#ESPECIALLY SINCE IM PLAYING A MAGE.

[theprincessandthepie]

replaying dragon age inquisition is just an exercise in “the rebel mages would not fucking do that”

[thegleampt2fromtheglowpt22001]

I rly like how morrowind depicts most if not all organizations and institutions brought over or influenced by Imperial annexation as basically criminal rackets

[zai-doodles]

I wished Lucy looked more like her dad and Erza as well. Layla is a carbon copy of Lucy and Irene as well

ok so-

ive been wanting to make this official for a while and this ask finally gave me an excuse to draw it lol

so here r first drafts of jude and layla!

in this lucy has no memories of layla bc she died while giving birth, jude resented lucy and was so lost in his grief he never told lucy anything about her mom and essentially erased her

for political reasons that im not gonna get into now, both of them kept their last names after getting married

lucy doesnt learn about layla until right before the canon story starts (a few days before her 18th)

when lucy starts throwing around the name heartfilia there r def ppl who recognize the name but since its been so long a lot of them don't make the connection until she starts interacting with other wizards/ celestial mages

next big reveal:

here is lucy maden!! lucy is a natural brunette in my rewrite, yes I'm aware shes basically my little oc at this point but shhh this is all for fun

anyway she uses magic to dye her hair both to look more like her mother and to look less like her father

ik that canon likes to play on lucy looking exactly like her mom to justify kinda jude not being able to look at her but like,,, what if she looks more like her abusive father can u imagine the angst guys-

all of this is subject to change and tweaks (especially layla since I want to flesh out her younger years before jude more)

[fleshwerks]

Thank you for your rant posts on DAV. They’ve been cathartic to read as they echo so many of my own issues with the game and how it treats its own lore and insults its fanbase. I feel stupid for caring about the oppression of mages and elves given how they sanitized and wrote out these cornerstones of the Thedas setting and it sucks! Im glad I’m not alone.

I had very little hope for this game given its mess of a dev cycle and how the company has bled talent, I thought it would be a very messy narrative as a result. And it is! But it’s worse, because it’s not just messy, it commits the greatest cardinal sin of writing: it’s boring.

I think you nailed it. I'm at the same point as you, especially as someone who's huge into DA lore and the intrauniverse sociopolitics, as well as the expected (foolishly) aspect of your deeds mattering, either positively or negatively.

I have a whole ass Inquisitor who can now stop feeling bad in his steppe-sky burial about his indecisiveness during his tenure as an Inquisitor: BECAUSE NONE OF IT MATTERED ANYWAY. 'Oh, you delayed some suffering for like, what, 7 years? 7 years is nothing when you're doomed anyway. I can already hear the argument "but what you do even in short term matters, too."

Yes, in real life. But I don't do RPGs for real life. I play RPGs to be able to fantasise about doing a bit more than I can do in real life.

On top of it just about everybody being so blasé about what's going on. This is the worst blight ever, two actual gods are loose, but here we are at the dinner table, arguing about Taash' mom being a strict, traditional jerkass and Bellara joining the list of people who hate themselves for having ADHD, and holding her hand through it. Boring.

Veilguard commits another sin: everybody blames themselves for everything, but it either gets fixed for them, or they're feeling sorry and do the thing they feel so sorry about anyway.

My kingdom for a character who can go 'it is what it is, I'm not perfect, but I'm not sorry for existing and having an impact on this world, especially if the impact is caused by something I couldn't really control; all that matters is what we do next.' Which would open up the world at wide: tackling things that make your personal issues microbial in comparison. These people don't have the luxury of crying into their chicken soup. Not to say these things can't be addressed, but in Dragon Age, characters are supposed to support the overarching plot and the worldbuilding. Instead, the world puts itself on hold until you've solved Lucanis' granny issues or whatever.

If you've ever watched campaign 3 of Critical Role, that series has the same issue. The cast is made up of people who by and large have no real connection to the world or the overarching plot, and a large part of the viewerbase has come down onto the same idea: if the characters don't really care and only keep reacting, and reacting with quippiness and laughs and occasional 'oh no, that's bad, right? Anyway,'... why should we care?

Why should I care? Because everything I cared about as a player has been deleted, and the cast of Veilguard is mostly just dicking around until the plot reminds them that hey: we have the worst apocalypse going on since Solas deleted Elvhenan. Can we like... react more to it? We can do the therapy sessions later when people have stopped dying.

Disclaimer: I fully acknowledge that I'm going off on a tangent and I'm most likely projecting and reading into it too much/not reading into it enough. But that's the problem. Most players will play it once. You can't rely on subsequent playthroughs to make someone care.

Worst part is, companions aren't even boring. They're just miscast for this particular plot, exacerbated by what BW did to all the established lore. The tonality of the game itself and its place in DA canon is just wack.

I'm likely being incredibly unfair, but there's something to investigate here, because if you've failed to bring players into the lore and invest themselves in such numbers, it isn't just Mari here talking shit, it's a wider problem. Lest we forget, your fiction, your work stops being 'only yours' the moment you publish it and allow people play with your toys. The author is king, but the author is only the king of their own version of their story. The moment it's read and played by many, it's not just your story anymore, it's everybody's, who's engaging with it.

God dammit my English literature and language degree is catching up with me, I've turned into That Guy. Uck.

