#Halcyonia

[legokingfisher]

Little kids who are samurai x fans not being able to pronounce “Pixal” so she gets called “Pickle” by them instead and she just embraces it once she learns about it. Pickles and pickle emojis are now associated with samurai x in online spaces. Pix tells her dad and he thinks it’s funny. Some of the ninja include pickle emojis in her contact in their phones

[legokingfisher]

Sorry this is late and probs gonna be long but I am going to take this opportunity to yap about Two-Worlds. My beloved ninjorgo oc . If that is ok . And also yap about her parallels with Riyu

The second half of this post is basic background info..

(Minor additional background info: “hent” is a term I’ve coined to be a ninjagoverse common name for Amphicyonids. Irl paleontologists have given them “bear-dog” as a common name, but seeing as 1) “bear-dog” is also the name of a breed of domestic dog, 2) other large carnivoran groups get their own special word that isn’t made up of other species’ names (wolf, cat, bear, those are all unique names for these groups) and 3) amphicyonids are not extinct in my Ninjago hc, i thought it would make sense to give them their own unique common name, seeing as.. like.. ninjagoverse peoples have coexisted with hents long enough for entomology to do its thing.)

SOOOO Two-Worlds is a Creaturan hent whose mother was a fascist dictator within Creatura for a while and whose father was a prisoner of war at the time Two was born . So he went dimension-hopping to hide baby Two when she was less than a month old, left her in the desert wreckage of the Destiny’s Bounty, and then just bounced. When Zane finds the Bounty in s1, he’s the first thing Two sees when she opens her eyes for the first time.

The other ninja are stoked cuz “HOLY SHIT PET HENT CUB MASTER WU CAN WE KEEP IT” not knowing that this is the equivalent of finding like. A human baby abandoned in the desert. She was still baby enough that she acted like an animal so the gang was none the wiser for a little while. They named her Whiskers <3

Then shit got real weird. She started copying the ninjas’ habits and mannerisms n shit. At first it was cute, but then she was starting to do shit like stand up on two legs staring ominously in dark hallways.

Of course, things started to make sense when she got bigger for her age than a cub of any hent species in the realm… and of course when she started talking. If there were any doubts she wasn’t a regular hent before, this settled them.

Before Lloyd and Nya were ninja, Whiskers was often staying behind with them n Wu, so all three of them had that longing to be included in something. Then Lloyd became a ninja… then Nya… then she just felt pretty left behind. By this time, she was already fully grown— about twice human height at the shoulder.

(Lloyd for comparison. Her right ear is damaged, permanently floppy after helping fight the stone warrior army in s2.)

And she wasn’t getting ninja training, either. So she just felt too big and awkward and dangerous living in a world that quite literally wasn’t built for her. She felt useless. Sound familiar? *looks at how often I yap about Riyu’s feelings of inadequacy stemming from very similar sources*

Anyway she felt reeeeally out of place. She knew by then through Wu and Misako that she’s Creaturan, but she had no way to get there until like… post-s6. At that point she travels to Creatura andddd finds out she looks just like her supervillain mother and has to go on this whole adventure proving her innocence and running from Creaturan royal authorities. During this she grapples with a whole new sense of feeling out-of-place, meets one of my buddy’s ocs, discovers her powers, and acquires the title Whiskers of Two Worlds (aka Two-Worlds. Or, if you’re family, just Two). She got the new name idea from her friend, as most typical Creaturan names/titles come from an attribute or accomplishment of the individual. Shortly after (either before or during HoT..) she moves to Creatura full-time as a protector of the realm, visiting her family in Ninjago whenever possible.

And man. I think about her meeting Riyu postmerge alllllll the time. Thinking of them chatting over food or something, and he mentions his experiences, his insecurities, and she looks back at him seeing nothing but herself. She would feel insaneeee. …she would also possibly be able to learn some spinjitsu finally. On top of Creaturan fighting skills n whatnot. Two-Worlds student Riyu arc when . cuz bro has not had much Rontu and Egalt training and i doubt Lloyd can train a large quadruped (aka Riyu) as well as a large quadruped could (aka Two).

Feeling pretty miserable feel free to yap abt your faves under this post 👍 I need to see some people be happy about their blorbos

[mother-btls-cddj]

Update 13:

Hello, here again with a new update. Are you ready? First, let’s get on with the comments:

Hmm…

- There are no comments about including Varik and his lore in the game, but I’ve seen the amount of views in Starmen.net and I’ve gotten two hearts on Tumblr, so I’ll take that as a “yeah, why not?” Okay, I’ll write it up.

- Since I haven’t received any feedback on how to name the universe yet, I think we’ll leave it as is for now (no name), but remember that “Mother CDDJ” and “Mother BTLS” are part of the same universe, and the first one goes first before the last.

- Someone on Starmen.net suggested naming the alien village "Halcyonia", so that's the name I'm sticking with.

--------

Going to the “Update” section: Zone 3 is complete.

