy."

...

The hydro eidolon evaporated.

"Aww... That quick?"

In a matter of seconds, all the blue was washed away from the person the twilight sword was conversing with. In front of him stood his spouse, Ansy.

"And here I thought I was doing a relatively decent job, hiding from you," they shrugged. "You know, just like what you've done to me for around 400 years or so."

"Ansy..."

"How did you figure it out?" Ansy cheerfully asked in stark contrast to Dain's unapproving stare. "I'm sure you already have a list in your person."

He clicked his tongue, somewhat insulted by how much his partner knows him before handing out a clean parchment.

"It isn't that hard to deduce, my beloved." Dainsleif snarled.

"Congratulations!" Ansy clapped sarcastically. "Want a medal?"

"But this Lawrence." He gritted his teeth. "Where is he now?"

Ansy snorted.

Ah, right. I forgot I'm a villain, too.

"Dead, of course." They spoke so casually as if a murder confession was not at all concerning. "Dain, he's made of water. You know how pathetically easy it is to kill hydro slimes, right?"

"Am I supposed to be–"

"He's not even a real person." They rolled their eyes. "I created him. Made him up like an eighth grader convincing his friends he has a totally hot girlfriend in Inazuma and she just can't come visit. He doesn't even actually have any consciousness."

"And yet he's still based off a real person."

"Yes, he is." Ansy nodded, sighing in defeat, knowing that their next words is bound to sound disgustingly fragile. "He's based off YOU."

"He's based off how you were back then– how you used to be such a knight who'd act so clumsy whenever we talk to each other."

"Tell me, Dain, why the FUCK would he be blonde with strikingly blue– but not as beautiful as yours– eyes when the real Lawrence is a brunette???"

...

...

"You..." He trailed off, flabbergasted. "I am absolutely astounded. Is this your roundabout way of fessing up that you cannot love another man and therefore had to mold water to my likeness in order to survive a week of EBG?"

Dainsleif covered his mouth with a hand before looking away. They knew from the way his shoulders slightly rose by a hair that he snorted in secret.

"That polaroid picture– was that our masquerade ball last year? Did you just alter it a bit to–"

Ansy coughed, not particularly eager to answer that and boost his ego.

Seems they're both equally obsessed.

"Anyways, I completed my mission." They digressed. "I infiltrated the Astro Network to see what's up and survived an EBG while no one rats me out for my @throwaway-yandere persona. I think I won. No one gave me a strike. I'm the one deserving of a medal for playing 4D chess while everyone does EBG."

Dainsleif sighed audibly loud.

"I'd ask for your forgiveness but I think you deserve this offensive statement: my beloved, you are an idiot."

"A homicidal idiot. I killed two people– three if you count Lawrence."

"Four if you still consider me a ghost."

"We're Khaenri'ahn, we don't die." Ansy laughed. "And quite frankly, you're real to me."

Dainsleif's eyes softened.

"I'm certain this isn't how lovers normally pull pranks on one another."

"Well, you diiiiiid kill me brutally on another timeline, so can't you consider us even here?"

He pulled them close.

"500 mora, and I shall consider the thought."

"Boo, you jerk."

"You're evil, and I'd consider myself a good man for this bargain."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll turn myself in Fontaine's prison soon, don't worry."

"Good. See you in another century." Dainsleif joked in his usual flat tone.

"Oh, and Dain?"

"... I'm afraid to hear what you're about to say."

"I looked at the throwaway account and uh, we now have approximately 3,200 gremlin children...?"

"What. I thought you quit writi–"

"They're signing their own adoption papers it's not my fault–"

"Oh, matters not. Happy 3,200 gremlins, Ansy."

"Hmm hmm! Happy 3.2k!!!"

[manofmanymons]

I know this sounds somewhat hypocritical as someone who loves Survive and Hollow Knight very very very much, one of the biggest things that puts me off from series is when there's too much death and/or general carnage. And it's not even that I'm sensitive to gore or can't handle some death.

It's that once everyone starts dying, I stop having fun! I'm not enjoying cool action scenes because everyone I liked is dead, but I'm not even properly sad about any of the deaths anymore because goddamn everyone else is fuckin dead am I supposed to be surprised now? You can only cram so many emotional scenes into a short period of story before I completely stop feeling anything at all.

The reason I like Survive anyways is because there's a truthful route where everyone lives, and even if there wasn't, there's still the moral route where most of them live. If it was JUST the wrathful route or JUST the harmony route I'd fuckin hate it! The fact that that would be a dreadfully short game notwithstanding, I'd be pretty pissed if I spent so much time gaining affinity with these characters and watching them bond with each other and the mc just for the game to end with half of them dead and the other half living in a post apocalyptic hellhole. As full games those routes are ass! But existing as they are as just extreme hypotheticals of what could have happened to these characters if just a few more things went wrong and they weren't as strong of a team, and we get to learn more about them by seeing how they act when pushed to the brink...yeah that is fun. It's like "well I know that this character is okay but it's cool seeing what COULD have but did not happen to them." And you know what despite Ryo literally being one of my favorite characters, I still would've loved Survive just fine without the truthful route because the moral route is a very good stand alone story of a bunch of kids who were met with tragedy but only became closer because of it and still managed to find a happy ending for themselves.

