#I guess I have a random quest if I want to hunt for it… | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

katyspersonal · 6 months ago

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OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH HGJGTFH GUYS I LOVE SOTE SO FUCKING MUCH AAAAAAA I got back to playing it and it was so much fun today I HAD A HUGE BLAST TODAY GOD LET ME JUST share a log (probably a two parter)

1) So I continued on my way through the woods!! I was not wrong about how these guys were invincible too! By that time @val-of-the-north woke up and confirmed that you only really can sneak past them by crouching in the bushes! In fact, there were preset notes from the devs with the hints and I just haven't payed attention.. т.т So the stealth quest took me Eniugh attempts

2) I intentionally got close to this plant because from the looks of it I thought it was a collectable material or something:

Turned out that it actually was a bell that instantly alerts the Untouchables and attracts you to them ;-; Well you fuck around and find out I guess XD

3) I then found the mansion!!!! This took me a while too, this forest is SO confusing! I will never EVER talk shit about Forbidden Woods from Bloodborne again ;-; But on the bright note, although I am extremely bad at confusing open world locations and maps in general, I managed to strain my mind and actually remember which turns I've already visited and not! Conquering my weaknesses!

4) I was surprised to find..... this

There is a line of headless corpses like this before the entrance. I assume their heads exploded from Frenzy of course?

5) Instantly was interested because of the amount of thrown and burnt books everywhere here! I was thinking, so was Midra a huge nerd then? 🤔 How the painting was the only non-ruined and unburnt thing here was cool too. I told Val "damn the art in this setting really IS the magic".. and, well, it kinda is? When you examine the paintings in artist shacks, they do mention how the soul is dwelling in them still or something like that

6) The painting also depicted the Manse when it was still thriving and the land wasn't afflicted by Frenzied Flame!

I wanted to take a better screenshot of it by zooming in...... and accidentally hit it instead and it disappeared 🤡 It was an invisible wall! I swear only I could have failed in such a dumb way gfhggvn

7) THIS IS A SURPRISE TOOL THAT WILL HELP US LATER:

Turns out that this is an in-universe hint for how the Aging Untoucheable actually CAN be killed! But perhaps I am getting ahead of myself.... -_-

8) So basically 'how there are THIS many books everywhere' continued. They are literally everywhere. And then even more because there is a library. Damn, this guy could compete with Micolash on the subject of 'insanity displayed by books tossed everywhere chaotically'!! I was already curious!

9) Speaking of curious, I really wondered why Midra himself didn't have the horns! From prior descriptions and a dialogue by another ghost by how they and Midra are of the same brethren as the Hornsent inquisitors that hunted them, I assumed he should have been the Hornsent himself and maybe earlier I didn't see it clearly on the portrait. Heck, the ghosts in the Manse also have horns!

But nope. There were no horns on the portrait, and then I was extra sure during the cutscene..

10) aaaaand I fucked up and COMPLETELY forgot to take the screenshots during his battle ;-; When I got to this post I thought maybe I snapped some during my many deaths, but no I didn't. I forgot. I got too caught into it..

11) I already heard that he would be a boss, so when I first met him as just an enemy I needed to kill I knew it was just a lead up for the battle xd Though I didn't dodge his grab attack in time and it felt.. odd when he howevered over Tarnished and laughed already 🤔 And.... siiiggh..

12) friends: Katy Katy Katy oh my god you really should find the Frenzy guy in the DLC you will like him so much we just can tell!!!

me: Get LOST with this guys, I am not interested in some random guy parasiting on Shabriri lore, besides unlike you CASUALS I do not simp for taken characters so he can get kicked into the same nonsimpable box as Rykard and Rellana! Also, still picturing you guys as CASUALS, no Aldrich married to Rosaria is different as it isn't simping but reverence!!!

me: *spends next ~40 minutes being absolutely lost in this boss' vibe to the point of literally drooling, gets overall absolutely helpless and just watches his dance-like moves and legit can't recall a more intimate experience with a Soulsborne boss. it wasn't this way even with Maria.*

me: I am booboo the fool

13) No, but seriously though.. My initial reaction was a slight annoyance! I ran to Val complaining that I deadass had no idea how the HECK I could survive even a couple of his attacks! I just felt so incompetent after several quick failed attempts, even saying that it seemed like I've reached the point where I have to watch the vids of the bosses I could not beat to know what happens next!

No, Val didn't tell me to git gud, no gfggf He should have though He just gave me a hint that the bleed might help! So I went to change strategy again and reborn with a bigger healthbar and overall different states, took Mohg's spear the old reliable, used talisman of Cleanrots that powered up continuous attacks + Mohg's one that made bleed stronger and went with it. It was really hard, but I had no choice but to adapt

And like... I know that "this battle feels more like a dance once you get into it" is a compliment thrown around very often with Soulsborne bosses, but this boss deserved it the MOST I swear. It is impossible to put into words how I was starting to feel over time, just.. inexplainable beauty in how he was moving for attack, you could tell he was enjoying it :') I didn't feel the same level even with Malenia's battle! The way this battle felt weirdly intimate also absolutely fits the way Frenzied Flame functions; one of the incantations refers it too? And the way his movements and grabs were weirdly calming considering the context felt the same as what was earlier stated about Chaos bringing sense of peace after burning victim's eyes! Just how, HOW they made it so good? They've nonverbally put the same information into this encounter. And the music was absolutely the biggest banger, what the fuck?

14) Okay I can write much more paragraphs trying to grasp what exactly was this feeling and still not be able to overcome my complete lack of verbal communication skills lol gghggh I start to understand why @heraldofcrow at times can't put her feelings into words and uses that gif of sad girl in the rain gfggjhnh

15) Still, the battle was beautiful but HARD! I decided to call @jarognieva to help me and while she needed "just three minutes" to get ready I decided to go and kill time by still trying to defeat Midra anyway, and.....

I ACTUALLY DID IT???? GGTFHHHGHH GODDAMIT I ACTUALLY DID IT AAAAAA I LEGIT FELT AWKWARD, I guess relaxing upon knowing that the help was coming was the missing piece ahahdgfg! (Jara did help me with another boss later though but about this in the next post xD)

16) .....and satisfaction left in literal seconds. Instead I felt so devastated and angry at the fact that there are no boss resurrection option in this game. :/ While I was struggling with him it felt so hard, although I wasn't giving up and studied his patterns... But instantly I felt regret about defeating him too fast and no longer getting to have that fun with that incredible music... Experienced reverse of Skill Issue, basically.

17) Something something May Chaos Take The World something

18) To think of it, Midra as Lord of Frenzy is as much a himself as Malenia is herself when she turns into Goddess of Rot though 🤔 The vibe before and after is different. Both characters are very much on their way to become husks of former selves, or rather, vessels for a different entity that represents an Outer God! (+ funnier how Shabriri and Gowry likewise have identical functions as "bringers" of this godly figure but not becoming it)

.......but that makes it even more captivating 😳

19) After this point I really didn't know what to do, it felt like enough for today so I just decided to complete the lose ends like items I didn't collect yet in this area!

^ Also answers the question as to why Torrent was too scared to go here.

(So yeah, misc items in the next post it is just 1 AM here and I've lost the track of time playing sorry gfhygh)

#elden ring #elden ring dlc #sote spoilers #screenshots #gameplay log

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palesmokeisinthevoid · 4 days ago

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So I made a few Rimworld colonies other than the Fossilcraft/Ragebait one (aka Craft Corner) so I’m going to make a post for each one

Starting with the commons (+ two random guys who showed up)

This one ended up being a…slightly altered version of the Mechanitor (aka I gave them slightly more food and, of course, people)

Originally I was going to do this particular one with the mains but…well, I found a better set up for them :)

Boxten is the Mechanitor since he’s…kind of the only one who really feels like he’d have anything to do with machines of all these guys? Idk how I want to word this. Anyway he’s got his mechs Blue and Bandana (also I drew his Mechlink from memory because I couldn’t find a good red image and I didn’t want to look at him in game for this). He and Cosmo started dating and became Fiancé’s within like, 1-2 weeks…and he’s summoned horrors beyond human comprehension and is currently keeping one in a cage for studying. Yeah stuff happens. Somehow he’s the sanest one here besides the new comers…maybe. Not sure how sane they are yet

Poppy is the hunter who has been on the constant verge (and did have, she hid in the barracks for like two days…which was horribly timed because a raid happened) of a mental break because I have no clue how to appease her preference for tight, dark spaces. Also a bear started hunting Looey and since she’s the only one with a weapon she had to fight it. Considering she’s still alive you can guess who won. Also she was the only one capable of violence until the new arrivals came. Also the shattered empire quest came up and she got the rewards for it because she was the only one capable of violence so uh…congrats on the psychic powers!

Now before I talk about Looey you may notice someone is missing…and it mentions his mom was kidnapped. So the thing is when it comes to generating these guys the only thing I cared about pre-existing relationship wise was Canon/Semi-Canon relations when two characters were related (…which only came up really in the Uncommon group with RnD, and Rodger and Toodles). Anything else I didn’t really care and just left as long as I didn’t ship the characters. So Tisha ended up being Looey’s mom because I didn’t really want to generate either of them again. She was originally the hunter of the group since she had the best stats for it (and also because she was a Mind Devourer so she could traumatize raiders…at the cost of everyone including her son fearing her)…and then a raid happened where she did not win the fight, and the only other member who could do violence, Poppy, was going through a mental break and by the time she was out of it Tisha was already gone. So yeah. That happened.

Anyway Looey hasn’t really done much but he does wear a top hat. I didn’t draw it because I forgot but that’s fun.

Cosmo’s last name was completely a coincidence I didn’t give it to him he kind of just ended up with it. He is the cleric because he’s the healer (obviously), he’s also constantly having to do everything because half these guys are just. Not that great stats wise. Woops. He nearly got attacked by the bear but he managed to get inside and the way was blocked by Bandana (who was unfortunately damaged :( but Boxten fixed it!) At the very least he hasn’t started fires yet…. Maybe he’ll start one at the wedding/j

Yuu and Kooshyon are two tribe members who showed up after their tribe was destroyed and have the potential to join. They’ve only been in the colony for a day so I haven’t much to say on them but at least there’s more hands around…also had to come up with designs for them so I kind of just went off memory of their outfits and names (Yuu is a Yew berry and Kooshyon is a Cushion). Again. Not much to say

…

Oh and there’s the Eldritch horror in the cage outside the house. I’m calling it Dusty, in honor of Tisha’s feather duster. Not sure if I’ll draw a toon version of it but I’ll probably do it when I do doodle pages for these guys

#dandys world #dandy’s world #rimworld #dw boxten #dw Poppy #dw looey #dw cosmo #I’m giving this entire thing its own tag because I’m making more #Dandy’s Rimworld au #DRW: The Anomaly Operation #drw Yuu #drw Kooshyon #cosmo x boxten #dw Pastrybox #Boxten x Cosmo

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socialfilter · 2 years ago

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I’m very (read: very) high rn so read all my burning (lol) questions/random thoughts about horizon that you can all answer in your own headcanons:

do you think you ever get people in tribes who defect from said tribe to go into another one? aside from fashav, jaxx (I guess) and fuck me, slaves, I wanna know if there’s like, an Oseram who talked his way into Carja nobility or something.

How successful is the fishing/farming economy in Horizon like…there’s obviously that boar farm and I’ve spotted a few fishing Carja outlanders by Kestrel’s Perch…but I wanna know if people are making livings out of that. We can’t all be machine hunters.

Do you think anyone has ever been squished by a Tallneck?

Do you think Tallnecks can run? (please god I hope they can’t - I would cry)

Not a question. Advice: Don’t try and override a Tideripper underwater. (I tried to do this when I was a little drunk and I’ve never been so frightened in all my life)

Is divorce a thing in this world?

