#I do try and restart but this one is fine it doesn’t need remaking

[triffany-lottablog]

I haven’t been posting much bugsnax stuff because I’ve hit a wall and can’t draw grumpuses at all for the life of me, one day maybe I’ll figure it out properly and find an easier way but for now here’s an updated ref alongside new name for my main oc

[love-bokumono-fics]

in your opinion, which harvest moon or sos games are worth playing and which are not? Are the older titles worth it?

So I have to confess, I have played relatively few HM/SoS games to completion. "Completion" meaning: over a year in-game played, got married, had a kid, and/or completed whatever story there is to be done. I am also of the mind that if something makes me happy, regardless of how old, or objectively "bad" it might be considered, it's worth playing. It makes me happy, it's time well spent.

So if you're looking for an actual critical, and well thought out review of the games, I am not the blog to ask. There are lots of other people out there who have given more thought to the matter than I have.

For the record, the games I have played are: Back to Nature, HM 3 GBC, (More) Friends of Mineral Town, Island of Happiness, Save the Homeland, SoS1, Trio of Towns, SoS Friends of Mineral Town, and I'm working my way through Pioneers of Olive Town.

I've played a little bit of Tale of Two Towns, and A New Beginning, but I didn't get very far in either of those before getting distracted with other things. I enjoyed them while I was playing, but also neither of them captured my attention enough to stay invested long term. Make of that what you will.

I never played any of the titles that were released on Game Cube or Wii, and I basically didn't play anything between 2007 and 2014. Which some people will say is when the best games came out, and I missed out on the best titles, but I never played them so I can't offer an opinion on them. And I haven't played any of the Harvest Moon titles since the split.

So of the ~25 games that we have under the Hm/SoS umbrella, I've played 10, and 4 of them are technically the same game remade on different consoles so let's say 6. Several of the games I played as a literal child, and when I upgraded to the next technology generation, I lost my ability to play them. Others I picked up again as an adult and thoroughly enjoyed my time playing.

As for the "worth" of the game, it really depends on what you, personally, want from your game. I've already given you my definition of "worth". I realize it is not Everyone's definition of "worth". Nonny, I suspect, that since you're asking me in the first place, "it makes me happy" isn't the only reason you want/need to invest time and effort into playing a game. I cannot tell you which games you think will be "worth it."

I think each game has it's own value. It offers something that other's don't. Different characters, different farming mechanics, different stories, and I think each one, in its own way has some value to impart on the players.

My long-time favorite game has been the Mineral Town games, ever since we got BTN in 2000 I fell in love with the premise, the characters, the setting. I bought the gameboy versions when they hit stores, and they are the games I most consistently return to when I want something comfortable.

Compared to recent games though, the Mineral Town ones are Really Basic. And while I love the games for their nostalgia, I know some people will be bored to tears by them of they go from playing the more recent games to that. Even when FoMT hit the switch last sumer I had a bit of whiplash going "oh, there's so little on the calendar, and I only have how many different crops to grow? nothing grows in winter? okay." because I had just come off from playing Trio of Towns.

If you want to be busy and have 100 goals to meet, stick to the newer games. If you just wanna chill and do whatever, try some of the older games if you can.

I think, if you have the time/ability to go back and play the old games, and you want to do it, then by all means, go for it!

A lot of them are only available to play on technology that a lot of people don't have floating around their homes anymore. If they didn't get a next gen port to an easily accessible console, so unless you still have a functioning PS2 or GBA, you're not going to have the chance to play them. Yeah, emulators are out there and they work, but in my experience they're also annoying and buggy, and not an ideal way to play the games. If you have the consoles, but not the games, getting your hands on copies can be very expensive.

You are already prone to play the old games. You're gonna play them regardless of my opinions on them. You're gonna shell out the cash or set up the emulator, or dust off the Wii and pray it still works, and i hope you enjoy your time playing!

These games have been coming out over 20+ years at this point, and while many of them are just remakes/reskins/girl versions, that's still so much time covered in video game technology. And comparing the earliest games to the most recent ones is more of an exercise in frustration and futility. You're never going to find the right answer.

(I also don't know what your personal gauge for 'old' is, Nonny. Because Old for me are games that are 20 years old. Old for you might be games that are 5 years old, which was like... last week from my perspective, so...)

All this to say, I guess I'll give a brief opinion on the games I have played, and y'all can make your decisions as you please from there.

Back to Nature/Mineral Town Games: My OG game. Always holds a dear spot in my heart for nostalgia. Love the town, love the characters, love the music, can do no wrong, a very enjoyable, if basic, farming game. Easy to play for a bit, set down for a while, and pick up and play again without feeling like you've forgotten you were in the middle of something important.

HM GBC 3: Pretty sure I was 10 last time I played it, so grain of salt. I found it more boring than the MT games, the town and maps were smaller, none of the characters had portraits, I didn't really get all of the details to make the farm work. I'm sure if I went back now as an adult I would have a better time, but I have no desire to emulate it. If you want to emulate it, go for it, but be warned that if you play as a girl, the game ends after you get married. Doesn't do that if you play as a boy so...

Save the Homeland: I kept going back to replay this game for years. I thought the premise was fun, and I always wanted to try and get all of the endings, but never did. I would buy it again in a heartbeat if it got remastered. Different from other games tho, in that you only get one year to play and get an ending, and once you do, the game restarts you at Spring 1 and nobody knows who you are again. You get to keep your animals and house upgrades, but there's no dating and marriage.

Island of Happiness: I love the setting and the characters, but god FUCK that weather system. Can't get shit to grow unless you obsessively track if it rains and how sunny it is and it completely ruined the game for me. I tried playing it again a couple years back and couldn't be bothered to keep tracking stuff. I never once unlocked all of the crops or livestock on any of my playthroughs. Did manage to play long enough to get married once.

SoS1: The game that convinced me to go back to buying new stuff after IoH kind of put me off new HM games for the better part of a decade (I had FoMT to replay it was fine). Liked it well enough, thought some of the characters were a bit bland, but still enjoyable enough to get married and have a kid. Unlocking all the vendors is a bitch though, and I still haven't gotten them all. A fine game, but if you're only going to play One 3DS game, I wouldn't suggest this one.

Trio of Towns: This one ties with FoMT as my favorite game! I love everything about it. The Characters, the setting and premise, the music, the depth of events. There's so much to do, there's never a boring day, but that can also feel overwhelming if you're the kind if person who tries to do everything at once. Not as easy to pick up and put down as some of the more basic games, but it's very replayable in my book and I keep coming back to it.

Pioneers of Olive Town: It's a middling game for me. Like SoS1, it's fine, but unlike SoS1, there's very little to do in the game. I completed the "main story" in less than a year without putting in much effort to complete things in a timely manner. The characters and the game had So Much Potential, particularly after 3oT, and all of it fell flat in my expectations. Plus some of the technical issues we all experienced at launch. Now, I'm still playing it, I don't hate the game, and the updates have made things better. But with the story done and all of the characters feeling a bit Flat, I'm biding my time between DLC updates to see if I want to marry any of the special candidates instead of the base game characters. I'll probably keep playing long enough to get married and probably unlock everything on the farm, but beyond that I'm not super invested.

My final verdict is, if you have a 3DS, get Trio of Towns, if you only have a Switch, get Friends of Mineral Town. If you want to put forth the time and effort into acquiring the old games, or emulating them, by all means go for it.

[chilling-seavey]

I need more scenes of Lucy aka my most fave music prodigy (next to Daniel of course

Daniel’s lil multi-talented musical prodigy 🥺🥺

Four

It wasn’t unusual for music to be played through the apartment at odd times of the day, even late at night. So when four-year-old Lucy woke up to the sound of the piano in the middle of the night, she eagerly jumped out of bed and opened her bedroom door and scurried down the hallway to the living room. Daniel was sat at the grand piano by the windows in his pyjamas, a single lamp on just behind him casting a warm glow over his space, his open notebook on the top of the piano and a pen balanced between his lips as he played a few notes slowly.

Lucy tiptoed around the corner into the room and he glanced up at her movement.

“Hey, princess. What are you doing up?” Daniel shuffled over to give her room to climb up on the bench beside him.

“Can I play too?” she asked softly.

“For a little bit. Then it’s back to bed, okay?”

Lucy bit back her grin and nodded up at him. She sat up straighter to mirror him and set her little hands on the keys in nearly perfect form.

“Copy me, okay?” Daniel played a little pattern of three notes and sat back to let her try, her tongue poking out between her lips as she concentrated, and when she finished, she smiled up at him. “Look at you, my little piano prodigy.”

“Again!” Lucy said.

The messy notes of the piano woke Florence from her deep sleep. The empty space in the bed next to her dragged her to her feet and down the hallway after the music. She found Daniel sat at the piano in a t-shirt and his pyjama pants, Lucy sitting up straight next to him on the bench with her blonde hair a mess on her head and a toothy grin on her face as she played along with him.

“Daniel James Seavey, it’s 2:30 in the morning why do you have our four-year-old out of bed?” Florence sighed from the doorway, crossing her arms over her chest tiredly.

“She came and found me herself.” Daniel mumbled, looking down at the little girl beside him.

“And you didn’t put her back in bed because?”

“Because we makin’ music, Mommy!” Lucy giggled, pressing her tiny hands on the keys. Daniel absolutely beamed at his daughter. “Daddy said okay.”

“Lucy Elizabeth, you get back into bed, little miss. I will deal with your father later.” Florence said sternly but gently.

The four-year-old slid off the piano bench and scurried down the hallway, her feet pit-pattering on the hardwood. Florence gave Daniel a little glare before following after their youngest. Lucy was laid down in bed facing the door and smiled shyly when her mother walked in.

“Sorry, Mommy.” she whispered.

“You need to stay asleep once we out you to bed, missy.” Florence sat on her bedside and tucked the sheets higher around her.

“Daddy isn’t asleep. I woke up to music and wanted to play too.”

“Well Daddy should be asleep himself and not being noisy and waking you girls up and I’m going to talk to him about that.”

“Is he in trouble?”

“No.” Florence chuckled, brushing her daughter’s hair back from her face and pressed a kiss to her head. “Sleep well.”

However, the four-year-old didn’t need to know that Daniel was definitely in trouble. Florence shut their bedroom door behind her quietly and gave him a stern glare from across the room. Daniel bit his lip nervously and looked to his lap as he sat up in bed.

“I don’t know where to start with you, Daniel James.” Florence tisked.

“I had a tune in my head and I needed to get it out.” Daniel shrugged.

“So make a voice memo or use your laptop. Don’t go making a concert on the grand piano and luring our children out of bed at 2:30 in the morning. This is the fourth time this month and it’s getting ridiculous. How many times do I have to tell you?”

“I know...I just...” Daniel sighed. “I’m sorry.”

“Lucy’s half asleep during the day because she doesn’t sleep through the night because she’s waiting for her midnight music lessons all the time.” Florence grumbled, tossing back the blankets on her side of the bed and slid in.

“I just can’t say no to her.” Daniel admitted softly. “She’s really good.”

“Well you need to learn to.” Florence said as she turned off her bedside light and got back under the sheets.

“She’s a genius, Flora, I swear.” Daniel whispered through the dark.

~~

Seven

“Ring finger on small E string.”

“I can’t!”

“Yes, you can. Just bend it more.”

“Ow, Daddy, stop! You’re gonna break my finger!” Lucy shrieked, snatching her hand away.

“Lucy, it’s one note. Just a G.” Daniel sighed.