[cadaveerie]

the things i'm the most and least excited about for Dragon Age: The Veilguard!

includes DATV spoilers from the trailers and articles

i might continuously edit this post until the game actually launches as we receive new info!

all of these have been confirmed by the devs, except for those in which i clarify the opposite (ie: those that i write with a "possibly", which have probably been only suggested). if you want the source for any of these specifically let me know!

and a big shoutout to felassan for answering my question, because i started wondering if i just made up the 'pause during cutscene' thing, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out where I'd heard that lol

anyway, here it is!

GENERAL

no EA app or online mode/internet to play the game

pause during cutscenes

interruptible and resumable banter

no micro-transactions

CC

the character creator!!! - more diverse bodies, better (and darker. and better dark) skin tones and afro-textured hair!

change of voice pitch for Rook!

trans Rook! they/them Rook! and the ability to express that in-game!

b-bulge slider.......? t-tittie slider?????

different lighting options in character creator :]

in-game name suggestions for rook :]

nudity :D:D:D SEXOOO

PURPLE ROOK!!!!! (sarcastic/charming, like hawke. im gonna be insufferable to solas specifically)

CHARACTERS

"not that skeleton, but we're not saying no skeletons" as an answer to whether we can romance manfred (..... the fuck. idk what that means but... im game)

bi/pan romanceable companions! - it makes me happy, especially as someone non-binary and genderfluid. i'll die on this hill

paraphrasing: “the most romantic game yet”..... mmmm… yes….

the companions overall... i rly like both the designs and what we know of them

"are there companions gifts again" John: "(...) you very well might find things in the world that certain companions would appreciate!"

John: "Not going to get into specifics on interactables, but there is more to do in the Lighthouse than conversations with companions. The Lighthouse does have a kitchen, and your companions acknowledge it/use it both narratively and ambiently. Some maybe better than others."

more focus and intentionality on the companions' stories and relationships! yay!

inquisitor presence :D

maybe solas and inky? - not confirmed that they'll interact, but pleaaaase let them. no matter if it's a romance, friendship or hateful relationship, i need to see a reunion

the relationship between solas and rook! - from what they'd said it looks like they're gonna have a fun dynamic!!! i hope that it's kind of a bad relationship but that at some points there can be some appreciation, or respect. i think they said that it could be change, depending on you

cameos!!! - we know there will be some. confirmed morrigan cameo! my bets for others are on dorian (and mae), fenris (copium), zevran (copiumx2). and maybe these are reaches but... perhaps cassandra? leliana? illario? alistair? sten? either way im looking forward to it!

700 characters (wtf)

140,000 lines of dialogue (wtf x2. almost double of Inquisition's (80,000))

DREADWOLF WOLF FORM! DREADWOLF WOLF FORM!!! *scratches his belly*

LORE

visiting places we have never seen before like Tevinter, Antiva, Anderfels, Nevarra, Rivain, etc

more thedas deep lore!!! - elven gods! and this hasn't been confirmed, but since we'll go there... will there be tevinter lore? anderfels lore? rivain lore? antivan lore? titans lore (my theory is because of Harding)!?

GRAPHICS and CUSTOMIZATION

possibly a camera mode

beautiful textures!

beautiful landscape!

very nice hair physics! (big improvement)

gear customization + transmog

enable/disable helmets for cutscenes

COMBAT

I rly like the subclasses… they feel so…. gothic

combat looks more dynamic overall!

combos with the companions!

finisher animations!

mages can move while attacking apparently?

and they^ can use staffs, daggers and orbs :0

parry + shield toss :0

and i'm just excited to see how it actually feels while playing and how everything progresses!

things I'm kinda sad/disappointed about. just a little

only can bring two companions along (probably a 3 party total?)

probably no trans, they/them or they/x companions? :( (im assuming there will be characters that are trans (mae) and go by them/them or multiple pronouns, but i mean companions specifically)

only 7 companions. i was a little disappointed at first but tbh im fine w it now haha

they haven't talked about rook as a character much so im a little worried about that, their personal journey, their dialogue etc :')

that rook doesn't seem to have different beginnings depending on his origin :( not a huge deal but tbh i loved that about origins

can't choose multiple pronouns :( perhaps it's possible? they've explicitly said that you can go by he, she or they, but i don't think that implies multiple at the same time. it can't be that hard to program it so that it randomly changes between two or more pronouns, right? idk about game development so i dont actually know, sorry if i'm ignorant

this is suuuper nitpicky but in relation to the graphics.. i kinda wish the skins looked slightly.. different? idk how to put it, but they look kind of smooth? maybe too much? i just wish they had a little bit more texture, it kinda looks like they have a beauty filter, imo, and i think it would look better if they look slightly differently

and i have mixed feelings about how the characters are stylized overall. like... y'know, the whole "cartoony" discourse. at first i didnt like it at all, but since we've seen more im way more on board. still... i kinda feel like some things could look a bit nicer

idk how i feel about how the darkspawn look. like it's not a huge deal to me either, but... i just wish they looked different. lol. they do look a little bit goofy

and idk if i like the... veiny/nervous system looking-thing in demons either? like, i like it in theory but tbh in practice im not too sure

the remake of the warden's logo :((

that's it!

tbh im just happy about most things they've said and shown so far. i think a lot of these things are a good sign. also, things like the "not ea app necessary" make me inclined to believe that this is something they've had to fight for (cause you know, if ea could choose they'd do things their way) and that's something i appreciate a lot. that's why i think this and a lot of other choices and changes they've made in relation to the last game, are good signs that they've listened to our feedback in a lot of things! and i hope this reflects in the entirety of the game. i hope it's the case. idk i'm positive about this game! a little scared ofc, because i care and i want it to be as good as possible, but excited nonetheless!

are there things i didn't include but that you are excited about? what are you looking the most forward to, overall? i'd appreciate to see your excitement and know what you like the most!

