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

helly-watermelonsmellinfellon · 4 months ago

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Trying to predict the theme of Snezhnaya's Archon Quest based on established triplet themes each Archon Quest started.

The AQ of each nation introduces a particular theme that goes on to repeat itself in the following 2 nations and then ends. Here, I am going to attempt to map them out to give people some food for thought.

I have actually put a lot of thought into this and this took me time to reason out.

Mondstadt:

Theme: Giving up the position of Archon willingly.

Venti wasn't really present ever since the Archon War ended. He has made it clear that he does not have positive opinions of Celestia and is not exactly interested in the idea of being a god or an Archon. He terraformed the land to remove all the ice and snow, taught the people a few lessons to help them better navigate the new life they were about to lead, and then literally went to sleep and only reappeared when they were in dire need of his help.

And his specific approach only works in his nation because of their incredibly unique history. As such, the people still adore him and respect him, and they worship him without hesitation. They've convinced themselves that he was always there even when he wasn't seen for centuries. The visible and audible winds are very important to his people. Wind chimes, windmills, dandelions, and windwheel asters are all proof of visible and audible winds and are proof to them that he is in every breeze and that he's always listening, and if he doesn't step in personally to help them with their woes, then that must mean that he believes they have what it takes to handle it themselves.

Venti has always been for the protection of his people and doing his dead friend justice. That does not necessarily mean he wants to be a leader or be a god or be subservient to the Divine.

When his Gnosis was taken, he honestly didn't seem to care at all. And it was because he had mentally checked out of the role that the heavens forced upon him a long time ago.

And when we go on to the next Archon Quest- well guess what? Zhongli is giving up his gnosis willingly.

1.) He is kind of tired. 2.) He's realized that he's become a bit obsolete in the future his people are moving toward. 3.) He's worried he's going to become corrupted by erosion at some point and having that much power at his disposal would be very bad for Liyue. He doesn't want another Azhdaha situation.

He is still there and he is still willing to step forward and help if it seems like somebody actually needs him such as when he saved Xiao in The Chasm, but he's not really beholden to the heavens anymore.

And then we go to Inazuma right after this and we find out that Ei gave the Electro Gnosis to Yae Miko instantly. The only reason that she became her country's Archon was because nobody knew that there were twin gods ruling them. And despite equally sharing the duties, only Makoto actually held the Gnosis. As such, Ei returned from Khaenri'ah with the Gnosis and subsequently washed her hands of Celestia in the process, per Yae Miko's words.

This mindset of divorcing oneself from the title of Archon and what it represents and how it's bestowed upon gods ends pretty much there in the story.

Liyue:

Theme: Fatui are the main cause of the problems.

The big disaster that happens is because of the Fatui and 2 Harbingers connected to the drama. In Liyue we get Childe with Signora working behind the scenes. Liyue is almost drowned because of Childe. And everything was done because they're trying to get the Geo Gnosis.

Move on to the next nation and the Vision Hunt Decree was literally a Fatui operation. And 2 of the commissions were in cahoots over it, which is what led to the taxes no Ritou increasing so much and then changing to a random substance that the Fatui were using secretly to create their Delusions. And we also eventually learn that many of the tragic things that happened in Inazuma's relatively recent history were caused by Harbingers. Tatarasuna with Dottore and Raiden Gokaden with Scaramouche.

And then we move on to Sumeru and oh, look at that, 2 more Fatui Harbingers at the cause of this whole mess. Dottore and Scaramouche.

But after Sumeru that completely ends the trend of the Fatui being the problem in the nation.

Because there were 2 Harbingers in Fontaine, but they were not the enemy, and were not the cause of the disaster or any of the problems people were having.

Inazuma:

Theme: Duality in the Archon.

Specifically related to each other. Not someone taking on the appearance of another person, but somebody whose own appearance matches this other person because they are either blood related twins, an incarnation of the one, or the same person split in half.

The current Archon looks like the one who came before them because they are either that person, an offshoot of that person, or related to that person. For a moment it had indeed seemed like this was going to be a thread they were going to continue in Natlan when we saw the statue in the Archon Quest for the first time(as Kachina said it 'looked similar' but must be a coincidence), but it turns out that the statue is in fact just Mavuika. She was not related to the former Archon, or an offshoot of them, and the reason is because her country produces only human Archons, and they age and die. She was born over 500 years prior to the game's start and killed herself so that she could be reborn in the future to potentially save her country with a wack ass plan. The reason the statue looked like her was because most likely, they reused the topper from the past.