“Welcome to the Jungle, we got fun and games” ♪

(Note: As you’ll notice in this image: It doesn’t have a panorama in the background, but I plan to add one later. This is because I’m focusing my attention on making the other maps).

This area is a bit large to explore, though I tried to make it a bit shorter so it wouldn’t be tedious for the player. When the game is done, and if you find out the areas are too short or too long while you’re playing, let me know. I’ll fix everything in the future.

--------

Finally, let’s go with the backstory of the next character: Lobraz

Lobraz is actually Zarbol, or rather what remains of him after being crushed by Lardna Minch in Earthbound. He’s the first character we meet and one of the characters who will accompany Alinivar in this new adventure.

After the events of CogDis and Earthbound, his soul ascended and watched the entire journey of Ness and his friends until everything ended. Once that happened, his spirit was stranded in the Universe. This was because Zarbol couldn’t rest, since he still felt some concern about what happened to his friends in CogDis. So, with his tiny insect soul, he decided to find out about it. In the midst of his quest, he got caught up in a few things (“cough” what happened in Smash Ultimate with the spirits “cough”), until he got sucked into a dark portal that dragged him into the Dark Dimension. Once inside, he wandered around the place a bit and saw Alinivar lying on the ground, so he’s the one who proceeds to try to wake Alinivar when we start the game.

The reason for his name change is because he’s the first one to find out about Alinivar’s memory loss, so in order to not worry or bother his friend with the details, he suggests the Mook to change names and take the subject delicately until he can regain his memories. He does this because he knows if Alinivar remembers anything about him pretty fast, he’ll have a panic attack and become very sad, which wouldn’t be convenient for the situation they’re in.

Fact: “Lobraz” is “Zarbol”, but backwards.

--------

Okay, that’s all for now. See you next time.

[adelle-ein]

extra dialogue if you talk to the kingdom leaders (+ anihal) in halcyonia before going to holograd in chapter 4

[honorisen]

@halcyonias​​ ◈ starter call

“ You look like you’re lost. Need a certified SOLDIER to help get you somewhere? ” The question was as innocent as the smile he’d followed it up with, even if the retort probably sounded more like a pick-up line to anyone else. 

Zack was being completely genuine though; especially to someone who looked like they could’ve used a guardian in the form of someone whose job it was to fight off threats and play his part on the front lines. “ I mean, I’ve heard there’s monsters around here, right? Might be tough by yourself. ”

[legokingfisher]

YAYY HERE WE GO.

I have more ocs but these three are most often on my mind these days so. Alcyo and fangpyre siblings be upon ye:

Alcyo: casual friend/acquaintance relationship with the ninja methinks. Hes always known abt them but met them personally in s4/tourney, so I feel like he keeps in touch with most of the other EMs that were there— but more so the ninja and Skylor because of all of their proximity to Ninjago city. In DR, when he gets captured by Cinder (send an ask if you want elaboration on That) i feel like it has the comedic potential of Cinder, Jordana, and Ras trying to get information on the ninja out of Alcyo, but him only knowing random personal trivia like one of them not liking pineapples or something. Because Alcyo knows the ninja as Just People, he doesn’t know their agenda or whatever since he has hardly spent time with any of them since before the merge. Anyway he thinks they’re great people he just wishes they didn’t attract so many destructive enemies over the years…

Chloe: i ship her with Lloyd so she is def buddies with the ninja. She felt pretty intimidated by all of them at first because yk being serpentine she’s not heard 100% positive opinions on them, plus the core four were involved with the event that caused her parents’ death (remember in s3 when Cryptor’s people got into the serpentine burrow. Yeah) but regular visits 2 the monastery and being around the ninja has put her at ease throughout the years. They’re a bunch of dorks and she doesn’t know what she was worried about. I think the ones she has gotten the most close with (besides Lloyd) are Zane, Nya, and Misako. Yeah yeah Misako’s not a ninja but her n Chloe’s fields of study overlap in places so I think they’d get along well. Chloe n Zane can nerd out about various subjects together, same with her n Lloyd. Being around Nya has helped her come out of her shell too. I feel like she’d encourage Chloe to speak up for herself more. She’s enjoyed spending more time with some of them post merge bc she moves into the monastery after the merge

Vin-Va: At first, veryyyy active disdain for the core four (they’re Chloe’s sibling so. The parents thing) but only disliked Nya and Lloyd by association. They don’t really spend time with the ninja, they’ve got their own duties going on, so they aren’t friends with them and most of what they know about the ninja is from what Chloe and Lloyd have told them. They’ve spent enough time around Lloyd (when he visits) that over the years they’ve gone from tolerating him to loving being around him but you will Not catch them admitting that. I feel like any interactions between them and the rest of the ninja are vaguely curt and awkward. They’ll be polite for Chloe’s sake though. But around other serpentine they’re def still joining in on the “yeah fuck those guys lol” rhetoric/jokes. Despite that, it did concern them hearing they all apparently died in the merge (they aren’t around Ninjago city post-merge so they don’t know those mfs are alive)

Holds head in hands I’m sorry. I’ve been slacking they call me the slackerrrrrrrr the slack. Er. Uh I have to do another Ninjago oc question. I’m so sad I stopped them I know ppl liked them. Anywayse uh. This might be to broad of a question but uh how do they knowwe the ninja team? Not how they met, but what is their relationship likes now and what is your ocs general opinion on them?