“My hand isn’t big enough!”

“So stretch it out a bit! You’ll get there!”

“It’s too hard. I don’t wanna do this anymore.” Lucy thrust her guitar at him and got up from the couch to trudge tiredly to the kitchen.

Daniel turned to look after her, “Luce, you learned and played the entirety of ‘Hot Cross Buns’ in an hour flat. I think you can manage one tricky note.”

“I just won’t play any songs that have that note in it.”

“That’s not easy to avoid.”

“Whatever.” Lucy sat back down with her glass of lemonade.

“You just gotta practice.” Daniel took her glass from her in exchange for the guitar.

“My fingers are aching, Daddy.” Lucy whined, draping her guitar across her lap.

“Build that stamina, princess. Give me ‘Hot Cross Buns’ again.”

~~

Ten

Daniel and Lucy’s relationship regarding music flipped between yelling at each other and sickening sweet bonding moments often. Lucy loved it but she loved giving up when things got too hard and it drove Daniel crazy but him pushing her drove her crazy. Regardless, she always got where she wanted, especially when she was in her school’s Christmas concert at age ten for a whole performance all by herself. Her parents and sisters sat in the crowd excitedly as she took her seat on the stage in her gold Christmas dress and she set her cello against the ground by her feet. Lucy brushed her blonde hair over her far shoulder to give herself some room to play and let her fingers find the first note before resting the bow against the strings.

Soon, the slow rolling sound of the cello filled the elementary school gymnasium, forming the notes of ‘Silent Night’ gracefully. Her eyes were closed as she let the music lead her and kept her posture as straight as she could. Daniel was beaming at her from the crowd.

It was a short song so she finished quickly and the crowd erupted in applause, her family standing up and cheering the loudest as she took her curtsy and walked off the stage. She joined them in the audience and was quickly welcomed into hugs and praise by her family.

Daniel had a small bouquet of flowers at the ready for her for congratulations and she took it with a smile as he bent down to hug her tightly.

“So proud of you.” he whispered, pressing a kiss to her head.

“Thank you.” Lucy breathed against his chest, looking up to shoot him a smile, a small gap where she had lost a tooth grinning up at him.

~~

Fourteen

“Good afternoon!” “I adore your top!” “My day was just fine, thank you!” “Oh my gosh, your new haircut is stunning!” “Daddy, I’m here!”

Lucy didn’t even need to say it, Daniel could hear her from the moment she walked out of the elevator but he looked up from his spot at the sound board and smiled at his daughter in the doorway. She dropped her backpack on the couch and leaned down to kiss his cheek.

“Let’s get to work!”

They had been getting together at the studio after school to work on singing and producing which later turned into an idea for a Christmas gift for Daniel’s parents. They were re-recording all the instrumental tracks and then the vocals of one of the first songs Daniel covered as a teenager, the same cover that got him accepted into university. His parents adored the cover he worked so hard on at only sixteen, understanding that all his time cooped up in his room remaking the song eventually paid off and they were so proud of him for it.

So Daniel had the copy of his cover of Breakaway on his laptop and he and Lucy had spent weeks re-recording the guitar tracks, piano tracks, backing vocals, and percussion, and it was finally time for the main vocals. They got Lucy set up in the recording studio with a headset and a mic and a glass of water beside her and Daniel got back on the other side of the wall with the soundboard and his laptop.

“Ok, let’s do one run through for a first draft.” Daniel spoke into the mic and she gave him a thumbs up as the music started playing through her headphones. They spent the rest of the afternoon on it, finally finishing with perfecting the high note at the last chorus.

They really wanted to get it perfect and make it the most impressive they could.

“Higher.” Daniel spoke through the mic.

“Higher? Oh my gosh.” Lucy cleared her throat and waved her finger in a circle to get him to replay the last little bit. “I gotta keep moving on, moving on. Fly away!”

“Higher.” Daniel cut her off.

“Dad.”

“You’re not putting your heart into it.”

“Yes, I am!”

“Fly away.” Daniel sang as an example, holding the last syllable as he brought his voice higher at the end. He repeated that last note for her, gesturing for her to copy.

Lucy sighed but humoured him, meeting his pitch with ease.

“Good. Again.” Daniel restarted the instrumental clip.

“I gotta keep moving on, moving on. Fly away!”

“Lucy.” Daniel groaned.

“You’re being too picky. That was good.”

“Good. Not amazing.”

“Wow, thanks.”

“You gotta convince me this is the best song you’ve ever sang and you wouldn’t want to be singing anything else. Gotta feel it here.” Daniel patted his chest. He fiddled with the switched on the board in front of him. “Again.”

“Baby, I don’t know where they’ll take me but, I gotta keep moving on, moving on. Fly away!” Lucy scrunched her eyes shut and angled herself slightly away from the mic as she finally hit that note.

Daniel could only grin at her through the window as he kept her going right into the chorus.

“I’ll spread my wings and I’ll learn how to fly. Do what it takes ‘till I touch the sky. Take a risk, take a chance, make a change, and breakaway….Breakaway.”

Daniel switched off the recording and literally jumped up, “That was perfect! See? I knew you had it in you!”

“Can we listen to it now? I’m so tired.” Lucy chuckled, walking out of the recording studio to the mixing area and she collapsed back onto the couch with her water bottle.

“Yes! Okay, okay…give me one second.” Daniel typed away on his laptop and moved around a few things before moving to sit beside her on the couch. “We still have lots of adjustments for producing but this is our first final draft.”

He couldn’t press play before his phone was ringing from the table in front of them. They both looked down to see Florence’s number on the screen, probably calling to ask where the heck they were since it was already pushing 7:00 and they said they would be home at 5. Daniel and Lucy looked each other.

“You didn’t see anything.” Daniel said.

“Nope. Didn’t hear the phone at all.” Lucy agreed and they turned back to the laptop.

[bytheangell]

The Fixer

(Read on AO3) Square Filled: Potion Gone Wrong for @shadowhunterbingo Pairing: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood/Jace Herondale, focus on Magnus Bane/Jace Herondale Rating: Teen and Up  -- Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Summary: When Jace accidentally ruins a potion Magnus is quick to come to the rescue with reminders (both literal and figurative) that he's there to help catch him when he stumbles. -----------------------------------------------  

“Magnus!” Jace’s voice sounds frantic through the phone. “You need to come back to the loft right now.”

“What’s wrong?” Magnus asks, already surveying the room he’s in and making sure it’s clear to open a portal at a moment’s notice if necessary. Jace rarely sounds truly panicked, and Magnus already starts to worry that something’s wrong with Alexander, especially if Jace is the one calling Magnus from the loft.

“I knocked something into the…” Jace falters but doesn’t have time to dwell on it, words tumbling out in a rush. “The potion pot. I didn’t mean to, Madzie stopped by to borrow something for Cat and I thought I could just grab it, but I knocked a vial into whatever you had cooking in there and now-- you need to get back here, right now.”

“The what?” Magnus asks, not fully piecing together Jace’s words at first.

“The… you know, the potion pot,” Jace repeats desperately, and Magnus can almost picture him trying to motion out what he’s saying even though Magnus can’t see him, which is when it clicks.

Cauldron. Jace spilled something in the cauldron Magnus left simmering in his workroom.

Jace’s panic would be endearing if the situation wasn’t potentially disastrous.

“What did you knock into it? Do you remember?” Magnus asks, trying to stay calm and taking mental stock of everything he keeps on the shelves near where the cauldron currently rests.

“Yeah, Madzie came by for a… a vampire fang but I knocked the vial of hair over by accident. It turned purple and… and I can’t get it to stop... smoking-”

“You’re still in the room?” Magnus exclaims. At this point everyone in the small room with him has turned to stare, and he’s already opening a portal saying, “Sorry, emergency. Someone catch me up later.” to a room full of very important Downworld delegates as he vanishes through the swirling magic in front of him.

Not a second too soon, as the moment he steps into the workroom he sees Jace swaying on the spot from the fumes of the potion gone wrong, about to faint. Magnus catches him just before he hits the ground.

“Jace?” Madzie’s voice sounds from the living room.

“Stay out there-” Magnus calls to her, lifting Jace up to cradle the Shadowhunter in his arms to carry him out onto the sofa.

“Jace had a little… accident.” Magnus warily eyes the smoke billowing out into the hallway now. “Give me ten minutes, then that fang is all yours. Be a dear and watch over him, will you?”

“Sure!” Madzie agrees eagerly, always looking for a chance to use the healing magic Catarina is teaching her. It isn’t much, certainly not for someone Jace’s size and build, but it can’t hurt.

Meanwhile Magnus is back in the workroom, opening the window, ushering all the smoke outside, and taking the cauldron off of the heat before using his magic to artificially cool it faster. He’s feeling lightheaded by the time he has the disastrous brew under control enough to leave there, making a mental note to dispose of it properly later.

When Magnus reemerges into the living room it’s with a jar containing a vampire fang, which he hands off to Madzie. “Thank you, Sweetpea. Sorry for the trouble.”

“Is Uncle Jace going to be okay?” she asks, standing by him in concern.

“Uncle Jace just needs to rest. He’ll be fine, I promise,” Magnus swears, and only then does Madzie go back to Catarina with her ingredient.

Magnus sits on the edge of the sofa and rests the back of his hand against Jace’s forehead to make sure he isn’t running a fever, but he seems to be fine outside of the loss of consciousness from the fumes. Still, Magnus stays close, just in case.

It isn’t long before Alec comes home, his voice drifting into the living room before he fully crosses the doorway.

“Is Jace home? He isn’t at the Institute, and I felt something wrong through our bond-” Alec’s words stop abruptly at the sight of Jace passed out on the sofa.

“He’s fine,” Magnus says quickly. “Just inhaled a few too many fumes.”

“Fumes from what?” Alec asks, his long legs quickly covering the space between the door and the sofa, sitting at the end opposite Magnus to be close enough to inspect his parabatai.

“The potion he ruined,” Magnus says with a hint of annoyance now that things are settled down and everyone is, more or less, fine. “You know, the one for my client in Andorra that’s been simmering for days.”

Alec winces. “What did he do?”

Magnus sighs. “Madzie came by for a vampire fang and he went to grab it for her, but he knocked the vial of vampire hairs into the cauldron in the process. Now I have to start that potion all over, and also beg Simon to let me restock my vampire hair supply.”

“Simon won’t mind,” Alec offers, clinging to the one positive.

“Surprisingly, Simon isn’t the part of that I’m most concerned with,” Magnus points out, but immediately softens at the look of concern written all over Alec’s face. “I’m not mad at him if that’s what you’re worried about. I trust him in there but he should be more careful - if it’d been something else he could’ve blown up half the loft!” And there it really is, Magnus realizes. He isn’t annoyed that he has to restart a potion, even one that’s going to put a serious dent in his pay for being late; he’s upset because Jace could’ve hurt himself, or Madzie, or Alec and himself if they’d been home. “I can always replace ingredients.” The ‘I can’t replace Jace’ goes unspoken. It’s a concern Alec understands the most, especially when Jace is being reckless on missions. Now they have to worry about it in their own home, too. Wonderful. “I’m just glad I got back as soon as I did.”

“Me too,” Alec agrees, reaching out to run a hand through Jace’s hair, brushing it away from where it fell into his face. “And make sure you tell him you aren’t mad at him. You know how he gets.”

Magnus snorts a huff of air through his nose. “Sure I can’t mess with him a little first?”

“Magnus!” Alec warns, but Magnus is already laughing.