And Hollow Knight, well. For one it's largely helped by the fact that it is a video game and not a show, therefore the fact that it is just INCREDIBLY fun to play goes a long way in making me mentally insane about it. But it's not just that! From the very start of the game you KNOW you're playing through something sad. The sad doesn't sneak up on you, it's always there. Rather than playing through the downfall of a kingdom, you're exploring the ruins of a once-beautiful kingdom, learning what happened to it, meeting the inhabitants, befriending the last little glimmers of hope in this dying world, and fighting to save them. And yeah depending on the player's actions you lose a few of them along the way, but a) as I said some of them only die depending on what the player does, and b) I feel like enough of them have satisfying endings that I'm not too fixated on the ones that die. Ofc Quirrel being probably dead bums me out, and it sucks that you can't do anything for Myla, but hey, your homie Elderbug is fine, Cornifer is fine, you can save Cloth and even Zote if you'd like. Your Mantis buddies are still around. Brumm can be having a silly good time OR you might have a son now. Idk to me HK is finding hope and happiness amid despair rather than losing hope and falling into despair.

Unlike series that are like whee we're a fun action adventure--just kidding everyone is dead.

Oh well we started sad but if everyone works together then maybe there's hope that--psych they are all in fact still dead.

What a silly goofy show about kids having a fun--lmao you fell for that? Nah they're dead too.

Obviously other people are into that otherwise there wouldn't be so many popular series that do that but my god do I hate it literally every single time I have never once gone "you know what this story IS better now that none of my favs are in it and whoever's left has been doing nothing but fighting nonstop without an ounce of the playfulness or humor that originally drew me into this series."

[winterwolf0120]

Malk

Darius: *open the fridge* Darius: Hey, Kenji. You got anything to drink? Kenji: Yeah. In the fridge. Boris: Hey, Darius. Um, grab me a glass of malk. Darius: They don't have any malk. But I can get you some, milk. Kenji: That's what, Boris just said. Boris: Yeah. Shows a malk. Darius: No. You're saying it wrong. You said, "Malk". Like... Like it's a disease. Kenji: *chuckles* How do you say it? Darius: I'm saying it the way, that everyone knows how to say it, "Milk". M-I-L-K. Kenji: Right. Like two percent! 😀 Boris: Right. Whole malk. Darius: No, no, no. Say, "milkshake". Boris: Milkshake. Darius: Okay. Now say, "milk". Boris: Malk. Darius: 🤦 *sighs* Darius: Are you hearing this? Kenji: Yeah. My boyfriend wants a glass of mulk. Darius: Mulk? Kenji: GIVE BORIS THE MULK, DARIUS!!!😡💢 Ben: Kenji. Inside voices, please. Kenji: Sorry, Ben. My friends, here. Ben: *walks back to his room* Boris: DARIUS! POOR ME...A GLASS...OF MALK!!!😡💢 Darius: Why are you yelling at me!? Kenji: JUST GIVE, MY BOYFRIEND THE FREAKING MULK!!!😡💢 Darius: YOU GUYS AREN'T EVEN SAYING THE SAME THING!!! 😡 Boris: WERE ALL SAYING, "MALK", DARIUS!😡 Darius: NO! YOU'RE SAYING, "MALK"! YOU'RE SAYING- Boris and Kenji: *screaming malk and annoying Darius* Darius: *eye twitching and starting to get really pissed off* Boris: *sounding like a cow*MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALK!!!!! Darius: *pull a gun out in front of Boris and Kenji* SHUT UP! 💢😡 Boris and Kenji: 0_0 0_0 Darius: SHUT...UP!!!😡💢 Darius: *put a gun to his head* Boris and Kenji: *pull their guns out in front of Darius and loads them* Kenji: BETTER PUT IT DOWN, DARIUS!!! 💢 Boris: NO, DON'T DO IT, DARIUS!!! 😡💢 Darius: YOUR GONNA SHOOT ME, WHEN I SHOOT MYSELF!? THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE!!! 😡💢 Boris and Kenji: *look at each other in confusion and put their gun to their heads* Kenji: DARIUS, PUT IT DOWN!!! 😡💢 Boris: PUT THE GUN DOWN!!! 😡💢 Darius: PUT YOUR GUNS AWAY!!! 😡 Kenji: JUST PUT IT DOWN NOW!!! 😭 Darius: I'M GONNA KILL MYSELF OVER THIS!!! 😡 Boris: YOUR LIKE A BROTHER TO ME!!! 😭 Darius: PUT THE GUN, DOWN!!! 😡 Boris: YOUR HANDS ARE LIKE A BROTHER TO ME!!!😭 Boris, Kenji, and Darius: *screaming their asses off* 💢😱😱😱 Darius: *on the phone with Boris* And then after that, we pulled the trigger. All of us. Boris: *chilling with Kenji and playing Hollow Knight with him* No. We're not filming something like that. Darius: Why not? Boris: It's so...dark. I don't know. Boris: *petting Blue by the head* Boris: Hey, Darius. I gotta call you back. Because I'm really busy right now.