Toni is sort of friends-in-law with the ninja. He is a fan blogger of sorts, but he became friends with Jay and Nya. And she has an active disdain towards Kai.

Charlie believe it or not has a fairly neutral opinion on the ninja. She doesn’t know any of them like. Personally (until DR). And despite how much I talk about her being a SoG member and the vague kidnapping incident, most of Charlie’s issues are pretty. Not ninja related. They’re annoying to her (preventing her from reaching her goal) but otherwise she doesn’t really care for them. (Again. Until DR)

Kit hardly knows anything about them. They’re appreciative (you know, saving the city, saving the world, you gotta appreciate that) but otherwise. They just don’t really get the hype. So good opinion, but much like Charlie, just kinda doesn’t care.

[runalice]

@halcyonias​   requested   :   balthier  !!

❛  while i’ve no doubt in your skills, i believe it’d be in our best interests to retreat.  ❜  the mobs of creatures gathering not too far from their hiding spot filled the air with low growls and equally grotesque snarling.  ❛  we’ve been at this for gods’ knows how long and there seems to be no breakthrough.  ❜  balthier adds to his point, all while wiping the beads of sweat that formed on his brow. with a small shake of said hand, he looks to the young woman while resting the barrel of his gun on his shoulder.  ❛  the others should not be far.  ❜

[legokingfisher]

I’m fucking ugly sobbing

[legokingfisher]

Zane would enjoy my job i think. Or at least find it easy. So sometimes when I dread going in i will think about Zane sitting politely at a nature center front desk welcoming people and giving them trail maps, or driving around a golf cart around the park telling people about birds and giving them directions. And there is a little less dread in my heart

for Ninjago people who work does anyone else imagine their favorite characters doing the job that they do bc I think it would be hilarious if Garmadon became an amusement park grounds night crew worker

and then Lloyd working at Wendy's and he can't snap at the customers for being idiotic and instead he has to say "as I've stated before—"

[fulgensun]

☀  @halcyonias​  :  guess who :))  ☀ 

❛ Ehh-- ? ❜  

❛ Fine, I’ll guess, I’ll guess !  Yuna -- say, what do I win ? ❜  

[shrapnelstars]

Theme song of me trying to fight the bosses that raise the job level cap:

[legokingfisher]

LMAO🤨 IS HIS RESTING FACE… hes in so much bullshit All the time it is appropriate for every situation…

I love your header image so so so much he is going 🤨 at the candy… he is puzzled…

bro is wondering how much he can eat before getting sick….pondering hard

at this point “🤨” is lloyd’s resting face

[a-yarn-of-purple-prose]

The Chasm Delving Highlight Reel, part 2

Time for an update on the chronological fic recs!

Last post I said I'd be going onto the second half of 2021 in this post, but that was a lie! I happened to fiddle with the search and now I somehow got more recs for the same timeframe as the first post. Tee-he.

Rules are over here.

As before, I'll remind you these recs are completely personal and, while I like to believe I have pretty good taste, I can't guarantee you'll love the same things I do. I do offer warnings, though!

Now here we go:

Refraction, by liminalblue

Rated: Not Rated

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Characters: Huachu (an NPC!)

Ships: none|gen fic

General vibe: author describes as Liyue NPC brainrot, I say it's introspective, sad brainrot.

Trigger warning: this whole thing is about death and there is some potentially triggering descriptions including some decay.

A poetic imagining of the case of Huachu, the NPC woman that faked her death to elope and whose story can be picked up by reading message boards in Liyue. The author uses the fact that the actual dead body was some unfortunate nameless woman and goes from there in several directions.

It's only 1,9k words and very worth your time.

Purple Horsetails, by halcyonia

Rated: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Characters: Yanfei, Xiao (in passing)

Ships: none|gen fic

General vibe: character study

Trigger warning: none

I love a good character study and this one is very well done. Yanfei's personality shines through in her notes. The author is very good at hinting at a full life while showing us little peeks at her thoughts.

judgement and memory, by glassdrachma

Rated: Teen and Up

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Characters: Ganyu, Keqing, Ningguang, Zhongli

Ships: none|gen fic

General vibe: character study

Trigger warning: none

A slice of Ganyu's life and her connection to Liyue's people. It's a very moving fic, delicate and introspective, with superb characterization in general (amazing Zhongli, even if his part is small).

requiem for lands past, by tetsuyas

Rated: Teen and Up

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Characters: Kaeya, Jean, Klee, Venti, Diluc, Traveler, Paimon

Ships: none|gen fic

General vibe: introspective Kaeya-centric fic

Trigger warning: none

A fluffy little piece centering on how Kaeya is perceived by several people in his life. It's a series of scenes, framed as a story being told to the Traveler and it's clever, insightful and, well, cute. It's a cute fic. About Kaeya. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find Kaeya stories that are not angsty? And, I mean, I like angst, I just think the man needs a chocolate and a hug.