“I’m kidding! I’m kidding. Of course I will. I couldn’t stand him moping around again like the last time.”

They both watch over Jace, waiting until his multicolored eyes blink open slowly a few minutes later.

“Wha… what happened?” Jace asks, trying to sit up too quickly before falling back down onto the sofa, eyes scrunched together.

“You knocked all my vampire hair into a cauldron and then inhaled toxic fumes the entire time you were on the phone with me.” Magnus supplies. “Any of that ring a bell?”

“I- shit,” Jace covers his face with his hands despite his closed eyes. “I’m so sorry, Magnus. I know you said I could go in there but-”

“Don’t worry about it,” Magnus waves a hand dismissively. “Let’s just get you into bed. I’ll make a tonic for you to drink when you wake up, you should be right as rain.”

“What about the potion?”

“I’ll remake it.” Magnus shrugs

Jace looks unconvinced.

“You can help me make the new one if it’ll make you feel better for ruining this one,” Magnus offers. “ But I promise I’m not upset about the stupid potion.”

Jace eyes Magnus carefully as he and Alec each take a side, lifting Jace up and supporting under his shoulders to help him down the hallway and into the bedroom.

“Then what are you upset about?” Jace asks, and Magnus hates how goddamn perceptive Jace can be.

“I’m upset that you could’ve hurt yourself. Or worse,” Magnus manages, his tone almost sounding nonchalant enough to cover the proper concern behind his words. Almost.

“Awwwww,” Jace replies, voice light with good-natured teasing. “You care.”

Magnus rolls his eyes. He knows that this is just Jace’s way of deflecting, of turning everything into some sort of witty comeback or deflection. And he knows just how to counter it.

“I do,” Magnus agrees simply, rather than rising to the bait and trying to deny it.

Jace doesn’t have a comeback for that outside of a smile - not a smirk, Magnus notes, but a proper smile.

“I know it’s early,” Jace starts hopefully, looking at the empty space around him as he gets into bed. “But…”

Magnus and Alec both know that Jace sleeps easier when he’s not alone, and if they leave him there to dwell on the potion mishap he’ll just toss and turn forever.

“Move over,” Alec cuts Jace off before he has to finish that thought, and Jace looks relieved as he shifts towards the other side of the bed.

“Not too far,” Magnus stops him, walking over to the other side of the bed. One glance at the barely concealed shock on Jace’s face and Magnus knows that Jace obviously didn’t believe he wasn’t mad at him and expected him to leave. Magnus knows he should clean up and restart the potion sooner rather than later but he figures he can spare an hour first to remind Jace that he’s here for him - not just when things go right, but when he messes up, too.

Restarting the potion ends up waiting until morning after all three of them wind up falling asleep with Jace sandwiched, safe and cared for, in the middle.

[the-endless-storm]

Nuzlocke Shield Final Part

Part Six

Time to get the road to Challenge Cup finished. Of course, gotta have another cut scene with Hop to slow everything down again. I turned major cut scenes off so I can skip all the train boringness and get right to the snowy Route 10.

Let's get the encounter out of the way, and it's everyone's favourite bug Snom

Snocaine - Snom (m) Shield Dust Brave (Spd up / Atk down) “It likes to fight!”

I don’t have the will or inclination to get Snom's happiness up to evolve it at this point in the game, so it's going into a box until I can sell it off to a drug lord.

This route is so short and so boring.

Wyndon is awesome, but like all the cities and towns before it, it's so EMPTY. There's only a handful of buildings you can go in and one or two streets. In Pokemon games gone you could go into every house, but there's just nothing of interest here. A giant pokemart would not go amiss.

Changed my hair. Gotta look flash for the championship.

Vs Marnie

Marnie was easy, even though her Toxicroak went for a Swagger and Sucker Punch combo that nearly knocked out Cyanide.

Point of interest, you can leave via the lift in between matches. And you can also set up a camp. Why? Who knows. Programming oversight no doubt.

Vs Hop

Hop is still as annoying as ever, “I knew you'd use a super effective attack!” Well no shit Sherlock, it's only the fundamental basics of Pokemon battling.

Fucking Body Slam Dubwool paralysis hax!

And a Full Restore, the dirty fucker. Two can play at that game.

I swear to god, he paralysed me as soon as I cured it. At least he's causing Stamina to increase the damage of Body Press, his ultimate downfall.

Snorlax eats a Body Press and went down in one. So does Corviknight. Pincurchin and Earthquake don’t mix. Now I’m past the cheating Dubwool, I’m not even getting paralysed. That said, I swap out Bullseye for Pina Colada to face his Inteleon. God I hate Inteleon's design. I hate all the final start forms.

Dancing Pineapple Kappa 1 - 0 Skinny Emo Gecko

Ugh. Bring back the Elite Four. All this running around mini Team Yell guess who nonsense takes you away from the drama of the final challenge. Just. So. Many. Cut. Scenes. To. Stop. And. Button. Mash. Through!

Also, why does the game just suddenly drop the name Macro Cosmo out of nowhere? It's never mentioned in any dialogue yet we're expected to know it's the name of Rose's company? I guess it's meant to invoke the feeling of an evil team name, since Team Yell have suddenly joined you and there's now a protagonist shaped hole in the game.

“Security footage released by Macro Cosmo show champion semi finalists James and Hop causing chaos with recently eliminated challenger Marnie and brother Piers whilst accompanied by known trouble makers Team Yell. After causing a stampede that endangered the lives of many at the monorail station, the two stormed Rose Tower for no apparent reason. Because of this outlandish and un-sportsmanship behaviour, the two have been disqualified from the championship and black listed from ever taking part in the future. Up next... Curry. Can we find anything else to eat?”

Anyway. The tower and Oleana are nothing to worry about.

I really wish I could have found a better Ice TM or TR than Icy Wind before going into the final battle. None of the Watt Traders have Ice beam and there's not a single Ice type raid battle going on anywhere.

Bede was a push over, as usual.

Why do they have this cool tournament set up, but never randomise it? It's always Nessa, Alistair/Bea and Raihan. Never anyone else. Just once I'd like to re-battle a full team from Milo or Kabu. I know you have a chance to do it in rematches post game, but by that point your so highly levelled that’s there's absolutely zero challenge. Mini rant over.

Vs Nessa

Spritz drops a Sticky Web to slow Nessa's Pokemon down then systematically obliterates each one with a thunderbolt.

Vs Alistair - Chamomile endures a hit which triggers Weak Armor, gets off a Nasty Plot and with a Full Restore in the mix gets rid of all the pesky ghosts. I was a little worried, as I don’t have any Pokemon that resist ghost attacks but it turned out fine in the end.

Vs Raihan

Bullseye weathers a super effective Muddy Water from Goodra, then just like his team mates defeats everything with single attacks.

So glad I turned cut scenes off.

Mum is outside your house like “Ok sweetie, you and your friend go into the dangerous woods to search for an ancient Pokémon and then go stop the leader of the country from restarting the apocalypse. Do you want some cookies? You're such a strong Pokemon trainer.” No wonder all the kids are missing parents it's a wonder anyone survives.

There's meant to be a giant black cloud over Hammerlocke, but I flew in and whilst the music has changed, nothing else has. It's dark in the middle of the day, but all the people are still standing around chatting shit. I guess the developers thought everyone would go straight into the Weald instead of doubling back. Poor show.

I get an encounter in the Slumbering Weald, and first off it's a Corviknight. Been so long since I encountered this line, but it's still a dupe. Then I KO'd a Munna. I really don’t think it matters anymore, I only have two major battles to go before the end of the game.

Cut scene. Run forward a bit. Cut scene. Run forward a bit. Cut scene. Run forward a bit. Still need my hand held at this point in the game. Frankly I’m surprise Hop doesn’t decide he wants another battle at this point.

“We've evacuated Hammerlocke. Except the people inside their houses, they have chosen to stay. Something about trusting their chairman no matter what he does. Spooky huh?”

Cut scene. Run forward a bit. Cut scene.

Vs Rose - Otis. Fire attacks.

Cut scene. Run forward. Cut scene. Run forward. Cut scene. There is just NO let up.

Did the undefeated Champion just try to catch a resurrected legendary Pokemon in a basic Pokeball?

Bullseye gets a crit Earthquake and knocks Eternatus out in one go.

GMax Eternatus is impressive. Hats off to the designers here, it looks terrifying. The first and only time in the game where something feels like a threat.

And Hop helps out with his Dubwool again. Super helpful.

Cyanide falls in battle, as Eternatus focuses all its attacks on me and Hop helps by using the least effective move he has and doing almost no damage at all. A toast to Slowbro.

Cyanide is KO'd.

I take Jett out of storage, ram as many XP candies as I can down her throat and head in to fight Leon.

Vs Leon - Finally.

Otis knocks out Aegislash with two Fire Lashes

Haxorus is a bit of a tough one, as the only SE attack I have for a dragon is Icy wind on PC. Bullseye survives an Outrage but only does half damage with Earthquake, and switching to Jett almost gets her taken out in one hit. Two hits, she's gone. I bring Bullseye back in and spam some Potions, maybe I can get a free shot in once the Stamina starts to kick in. This isn’t what the crowd want to see but, but I just saved the world so fuck em.

Jett is KO'd

Yep, it takes a minute or two, but once I have 3 Stamina boosts I can Body Press the fuck out of this dragon.

Seismitoad starts off with Toxic, which was a wasted move. Leon uses a Full Restore, so I will too. I’m going to Body Press to victory.

Cinderace meet Body Press.

Fuck, I can’t use Body Press on Dragapault. Chamomile lands two Sucker Punches but gets knocked out a second Shadow Ball. Spritz survives a Flamethrower but isn’t strong enough or fast enough to land a second hit. Pina swaps in to take the Flame Thrower AND a Shadow Ball then KOs Dragapault with Icy Wind. I guess it did come in useful after all.

Chamomile is KO'd

I know Charizard will be faster than me, I just have to hope I can survive long enough to do damage to it. I send out Otis first, who can at least absorb fire attacks and has an electric attack to use. Max Rockfall almost KOs me but Max Lightning does half damage. I use a Full Restore, and I think between the sandstorm damage to Zara and the up boost from my leftovers another Max Lightning will seal the deal.

Yaaaaaas!

Ya boi is the Champion.

I’m not playing Pokemon again until Crown Tundra comes out this was a chore.

The band that plays during the credits, the least they could have done is used some custom animation that didn’t look like they were attacking, and made the music sound like it was being played. There's no drum beat.

Final Team

Bullseye - Mudsdale (lv 64)

Otis - Heatmor (lv 64)

Pina Colada - Ludicolo (lv 64)

Spritz - Vikavolt (lv 64)

Boxed

Joltik, Slowpoke, Charjabug, Croagunk, Oddish, Snorunt

Sizzlepede, Sneasel, Chubcoo, Lombre, Pelipper, Carcoal

Machoke, Dubwool, Shelmet, Sandaconda, Delibird, Cramorant

Jigglypuff, Chansey, Snom, Eternatus

Losses

Bandit the Nickit - Knocked out by a fat squirrel

Gumball the Tympole - Devoured by a centipede with a moustache

Castlevania the Rookidee - Torn apart by a cute mole

HaagenDazs the Vanillite - Murdered in an act of revenge by a smelly frog

Ddraig the Druddigon - Speared by a selfish shellfish

Cyanide the Slowbro - Smote by a god

Jett the Toxtricity - Defeated by the Champion

Chamomile the Poltergeist - Defeated by the Champion

Thanks for anyone that has been following along. Maybe one day I’ll do another playthrough. Hopefully we’ll see Diamond and Pearl remakes, and I would love to do a mono-type playthrough at some point. Not a Nuzlocke though, as interesting as it is, the restrictions irritate me.

