#Genuinely love how all the dragons have names. Really gives them the “Final/Major Boss” feel ya know?

[otiksimr]

Earth Dragon Araba

[gascon-en-exil]

I Liked Fates Before It Was Cool!: Revelation Part 3

Prologue

Opening Chapters

Revelation Part 1

Revelation Part 2

Chapters 20-Endgame, in which the Fire Emblem is a chainsaw.

Chapter 20 + 21

I bet this scene looks wonderfully silly if Takumi is promoted to kinshi knight.

I’m going to be combining many of the chapters in this post, because even though they take a while to play through there’s not much to them in terms of story. Of course Anthony is evil and Corrin has to kill him, although not before Anankos turns him into a Faceless (or was he one all along?). I think I would have preferred the humor of fighting him as a village with ludicrous stats over the sympathy grab they go for with him. It’s also worth pointing out that it’s the three older Nohrians who call out Corrin for trusting Anthony first, putting some of that healthy distrust they show off in Conquest to work again. I don’t like that we’re apparently meant to find Corrin’s endlessly trusting nature endearing because it’s what brought this group together and not, you know, self-insert narrative privilege, but whatever. None of FE14′s routes could go forward at certain points if Corrin didn’t occasionally grab the idiot ball, and at least this time they had the foresight to come up with a backup plan.

And I am actually glad that they did so with Anthony, because while Chapter 20 is more standard Valla fare the trap they fall into in 21 comes with a clever premise that’s fun to play around. I dislike how the chapters continue to be loaded down with entirely too many drops and chests as I mentioned last time, but I find that as long as you plot out routes for your units before you start the size of these maps isn’t a problem. 

One final question, since I didn’t bring it up in Birthright: why is the S rank naginata, which is obtained in Chapter 20 in Revelation, called a Waterwheel? Just...why? I have never found an explanation for this.

Chapter 22 + 23

Well of course she has, just look at those growths.

I find Arete intriguing as a character, though not so much either version that appears on screen - the brainwashed servant of Anankos or the sentimental dying mother - but rather the idea of her as she existed against the backdrop of the volatile Nohrian court. That element of her has to pieced together from inferences and bits of information in supports, but it’s clearly there. I fully understand why Revelation includes characters like Arete and Anthony. They have to convey over only a few chapters the nature of Anankos’s rule over Valla and its dominated subjects as well as make for credible threats to Corrin as they trek through the kingdom. This is the main reason why Arete’s real characterization is, much like Garon’s, extremely minimal, because the pain it inflicts on Azura is meant to demonstrate how Anankos operates. It’s a natural lead-in to the antagonists inside Gyges, certainly.

Kind of a shame though that the most lasting impression Arete leaves on the player is that of a boss who just will not give up, seeing as you have to fight her three times. I can’t think of another antagonist in the series who’s fought so often over such a short span of chapters. What’s worse, neither of these maps is very engaging; the first borrows the forest-burning Dragon Veins from Midori’s paralogue without the gimmick of chasing down the boss, while the second demonstrates something everyone already knew, that turn-based platforming is not fun. Scarlet’s return as an enemy leaves no impact unless Corrin or Ryoma fights her, so that’s not working too well either.

Chapter 24 + 25

Chapter 24’s gimmick may not be original, but an optional stealth mission works substantially better here than it does in Path of Radiance’s earlygame since Revelation is already well-established at this point as being one long experiment with gimmicks. I also like how the door mechanic plays into Corrin’s desire to trust Mikoto - and that the last door rewards players willing to go against the desperately trusting personality of their self-insert. Plus, it’s not a complete cheat; one of the first things Mikoto tells Corrin in the chapter is the blue doors are the correct ones, so her contradiction at the ends rings false even on the level of a simple puzzle. For what it’s worth mentioning I never bother with the stealth option here just as I don’t in FE9, because it’s tedious and requires a very specific setup and execution for a reward that’s not really worth it.

I find Mikoto difficult to engage with on an emotional level however, for much the same reason that her death didn’t resonate very strongly with me. It helps this time that all of the Hoshidan royals verbally react to seeing her again, but for Corrin this feels like a less substantial meeting than Azura’s reunion with Arete. Azura and the Hoshidans have memories of these women and the positive influence they played in their lives, whereas Corrin has, what, a few days’ worth of interactions with their mother and some very hazy memories from before their capture? I do like how Mikoto reveals at the end that Corrin is Vallite royalty, not because it adds even more to the super special Avatar status or because it establishes that Corrin and Azura are cousins (surprise sort-of incest, yay!) but because it re-contextualizes their place in the world both connected to and apart from the other royal families. It does absolutely do those two other things and is rather awkward on that basis, of course, but Vallite Corirn is able to comfortably exist in between their two families while still having a place to call their own. A ruined, empty place, but that’s for the epilogue.

At first I was planning on doing Chapter 25 as a separate entry, but then I played through it and realized that it’s just more moving platforms and hard enemies with another family reunion boss that’s nowhere near as emotionally affecting as the previous two. We see nothing of Sumeragi prior to this chapter aside from his brief death scene flashback, and unlike Arete his role as a parental figure overlaps significantly with someone else’s. I don’t get a strong sense of how important this reunion is to anyone except maybe Ryoma, and half of that comes from remembering their one-on-one back in Chapter 5. Come to think of it, the disguised Sumeragi has that quick cameo on the Birthright ship map, right? I suppose that’s technically the only appearance of anything from Valla on that route, although in retrospect it’s even more random for him to have shown up there. So, yeah, harder chapter, but can’t really compare to what came just before as a story moment.

Chapter 26

Betrayed by a Jagen! Who’d have thought we’d ever see the day...unless you consider Orson in FE8 a Jagen, that is.

As big twists in FE go Gunter’s doesn’t quite measure up to some others, like the Belhalla barbecue or Nasir in FE9, but it took me some thinking to properly parse out why this isn’t as effective a climactic reveal despite adequate use of foreshadowing and setting. It actually ties into one of the overall problems I have with Revelation and another time it compares unfavorably to Radiant Dawn (and I’m sorry to keep bringing it up if you hate FE10 or haven’t played it, but the parallels really are apt). One of the biggest genuine criticisms of that game’s plot, particularly near the end, is that the story gets too big for itself and spends all of its final chapters throwing at the player numerous major reveals about the plot and setting, many of them not directly related to each other and only immediately involving some dozen or so of a cast of playable and/or named characters about ten times that size. Like Revelation the pacing is utterly frantic, and moreover it gives the player the impression that in order to understand the Tellius setting as a whole and what themes the developers of that duology were aiming for you have to be intimately familiar with the content of Radiant Dawn’s endgame specifically, which...yeah, you kind of do. How that could have been better handled would be a subject for another post, but suffice it to say that the apparent conclusion that Sephiran did every bad thing (except racism) ever in Tellius as a means of tying everything together rings hollow even in-universe. 