[aoife-asturmaux]

Good Old-Fashioned

Finally caved and got a mogstation set I'd had my eye on for years lmao.... thank u anniversary sale

im really happy with how this glam came together!!! especially the hat; i've had the dirndl set for many years but had never really been attached to the hat it came with. the two dyes open up so many new possibilities *_*

i picked the naginata to go with it bc i'd always been meaning to make an "eastern" dragoon glam using one (but banri won't be high enough level on drg to use one anytime soon lmao). i do kinda wanna wear this on white mage too though since im not playing much drg these days...

[studentinpursuitofclouds]

Im curious to know how would Lance would react to and say about the risgeside villagers like Freddie and Lola, Jio and Daia and the other magical characters! <3

Sure thing :3

_________________________________________

When Lance spots Lola and Freddie walking peacefully through the Ridgeside Village main square, he will greet them politely and bow to them as a sign of respect for elders. The two old couple will stop and chat a bit with the young adventurer, not missing the opportunity to reminisce about their youth and offer a couple pieces of advice. All three are smiling and the atmosphere is relaxed. At least because Lance is smart enough not to ask too many questions. He knows perfectly well who is in front of him. And while Lance knows that these old couple are retired adventurer-assassins who wish no harm to anyone, they could kill him in a heartbeat with the flick of a finger. He admires this and is a little tense about it. But everyone parted on a good note, as Lance is a well-mannered young man, and Lola and Freddie always welcome kind youth.

Lance swears that if Isaac and Jio were placed side by side, the adventurer would have the audacity to say they were twins. Not in appearance, but in their murderous stare, resting bitch face, anti-social behavior, and even their posture. Only the pink-haired man wanted to ask the living elf (a living elf!) a few questions, as immediately got in his face the phrases "You don't belong here" and "Why are you still here?". Yoba almighty... The elf's temper is worse than Isaac's. It's like Lance is talking to an obnoxious child... The fact that Lance is a mage and adventurer added fuel to the fire, because Jio doesn't want the bigwigs at the Ministry to find out about the cult. Lance decides to back off to avoid a fight. There's no point in spilling blood.

Before Lance could step back, he heard a slightly squeaky "Kiwi stab you! Intruder!" and turned around to see... junimo coming toward him. Hmm, a strange junimo that didn't emanate forest magic... Jio managed to teleport between Kiwi and Lance. "Jio must not stop Kiwi from stabbing the impostor!" Kiwi is junimo's name, huh? Interesting. But that was something to think about another time. So Lance decided to left Ridge immediately, while Kiwi is trying her best to prove to Jio that they "should chase down the pink man and stab him with knifes!"

And just when the adventurer thought the rest of his day would go smoothly, Daia appeared out of nowhere, showering the slightly tired Lance with more compliments and ambiguous hints. On another day he might have played along, or even counterattacked the insistent lady with flirting, but he's already a little tired. Especially since he senses the same aura as he did from the elf with junimo, and her clothes immediately tell him that this is another cult member. Daia has already had enough of playing with Lance and before she teleported away, without removing her smile, she threatened him that if any of her members were injured, she would destroy him. Lance assured her that he didn't want to hurt anyone, so the two parted on a more or less good note. Although, after her hints, Lance had a feeling- Well, he doesn't have to think about it, because he's well-mannered.

Belinda and Raeriyala couldn't help but notice magical aura emanating from the newcomer, and they remembered Farmer's words that this pink haired man could be trusted. Rae wanted to remain secretive, but Belinda was too curious, and was not afraid of Lance at all: she could stand up for herself, plus her loyal followers were always on guard. The spirit appeared before Lance too abruptly, forcing the adventurer to grasp the hilt of his sword. Just as Belinda was about to scare him some more, her beloved Raeriyala scolded Bel for her rudeness and apologized to Lance. They can see that he has a kind aura, and if he makes a promise to remain silent about them, they can answer a couple of his questions.

[truth-01001001-liar]

Have I rambled about my personal headcanons for the broken Morrowind alchemy system, and the empire outlawing levitation?? ‘cause I don’t think I have?

So..I actually really like the exploits you can use to abuse Morrrowind’s alchemy system. So much so that I made it canon that one of my characters figured out how to create ridiculously strong and long lasting potion effects. She effectively just made them super concentrated, and then turned it into a topical salve that can be applied to the skin.

This is great for things like stamina and healing, but I really like the implications when feather or levitation is involved. Mass produced and made accessible, those two potions would allow almost anyone in Morrowind to lift notably heavy objects (because feather changes carrying capacity) and allow for easy travel as well. As long as the feather has a longer duration than the levitation there’s no real safety hazard in terms of falling either. Add telekinesis potions into the mix and you really have some power there.

Originally I had levitation, telekinesis, and feather combined for the purposes of acting as my character’s disability aid since those could make much of Morrowind more accessible to an individual who would otherwise be using a wheelchair that she doesn’t have the strength to move. But it crossed my mind that if something like that existed in Morrowind within Vivec’s grasp it would no doubt be used for military purposes as well. Especially if this was something created by a member of the temple. So Morrowind starts training its soldiers to levitate while withholding access to those potions from the empire. Which would make the empire nervous, especially knowing that plenty of the people of Morrowind don’t exactly welcome the Empire’s presence in the province.