(I maintain that the stone at the bottom of the statue which has the blue crystal in it, is completely different than the stone where the actual person is carved in. This is because I noticed that the bases of the statues where the actual carving is, conveniently does not make contact with the rest of the statue. It doesn't touch the gold parts and the body of the god itself does not touch the base part of the statue. Also, I tried to use Xilonen in her skill form to sit in Mavuika's lap to see how long it could last before Nightsoul's Blessing ended, and the top half of the statue does not have the crystal and therefore does not have the ability to restore Phlogiston. The little fire pits around Natlan, Teleport Waypoints, and the bottom halves of the statues can all restore Phlogiston, but the top half where the god actually sits, doesn't.)

Sumeru:

Theme: Advanced technology.

Sumeru City had the internet and Bluetooth. King Deshret's civilization had holographic technology and automatons.

Fontaine had automatons, speed boats, sky ships, etc. And this was specifically because their researchers scoured the desert ruins and Kharnri'ah ruins and took remnants of those ruins back home and tried to replicate them.

Natlan is built upon the remains of a dragon civilization that is even older than King Deshret's and they had automatons and spaceships back then. Very few have had the time to try and make use of this ancient technology that's able to reach the stars and beyond, because they were facing a national crisis for basically all of their known history, but there were still a few here and there who were trying to use the ancient technology to create new things. Such as a guy making a jet pack because he wasn't able to fly with the dinosaurs, and a woman making a motorcycle based on elaborate designs the commissioner stole from the dragon ruins.

Sumeru was the first time we truly saw advanced tech that wasn't a lumbering robot loosely shaped like an animal.

Now, we haven't been to to Snezhnaya yet so I can't say if they're also advanced seeing as they probably stole from Khaenri'ah as well considering how many Khaenri'ahns are Fatui Harbingers, but we'll see.

Fontaine:

Theme(s): And this is where we reach inconclusive evidence.

2 things were introduced in Fontaine that have followed through in Natlan. Because we don't know enough about Snezhnaya, we can't really draw conclusions yet.

1.) The Fatui is not the problem. For the main plot of the AQ, the Fatui and the Harbingers are not actually the problem, are not behind the problem, and actually help to solve the problem. Out of a genuine desire to help. In Fontaine and Natlan, the Fatui are not a threat to the nation and its main goal.

2.) A human having to take on the position of a god and a leader, and become an Archon, and have to deal with 500 years of mental suffering for the sake of a plan that they don't even have full faith in succeeding. It is heavily implied in the animated shorts that Mavuika basically had to trudge onward for five centuries and never lose sight of her goal because she could have become lost. All in the hope that this cracked plan she came up with could actually come to fruition, she had to trust that every Pyro Archon after her would do their nation justice so that by the time she was actually reborn, things would be ready.

Both of these themes actually started in Fontaine. And they then followed through in Natlan. I'm very curious to see if either ends up as a prevalent thing in Snezhnaya.

Natlan

Potential Theme: Secret Power native to this land and can only be used by the people here.

Phlogiston. We all know why that's a Natlan-only thing. It involves dragons and such.

However, we'll be going to Nod-Krai in the near future and Mavuika told us they have a strange power the predates elemental energy. We haven't heard of this until now, so it must be unique to this region only, and Nod-Krai is part of Snezhnaya.

Potential Theme: The Abyss is manifesting on the surface and infecting the world.

Never before in Genshin have we had to deal with the Abyss the way we did in Natlan. Portals just opening up and monsters mimicking living beings popping out constantly. Abyssal Pylons. Things basically not solely made by Rhinedottir. The Abyss absorbing the memories of the people/creatures/nation so it can replicate and replace them is freaky. It recreated the Pyro Dragon Sovereign and its abilities and was using the voices of the various Pyro Archons to try and fuck with us.

It would be cool if this kind of thing continues in the following Archon Quests.

This particular theory holds more weight because Childe specifically went off on his own at 14 and fell into the Abyss. This would have to mean that either a portal or a fissure opened up somewhere in Snezhnaya and that's how he fell in. He even admitted that after getting out, he tried to find his way back to see Skirk again only for the place he fell in to no longer have the means to take him to the Abyss.

Potential Theme: Names having abnormal power.