The narrative approach of the Valla chapters is similar, but most of its big moments are clearly aiming to be character-driven, fueled by the relationships between the royals and their loved ones forced into fighting them. As I brought up earlier in this post however not many of those moments land because of another major problem Revelation shares with Radiant Dawn, that there’s been almost no time to develop any of those relationships with the plot moving at such a speed. You’d have to have seen Gunter’s supports - which aren’t even accessible on this route - to be able to appreciate at all his history with Corrin, since from the story text of Revelation and Conquest too for that matter there’s little to suggest anything beyond a straightforward master-servant relationship until the very moment when Corrin is pleading with Gunter to resist Anankos’s possession. Without that context the most relatable emotional moment of this chapter comes from Ryoma’s anger at learning the identity of Scarlet’s murderer, which we’re clearly not meant to dwell on much because that might imply Ryoma is capable of holding a grudge. It doesn’t help either that Gunter’s genuine hatred of Garon gets muddied by the Anankos possession angle, something that didn’t come into play until years after he began grooming Corrin as an instrument of his revenge. At least Takumi didn’t go off the deep end until after being possessed.

As for the chapter...ugh, I’m just so tired of this route. Mikoto’s ward actively discourages you from splitting up your forces to go after the absurd number of chests that line this map, and this late in the game there’s almost no reason not to just rush Gunter. Funny that’s he’s pretty underwhelming for an endgame boss - that’s a Jagen for you.

Chapter 27 + Endgame

A question I’ve never seen anyone else ask before: why is Anankos wearing a Buddha mask anyway? It’s apparently just a wall fixture in the castle that he’s hiding behind, and while I get that they wanted to conceal his true size and cosmic horror features for Endgame in the fashion of JRPG bosses with multiple phases the mask is entirely unexplained. Is it meant to be ironic that a dragon styling himself as a god is wearing the face of the major figure of a religion/philosophy with no deities?

I will say that the mechanics of the final battle match the concept of Revelation perfectly. You’re strongly encouraged to split up your forces into three groups to attack all of Anankos’s weak points quickly, which matches up well with the route’s theme of Corrin (and Azura) + Hoshido + Nohr. It’s also not one of those final bosses that’s easier than what came immediately before, so additional kudos for that. Also, Garon’s death on this route is mercifully swift, ripe for even more trauma for the Nohrian royals that no one’s got any time to dwell on.

Aside from those remarks...bleh. The story may conclude faster thanks to lacking the near-death sequences of Birthright and Conquest, but that pace just pushes forward to the very end with Corrin being crowned ruler of a kingdom with no people...except Hoshido and Nohr both cede territory to Valla so that they can have some citizens, because that’s reasonable and won’t cause any confusion or hard feelings. I even took the trouble to S rank Azura, believing incorrectly that it would in some way be reflected in the ending as the only instance of supports in Fates affecting the main plot. Nope, Azura still rejects the rule of Valla and passes it off to her husband as if nothing were different. Then everyone hugs and it’s a little bit gay and the series main theme plays and oh God I’m just glad this route is over. But hey, a chainsaw Fire Emblem is bizarrely badass if you’re into that kind of thing.

PS: Chapter 10 is still The Worst.

Next time: ending and final thoughts on Revelation

[bahamutgames]

Afterthoughts S: Definitive Edition

Game: DRAGON QUEST XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age Definitive Edition (September 27, 2019)

Console: Xbox One (Via Xbox Game Pass)

Hey, it’s me again! It feels like it’s been forever since I last beat a big game with a lot of stuff to talk about. But the last time was actually only a month ago with New Super Lucky’s Tale. In the mean time I’ve been playing a couple of smaller games, tiny indie titles, a few fighting games. But nothing that I couldn’t summarize in a small twitter thread (which you can follow my twitter here if you want to see my art or just support me shilling my other accounts.)

Anyway! Just got done with another major RPG! After Nier Automata, I knew this was a game I really wanted to play before my Game Pass subscription expired. And after toiling away at it for the past month, I’m finally ready to give you all my thoughts on Dragon Quest 11!  As always, this isn’t meant to be review. But just a general throw up of my thoughts and feelings after beating the game, because I love talking so much. As such, this shouldn’t be taken as a serious critique of the game, and shouldn’t be expected to be well written or thought out. Please do check out the game if it interests you at all!

SPOIL WARNING FOR DRAGON QUEST 11 AHEAD! GONNA TALK ABOUT THE WHOLE PACKAGE HERE, AS A FAIR WARNING

Opening

Prior to this, the only Dragon Quest game I had played was DQ 8: Journey of the Cursed King on Nintendo 3DS. I liked it, and thought it was pretty good. But wasn’t perfect and felt a little unnecessarily tedious to get through. But when 11 came out, I saw a ton of people saying it was an amazing RPG. People I followed who weren’t really into RPGs (as far as I knew) were raving about it. So I was really interested to give it a shot myself, but didn’t have the chance until I got game pass.

Stuff I liked

Where to begin? This is a 60 hour game so there’s a lot to talk about. I think first and foremost I just wanna gush about how pretty this game is! The graphics are amazing, I love how the environments are realistic but super brightly colored and saturated, making for ton of gorgeous areas that I couldn’t stop myself from taking pictures of. And Akira Toriyama’s just being placed in these beautiful worlds look so good and amazing. Without a doubt, especially considering its more on the realistic side, this is one of the nicest looking RPGs I’ve played.

Speaking of which, I really loved the character designs. Toriyama does fantastic work that I really like with pretty much everything, but his work on RPGs always tend to be my favorites. The designs for all the main teammates looked super good and all the monsters were really cool looking too. He really knows how to design cool looking dragons, this guy just gets it. On the same not of characters, the characters are fantastic. I really love everyone on the main team (my favorite was probably Serena.) They’re all super fun and I love the way they interact and really seem like a group of good friends. It was great to see how they all interact and work together. A scene that particularly sticks out is when they all forge a new sword of light together, which was fantastic.

I also thought the story and world was cool. Similar to my thoughts on DQ8, the story is pretty simple and easy to follow, but that doesn’t take away from it. It kind of feels like a fairy tale told on a grand scale. I love the idea of the Luminary, and Serenica being reborn into twins is awesome, Erdwin’s Lantern was a cool idea. And of course, Yggdrasil being a huge ass tree flying in the sky is absolutely the best thing ever, that’s so cool. ALSO, I have to give special shoutouts to Mordegon’s Sword of Darkness, coolest thing on the entire planet, I love swords with freaky giant eyes frantically looking around on them.