So what would the empire do? Well one thing it could do is outlaw levitation and make it a punishable offense. No leeway whatsoever. And to make sure the people living in Cyrodiil go along peacefully with it, the government says it’s for public safety as levitation has been the cause of death for many mages over the years. Now Morrowind has been nearly put back in the position that it was in with no real way to push back against imperial control. Honestly I feel like the empire would use outlawing levitation as a reason to push some kind of monitoring of goods or something in Morrowind. More than they already do anyway. A round about way to get those other potions to circulate in the empire or to cut them out completely.

Idk if this is well thought out or anything… but …I at least like this reason better than just ‘Bethesda didn’t want to go through the trouble of allowing the player to levitate in TES IV, so they said the empire outlawed it’.

It’s also infuriating to be punished for if it’s levitation being used out of necessity, and is exactly how my HoK ends up in the imperial city’s prison at the start of Oblivion. She hates the empire and this made her hate them more. Which if nothing else makes for an interesting play through.

Anyway.. im done rambling now ..thanks for reading :)))

[dingodad]

whats ur take on the "mage" = "you must suffer" thing. i always thought that was kind of goofy given that sburb is as hostile to play as it is but im curious what you think

i don't keep up with anyone else's classpect analysis and in my own analysis i tend to treat it more as mutable ink blots that can be interpreted and reinterpreted based on the situation so i guess i don't necessarily have a take on it. while i wouldnt necessarily use the word "hostile" for sburb i certainly agree it is a little bizarre to claim that any one type of character in a dramatic medium is "the sufferer". i mean ESPECIALLY since there is literally a character called the sufferer in the comic, who is a seer, unless this is an inversion thing, which i do not care for,

[icharchivist]

I have been thinking about the obvious chess metaphor ever since learning the Veilguard PCs name

Would you say there's a connection? Are you a rook?

Yeah same!!! Im obsessed with it, especially after the chess' banter with Bull in DAI where Solas sacrifices his two towers to win the game with a mage and a pawn.

I think there's definitely a connection because Mark Darrah announced the game forever ago with a drawing of a Rook piece with a wolf's head on fire on top (which together, make the Lighthouse, the guide to freedom as it was intended)

I think it means Rook can do massive swept accross the board even if some limitation means they won't be able to be flexible enough to avoid some of the greater sacrifices that comes with a game of chess when played against gods.

Another meaning that i think is interesting is that Rooks are also birds, and Leliana's raven tower (under which Solas stayed to literally learn how she spies) was named the Rookery. A Rook also therefore involve the imagery of a small bird that can sneak in difficult situation a regular person cant.

Which makes me think about the codex entry "A Tale of the Frostback" in DAI where we learn that when Korth the Mountain Father burried his heart deep inside so no one could hurt him and it made him cruel, the Lady of the Skies sent birds to try to infiltrate the mountain to find his heart and only the tiniest of birds managed its way through.

I think it shows Rook evolution as a pawn, to a piece we never truly see coming. Underestimated, easy to sacrifice, but sometimes instrumental. The fundation Solas needs to still guide the people to his true goal, as well as a person small and insignificant enough that you dont see them coming (compared to the Inquisitor that was a larger than life person directly at the start of the game)

But yeah!!! Many thoughts

And i do think being a Rook is cool 😎

[arealcrow]

2, 10, 25, and 33 for Rhava pls!

late as hell reply bc i was braindead yesterday but im still chewin on rhava <3

2. How did Rook get the nickname? What do they think of it?

its mostly along the lines of how varric explains it in game. rhava is direct and bold, especially in his combat and how he casts. he's an assassin of a mage, finding the weak points in the veil and tearing through it to pull the magic he needs through from the fade. its a style based in raw power and a sensitivity to the fade, and very little technique. my hc for it is based on a spoiler reveal about the elves and a banter from dai about solas' casting style ;3 i imagine a circle trained mage must have made a comment about it to varric at some point, and varric made the connection. as far as names go , rhava thinks it's fine. matches his name well enough

10. Does Rook know their history? Do they know of the HoF, Hawke, the Inquisitor?

he knows about dalish history and the history of northern thedas. and since both the hero of fereldan (revas mahariel) and inquisitor (malion lavellan) and dalish in my worldstate, he knows plenty about them! i hc the clan rook is from has some crossover in where they roam with the lavellans, so he's probably only a few degrees of separation away from malion. and he's heard plenty about hawke from varric.

25. How does Rook like to spend their free time?

prior to the game he loved to nap. now he's afraid of solas being in his head, and doesn't enjoy it quiet as much anymore. he definitely plays that elven bass you can place in your room, i don't imagine he has the best singing voice but he's practiced. he likes bird watching.

33. What do fear demons look like to Rook?

the disappointed face of his keeper, specifically when he told her he was leaving. his brother imeric, blighted. wolves.

ask meme here!

[kindatired]

Genshin Impact: First Impression

I know, "You just NOW getting into Genshin after four years?'

Well, I didn't want to play on my phone so I waited to buy a laptop. I did bought a MacBook for school but then I found out that even though this game runs on IOS it doesn't run on MacOS...

(I should've known since the game isn't on the Switch...

Why most of the games I want to play isn't playable on the devices I have- Anyways back to the point.

I just finish Mondstadt in Genshin and so far I really like the story which makes me excited for what they have in store in Liyue. So this is all my thoughts about the first Archon quest, all in one go.