Shameless Plug - Please follow @wales-dex for my fakemon.

[mittensmorgul]

Hello. This might be a stupid one but; why didn't Michael showed himself to humanity? (Meaning mass revelation biblical style). He doesn't want an apocalyptic earth he already had that. So why take it by force? If he is not afraid of a god intervention, most of the people want peace not freedom and he is a bridge between 3 major monotheist beliefs.(did I missed something?) Thank you

Hi there! First of all, sorry this took so long to answer. And I’m gonna take a line here to apologize to everyone who’s asked me stuff that I haven’t replied to. Sometimes I just don’t know how to reply, sometimes I hold on to stuff to see it in my inbox (like nice things people say), and sometimes I save stuff for when I have the brain power to reply and then maybe never do actually come by that brain power… whoopsie… I am doing my best. :P

That said, let’s tackle Michael.

*waits for someone to take him out with a strong hit*

*still waiting*

Well fine. I’ll do this.

I think you may be misunderstanding exactly what Michael wants here. Michael doesn’t give a flying heck about people. If he wanted to be worshiped like a god, he probably could’ve had the whole planet on their knees in a matter of days, you know? Pull a Godstiel, but with a lot less murder and mayhem, perform a few miracles on international television, and bam. He could’ve had the whole population bowing to him.

But I reiterate, he does not care about PEOPLE.

I mean, we got the best look into Michael’s point of view in his conversation with Jack in 14.09:

Alternate Michael: Oh, but, Jack, we’re family. You know, in fact, we’re the only kin each other has left in this world.Jack: My uncle’s in the Cage. And you – you’re not family.Alternate Michael: Well, not literally, no. Our connection, our relation is more a matter of scale of power. Haven’t you learned yet? In this reality, monsters, humans, even angels – they are insects, atoms compared to us. But you [chuckles] – you’re just a child, a mere infant. For you, the past two years – the entirety of your existence – feel like eons. You don’t even know what time is. But you will. Real time, the time that makes mountains, that wipes out species. You’ll see it all with me.Jack: No.Alternate Michael: Year by year, century by century, and as your power returns and grows, we’ll only become more alike. Oh, I know. Your loyalty to Castiel, the Winchesters, the rest of humanity? It will fade. And so will the minor differences – angel armies versus monster armies, this Kansas City or that Kansas City, one world from another – they’ll fade, too. 

He doesn’t even consider other ANGELS as anything significant or noteworthy, you know? He’s essentially been driven demented by just having existed for so long, and watched so many other things rise and fall, evolve and go extinct. Everything else holds no real meaning to him. Things are born, things exist for a while, and then they disappear forever. Why bother forming any sort of attachment to anything?

It’s a horrific prospect, honestly. Jack is horrified by it. *WE* are supposed to be horrified by it.

Immortality… is not a gift… it’s a curse. And Michael proves that. He loves nothing but himself, because everything else will die.

His goal is not to amass a hoard of loving, devoted followers. His goal is to wreak as much havoc as possible in the process of reforming the world to whatever he thinks would be most interesting to him right now. We have no idea what that would look like, because I don’t even think Michael knows. He’s like a scientist just throwing random stuff into a vat to see what happens. Oh, that combination of things exploded! This other combination made poison gas! Moving on to the next thing… just leave those other experiments there smoldering in ruin. It just breaks up the boredom for him, and then he’s on to the next thing. Because nothing at all really matters to him.

So the question for Michael is… why not take it by force? He’d done it once with angels, and this go-around he’s decided to try the same thing with monsters. But they’re all monsters who are explicitly under his control via his grace making them essentially his puppets. They’re not even operating of their own free will, technically. They’re just extensions of Michael’s will at this point. He’s not looking to make them all into his devotees, or remaking the world for them to enjoy. Because again, they’re only temporary fixtures in the universe, from Michael’s perspective. He doesn’t care about them or what they want, despite that having been his question to everyone at the beginning of the season.

I suppose I should address that here, for the purposes of understanding how I’ve been looking at him. Yes, his question was “what do you want?” But he didn’t really care what anyone wanted, beyond attempting to discover which group (humans, demons, angels, monsters) was both honest about what they wanted, and simplistic in their desires. Because strangely enough, that’s what Michael needed in the group he chose for his army. He needed a group with simple goals that he could use for his own purposes.

Humans are too messy and complicated. Even ensnaring the entire population in a Divine Revelation sort of way wouldn’t guarantee complete submission, you know? Not to mention the fact that Michael and Lucifer both (and even Raphael) have never, ever, thought that humans deserved that place of love God had ordered the angels revere humanity with. I think Michael resents humanity just as much as Lucifer and Raphael ever did.

There just weren’t enough angels to make a functional army for him, and Heaven is in shambles. He’d already failed to eradicate humanity and wrest control of the world with a full angel army in his own universe, so he wasn’t even really interested in trying to recruit the few angels who are left here.

We know he approached demons, and talked to at least Kip from 14.01. But as we know of demons, they have their own wants. They’re conniving, cunning, and tricksy. I mean, look at Kip’s answer to Michael from 14.01:

Kip: You see, recently, I had a revelation. You know, somebody asked me what it was that I wanted. And I realized that after 600 years as a demon walking the planet, destroying, drinking, defiling – you know, the Three D’s – I didn’t know. So, I sat back, and I gave it a good think, and I realized exactly what I wanted.Castiel: And what is it?Kip: Everything.

So he wanted EVERYTHING? Well, funny enough, that’s kinda the opposite of what Michael wanted in an army, you know? Michael wanted mindless, ravenous soldiers he could control completely. Whose desires were uncomplicated enough that he wouldn’t have to care about keeping them content beyond the very basic.

That left him with monsters. And yes, not all monsters are mindless killing machines.

I mean, think of the vampires from Michael’s AU. They WERE reduced to animalistic eating machines, nearly starving to death because there just weren’t any more people to feed on, and they were beneath Michael’s notice, just like mosquitoes or mud. I mean, why would he care what they wanted?

Because what they wanted was to be able to feed without persecution. Also from 14.01:

Michael: Now, you – you know exactly what you want. You don’t pretend to want to help people… or save the world. Your want is pure and simple… and clean. And that’s why you are worth saving. That’s why we are going to work so well together. Because you – you just want to eat.

Not because Michael admired this quality, or thought it was “worth saving” in its own right, but because it made them useful to him for his purposes. He’s essentially using them to hoover up all the other intelligent life on the planet. What would happen, theoretically, when all the people were gone? When all their food dried up? Michael said he intended to have all the monsters turn all the humans in Kansas City. Well, what THEN? What would all those monsters eat once the entire population of the world were monsters?

It would be chaos, is what. It would likely provide a few years or even decades of entertainment for Michael to watch unfold before he’d have to find something else to amuse himself with. But again, he just does not care. Which makes him possibly the most dangerous villain the show has ever seen.

Even Amara cared about something, you know? Even the Leviathan intended to just take over the planet and create a never-ending perfect human food supply for themselves.

But this is even worse than Raphael restarting the Apocalypse out of ennui. Michael’s a nihilist. He doesn’t want to be loved or worshiped. He doesn’t want to convert the world to bow to him. He does not care.

[theultimateegghead-blog]

My top 10 least favorite bosses.

I love boss battles, they are a great way to challenge the player and to wrap up a level or a game. Not all bosses are made equal though, for every great boss there is a mediocre one as well. These bosses got on my bad side due to various reasons. Now, this list is subjective and my opinion, not every boss on this list is terrible from a design standpoint, and there may even be some on this list you may not agree with. This is fine, your free to have your favorites or least favorites. In fact, I would love to see your least favorite bosses in the comments if you would please. Secondly, no bosses from my top 50 list will be on this list. This is to avoid redundancy. Lets take a look at some of my least favorite bosses.

NUMBER 10 - Xande (Final Fantasy 3)

This just goes to show that not every boss on this list is bad. On a purely technical note, Xande is a perfectly fine boss, however to describe this foe in one word would be “disappointment”. Xande is built up as the ultimate bad guy in Final Fantasy III. His magic literally tearing the world apart and just causing havoc. He is so strong that approaching his tower before it is time results in a game over. He seems to be almighty, or so you would believe. After conquering one of the longest and most difficult dungeons in one of the hardest numbered Final Fantasy games, Xande is just lackluster. He is an incredibly basic magic oriented boss with lukewarm stats, he is barely threatening. His death introduces the true final boss so he just serves as a Segway to the cloud of darkness. Despite being the primary antagonist of Final Fantasy III, he isn’t even given a spot in the dissidia roster. Talk about a let down.

How this boss could have been better – Beef him up to final boss status and just get rid of the could of darkness.

**********

NUMBER 9 - Ghost of Lady Comstock (Bioshock Infinite)

This boss is an infamous one for sure. I am one of those people who was disappointed by Bioshock Infinite. It was a great game but it just lacked the special atmosphere that made Bioshock 1 great for me. Enemies felt more bland and uninspired, and the ghost of lady Comstock is a boring boss to take down. The battle drags on forever with the ghost just teleporting around and constantly reviving fallen enemies to fight alongside her. She is fought several times and each time she is just annoying. She can take a lot of punishment and it is hard to break her out of reviving everyone you just defeated. Whats worse is that my game crashed the first time I beat her, causing me to have to fight her twice, then the second time my power went out! I fought this boss more times than necessary…and I didn’t like it at all.

How this boss could have been better – If it weren’t so long…

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NUMBER 8 – Final boss (Ninja Gaiden II)

There are a number of bad NES era bosses. Though I cannot necessarily say its totally unforgivable, because of the era there was no norm, no bar that was set when it came to boss quality. Though, what is bad is when you take a pre-existing boss that was fine and make it worse. The final boss of Ninja Gaiden II for the NES is a three part endurance test. The first form is a humanoid enemy that floats around shooting tons of fireballs and is a general nuisance to hit. The second form is a large room with a ceiling that drips dangerous liquid and a giant head that shoots lasers, this part is tough and can drain health fast. Stage three is essentially a repeat of the final boss of the first game, now with hands. After destroying its head, you must destroy its core while it shoots attacks everywhere. What makes this so bad? YOU NEED TO DO THIS WITH ONLY ONE HEALTH BAR! If you die, you need to redo the final stage, its unnecessarily punishing.

How this boss could have been better – If it either restored health between stages or allowed you to restart from the beginning of the fight.

**********

NUMBER 7 - Krauser QTE fight (Resident Evil 4)

Ill keep this one brief because most gamers know about this fight. Resident Evil 4 is an action horror game with occasional quick time events. Up until this point these events were for either outrunning boulders or avoiding enemy attacks during fights. This fight occurs during a cutscene and comes out of virtually nowhere. The window of time to react is very small and a single error will cause you to have to restart the cutscene. Its just so out of place and unnecessary…

How this boss could have been better – It could have been an actual fight…

**********

NUMBER 6 - Alpha 152 (Dead or Alive 4)

Fighting game bosses can be some of the most unfair and frustrating things a gamer has to overcome. While the majority of final bosses from fighting games could make this list, I decided to pick Alpha 152 from DOA4. Alpha is a clone of Hitmone, but her moveset is unique. She can turn the battle on its head at any moment and cut your health down to nothing in one massive combo. She is fast, she is aggressive, she can counter most attacks and she can teleport. The combos I mentioned are insanely long and hard to avoid. She serves as the final boss for most characters story mode, in story mode she isn’t as bad. In arcade mode however, she is a nightmare, her aggression is through the roof and she must be defeated twice in order to win! This boss is frustrating to fight and can be downright unfair at times. Nothing stings worse in DOA4 than having her down at 10% health while you have high health, only to be destroyed by her.