Lastly, I really liked the gameplay and combat of this game. I thought the way battles are set up as still being traditional turnbased combat but with the ability to freely walk around the field and look at the arenas was awesome. And getting to walk up to teammates to see their thoughts mid battle is super cool. Of course I loved all the different spells you can learn, and all the abilities you get through level ups. A new feature in this one (at least it’s new to me) is the Pep Up state, which is also cool. Particularly because it allows for Crossover Attacks between teammates, which is always the best thing an RPG can include, but most RPGs just choose not to. But DQ11 has it in spades and it ROCKS, there’s so much cool and genuinely useful crossover moves I didn’t even get to see all of them. And a final cool piece of the battle system was the ability to actually change equipment and teammates mid battle. I’m unsure if I’ve ever played a game that allowed for this (though I know they exist) but I thought it really made it feel like you could make use of your whole team and all your equipment. Being able to change teammates and what weapons they use for appropriate strategies was super fun.

Stuff I didn’t like

And, I did really like DQ11. I think I might even like it more than 8. There’s a ton of improvements. I feel like it’s less stingy with EXP, I feel like it was all around just easier to navigate and handle. But I still had a fair amount of issues with the game. Particularly in the- say it with me if you know what’s coming- post Yggdrasil content!! Prior to Yggdrasil, the game was buttery smooth. I flew through the whole thing and loved every second of it with minimal roadblocks (as opposed to DQ8 which roadblocked me at every boss.) And by the time I reached Yggdrasil, I realized I had been playing for 30 hours and didn’t even realize it! That’s awesome and pretty impressive considering I’ve played shorter games that felt like double that.

So, the game starts to crawl a little bit before Yggdrasil in my opinion. Once you have to start looking for the orbs, the game just kinda teeters for a bit there randomly. Like, the orbs are meant to be kind of a big deal, and yet the purple and whichever one you find in the bird dungeon thing (lol) basically get no fanfare. It felt like they were forgotten about and just had to be thrown in at the last second. Now, you could argue that the whole mural thing and the bird boss were those orbs’ fanfare. But it still felt so odd to me. Then, Yggdrasil falls.

I liked the post Yggdrasil stuff, I really did. I thought it was all pretty great from a story and character point of view. And getting to see the world that was so beautiful be corrupted and filled with powerful monsters was neat. I loved Sylvando’s whole parade thing, and every one else’s was cool too. But that’s kinda it. The whole section just drags along as you play with most of your team just gone and it goes so slow. And a lot of it really felt like it could have been condensed down a bit, I mean they don’t even show you what happened to Serena. Which I guess was because of what happened to Veronica but, still?

Again, it’s good story content and I don’t necessarily want any of it removed. But damn man, it really grinds to halt. And I also felt like it got really brutal during this part for no reason, kind of out of nowhere. The skeleton spectral sentinel, Gloomivore, and Booga were MASSIVE hurdles for me to get over randomly. And it got so bad I genuinely considered dropping the game because I just didn’t have the patience. It felt like an NES game again out of nowhere. Now, I do want to blame this on maybe not use the character builder right, or something. But still it was just so annoying out of nowhere. Thankfully I found the perfect strategy of Oomphle on Hendrick, Sap on the enemy, then have Hendrick spam Unbridled Blade, which was foolproof and beat every boss after that.

Thankfully once Serena joins your team again, and everyone is there (minus one aha) the game really picks up steam again. Everything after that was a breeze and went by without any issues. I think I hit one roadblock afterwards and it was pretty easy to just grind past. So I don’t know what happened there. The only other part I have a problem with is I do feel like the game ends rather abruptly. Like, not majorly. But I wouldn’t have minded seeing more about what happens between Eleven and Gemma or something. But that’s what the post game content is for I guess!

Some other nitpicks are that, I didn’t care about the music again. I think I liked more music in this one than DQ8, but still I’d be hard pressed to actually remember any songs from this game. I’m listening to the OST as we speak and other than the battle theme, I feel like I don’t remember what they sound like at all. And that’s probably cause I hate the composer but hey what can you do? I also wish it was easier to find Metal Slimes. I know they’re meant to be rare but I would’ve appreciated some appearing in the overworld just anywhere outside of the dragon chase scene? Weird to me you have randomly encounter them on the side of other enemeis.

Outside of that, uh. I think the Tockles were SUPER tick-tocked onto the game? It seemed like they were going to be massively important, but they just weren’t? I felt like you could’ve removed them and it would have made no change. I also thought there was gonna be WAY more time travel stuff. The scenes where you see the past are some of the best imo. Meeting Chalky from the past, playing as Rab in his kingdom, helping Eleven’s dad pass on. But these don’t feel enough to name the game “Echoes of an Illusive Age” if that makes sense? It just felt like there was supposed to be way more stuff with the Tockles and Time Travel stuff that just didn’t happen. 

Now that I’m remembering it, it felt like there was TONS of stuff built up that just didn’t really go anywhere. Another big one is the whole deal with Erdwin’s lanter? Who was the guy who cut it in half? What was the deal with the lantern? Why did it fall? What was up with the dark Tockle? Wanna give any information on that? No? Okay. But if I had to guess, these all are explored heavily in the post game content, which is cool but sadly I did not have the time to play it. Maybe one day I’ll pick up a copy of the game and play through it fully.

Final Thoughts

Yeah it was good.

I am a huge fan of RPGs, but Dragon Quest just hadn’t fully clicked with me. I played 8 and liked it, but wasn’t blown away. I wouldn’t say I was blown away by this one either, but I am certainly very impressed and am eagerly anticipating whatever Dragon Quest 12 ends up being. This series is super founded in tradition (even if that tradition is detrimental to the gameplay imo?) but this game felt like a true evolution of that tradition while still holding onto it in the right ways. Are there ways to improve the game? Oh yeah, tons! But this is already a good step in the right direction. I will certainly be visiting the series more eventually (particularly 3, 4, and 5 are ones I’m curious about.) But I will probably emulate them to cheat when I run into roadblocks again.

After playing this, I also went back to play as Hero in Smash. They are still one of the best, if not my favorite character in the game. I think they are so fun and I love the randomness element that comes with them. Their stage is great too!

Also, seeing this gorgeous RPG with Akira Toriyama art in it made me REALLY want a new Blue Dragon. Like, REALLY bad. Please Microsoft if you’re listening PLEASE give us a new Blue Dragon. I don’t care what genre of RPG it is just give us a new one please I’m begging. Make it look like DQ11 and it will be the best game of all time.

Okay but enough of that. Thanks for skimming through or just letting me talk for a bit. For some reason the longer I held this one off, the less and less I felt like talking about it? Which is strange cause it’s a big game and I felt like I had tons to say during it. The only reason I even finished this and decided to post it was cause I already started it. Basically what I’m saying is that don’t be surprised if I just start making REALLY teeny tiny posts here instead of big rambles like this one.