This chapter was a nice introduction to the world of Tevyat and I like how we already have to worry about two antagonistic groups (The fatui and Abyss Order)

Matter of fact let me list down how I think of each character:

The traveler:

I wish they have more character to them especially during the cutscenes. Despite being the protagonist I feel like they’re just in the backseat most of the time with the exception of them needing to action scenes. (Due to this my version of the traveler is that they're snarky but their heart is in the right place.) But I like how they showed us what the other sibling is doing because most stories they will have it a mystery right before the final arc

Paimon:

She’s cute but also WHERE IS HER PARENTS? At the start, she said that she was saved from drowning and I was like “Who was watching you?? Do you have any friends or anything?” I truly believe she will be a plot point in the story considering she can float around and have a space aesthetic to her

Venti:

I really like how mysterious he was at the start of the story and then later we see how much of a doofus he is. (Not saying he's dumb but carefree) Despite not wanting to be a ruling god, he still cares for his city in his own way. I don’t know why but if you mix Pit and Palutena together and then boom there’s Venti.

Amber:

I love her design so much. It's simple yet effective especially with the red bow. I feel like the team knew this too which is why she comes with her own plushie which is so freaking cute! Her character quests is fun too when she taught us to get our own glider's license. I don't know why but she gives the first classmate you befriend in class energy (Probably because she is the first person beside Paimon that we met in the game)

Kaeya:

I’m down bad I like how he has a laidback personality yet he’s always behind the scenes. Despite the front he puts up, you know he’s doing something else. Kind of wish we get to see more of him but I’m satisfied with what we got

Lisa:

At first I thought she was going to be a flirt she kinda is But I found it funny how she’s has a “I don’t have time with this bs” attitude on her side quest but still have a lot of patience for people's BS at times. I can't exactly remember but I think when she was trying to find all the overdue books, she went "I might as well make it fun" and brought the traveler and Paimon along too.

Jean:

Once I take a step back and think of all the things she had to deal with during this arc, it was definitely something. Abyss Order, The Dragon, The Fatui and trying to keep the citizens calm. She doesn’t get enough credit where it’s due. There's this one line delivery in the English version, I can't exactly point out when but it was about how the Fat couldn't get the upper hand in the situation. I don't know why but her tone of voice was passive aggressive, like she was praying on their downfall.

Diluc:

Mix opinions on him due to him sending us to find four of those ice flowers and I had to spend a hour and thirty minutes trying to find the fourth one. So yeah I have bitter feelings about that Serious note, he's probably my favorite character in Mondstadt if we're not including Amber and Kaeya. Bro is the Batman of the game, they even call him the Dark knight

Abyss Ice Mage:

Yeah I dedicated a whole section to this NPC because Imagine being electrocuted by Lisa and flamed by Diluc within a week. Like bro was put in the wringer (rightfully so). Kinda hoped they appear in the future story so this trend of Ice Mage being comedically abused continues.

My thoughts of the story:

I thought the first archon quest of the story is neat. It has nothing too spectacle as it works as a exposition to the world of Teyvat and it done that job very well.

The twist of knowing where the traveler's sibling is doing was definitely something I never thought would happen. Usually in most stories, they would have the sibling in prison but nope.

Your sibling is doing fine just helping out the big bad organization that is trying to destroy Teyvat.

Now this may be a reach but I like how each character has the freedom of accomplishing their goals by their own way.

First you have the traveler, by default they have the freedom of not being born in Teyvat as they are not from this world. Because of this, they have the ability to use more than one element. Another note is that because the traveler isn't bound by the nation's rules as they wasn't raised in Teyvat, they're always the person with a third option, sort of like a spectator...

is this why they're so quiet? So he can hear the opinions of others before making their own conclusions???

Paimon also has freedom as she doesn't have a parental figure which allows her to tag along, traveler on their quests.

Moving on to the people of Mondstadt, even within the Knights of Favonius who are under strict codes, handle tasks using their own method.

Example of this is the uniforms.

While Amber, Lisa, Kaeya, and Jean share the same motifs as being in the same group, their uniforms are completely different. You know how in magical girl shows, where you have sailor moon, where every soldier wears the same design but different color palette? Then there are other shows like Magica Madoka, where the girls where completely different outfits? The knights of favonius fits the latter, with the exception of the NPCs.

Even the way they handle tasks are different. Amber make sure she does her best to follow the rules but with a bit a flare. Lisa is a tad strict but her approach is passive. Kaeya always tries to find a loophole in the situation to see the whole picture. (Example: Him "staying behind" in the city, to get more information about the Abyss Order). Jean who follows the rules, but know there are times when the rules have to be bend.

Then you have the outliners like Diluc and Venti who are not apart of the knights. Diluc doesn't trust the knights to completely solve the problem so he acts as a vigilante, to pick up the pieces they fail to notice.

Venti who is the god of freedom, decided to not rule his region like the other archons. Instead, he watches it from afar, like the guardian he is, and steps in when the time is right.

All these characters are different in one way or another but they all come together to work together because they all share a common goal. Still even if you do things your own way, you still have to bear the responsibility of your actions.

Venti was too nonchalant in his approach of protecting his region which resulted in a Harbinger, La Signora, taking his Gnosis.

I say he was nonchalant because he was focus on the current problems of his country, which was storm bringer, and not future problems such as the Fatui. Because he wasn't focus on them, he let his guard down when the problem with storm bringer was solved.

I know this may be a stretch and I'm just writing what pops up in my head but that's what I got from the message of the archon quest.

Speaking of La Signora, how the hell did no one saw her attacking Venti and traveler or at the very least heard it? I know Barbara did but you're telling me that only ONE person heard that shit?!

So after talking to Venti it appears that we have to go to every seven regions to find the traveler's siblings. Or in this case, try to convince them to not destroy this world.