How this boss could have been better – If her combos were toned down just a bit.

**********

NUMBER 5 - Doc Robot (Mega Man 3)

Doc robot is perhaps the most unnecessary boss of all time. This dude is a cheap gimmick made to try to expand the run time of Mega Man 3. You have to fight him 8 times, 8 times! Each time he gets a new gimmick stolen from the Mega Man 2 robot masters and uses them in a far more annoying way. He tends to just hover over you to deal continuous damage, which is something I really do not like. This boss is just pointless padding and gives no reward to be beaten. I don’t like this boss because he is annoying and overstays his welcome.

How this boss could have been better – If he were encountered once, but used multiple boss attacks, it would have been much more memorable and tolerable.

**********

NUMBER 4 - Gyorg (Majora's Mask)

This is referring to the N64 version of Gyorg, because the 3DS version is substantially better. Gyorg is the worst boss of the worst temple in Majora’s Mask. A giant shark like monster that swims around a platform that Link is standing one. While on the platform, the beast will try to knock Link into the water, so they can eat him. In order to beat Gyorg, you have to use the Zora mask and fight it underwater, occasionally stunning it to hit it. Here lies the problem, your underwater so your dealing with those kind of controls. The second problem is that Gyorg recovers to quickly and the camera tends to shift away from them when you try to escape, often meaning you get eaten. So basically the camera ruins this boss and makes it a total chore to fight. I had to restart the great bay temple at least 3 times because I ran out of time trying to beat this thing on my first run of Majora’s Mask oh so many years ago…

How this boss could have been better – It actually is better in the 3DS remake, Nintendo learned from their mistakes.

**********

NUMBER 3 -Elana The squalid Queen (Dark Souls 2)

This boss was perhaps the most sour point of the Crown of the Sunken king dlc. To make a long story short, shes a shard of a great evil named Manus and is probably responsible for the downfall of her kingdom. Shes essentially the main antagonist of the DLC even though she is overshadowed by the Dragon. The first gripe with her is the fact that, unless you know where a secret bonfire is, dieing to her will send you back far. She fights similar to the final boss, but has a knack for teleporting around and using magic attacks when your not looking. This isn’t so bad, but she has a lot of health, does a lot of damage and summons help. The summoning is why I hate this boss, she summons enemies that can inflict toxic. She can summon skeletons, which is not so bad, but she can also summon another boss that can tear you apart. This boss is badly designed and is one of the bosses that made me legit angry. I was extremely relieved when I finally bested her, only to meet a dragon face to face literally a minute after.

How this boss could have been better – Just get rid of her summoning ability, its just not fair having her summon another boss.

**********

NUMBER 2 - Sir Arthur (Sonic and the Black Knight)

King Arthur is the primary antagonist for the majority of the mediocre Sonic and the Black Knight. His presence is virtually none-existent until the boss fight. He fights you on horseback and spends most of the fight running away and pestering you with magic and warping swords. If he gets enough distance he will turn around and charge.  All of his attacks are annoying but not very hard to dodge or avoid. So why is he this high on the list? Three words… Quick Time Event. In order to damage him you have to swing the wii mote to parry him. The timing is almost inhumanly precise and more often than not it doesn’t matter if you do is spot on, you will fail. If you beat the game you know which QTE in particular makes this boss horrible. If you don’t, watch the game grumps play through, because it shows this boss’ absurdity at its greatest. This boss is for me the worst sonic boss yet.

How this boss could have been better – If the quick time event was removed, this boss would be off the list. Though even then it would still be a very mediocre boss.

**********

NUMBER 1 - Clyde's Machine (Pac Man World 2)

This is a boss I despise. Clyde’s machine is the third ghost robot boss and the fourth boss of Pac-Man World 2. These bosses can only be damaged by jumping on their heads, usually this isn’t to hard of a task, but Clyde ups the difficulty to 11. On an uneven platform surrounded by lava, a single misstep will result in a dead Pac-Man. And boy oh boy, how often that happens. Pac Man seems to just want to take a lava bath! You stand still, you die because one of his attacks pushed you in the lava. You move? You die because you fell into the lava. You stay in the middle of the platform? Isnt it wonderful how all his attacks just hit you head on when you do that? You try to rev roll? Hello Lava my old friend… The worst part is that even attacking him might send you flying into the pit for no reason. The only saving grace is that this boss has checkpoints…

How this boss could have been better – If it didn’t exist.

**********

Thank you for reading my list! What bosses got under your skin? Feel free to share in the comments! Next time we will be taking a more positive turn to look at my top 10 favorite grass type Pokemon, see you then, ciao!

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

What's your favorite and least favorite persona battle theme?

Only including Mainline Persona games and their remakes and PQ. Not including Fighting/Dance games, the anime/movies, or P5′s DLC (I’ll have you know that I have the dancing one equip tho, both cause I like Anne and MC’s costumes and cause I like the song, even if that version of the song is slow to the hook).

Side note: these are listed mostly in order of series rather than which I like most of the favs, cause it really depends on the mood a lot of the songs are really good but have their own feel so depending on the situation I might want to listen to one instead of the other.

Regular battle theme:

Fav: Mass Destruction (any ver), Wiping All Out, and Reach Out To The Truth (I like how both P3′s are just “we’re gonna annihilate them” and we do and fits the mood of exploring a kill or be killed dungeon, and I like how P4 sticks to its theme)

Least Fav: Time to Make History.....sigh.....do I really have to explain it?

Side note: Both ver Light the Fire Up in the Night get honorable mention (I prefer the female singer on the P4 ver and the rapping on the P3 ver tho). I like Last Surprise a lot, but the hook comes in too late for me. And not a fan of Life Will Change, well like...I’m not a fan of how it overrides LS or any DLC song, LWC gets you pumped but....eh.....only really pumps me up for some of the bosses (1, 6, and maybe 7) the rest I feel like I’m going through the motions and rather have a different song.

Boss Battle (regular/bonus/special bosses) Theme:

Fav: Knights of the Holy Lance (any ver), Additional Boss Battle (P2EP PSP), Danger Zone, I’ll Face Myself, Disturbances - The One Called from Beyond 

Least Fav: Will Power and Blooming Villain

Side note: “what no rivers in the desert?!” I do like that one, but tbh it feels like they overused it....esp since it was supposed to be a one boss battle song?? AND NOT the final boss????(kinda restarting each phase with Shido, and then again for the Holy Grail....like? Really? Couldn’t give the Holy Grail it’s own theme? Well I shouldn’t be surprised since you shoved Beneath the Mask down my throat with it’s overplay so whatever >.>)

Final Boss battle Theme:

Fav: Burn My Dread -last battle-, The Genesis, The Infinite. (BMD-lb- is a great call back to the OP, Genesis has the despair that wears you down and then that uplifting melody with the orchestra oh my god so beautiful, and then Infinite iirc had a nice melody that rang a similar tune to P3 and P4). 

Least Fav: Both phases of Jaldabaoth, yes even the uplifting phase 2 portion, (never liked P5′s melody, at least I think that’s what it was in phase 2, cause tbh....it’s....not the most consistent melody nor is it very good imo). But I like the 2nd phase more than the 1st. 

I just.....really hate P5′s OST ok? I hate it’s melody (tbh I feel like it has like.....more than one melody, but they’re pretty forgettable regardless), all the slow acid jazz all sounds the same, even some of the rock boss battles do too. P5 has the most tracks to work with, it has twice or three times as P3/4 had, and yet it still sounds like they’re only using 2/3 songs all the time. And I know all those tracks didn’t go to the dungeons, and it’s not like they’re all really good on their own (Sae’s is the only one that really stands out and felt like there was effort put into it, the rest feel like general dungeon music), and this also doesn’t include Mementos (which is a whole other just....god what were they thinking). Say what you want about Tartarus and the TV World. Sure they might not have all been amazing, but Tartarus at least slowly evolved as you went up (and if you didn’t care then ask Fuuka to change the tunes then), and the TV World were all different from each other, might’ve only been one song but they were all different and all planted themselves firmly into my brain. Yeah Palaces were all different from each other, but tbh I barely recall when they changed songs within the dungeon, and the Mementos had one freaking song and didn’t even evolve like Tartarus did (Mementos is a poor man’s Tartarus fight me).

 Like....P3/4 had a lot of variety in their OSTs, to say one is only j-rap and the other is only j-pop is doing both P3/4 a disservice. Both have pop, both have rock, P4′s rocking that violin, P3′s I think rocking a synthesizer and rap, both have sad tracks that make you feel sad in different ways (P3′s “Living with Determination” is sad but is still oddly hopeful it’s almost bittersweet....it really feels like someone who is experiencing something bad and is willing to keep going with their sheer determination, while P4′s “Reverie” not only lives up to it’s musical piece’s name’s definition, being dreamlike, it also sounds like the embodiment of it’s other definition which is someone who is lost in thought/daydream....a really sad daydream but it just hits you, it feels like someone who experiencing depression and is trying to remember the happy times before breaking down. P5′s alleycat tho? Sounds like someone who is just licking their wounds, not in a sad sense, just “wow this is pitiful” on top of the fact it kinda sounds like a P4 reject song....I feel no sadness or sympathy when I hear Alleycat). Both had ominous songs for their own game. P4 also actually sounded like a detective show. 

The only thing I could think about for P3/4 is that, sometimes they didn’t.....really fit the scene (mostly happened with P3 from what I remember). Like sometimes Living with Determination is great for a lot of the sad scenes, but sometimes Reverie would’ve fit better (or vice versa). Or like iirc P3′s one scene with Star the MC gets a phone call with Mamoru saying “Yo man my mom collapsed” or something, and the happy event song is still....just playing, instead of a an intense or worried or sad song (which P4 would do). XP Or like when you max out your female love interests on the male side of P3, the dorm or hangout song is playing instead of a.....more tender song choice (and I checked Tender Feelings isn’t on the male side in P3P). I mean, FeMC only changed 6-8 songs from Minato (like 2 battle songs, and 4 after school songs, with maybe 2 more school related songs), the rest of her OST is exactly the same as Minato’s....with the exception of one song. They ADDED one more song to her list and it was Tender Feelings and, it was used for....you know....tender moments, and boy did it help with the atmosphere. Just one song helped P3. And so....P3/4′s issue isn’t that it doesn’t have variety, it HAS variety, but a few extra alt songs would still work/help it out but they do pretty good for having less. P5 however, has so many songs but even less variety which....boggles my mind. 

Another thing, not a point against P5 just....something I find that’s really strong in P3/4, is that P3/4′s melodies are so iconic and.....memorable, and they way they’re used.....I just find P3/4 are the kings of nostalgia. There’s just something about their songs that invoke nostalgia even if it’s not one that has one of those melody influences. Their call back game is amazing. 

(Also I know Iwai and Tae’s store songs are pretty good and different but they’re wasted as store songs in all honesty, and Encounter Lovers is great but it’s used like once which is a shame....and ngl it Encounter song like if P4′s Corner of Memories, P3′s Because I will Protect you, and Catherine’s OST had a baby....which I’m fine with). 