[self-loving-vampire]

I can't remember what the very first anime I watched was at all but I do know that during my childhood - before I even started going online to find stuff and relied on whatever was on Salvadoran TV - I saw at least a couple of episodes of the following.

Dragon Ball (original, Z, and GT).

I didn't like DBZ nearly as much as everyone else in Latin America seemed to. A lot of the fights felt not only slow but also kind of mechanically uninteresting.

Cardcaptor Sakura.

I surprise myself by feeling this nostalgic over such a cute and soft show. It's very different from what I normally like. I guess even I have a softer side sometimes (@thirteen-jades this is not an invitation to forcefem me).

Corrector Yui.

I have very few memories of this show. It was about an internet magical girl or something? I want to rewatch it sometime.

Ranma 1/2.

My parents explicitly forbid me from watching this, so of course I did it anyway when they were not around. They really didn't like the idea of a character who could transform like that. I only watched this one pretty early on before scheduling made it difficult to even find so I had only vague memories of it prior to a rewatch I started with my girlfriend.

Pokemon.

I got into Pokemon before anyone at my school knew what that was. I remember that much. I was more of a casual fan (could not play the games for the longest time since my parents thought games Encouraged Vice) and only watched the anime for a while before falling off eventually.

She was great, though:

Sailor Moon.

I have memory gaps about this one as well. Pretty sure I watched less than 10 episodes total, out of order. I think it was on a channel I didn't really know the schedule of, and at the very least I'm pretty sure it wasn't the same one that had most of the other shows on this list.

Digimon (all series up to and including Frontier).

I know they're not really comparable but I think I preferred the designs in Digimon over the ones in Pokemon. Also, I distinctly remember that this scene in particular poked at my ryona and defeat kink before I even knew what sex was:

Monster Rancher.

What the hell even happens in this show? I remember some of the monsters but absolutely nothing about the events of even a single episode. All my memories of it are just gone.

Yu Yu Hakusho.

Felt way more interesting and varied than DBZ to me, and I also found the characters to be more appealing in lots of ways. Still only remember it vaguely, though.

Rurouni Kenshin (oof).

In hindsight the fact that Soujiro was my favorite character makes me eventually becoming a Kohaku kin kind of predictable. Anyway, I think this was one of my favorites and also a good source of fuel for my growing ryona kink. Love shows where attractive men injure each other so viscerally (one of them even gets a chunk of his shoulder bitten off in a major fight).

Unfortunately, the creator completely sucks in such a way that also makes parts of the show feel hollow now.

Mon Colle Knights.

Only vague memories of this one too. It was decently cute, I guess?

Saint Seiya.

The Latin American dub of this is actually so much better than either the English dub or the European Spanish dub it almost feels unfair. Even the opening sounds about as good as the original, and I say this as someone who generally thinks Spanish is an ugly language with bad vibes. No wonder it seems way more popular in Latin America relative to the US.

Cyborg 009.

It was okay, I think? Not really into that older style of cyborg design. I can barely remember much else.

Yu-Gi-Oh! (only the original series at that time).

Like with Pokemon, I was into this before it became big in my area. I haven't forgotten nearly as much about it as I have with many of the other things on this list either. Especially where the first season is concerned I'd say I remember everything reasonably well (obviously not the turn-by-turn details of every duel or anything but yeah).

I notice that with a lot of the shows on here the main draw for me really was just seeing all the cool monsters, but I did come to enjoy the game and just the sincere insanity of the setting too. I also now associate this with master and Past Me.

Duel Masters.

Mimi was kind of cute. I liked her outfit. The show itself was... kind of weird, to be honest. It's one of those shows where the dub was basically a joke (more so in English, though).

Captain Tsubasa.

Those guys can get really intense about football. Can't remember much other than an episode where a guy is trying to overcome a fear of being hit by the ball or something? Pretty sure I only watched this one when I was stuck somewhere where I could not watch or do much else.

Plus some others I am also failing to remember. Genuinely kind of distressing how hazy my memories of these things are.

[autumnbrambleagain]

Earlier Elder Scrolls titles: So yeah the tsaesci were gold-scaled snake naga vampire immortals

Later Elder Scrolls: Actually those were just translation errors mostly! Tsaesci just look like Japanese people

like i appreciate doing the "oh historical accounts exaggerated things in metaphor and people took it seriously" but consider this instead, Todd Howard,

when choosing between a "snake-bodied immortal gold-scaled vampire samurai", and "Japanese people but they're a different species called asian" you picked not only the shitty out-dated racist version,

but you picked the BORING one

on TES lore forums back in the early 00s i used to hang out with the old developers of the games and they had a saying "that's boring and therefore wrong" and it's stuck with me in world design and storytelling ever since

i love morrowind, and it's the only game of its kind that lets me either spend all day playing Animal Crossing and decorating my house OR going on walking simulator adventures OR having intense battles with complex magic systems,

but god honestly so much of it is kidna outta date

i don't mean "oooooh euuuurrr it has plantation slavery in it you can't depict bad things in a game" honestly like no i think morrowind is a pretty good for its time examination of colonialism it's a very colonialism problems the game on purpose it's engaging it's fun