I want to know who the Picasso is amongst the Tenakth. (it’s my golden boy Kotallo)

Give me Red Raid flashbacks.

I won’t lie, I had a dream where Meridian got razed and it gave me excellent hawk and thrush ideas (let’s burn Meridian DOWN!)

I want to know how far children in various tribes are allowed to wonder from their settlements. Obviously we had the whole situation with Yarra/Drakka where a kid went missing so I imagine not far but I wanna know if they’ve got some level of freedom.

On children, do tribes have midwives?

Give me more children’s tales (the Banuk and the Utaru gave me some but I must have MORE)

Let Erend find more Old Ones music. Let him find Taylor Swift. (Personally I think Kotallo would like Radiohead, but that’s jus’ me).

Seyka and Alva interact. Now.

I really want a quest where Aloy helps the wrong person, i.e she doesn’t get the full story and ends up complicit in somebody important’s murder.

somebody (me) needs to kidnap aloy.

I also need a proper red-light-full-alarm-fuck-me-she’s-gonna-blow scene where aloy needs to hoof it outta there (I need more intensity than thebes, much as I love thebes).

bring me more main quests like thebes. I love dropping into some big old place and being HORRIFIED (read: author had nightmares about GAIA Prime).

What do we think the bloodiest Aloy has ever gotten? That would be interesting.

Conscientious objectors must’ve been a thing during the Red Raids, right? (I suppose this is already proven but my question still stands).

Also may be already proven, what was the Oseram role in the Red Raids?

Why is everybody a cousin of Avad?

Let Ikrie be the unhinged Banuk that’s in the Forbidden West.

What does Ikrie do when Banuk who will obviously know who she is pitch up at the Hunting Grounds? Mighty awkward is it not?

Do we think, aside from the racing squads, a tribe might figure out how to ‘tame’ machines? we’re mighty fucking lucky that the machine racers are the good guys cos christ, they could wipe out some settlements with that kinda power.

Let Morlund fly in H3.

Let Talanah Khane Padish have a Sunwing in H3.

Do we think there’s some renowned legendary heroes for tribes that are not the Old Ones? Thinking along the lines of The Enduring, people like that…

I wanna know what certain tribes do with people with disabilities. With the Tenakth it’s certainly less than ideal �� and the Utaru are seemingly a little more humane about it. I imagine with the Banuk it’s probably death-related (that whole Survive, Prevail, bollocks). I wanna know what the Quen, the Oseram, the Carja and the Nora do.

Regarding a deaf character (which I won’t lie I was really hoping Seyka was bc I couldn’t find her VA until the day before BS came out), I want to know if their signing is similar to ours. When will we have deaf characters?

Why are there not more musicians amongst the tribes like…Korreh is currently the Hozier of the Utaru. You could easily have drummers from the Oseram. I know the Nora have got some kickass war songs (plus it’s proven they sing, as do the Utaru).

Why is it, on every quest that involves looking for somebody, they’re fucking dead?

Why does everybody have sisters?

I think Aloy has fantastic taste in music.

Do we think twins are seen as blessings or curses in different tribes?

Can H3 please send us to some more rural ruins? Author wants to be nosy in ancient houses.

Are there jewellers in Meridian?

What are some yearly festivals amongst tribes? Zo touched on Utaru ones but I must know more.

I want to know what warriors with allergies do? (I would be said soldier with allergies)

I want to know how many children in the Sundom/anywhere have been abducted by the Tenakth…or I at least wanna know what the hell Ullia was getting up to…

Piggybacking off that, surely there must be Tenakth soldiers/tribespeople that were born into different tribes and taken away…? That’s only if Ullia’s claim was true I guess.

Where did the cannibal rumour come from? (Obviously the Carja but who thought that up?)

Tell me more about the HZD and HFW prisons…

I want to know more about bandit motives. Obviously you stumble across small ambushes but then there’s whole camps like what are they doing there?

I would like to know more about Sunfall. They have wholeass slaves there. I imagine the whole slave situation is relative to the deal Vezreh had going on with the kidnapped Utaru.

Give me a character that’s deaf and travels with a hearing/signing companion please.

Do tribespeople have pets? (Surely it can’t just be Yarra)

What’s the deal with Yarra and Meat? Please tell me she found Meat as an abandoned baby or something…

I want to know if people are naming their weapons.

Do you think there’s like, a Banuk/any tribe shaman (besides Ourea) who is weirdly knowledgeable about Old Ones shit? Guy has no Focus but could tell you a whole lot about Ted Faro (I’m aware of who I’m describing but not That guy)

Where the fuck did Lel go?

I love that some settlements/campfires have little gossips that’ll give you a quest of some sort. Yes, give me the drama you saucy little minx.

Do you think people believe in ghosts? I think it’d be pretty cool if you heard the voices of the Old Ones as you were walking through valleys or rivers.

Less wrecked planes in H3 please. I love the idea but it just makes me uncomfortable.

More old battlefields in H3 please.

I think there should be some sort of ‘crawl’ effort going on. Aloy crouching is simply not enough.

Bring Furahni and/or the cool Sun-Priest back.

I love that some machines disappear. Like where’d you go? 😈

How do we think Beta is going to adapt to this new world?

Will anybody ever move Verbena’s body? Because it is literally…exactly where we left it.

Speaking of which: I want a closer look at Tenakth tags and Utaru seed pouches. I want to know what other tribes have.

Are sports (that are not hunting) a thing? I reckon the Carja are javelin throwers (it’s hunting related but ygm), the Oseram are most definitely boxers.

If Tenakth are painters, does that make the Quen the scribes or something?

What is the education system in the Horizon world? Obviously different to our time but like,,,,what would a parent do with a child that showed no aptitude for stitching or hunting or literally anything? Nothing good but I must know.

How common is disease in terms of death amongst tribes?

I loved Garokkah’s ‘In The Fog’ quest. Guess it shows that the Tenakth, despite their policies seemingly regarding the disabled, aren’t totally heartless when it comes to helping people within their tribe. That being said, it’s implied his daughters were trying to hide his illness. I wonder what happens to him?

I want to know more about the Odyssey.

I want to know more about Beta’s actual upbringing like…I know it was cold and horrible and heartless but I just want to know more about her.

Who the fuck piloted the Odyssey?

What happens to orphans in different tribes?

Give me more dumbass Tenakth teenagers.

I think the Utaru smoke their own brand of weed. The Carja definitely have a special spice. Tenakth? Paint-sniffers.

Do you think there’s tree surgeons?

WHAT ABOUT THE FREE REAL ESTATE?

Give me a Hunting Party kinda option like…i imagine this’ll happen in the Horizon Multiplayer but I wanna take out a little squad of Lowlanders and go and fuck that goddamn bear up

Holy shit, picture it. Sun-Nuns.

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foxingpeculiar · 1 year ago

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Ff16 blogging: doin’ shit before going to Origin. So, spoilers for basically everything but the ending.

Okay, IIRC, I left off after Barnabas kidnapped Jill. So I tracked him down and fought him—the whole “Odin splitting the ocean” was pretty cool, I gotta admit. Then Clive and Jill (finally) had some sexytime on a beach and I got the Shiva skills, which are pretty cool, but I don’t feel like they’re the best for my build/how I’m currently playing. More on that in a minute.

Medicine Girl—Kihel—finally did something plot-relevant in saving Dion. It seems like that might be it? I dunno. I wanna analyze this game more thoroughly once I know how it ends.

Finally though, after Ultima’s little tour through the Dimensional Rift, I finally feel like I have a real grasp on the situation, or at least its basic core: who wants what, the ideological stakes, etc. I’m still curious about what Ultima is, exactly—it said it came from some other place to Valisthea and that it once had a “fleshly body,” so it must’ve been something mortal/physical at some point. Are they gonna address that? What happened with the Fallen and the Final Sin? It’s mostly in focus now, but not completely.

The run through Waloed was fine. I like that Gav has a girlfriend now, apparently (which is another very GoT touch—Jon’s scholar friend and the wildling girl). Barnabas (again) was a bit of a challenge but not that bad. And then I got Odin.

So I’m currently rocking Phoenix/Bahamut/Odin. Cos both Rising Flames and Flames of Rebirth are handy attacks for either a quick punch or to clear a room. Then… I forget the name of it, but the one that sends out orbs that attack enemies for a minute—that attack is great for stacking damage, and the number of times I’ve shouted “Gigaflare, bitch!” at enemies has been very satisfying, and it recharges quick for an ultimate. (Plus, Megaflare is also useful for room clearing). Odin has taken me a little bit to figure out how to use effectively, but I think I’m getting it now.

But damn, both before and after Drake’s Spine, it’s fuckin’ sidequest city out here. Gotta go around and put a little button on everyone. I’m doin’ em all, but it’s kinda killing the tension. When I finish, I’ll post some overall critical thoughts cos… yeah, I have some (both good and bad).

Random, smaller observations:

I wanted the bit with the scales and finding the clue in the Orchestrion to be like… an RE style puzzle. Remember when JRPGs had actual puzzles?

Should’ve guessed Harbard was a thrall, what with the name Slepnir.

I guess we’re not going to Ran’Dellah? Or the Northern Territories? Maybe they’re saving that for DLC?

I love that, when you lose to Odin/Barnabas in the ocean, you get the boss victory music, but instead of “_____ slain” or whatever, it says “Clive Bested.” Like, “Congratulations! You got your ass handed to you!”

After like 4 quests about how we have to take care of Blackthorne’s feelings, I’m starting to think we should get him a therapist.

“How come her nut hasn’t cracked?” —Gav being sensitive as ever.

WHY is Leviathan lost? Like that doesn’t seem like the kind of thing that should be able to happen. And why is Phoenix not part of the whole mural/Circle of Malleum business?

Have cleared everything that’s showed up on the hunt board. Is there gonna be a crazy last one? Where is my superboss, dagnabit! *bangs fists on desk* Although, I have encountered some doors I can’t open (there’s one on the way to Barnabas’s tower, and one in Stonhyr itself, at least), so maybe there’s hope?

Anyway, all that’s left is to finish the 4 or so more sidequests in the hideaway, then the Alliant Reports from… around. And then go do the thing.

#personal #video games #ff16 #ff16 spoilers #final fantasy xvi

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dastardlyobnoxious · 2 years ago

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My time with Pathfinder: Kingmaker (P.3)

This is the third and final part of my write up on my experience with Kingmaker. I'll be discussing Act Seven and my mixed feelings on the games ending here so be warned of spoilers. Part One: https://www.tumblr.com/dastardlyobnoxious/718604715975426048/my-time-with-pathfinder-kingmaker-p1?source=share Part Two: https://www.tumblr.com/dastardlyobnoxious/718622705272913920/my-time-with-pathfinder-kingmaker-p2?source=share

Act 7 - Sound of a Thousand Screams

The last act of a game I poured over a hundred hours into, and it opens on a pretty good bit with the Castle of Knives location and side content like Ilthuliak's Lair being very unique locations and introductions to new enemies. By this point, I’d exhausted every quest aside from two that weren’t main quest material or kingdom management related so I figured it best to run ahead with the main quest and try and finish the game once and for all (If your curious, it was the “Magical Prison” and “The Ravenous Queen” quest lines). And I feel like I had an overall better understanding of the game and how it worked, realizing just how much of a learning experience the game had been for Pathfinder lore/spells and just general turn-based combat. Retrieval of the First Crown was quick and mostly painless, introducing me to the behemoths that were the Wiggling Man and the Knurly Witch alongside a brutally obnoxious enemy the Ankou a self-replicating spammy esc enemy that thrives on knocking your party out if you aren’t prepared with enough AOE/Splash attacks they’ll only appear twice but both times I ran into them were hellish. So I receive the crown and throw it at Shyka, through Jubliost’s companion quests it felt at least somewhat right to trust them instead of trusting Salim, a random person I only saw once saying he’d cleanse something an Eldest would want seems sketchy. I actually did the Suramgamin Order quest before Shyka and the first crown but I can’t say I was the hugest fan of it. While not bad, and offering a curveball in terms of variety it’s a rather bizarre game show-type deal that felt somewhat tedious on my playthrough.