Sorry for the rant, felt like I needed to explain at least partially why I didn’t like P5′s OST. It’s not that “I don’t like Jazz” I do, but I don’t like how P5 songs like only one half-hearted Jazz song (and the other time a rock song). P3/4 have had jazz or jazz influences in their OST, and I do like Jazz in general....but P5 doesn’t sound like it’s playing Jazz, it’s just one song over and over for me. 

I know I talked about P3-5, but what about P1/2 (I know I did mention a few in the boss battle portion)? I either like it or I’m neutral. A lot of songs I’m neutral on tbh, they fit but they aren’t earworms to me (a lot of P3/4′s special boss themes are like this for me). Only P5 do I get annoyed tbh. 

[notajinn]

Top 9 Games Played in 2020: Number 3: Final Fantasy VII Remake

I did not grow up on Final Fantasy VII; I grew up on Final Fantasy VI. And I wouldn't play VII until I got a PS2, so I played it alongside VIII, IX, and X in a short period. Because of this, I thought it was a good but not amazing game, so I had little interest when the remake was announced.

The gameplay trailers are what sold me on Final Fantasy VII Remake, and I'm happy they did.

Where It Excels

There has been a lot of media coming out of Final Fantasy VII, and not all of it accurately portrayed the characters. Often Cloud in particular would have his more moody Advent Children personality, and Aerith would be a peaceful saint. Neither of these are true in the original game, and thankfully FF7R remembered that. Cloud is the same loser emulating what he thinks is cool (pretty successfully), and Aerith is a golbin-minded slum girl. These are the best versions of their personalities, so I'm thankful they were retained. Tifa and Barret didn't seem as noticeably flanderized in other games, so there was less to fear for them.

The real strength of this game is the battle system. Given how unremarkable the action-heavy battles of Final Fantasy XV were, it would have been easy to screw up. But it honestly feels like they put way more love into this battle system. I won't go into full detail, but each character plays uniquely and doesn't just feel like they're on auto. You have regular attacks with buttons, and build up meter to do different skills. Each character has their own "gimmick" button on Triangle as well, whether that's Cloud switching to a defensive mode or Barret loading and firing a special rapid-fire attack. You can freely switch between characters during battle, and are encouraged to since enemies tend to hone in on the player-controlled character.

Materia also returns in a very accurate form from the original, and many new Materia were added to make use of the new battle system such as options for dodges and counters.

As with most Final Fantasy games, the voice acting is top-notch. I don't know if any voice actors returned from other FF7 projects, but the ones they have here match the character well.

They also did a good job making bosses that don't just feel like cinema scenes; something FFXV struggled with. The dumber enemy designs from the original are also still accurately portrayed, including Hell House. Quite a few bosses are what I would call "Rival" bosses, which are fights against humans who feel like a powerful player character controlled by the AI. And I love this style of boss battle.

The soundtrack is obviously still great; I don't think that needs to be said for a Final Fantasy game.

The weapons have an upgrade system that feels like a basic Sphere Grid from FFX. This helps keep old weapons relevant as they learn unique abilities or focus on different stats from each other.Given more RPGs have old weapons become obsolete as soon as you get a stronger one, I appreciated this system.

And while I have issues with the story I'll discuss below, I do like that there are some slight differences which have the potential to lead to interesting ideas. And the fact they really emphasized the Wall Market segment despite it’s silliness. There’s even a rhythm mini-game!

Where It Falls Short

So the story...

Most of the time it's accurate. It will go into more detail on things since the game is limited to the Midgar segment (which was maybe 10 hours long originally) and most of these details are fine. Some of them definitely slow down the pacing however, especially later on. Even though the game is about 30-40 hours, it really feels like it's too long in the last quarter. For example, why is Hojo's Lab multiple chapters?

Then there's the final chapter of the game, where the story goes off in a very different direction.

A direction I don't like.

Sephiroth in particular gets way too much play considering I don't think he even shows up until after Midgar originally. And unlike the others, he seems to lean more into his Advent Children personality.

The game can also be slow early on with very few opportunities to fight after the prologue, which makes learning the combat system tougher.

There is also at least one boss that I would call bullshit, which is Eligor who moves around too much and flies. And it has multiple phases, so try not to die and restart from the beginning!

The Abzu boss in the sewers was also frustrating with wide range attacks and poison, but less so.

The new rival Soldier is...strange. Like he almost feels like a parody. The fights against him are fun, but mostly I didn’t care enough to remember his name.

And while I’m happy it exists, you don’t get to keep the Miss Cloud costume after the Wall Market segment! I would have loved to do serious battles with this outfit. Keeping Aerith and Tifa’s dresses would also have been a plus; I’m surprised it’s not DLC or something.

Final Thoughts

Honestly by far the biggest problem of the game is that a lot of it feels like filler, despite not being a long game.

But apart from that and a few bumps, this is a legitimately fun game even removed from the original. Is it better than the original? I say no because the story is clearly unfinished, but if the rest of the Remakes turn out like this...it might be.

[ursafilms]

Comic-Con & Wonder Women!

About two years after the Sara Bareilles debacle, something that had been on my bucket list finally got checked off. Comic-Con. Always wanted to work it. Don’t know why, but I did. It looked like an absolutely stupid collection of video and animation nerds together in one space, and that is exactly what Comic-Con is.

And I would nothave lobbied to work on it, had it not been through one of my favorite clients, Jill Byron of CBS and CBS Interactive.

One of CBS properties was an on-line site called TV.com. It served as a place to curate interest in the prime time shows on the network. To further generate interest in the property, Jill put together an awards show called, oddly, “The TV.com Now Awards.”

And the venue? PetCo Park.

The schedule? During the biggest self-inflicted freak show on the planet.

Comic-Con.

With the possible exception of San Francisco, Comic-Con is the largest collection of reality escaping, self-indulging narcissists converging on one geographical area. And, in the pursuit of full disclosure, I was not lying. Attending this homage to arrested adolescence has been on my bucket list for years.

I have no interest in dressing up as Wonder Woman and putting myself through the serial embarrassment of faking a good time. What I do have is a curiosity as to why people would want to dress up as Wonder Woman and put themselves through the serial embarrassment of faking a good time.

I also have no interest in buying a pass to attend. It’s expensive and that doesn’t take any of hotel, meal, and transportation costs into account. CBS Interactive hiring me opened the door to attending and having someone else pick up the check. That’s not to appear smug or cavalier about the task entrusted to me. I expected to take in Comic-Con in my down time, of which I knew there would be little.

****

I opted to drive to San Diego. As with most of my jobs in southern California, I had to schelp so many things that boarding a flight with all I needed to nursemaid a batch of middle-aged pre-adolescents through a job presented a task of curbside luggage hassles I could no longer accept. Also, I’d need a rental car when I arrived anyway.

The day before my scheduled departure, I picked up the compressed show files at Elastic Creative, the post/animation company that provided all the videos. Even in this modern era I had to act like Laurence Olivier in Marathon Manto get a straight answer out of the show control people as to how they wanted to receive the media. They just don’t want to commit to anything. Drilling into their teeth, while an option, was time-consuming and didn’t always yield good results.

This is a pet peeve, to use a cliché, of mine. I harbor no thoughts of genocide except for one particular tribe. Event producers, and specifically the hermitic and unhygienic dweebs that populate every satellite truck, back of the house, and control booth of every venue into which I had the displeasure of having to enter.

The TV.com Now Awards proved to be no exception. I did get to hire my own on-site show producer, an incredibly gifted woman named Karen DeTemple. But even she couldn’t prevent the obligatory black site conversation I had to have with the person in charge of the control room for the event.

Me: “How would you like me to deliver the media?”

Social Pariah: “Digital files will be fine.”

Me: “That narrows it down to about 3,000 options. Would you like to tell me exactly which type of file? Can you give me a spec sheet?”

Social Pariah: “HD.”

Me: “We’re down to 2,000 types. Fair warning. If you don’t specify which type of file, compression, output, size, audio, and all the other necessary elements, I’m going to send you what I think is most appropriate.”

Social Pariah: “What if it doesn’t work?”

Me: “Then I will hunt you down, like the passive-aggressive loser that you are and beat you with an old 1” tape machine.”

Social Pariah: “Let me get you our spec sheet.”

****

Every job is like this with event people. I don’t get it. I am more knowledgeable about matters that involve show masters and delivery of appropriate digital files than most. But like everything else in the production industry, there is some sadistic pleasure taken by those who just want to see a producer look foolish, which I refused to do after the first few years of my career. If I didn’t take the time and trouble to actually request specifications on deliverables, this wouldn’t gall me as much as it does. But I was vigilant about pursuing that information. My colleagues, however, did not show as much enthusiasm as providing it. To this day, I cannot tell you why.

****

An ugly confrontation took place years before The TV.com Now Awards. Let me have some laughs at the expense of the company that tried to embarrass me.

In the fall of 2000 I flew out to Washington, DC for a medical device convention. Prior to traveling, which I only did because the representatives for the production company wanted to make sure a scapegoat would be on site, I had a meeting with the head of the company which supplied all the hardware to run the show, including video.

Me: “I have three videos that play at this event. How do you want to receive them?”

Passive-Aggressive Loser: “Standard format.”

Me: “Let me be clear. I will send you HDCam with a three second title card at 30 seconds. 17 seconds of black, and then a 10 second countdown. So speak now if you want something different. In other words, is that what you consider standard format?”

Passive-Aggressive Loser: “No.”

This devolved into a lot of bad language. The Passive-Aggressive Loser told me to “chill out,” a term reserved for doofuses who have nowhere to go. We put each other in a headlock and the president of the production company broke the stalemate by assuring me that a spec sheet would be coming my way.

Which I never received.

The incompetent creative director of the production company informed me that I had to go to DC and to hand carry a back-up of the media.

Me: “Sure. What format would you like the media?

Unskilled Drain on the Overhead: “Morty can tell you that.”

Me: “Did you miss the headlock I had him in during the pre-pro meeting? You saw that Morty wouldn’t have given Brezhnev any intel if they ripped his testicles out and showed them to him.”

Unskilled Drain on the Overhead fled the scene.

I arrived in DC with a back-up copy of the media, done to my specifications. Checked into my hotel and headed over to the convention center, where the usual pre-show hysteria had commenced. And as soon as The Producer (Me) came on the scene, the wailing pre-adolescents descended on me.

Petulant 12-Year-Old: “We need a different version of the media. Morty said to see you as soon as you arrived.”

Me: “Gee and I thought Morty would greet me himself and exchange headlocks.”

Petulant 12-Year-Old: “Huh? So can you remake the show masters?”

Me: “Of course! I carried an entire editorial system on the plane with me. Not only that, I brought every tape deck known to man to cover every possibility.”

Petulant 12-Year-Old: “That’s great. We’ll need the new tapes ASAP!”

Me: “Do you have the specs?”

Petulant 12-Year-Old: “Sure.”

The Petulant 12-Year-Old handed me a piece of paper with a very complete set of instructions for delivering media to the hardware vendor.

Me: “Does Morty know about this?”

Petulant 12-Year-Old: “Why wouldn’t he?”

Me: “No reason. Give me a second.”

I read the spec sheet. The only difference between what I provided and what they specified? As opposed to 17 seconds of black before they countdown, they wanted two.

Me: “Your tape ops can just bookmark the two seconds prior to the countdown. This can easily be done by show control.”

Petulant 12-Year-Old: “Sure, but that means they have to do that every time they come back from break to restart the show.”