it has lore with rape and stuff in it because yeah it's engaging in the long myth history of the world and there's weird shit in mythology that's fun, modern fantasy stopped engaging with the history of myth and started it over and now it's only in dialogue with the past 30 years of dungeons and dragons and that's boring as FUCK,

but like my standards have improved. morrowind basic bitch too often. morrowind does "this is the species called 'black people'" and that's where it goes "uhhhhhhhhhh." because like holy shit all the cool redguard lore, most of that was added in afterwards and in TR and shit like ooooh buddy

there's so much potential in the sidelore and fans have added fun shit like sloads (giant necromancy slugs with living airships like hell yeah okay that's neat) and the 20 khajiiti forms and TR is supposed ot make the telvanni weird again so like hell yeah but

god so much of morrowind deep down really is just part of the ES tradition of "this species of people are Africans. this species of people are Romans. this species of people are the Japanese." and while it's not as bad as in Oblivion so much of morrowind feels its age where parts are phoned in, where parts are taken for granted, where, like

you know when you're writing you can fall into the trap of writing in stock phrases? so that everything you write is just something someone else said already, cut up and put together? it was a dark and stormy night but like for real using nothing but preconstructed phrases like legos? no real thought or effort put into how you're making the words go?

like that but for a setting is morrowind

gimme a fantasy setting where no one's a human. i don't mean furries i mean make it fucking WEIRD. since when did fantasy stop being weird?

it's become a hollow game of telephone an echo chamber in the literal sense of ideas disintegrating over time and becoming cheap mimicries of mimicries

stop doing "oh look we have elves but we gave them a TWIST" stop fucking putting elves in it entirely

tolkein invented elves off of several fae myths and then everyone went "well fantasy has to have elves for sure"

gimme weirdass rankin bass shit

the message of the movie fucking sUCKS but look at this adventuring party from flight of dragons

two dragons, a knight, a robin hood, a little gnome asshole, and a talking daddy wolf? okay now we're STARTING to get somewhere.

stop giving me "this is a mysterious fantasy race from a mysterious fantasy world... they're called... the Byzantine Empire! they have an emperor and--" stop giving me "the mysterious and haughty elves... but in this setting... they use TECHNOLOGY instead of MAGIC--" no fuck off

fantasy, and human history, extends beyond the release of ADnD

and it can go further in the other direction, too, we can move past it. we can move past "this species is a metaphor for this real life culture, with three unique things added in. no, we aren't doing it to like, do commentary on something in real life we just think Nords are fun SKYRIM BELONGS TO THE NORDS wait oops we released this just before the rise of white nationalism woops"

was it an interesting commentary on the rise of white ethnonationalism? was it even a realistic or engaging look at it? n. no. no not really the actual conflict of the Altmer trying to crush Talos because they want to revert things to the Dawn Era and Talos is decidedly shezzarine i mean you fucking visit sovngarde and see SHOR'S FUCKING THRONE and no one comments on how you're visiting akatosh's dead split personality's house while trying to defeat his """"son""" (alduin should have just been kept as fucking akatosh why did you make him his evil son why did you make it so dragons retroactively haven't been seen in eras THE EMPIRE HAD DRAGONS IN THE TIME OF MORROWIND WHAT THE FUCK you could have had the big hero at the end of oblivion (akatosh) be the bad guy of skyrim and you BABIED OUT OF IT FUCK YOU TODD HOWARD FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU YOU'RE BORING

elder scrolls literally has a species called the bretons, my dude those are LITERALLY JUST IRL FRENCH PEOPLE AND YOU ARE DOING NOTHING WITH IT

EMIL PAGLIARULO I WILL KNIFE FIGHT YOU IN THE STREETS LET'S GO

[bettimbellis]

A Collage (of Yelling)

I saw someone do something like this to advertise their fic- they linked the fic, and then put in a little collage of various comment snippets. I can’t find the post to show off- someone please do let me know if you’ve seen that, I want to credit them. 

Either way, my Hollow Knight post-Black-Egg-Temple fic (linked here) has 209 comment threads on it. I’ve gone through and found some bits. These bits were mostly chosen for entertainment/intrigue value out of context- a lot of my favorite comments didn’t get in. 

Got some good reviews there, I think. Anyone wanna see the collection I have of Discord screenshots from folks yelling at me about this fic?  (Seriously though, thank all of y’all who comment, yell in the tags, whatever- I love it. Really helps keep the writing muse going, too.)

Image descriptions below the cut. 

[Image ID: a collection of bits of text placed on a light green background, in several groups. Text is as follows. 