Anyway, read this if you like Kaeya (and if you don't like him, imagine I'm staring at you judgementally.)

(Un)Happy Birthday, Master Ragnvindr, by TheOpticalMouse

Rated: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Characters: Diluc, Kaeya

Ships: none|gen fic

General vibe: angsty fluff with a side of tentative brotherhood

Trigger warning: it's a fic about grief for a parent, so you might want to be careful if it's your case (or, more possibly, you might click very fast because who doesn't want to read their blorbo work out their own similar grief?)

Gotta chase a Kaeya fic with a Diluc fic, amiright? In this fic, the Diluc & Kaeya reconciliation is a work in progress, so Kaeya takes the initiative to make Diluc's birthday a less horrible day. It's sweet and very familial.

I like how this fandom has the habit of writing birthday fics, it's very cute.

slow embers, by lady_peony

Rated: Teen and Up

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Characters: Childe, Zhongli

Ships: none|gen fic

General vibe: fluffy getting-together fic

Trigger warning: none

Set after the archon quest events. Zhongli and Childe meet again and rekindle their friendship through a tour of Liyue food stalls.

This fic will make you hungry. It just will. The food is too well described, their outings so sweet you'll long to walk the streets of Liyue.

Clash of Nobility, by seasparks

Rated: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Characters: Eula, Fischl

Ships: none|gen fic

General vibe: it's funny, though it's not crack because that has absolutely happened, honest, it's canon ^^

Trigger warning: none

Enough with the longing and the wistful, have a fic that is just funny. There is something inherently humorous in the idea of Fischl and Eula talking to each other and the author nails it.

introducing, trouble, by izabellwit

Rated: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Characters: Klee, Albedo, Lisa, Amber, Noelle, Sucrose, Jean, Kaeya

Ships: none|gen fic

General vibe: pre-canon cuteness

Trigger warning: none

Klee's first meeting with the Knights, on her own point of view, featuring a very stressed Albedo.

I love Klee, but it's hard to find an author that writes children well. This one does. Klee's voice is bubbly and enthusiastic, which makes it very hard not to be charmed by this fic. Give it a shot, it's only 3k words.

The Darknight's Assistant, by FuwaFuwaMedb

Rated: Mature

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Characters: Albedo, Diluc, Kaeya, Klee, Jean, Sucrose, Aether, Barbara

Ships: Albedo/Diluc

General vibe: adventure! Yes, it's shippy, but the other things are very interesting as well

Trigger warning: since this is a chaptered fic, I'll just say there isn't anything generally more triggering than the game usually is, but you might want to pay attention to the notes.

You might think of skipping this one because it's a rarepair. Don't.

Hear me out: what if Diluc got hurt while darknighting and the person to help him was not only competent enough to save him, but willing to keep his secret, willing to help? And we all know Albedo is a secret badass.

This fic is a treat, I'm telling you. The romance is sweet and flows naturally, the plot is gripping, characterization runs very well for everyone, the ending lands nicely. I couldn't ask for more.

keep my body from the fire, hire a gardener for my grave, by Magepaw

Rated: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Characters: Qiqi, Hu Tao

Ships: none|gen fic

General vibe: character study

Trigger warning: a lot of death talk in this one, including descriptions of decay.

A very well written little dive into Qiqi & Hu Tao. The author gets a lot of characterization across with very few words and for this I salute them.

I really like how self-aware Qiqi is and how much respect the author shows for her. With the way Qiqi is a meme in this fandom, reading a story in which she shines is very rare.

[crystalelemental]

With the end of Bravely Default 2, it's time for me to talk opinions about the game.

I'll be going for a while, so I'll break this into segments: story/characters, classes, gameplay.

STORY/CHARACTERS It's been years since I played BD1, but from just what I remember?  This is such a massive improvement it's almost comical.

I promise I won't be blasting BD1 for too long, but I feel you need to understand how bad it was to really appreciate this game's improvement.  The story of BD1 sucks.  It's terrible.  There's contrivance born of characters refusing to speak, and then there's whatever this was.  Everyone dies.  Despite how many are sympathetic or compelling, or caught up in this stuff solely due to unfortunate circumstance, everyone dies, and it's largely your party responsible for the killing.  It's completely unsatisfying, and happens entirely because of the big emperor guy, who is Edea's father, wanted to stop this secret evil thing happening for Very Good Reasons, except that his conquest of the planet involves putting the most horrible people in charge of locations and causing untold problems to solve for one (1) problem that is super unclear that he could've just explained to Edea at minimum to get her to understand, but refuses to do so because if he did we wouldn't have a plot.  It's an unsatisfying disaster of a game.