The House. (Is it really a kingmaker post if it doesn’t have HatEOT complaints in it?)

From here, the House at the Edge of Time begins and if you know anything about this game and have gleaned anything from my time playing you’ll likely guess it went about as well as a house fire. I won’t lie that I tried to come into this stretch fully prepared buying up all sorts of resistances, healing spells, and whatever else I could scrounge up to better my odds. And when the party was forcibly broken up it went poorly. My player character was not built for solo play in the slightest, only having a couple of spells and a singular AOE attack often being the first to go down.

Close-range fighting/wandering in this place could’ve gone so much worse than it did had the companions been split across dimensions but after a quick death, I stumbled on Valerie and had SOMETHING to go off of as I recouped my companions and avoided enemies as much as possible. Speaking of enemies, the Wild Hunt is a pain that you can’t understand until you’ve faced them. They'd started appearing in the last two Baldtop/Ancient Curse quests and if that was a sign of what was to come it wasn’t good enough. Having to look up how to counter something that will try and paralyze check every round is a nightmare especially when the best counter to it (Freedom of movement) is something you’d run across sparingly. Now the vendor at the start of the house automatically sold the spell which came in handy but only if you knew what it could do. I for one didn’t know it would help until I looked it up. So, I’m wandering the house collecting companions and surprisingly none of them died!

Harrim is probably the closest and goes fully mad but everyone has some sort of resolution standing up against Nyrissa. My favorite of the group is Jaethal and Tristian’s interaction, I fully expected that she was dead so when she comes back as a living person and follower of Pharasma it’s such a one eighty alongside seeing Tristian finally stand up against his puppeteer Nyrissa that it’s a really big payoff. Ekundayo and Amiri are in two separate rooms, with Amiri resisting Nyrissa’s insults and sitting out in the cold, clearly upset that it took the group so long to find her but ready to go nonetheless. Whereas Ekundayo insists on the party fighting the Misbegotten Troll, a beast that took me hours because of my folly. Initially, I breezed through this encounter with a lucky Icy Prison and the troll failing his saving throw. I went to loot the fallen foe when I had thought that it was another one of my companions or perhaps a possible ally similar to the Tristian/Jaethal situation that I’d inadvertently killed. In hindsight, I was off the mark entirely, but I figured this fight couldn’t be that bad and I needed to double-check before doing anything so I reloaded without saving.

This partially worked in my favor when I realized where and what had happened to Linzi. As I purposefully omitted her from that initial companion list BECAUSE of what happened here, she was never my favorite but she was the best support in the party, could cook damn well, and had a really optimistic outlook on the kingdom and how it’d turn out. While I could see her annoying certain people, Linzi was the group's heart by a landslide. She was someone who approached and talked with you for hours telling stories and filling the resting sessions with idle chatter and it’s what made her so endearing. Valerie and Amiri, at least within my mind, are clear friends of Linzi and it’s no question why. And while not technically dead, being cursed for eternity(?) into the form of a book is a horrific fate and it sucks that she, unlike the others couldn’t escape her death. Linzi and her quest line saw her pursue the truth over other matters even at the risk of harming people, her thoughts on certain mentor or peer figures were flipped upside down and even though she “borrowed” money from the treasury and asked for a printing press to be opened she never had any ill intent. Losing Linzi was rough both emotionally and in the context of the ensuing fights, I hadn’t thought it necessary to specialize in the bard class when I had Linzi, and when someone so vital to the team dynamic dies it causes a clear shift. First, I restarted the dungeon entirely to sell Linzi’s gear and just better prepare for what was in store then I went to kill the Misbegotten Troll subbing in Regongar in her place because of his spell variety. It took hours to get an outcome where half my party wasn’t down or near death. Call it stubbornness but I had no clue how long this dungeon would be and I didn’t want to risk my limited greater resurrection spells. A significant aspect of this dungeon is the mist/dungeon swap gimmick and dear god is it a PAIN. Clearing this place for all it was worth was by no means worth it, I fought every enemy encounter and found every item I could. This took me about a week of play because the house somehow goes from a love letter to the effort you put into your companions to slamming you with a metal baseball bat. If you aren’t failing to hit the Wild Hunt Scouts either the archers are crippling your tanks or their monarchs are spam-flooding the room with support. Lest we forget the ghosts and their corrupting touch alongside the ghost MAGES casting clouds of blindness, fatigue, and sickness to make it so no battle is left without a greater resurrection or rest occurring. Beyond them the other enemies are a mix of tedium or ease sparingly placed, the Golems, Swarms, and singular Ankou encounter are the former while the Medusas and the Nymphs are the ladder. This is a dungeon that by all means should be rushed through unless you're looking for a specific item or well-equipped for this type of long-form combat. The Knurly Witch went down quickly, with a lucky Icy prison and dispel of her buffs while the Wriggling Man took multiple tries between his absurd regen and splash damage/summon attacks. While I’d later learn you could skip his fight by finishing the mirror quest it fell on deaf ears cause I only did it after clearing the dungeon. So much of this dungeon's issue is on a blind playthrough you will wander this thing for HOURS looking for keys while being jumped by long-form boring encounters. Reaching Nyrissa was a feat in its own right for me, and at first, I was excited for a tough but fun boss fight but the game couldn’t even give THAT. You can quite literally leave Nyrissa’s fight on autopilot and eventually, they will kill her, and it’s ten times better than wasting thirty minutes in turn-based mode because Nyrissa’s AC is so high it’s hard to even graze her before a full heal.

Tricks Of Time.

I spared Nyrissa and sent her through the portal where Shyka and the other Eldest had gathered in wait for the Lantern King. Who surprise had been disguised as one of Nyrissa’s servants! His initial reveal was intimidating but the way I went about things he scampered off without a fight allowing Shyka to use the first crown to prank and game-end this elaborate scheme of the Lantern King. From here all that was left for my first playthrough was Linzi’s storybook end where everyone was thereafter. I know this game has multiple endings, some of which shoot you to other locations but this was such a disappointing and lackluster end. It’s not like I was being obtuse either Shyka indirectly killing Nyrissa by breaking the first crown isn’t some hidden secret ending it’s a viable option among a few others. And I realize other endings exist in the game but this was a mostly blind playthrough that lasted months. Act Seven somehow starts strong but breaks its nose on the descent and I’m not sure how they screwed up this badly. I don’t hate Kingmaker but how is an ending this unsatisfying? I just felt kind of numb reading Linzi’s book, was I happy I’d beaten the game, yes? But for what it's worth, at least I know what I’m getting into if I ever replay this.

The End?

I tried to avoid incessant complaining in this post because even with the ending the rest of this game is solid and worth a play if you like this sort of gameplay and fantasy genre. A lot of my time with Kingmaker was learning about systems and lore I didn’t know about and while it’s entirely on me it made this into a unique experience I won’t forget even if I don’t know if I’ll replay it anytime soon.

I don’t plan to dive into Wrath of the Righteous for a bit, but after all this who knows? I’ve heard really good things about it.

That said, is Kingmakers DLC worth a purchase? Genuinely curious and if you’ve gotten this far into a three part text dump figured you'd have an opinion. Have a good day! And if something is inaccurate please inform me, I tried to check my information as much as possible.

(As always, apologies for my poor grammar!)

#pathfinder kingmaker #writing #kingmaker

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rottenbrainstuff · 10 months ago

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BG3 playthrough - still trying to find Minsc

Spoilers below the cut!

Been a bit busy lately and I’m STILL trying to get Minsc but goddamn it this is turning into a big huge fucking thing, I had no idea, and I am tired.

One of the funniest things I have seen in this game so far are the high-security family vaults in the great big vault room in the bank, where you have the fight with the cultists. The game wants you to go out on a scavenger hunt and grab all the keys but myeh. You can just pick the locks. You can pick the locks while the bank manager is STANDING RIGHT THERE. If he’s behind you when you do it, he will run up behind you like HEY! WHAT ARE YOU… oh whatever, go on. Not like it matters now anyways.

I am crying!

The vaults were kind of neat, little pieces of lore for some of the characters we’ve already met. The Ravengard diary made me sad, I didn’t have Wyll with me when I read it, oops, does he have a reaction to that? I also liked the memo that notes that a “representative” from the Szarr family was by at night depositing something and acted “shocked and horrified” when they were asked the standard security screening questions. A supervisor noted that this was standard behavior for their representatives and no more questions should be asked. I assume this is a spawn on an errand and panicking because they were asked questions that they didn’t know how to answer. Neat tidbits.

Speaking of that vault fight btw, wtf is up with the bad guys’ invisibility shroud, why is it always perfect? That fight took way longer than it should have cause those assholes kept disappearing and my character that can see invisible things couldn’t see them. In the end I had to throw around alchemist fires until I finally hit them. And once I was all done, I was going around reading books in the desks and whatnot, and suddenly got attacked by one last cultist who was just apparently hiding in a shadow I guess, was that a bug or was he supposed to be hiding there?...??

Now I’m going through the sewer trying to track Minsc, which I thought was going to be a quick jaunt but noooo, apparently everyone is hiding out down here. I ran into Arabella, and Gandrel with two Gur children (tell me again how it’s a better decision to just kill all the spawn?), Voss is down here patiently waiting for me and he is going to keep on waiting for now, I found some random sleeping tiefling who is just there apparently and has no actual dialogue or associated quests, and I ran into the craziest fucking dude just hanging out being crazy with some nasty grease monsters. My oldest kid says she made friends with him, but I don’t know how that’s possible. Every single dialogue option I have leads him to allow me to pass through exactly once and if I come back, they attack. She also speeds through this game at a blinding speed so I’m thinking she is possibly simply mistaken.

Apparently Orin is down here too somewhere? Man I don’t know if I’m ready to do all of that yet either… I’m still enjoying this game so much, more than I can remember enjoying any game in a long long time, but act 3 is definitely rough around the edges. At least I haven’t been running into any of the game-breaking bugs some people have described. I wonder if those have largely been fixed? I’ve found no bugs, just a ton of random, messy, loosely-integrated content.

Hey for some reason I had in my head Zevlor was hanging out at a pub somewhere in act 3 and you could chat with him to recruit him for the last battle, but apparently that’s not a thing, you can’t talk to him anywhere, and he will just show up when it’s big fight time like “yay I’m a Hellrider again”. Boo! Come on, I would be really really willing to sacrifice things like a weird random grease sorcerer and a pointless sleeping character for, you know, even one tiny little proper act 3 chat with an actual recurring character I’ve been friends with since act one…

Random thought: I was thinking about pre-game durge recently, and Sceleritas. I mean obviously pre-game, durge was not a good person. You have flashbacks of leading a Bhaal cult. You have flashbacks of graverobbing and murder and vivisection. Durge sounds like a literal monster.

But, now I find myself wondering just how much they went along with things, and if they ever tried to resist, pre-game.