But until then, I have work to do. I played through the Ty 2 HD remake on Switch recently and loved it all over again. I will maybe talk about that later. At the moment I’m playing Tales of Vesperia. Thanks again for putting up with me ramble about games, see you next time! Play something you love that puts you in an adventurous mood!

[occupyvenus]

The good, the bad, the ugly, the incredibly STUPID and the thin silver lining

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SPOILERS FOR LEAKED EPISODE 6 UNDER THE CUT  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IF YOU ARE ON MOBILE, APPROACH WITH CAUTION !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME.  FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME. FUCK ME.

Why didn’t Dickhead & Douchebag just break into my house, take a giant dump in my living room and then ask me to pay for it?  Why don’t Dipshit & Dumbass just put a bullet in my head and end my misery???? WHAT THE UNHOLY FUCK

Okay, that’s not really enough, but just to get this out of the way. Let’s start: 

THE GOOD

Finally a dragon died. Only real good thing in the episode. Undead Ice-Dragon is kinda cool, I’ll admit that.

Some of the interactions of the let’s-go-die-beyond-the-wall-like-a-bunch-of-fucking-idiots-squad were funny? - interesting? I guess? 

The differences between Tyrion and the D are getting more profound. He’ll turn on her in season 8. Thank god. Fuck god for saving all the interesting plotlines for later. 

The undead ice bear was pretty sweet as well. 

Jon looking hot in his furs.

THE BAD

“Bad” is too weak a word for all the bullshit that happened. All of that was moved to the “incredibly stupid” section. It can only be used for the things that weren’t on screen: 

No Bran. Couldn’t he simply end this amazingly-fucking-idiotic-piece-of-shit-ooc feud between his sisters? Both Sansa and Arya know about his visions, why isn’t one of them just going to him for some info? But that would make too much sense, so D&D cut Bran from the plot, hoping we are all to stupid to notice. 

No Cersei, no Jaime, no Euron. (Yes, that’s bad. The Cersei-stuff is the only thing that was kinda thrilling this season.)

Plotlines that were completely forgotten: Euron having Yara, Grey Worm and the Unsullied in Casterly Rock, as stated above no Bran, no Theon. Establishing a plot point just to let lie unused for the rest of the season is bad writing.

THE UGLY

Jon didn’t choose to go to Kings Landing. Blondie just put him on a boat while he was knocked out. Not happy about it happening, but at least he didn’t ditch WF for the stupid stupid dragon pit meeting by choice. 

The Wight hunt was as close to filler as you can get in a show like this. Half the episode was Benjen showing up was completely useless, if Jon had just hopped on the dragon with anyone else he wouldn’t have been left behind. No major human character died. (Thoros is not as important as say Tormund). 

BERIC FUCKING DONDARRION TEASING A FUCKING BOSS-FIGHT WITH THE KNIGHT KING ONLY FOR IT NOT TO HAPPEN. LIKE FUCK YOU TOO, BERIC. FUCK YOU.

THE INCREDIBLY STUPID 

I know they are playing loose with the timeline BUT HOW LONG WAS THE SUICIDE SQUAD WAITING FOR THE D IN THE MIDDLE OF THAT FROZEN LAKE? A couple of days, right? Gendry getting back to Eastwatch, a raven flying to Dragonstone, the D getting her dragons and flying beyond the Wall. How long did they camp there? 

Speaking of that: If they Army of the dead is close enough to the wall, that Gendry can sprint back there in one go.... Shouldn’t they just breach the wall within the next 24 hours tops? 

How did they fight off the Wights for so long? They only way to kill them is with fire, there is no reason for them to stop moving when cut down with a normal blade. 

Again the story beat with Benjen showing up was so fucking useless. It didn’t accomplish anything (Jon is super dead, btw. The fucker fell into icecold water, he like froze to death. Believe me it happened, even if they didn’t show that. Don’t let the show fool you.) other than killing his character in a completely senseless way. What? There’s no time to get on the horse? Just like there was no time for Jon to get on the fucking dragon?

Fuck, if one of those bright minds would have thought about taking a bow and some dragonglass-arrow heads with them, they could have killed the night king and the rest of the White Walkers right then and there. But no. That would have taken some logical thinking and planning.  

Beric teasing a fucking showdown with the Night King. Yeah Beric tell out

Why can’t they bring Thoros back to Eastwatch when they haven’t even come that far???  I mean what the fuck??? 

Under the assumption that there is no twist involved: WHAT THE FUCK ARE THEY DOING TO ARYA? LIKE WHAT THE FUCK? I don’t really know what else to say about this... 

Rant under the assumption that there is no twist involved: I was this close to throwing up, like I was seriously physically sick over Jon being all “D*ny, My queen, they will if they see you for what you really are” uugggghhhh .... *kotz* so eine elendige scheiße. Fuck. ... 

Please keep reading the next section because those two “plots” are so extremely stupid I can’t believe they are actually really happening the way it seems right now.

THE THIN SILVER LINING

Still not sure if I’m buying Jon’s “feelings” for the D. Nothing we saw from Kit’s performance so far (especially last episode) build up to that. Plus, Tormund reminding him how many people died because of Mance’s stubbornness. Jon didn’t give two shits about the dragons last episode, there is no reason for him to be that heartbroken now. If his targ-blood was supposed to give him an instant connection to those fucking ugly fire-breathing lizards he could have just answered “yes, they are beautiful” last episode. But he didn’t. If he was supposed to be super in love with the D, he could have turned around when leaving. But he didn’t, quite contrary they emphasised that by Jorah turning around. Nothing about Jon so far suggested that he actually has any kind of serious feelings for her. They didn’t write in a single scene where both of them bonded as people.  Jon was still refusing to kneel last episode, the only two things that could have changed his minds: 1. Tormund talking shit about Mance. 2. witnessing how effective the D’s dragons are against the WW.  Still holding out hope for Jon playing her to get her help. It doesn’t make any sense otherwise (though would that stop Dickhead&Douchebag ???) Plus, Beric doubling down on “we are not fighting for a king/queen on a chair, we are fighting for life against death” and Jon doubling down on his former nights watch vows of shielding the realms of men ... makes it hard to believe that Jon would suddenly decide to serve “his queen” .Uuuughhhh..... I can’t believe I had to hear that with my own to ears. Can I sue Dickhead&Douchebag for compensation for my mental and emotional pain?  His behaviour towards the D after waking up, taking her hand, calling her his queen, appearing heartbroken about Viserion’s death, TAKING THE FUCKING BLAME FOR THIS MISSION WHEN HE ONLY WENT BECAUSE THE D REFUSED TO HELP HIM BEFORE, praising her, etc is so over the top, standing in such a vast contrast to his behaviour the previous episodes, it’s hard to take it as genuine. It’s so fucking cheesy, I never thought I would ever hear something like that out of Jon's mouth. If they had taken it only a nudge down I might be ready to buy it ... but like this??? I’m crossing my finger that Jon is only saying what the D wants to hear. Why would he call her “D*ny” ??? Seriously why? They never addressed each other on a first-name-basis.  He hasn’t called her anything but “Your Grace” until now. They could have easily written in a scene where the D tells him “you don’t have to call me your grace”, for example after the dragon-petting, to make it more believable. Jon first declines, but now makes good on that offer, going a step farther and calling her by a nickname. This came out of nowhere for Jon (the D had been making hearteyes at him, but the other way around? Naah.), it makes absolutely no sense.  I’ll say it again: Season 7 j0nerys can be described with two words: Obvious and superficial. It smells of red herring, it still does, because other than the hard-core-shippers the audience had no time or reason to actually get emotionally involved in this relationship. There was no “human moment” between them so far, none that didn’t end with their “kneel!” “no,fuck you” dilemma. 