Thankfully, while BD2 is far from show-stopping with its story, it's a night and day improvement.  Your protagonists feel like actually decent people, instead of black-and-white morality lunatics given the mantle of "chosen hero."  Your antagonists maintain complexity, but a good chunk survive, with most that don't being killed either by other antagonists, or the consequences of their own actions.  Your heroes actually feel decently developed, with Elvis being The Man, and Gloria having some nice bits, like helping Rimedhal cover up the truth about the Archbishop to avoid panic while they're being invaded.  Historical revision isn't great, but she at least came up with a solution that kept the peace as needed, and felt like a response that a serious-minded royal would take.  Everyone felt pretty solid.  I mean except for Seth.  He's kinda just there.  I think it's in any Final Fantasy-esque JRPG that the male lead has to be the single most boring person in the cast for teenage male fantasy projection reasons.  I don't love it.

To go over each of the areas: Halcyonia is boring, nothing much happens aside from establishment stuff.  I did really wind up loving Selene and Dag, thanks to the sidequests that open up as a result of their survival.  It's super cute and I love them.  I want to like Lonsdale, but he's a Camus archetype.  "I am good guy, but oooh, too loyal to not aid in the complete genocide of Musa."  Okay buddy.  Sure you are.

Savalon is my favorite region.  Prince Castor was super interesting, and I love that a much latter quest has Pollux recognizing that Castor had a really good point about the obligations of a ruler, even if his methods were extreme.  Anihal is precious, and despite being a piece of shit, even Bernard had some really interesting complexity to him that made the place feel engaging.  And doubling back to this region in chapter 4, having the hidden politics still going on, and how the previous events here are leading to the conflicts in the present felt really organic.  They're just really strong.  You know.  Except Orpheus.  And what's her name.  The Gambler class lady.

Wiswald is...I like Wiswald a lot in spite of myself.  I think it has a really weak intro, being mostly a possession plot, where everyone is good just being controlled.  And the final twist is that every bad thing has been Folie's fault, and she's doing all this just because she's a psychotic child who gives literal life to art.  But I really like Roddy, Lily, and Galahad, and while she's boring as sin, I did kind of appreciate Folie for being a weirdo but in a way that checked out.  Like okay, a mostly rejected child seeking attention, finding something she's incredible at but still gaining nothing from others, and turning bitter and actively malicious toward others is neat.  Then there's the return phase with Vigintio.  The intro to that is great on its own, but the memory from Vigintio is what sold me on the guy.  He mastered turning into an undead, meaning that after he's killed by Emma he technically survives, and he actively stabs himself in would-be fatal ways just to prove he's unkillable and therefore won.  I just think he's a cool approach to that kind of character, seeing a form of immortality and wanting to be the best mage ever through any means possible.  Though also, special mention has to go to Elvis, whose crystal is the most interesting.  He's chosen by the Earth crystal, and despite being all over the place and inconsistent, he's selected as the unchanging foundation of the team because, despite his transient nature, his one constant is that he'd do literally anything for the people he cares about.  And that's a really cool approach for a character.

Rimedhal I wound up coming around on slightly, but still have as my least favorite.  I kinda had that vibe the instant we walked into "This is going to be about religious zealotry!"  That never goes well.  But it did grow on me.  Martha's probably my favorite.  I don't know why, I just appreciate the flirting being a fakeout for wanting to brawl, and she's got that very direct, not taking anyone's shit attitude, so she's great.  Dominic is slightly interesting, but only in the sense of his frustration at being passed over by the Fire Crystal as a chosen one, and specifically being passed over for the previous Fairy Queen potentially being the reason Fairies are the focus of the witch hunts.  Helio's boring as sin, and Gladys I have mixed feelings on.  On the one hand, I like the idea of a redemption arc where possible, and fully approve of her getting one in concept.  On the other, she doesn't get one, and I'm not upset.  Gladys is all about carrying out Helio's orders to have people jump to their deaths, in order to "weed out fairies," who she believes killed her parents.  As a result, she's incredibly hostile, and is pretty directly responsible for the presumed hundreds to thousands of people who are dead in a pit.  My problem is how she died.  One of the townsfolk stabs her, after she saved their life, because she was responsible for the death of his sister when you first arrived.  And it's like...okay, yeah, karmic justice in a sense, but by this point, she literally saved your life, dude.  And to be honest?  Every single person in that town is as guilty as Gladys.  Literally all of you.  We got to see everyone pressure the jumps, and actively falsify testimony to cast suspicion.  Even under slight duress, you all participated gleefully in this ritual murder shit, and it feels distinctly unfair to have only Gladys suffer consequences for that.  Either have Holograd burn the town to the ground or let her live, is what I'm saying.  Though the bonus quest focused on how some remember her positive traits and others remember her as a brute terrorizing the city is fairly poigniant.