Because I’ve just been thinking about how Sceleritas talks to you. If you are playing a resisting durge, Sceleritas never sounds *surprised* that you don’t want to commit horrible murders, he only sounds disappointed. You’d think that a resistant durge is acting so out of character that Sceleritas would be somewhat surprised, but it’s never ever “oh no master, what has happened to you, you used to LOVE the cold-blooded slaughter of innocents?” Sure in act 1 there’s an element of, “oh poor master, your brain is all scrambled, don’t worry we’ll get you fixed”…. but in act 2, it feels more like “oh you naughty disobedient master, you better listen to what daddy says”, like he’s heard durge try to argue out of murder before and he needs to yet again convince naughty durge to eat their murder-vegetables. I dunno. I was wondering if even pre-game, durge resisted sometimes. It’s interesting to think about a durge that was always having little problems all along the way, a rebellious teenager talking back to daddy every once in a while, Sceleritas trying his best to keep durge on the “right” track. Maybe it’s not what the writers intended at all, but I was just thinking about it.

And lastly, Kled - still thinking about Kled - I will never shut up about Kled. Kled would still love you if you were a worm. Kled assumes it’s impossible the lady he likes could ever like him back and he doesn’t care, he’s there anyways as a friend with no expectations. Even Nere has fics on AO3 and Kled has none and that’s not fair! Kled forever.

#bg3 #bg3 playthrough #baldur's gate 3 #dark urge #bg3 spoilers

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thirsty-4-ghouls · 2 years ago

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This is not written in character, just to show an idea, a headcanon. It kinda turned into rambling about character motivations in general especially her “secret” motivations

Vilkas is against stealth to a degree, seeing it as dishonorable. However, I think he probably conceded to the fact that Embla has a different concept of honor.

“You snuck up on them from behind”

“Yeah, what are you saying?”

“Backstabbing isn’t honorable”

“It’s not backstabbing if they didn’t turn their back to you with trust you wouldn’t stab them”

“That’s not how it works.”

“How does it work then?” <- genuinely curious about what this new different definition is

“Attacking someone with their back turned”

“So hunting is dishonorable, got it” <- now being a little shit

“What do you consider dishonorable then?” <- irritated

“Well, what I said earlier about betrayal, then there is holding hostages, attacking civilians who didn’t do anything, torture, extortion, I tend to avoid poison in food (I know what you’re thinking but she hasn’t done the dark brotherhood quest line) and stuff like that,” she then proceeds to describe things that go from kind of an asshole move to straight up war crimes “and those are the things I don’t do and think wouldn’t be honorable”

When she’s done he’s just like “…those aren’t good. You have a very different concept of what can be considered good, but those definitely are indeed not ways to fight with honor” <- not written in character for sure but this post is only to get an idea out of my head

“Why did you even join us?”

I needed money and I needed to do it near whiterun. These guys seemed the least shady of and long-term job in the area. It was never my main intention to join a group of physical combat focused warriors but it’s not like I don’t have the experience for it. I wanted a job that wouldn’t ask me to like, kill a random civilian in their sleep or something like that. Plus, being right next to where Lucia is let’s me keeps an eye on her even when I haven’t made enough for a house yet.

“I wanted to fight well without joining some shady gang” I mean, it’s not a lie. I did need something to help me improve physical combat. I’m not about to admit the whole complicated and slightly iffy truth. It worked didn’t it? That’s what matters. Sure these people have secrets, but I’ve been around worse. Meh, whatever. Plus, he’s kinda hot. Not going to admit that though.“Healing and alchemy don’t rake in the septims with a temple in town and an alchemist. I feel kind of weird charging for healing someone as well. I mean, I know it’s what I always wanted, healing people and learning new things, but I still feel weird charging for restoration.”

If there is any way to use magic without it being underhanded I guess it is that “I can see why you would have trouble with that. You specifically.”

I also like lighting things on fire but I can’t really make a career out of just that. Not going to tell him that part of my childhood dreams though. I said studying, he doesn’t need to know everything I like to study. Anyway, I love doing stuff for the college but if I want to help Lucia I can’t only do that. I can’t stand seeing her out there like that. I’m too much of a softy… I mean sure, I’ve burned some guys to death but what dragon doesn’t do that kinda thing? The point is that I can’t see her and do nothing! Again though, he does NOT need to know those details. What if they kick me out for not focusing on honor enough?! Then how will I help her?! Honoring your morals is honor, that works yeah? I hope.

*Vilkas has definitely noticed how much she helps Lucia and probably has his suspicions but he couldn’t know ALL of that, right??? And with what he said about his childhood… she’s not going to say anything*

#emma posts #skyrim oc #my rambling #long post

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hobgayblin · 3 years ago

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I’ve made a gay little beast for the eldy rings haha don’t worry about it

I stayed up until like 6am the other night frantically writing a shit ton of notes for this guy and how he would be interactable as an NPC so I’m gonna put that under a cut here too sghfghd

tl;dr: He’s a vampiric shapeshifting beast that wants to be a dragon so bad he’s going to eat all the dragons. And Varre wants to study him because of his weird blood magic. They are gay friends :)

Draethil, Draconic Impersonator (He/It)

Albinistic Vampiric entity, can drink blood of creatures to shapeshift into the source. Obsessed with dragons, desperately wants to be one but cant transform into something that big. Decides to hunt and drink the blood of every dragon it can find to hopefully be able to slowly change into a dragon. Tall, elongated neck, kinda gangly but obviously strong, spikes and small horns, claws, probably tail, etc etc. Current draconic features come from hunting dragons/draconic beasts on his own for a while. Can shapeshift into many different things including a regular human form but given his goal of becoming a dragon he prefers his fucked partially draconic state at the moment.

As an NPC - large, scary, but very passive, can be encountered randomly in fields, picking flowers or hanging out with animals - if talked too will be surprised you want to talk instead of attacking him - tells you about his interest in dragons, asks if you have encountered any - if you have you can say yes and tell him an area you've seen one in. He will go to that area and can be summoned to help fight that dragon - if you send him to a dragon he will stay there until you kill it OR if you do not kill it before the great rune boss of that region he will try to fight it alone and die. His body will be found by whichever dragon and you can get his armor. - if you summon him and reload/go back to the area you will see him crouched over the dragon/part of it sucking blood from it and muttering to himself about becoming a dragon. You can get his attention by hitting him once and immediately tell him the location of another dragon, which he will again help you fight etc etc - if you dont immediately tell him you will have to find him in one of his random spawns again - you can also attack him several times in the field/when hes eating if you wanna fight him I guess. He will be difficult either way but he will be MORE difficult if you attack him while eating a dragon corpse. Will use more blood magic incantations and be more aggressive - if he helps you kill all the dragons and is able to eat them you can find him in [location pending] as a secret boss fight hee hee hoo hoo - he becomes a giant draconic/humanoid abomination and he is such a hard bitch oh man. You dont even know bro. Will no longer drop his armor instead will drop uhhh weapon or helmet that let's you do a draconic transformation like in dark souls

Special Varre interactions/Questline - Sometimes if you talk more to Draethil While he is in the fields he will tell you about a nice masked man he met. This will activate a secondary quest line with Varre - The quests are with Varre but Draethil will tell you more about Varre and himself every subsequent time you find him (while not eating a dragon) - IF YOU HAVE JOINED THE BLOOD CULT. Varre will talk about what an interesting creature Draethil is. Basically he wants to study him like an ant because of his weird blood powers and he wants you to give him an invite. If you find him in the field again you can give him and item and he will accept, stating something along the lines of "a new home? for me?" - You can go back to Varre and see him initiate Draethil Into the blood cult. Reload and Varre will have more dialogue about him, but he will be gone and continue his regular quest line - Gives Varre a quest line where u dont have to kill him to finish it - Whenever you kill a dragon for Draethil's quest line Varre will have more dialogue about him - if you get all the dialogue from Varre he will be summonable for Draethil's big boss fight - If you kill Draethil with Varre summoned you can reload and see him kneeling by the corpse, being sad and saying sad shit. Varre will give you Draethil's armor. This is the only way to get the armor and do the boss fight - If Varre is summoned and can survive the fight, when Draethil is at about 1/5th health Varre can help pacify him and there is an option for surrender - If you spare him during the boss fight and then attack him anyway he will die instantly, giving you his boss item, but Varre will immediately become hostile and attack you - if you let him live you will get gay dialogue between him and Varre and he will permanently go hang out with him. He will also assume his human form (realized his dream may be a bit fucked, finds new comfort in humanity) and become a teacher for blood incantions. - He will also give you an item called Vampiric Blood Vial or s/t like that and it’s basically a mimic veil but instead of changing into objects in the area you change into fauna like turtles or goats and can run around as those.

#elden ring oc #elden ring #white faced varre #varre #hello eldy ring tag. im sorry but also <3 look #self ship #mlm self ship #oc x canon #🩸#i might change his armor/colors but i was lazy dsghkfgh #my bloody varrentine #drezel #hobgob arts

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one-strugling-bean · 3 years ago

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Random Thoughts on HTTYD RttE S6 (Ep1-7)

Ep1 - And we start with our favorite toxic family

Was I the only one that thought Krogan and Viggo were gonna kiss for a second there?

Like, Hiccup has so many unprotected friends, I think it'd be quite easy to just, snatch one and trade all his lenses for that person (or dragon). He would do it

Dragon Eye Two is a lazy name, the twins are right

And Astrid is gone again? She's not with the Dagur party, nor the Hiccup party

Twins to the rescue!!

Ruffnut is genuinely so intelligent, what the heck. Both of the twins are, but in different ways. Ruff is more logical, really good at reading people and situations, while Tuff has an insurmountable supply of inventive and ingenuious creativity

I'm with Fishlegs - good for you Dagur

And of course Snotlout would know how a bully works

And of course the twins would suspect each other

Well, that was a fast reveal

Huh. Wow. Nice thinking Hiccup. It's good to know that these little moments did happen, and were thought out - Johann being evil wasn't just thrown in here at random

Aw, really nice of and for Dagur

Astrid's back!

Sooo, this season is gonna be a hunt for all lenses? Let's see

Ep2 - I can understand where Tuff is coming from - he fooled every single person he met. That's some goals

Stoick is so freaking tall compared to Snotlout, geez

You know, random thinking here, but Gobber has been something akin to a second parent to Hiccup all these years right? Imagine having to witness and sometimes be a part of an argument between Hiccup and Stoick? Poor man

Seems like "not listening" and Stoick go hand in hand very very often

"I have no idea what those two are babbling about." To be fair, I think there's a good chance they don't know either

Hiccup and his daddy issues - a never-ending quest for fatherly attention

They got taken over way too easily but okay I'll bite

"Isn't that what Snotlout is for?" Okay, I gotta know now, what is it with dads and Snotlout bashing?

That was a nice little escape scene, I liked it a lot. Tuff distractting the guards while the others cut their ropes was done super smoothly, it was really satisfying

Father&Son bonding time with dragons and extra fire!

Oh yeah and Berk was saved too, that was a thing

I don't want them to leave the Edge :'(

Ep3 - Oh, Wing Ladies that's nice - I had almosy forgotten about you already

Alsooo, cousins episode? Or partially cousins episode anyway. That makes me happy

"Passed over for the skinny blond? Been there." Are we not gonna comment on this?

I'm gonna make yet another prediction, and say that by the time the show ends, Dagur and Mala are either besties or dating

"This, is common ground." I swear, Fishlegs is so competent I love him

Snotlout's blond argument becomes even funnier (to me at least) since every single Dragon rider that isn't him or Hiccup is blond. So Hiccup signing literally anyone else in the group for a task that Snotlout wants is Hiccup "choosing the blond over him"

This might be the actual full joke and I'm here explaining it like I'm super smart, when I'm just painfully oblivious

Also, why did Hiccup want Snotlout to follow Minden lady anyway?

Snotlout showing his character development and Hookfang looking absolutely done with his rider

More showness of character development from Snotlout, how nice. Also, him and Minden are a cute duo

Hiccup kidnapping no. 347 and counting

Nouuu, Hookfang!