If this amazingly-fucking-stupid-useless-piece-of-shit-ooc starkbowl is a trick to end LF, Sansa doesn’t know about it. Arya is so ooc and insufferable right now, it only makes sense if she (and maybe Bran) came up with this convoluted plan to get one over LF somehow. Why and How I don’t know, but it would be a nice enough twist to justify this giant turd of a plot. Maybe to get LF to feel safe, believing that Sansa has no other choice but to rely on him? Still holding out hope, because Arya just can’t be that stupid (THE LAST THING SHE SAW OF SANSA WAS HER PLEADING FOR THEIR FATHER’S LIFE BEING RESTRAINED BY THE KINGSGUARD AND FAINTING AFTER THEY CUT OFF THEIR FATHER'S HEAD). But all those interactions make me believe that at least Sansa doesn’t know about the plan. I hope, like really hope, that this will be resolved that way. Arya will kill LF next episode, revealing that she was playing LF and Sansa (he’s always following you around, I couldn’t risk him noticing something, I had to leave you in the dark) with a tender, lovely sister moment where apologizes for all the shit she said, saying that she doesn’t hold Sansa responsible for their father's death. I swear to all the goods, if that was just Arya, without a hidden agenda, I’m rooting for her to die on the show (book!Arya would never be like this. never). Her character is dead to me if that really is what she thinks and how she’s feelings. 

To sum this up: The Wight Hunt was the most stupid thing ever. If both Jon and Arya are truly thinking and feeling how they are show to be .... I will lay my two favourite book characters to rest. I want all of them to die. I hope the White Walkers win and kill every single living thing in Westeros. FUck D&D. Seriously, fuck them. You can tell that they only meant to have 7 seasons, but then decided to stretch the last one, write in some senseless, useless bullshit and then cut it in half. 

Unless they are turning a lot of this around in s8, grrm should be given the right to cut of their fucking, incompetent heads for ruining his life’s work.  

There’s probably more, but for now I’ll leave you with this. 

[luzrof-rulay]

Tales of Berseria - Post Game Thoughts

Topics:

Introduction

Gameplay (graphics, systems, all that technical jazz)

Plot

Sidequests

Characters

Character Relationships

Music

In Relation to Tales of Zestiria

In Conclusion

  Introduction

After playing Tales of Zestiria, I found myself yearning to know more about the world’s lore – especially since we only see one continent during the game. Having heard that Tales of Berseria is set in the same world, but 1,000 years prior to the events of ToZ, of course I wanted to play it.

And last night, I after about 40 hours of gameplay, I defeated the final boss.

This will be a post much like my Post-Game Thoughts for ToZ – a collection of my thoughts immediately after finishing the game. I also tweeted a few vagueish reactions whilst playing the game, so take a look at that thread if you want to!

I’ve tried to keep this post spoiler-free where I could, but there are a couple of sections which contain spoilers - I’ve marked them with asterisks like so: *** spoilers ***. The spoilers generally come at the end of a topic section, so if you’d rather avoid spoilers, just go on to the next topic section.

For a short general review: 4/5 stars. It took me a while to get into the story, and much longer to care much about the characters (aside from one or two from ToZ bias). I’d definitely recommend playing it if you’re a Tales Of fan.

As for whether to play it before or after ToZ if you’ve not played it: if you want the story in chronological order, go for ToB first; if you want a more heart-breaking experience, play ToZ first.

(I’ll elaborate later.)

Now, onto my thoughts.

Gameplay

Okay I know I said that ToZ was beautiful when I played it, but ToB is gorgeous too. Somehow it feels like they’ve managed to smoothen the camera and the motions of the characters to look even more natural. I also loved the 3D cutscenes which showed the characters in battle – they looked fluid and realistic.

The designs for the locations didn’t fail to look amazing, either. Even though there are a few locations we already know from ToZ, they managed to show new sides of those locations, giving more insight to how they have changed over the last 1,000 years. We also got a lot more locations, in that this time the player is able to visit locations all around the world rather than just on the main continent. It made the world feel more open in some ways, though personally I felt closed in when running on the field, since the areas were made much smaller instead of being the large, open fields of ToZ (which I know a lot of people felt looked too barren and empty, but I found myself loving).

The character designs were also great, though it took me a long time to get used to Velvet’s outfit (seriously, was that the only thing she could find in the prison?). Roukurou’s in particular is a design I love because of its traditional Japanese aesthetic.

(Eizen’s design, whilst perfect for him as a pirate, has far too many references to dragons for me to not feel sad looking at him.)

In this game, they’ve changed the system so a lot of the buttons are assigned to different actions than they are in previous Tales games (on the PS4, at least). It took me a long time to get used to the menu, and any time I went back to ToZ, the change was rather jarring. Still, I enjoy the look of the menu, as well as the new menu actions we are given (though I do miss the characters doing the cooking for me).

As for the battle system, I prefer the ToZ battle system to the ToB one. I felt restricted by having artes assigned to the four buttons instead of analog stick movements, but perhaps I still need to find a way which works for me in battle. I also didn’t enjoy having some of the action buttons moved, simply because it makes switching between games more jarring. The amount of times I’ve tried to guard on ToZ and ended up armatizing instead is one thing, but they really need to find a set input for mystic artes in these games, I’m not kidding.

(Speaking of mystic artes, a certain endgame boss uses the mystic arte Savage Wolf Fury. Way to copy Yuri Lowell, lol.)

One thing I did think they did well in terms of battle was the use of break souls – I found myself using them quite often, even though I didn’t use burst artes in ToV or blast artes in ToZ. For a while I didn’t understand how to fill the blast gauge, and I still think it’s a little tedious, but mostly I’ve been avoiding battles for my first playthrough, so I suppose if I do another I’ll find more effective battle strategies.