Holograd is boring.  "We used to be poor, then we found the mines, now we're militarized."  Adam is the most stock standard antagonist, trying to end all war by subjugating everything under his heel, only the strong should rule, etc etc.  Edna's also boring as sin.  Like okay, she wants to awaken the Night's Nexus, but it's never really clear why, so she kinda sucks.

This leads into the finale.  Honestly?  I like how it's handled.  Your first ending is fighting Edna, destroying her, then having Gloria pray to seal the Night's Nexus again.  Naturally, she dies in the process, for reasons.  You get a sad ending and the credits roll, and when you boot the game...you see that scene play out from the book's memories.  And this is where it gets cool.  The book has only shown past events, through many characters' eyes, but now it shows the future somehow.  You enter chapter 6 with that mystery.

You seek out the fairies, who explain the Night's Nexus, and turn an otherwise boring eldritch evil into a fairly interesting character.  Night's Nexus is the remains of a human woman who entered the kingdom of fairies ages ago, and betrayed their trust by trying to consume the fountain of all knowledge.  Her goal was to subsume everything, and coalesce all information to a singular point, to obtain perfect understanding.  Past, present, and future are brought together to fully understand the deterministic universe, and that's...actually cool as hell.  But she's sealed away forever, because god forbid women do anything, and that's where we get the angry, bitter sense of hate for the world.  Sure, her lust for knowledge and control may have resulted in consuming everyone in addition to everything to create a perfect unchanging record, but sometimes you gotta do what it takes.  Chapter 6 ends with you attempting to confront the Night's Nexus, but realizing that it is, in fact, completely immortal.  You cannot kill it, and the fairies decide to seal off time within their realm, keeping it, and them, trapped in stasis for eternity.  Adelle stays behind and it's super sad but oh no another fakeout!

The book shows you the battle of the previous heroes, and an asterisk you missed.  You track it down, and you can finally read the book.  Turns out, the book has its own asterisk, for the Librarian class, which I would kill to play as, because it sounds like magic.  But it also turns out to be the soul jar for the Night's Nexus.  If the book is in tact, the body will revive.  This is...actually really interesting, and it checks out, because those visions of the future can only come from an entity with that potential foresight, and only the Night's Nexus has gained that level of ability.  So it's actually pretty well done.  Unfortunately, the climax is fairly sub-standard.  You go to a new dungeon, you face off against it, the fight isn't that scary and its true form is less interesting than the mummy thing with shadow hands, and then you get your standard ending. But it's satisfying.  Like, if nothing else, the story is satisfying, and I enjoyed experiencing it.  The characters have a few duds, but mostly wind up being pretty engaging.  I liked it a lot.

CLASSES The classes of this game are unbalanced as hell, but at least everything feels broadly useable.  Throughout main game, everything felt viable on normal mode, and many of the classes I didn't use wound up having use as a sub-class, or having utility I didn't pin down instantly.  Thief had Godspeed Strike, which is apparently the best midgame damage out there and a boss annihilator.  Beastmaster had tricks for every boss, apparently, if you have the right monster.  Salvemaker has a great combo with Phantom that, to my understanding, is infinite resources and sure-fire status application.  Oracle's Reflect spell can be the best source of magic damage if you cast it on your entire party.  There's a lot of stuff.

The only class I could not find any use for was Bastion.  Shieldbearer is just an overall better tank class for the team, with Sub-White Mage being an unkillable god for the story.  Though even post-game, with AoE stuff suggesting Bastion is an improvement, you often want that single-target coverage, and foes can just Brave past your one-use party shield and kill you anyway.  So Bastion felt really weak in my hands, despite being obscene on the enemy team.

If I had to pick an outright winner, it's probably Phantom.  The passives are insane.  50% chance to crit when hitting a vulnerability is tremendous, just about anything can make use of that.  And guarantees of probability-based skills at the cost of 40MP is unreal.  Status is guaranteed, it's the solution to Steal farming with the Thief's skill, and I'm pretty sure it counts Salvemaker's passive to regain used materials as well.  And that's just its general utility.  Offensively, Phantom/Ranger is unstoppable.  You can guarantee hitting a vulnerability with powerful skills, and Ranger's second passive means you regain a BP if you crit, which is most of the time.  You can toss out insane damage while maintaining max BP, it's insane.  And it's a pure upgrade on Godspeed Strike strats as well.  I imagine this is the best application for Hellblade too, since hitting a vulnerability with perfect elemental coverage is a great way to get constant crits.  It's just such a powerful class.

My other preferred classes were Spiritmaster, Shieldmaster, Red Mage, Ranger, and Oracle.  Shieldmaster was fantastic team defense with infinite healing as a sub-White Mage.  Red Mage got Double Cast, which was fantastic after Wiswald.  Prior, Black Mage bypassing immunities and absorb effects was better.  Ranger is the other half of Phantom, and I just like running bows.  Oracle had a lot of problems but I love it in spite of everything.  Spiritmaster is the hard one, because its second passive is legitimately insane for supportive effects, allowing constant regen of HP, MP, curing status, negating debuffs, reviving the party, and giving +1BP.  Its problem is it also clears buffs, and has horrific anti-synergy with classes like Bard and Oracle, which...kinda leads into my big problem with the classes.