It is reiterated over and over the power of names, but even then, the Simulanka Quest before Natlan heavily involved names and how fates and names are connected to foreshadow Natlan. This made us have to think back on Wanderer letting the Traveler choose a new name for him. It also brought to mind how Ei would not name her prototype because she did not believe she should have that kind of power over his fate(we know this between her voice lines and Wanderer's voice lines).

Ancient Names are vital to Natlan's history and traditions.

We know the Traveler hasn't told anyone their actual name since they were all bummed over the fact that no one calls them by name(said to their sibling in Bedtime Story).

It'd be interesting if the names thing comes up again in a new and unique way in Snezhnaya.

#Genshin Impact #Genshin Theory #Snezhnaya #Natlan

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katyspersonal · 1 year 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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foxingpeculiar · 2 years 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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xroggensaux · 16 days ago

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Me: No, I love to share my neck with you <3

Instead of finishing my 3rd run with my favourite main character, I'm doing a 4th run with only me and Astarion lol (except for the companion quests of the others, and maybe some boss battles if they turn out to be too hard).

Our Act I shenanigans under the cut ^^

This well, that will have irresistibly delicious seeming water if the illusion of the Sunlit Wetlands is still in place ^^;

Since Astarion is putting his life on the line helping me help my Tiefling kin, I thought maybe it would be fair if I help him kill Gandrel, the monster hunter who is after him. I've never killed him on previous runs, and I feel quite bad about it, because it will turn out that it's not at all Cazador who's ordered Gandrel to hunt him, like Astarion thinks. The events in Act III will show that it's the Gur themselves who wanted to capture Astarion - in order to find out where their children are, since in the past, Astarion kidnapped them and brought them to Cazador. But of course we can't know that now in Act I. And it seems Gandrel severely underestimated Astarion's compassion and willingness to listen. I guess by attacking him, we didn't exactly prove the opposite point, either! The Gur were probably going to try and torture the information out of Astarion and then kill him. (Iirc in Act III Ulma confirms this.) But then again, I know we are capable enough to stop them if they would ever actually try that. ^^ There aren't any dialogue options at this point (afaik!) where you could speak to Gandrel and convince him that Astarion isn't the monster he thinks he is. So the best option is to just leave, and be okay with it that it will piss Astarion off lol ... And then Gandrel will be a friendly ally in Act III. (You get a big +10 approval with Astarion if you kill Gandrel, and -5 if you don't, but tbh it's not worth it, Gandrel doesn't deserve it, and you can easily make up for it with so many other things ^^)

Anyways, the fight turned out a bit tragicomic, because Astarion could not land a single hit on Gandrel T^T But Gandrel of course focused all his attacks on Astarion, and got critical hits on him and successfully ensnared him many times. I did 100% of the damage on Gandrel lmao ... I'd forgotten to turn non-lethal damage off, so at least Astarion got to do the honours and finish Gandrel off when he was already knocked out ... (Probably this was because Gandrel has that magic crossbow that makes creatures like vampire spawn have disadvantage in their attacks against him!)

Ooh, you can jump into the Emerald Grove from those pillars near the beach with the harpies! If you're a Tiefling and can jump very far already, and then also have Elixir of Hill Giant strength and Potion of Glorious Vaulting in you ^^

Imagine if you could jump this far in real life xD

I'm going through the cheat sheets of what actions the companions approve of, to find fun stuff that I've never done before. One random thing Astarion approves of is if you recruit the ogres in the old school house, and then when you dismiss them again, let Lump the Enlightened at least have a lick, since he'd love to eat us but sadly is not allowed. </3 (Tbh it's a bit rude that my character acts like she hates it ... :/)

(We successfully duoed Minthara and Dror Ragzlin on level 4 together with invincible Scratch, and then called in the ogres to help us with Priestess Gut's hall. Halsin stayed in the worg pit where he belongs lol. We leveled up to 5 during the Gut battle, and duo+Scratched the courtyard successfully. Scratch being invincible of course helps a lot, because he will draw attacks but not take any damage, and at this level, with mostly ~10-20 hp enemies, his 0-7 damage is quite respectable ^^)

Wulbren's diary ;___; (inside a hut in the Decrepit Village in the Underdark) Maybe Barcus feels responsible and guilty for how Wulbren turned out, because he 'abandoned' Wulbren ...