Excuse me who gave you the right to hit me with this line at seven in the morning”, with an arrow pointing to the left. also it feels like there are many things to be concerned about lmao  God, Hollow is such a poor baby. A lanky wet cat left in the rain. Hollow, that feeling is love, dear, no need to feel so confused about it. Hornet, my sad dumb little spider baby, go to bed. in summary holy shit this is fucked sounds like stressTM can these characters stop being so relatable good Lird *smacks my face* Hornet. Hornet. the fuck HOLY FUCKING SHIT [all caps] It was so soft!!!! And then it became *so goddamn angsty-* *squints harder*  Wet rag is my new favorite character. *thunks my head on a wall* Gosh darn it Oro course you had to have integrity But also OW MY HEART?! SHATTERED?1 POOR BABY HOLLOW IM GONNA CRY Gosh dang. The last chapter was a little lighter, but apparently you were just holding back for this one.  (Chp. 3) I stg this whole chapter made my emotions whip back and forth between “awww :)” and “awwh :(” and “oh. Oh no baby do not think like that”.  Augh. just, augh. / ...except that bit at the end. ...except that last sentence, ‘cause, yeah. / *hides face in hands* this has been exhausting for everyone, apparently. Hollow knight or: when you are so touch starved that your standards for touch that you want are somewhere in the abyss that has spawned you.  Whatever the FUCK happened in the last section is Oh Lord Oh God What The Heeeeeellll Ohhhh My Goood No Waaayyyy... Will be waiting for the next chapter STARING at ao3...

i was so relieved to read this that i accidentally put my phone in airplane mode trying to respond “it is startled out of its pleasant memory-” pLEASANT???? PLEASANT!?! Hollow no. HOLLOW NO- / why does this for some reason almost feel like fluff.  My urge to keysmash at you is strong Just. God. Everything about this is so fucked in so many ways.

Something about this line just makes me want to. Maybe stab the king in the chest. Repeatedly. And then throw them off a bridge. Idk Actually many things about this chapter make me want to stab the king in the chest repeatedly and then throw them off a bridge. Because *holy shit* Hollow, honey, you have so much trauma. OMG ghost, what have you done [stressed emoji] Okay then. Well. Um. That’s a lot to happen.  God it’s such a mess Ah yes, the eldritch nonsense trying to approximate a living creature, my beloved PK you ass. PK you absolute ASS get over here I wanna hit you with something heavy-  oh / im immediately punched in the face okay thank you for that Right off the bat I am mildly excited about this chapter solely because you played with text formatting and that makes my serotonin levels rise. I don’t know why but thank you for that.  CONFUSION SOUP I’M FHDHDJFKFKGH I wanna join the cuddle pile :<<< let me in [holding Hollow gently in both hands] / I will get you all the fresh-dirt-scented soap Fucking superb you funky little vessels. Oh boy! Spiraling!

Oh this chapter hurts ‘specially bad. Because it wasn’t enough to be possessed and neglected and quite literally tortured and driven insane, now we gotta have more medical issues and amnesia-  I fuckign cried at this one, oh my god. Pain is always a tearjerker, but it’s nothing compared to someone who’s been in pain so long finally getting that first big moment of *realizing they’re wanted* and *heard* and *healing*  And I gotta say, (this is gonna sound bad) I really do love Hollow’s victim blaming. Or how it’s written. I love how you write characters in pain <333 “Oh, just a quick chapter to read before bed,” I thought to myself. “I will enjoy it and feel a normal and manageable level of emotions about it.” / ...Thanks for making me all teary in the wee hours, now I’ll never get to sleep! (...I mean this as praise.) Oh. Oh Hollow. So wrapped up in the need to be useful. So incapable still of seeing that their own gut-wrenching familial love might be returned in kind, whether they have some designated purpose for their existence or not.  Yeah. Relieved. / Oh, Hollow... You have already left kudos here :) [three times] / Have I ever been told the definition of insanity?  honestly the body horror was the /least/ disturbing thing in this chapter. not to say! that it was not disturbing - even then, less the horror and more the. context. i want to punch TPK. into a lake. that is on fire.

First comment of my first reread, and MAN. This opening hits just as hard the second time.  Keep in mind Hollow Knight was made by Australian people Hollow 100% deserves a nice date at the palace if they so wish. anyway, I feel very emo about Hollow, all the time.  HOLLOW IS LETTING THEMSELVES HAVE WILL, LET’S GOOOOOO Ghost is doing Fine:tm:, Hornet is doing Fine:tm:, Hollow is *actually* doing pretty well Good news! Hollow is an emotional wreck!  Hornet is doing sooo normal right now (lying).

TLDR; amazing story, glorious update, poor Grimm, I Am Desperate For Shield Lore, someone please tell Ghost it isn’t their fault, the entire gaggle of siblings needs a group hug, I Am Going To Put The Pale King’s Corpse Through A Shredder, and Hornet needs another good cry. 

anyways fuck you for writing this keep it up

[tmnt-obsessed-ace]

Loved chapter one of Hollow Shell

Wanna talk about what it was like writing it? How it changed and evolved into the finished version? Ideas scrapped? Sorry I just love authors talking about their writing

👀

SURE why not!

It took me a long time to write chapter one, hell I was still writing it when I was writing the first chapter of Same Story Different Font. Mostly because I have unmedicated adhd and way too many thoughts, aus, and ideas buzzing around in my head at the same time. Plus Im actually PLAYING Hollow Knight so that takes even more of my time

(And when I actually mustered up the will and motivation I was too tired and just wanted to chill out)

Now during the writing process when I had about 2500 words written, I had a really cool idea.

The beginning of the chapter would be a prologue about how Hollow got ripped from the Black Egg Temple and then after that every two or three paragraphs the narrating pov would switch to Hollow (and the Radiance) showing how they're reacting to the whole situation.