Magic sucks post-game.  Prior, it's great, just hit an enemy weakness and you're dealing good damage.  But eventually, you reach end- and post-game, and your physical classes just dominate.  Red Mage doublecasting into an enemy weakness might deal around 6-10k, depending on how strong the magic is and your crit rate.  A single crit off that Phantom/Ranger build would deal 14-17k.  It's unreal how much stronger your physical classes get.  And this in spite of magic's built-in limitations.  No magic class combination affords you perfect elemental coverage.  You can get 5 at most with Black Mage and either Red Mage, Oracle, or Pictomancer.  The only class with perfect coverage is Hellblade, but frankly?  Hellblade's best utility is dying.  Use it as the sub-class, with the Red Mage skill HP/MP Conversion to cast magic from HP instead, and use Ultima Blade.  It uses all your MP (HP now) to deal damage, and with max HP, you deal 99,999 damage in one swing.  That's way stronger than anything magic can do!

The only exception I've seen is Reflect strats.  If you get your entire party with Reflect, and cast a party-wide spell that targets all your allies, it will reflect four times.  Meaning that a single cast now hits all enemies four times.  If you use all your brave points, that's now 16 casts in one round.  32 with Red Mage's doublecast.  If the foe even takes neutral damage, you're looking at a ton of damage in one move.  But the problems now should be obvious.  Multi-target boss battles have varied, non-overlapping weaknesses and resistances, so you're rarely getting that full effect.  But moreover, Reflect is removed by Spiritmaster.  And every one of the trial fights has "Counter any skill: BP +1," so casting healing magic is a bad idea.  Meaning you use healing items instead, and nothing else.  Your best healer isn't even a healer, it's a random support with "Healing Item Amp" throwing X-Potions around.  You basically give up everything heal-wise for a high-risk strategy to explode the foe in one round, focused on one caster and two Bards to boost magic and crit rate and get them a guaranteed action afterward.  Which is a lot worse off than the physical classes being so self-sufficient and dealing better numbers otherwise.

GAMEPLAY With that introduction to classes out of the way, the last factor is just the gameplay itself.  I'm going to say overall great with caveats.

The main game is fantastic.  It wasn't until Chapter 4 that I started to feel bogged down.  Everything prior is great.  Dungeons are reasonable length, have some interesting challenges, and boss fights were super engaging with a lot of unique strats.  Dragoon is probably the only time I felt like a specific class was necessary (Shieldbearer), but given that this game is direct about "You must always have a tank," it's not too unreasonable to expect it to be there.  Vanguard only does so much at that point.  Thief and Berserker are other close options, but Beastmaster prevents it from being a one-option affair.  Thief has Vanguard beating its ass with Earth damage, but Beastmaster can summon the big enemies just before that fight for the same, and doing four actions with all of them is apparently a one-round clear.  Berserker needs Bard to help with buffing defenses to avoid just dropping, but apparently the Fire Spirits that Beastmaster summons can inflict Stop.  So that's neat.  Basically, it's all great.

The only questionable system in a basic sense is weight.  I get the idea.  Anyone can equip anything for variety, but some classes are lightweight and can't handle much, while others are tanks that can pack all the heavy equipment.  You can get heavier stuff on lightweight allies by using accessories that reduce weight, but often those have limited other effects, so it's a tradeoff.  By and large, it's a fine system, but sometimes it feels needlessly limiting.  By the end of the game, I have all the really good armor and weapons for Shieldbearer.  I couldn't equip all of it because of equip load.  I am level 75, and the only solution is to add more levels to equip everything.  To me, that feels like a problem, and it's one that's easily solved by having equipment be specific to certain classes.  But that does lead to situations where it's like "Why can't Red Mage equip this particular heavy armor, they're supposed to be the all-around caster," so there's tradeoffs.

Starting at the last dungeon of Chapter 4, it starts to suffer from JRPG Syndrome, where it's just gone on far too long.  Dungeons are overstaying their welcome, fights are a bit more tedious than you'd like for having to do dozens of them, etc.  Nothing is new about it, it's just frustrating.  At least chapters 6 and 7 do away with that, by having incredibly short dungeons that just lead straight to a boss.  But not before Chapter 5 can give you the Crystal's Resting Place as the ultimate test of your patience.