It's genuinely so much fun to do a run with just me, Astarion and (sometimes) Scratch <3 On Balanced difficulty, it's not really that hard either to just be two people. It's making me suspicious that the game adjusts itself to the amount of party members?! Or maybe I'm just that good at this point and well used to these characters' strengths and weaknesses 😎

The Arcane Tower is such a pretty and interesting location <3

The parts where no matter what I will always reload the save as many times as it takes, until I get the result I want:

Scratch's evil mistress

Sparky, the doggie in Bloomridge Park (not risking the doggie getting murdered by Bhaalists!!!)

BOOOAL (I don't want to fight the Kuo-Toa!!)

These spiders are so cute (I don't think I've ever rolled the dice badly here, but I'd probably reload the save here, too, if I did)

Having only Astarion in my party means only ever getting his sarcastic comments on everything that happens, and I'm loving it xD

Babe are you okay?! T^T He got stuck in a weird position like this after the Grym fight xD

So it turns out that waiting to free Mayrina until you're like level 6 (because you want to keep buying strength potions from Auntie Ethel lol) means that fighting Ethel is a bit of a joke ... It was nice to go down her lair and talk to everyone there when they were already free from her enthrallment.

Just for the sake of "seeing the content", because I'm curious, I'm going to side with the Emperor instead of Orpheus in the finale, this one playthrough. And for that to make sense, I need to roleplay that I don't trust Lae'zel and don't recruit her ... But the game really wants us to recruit her </3 If you part ways with her near the Grove, you'll meet her again at the Mountain Pass when Voss is there. And if you don't recruit her there, either, she will be there again/still even weeks later ...

And then she'll be on the Rosymorn Monastery Trail, too ;___; (And if you still don't recruit her then, you will see her one final time in the Shadow-Cursed Lands, which is really completely heartbreaking. It especially breaks my heart that since I didn't recruit her, she remains at just level 1 with only 10 hp ... When I know what a badass fighter she would be if she'd levelled up alongside us ;___;)

Hmmm, we could pay ~1000 gold for the Knife of the Undermountain King, or we could get it for free ^^ (I made Astarion a Thief Rogue instead of Arcane Trickster Rogue, so of course he would do this ^^)

And I guess in order to get to the part of the Crèche where I somehow just know that the Blood of Lathander is, we simply need to borrow that gem from Therezzyn ^^

Wow this is ridiculously easy?

Oop, she did notice!

But lucky for us, the Inquisitor is an idiot?? And Therezzyn has to obey him due to hierarchy ...

No no, this will go great, I know it ^^

The Inquisitor tries to tell us something, I guess, but we just waltz right past him, to this one specific alcove in his hall ...

Damn, one of the statues won't move! So we run back, past the Inquisitor and everyone else in the hall again, through Therezzyn's room, out into the hallway - so we can go to camp and get Karlach, who will surely be able to budge the statue ^^ And so, the three of us run right back here past everyone again! It's a bit silly that they are all just standing there and not doing anything, when we are clearly doing something very strange and suspicious xD The Inquisitor merely complains that we are testing his patience or something ...

I'd really expected it to be so much harder to even get inside the Crèche without Lae'zel. But I was able to persuade the guards that we had a legit reason to be there. So we could very easily just steal the stuff we wanted and then be on our way ^^

Yay, we got the Blood of Lathander ^^ (It'll be quite handy in the Shadow-Cursed Lands)

Nooooo Astarion why didn't you get on the thing?!?! xD (This happens all the time istg)

Picking up one of the two Death Shepherds so his bro couldn't resurrect him :< (I'm not sure if it actually works, though, because we did manage to kill his bro, too, on the same round, after all!) (And I sincerely apologise to anyone who gets stressed out by the unorganised inventory here lmao ... so many things I should just send back to camp, too, but I'm too lazy)

#roggensau plays bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate 3 spoilers #bg3 #bg3 spoilers

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szif · 24 days ago

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elden ring posting is OVER i no longer have access to my save file for the foreseeable future but i was already grinding out all the collectible op gears and finishing up random dungeon enemies so i think i'm sort of finished with the game (for now! i want to finish the hunt for collectibles if i still remember them) and the dlc was fun (didn't beat radahn but i don't think i'd want to, that guy is very unfun and i don't like his moveset, the setting, miquella's pretty much lack of involvement besides being a prop in the fight, the healthbar barely moving even with the best gear possible making it a long lasting fight). for future me, you need to collect the remaining seedbed curses in the haligtree, get the talisman, defeat malenia, finish millicent's quest, do remaining random bosses inside the dlc. you did well and you had fun with this game and i'm pretty sure if you come back to it you'd like it the same way i did (or i say i don't know, i never played before but i know i like it, so just trust me i guess) so boot up the game when you feel like it. but anyway that's all for elden ring (for now)

#elden ring

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rottenbrainstuff · 1 year 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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glitch-karma · 2 years ago

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hello! can i request the headcanons of bsd boys (ADA, port mafia, guild, DOA, and hunting dogs) playing genshin impact? i wanna know what is their fav characters/elemental/region hehehe~ thanks in advance!