Well, damn. That took a turn. I did not expect her to kiss him full on the lips

Yeah it's the dating option. Dagur and Mala are gonna date

Kay, so the lenses are hidden in Wing Maiden Island, check

Guess Snotlout won't be cast aside over the blond anymore - he's just gonna have to fight her for it.

Not sure if that's an improvement actually

Ep4 - I can't see how something like that could doom Fishlegs now, especially since until literally a couple of years ago all their parents killed dragons on the daily, which isn't a whole lot better. Heck, until a couple years ago, they wanted to kill dragons! One would imagine you'd have made peace with all that

But family is family, and that always ends up weighting more

Getting the twins is literally your worst option ever - even Snotlout would've been better

After last episode's blond thing, I'm starting to pay more attention to hair colors, and is it weird that to me it's weird that all these kids are blond? And the two with uncovered eyes also have the same green eye color

Pfff, poor Toothless

Astrid is a good friend. Also, I keep pointing it out, but I really like seeing these two together, they're fun

Again, why did Hookfang and Barf&Belch run away, but Toohtless stay? I don't get this dragon

I really wish Dreamworks had explored on the Night Furies

To be fair, kids are a very different matter from Viggo Grimborn. If you wanted them to use the same method and have the same mentality as they had to fight Viggo, Hiccup my friend, I think you might be closer to evilness than you think

Woho! Down with that statue!

Of course! That's why they're all blond and green eyed, they're Fishlegs' family, duh

Ep4 - Oh Gruffnut's back? Wasn't expecting it but sure

Meatlug's decorations were perfect, the twins just don't appreciate fine art

I find it really cute that Snotlout was just napping on Hookfang's snout

So you're telling me Snotlout had to go against a bear at nine months old? My hate for Spitelout keeps skyrocketing, would you look at that

Once again, the twins being sweet. Also, they're the first pair of twins in the family? Huh

Of course he managed to manipulate them into doing the trials anyway - but they're doing them for each other, that is really really sweet

Hiccup is a constantly-tired older brother to his teammates and I'm here for it

Also, random findings I just made. Ruff and Tuff have different eye colors - Tuff's are a dark grey/black and Ruff's a light blue. And despite being blond, they both have dark haired eyebrows

Ruffnut Haddock, Tuffnut Haddock - they both immediately assumed Hiccup would adopt the other into their family

Barf&Belch pacing and Toothless calming them down was everything. Why don't we get more moments between the dragons?

The hand holding while they exploded?? The familial fluff of that!

Damn, they were reallly lazy with the Thorston family members

Ahhhh, of course it's a freaking lens!

Ep6 - Married?? Wow. I assumed they'd start dating in the last episode!

Fishlegs finally has a marriage to gush over

I can completely understand everyone's ewwness at the situation

Hiccstrid episode? This should be interesting

Omg, poor girl. Toothless you're the only hope for these two, please help them out

Was Dagur supposed to look like he was asking for Hiccup's hand instead. Because out of context, it really looks like it

And, things are heating up nowww

This romantic drama is a lot of fun, ngl

"Not too late to join Team Jorgenson." Snotlout, sweetie, with all due respect, please shut the fuck up now

Nouuuuu, girl don't give that back! That's the kind of issue you talk through, as a couple, not give up on the first issue!

I hope Mala is attacking the dummy just to screw with the twins

Barf&Belch licking the twins' faces was sho cute

Well, that was a super fast recovery, and I hope we actually get a serious discussion about this later, because romantic drama is what I came for this episode

Fiiiiiine, I'll admit it, these two are adorable as hell and I really wanna watch a compilation of their sweetest moments together or something like that. The ending was the cutest

Ep 7 - Wingmaidens, yayy. Are we gonna see Minden again? I liked her voice a lot

The way Hiccup waved his finger at Snotlout when getting him away from Atali - he is the figure of a desperate older brother, I'm telling you

Is this gonna be a Ruffnut appreciation episode? Oh, I am so here for it

That. Did not. Just happen.

Did Tuff just put his mastigated food on Ruff's mouth...?

I'm not sure I'll ever recover from that

Atali gave some nice pep talk

I think I've barely ever seen Hiccup with Ruff, this is cool!

Someone please hug this girl asap or I will!!!

And of course, the usual drill with Krogan - he's really boring now honestly

That ending was sweet af

We're getting some really emotional, fluffy endings this season aren't we?

I am so so close to finishing these series.... I don't wanna see the end :')

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quaranmine · 3 years ago

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New World, New Faces

When the hermits moved to their new world, they were excited to welcome two new members. But maybe one is an old friend instead . . .

Grian hasn't seen Pearl since Evo. It's a shock.

No romantic relationships or content warnings. Mainly emotional hurt/comfort, but probably more emphasis on comfort. Hermits: Grian, Pearl, and Mumbo primarily with a little bit of Scar and Xisuma as well. Reblogs appreciated and AO3 link in reblog!

Words: 3893

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These days, Grian was pleased to say that the Watcher’s didn’t occupy his mind nearly as often as they used to. Except on certain late nights where he lay in bed and thought of before, his time was mostly spent having fun--scheming, pranking, building, planning, mining, laughing with friends. It wasn’t something he could forget, but the hermits had become his new home, and as years passed the edges of those memories had dulled a bit.

The other times where the Watchers occupied his mind were update days. Since joining hermitcraft, Grian had gone through several updates with the rest of the server. Sometimes they moved to a new world, and sometimes they stayed in their old one. No portals of bedrock ever appeared, but Grian always thought of them just the same. It always felt like maybe, just maybe, one day he’d turn around and see their signature portals once again.

Watchers didn’t always leave portals to update worlds. Grian hadn’t known that until he’d been put to work as a Watcher himself. Oh, the Watchers were still in charge of updating worlds, but they often did it more subtly, without grand towers and quests for portals. It’s hard to retain status as a myth when everyone knows your calling card, afterall. Admins always knew when it was time to update. Grian hadn't, back on Evo, because he’s always been told.

It turned out Evo had been different, and Grian didn’t know how to feel about that. Evo wasn’t the only world to receive special attention from the Watchers, but it was one of their favorites. Why them, though? Why did the Watchers keep such a close eye on their world in particular? Why were they left towers and clues and prizes and punishments, when other servers were mostly left alone?

Why did they kill everyone and kidnap Grian?

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Grian stood in a group with the other hermits, eagerly waiting for the move to the new world. He bounced a little in anticipation. He was excited for the new update--he knew very little about its contents, but it seemed like there would be some new building blocks to play with, according to Xisuma.

He already had plans for the new world--new bases and new shenanigans. Grian was excited to build close to his friends. Xisuma had informed them that another update would come in a few months, and for the hermits to stick close in the time being so that new land would be freed up for the coming update. Grian had already known about the second update for a while, as all Watchers do, but he let Xisuma handle all of this as admin. Those days were behind him, now, and there was no reason to start exercising Watcher powers in a world that was carrying on just fine on its own.

“Is everyone ready?” Xisuma shouted over the chatter, trying to do a headcount. “Hey!” he shouted, trying to get everyone’s attention. Slowly, the chatter quieted.

“Looks like it,” said Iskall.

“Good,” Xisuma said. “Now, before we go, I wanted to remind you that we have two new people joining us this time. I’ve already made arrangements with them prior so they’re gonna be waitin’ for us when we go through.” He grinned. “Be on your best behavior for me, alright?”

“I’m always on my best behavior,” Keralis replied, and Xisuma rolled his eyes fondly.

Grian smiled, remembering his welcome to hermitcraft a few years ago. Unlike this time, nobody had been expecting him. Grian hadn’t been invited like these two new hermits had been, he had just been there when the hermits arrived on their new world. None of the other hermits knew quite why he was there, but they’d all accepted him graciously nonetheless.

Grian liked that memory. The truth is, he’d fled the Watchers and picked an uninhabited world at random, not realizing it had already been reserved by Xisuma. That was a failure on his part as a Watcher, because he was supposed to know about stuff like that. But he had been too busy running to worry about it and besides, there was nobody on hermitcraft to punish him.

The hermits had welcomed him with kindness and made him part of their family. Now he’d gladly do the same for these new soon-to-be hermits.

“Okay . . .” Xisuma said, typing something into his admin panel. “I’m just setting up the portal now.”

They were all gathered in the shopping district, right in front of the Town Hall. Grian took his chance to take one last glance around at the world. The diamonds in the trees glittered in the morning light, sending little reflective shards of light scattered on the ground. Moving worlds was always bittersweet, because it meant parting with the things he’d worked hard on and the places he’d made memories at. But it was also one of his favorite things to do, because it gave everyone a blank slate to work with, sparking endless new creativity.

“I wish I could take some of those with me,” chuckled Scar, as he walked up next to where Grian was standing. He pointed at the diamonds.

“Well of course you want them, Mr Mayor!”

“Uh-uh,” Scar said. “I’m not the Mayor anymore! This is a new world.”

“Well, I guess we’ll have to see what we get up to in the next one, huh?” Grian asked. “Do you have any plans?”

“You’ll just have to wait and see,” Scar teased.

“I guess I will.”

“Do you have any plans?”

“I don’t know,” said Grian. He thought for a moment. “I might make a cave base. I guess I’m waiting to see what’s out there for inspiration before I start.”

“Well, I look forward to seeing it,” Scar replied. “Oh! It looks like Xisuma is ready.”

Grian looked up, to see X opening a portal. It wasn’t a nether portal, nor was it like an End portal. It wasn’t a Watcher portal either, but an Admin one. Grian had come to realize that Watchers supplied Admins with the means to move into updates on their own when they wanted to. The bedrock portals and scavenger hunts were reserved for their favorite worlds--their toys.

Sometimes the Watchers liked to flex their powers, but the universe is not kept running smoothly if all your time is spent flexing. Grian brushed away the thought, choosing to focus on his friends in front of him instead.

One by one, the hermits stepped through the portal, which swirled light blue and hovered just slightly off the ground. Grian hung back, wanting to be one of the last ones through. He wanted to make sure everyone made it through alright, but Xisuma had to be the very last person, since he needed to close the portal. When it was finally his turn, he gave Xisuma a smile and walked forward.

Grian stepped through, into the bright sunlight of a village, and was surrounded by the voices of his friends.

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Spawn was a village in a grassland, next to a swamp and overlooking the ocean. It looked a little plain, but the hermits hadn’t left their mark on the world yet. Behind Grian, Xisuma stepped out into the new world and the portal vanished behind him.

Everybody was crowded around a ditch chattering, apparently exchanging greetings with the two new hermits that stood inside it. Grian held back for a moment, taking it in and basking in the sounds of his friends’ voices. Finally, he wasn’t the new one anymore--a few people had rejoined the server in the last world, but they’d all been old friends, not new ones. That had left him being the most recent addition, not that anything felt like it was recent anymore.

Grian was already thinking of ways to prank the new hermits and draw them into the life of the server.

“Alright Mumbo!” Xisuma said. Grian grinned. Mumbo was supposed to introduce them. Mumbo, of course, didn’t know this, because where’s the fun in that?

“Oh-oh me?”

“It’s go time!” Cleo said.

“This is it!” said Xisuma.

“I’ve clearly very obviously been put up to this,” Mumbo started. “And because everyone thought it’d be much funnier to have me bumble through it without really knowing what I’m talking about, and that is definitely going to be the case!”

The hermits chuckled. Grian walked around the back of the group to try to catch a glimpse of the new people below.

“We do have two new hermits,” Mumbo said, “down in this crevice.”

Grian caught a glimpse of red and brown hair.

“GeminiTay-”

Grian’s world stopped and he felt his breath catch in his throat. She had her back to him, but he’d recognize her anywhere. Her brown hair spilled out from behind a black hoodie.