In fact you could even see an example of that in this wip I posted on September 29th (yes Hollow Shell has been a wip for many months :/)

The Radiance is the bold and italicized text while Hollow is just the italics

And in the parentheses sections the Radiance would be just bold.

Unfortunately as cool as this idea would've been I couldnt get it to work into the chapter without feeling clunky (and adding to the word count even more) so I had to scrap the idea for the sake of getting the chapter DONE. But I will be doing it, its just that the Hollow and Radiance pov will be its own chapter entirely that way I can properly do it justice. (Im still deciding if it should be chapter 2 or chapter 3)

As you probably know this little exchange isnt actually in Hollow Shell anymore

Because I edited it and rewrote it entirely.

Mostly because this right here is the beginning of Casey's dad getting infected. But it felt like it was escalating too quickly. It would be way more fun to draw it out longer.

Here's the new version of this same wip

Also you wanna know WHY Hollow was struggling so much the entire chapter? Part of the reason was to try and get as far away from everyone as possible...and a much larger part of it was the Radiance trying escape.

Because the vessel isnt IN the sealed temple, the spells have been broken, there are millions of people in New York City ALONE.

And the only thing stopping the furious goddess from completely wreaking havoc is Hollow's own will. They are actively trying to do everything in their power to keep her from busting their head open like a walnut and being unleashed onto an unsuspecting city. And considering that Hollow's will, mind and body have been shattered over and over again from centuries of abuse...yeah

Its obviously not gonna last long.

And one more thing, you know how Casey was continuously texting during the chapter. He was absolutely talking to the turtles (I actually plan to show that conversation in either chapter two or chapter three, heehheheheheh)

If you want me to talk about Hollow Shell more I am more than happy to do so

[mbabol]

GAMES I'VE PLAYED RANKINGS (2023)

STORYTELLING

Disco Elysium - The complexity of the writing of this game is stupid beyond. It's thematically rich, well-researched, deeply interrogative, engaging, and well-crafted. Also it's funny. It's not my favorite novel but the fact that it's up for comparison speaks volumes.

Pentiment - I'm so sorry to say it but Pentiment feels like Disco Elysium but about 16th century Bavaria. It is similarly well-researched, thematically rich, and well-crafted, but is a little more restrained in its political statements and therefore doesn't reach its full potential in storytelling, in my opinion. Still interested in making political statements, however, and interrogative about them, which is appreciated. Could have gone harder on the complexity and ambiguity of their writing, but I understand that might not have been the audience they wanted to reach. Still a Fucking Good Game of Writing.

Undertale - Could be the nostalgia talking, but sorry I'm not immune. Everyone's already said what there is to be said about Undertale's writing. Only thing I'll say is that I think Toby Fox has actually managed to improve his writing for Deltarune, but Deltarune is an unfinished game so I'm going to leave that one in the Honorable Mentions.

Hollow Knight - Sheer detail. Complexities and ambiguities in the writing, rich for interpretation. Don't love the weird hints of orientalism, but not as egregious as it could be. The craftsmanship of the writing is the real star of the game I think, it's deeply dedicated to the quality of its storytelling.

Portal 2 - AGAIN. COULD BE BIASED. AND I WON'T LIE I HAVEN'T EXACTLY PLAYED A TON OF GAMES. SO THIS MIGHT JUST BE BECAUSE I LOVE LESBIANS. But goddamn. Lesbianism. Cartoonish capitalism. Craftsmanship. It captures my imagination .

Honorable Mentions:

Deltarune (Unfinished, Disqualified Until Completion)

Hades (Sheer Volume of Shit To Read)

Warcraft III (Really Racist yet so detailed and effortful in it's writing quality that it offers the most interesting look at written manifestations of whiteness, cisheteronormativity, the enduring literary tradition of the imperial imagination of The North, ET CETERA its the horrible horrible gift that keeps on giving. Rich for tearing apart in frustration.)

GAMEPLAY

Hades - Controversial pick but I've never felt so feverish trying to learn the mechanics of a game. Had the perfect learning curve and yeah, the replayability is insane. Engaging, rewarding, effortful, yet not overly frustrating.

Overwatch (1 and 2) - ANOTHER CONTROVERSIAL PICK. I WON'T EVER DEFEND THIS SHIT-ASS DOG-TIER GAME FROM ITS MANY, MANY, MANY, MANY DESERVED CRITICISMS. BUT I CAN'T DENY THAT ITS MECHANICS DO SOMETHING TO ME. I love the blend of FPS mechanical skills and almost MMO-like strategization. Love the emphasis on movement as part of the gameplay, love how many characters are movement-based. Love that despite being a "competitive FPS" it's still full of Really Stupid Silly Moments. <- all the words of someone out of their mind

Portal 2 - Finally a normal answer. I like puzzles. I like fun movement. Wee. This one's pure personal preference. I just like Portal 2 gameplay.