(Speaking of battle strategies, I missed the monoliths from ToZ. Not because of the information, just finding them was fun.)

The skills system is something I didn’t put much thought to in this playthrough, mostly because this was a story playthrough which I did on the easiest difficulty. Still, it might take me a while to wrap my head around enhancing/dismantling equipment, mostly because they’ve changed it from what I’m used to.

In all honesty, the game did feel more hack-and-slash than ToZ, mostly because there weren’t quite so many puzzles. In some ways, this was good because it allowed me to power through the game quickly. Still, I felt a lot of the dungeons were less interesting than they could have been, but it makes sense considering the cast of characters presented to us – most of them would rather break down a wall than solve a puzzle to open it.

(I did really like the design of that one earth temple, though, and the water one was really interesting too, especially since it actually had a puzzle. Nothing will beat the trial shrines, though.)

Plot

Tales of Berseria is a game set 1,000 years before ToZ, following a young girl named Velvet Crowe as she sets out for revenge against the Shepherd, Artorius. Throughout her journey, more people who have a bone to pick with Artorius’ Abbey join her.

I enjoyed the plot, I guess. It was certainly an interesting concept, especially since we ended up following a character whose morals weren’t exactly those of our usual ‘pure hero’ archetype. I feel like it became more interesting as time went on and more characters were introduced. The ending, I felt was definitely more than satisfying, and I loved getting more context on some of the things which are only glossed over during ToZ. For me, the pace of the game felt good, since something was happening all the time.

A lot of my problems are with the characters, since I am of the opinion that plot is pushed on by characters and the decisions they make.

Sidequests

I didn’t do many of the sidequests, mostly because my ToZ bias made me care more for Eizen and Zaveid than any of the other characters. I did feel that the two sidequests relating to these characters which I completed – the nor dolls sidequest and the white-horned dragon sidequest – fulfilled the majority of my hopes for more information about these characters in relation to later events. I’ll talk in more specifics later on, but I loved these sidequests a lot.

  Characters

Overall, the characters in this game were certainly interesting, though most of them differed from the type of characters I enjoy in fiction media. I’ll talk a little about the main cast and some of the NPCs.

*** This section contains a lot of spoilers for ToB. ***

Velvet

Our main girl, the revenge-lustful daemon Velvet. After Artorius sacrifices her brother Laphicet, she becomes a therion and swears to have her vengeance.

And I get it, I really do. But all she does is whine.

Okay, maybe that’s not quite true. But for a lot of the game, I felt that she was kind of annoying, since all she would do was talk about wanting to get revenge and telling the others that she doesn’t care about them, so long as she gets her revenge. And it makes sense, for her character, and I see why others might like her. But personally, that kind of character just rubs me the wrong way.

Now, after the plot twist/Phi telling her to “quit whining already” (bless you Phi), she actually became a much more interesting character to me. She showed a lot more of her caring side as well as focusing on her goal, and hence felt a lot less one-sided. I admire that she doesn’t regret the consequences of her actions which lead her to becoming the Lord of Calamity, and I also admire that what she wants isn’t calamity for the world – just vengeance. It gave a much more interesting aspect to the character of a Lord of Calamity – the idea that what they want isn’t necessarily calamity for the world, but vengeance for someone doing wrong against them.

(Honestly, it makes it interesting to look at Heldalf from ToZ with this perspective.)

Her ending is one which I didn’t expect, but it makes a lot of sense.

Phi (Laphicet)

My boy!!! Protect him at all costs!!!

It might be my ToZ bias coming in again, but I have loved Phi since before I played the game. He is a sweet and pure malak who isn’t afraid to learn more and understand about the world, and the balance of light and dark within it. Hell, he helps the Lord of Calamity and genuinely cares for her.

(This boy is such a Hufflepuff.)

He legitimately cares about people and wants to make the world a better place for everyone, and he understand that the world needs to have balance between light and darkness – not just pure light, free of sins, which is what Innominat represented. Innominat felt empty because a world without sin is a dead world, and he can’t feed on emotions of people who have none. Honestly, this aspect of the plot is my favourite, because it’s so interesting to see how these characters feel the world ought to be.

Phi is such a great character, and I love that as he gains his own free will and learns how to be alive, he is able to stand up for himself and not be the pushover that he seems to be from appearance alone.

(Thinking about his future makes my heart hurt, but that didn’t stop me from giving him the bookworm Sorey attachment. For reasons.)

Roukurou Rangestu

For a while, I didn’t care that much about Roukurou’s story, but by the end of it, I really loved it. As a character, he is super interesting – calm and chill and laid-back, but able to get fired up and angry and filled with the desire to kill his brother. He doesn’t care that he is a daemon – it’s just who he is, and I love that.

I love his traditional Japanese aesthetic, as I mentioned before. I love that it extends past his appearance into his fighting style and even the food and drink he enjoys.

Magilou

I didn’t expect to love Magilou as much as I do, and yet here I am. She’s a super interesting and fun character, even more so once you consider her backstory and future. If you played ToZ before ToB, like I did, then her real surname might make you understand her motives a little more, because I felt like it did for me.

Eleanor Hume

I actually enjoyed Eleanor’s character a lot more than I thought I might, and I think that’s because I understand her viewpoint more than most of the main cast’s. Rather than seeking vengeance, she wants purity and peace for the world, but soon figures out that the Shepherd Artorius who she once followed has ideals which she does not agree with after spending time alongside daemons and malakhim.

Her development makes her character feel a lot more fleshed out and interesting, and her backstory makes it clear why she wants what she does.

Eizen

I saved him for last of the main party because I know I’m going to ramble a bit here. Apologies in advance.

I love Eizen so much???? Like I knew I’d like him because I’ve played ToZ and I love Edna but oh my god I love Eizen.

To start with, his Reaper’s Curse is something I found super interesting. I already knew from ToZ that it’s possible for seraphim/malakhim to have a curse instead of a blessing, but for some reason I really didn’t expect it with Eizen. It makes a really nice contrast to Edna, who mentions in a skit in ToZ that she has strangely good luck. Seriously, siblings with contrasting blessings? I’m in love.

(You would think they would cancel each other out, but I suppose Edna’s good luck is that she survived all the shit that happened to her when Eizen was around lol.)

I also love Eizen’s personality so much. He’s similar to Edna in some ways – stubborn and wayward and never straightforward about his personal emotions. Still, he geeks out about things like a typical middle aged man would about a car (fujibayashi’s rod, anyone?). I love that he has so many interests and so much knowledge… knowledge which ends up being outdated or wrong half the time lol.

(I finally understand that one ToZ skit (‘Edna talks about her brother’) where Rose asks if Eizen was like Sorey and Edna says “Maybe.” They’re both as adventure-crazy and interested in ancient artefacts as each other.)