But she’s dead.

Was this some sort of cruel trick from the universe?

“-and PearlescentMoon.” The rest of the hermits cheered at the announcement, giving the new members a warm welcome. Grian said nothing, his mind spinning a mile a minute.

There was no way it was actually her. The Watchers . . . the Watchers had killed her, and every other Evolutionist. Grian didn’t know why. He would never know why, because with the Watchers it was always “you can’t possibly understand.”And Grian couldn’t. When Grian had finally escaped them, he tried to go back to Evo. It was a foolish attempt, one that would certainly have endangered the lives of anyone there, but nobody had been left there and the buildings were all destroyed and overgrown with vines and Grian had been forced to conclude the heavy truth that all of his old friends were gone.

He didn’t remember what he did after that. He just ran.

Before he could stop himself, the words came tumbling out of his mouth. “Pearl? Is that really you?”

She turned, hearing her name and--it was. It was her. Her hair had blonde highlights around the bangs now, but he’d recognize her anywhere, like her face and the faces of all the other Evolutionists were seared into his brain.

“. . . Grian?”

Grian just stared.

The other hermits had caught onto their mini debacle, and were watching them. “Grian, do you know her?” Mumbo asked.

“Y-yeah, I do,” he stammered.

“Grian?” Pearl shouted, and in an instant had scrambled up the ditch. She stopped in front of him, face pale and eyes wide, like she’d seen a ghost. Maybe he was a ghost, maybe he’d died the day they took him from Evo.

“Pearl,” he whispered.

Suddenly she threw her arms around Grian in a hug and squeezed. “Oh, it’s been so long,” she said, voice muffled.

Grian froze, but slowly reciprocated the hug. He felt numb and like he wanted to cry and scream at the same time, hands shaking, but Pearl’s warm embrace drew him back down to reality.

Pearl pulled away, blinked tears from her eyes and met Grian’s stare. Then, her gaze drifted further down, landing on his folded wings that peaked out just above his shoulders. Tentatively, she reached out to stroke a feather. “What happened to you?” she asked softly.

“I thought you were dead,” Grian said by way of answer.

“Well, I’m not,” Pearl said, and for a moment Grian almost didn’t believe her, and grabbed her wrist tightly, just to see if it was real. Pearl let him. “They took you,” she said.

Grian just looked at the ground, uncomfortably aware of how many people were watching him. Ironic, almost--he didn’t want them watching him so that they wouldn’t know about the Watchers. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the hermits. He did. He’d trust them all with his life a thousand times. He just . . . didn’t want to explain. The hermits were a good bunch. The unspoken rule was that you didn’t ask about anyone’s past unless they spoke first, and Grian knew they’d abide by that for him as well. But he could do without the turned heads.

“Alright everyone!” Xisuma shouted suddenly, startling Grian. “Let’s go, let’s get to work, this season won’t start itself!” Slowly, the hermits began to disperse, branching off into groups. “How’re ya gonna start the season if you don't chop down a tree? I’ll get to work protecting these villagers.”

Xisuma threw a glance over to them, and Grian mouthed a thank you. Xisuma just nodded, and left them alone. Grian was overwhelmed with relief at the admin’s gesture.

He turned back to Pearl.

“I-I can’t believe you’re actually here,”Grian said. He smiled and the moment he met her gaze, his eyes began to blur with tears.

“I can’t believe you’re here!” she cried. “When we got back from fighting the enderdragon you . . . you were just gone. They left a note for us . . . said it was necessary for you to be taken. All in rhyme, of course.”

“Of course it was in rhyme . . .'' Grian muttered, suddenly very angry. All the Watchers and their unknowable ways, always distilled down to some pithy saying. A life-changing event relayed to his friends in another stupid little poem. He’d written a few himself and despised it.

“I didn’t think I was ever going to see you again. Do you . . . do you mind if I ask what happened?” Pearl asked. “I’m just happy to see you here but I-”

“No, it’s alright,” Grian said with a sigh. “They took me after I fought the enderdragon, and said I was going to be one of them. I didn’t want to go but-well what could I do? So I went with them, and they promised to let me hang around the server. They lied to me, they never let me Watch Evo.” Grian paused, and felt the cool trail of a tear dripping down his cheek. “They later told me you were all dead.”

“Oh, Grian,” Pearl said, and pulled him into another hug, and that was it for him. He began to sob.

“I’m sorry,” he choked out. “It’s just a lot-”

“I know, I know,” she whispered.

“They-they . . . I didn’t enjoy it there. So I, I ran away. I tried to visit Evo but--there was nobody there. I figured they told the truth then, that you really were dead. I ran and found the hermits and I’ve been living with them every since, and oh they’re so wonderful but I could never forget-”

“It’s okay.” Pearl comforted. “I know, I know. We came home after finding the dragon and our place was ransacked, and we were given instructions to leave. And . . . eventually after we left, the group disbanded and we went our separate ways. But, we’re all alive.”

“Really?” Grian asked.

“Yes.”

“Everyone?”

“Yes.”

“Can I- can I see them?” he whispered. It felt forbidden.

“Of course!” Pearl exclaimed. “I’ve kept in touch with everyone, I’m sure Xisuma could help you visit if you asked.”

“Xisuma . . .” Grian thought aloud. “I haven’t told him,” Grian admitted. The admin certainly knew something was up with Grian, because players didn’t normally randomly appear in worlds they weren’t supposed to, but he’d welcomed Grian with open arms to the server and never asked a single question.

“I’m sure he would understand.”

“He would, but Pearl, I don’t want to put anyone in danger! I’m not supposed to be here!” Grian hissed.

“So then don’t tell him everything. Just say you want to visit some people. He’ll understand, I know he will,” she replied. Grian pondered it for a moment. She was right--he could just ask to visit someone. Other hermits did it all the time. Maybe--maybe a few server hops wouldn’t cause a problem. Maybe this was something within his reach, after all this time. The thought exhilarated him.

“But please,” Pearl added. “Please tell someone else, not just me. How long have you been hiding?”

Too long.

Grian didn’t answer, and the two of them stood there and listened to the crash of the waves on the nearby shoreline. The air was hot and salty, and in the distance he could hear Xisuma opening and closing doors in the village.

He didn’t know what he felt, it was like too many emotions had happened in too short of a period of time and left him burned out like a forest after a wildfire. His hands had stopped trembling, but he felt deeply tired.

Happy. You feel happy.

Grian’s communicator chimed from within his pocket. He withdrew it.

GoodTimeWithScar > Grian: are you okay

Grian smiled, and typed a response.

Grian > GoodTimeWithScar: yes

“Who was that?” Pearl asked.

“Scar. He wanted to know if I was okay.”

“Are you?”

Grian met her eyes. “I am now.” It was close enough to the truth. Grian shifted his weight between his feet, suddenly restless and tired from trying to process all this new information. “Speaking of other hermits, we should get going, yeah? We can’t let them get all the resources without us!”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” she chuckled. The hermits had already spread out seeking resources, but not too far yet; Grian and Pearl could still see several of them talking to each other across the field.

“Pearl, before you go--” Grian started, looking serious. “Build next to me, alright? I...I want you to be around.”

“I promise,” she replied.

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“Why are you following me?” Grian knew why, but he wanted Mumbo to bring it up. He was torn--on one hand, he truly appreciated his friend’s concern. It was nice that others were looking out for him, a warm reminder of what their little community stood for. On the other hand . . . he’d really have just appreciated being left alone.

“You look like you have a purpose!” Mumbo exclaimed instead.

Huh.

Grian shook his head. “I’m just heading north,” he replied, shielding his eyes and looking up to see the position of the sun.

“I was just like, ‘Man, it looks like he knows where he’s going,’” Mumbo continued and Grian laughed.

They walked to the edge of the swamp, and began to cut down the trees. Starter tools were a necessity in a new world, and they had no stone.

“Ugh, I have to take down this whole tree, and then I have to replant it,” complained Mumbo.

“Wait-why have you got to replant it?” asked Grian incredulously, while getting wood for himself and not replanting the tree.

“Well I-I can’t just deforest things!”

This is going to be SO much fun to tease Mumbo with.

“Whatever you say, tree boy.”

They continued to work, getting wood, and then venturing into a shallow cave to get stone. The whole time their coms kept buzzing, buzzing, buzzing with combat death messages. Just another day in the hermitcraft world, thought Grian. Have they declared a spontaneous war up there? Either way, Pearl and Gem were getting the full introduction today, he thought with a chuckle.

Exiting the cave, they spotted a shipwreck not too far away, and decided to explore it. Grian pulled out a soggy buried treasure map, and they decided to go after it in a boat. Grian wanted to relax in the boat, to just breathe in the sea spray and try to calm his still-racing thoughts, but unfortunately Mumbo was the driver, and he was not a very good driver if you asked Grian. Grian had been tasked with navigation, which was a difficult thing when the driver couldn’t see the map you were describing.

The loot was good, and they divided it between themselves and then struck onward in the boat, this time with Grian commandeering the vessel. They looped back around to the shipwreck only to find a group of hermits that were a little too late to the prize. Pearl, Ren, and Doc were gathered around the boat looking a bit disappointed.

Mumbo and Grian decided to taunt them.

“Who got the loot?” shouted Ren.

“We got the loot!” Grian shouted back.

“Oh it was you guys,” said Pearl. Grian stuck his tongue out at her and cackled.

They looped back around to show off the Heart of the Sea, but Mumbo dropped their only diamond by accident and that was when Grian decided to steer the boat away before they lost any more valuables.

“I can’t believe you dropped the diamond,” Grian sighed.

“I was flexing too hard, I’m sorry!” cried Mumbo.

It was too comical, and Grian couldn’t be mad at his friend. They rowed on, closely following the coastline. After a few minutes, however, Mumbo asked a question.

“The new hermit, who we just saw with Doc and Ren--Pearl--is it. . . is it okay if I ask how you know her?” Mumbo spoke gently, knowing he was treading around a potentially sensitive topic. Grian knew the topic would have come up eventually, after he’d basically had a breakdown in public when he saw her.

Grian stopped the boat, and looked into the water, not at Mumbo’s face. “Yeah, I figured you’d ask. We used to be on a world together. The . . . the world I was at before I came here, actually.” It wasn’t the full truth, since he’d been to many worlds as a Watcher and had lived on the Watchers’ world for a while. But Evo had been his last home.

“Oh,” said Mumbo.

“We were friends,” continued Grian. “We were close. But I was told she was dead. Clearly, though,” he just simply gestured instead of finishing the sentence.

“Clearly she’s not dead,” Mumbo finished. “I see. Who told you she was dead?”

“Someone who didn’t have my best interests at heart.” Grian had never fully told his friend about what had happened before he joined hermitcraft, but the other man knew that it was a difficult past and had comforted him on more than one occasion--mostly after he’d first joined and the pain was still fresh. It had dulled with time and Grian had become more and more adjusted to his new life.

Seeing Pearl again was a miracle, but it sure sharpened the pain.

Grian rested his elbows on the side of the boat and pressed the heels of his palm into his eyes. “It wasn’t just her, either, they told me everyone on the server was dead. And-they’re all alive. All of them. It’s fantastic news, brilliant news, I’m just-”

“Thinking of the people who didn’t have your best interests at heart?”

“Yeah.”

Mumbo laid a hand on Grian’s shoulder. “I don’t know who they are,” he began, “but I know they’re not here now. You have us now, and you have Pearl here too. That all is in the past.”

Grian stared out over the water, watching as the sunlight sparkled and danced over the waves. “You’re a good friend, you know that right?”

“Well, I do try to be,” Mumbo chuckled. “Now-I think we should probably go pick up Scar over there, I think the poor man is going to drown!”