Me: “Oh, horrors! That means they have to build an entire cue! Why that should take them three whole minutes. That will cut down on their grousing time, won’t it?”

The Petulant 12-Year-Old looked at me with the same sort of admiration and respect given to a pedophile or drug dealer that hangs around grade schools.

Petulant 12-Year-Old: “I take it you didn’t bring an edit system in your carry-on luggage.”

Me: “No, and if Morty has an issue with me not wanting to spend thousands of dollars redoing videotape just because he doesn’t want to hear a handful of social misfits complaining about having to do some actual work, he can come talk to me about it. Capisce?”

And that was that.

****

Back to Comic-Con, 2010 and the start of my drive to San Diego.

Elastic Creative, again the facility where the videos were executed, performed all the necessary compressions and delivered them to me, as requested, on a hard-drive and a back-up hard-drive. Additionally, they stored them on DropBox in case that would be an easier get for the truly unambitous excuse-making mooks that populate back of the house.

Just as I settled into the comfy leather of my SUV, the cellphone rang.

Scratchy Voiced Misfit: “George Young?”

Me: “Yes.”

Scratchy Voiced Misfit: “This is Dak from Lousy Show Productions.”

Me: “Dak? Were your parents trying to save room on the birth certificate?”

Scratchy Voiced Misfit: “That’s my nickname.”

Me: “Oh, what’s your real name?”

Scratchy Voiced Misfit: “Bo.”

As it turns out the compressed files, which cost me thousands in hard drive purchases, compressions, and production time, were no longer the preferred format. Oh no, the vendor in charge of running show control switched to a different command truck that used some format of mini-HDCam.

In other words, during the phone call with Dak, my SUV and I went back in time two years.

I had to drive away from the Bay Area in less than 16 hours. That would not be a problem, if I

didn’t need, at close of business, to find a relatively obscure tape deck, even more obscure blank tapes, and arrange for Elastic Creative to make show masters for me overnight.

Me: “So, Dak, level with me. Why the change in the truck?”

Scratchy Voiced Misfit: “Much cheaper.”

My head exploded. After I cleaned up the mess, and sent the iPhone footage off to David Cronenberg, I thanked Dak and walked back inside Elastic. After explaining the conundrum to Drew Fiero, the World’s Calmest Father of Three, I found a private room and shut the door. I phoned the Social Pariah in charge of the satellite truck.

Social Pariah#2: “George, how nice to hear from you. I guess—”

Me: “Shut up, you douchebag. You went and switched delivery formats on me less than 24 hours before rehearsal! Are you insane?”

Social Pariah #2: “Calm down, all you have to do is—”

Me: “Like I said. Shut up, you douchebag. Don’t tell me what I have to do. You switched delivery formats because you think producers are the equivalent of inviting David Copperfield to your tenth birthday party. I’d hang you out to dry on this if I didn’t like Jill Byron so much.”

Social Pariah #2: “Hey, chill—”

Me: “Don’t tell me to ‘chill out, dude.’ Just shut up and thank me for dragging a couple dozen mini-HD tapes down to San Diego because you wanted to save $1.98 on the satellite truck.”

Social Pariah #2: “I—”

Me: “And I’m charging your company for the tapes, the tape deck, which I understand has to be trucked to San Francisco from San Jose because there are only five in the state of California, and for my time. I hope you saved the gross national product of France by switching trucks.”

****

I arrived in San Diego at the end of July, 2010. Ten minutes after exiting my SUV, parked along the main drag that surrounded PetCo Park, I spotted four Wonder Women. And two of them might have been actual women!

Regarding Wonder Woman.

1.    Unless you’re Linda Carter in the 70’s, or have a body like Linda Carter’s in the 70’s, do not wear a Wonder Woman costume.

2.    Unless you’re Gil Gadot in 2016, or have a body like Gil Gadot’s in 2016, do not wear a Wonder Woman costume.

3.    If you’re a man, and I don’t care if you identify as a woman, or are in the process of becoming a woman, do not wear a Wonder Woman costume.

4.    In general, there are nine women in the entire world who should wear a Wonder Woman costume and none of them attend Comic-Con.

There are, however, plenty of svelte, spandex-wearing young women who attend Comic-Con. They squeeze themselves into costumes that probably that last worked in 50’s sci-fi films. And based on the amount of gravity-defying cleavage on display, there were more polymers at the event than just those of the costumes.

But more so than the appearance of artificial flesh, I am fascinated by the herds of cattle that attend the event and stampede into the place to get a glimpse of actors who will be on the national radar for the shelf-life of chocolate in an Easter basket. There also is a deluge of movies and videogames to investigate.

1.    Batman 27: The Latest Ofay Actor in Black

2.    Black Humanoid: POC Tossed Another Bone

3.    Superman*

4.    Surgery, the Bloodletting

5.    Military Assault on a Middle East Looking Country Never Named for P.C. Reasons

6.    Dragons, Dragons, Dragons and more Dragons

Of course any of these titles could be swapped out as movie, TV series, or videogame. If there is any clarity as to why Comic-Con exists, it’s lost on me as an objective observer from afar. Perhaps being on-site will change my mind.

To the job.

I had to produce all the video for the gig, the bulk of which broke down into the individual nominees and ultimate winner of each category, of which there were about 20. To separate The TV.com Now Awards from the Oscars or the Emmys, Jill and her creative team came up with some interesting and unique contests. Here are some of them.

-      Actor you are happiest to see back on Television

-      Best performance as a Vampire

-      Best reboot of an old show

-      Best Actor returning to the small screen

-      Best performance by a Non-Human

*Yes, there is yet another Superman

Some of the categories made sense because there had been an explosion of TV shows and movies with Vampires. And that had not reached saturation with the average viewer. Best reboot of an old show proved easy too, since several Baby Boomer specialties had returned to both CBS and other channels, including cable and the initial streaming services.

But some were difficult. We had problems narrowing down which actor we were happy to see back on television, since there were over a hundred suggestions on the cbs.com website when the general population got a chance to be polled. Also, Best performance by a Non-Human? I suggested Bill Maher about 400 times. When one of the station executives finally asked me explain myself I replied that he must be quite an actor if he’s able to convince HBO to allow him to go on the air on two separate occasions with two different unwatchable shows based upon the same disingenuous drivel.

CBS refused my request to nominate Maher.

****

A huge upside to the job, other than Jill Byron’s involvement, had to be Rob Diehl, the creative director of the event production company, MKTG. I had found my own personal unicorn. I did not believe in the existence of a creative director who had actual creative skills, and yet I finally met one in Rob Diehl. Not only did he have training in the arts, but a wealth of experience as well.

Rob could draw. He understood art direction and set construction. He had worked his way up from a theatre background and could tell you the difference between a piece of Louis XIV furniture and its nearly identical version from the Renaissance period. That may seem insignificant, or petty, or at the atomic level, but after decades of dealing with the agency owner’s room temperature IQ brother-in-law as an art director and the usual cult of 26-year-old copywriters who hadn’t read anything more complicated than a comic book, his experience and skill level provided welcome relief.

When he gave feedback, it made sense. When he felt something worked, he stopped trying to improve it. When a video component felt incomplete he explained why. I don’t think I had more respect for anyone on the creative side since I finished my last video game for George Lucas.

Working with Rob Diehl made every previous memory of the collection of hungover and incompetent creative department hangers-on fade into obscurity, at least temporarily.

****

Every comic book aficionado, basement dwelling hacker, and weather girl wannabe clogged San Diego’s downtown and waterfront during the four day Comic-Con. Jill dispatched her underlings to distribute flyers on ‘The TV.com Now Awards.’ The CBS websites blasted rich media with hourly updates and the B-List celebs who would be in attendance. A couple of musical acts that I won’t mention because I can’t remember who they were, also graced email blasts and hastily created Facebook pages.

We had an actual Red Carpet walk. Limousines pulled up and discharged the likes of Rob Lowe, Pauley Perrette, and Cheryl Burke. They smiled; talked to the press; and waved at the, ahem, “crowd.”

I hustled back and forth between the dugouts, where we had established green rooms for category winners like Daniel Day-Kim and LL Cool J.

And it was all for naught.

Because if someone goes to Comic-Con it is to do a small number of things. The hormone-clanging males go to check out all the firm, young flesh (Or flesh, period. Not that much was firm.) squeezed into the previously mentioned 50’s Sci-Fi costumes. The females go to either shoehorn themselves into spandex, or play video games with the man of their dreams.

And both go to get into freebie screenings of the latest summer movies and videogames.

That’s it. They don’t go to stand in right field at PetCo Park and watch a bunch of actors accept a plexi statue for acting in a show that nobody who attends Comic-Con cares about.

As I watched the footage at the local post facility, located in the lovely porn district of San Diego, I wondered what CBS Interactive would do next year for “The TV.com Now Awards.”

I had a hunch it would not involve Comic-Con.

[c-is-for-circinate]

Okay fine because at least one part of this is absolutely going to be contradicted next time I play so I am getting it out now:

Way #1/? that Persona 5 is not going to end (or even go in the middle)

(this will probably be a continuing series)

So you’re pausing for breath, to pull your head back together--one of those cops may or may not have given you a concussion, and in any case you’re still a little woozy from whatever drug they gave you, so flashbacking is easy but you’re not used to monologuing for so long anyway--and you hear loud voices in the hall.

You don’t particularly recognize these voices, is the thing--but a firm, authoritative woman’s voice is saying, “We have jurisdiction over this case” in a tone that isn’t arguing so much as bypassing a whole argument and proclaiming law.

“I think you’ll find,” says a slightly more muffled voice, cool and level, not quite distinguishable as male or female through the door.  Sae frowns, looking worried.

“You’re not finished,” she says.  “Keep talking.”

The door opens before you can start again, though, the furious-looking cop standing there with two people you’ve never seen before.  You’d remember these two.

“Nijima-san,” says the taller one, the woman with the elegant coat and the blazingly red hair.  “I’m afraid this is no longer your case.  We’ll take it from here.”

“Like hell you will,” Sae says, standing up angrily.  (She has complicated feelings about you.  You have complicated feelings about her, for that matter--but you respect her, and you can use her emotions to draw this out and keep stalling for time, and it all supports the mission, so there’s no point in trying to pull it apart now.)  “Who are you?”

“This incident, like several related incidents that precede it, fall under the jurisdiction of the Shadow Operatives,” says the--man?  woman?  in the perfectly-tailored blue suit.  “However, Kirijo-san, by your leave, I would suggest we allow Nijima-san to stay.  She may have insights into this situation.”

“Very well,” Kirijo-san says.  “The rest of you may leave us.”  It’s the most casually imperious thing you’ve ever seen.  Her mind palace would be tremendous.  You’re already itching to rob it.

The cops splutter, but they go, mostly because these two don’t leave them much choice.  There are no extra chairs for them..  They stand.

“My name is Kirijo Mitsuru,” says the redhead.  “I’m the director of a special extragovernmental organization known as the Shadow Operatives.  We’d like to ask you a few questions.”

“Shirogane Naoto,” says the other calmly.  “A detective who liases occasionally with the Shadow Operatives.  I have a particular interest in this case.”

You could say at least two different things here, or nothing at all, but you go with, “Where would you like me to begin?”  This wasn’t part of the plan, but maybe you can eke more time out of these two instead of being entirely fucked.  No plan survives encounter with reality perfectly.  This is workable.