The fuck do we look like Pokemon Trainers?... Because I can sing the theme songs if you want

Either way, I had fun with the story. Gamplay-wise... I'm not really much of a gamer myself. I don't go into the mechanics of the game.I play fighting game, barely knowing the combos and just smash buttons to win

However, I can say the gameplay of Genshin is easy to get into. Unfortunately, it's a rpg so I have to farm for materials... yay, I guess. But it's not as bad as Fate Grand Order, Fate grand order farming system is a shit storm especially considering how it's a turn based but doesn't have a auto-farm system.

(for those who want to get into the story of FGO, just look it up on Youtube, do not play the game. )

When exploring, I often hesitate of where I go, because the game doesn't want you to explore said region yet, They will send Paimon telling you "Let's explore that later" only to yeet you off the cliff.

Speaking of Gameplay Paimon, she always setting us up. There was this purple spot, and she told us to blow it away to see what it is, only for it to be the eye of the storm... Its not like it was hard but it was annoying to fight it.

At least she let us control the time though.

Overall, I had fun with the game, I'm looking forward for Liyue and thank you for reading all of this as I was writing as I go so I know there is MANY grammar errors in this review.

Can't wait for Liyue because then I will get to see the character that convinced me to play the game.

[zeico]

Long post request: how do you feel about BG3?

I didn't realize a new patch came out on final fantasy for about a week because Baldur Gate o Baldur Gate

currently in act 3 and trying to stock up on shit since I recently cleared out the bank. I'm TRYING to hold myself to not starting a new character until I finish this one but I see so many monk items and i want themmmmm (I have a half elf monk open in character creator right now)

Since I played a lotttt of dragon age origins, parts of the structure of bg3 felt very familiar to me like the camp itself and like how u interact with the companions. Like coming home in a way.

I'm also playing 5e a lot so that part of the structure of it was very easy to adapt to. I do still have trouble with like certain interface things like oh man gotta select the version of the spells BEFORE TARGETTING NO GALE WHY ARE YOU RUNNING TO THEM GET BACK HERE WHY ARE YOU HITTING THEM WITH YOUR 8 STRENGTH BACKED STICK

But its great and I do like the changes made to better facilitate it being a VIDEO GAME. Like I'm a Divination Wizard. My main Thing is portent dice. (There's also detect thoughtsing my way through all social encounters which is SO GREAT honestly scratches an itch I've always wanted to do but it would be such a pain in the ass for tabletop. Like first first ever dnd character I cooked up was an illiterate mind reading sorcerer that like got by through just that. But that would be so annoying to do with like.... PEOPLE AT THE TABLE of like 'so im just constantly getting ur surface thoughts...... i can't entirely control this... i'm sorry....' )

ANYWAY portent dice!!!!! in bg3 they have it at level 6 you fulfill little prophecies to get ur dice back to make the big boss miss their BIG attack or make SURE you hit (or my favorite, make the rogue crit on a sneak attack) instead of having it that when u cast a divination spell u get a spell slot back. since theres so few divination spells especially like using IN COMBAT so I understand the change.

I also like the variety of shit you can do. like my partner is one to summon 9 creatures btw the whole party so theres a small army of creatures following their main party. (also several buffed with mage armor and everyone has a higher level aid cast on them so they also have a decent amount of health its really funni to watch) I like wrote off the summon guys moves because I just dont like to have extra guys usually.

Something I wish I did on my first playthrough tho was simply long resting more I think I fucked myself out of a lot of social link scenes in act 1 bc I straight up didn't rest enough. The game is like 'oh no time is ticking' but things aren't REALLY like that (cept for like... 2 instances I can think of) bc its a videogame and thats fine.

It WANTS you to use all your abilities and not be dum like me and just cantrip my way through most the first act 'just in case i need my slots later' why am i like this. both short and lone rest more and just use all your moves its FINE

speaking of social links and companions theyre all great. I love them all. I DO wish some things weren't like... romance locked it feels??? well more like you HAVE to reject them???? idk I had a scene with gale when he's like 'but we're not THAT close tho' and i felt bad bc like... I want to be wizard friends with you. I'm SORRY I'm so weak to both vampires and elves.

heard some shit about astarion having like so much content compared to all the other companions and man imma feel so spoiled on my playthroughs where i dont smooch the vampire. I do wish everyone else had more scenes too its a shame.

something about bg3 thats HILARIOUS to me personally is that its all like 'recruit allies against the cult' and in another irl campaign im in thats been in hiatus for years but I still hope to come back its REALLY similiar. Oh no a huge looming death cult threat to the city. oh no the city has its own fuckmess of bullshit to deal with. OH NO a shapeshifting killer. Anytime theres strong parallels to that campaign it sparks joy.

A few technical problems I've had tho were around switching characters in and out of the party. like in a building and I wanna run back to camp to tag in someone. Wait why are they on the roof????

Or I tag in someone and WHY ARE YOU CLIPPING THROUGH THE FLOOR? Tbh the game is so enjoyable I just sigh and say "Video. Game." out loud and load a save. Like the last time that was REALLY frustrating is when it just would NOT let me out of a restricted area like please I persuaded u 3 times let me go I was on my way OUT.

Also why do all these 8 strength men have abs. This is Wrong. I'm bad with figuring out the technical shit of modding but holy shit I need them to not have abs.

Anyway I had this and the character creator open for like 2 hours now so Imma start that now.