“Oh no!” Grian said, and scrambled for the oars, and then they were off.

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When Grian, Impulse, Scar, and Mumbo created the Boatem Pole, Pearl was there to join them.

When Grian woke up in his makeshift camp the next morning, he was happy to see Pearl setting up her own starter base on the other side of the Boatem Pole.

When Grian showed up at Xisuma’s base two days later, he asked for permission to visit other servers.

#hermitcraft #hermitblr #grian #pearlescentmoon #hermitcraft fanfic #mumbo jumbo #hermitcraft season 8 #quara fanfic

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lunzoic · 2 years ago

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Review of Scarlet/Violet so far (NO SPOILERS for the story or specific new mons, just general gameplay)

The Pokemon: I'm hella biased as someone who basically loves all monster designs and little guysTM, but I've genuinely liked every new Pokemon encountered. Some really knock it out of the park in terms of overall design and concept. Some I didn't like when I saw them in a still image, but really grew on me when I actually caught and used them in-game. I'm surprised by the number of animations some Pokemon have for attacking, moving around, and interacting with things, which is small but really makes the whole world feel more alive. Also makes it more understandable why 'just importing' every Pokemon in existence is not that simple (I'm bitter to admit). I'm spoiled as to the general look of most new mons, but encountering them in-game and getting to see them in action is really on another level this gen. I have... so many surprise new precious babies...

The core gameplay loop: still great. Exploring and finding a new area or hidden cave or TM or rare Pokemon while traversing a bunch of varied environments is really exciting. Suffers a little bit from same-ness in spawns if you go to every nook and cranny, like there's some areas that don't have many unique Pokemon to encounter. On the other hand, it can make hunting for a particular Pokemon more fun since you may have a bunch of different locations to choose from. I'm enjoying the methods you can use to boost spawns and the visible scale differences for unusually tiny or large Pokemon (but WHY is size not a innately part of a Pokemon's summary... you just have to guess until you go and ask one specific NPC, afaik). The challenge of fighting trainers and gyms has is about as easy as it was in SwSh (if you stay to the recommended quest order), which is to say it's not challenging at all. Actual battles with NPCs seem to take on a much smaller role so far compared to the appeal of just exploring and catching wild Pokemon, which I don't mind at all but some players might miss the thrill of running into a really tough random trainer or a particularly fiendish gym leader (there have been some non-gym boss battles that were definitely pretty tough, however, and I expect some of the later story battles will give a bigger challenge).

I haven't had any bugs that actually affected gameplay in any way, although having the fore-knowledge that this is Pokemon Skyrim edition has made me cautious in avoiding things that I think might result in glitchy behavior. Restarting every few hours seems to avoid significant memory leak stutter, and the only immersion breaking graphics I've seen are the stop-motion movement on distant characters and the shadows randomly deciding to turn on or off depending on camera angle (which I've actually found very handy when getting pictures from all sorts of angles, but uh, probably not an intended feature?).

Wilderness landscape textures and meshes: no getting around the fact that there is a lot of ugly here. Cliffs and stony areas are a travesty in terms of repeating patterns and looking like play-doh in the distance. I also noticed something I haven't seen since playing janky user-made level in Spore, where in some spots the mesh also appears squishy like play-doh and warps up and down depending on how close you are (I don't know enough about 3D rendering to know exactly why that happens, but it's definitely a phenomenon that seems to occur in unpolished and 'underbaked' level meshes, or out of bounds areas no player is supposed to see). It... really brings in to question if there was a reluctance to hire more 3D map artists? I get staying loyal to a core dev team and wanting to reduce potential for leaks, but even just external devs/consultants who work solely on non-Pokemon related lighting engines, environmental textures, meshes, etc.?? Maybe they did actually do that but it just doesn't show in the final product, because even a whole team of talented people would create 'underbaked' maps if forced to rush. Unpolished textures and rendering are not that impactful on actual gameplay, the whole concept of the entire game being one massive wild area & open world was insanely ambitious and I'm not surprised to see mixed results, but it is still really jarring to see how unfinished a lot of the wild areas of the game look.

Town design, environmental props, etc: Props and non-wild areas honestly feel on par with X&Y so far with with just a higher resolution and more intricate level design. I maintain that that X&Y had such a fantastic look and art direction, especially for its time and the limitations of the 3DS, that similar graphics & aesthetic still feel serviceable even now when playing on mobile, but it's a little sad that the 9 year later successor doesn't blow X&Y out of the water. That being said, it is really fun jumping off buildings and around rooftops in town with your living bicycle (if you keep in mind finicky collision on edges), all the towns are really beautiful to look at (if kind of devoid of actual gameplay things to do besides the gym), and the seamless transition from most towns to wilderness is really lovely (but I do wonder what serious optimization costs/design considerations that decision came with). Now, NPCs within towns... are basically non-entities, sometimes literally due to pop-in and phasing while walking around. The random NPCs were never a big draw for Pokemon, usually just a chore to find out which ones give you important items/quests, but I've found so few NPCs who say anything more than 3 words that I'm actually starting to miss walking into a house and someone's grandpa regales me about how much he loves looking out at the sea with his Pokemon... and that was the entire point of that house. I guess it is kind of antiquated game design to add flavor in this way and far more labor intensive to create interiors than it was in previous games, but it is something quintessentially old school RPG (which I'd argue Pokemon still is!) that is now almost entirely missing. Named NPCs do have a hell of a lot to say, on the other hand...

Main Story and Characters: I have the least to say here because I haven't gotten too far, but it does seem promising? The whole school thing is kinda weird, I don't think this game was promoted as being academy-core, but good for the people who are into that I guess? The actual characters have been great so far, I don't play Pokemon for the human character designs but the devs clearly know that a lot of people do... The story NPCs have definitely had a lot of love and care put in to their looks and personalities, even though not many have really stood out narrative-wise so far. I have heard good things about where the story goes, and I'm especially interested in the sandwich questline (can't believe I'm saying that but it's true).

Difficulty: Definitely pretty bad so far. Making the exploration so compelling was really a double-edged sword for me here, it is way too easy to get distracted from whatever you're supposed to be doing and wander into an area that will crush you. I figured out the rule of thumb that if you get a zone transition and there is no recommended quest in that area, get the hell out. But it's difficult to keep track of which quests you are even supposed to do next. And if you do explore a lot within the recommended quest areas first, you can easily get overleveled for that set of quests and make them a cakewalk. OTOH, this definitely makes it the easiest Pokemon game ever to have a team composition of way more than 6 mons and rotate them, since powering up newly caught underleveled Pokemon is very easy with the exp share and exp candies. Autobattling makes grinding very easy too, if you gotta do it, and rare candies are actually fairly common scattered across the landscape. I've been using rotating teams to play through Pokemon games since X&Y, so I welcome the ability to use as many Pokemon as possible throughout the main storyline. As for accidentally getting to areas you are underleveled for... there's really no excusing the lack of signposting for what level the enemies in a given area are. Since you can avoid both wild encounters and trainers fairly easily, there's nothing stopping players from getting to a new zone and making a beeline for the boss without even realizing they have no way to beat it. Even just displaying level on nearby wild Pokemon and putting slightly stronger spawns in the area leading up to a tougher zones would do a hell of a lot, and is something that any RPG with freedom of exploration would do. It really reeks of lack of play-testing. Pokemon games have not always been great in terms of having what feels like a well-tested difficulty curve, but making every time the average player strolls into a new zone feel like a sequence break really takes the cake. I do wonder how well actual kids are going to be able to get through this game?? I know that every Pokemon Center has the 'where to go next' option that gives you a waypoint too, but kids are absolutely not going to remember that as an option (and a lot of adults aren't either. I'm also not sure how useful it actually is, given it's already recommended I go to the 4th gym when I haven't done the 3rd gym yet? I had to look at a guide to even know that I haven't done the 3rd gym though). On the OTHER other hand, it is kinda interesting to be able to get to lvl 40+ areas right off the bat without any exploits at all? Not good game design, not fun for a lot of players, but could make for some insane challenges. People finding routes for 100% speedruns and the like might be crazy entertaining.

#Pokemon #Pokemon scarlet and violet #lunzplays #Pokemon review

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glassamphibians · 4 years ago

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what's your giant bucket list for the potential nico book? like plot, backstories, tropes, all that good stuff. also becky riordan said that people have to read house of hades if "rick does a nico book in the future"

this is kind of all over the place and very long so uhh sorry in advance

omg yeah wait ur right becky did say the house of hades thing. it scares me bc i don’t know if she was just being like “you find out nico’s gay in this one and that bob still exists so uhh thats important i guess now buy my husband’s book 🔪🔪” and it doesn’t actually mean anything, or if it means something huge like “remember eros? yeah nico kills him in the solo book >:)” she could have meant anything im and terrified.

what i do know is that i want both nico and will narrating in first person pov. i’ve talked about why i want both of them here. normally i dislike first person pov’s in books but riordan is a weird anomaly where his first person narration is actually better than his third person narration? like, if you pulled random pieces of text from percy, apollo, and carter’s povs, i would be able to tell who was narrating bc they all have very distinct voices. in heroes of olympus the only pov that felt distinct was leo and thats one out of nine characters :/ nico and will both have really interesting personalities and i want to have that come through in the narration.

for the plot all i know is that i dont want it to be going to tartarus to save bob, thats too straightforward and honestly its kind of a cheap move. i think the whole bob thing should just be the hook and then as the story progresses we realize its something else entirely.

maybe its someone else trying to get rid of nico bc they view him as a threat, maybe its related to the pantheon meeting chiron was at, idk!! but theres a lot going on and i think this is bigger than bob

like, remember when luke gave percy the cursed shoes? i think it could be like that. imagine them getting so close, being just about to dive into tartarus, and then realizing they were tricked and that something bigger is happening. then the real plot picks up.

bc on a more thematic level what i really want this book to be about is a continuation of toa’s “breaking abusive cycles” theme. it should be about nico putting his past behind him instead of falling back into it.

then once the real plot starts i think it should be formatted like the pjo quests!! a big fun cross country road trip where you get almost killed, make some friends, make some enemies, and all in all have a horrible great time!!

im gonna trash on heroes of olympus one more time im so sorry. Son of Neptune is the strongest book in that series and what does it have? the cross country quest format!! once we expanded into moa and they were just on a fancy boat for the rest of the series it stopped being fun. literally like look at blood of olympus. no one cares about what the fancy boat people did in that book. what we did care about was the three person quest where they had no clue what was going on and had to make hedge do interpretive dance so that they could pay for breakfast.

so yeah i think for it both to be a strong stand alone as well as fit into the rest of the rrverse it needs to have that “some goddess just showed up and told us to go to kentucky but did not tell us how to get to kentucky. will won’t let me shadow travel so now we’re on a bus. the stranger sitting next to me fell asleep on my shoulder and i dont want to be rude and move them. why does god hate me.” kinda vibe.

the cross country think is also great bc that mean’s we’d get to see all our old friends!! maybe they stop at the waystation and see reyna & the hunt!! maybe they end up in texas and see will’s mom!! maybe they end up in california see hazel & everyone else over there!! maybe they go to paris and visit rachel!!!

the trogs must be involved. idk how but they must play a major role. maybe screech-bling is the third person in their quest and they can wear hats the whole time.

i really, really want will to finally get cannon complexity. he has a such strong foundation as a character and i’m still upset we didn’t get much real depth added to it during tower of nero. i feel like each book Rick gives us ten Will related puzzle pieces and leaves us to make the rest of them ourselves?? just make the whole puzzle rick it is literally your job.