I LOVED writing this one

Dazai

I can see him liking Pryo characters the most

Someone who plays for fighting and building, not for lore and quests

HIS TEAM IS SO CRACKED LIKE BRO GO OUTSIDE???

I can see him maining Klee/Diluc

Definitely, the type to brag all the time

Joins people's worlds to steal stuff then leave like an asshole

I can see his main team being Diluc, Xiao, Ganyu and Xingqiu

When playing with ANYONE he'll pull out Klee and burn the grass to annoy tf out of them

Kunikida

No.

Played it maybe once cause Dazai forced him

Did not understand the point in it

Ended up uninstalling it literally an hour later

Ranpo

Has been playing it even before Dazai

Has almost every character (and ALL of them are built)

Mains Heizou for Obvious reasons

Likes swirling electro the most

Likes to humble brag but in a mean way

"Yeah I mean, I only play it on occasion I guess I'm just good!"

He's lying

In reality, he spends way too much of his and Fukuzawas money

Definitely still not so patiently waiting for Dansleif to be playable

Atsushi

Dazai got him into the game

He plays it mostly for the story quests so his characters aren't very built

LOVES Anemo and Dendro

He was so excited when Baizhu was announced

He cried really hard when he did the Chasam quest

Mains Kazuha

He LOVES Collei so much

When he first started the game he was confused why Barbra wasn't doing any damage

Cyno reminds him of Akutagawa

Yosano

Got into it from random ads

Mains Beidou and Yelan

Has been pulling for Shenhe for so long but still doesn't have her

LOVES Inazuma

Fav vision is definitely Electro

She has played through all of Shonens quests

Poe

Ranpo forced him to play and he likes it

Ranpo helps him with domains and farming

Enjoys the lore and how it's written, specifically Khaenri'ah lore

Is also waiting for Dansleif to be playable

He's an Albedo main

Relates a lil too hard to Sucrose and Xingqiu

Chuuya

Played to try to surpass Dazai

He wants to out-damage Dazai so bad but..

Poor baby doesn't know how to build correctly.

like he gave a physical build to Yanfei

Chuuya LOVES Cryo

He definitely at one point was a Kaeya main

He freaked out the first time he did 2k damage

Joins Dazai's world and says "You suck" Then leaves

Akutagawa

Only plays it because Dazai plays it

Has tried to get good characters to earn Dazai's approval but he ALWAYS loses his 50/50's

Gets on calls with Dazai to try to show how good he is

"...Why did you put blizzard strayer on Diluc." "..."

Trys to get every character Dazai has

Honestly, he doesn't know what he's doing

Fyodor

Bought an acc from someone with insane stats

Bullys kids on the internet with it

Nikolai

He plays unironically (Unlike Fyodor)

Definitely does that ritual of throwing characters off cliffs before wishing

DEF a Hutao main

Has Fydor to actually play but always fails

That trend where you change the models of your characters? He's ALL about that

Changed Klee into a cursed model of a duck

Sigma

Mains Layla because he loves her

It's his comfort game after a long day at the casino

He plays for the lore and character design

Ango

He doesn't really have time for games

Jouno

Genshin, unfortunately, doesn't have accessible playing for him

I don't think he'd play either way but oh well

Tetchō

He saw a picture of Itto and Immediately installed it

Doesn't understand the cooking function

Is also confused about the look of the food

After meeting the Adepti he actually tried eating flowers

Jouno stopped him

Likes Xiao cause of the sticker of him eating snow

Tachihara

Thinks it's a stupid anime game

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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 · 4 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

◑ ━━━━━ ▣ ━━━━━ ◐

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?

◑ ━━━━━ ▣ ━━━━━ ◐

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.

◑ ━━━━━ ▣ ━━━━━ ◐

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.

◑ ━━━━━ ▣ ━━━━━ ◐

“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.

◑ ━━━━━ ▣ ━━━━━ ◐

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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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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lunzoic · 3 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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