[danielnelsen]

The Veilguard Q&A thing: Which location are you most excited/hoping to explore in-game? Do you have your Rook(s) planned out to any degree? If so, would you share some details or ideas you have? Do you have any unpopular opinions about DAV so far?

answered the first one here

6. Do you have your Rook(s) planned out to any degree? If so, would you share some details or ideas you have?

only very broadly. definitely a grey warden, but i havent decided between elven mage and dwarven rogue. every time i think im leaning more towards one over the other i realise im actually not lmao. i think there'll be the most extra dialogue and story content for elves and i dont wanna miss out on anything (obviously it will be a complete story either way, but yknow), but dwarves are my favourite race. the only reason i dont play dwarves very often is because i love playing as a mage. i think my choice will probably come down to what the actual backgrounds of the characters are: if we can play a dwarf with like..a dwarfy background, rather than a surface dwarf from a mostly human population, then that might tip the scales. i dont think i could resist playing a dwarf from the ambassadoria or kal-sharok (not that the latter is gonna happen).

i think my rook will be nonbinary, but i havent decided between he/him or they/them. im interested in how well the game will handle neutral pronouns, but my characters are also always somewhat an extension of myself, especially on my first playthrough. i'll most likely stick with a default name and face, but i'll definitely play around with the body customisation. hopefully you can be real-life fat, not just popular-media fat (aka not fat). today's article also revealed that you can adjust 'glute and bulge size'. so. we'll see where that takes me. if im already making the rest of my body bigger, then.........

im going into the game expecting to romance davrin, but we know nothing about anyone's personalities yet so that's very easily subject to change. second choice is emmrich. i think my rook will be a bit more serious than i usually play my dragon age characters, especially since we're starting out already having had some real-world experience (im a grey warden, after all), but who knows, maybe once i start picking dialogue options i'll just feel the need to be sweet to everyone.

this is all very surface-level stuff, which is the only planning im gonna do. maybe i'll be more sure of my race option by the time the game releases, but everything else will just evolve based on how the game goes. i dont wanna get too attached to a character that wont end up fitting well into the story.

15. Do you have any unpopular opinions about DAV so far?

ok it took me a while to think of something because whenever i see a lot of people disagree with an opinion i have, i also see plenty of people who share my opinion... but i dont really want the inquisitor to have too big of a role. it makes sense for them to be there, and i especially understand people who romanced solas feeling like their inquisitor should have an important part in the story, but i think this is a bit of a limitation of having the plot directly follow from the events of dai. it wouldnt make sense for the inquisitor not to show up, but this isnt their game, it's rook's. id argue that it would make sense for them not to show up much because solas knows them already, but we've got harding as a companion, who solas is also very familiar with. that said, i expect the writers have probably learned from the reaction to hawke's cameo in dai and will do a better job of writing the inquisitor than they did with writing hawke lmao

[saatorubby]

Ive been putting people in the backrow of the history class lessons as pairs and i normally put people that are friends (or Leona and Malleus)

And today i put Ortho beside Malleus and now im wondering

How would Ortho be like around Mal? Would he be open and ((less)suffocatingly) welcoming like Kalim is with everyone? Would he ramble about himself to Malleus? Or would Ortho ask Malleus a milllion and one questions cus he wants to be friends with the fae that everyone keeps avoiding for some weird reason?

I can imagine Malleus teaching Ortho about gargoyles and grotesques a lot and maybe Malleus can tell Ortho stories about places he's been to and things he's seen people do (cause Ortho may soon pick up that he hasn't experienced these first hand) then Ortho would ask if they could do random friendship things together (idk myself uuuuuuhhhh-)

Ortho invites Malleus over to play games and watch shows and Malleus is EXSTATIC because not only has he made a new friend but they wanna hang out and do things together too???? Is this a dream????? He hopes he never wakes up back to his lonely royal duties

Idia in the middle of this all TERRIFIED that the UR+ character of the school is INSIDE HIS BEDROOM and is willing to watch anime with both of them even doe he has no idea of what it is and whether he'll like it or not (he doesn't care he just wants to be around more people)

And then Idia is somehow the most mature in the room not only because its his bedroom and he's kind of Malleus' teacher in how to play games, but because although his brother puts all AI in their world to shame he is still a child and somehow even the dragon fae that is possibly close to ten times his age is also a child-

Unfortunately for the school these two can get mischievous if encouraged enough by the situation and they will make it everyone else's problem.

Lilia discovers this and is joyful that Malleus has a friend and they get along so well (and he can't deny he loves their mischief even though it isn't good practice for Malleus)

If Idia ever catches feelings for Malleus, Ortho and Lilia would play matchmaker till Malleus catches on (cus he probably wouldn't be able to tell what's going on at first)

(And then there's Ortho being a robot, meaning he will live longer than most creatures so long as his integral parts are intact. Meaning Malleus has a friend that won't be lost easily to time-)

(But then there's also the possibility that Ortho could one day ask to be human again, and with Malleus being one of the literal 5 strongest mages, who's to say he can't do that)

I'm so so so sorry. I know I'm super late, I had a few things going on with my life. Especially a bunch of entrance exams for college (which I thankfully passed, but have two more in December), so I haven't had time to write in a while. But here are my thoughts on their relationship.

OMG, yess ortho and Mal would be besties. from mals birthday boy card voice lines ortho even got him an ice shaving machine though it was cutting edge tech so Mal didn't know how to use it :(

they would be menace together but since both of them has the ability to look like a kicked puppy, no one has the heart to tell them off

Idia would be having the worst time of his life. he's so tired of being the mature one over the fae who has been alive for 10000000 years (jk 700 only). mal and ortho have the ability to pout and they will.

ortho will teach mal everything about humans and machines though malleus doesn't always get it he's happy to listen to his new friend

Diasomnia is in disarray, Lilia is happy over the possibility to adopt another child, Sebek is crying over how WaKaSaMa has contracted a disease that is leading him to act this way, and Silver, despite having great difficulty in keeping awake, is the only sane one in the whole dorm. And the rest? they believe Ortho to be the newest royal of the briar valley. He's the prince's new brother and therefore their new god prince.