And then there’s his fate – the malevolence he takes in from Theodora which will eventually turn him into a dragon. Since I’ve already played ToZ, I knew this would happen, which makes it all the more heart-breaking knowing exactly how that’s going to play out.

Zaveid

I had to talk about Zaveid here okay he’s half the reason I played this game in the first place.

Zaveid.

Who hurt you?

(That’s what we find out through his ToB sidequest lol.)

I had already heard that his character is a little different in ToB because some stuff happens to him, but I never expected it to hurt this much. He was so happy? Finally free of being a slave? Happy to just go around fighting but never killing? Checking in on a little family he cares about? Probably hoping to start his own one day?

I feel so bad for Zaveid. So, so bad. I love him so much. He has been through so much but I understand now why he is the way he is in ToZ. They really did a good job of filling up the holes in his development, because I remember after finishing ToZ the first time that I wished I knew more about Zaveid. Now I do, and I understand him better for it.

Others

Artorius was a really interesting villain. It was nice to see a Shepherd who had fallen so much, who had lost hope in humanity to the degree that he felt that taking away the emotions which create humanity was the only way to save it. His final scene is actually heart-wrenching.

The other side characters are all also really interesting, for the most part, and I felt they got good amounts of development.

(What I didn’t enjoy was Kamoana. I liked her story, but her English VA put me off her so much for some reason. Her voice grates on me so much.)

  Character Relationships

I’m not going to talk too much about this, because there isn’t much to say. In this game, however, the relationships between the main cast feel so much less like the ‘found family’ we get in ToZ. It’s definitely a ‘selfish co-dependence’ or whatever they call it. They use each other for their own ends, and sure they care about each other to an extent, but they are mostly self-focused, in my opinion.

Perhaps, in a second playthrough, I’ll have more appreciation for the relationships between these main characters.

  Music

If you’ve seen my ToZ Thoughts post, then you know I’m a massive music nerd. One of the things I love most about video games is the soundtracks.

Tales of Berseria’s soundtrack isn’t really all that striking, in my opinion. Sure, the music is good – I’m listening to the soundtrack as I write this post – but none of it is particularly stand-out amazing. I can’t really pick out a theme which I love above all, because none of them struck me all that much. I’m actually a little disappointed in how lacking this game is in the music department.

That having been said, a few of the tracks from ToZ have been re-used for this game, so I’m not complaining. I loved that they kept ‘Zaveid the Exile’, and the fact that they used the slow, calm part for the battle against the dragon gave me chills which I haven’t experienced since ‘The Full Moon and the Morning Star’ in the battle on the Zaphias Sword Stair in ToV.

I did enjoy a couple of the battle and area themes, and the music which plays in the two elemental shrines we visit (the water one’s called Palamides but I forget the earth one’s name) was beautiful. There were also arrangements of other themes mixed in there, but once again, none of them struck me very much.

The opening theme – Burn by FLOW – is one which, I’ll admit, I love a lot. Both this game and TOZX have introduced me to FLOW’s music, and Burn and Kaze no Uta have become two of my favourite songs. The part in Burn where the strings fade out and we get a guitar riff is honestly my favourite thing. Whilst I prefer White Light from ToZ, I still loved Burn as an opening.

  In Relation to Tales of Zestiria

This section is basically an excuse for me to rave about the connections between Berseria and Zestiria, and why those connections made the game more enjoyable for me as a whole. This does in fact mean it requires the following warning:

*** Major spoilers for Tales of Berseria and Tales of Zestiria follow. ***

I’ve already said that I played ToB because of its connection to ToZ. This meant that, when playing ToB, all the connections really meant a lot to me as a fan.

The most obvious thing to start with, I suppose, would be the world and its locations. Seeing towns and fields which I recognised and could place geographically from where they are in the future gave me a lot of joy, and I love that I now understand how Glenwood becomes how it is in the future, geographically speaking. I actually edited the map of Glenwood on top of the map of ‘Wasteland’ (that’s apparently the ToB world’s name) and marked where the locations in ToZ are in relation to those in ToB, and it definitely helped a lot.

Below are two images of that map, so you can also see how things have changed. It’s interesting to see how little the main continent actually changed, save perhaps for the drying up of a couple of areas which were once seas/lakes. I’m convinced that some if the islands surrounding the continent definitely shift to make some of the features present in modern-day Glenwood’s map, such as a couple of islands in the north. I also think perhaps Eastgand moved towards Midgand, but I’m not entirely sure.

Credit for the maps: Glenwood | Wasteland

Another thing which becomes clear thanks to ToB is how the situation of the world in terms of malevolence and shepherds comes to be in ToZ. That is mostly thanks to the fact that we learn of Maotelus’ origins, and by linking that up with what we know of him from the iris gems, we can see that once he became the Fifth Empyrean, he spread his flames of purification across the world and became the prime lord for shepherds who would swear to purify the malevolence in the world whilst allowing people to live and have a second chance at life.

Maotelus obviously stays as the prime lord for all these shepherds until a calamity 200 years before ToZ, which is when we hear of the last known shepherd having lived. After that point, I assume the belief that people had in Maotelus fell, and he continued to give his blessing to the continent until 20 years before ToZ, when the Age of Chaos began, and the malevolent Maotelus is bound to Heldalf, the Lord of Calamity of the time. Lailah, not wanting there to be no chance of there being a new shepherd, takes the oath in order to gain the powers of purification, and is unable to speak about the events surrounding Maotelus due to this.

I feel like this explains why Zaveid, in ToZ, says he has a score to settle with Maotelus – because he knew Phi, however briefly, and obviously he had heard that Phi became Maotelus, the new Fifth Empyrean. When Maotelus suddenly disappeared, Zaveid must have thought that he gave up on purifying the world, or something similar. That’s why he has a score to settle with him – the Phi he met would not give up as easily as this.

Maotelus managed to hold out against malevolence for probably 200 years as people stopped sending prayers to him. He did not give up easily, but was forced to, once people desecrated his shrine.

This means, ultimately, that Lailah is most likely the only one aside from Mayvin and the survivors of Camlann who knows what actually happened back then. Zaveid learns the truth at the same time as everyone else – the only help he had was having known Maotelus back when he was Phi.

There is so much more about the connections between ToB and ToZ that I could rave on about, but these were the main two which relate directly to my understanding of the world which I haven’t already spoken about in non-spoilery detail.

(I’m thinking of saving discussion of Zaveid’s backstory and Eizen and Edna for some meta posts I’ve been planning. Feel free to yell with me about them in my ask box though!)

  In Conclusion

I liked Tales of Berseria, but had I not played Tales of Zestiria beforehand, I don’t think I would have been so invested in it as I ended up being, because I had already fallen in love with what I knew of the world in ToZ, and what I loved most about ToB were the connections to that world. Really, I can see now why I relate with Sorey and Mikleo so much – because it’s the history and the lore of the world, and the backstories of the characters I already knew from the future, which made this game as enjoyable to me as it was.