“You misunderstand,” Shirogane says.  “There’s no need to restart your story at the beginning.  I’m sure you’ve caught Nijima-san nearly up by now.  We’ve been keeping abreast of the situation by other means, though I must admit, you were able to evade even me for a considerable period of time.”

“Other means?” Sae echoes.  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“An operative in your own house, to start with,” says Kirijo--but unlike Sae and the police, she isn’t talking to you.  “You have a young intern in your confidence with particularly keen insights and a fondness for tamagoyaki, yes?”

“Amada?” Sae looks startled.  “Him?  But he...”

“He has a particularly interesting history with us,” Kirijo says.  “Since he was far younger than our phantom thief here.  But that’s hardly the point at this juncture.”

“Tell me,” Shirogane says.  “Do you know much about playing cards?”

You blink.  You’ve been leaving calling cards at every victim--you call yourself Joker.  What kind of answer is she--is he--are they looking for here?

“The history of playing cards, to be precise,” Shirogane continues.  “Originally they were based on a tarot deck.  The tarot deck, of course, is split into both major and minor arcana, and as the cards made the transition from fortune-telling devices to mere playthings, most of the major arcana was lost, leaving only the four suits.  Were you aware?”

You were.  You nod, quiet, silently suspicious, and say nothing.

“The one exception to that is the major arcana card numbered 0, the Fool,” Shirogane says with that perfect implacable calm.  “It transitioned to our modern card deck in much the same way as the four suits of the minor arcana did, with some minor alterations, under the guise of the Joker.”

Kirijo says, “How is Igor?”

That’s enough to actually startle you.  “You know Igor?” you ask.  You’re not supposed to be startle-able, but--they know Igor?

“I see you were right,” Kirijo murmurs, an aside to her companion.  Shirogane simply nods.

“Better to say that we have mutual acquaintances,” they say.  “Please, pass on our regards to Elizabeth-san and Margaret-san next time you see him.”

You don’t know any Elizabeth or Margaret.  You say so, and Shirogane simply smiles calmly.  “He’ll be able to carry the message,” they say.

“I don’t understand--” Sae starts, and she’s annoyed by it.  She’s heard so much of your story so far, but she doesn’t quite believe it, not yet.  This is out of her depth.

“How many personas do you have at this time?” Kirijo asks.  How much do they know?

“One,” you say, to test them.  It’s both absolutely true and a complete misdirection.  You can only wear one mask at a time, after all--never mind that there are eleven more sitting in your head to be put on, and god knows how many kept in Igor’s prison waiting for you.

“And how many do you have access to?” Shirogane asks, unruffled.  They’re good, whoever they are.

“I’ve lost count,” you answer honestly.  Whoever you are any more.

“We’re not here to pour over the details of your crimes,” Kirijo says.  “My question is this.  What threat is Igor preparing you for?”

You were nearly at that part of the story with Sae anyway.  Your eyes flicker to the security camera, just the barest of an instant, before you can stop them--they must have access by now.  Your hacker is very, very good.  You trust your team.  They’ll be able to adapt to this.

Shirogane sees you do it, even though it’s less than half a second.  They’re very, very good too.

This is going to play out one way or another, and there’s nothing to lose by telling them now.  So you tell them.

“I see,” Kirijo says at the end.  “Well, it’s obvious at least why you were called.”

The very interesting thing is what she means by that.  She doesn’t mean you, particularly, or your rebellious heart--she means why you, instead of somebody else she already has in mind.

“The spirit of rebellion,” Shirogane echoes.  “Not quite the same thing as strength of will.”

“We have no shortage of will,” Kirijo says.  “But we are rather ingrained within the system ourselves.”

“I suspect that the malleability of teenagers is an important part of the reason they tend to be called,” Shirogane says.  “This is quite a different situation than those we’ve faced before--though at its heart, still similar.”

“Very well,” Kirijo says.  “You have our support.”

It’s so far from anything you expected to hear that you can only blink at her in shock.  She’s an Empress, you’ve known that from the moment she walked in the door--but you’ve already got an Empress, and you weren’t trying to recruit her.  This is...something new.

“Your support?” Sae demands.  She’s still shaken.  “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Don’t misunderstand our intentions here,” Kirijo says.  “Persona-users are not automatically on the side of right.  We have both known cruel and murderous persona-users in our time, and I’m sure there will continue to be more.”

"You are not one of them,” Shirogane says, looking directly at you.  “You have a task to do.”

“Do you think I’m harmless?” you ask.  Kirijo smirks, and Shirogane actually laughs.

“Far from it,” Shirogane says.

“I’ve known a handful of Wild Cards over the years,” Kirijo says.  “Most can wield no more than five or six personas.  A dozen at best.  I’ve known three men, and only known of three men, in all the years I’ve been facing Shadows, who naturally had the ability to do more than that.  One of them will fulfill his duty in protecting the fate of mankind at the edge of the universe until the very day our species is lost forever.  One of them is a small town middle-school teacher who has held enough power in his right hand to remake the entire world.”

“And one is in this room,” Kirijo says.  “I can’t speak to your fate, Joker, but I know your power.”

“Kirijo-san,” Shirogane says politely.  “If we wish to intercept his escape plan--”

“Escape plan?” Sae demands.

“Of course,” Kirijo says.  “Yamagishi?”

You don’t know anybody by that name.  She’s not addressing you, anyway.  She isn’t wearing an earpiece that you can see, but--it might not matter.

“Shirogane,” Kirijo prompts after a moment.  The detective reaches into a pocket and tosses something down on the table, within reach of your bound hands.

It’s a cell phone.  It’s not one you recognize, but--it’s a cell phone.

“I--”  You look at them in confusion.  What do they want from you?

“You use an app, correct?” Shirogane asks.  “Install it on that, and we’ll accompany you out.”

“Wait, you can’t--” Sae protests.

“Nijima-san, you misunderstand us,” says Kirijo.  “We have no interest in his apparent crimes.  We are here to ensure the fate of the world.”

“I can’t just...”  It’s not like the Metaverse Navigator is in the app store.  It’s not like you trust these two at all.

“You can contact your support, yes?” Kirijo says.  “You do have a hacker on your team.  I suggest you try.”

Slowly, waiting for the trap to spring, you pick up the phone and pull up the chat program.  You have certain contact details memorized.  There’s no telling when you might need to use a swiftly-pickpocketed spare phone.

Still though--these two?  In the metaverse?  They’re strong, yes, but they as much as admitted that they don’t rebel against the system, they create it.  Who knows what they could unleash?

“I think you’ll find that we keep up more than well enough,” Kirijo says.  “We may not be revolutionaries, but we’ve both told primordial deities bent on ruling mankind our precise opinions of them to their faces.  I don’t expect our the power of our will to be a problem.”

“If one can stand against the will of the mother goddess of all Japan,” Shirogane says, and behind stand against you hear tell her to go fuck herself, with that ear you’ve developed for quiet rebellion hidden under propriety, “I don’t expect a human mind palace to be a problem.”

“And if you can’t stand against a will that great,” Kirijo says, and this time she does mean you, specifically you, “we are all in a great deal of trouble.”

[rassasassalin]

Yay!  Jack and Brian!  Huzzah!  It feels like it's been forever since I've seen them.  I know that it hasn't been, but honestly just going a couple of days without seeing Gallagher in a match feels like years.

Man, I love Grand Metalik, but like, that was some weird shit happened to my feed, it went all odd Matrix-y speed.  It was cool watching him go super fast and then in dramatic slow motion, but I don't think that was supposed to happen. Yep, slowmotion superkick.  Cool shit.  Annnnnd my app just crashed.  Mmkay, restart that real quick then.  Just in time to come back to Jack trying to destroy Metalik's ankle. That was a pretty nice hold that Brian had GM in.  Only leaving one arm to try and drag himself with and to try and get a tag or hold onto the ropes???  Good stuff.  Smart stuff.  GODDAMM IT APP JUST LET ME WATCH MY CRUISERWEIGHTS YOU DON"T UNDERSTAND I LOVE MY BOYS JUST LET ME LIVE. Great, I missed Kalisto being mocked by Jack.  Thanks Vince, whom I'm always going to blame whenever technical difficulties happen in shows that I like but that Vince clearly doesn't think as hightly of even though he should because Cruiserweights are fucking money but no, why pay attention to them when he could try and remake the XFL- Oh hey Jack's back in, yay~ I love when Jack looks dazed and confused, it's great. Things I also love- when heels don't care about wins and losses so long as they get to utterly destroy their opponents.  This is the kind of stuff that always gets me invested and concerened which is, you  know, actually great.  I love that.  When you have people in the crowds begging you to stop. Knew thing that I didn't know I loved but now I do- Jack Gallagher taking off his tie. ...The fuck just happened there with Kalisto???  Did someone just toss water at him?  That's fucked up.

Um... Ariya wasn't even there yesterday to- DREW DON'T YOU TAKE THE FALL FOR THIS, YOU TRIED YOUR BEST. ...where's tony tho?  seriously? Drew, you're too fucking good for Enzo.  And I CAN'T BELEIVE THAT ENZO JUST SEWED THOSE FUCKING SEEDS NOW DREW'S GONNA BE TAKEN OUT BY DAVARI TO PROVE HE'S THE BETTER CULT I MEAN CLUB MEMEBER I DON'T LIKE THIS.

Hey hey hey HIDEO~  Who's he fighting???  Who's getting sacrificed tonight???  OH!!! DELANEY!!!  Noice.  Good stuff.  Sorry for the pain you're about to go through babe. And good night to you, Delaney.

Kind of annoyed, though.  Feels like Hideo's debut should have been a bigger thing, but like, since he came out yesterday, and he came out fighting besides Finn, this feels... ordinairy?  It's not bad, it's just not what I was hoping for.

Fantastic, sure, fine, just show this bullshit again and break my heart once more, this is fine, this is FINE.  I don't mind having my emotions stomped all over, especially when you're not letting Drew like, fucking respond to this shit.  It's fine. It's great.

I do love me some serious Gulak....  But my heart...

Drew, no one fucking says that.  Clipart Jfc Drew your face I love you, what is happening.  That face you made after calling Enzo your best friend and he tried and tell you to chill, how fucking intense you're being about an imaginary train. Man, Drew's being savage as fuck and I love it.  I mean, I also love Cedric, I'm rooting for him against Enzo, but like, you know, Drew's my favorite.  Which is something to say because Jack Gallagher also exists on this show, so... Will the crowd just shut up for a bit and appreciate what's going on in the ring, please and thank you??? OH, okay Vic, is that how we're going to play what happened, that the week before was Drew going all in on being evil toady to Enzo????  I mean, yeah, okay, yes, that's true, but also I don't want it to be so shut up??? Yes thank you person in the crowd, Enzo should shut up. One thing you gotta give Enzo, he is a character, and he does have a fantastically expressive faaaAAAACE THAT SPINNING DISCUS CHRIST THAT WAS GORGEOUS AND VERY SWEET DOING NOAM'S MOVE~  I'm going to cry.  I'm going to need to change my underwear because it was fucking hot but also I'm very emotionally moved SERIOUSLY I LOVE WHEN DREW GOES AND TURNS IN THE BOSTON CRAB IT'S BEAUTIFUL DREW NO!  DREW DON'T!  BABY YOU KNOW BETTER!!!! see?  This is why we don't go up on the ropes sweetheart. Pfff, like Enzo is actually gonna get in that ring and fight- yeah yeah that's what I though- OH MY GOD DREW WAS GETTING BACK INTO THE RING TO HELP DAVARI DREW YOU'RE TOO GOOD FOR THEM!!!!!