Idia and Mal together will be so funny. I know it'd be some cliche anime trope with Idia falling into Mal's arms (with the help of Lilia's magic) since Mal is a price and, Idia is internally freaking out.

Angst potential? angst potential.

Being immortal (almost) ortho and Mal will have to go through the losses of their loved ones, I think Idia being gone will hit Ortho the hardest because he's literally programmed to love Idia just as much original Ortho loved him, and will probably send him into an existential crisis.

And by now we all know how Mal reacted to the thought of his loved ones leaving him.

so angst buddies. Cursed to be left alone for eternity.

[euclyta]

Well since you asked (and I've kinda been wondering about it) — what's chocobo's mystery dungeon like, especially compared to the pmd series?

LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

im putting this under a readmore because i (redacted)

so i gotta give a bit of context first: there is an entire spin-off series of final fantasy games all protagonized by a tiny little chocobo. i bring this up first because there were two dungeon crawlers on the playstation- these set up the regular returning elements of the chocobo series (namely some main characters), and it even runs with the trend of having cid in every ff game!

the specific one i love is Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon, it was on the wii and its a very basic dungeon crawling, PMD-esque game, with a hunger meter, monster houses, etc. i think the thing that sets it apart from other dungeon crawlers gameplay-wise is that it has a job or class system much like mainline final fantasy games do, in which you unlock access to eight different jobs that completely change up the playstyle AND the difficulty of the game due to their own niches (my favorite job for example, white mage, is very high difficulty until endgame)

for me the main reason why i want more people to know about it and try to give it a chance even if its just via an emulator is the story. i might be biased here but i first played this game when i was 9 years old and it still lives rent free in my brain to this day (im 21 now for context)

to not give any spoilers, the main premise is that chocobo and cid are treasure hunters looking for a gemstone; upon finding it, they're suddenly transported to a town in seemingly a completely different world where the citizens constantly lose all their memories everytime the belltower rings

the very first night they spend in this world, a meteor crashes in from the sky, turning out to be an egg from which a baby is born. this baby then proceeds to somehow start bringing people's memories back by allowing chocobo to enter their minds

this is also why i think its such a cool concept, because it uses memories and people's minds as the main set up for dungeon crawling, even representing memories as scattered puzzle pieces. and everytime you are inside someone's memories, you can hear snippets of their thoughts as you go along, ending in the full memory being fully restored when you exit

there are a ton of memory dungeons, one for almost every npc in town, and they introduce a thing called "special rule" dungeons for non-story ones where you have to play with certain gimmicks the whole way through (1 hp, perma blindness, enemy gauntlet, stuff like that). and every single one has those snippets of lore and foreshadowing you gotta piece together, little by little, to understand the truth behind the town

for the characters, the cast is very colorful and i think everybody genuinely feels very human. granted the voice acting isnt the best but it adds so much to the charm of it. plus the designs and all the official artwork there is is just breathtaking (ive only now been noticing there are a few elements in my own art that are subconsciously inspired from this game's artstyle)

i HAVE to mention raffaello here because now that i have a bigger understanding of how tropes and storytelling work, i can say for sure that he is just so, SO crazily well written; its not all in the text, but all the worldbuilding comes together eventually and that's when it really hits

and of course i gotta bring up the soundtrack- its almost entirely comprised of arrangements of older final fantasy songs and each and everyone of them is MAGICAL. its remained as one of my favorite soundtracks for years, so much that i realized that the official disc release was incomplete and went out and put together all 42 songs in the highest quality i could to make sure it doesnt become lost (this is a very reocurring theme with this game in particular)

i want people to play it and i want to talk about it. partially its because this is my favorite game. but also because its been THIS close to being a major case of lost media. there are SO many things that have been lost to time because they were japan only or they were overwritten on the internet (including the entire japanese chocobo series website portal, thats like three different unique websites with tons of never saved artwork they nuked). so much of it i still remember but i have zero way to access it anymore and it eats me from the inside out.

its a common theme of things being lost to time with this game but its also incredibly sad and funny because the entire theme of the game is things being lost to time. ouroboros. time is a flat circle.

and... here is where i come in talking about the remake- chocobo's mystery dungeon everybuddy and why i heavily recommend the original over it

so... the original wii game had a japan only ds port with some new elements and stuff. but the main thing with it is that they changed a LOT of the story; same plot, different execution, to fit in with a ds format. the problem with this is that the remake was based off of this version and not the original one, which leads to a LOT of serious and emotional moments being gutted and sped through.

the gameplay itself is fine, they actually made it even more pmd-like by adding a companion system, and they upped the difficulty a lot if you dont know what youre doing. but the story changes genuinely kill it for me if im being honest. they retconned what made me sad about the ending at the cost of everything else (and even then im angry because that took away from the intensely emotional ending that still had me crying like a baby LAST WEEK)

in general though. i just think this game is so beautifully crafted. this game originally came out in 2007 and it still holds up SO well. the graphics are very cute and stylized, but everything is so detailed that every single part of the world feels lived in. the town is very small but i think its why it always feels like coming home. huge recommend and i refuse to die until ive convinced at least one person to play it through to the end (its been 12 years and im still trying)