I enjoyed playing the game, and I’m glad that I did experience it for myself. However, Tales of Zestiria will always be the game which I prefer in this universe.

That isn’t to say that it might not be different for you, if you’ve not read it, though. Playing both games is really useful if you want to understand the world a lot better, even if you play ToB first – playing ToZ afterwards gives you an idea of how the world has changed for the better, as well as how one or two of the characters are doing. I definitely recommend playing or watching both games, if you can.

Now we’ve reached the end of this post, I’d like to thank you for reading it! If you want to discuss anything with me, please feel free, because I love this universe and would love to share thoughts and opinions on it!

[tumblunni]

Bunni talks about thier cute pets! Cos I’m on such a rune factory hype today I figured I may as well ramble about what monsters I captured, and maybe other stuff about how I personally chose to play the game. I love how there’s so many different ways to play and all different routes to making enough money and exp to progress the main story! Usually in these kinds of games I focus on dungeoncrawling (like i did in stardew valley) but I’m surprised how much I genuinely enjoyed the farming in this game even though it was A HUGE CHORE in stardew! This series is the pinnacle of farming type games in my opinion, it appeals even to non-fans like me!

ANYWAY UMM I LOVE MY MONSTERS I pretty much never take them with me to dungeons, the only time I use dungeon monsters is if I catch them in the current dungeon, then I just send them home and never want them to get hurt ever again. I really REALLY like that the game levels up your monsters with a percentage of your exp even if you dont fight with them! It means you dont lose buddy battle festivals just because you choose to use them for farming instead of fighting. i have like a bazillion monster barns all super maxed out size and i have all my monsters doing the majority of my farming work nowadays except if I need to try levelling up seeds or growing a large crop. I respect them a lot cos theyre doing all this hard work so I’m able to take time off and focus on dating people and saving the world, while still making good money and PP! They save me a lot of time juggling the two sides of the game ^_^ Also I started off wanting to try and catch one of every monster in the game, but it started to become impossible to afford the higher level upgrades to get big enough monster barns to hold them all, cos I was having 90% of my fields taken up by growing enough hay to feed them all. So i sadly had to give up on the idea! But by then i’d grown attatched to a lot of them so I was only able to release the last few newest ones I’d got, I still have like forty of them and only ten of them are actually doing anything :P BUT THEYRE TOO CUTE TO SAY GOODBYE!! Oh and now i am still trying to maybe collect all the ghost types, cos theyre sweetie boops! i really love the design of the spirit types with the flamey body and the jack o lantern face. (funny since theres an ACTUAL jack o lantern type ghost that just has a regular smile) Its a bit of a lazy design choice that all of them are flameballs just recoloured to match the elements tho, i mean why not have them be lil tornados or water droplets with faces? Anyway, my main one is a wind elemental named Gizmo after my rotom in pokemon. She was one of The Saviour Trio, whom I love! They were part of an unusual strategy that helped me powerlevel early on. I would run into a dungeon that was way too high level to be completed right now, and throw all my good cookery items at the first monster i see, hoping I could catch it. Then if I succeeded I would use that monster to beat up all the similarly levelled monsters while my low level self was dying in the background, carrying me thru the dungeon til I’d powered up enough to fight alongside it! ^_^ The initial two I started with were Fester the hammer giant and Atlas the beetle, but when I saw the adorable ghosties I had to catch one and call it gizmo! i actually saw that dungeon’s wind variant ghosties before i met the original fire ones in the actual dungeon I was supposed to go to. Another noteable trio were the first three monsters I caught, who’ve been managing my main farm field ever since. Virion the archer orc, Snap the chipsqueak and Florin the flower thingie! Also Iron the bull, who’s been perpetually useful with how he’s like the only damn way to get milk items, seriously :P Why is milk so sparse in this game :P (tho randomly i do like how this world’s equivelant of cows are like if cows and bulls were merged into one creature. genderfluid bovine! maybe theyre like clownfish) There’s also Silver and Kafka, the two mandatory pets that you get during the various sechs dungeons for some reason. I got particularly attatched to Kafka cos I headcanoned that the monsters trapped in that cage were human test subjects used to develop the rune stone technology that ethelberd uses to steal the dragons’s power. It just seemed like that would be the only reason that this fairy monster can talk when no other ones do. So i kinda treat Kafka like he’s my character’s child, even though he never talks again after you add him to your party I like to headcanon he’s still sentient and part of the family. Oh, and I headcanon he’s a boy cos I didnt know until seeing the monster profile after recruiting the character that the green fairies are meant to be female. None of the other monsters get described as only being one gender except the fairies, if I recall correctly? (and the guardian bosses, but thats understandable considering their origins) So yeah, i kinda made him into an oc and I can imagine him having a gijinka form like the guardians after theyre purified? but fairy type monsters already look pretty humanoid and if I made them any more so then they’d just look exactly like amber. So maybe if I draw him as an oc I’d change what kind of monster he is and try drawing a gijinka of that? Maybe merge some of my monsters together and do a gijinka of the wind ghosties or the dead tree thing? SPEAKING OF WHICH I LOVE MY NEWEST TEAM MEMBER russel the tree ghost boss character!! he is so huge and so powerful!!! I love him!! I was so pleasantly surpised to find out I could catch boss monsters!! I think he’s the best one ive got so far, cos the second bosses in each guardian dungeon were kinda ones that didnt have any plot or anything, so i feel more like i can make ocs of them. it was weird how they just came out of nowhere to have ane xcuse for the revisit quests to have a boss battle too. Extra weird cos you can still rematch the guardian bosses once per day anyway. anyway my oc thoughts for russel is that he is Large but very kind and gentle and shy and cries whenever he hurts the smaller peoples. He is a quiet gardener who likes to bake apple pies for people. (”This apple was grown from my flesh!” *sunny smile*) So he’s kinda like a more socially anxious Amber? I was thinking if he got to turn into a human with a tragic past like how the first four bosses did, he would be a big bara love interest guy cos he’s like the largest boss character model. And cos shy kind baras are some of my fave love interests! (I am SO excited to marry benny in Fe Fates whenever i finally get that game!) I was thinking maybe he could have dark skin and have some bright shoulder tattoos that look all flowery like the apples he had as a tree. And maybe he sprouts flowers from his shoulders when he blushes! Or maybe has a flower on the top of his head? But I like the idea of him having very big hair of some sort, to tangeantally resemble a tree. Maybe a handsome afro, or maybe very long very soft flowing rapunzel hair, or maybe very non-bishie scruffy hair that he can never tame? Or maybe he’s bald and has a long beard... Anyway he would be very cute and I think he’d be a fan favourite.