Hollow Knight - IF I WAS BEING OBJECTIVE THIS WOULD BE HIGHER. SO, SORRY. Complex, well-tuned, rewarding gameplay. A lot of depth to the learning curve as a metroidvania combined with challenging boss fights that all have unique attack patterns. Customization via the charms. The only thing that pushed it down the rankings is that I'm Bad, and when I got stuck on boss fights it was The Worst. Part of the frustration might have also just come from the downtime of walking back from a bench to the boss fight. I assume that's a mechanic that's Meant to be frustrating and add to the competitive/hardcore nature of the game, but I didn't really find any satisfaction from that mechanic, especially when the walk back was particularly long and full of mobs. It just felt like a chore and got in the way of any exciting momentum from learning the boss fights. To compare it to a game like Hades, which arguably has a similar mechanic from having to redo a run, something that kept those repeated runs from getting stale or frustrating was the RNG of the rooms, enemies, builds, and character interactions. I was still invested in getting to the boss fight to try again, and having to competitively retrace my path to add to the difficulty of the fight, but that time in between was also consistently engaging in its own right for various reasons. As I write this I'm realizing that my gameplay rankings are kind of in order of the amount of frustration I felt throughout the game.

Deltarune (?) - I had to disqualify Deltarune from the storytelling category because I don't feel like it's fair to judge an incomplete story, but I think the two chapters we have of Deltarune are enough gameplay to rank the overall gameplay system. And goddamn. It's way better than Undertale's. The combat system got an upgrade in the form of it now being an RPG style party system, there's new combat options unique to party members, the bullet patterns feel more complex with more variations of attack types even for regular mobs, THERE'S A POKEMON STYLE COLLECT MOBS TYPE MECHANIC, there's bonus boss fights! Per chapter! That are more difficult than the normal chapter boss! There's puzzles! It's got it all! I have to rank Deltarune lower than the others because it's not quite as novel, engaging/challenging, or focused on the gameplay as the others, but for ME it was still GREAT. I got a lot of enjoyment out of fighting even regular mobs, which I didn't feel in Undertale, and I don't even feel at the same level for games like Hades or Hollow Knight.

Honorable Mentions:

Stardew Valley (I have So Many Hours In This Game. It Has to get points for that. The feedback loop is insane. And I love fishing.)

Minecraft (I Also have So Many Hours In This Game. It just works. Humanity just like building thing. Also you can collect pets.)

Pokemon [Esp Gen 3 & 4 games] (Sorry. It just works. I honestly considered giving it the #5 spot but figured that was mostly nostalgia talking. I fucking love collect creature. And I love chill, no time constraint, strategy turn-based combat. I don't love open-world games which is why I haven't really been as in love with the recent versions, but goddamn those early ones. I still replay them. I love finding fakemon games. I love this formula.)

VISUAL ARTWORK (note: this list is even more subjective than the others. EXTREMELY influenced by personal preference than any kind of rigorous ranking of quality)

Disco Elysium - Yeah. Sorry. The quality? Untouched. The interaction with the rest of the game? Genuinely some of the most intertwined with the storytelling/gameplay of any game I've played. It's a central element of the game. Every piece of visual art produced for this game was thoughtful, meaningful, and can be analyzed for meaning as much as any piece of text or gameplay. A little unfair to other games, since this is a game that has as one of its central themes the meaning of art (of all mediums). Jesus christ. I'll think about Disco Elysium art until my dying day.

Pentiment - THIS IS A LITTLE BIT CHEATING. BC VISUAL ARTWORK OVERLAPS A LITTLE WITH STORYTELLING JUST BECAUSE OF HOW VISUAL ART AND TEXT INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER IN VIDEO GAMES ESPECIALLY. YOU KIND OF CAN'T SEPARATE ARTWORK FROM STORYTELLING IN THESE KINDS OF GAMES BECAUSE ALL OF THE VISUAL ELEMENTS ARE COMPONENTS OF THE COMPOSITE STORYTELLING. Anyway Pentiment is also a game that has as one of its central themes the meaning of art, so of course it's going to be really thoughtful and evocative in its visual elements. The way the text is varied calligraphy (or print!) and communicates character information like class and occupation because that's literally what handwriting was in that time period, literacy in general actually, communicative of your class background. How there are so many "typos" that were actually such a unique and real trait of old and middle English because there was no standardized spelling of words for most of its existence. The bolded or color-printed words that were also a defining trait of old and middle English texts, AUGH. THE DIFFERENT STYLIZATIONS OF DIFFERENT CHARACTERS IN ART STYLES EVOCATIVE OF THEIR RELIGIOUS OR CULTURAL BACKGROUNDS MY GOD. The way that the older pagan townspeople/peasants are drawn differently from the younger Christian townspeople/peasants, the way that the stylization is all evocative of artwork from that time period, whether it was Bavarian/European-Christian or Ethiopian. It's good.

Undertale/Deltarune - Sorry. This is a lot less meaningful than the first two. I just like it. It sticks to a theme. It's charming. It's beautiful. It's funny. It's haunting. So versatile and memorable. The artwork of these games also adds so much to the storytelling and characterization of the game, the ambiance and emotional resonance. Thank you Temmie Chang and all the other artists, and, of course, Toby Fox.

Hollow Knight - AGAIN I FEEL BAD GIVING IT SUCH A LOW RATING BC IT'S STILL REALLY FUCKING GOOD. LIKE INSANELY GOOD. Also so communicative, thematically appropriate, charming, beautiful, well-crafted, flexible. I love looking at stuff. And I Love Ghost.