The other issue I take is the trials.  Until now, there Brave/Default system had a particular give and take relationship between your actions and the enemy's.  You can do a thing, or you can not do a thing and stockpile actions.  If you do a thing, your opponent can respond, or they can gain advantage by not doing a thing.  If you don't do a thing, you may gain a bit of turn advantage, or your opponent gets to set up something of theirs that may be detrimental.  Maybe you're trying to stockpile turns for your mage to get casting, but oops, Oracle set Reflect, or Bastion set up Vallation.  Trying to build up to something now wasted your time.  The major problem was that Defaulting was, well, the default action.  Unless you knew your foe could punish a Default, there was no harm in it.  The solution was punishing taking multiple actions via counter skills.  The Ranger is the first good example I can think of, where attacking could result in her unleashing Quickfire Barrage, hitting your entire party multiple times, and potentially causing a party-wipe if you were over-zealous and unlucky.  While they're annoying, counterattacks felt like a sensible way to avoid making Default the obvious solution to everything.

The problem with the trials is that counters aren't attacks all the time anymore.  Instead, you get "Counter any action: BP +1."  Which is bullshit.  It completely removes the give and take process, and instead makes it so your opponent is effectively always operating at max BP, because they'll counter everything you do.  It absolutely annihilated healers, who just give the opponent BP and trap them in healing loops, leading the aforementioned statement that the best healer is "Healing Item Amp."  And if you go on the offensive, now you not only need to worry about counterattacks, but giving them max BP again.  It's like they realized the game's system was solved at this point, and a well-crafted team didn't necessarily need to change what it was doing, and said "Absolutely not" and decided the enemies should all cheat to maintain the illusion that this is difficult rather than just frustrating.  And it is just frustration, because the same strategy I always used worked, I just didn't have enough levels to survive the constant attacks or to deal the necessary damage to offset their shit.  It's just a badly designed cheat skill.

This comes to a head with the Bravebearer trial, which is just blatant in its cheating.  Until now, foes use skills based on what's actually available through the class they inhabit.  Sure, there are some upgrades, like Thief countering your Default with the BP steal skill, but by and large anything they do you can too.  But not this fight.  Lonsdale gets to set DOUBLE Rampart, which does nothing but waste your actions against a foe who can already shred your BP values. Of course, they all have the +1 BP counterskill, and the Bravebearer can one-shot literally anyone for damage cap for free whenever he wants, leading to situations where he can one-round your entire party for free.  But that's not the peak bullshit.  No, the peak bullshit is that, if you KO Bravebearer, and one of the others is still up?  For absolutely no reason, through no skill other than "Fuck you I win," he gets back up two turns later with like 40% HP.  And he will do this infinitely.  So the carefully planned solution to take out the mage, then take down Bravebearer, leaving on the tank to whittle down through his double damage negation cheat skills, doesn't work, for literally no reason.  This is the kind of boss fight design that I feel should be punishable by death.

This leads to the other big issue: I feel like status is kinda just something to bother the player.  Very rarely did status ever seem to work, and most enemies seemed immune to anything that mattered.  Every mage is immune to Silence, no one was ever hit by Stop or Slow, I think I got Blind on a foe exactly one time ever.  The worst part is, it's not supposed to be this way.  The story battle against Bravebearer, which is an incredibly tough fight, is weak to Paralysis.  You can lock him down infinitely with Paralysis...if you knew it was going to work.  Which, based on past experience, you wouldn't.  That's really the issue.  Prior experience dictates what's going to be viewed as worth trying, and status consistently doesn't work, until the one random fight where it's a solution you're just supposed to pick up on.  I think the better solution is just making status a more viable approach throughout.  "But we made like five different status effects that just completely shut the opponent down, we can't let you do that to everything."  Then maybe your status effects were poorly balanced.  But it's Final Fantasy style, so we knew that already.

FINAL THOUGHTS I really enjoyed the game.  I wasn't sure I would, but I took a chance, and I'm happy with it.  I will admit to intense frustration around the Bravebearer trial, but even that can be seen as me making my own life harder for no reason, as I still had 24 level ups to go before this became unsalvageable.  Though given the structure of the fight, I'm certain it would've been anyway.

Basically, it's solid, but I think it suffers from the same curse that many JRPGs I've played have if I seriously considered them: fantastic, well-designed experience through the main story, that absolute falls to shit the instant you step into post-game challenge content.

[belacedia-a]

𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐓 𝟑 - 𝟓 𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐃 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐎𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐄

I'm fairly sure I've reblogged several of these in the past,   but whatever,   these are the ones I think suit my portrayal of Belphegor very well.

Sucker for Pain - Imagine Dragons et al.

Emperor’s New Clothes - Panic! At the Disco

you should see me in a crown - Billie Eilish

Devil’s Trill Sonata - Giuseppe Tartini

Play with Fire - Sam Tinnesz ft. Yacht Money

tagged by:   zorkaya and etherux !! tagging:   @queenharumiura, @halcyonias, @skylrks, @fullmtal, @sewnloved, @highseaskxng, @loreconcepts, and anyone else who’d like to try this !

[legokingfisher]

@sapphicjigsaw @itbringsoutmyeyes @greeenbeaaan @nyaskitten if yall want!

tagged by @nightfuryqueen to this picrew yay <3

i tag uhhh whover wants to do it tbh