the idea of Will, someone who has been a background character for 15 books suddenly being pushed into the protagonist position is such an interesting concept that i would love to see explored in the solo book. i think that contrast him and nico, who has been a Big Deal since before will was even born, would be really fun to read.

also i want him to snap. stop being composed will go apeshit!!! throw a scalpel at someone with your amazing apollo aim!! have plague powers and kill some people!! no one is gonna tell on you Will we all want this

going back to nico, he has no idea who he is rn. i mean seriously he’s never had a home like this, he’s never had people who care about him like this, he’s never been safe. remember what percy said in house of hades?

percy’s talking about how he personally doesn’t know nico, but i think it could be applied to this situation too. he’s changed so much in the past like 15 books and i want to see nico figuring out who he is now that his life isn’t being dominated by pain and sadness. i want to see who nico becomes now that he’s finally able to take up hobbies and just be a teenager!! he know’s who he is as a son of hades, as one of the most powerful demigods alive, but he still has to figure out who he is as a person.

so maybe we get to see what cabin 13 looks like now that he’s changed it!! maybe we get to see what his favorite modern movies & musicians are!! maybe we get to see jules albert finally driving nico and his friends to the mall like hades had intended :)

the should summon jason’s ghost at least once

hades should also properly apologize for threatening to kill him that one time lol

i want hazel, reyna, and rachel to play a major role and if i they don’t i’ll steal riordan’s dog.

is this too long? it feels like its too long even tho i have no clue what i said uhh anyway i hope you had fun reading this love you all xoxo

#i don't think a single part of this post was grammatically correct #nico di angelo #will solace #ton spoilers #is it still appropriate to put spoiler warnings on a book thats been out for six months?#rrverse #nico solo book #asks

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bri-notthecheese · 3 years ago

Text

my thoughts on Iki Island:

(spoilers under the cut)

I really loved this DLC! I had nothing but high hopes for this after playing the base game last year (and three more times after that), and Sucker Punch didn’t disappoint. The whole time playing it I felt like it was only adding to my love of the characters and the stories they set up in the base game, and then all the new quests and mechanics added a lot of fresh fun on top of that!

So where to even begin.

The opening scene was super cool and a neat way to introduce the new shaman enemies. And despite Yuna only actually being in one scene, it was a delight to see her again. Though since I’m playing the DLC after finishing everything, I don't love the continuity of Yuna not accompanying him, but gameplay wise I knew that wasn’t going to happen anyway, but I just love when she’s with us <3

Went for my horse straight away and I was THRILLED to see that Kaze can now kill enemies and the new charge mechanic was way more fun than I was expecting and I was having too much fun with that. After Nobu, I didn’t expect to get attached the Kaze all that much (even if he continued on into a later game) but I was quickly proved wrong with this because I now kind of separate Nobu as the more gentler of the two, that was always there for me, and while Kaze is too, I like imagining Kaze is a lot younger and his aggressive personality in this really sold that and I like that it probably eases Jin’s worries a bit to see his new horse being able to fend off attacks a bit better. Plus, with his new armor, he’s even safer <3 Really fell more in love with Kaze in this, which I didn’t expect.

Met The Eagle next and had that whole encounter. I love how right away if you pay attention, you know Yuna isn’t Yuna because she’s never once addressed Jin as ‘my lord.’ I think the only time she said it was when she was talking to both him and Shimura at the lighthouse, and it wasn’t because she wanted to. But still, even knowing something was wrong, it’s cute that Jin’s mind went to her as a safe place who he’d have no problem entrusting stories and secrets to, which was obviously the Eagle’s goal. And hearing her voice warp into the Eagle’s was creepyyyy and so good <3 (my Yuna loving ass was sad to realize that was most likely the last time we’d see her, but that’s okay) That next part of the hallucination really got you feeling for Jin, and I couldn’t help but be frustrated that he’s only a child, how was he supposed to help?!?!?

So I ignored Tenzo’s next mission and explored and pretty much completed the entire island. I got jump scared WAY too many times by her taunts, but I loved how that just added to the direness of the situation. I was obsessed with finding all the hallucinations and it just kept breaking my heart how Jin has all of this pent up guilt/heartache--with Ryuzo (he had so many I found), his father, his uncle, the Khan, Nobu :(, Masako, etc. I honestly had expected to find one regarding Taka and I’m a bit sad that I didn’t. Add those to the memories of his father and the ever-present taunting, I was going through it with Jin <3 At least you can pet the animals for him <3 The little smile he’d get every time was worth it. And the flute playing mechanic was really neat!

The first memory I got was their chat before Kazumasa’s death and honestly that got me all teary because Jin wanted so badly to hear him say he accepted him as his son, but deep down, would he have felt it? And my heart just breaks so much for Jin because as I kept going through the memories, I kept thinking how well 1) his dad sucks, but 2) both father figures kept wanting Jin to be somebody else. And it hurts that he was closer to Shimura’s way of thinking and how we even see that one time that Shimura corrects Jin, that his recitation of what honor means were his father’s words, and gets Jin to say that kindness is what honor means to him and wow. <3 <3 <3 But it hurts knowing their fate too <3 That while Shimura was more of a father to Jin than Kazumasa was, eventually, he couldn’t accept what Jin was doing in their way. Though it does hurt and make you wonder if Shimura was frightened that Jin was turning into his dad...I had that thought many times. (I loved seeing Adachi so much though omg <3 <3 <3) It was very interesting how the song Jin ends up playing for his father at the end of the memories is the ‘Jin Sakai’ theme. And then how that in turn, morphs into ‘The Way of the Ghost’ later on when in the final battle.

It hurts that Jin had Chiyoko in his life for such a short time. I’m glad he did have Yuriko at least, but all of Jin’s memories on his mother and how she emphasized just living was so prominent, and her love of animals clearly passed to him and that gentleness too. And of instruments. Such softness, and I love that he retains that even as an adult. It makes sense that he doesn’t speak of his mother as often since he has far less experiences with her vs Kazumasa or Shimura, but it was nice to see her influence within him.

Did this quest near the end of my exploration but I got the BIGGEST smile on my fave when I barged in the house to find the Ghost of Iki Island was Kenji <3 <3 <3 I love this dumbass so much and it was so nice to see a familiar face <3 Plus it let Jin have an actual full laugh when Kenji referred to them both as ‘tough guys’ XD His quests are always enjoyable for me and so I really loved that (though I was also Jin when he’s like “...you didn’t say goodbye.”) but I was happy to see him do the right thing at the end <3 THEN I got to duel the Viper because I diffused the situation instead and that was fun. Love that Jin explains his knowledge of negotiation was learned from all the years with Shimura <3 Also enjoyed spotting Kenji later in the Refuge XD

Really enjoyed all the side quests overall, loved all the animal sanctuaries, and the archery was a TON of fun! Getting the horse armor was neat, seeing Jin actively stop a Mythic retelling, though I was surprised there was no duel for that one. The one for the monkey armor was so creepy, following the lights in the cave, but so damn cinematic and that fight was incredible plus that amor is my new best friend. Seriously omg, the duels in this DLC felt so much beefier than the base game (I was playing on hard so that could be a reason, but the fights didn’t feel this tanky in the base) But that armor just made them a piece of cake if you’re good at perfect parries and perfect dodges <3 <3

Loved the banter and camaraderie between Jin and Tenzo throughout. And I really enjoyed Fune’s character as well! Did the next few story missions and I couldn’t help that sense of foreboding slipping in as I was getting more attached to these characters. Love that they had Kidafure Battlefield on the map but it isn’t till the mission that they tack on the ‘Village’, really hitting home what happened there.

Maybe I should have been, but I did not see the twist with Tenzo coming at ALL! I physically gasped when he spoke the “May your death benefit all things” to that random Mongol and I was soooo tense, like Jin listen I know he was your dad but also Tenzo spared you. Which I love in the long run how he spared the Butcher’s child only to save him later in life, and Jin could save him and the island in return <3 Because ohhhhhh boy did I get emotional when Jin stopped the Eagle from landing that blow.

But before that, HER FIGHT IS SO FUCKING COOOOOL!!!!!! SHE IS SO DAMN FAST AND SHE EASILY WIPED THE FLOOR WITH ME THE FIRST TWO TIMES. I also love her references to Khotan and that her moveset with the spear shares some similarities with him. I tried once more in my Ghost armor (for fashion) and then I switched to the Sarugami armor and was flying through just to have that whole cutscene.

I know culture is different and obviously I can never understand that mindset, but to hear him say to Jin that they both should have died there broke my heart. What kind of a father wants his son’s death with him like that?!?!?!?! But I LOOOOOOVED ‘Honor and Ash’ playing in the background for that scene, as Jin is rejecting what his father may have thought/wanted (just like he did to Shimura with that track at the end of Act 2) and then it moved up a key just to reinforce that Jin is forgiving himself for this and letting go and again, forging his own path just as he did with his uncle. I loved that they used that piece for that pivotal moment...

...JUST TO KICK IT INTO AN EVEN HIGHER GEAR WITH JIN SAVING TENZO AND THE GHOST THEME BLARING IN WITH A KEY CHANGE TO THEN TRIUMPHANTLY FINISH OFF THE EAGLE!!!!! I WAS SO HYPED (and also hoping I wouldn’t die cuz how anti climactic would that have been?!?) but I didn’t and I really enjoyed the resolution between those two. I bowed to him after he bowed to me and I love that they even added dialogue for that if players do decide to do that <3 <3 <3

The next quest with Fune was sweet, though it felt a little odd to do after defeating the Eagle, but it was sweet nonetheless. I have to finish up some trophy stuff, I guess there’s unseen quests that I’m sure I’ve done a few of, but I have to figure out what I missed. The dueling ring was fun, though that lady was the most difficult for me.

A few things of note:

-I like that in this DLC, you really can’t tell if it’s better to kill or spare Shimura. And how there are lines that could mean slightly different things to Jin depending on what he’s done. I’ve done both and I was on a file where he spared him, but besides a hallucination mentioning the Ghost being hunted for the rest of his days, nothing else pointed to one choice or the other.

-Though a line Jin said to Sugi threw me a bit when he said something along the lines of ‘you’ll never understand how hard it is to kill your family’ and maybe he was referencing his guilt for his father, but I’m like ?????? who else did you kill Jin??? Shimura is fine in this play through XD

-Talking with her though, I like that Jin described himself as ‘someone who knows what it’s like to be hunted’ :((((((

-Tenzo also made reference to a friend of his being beheaded, but not finding the head till a week later, and asking Jin if he understands that and while the situation is different, I bet Jin’s mind went to Taka :(

-Loved the subtle storytelling elements with Jin falling into his nightmares during the fight through the Gorge and his resolve disappears each time. The second time it happened, I verbally went “oh my resolve.....oh.”

-I do think Sucker Punch made a lil mistake though because I started thinking about how in Tale 8 of Masako’s quests, I’m almost certain she mentions Jin not understanding her need for revenge or something along those lines, and she talks about Shimura hunting down Kazamasu’s killer for weeks and how Jin had his closure. But uhhhhhh obviously his killer was never found? Or they killed the wrong one? And they didn’t mention it was on Iki Island and obviously didn’t have that foresight that they’d be doing this DLC since he was killed in the snow in the base game and now it was under a wisteria tree, but besides that small thing, I had no complaints! except for always wanting more Yuna

It was so great and I felt it really complemented the base game, especially in regards to everything that Jin feels guilty and responsible for, but also puts his relationship with Shimura is so many new lights that I loooove and I need to talk about more!!! If you read this far, feel free to hmu to chat about it because my best friend who played the base game at the same time I did and screamed with me about it has not played this yet and ahhhhh!!!!!!

#ghost of tsushima #iki island #iki island spoilers #my thoughts #enjoy my ramblings before i sleep

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