Hades - Cheap answer, but I can't deny that without the art I don't know if I would've picked up the game. There's easy and justified criticisms of the character designs tending towards fatphobic and without enough body diversity, though that's a criticism that I don't think any of my top ranked games avoids. I love the color, I love the dynamic compositions, I even love the particle effects. There was stylistic effort and I liked it.

Honorable Mentions:

Validate (REALLY good art, lovely and vibrant and personal. Just maybe not as large a scope/individually purposeful)

Baba Is You (No real justification. Just think it's fun and cute. I enjoy stylized art.)

OFF (A story I can't make sense of, gameplay that's admittedly kinda cool just for the novelty but not anything obscenely entertaining, I think the artwork of OFF still really sells it and makes it memorable.)

[gray-soul]

What you should know about me

Hi I'm gray-soul, but you can call me: GrayS0, GrayS, Gray or if you know me from ao3, Szara Dusza, Szara.

Some people, like to call me Gummies, Gumiś, you can call me that too.

I'm Polish, go by she/her, and I'm a mess, genuine mess.

I write stuff on ao3, play the piano, sometimes post on my youtube, draw and check out, a ton of fandoms. (A skele-ton)

My ao3:

My youtube:

(New since I can't seem to recover the old one)

Don't be shy! I love to chat with strangers online.

My favorite artists are: Mateusz Dąbrowski (ExCharny), Comyet, Nyoomian and my friends of course.

Here's probably an incomplete list of the fandoms I've been/am in about which you can chat with me/ might make posts about eventually:

HOLLOW KNIGHT!!!!

DEAD CELLS!!!!

HYPER LIGHT DRIFTER (I cried)

THE TRANSFORMERS!!!! (I hate the Bay movies though)

JOJO'S BIZZARE ADVENTURE!!!!

UNDERTALE!!!!

1984!!! (If it's a fandom)

THE SANDMAN!!!! (I hate the Netflix ver. I love the comics though)

HOMESTUCK!!!!?

NIGHT IN THE WOODS!!!!

Ace Attorney!!

ULTRAKILL!!!!!!! (Kinda shit at it but it's GOOD)

DELTARUNE!!!!

DON'T STARVE!!!!

STARDEW VALLEY!!!!

THE MOOMINS!!!!

The Hex!

Pony Island

Inscryption!!

Buckshot roulette

The grim adventures of Billy and Mandy

Sherlock Holmes (the book series)

Valorant for some reason (I play it, I basically bother everyone about it)

Same with Overwatch apperantly, (I know the lore, and a couple of characters edit: I just started playing it)

Borderlands (mostly Borderlands 2, a childhood game of mine, 10/10 would play again edit: got borderlands 3 and I am loving it)

TITANFALL |2!!!!!!! (a certain person got me addicted in fps games with lore)

Apex Legends!!!!

EDDSWORLD

Mystic Messenger

Bendy and the inkmachine

MOB PSYCHO 100!!!!

Malediction!!!

Welcome To Night Vale!!

Minecraft

SPIDER-MAN (Spider-verse)

Saiki-k

60 seconds

Mashle

ONE PUNCH MAN

Big hero six

.... Countryhumans? (I like Countryballs more. I hate the fandom, but I like the illogical concept. Don't come after me.)

Sam and Max!!!!

Dsmp (I left it a long time ago)

Fnaf

Dsaf!!

Wander over Younder

MONKIE KID!!!!

Pokemon

One Piece!

Black Hat!!

Cult of the lamb

Ninjago (not really caught up with it though)

DDLC

Dangaronpa (ehh not really in it now)

Fullmetal alchemist (I don't like brotherhood.)

Darkest Dungeon

FRANBOW!!!!

SALLY FACE!!!!

LITTLE MISSFORTUNE!!!!

GRAVITY FALLS!!!!

Ms Kobayashi's Dragon Maid

The Stanley Parable!!!!

The Mandalorian? (Not the Starwars though, even though I know some stuff about it)

Hanako-kun

Camp camp

Sonic (IN THE YEAR 2024. AND IM DEEPLY AFFECTED BY ALL SONIC MEDIA TYPES)

Creepypasta? (Long, long time ago)

HxH

Mystery Skull

SVTFOE basically my childhood

Soul Eater (anime)

SNK or AOT (anime)

Adventure time (currently rewatching)

Bee and Puppycat

Team fortress 2

Spyro (watched a gameplay once)

Swords and Sandals. (Idk If this game even had a fandom, but I am the fandom)

Dragon Ball? (I only watched one movie with my friend, simped for Gamma 1, and Piccolo for some reason, and kept saying that it's a jojo's refrence)

Mha. (Yeah, no. Do not talk to me about that one, I hate even remembering it.)

Had an animation meme phase

A lot of old rpg horror games made in game maker like IB

Also by: I'm in the fandom, I mean I have a ton of Pinterest boards for these, on which I add stuff regularly, and a ton of unposted fanfics/fanarts in my sketchbooks.

Note: I block everything that seems like a spam bot. Please, if you're a new user just reblog something or add some stuff on your blog.