#I haven't played the other routes so idk if that's also an issue in them

[asofterepilogue]

I can't possibly overstate how much I do not care about byleth, which makes the fact that the golden deer route is so wholly about her very annoying.

she's the least interesting character, she's not even my best unit by a long shot so she never actually gets to finish the boss, and yet she has all this screen time that has nothing to do with the alliance members and I. Do not. Care. that she's a goddess or whatever. I want to know about claude's schemes or flayn possibly being that saint or which fucking sweets lysithea plans to eat A LOT more than I want to know why byleth's heart doesn't beat or wtf rhea did to her.

[isaidyoulookshitty]

idk it is so upsetting to me that veilguard is the first dragon age game i won't be replaying. when i was 15 i played origins so many times (almost a dozen) it is one of the only games i have ever 100% finished. da2 was the same! and while i didn't make it through as many playthroughs of inquisition i put hundreds of hours into it and made an effort to get to the bottom of everything the game threw at me. until veilguard, i had bought every available dragon age dlc for all games, tried to play almost every route given in the story choices, and spent hours reading through codex entries to soak up as much lore as i could.

veilguard has rendered all of that completely null.

it feels almost spiteful at this point that this new frakenspliced bioware cared so little to honor the bones and meat of the first three games. 15 years i have spent loving and cherishing (and criticizing) this franchise and now i feel like a fucking idiot for it. my grey warden? canonically awol and never addressed again. hawke? irrelevant and, for some players, potentially stuck in the fade forever. inquisitor? stripped of any complexity or depth i had given her in favor of the most syrupy, out of character fairytale true love's kiss ending with a man that shattered her worldview and broke her heart. how do you take 10 years to craft an ending this dissatisfying and thoughtless?

and the world i spent a decade and a half fighting for, shaping with player choices, and calling home? gone. "overwhelmed by the blight." literally scorched earth for the next game to build on with whatever the writers pull out of their ass to make players forget all about the original dragon age. it's tragic! disrespectful to longtime fans at best, at worst it feels intentional and like i am being made the butt of a joke told by writers who in the promotional material sound like they could not even be assed to play the games they're attempting to draw from. veilguard is just a product to be sold, not a story worthy of The Dragon Age Setting.

and i haven't even touched on all my gripes with the game's writing, the sanitization of any canon conflict that could be uncomfortable or difficult to address, the stale and cutesy therapyspeak and lessons in basic morality that are baked into every in-game interaction (most of which are shallow and all the same anyways) compared to the dialogue trees from the other 3 games. it is so frustrating to see that the devs chose to cave to a decade of vitriolic fandom politics in favor of addressing the kettle they wrote themselves into.

instead of hand-waving racism toward elves, the panic over qunari, the isolation of the dwarves, the corruption of the chantry, the abuse in the circles of magi, and slavery in tevinter, we should have been given the chance to confront all of it. to put a real end to it. we will never get to do that now. in fact, in their failure to follow through, bioware has only succeeded in exacerbating all of these issues. they have made the elves, which they have openly ADMITTED were "inspired" by Jewish and indigenous peoples, their mouthpiece for white guilt and shame passed down from one's ancestors (while also gutting elves' religion, culture, history, social differences, etc. i could go on). they PERPETUATE the same stereotypes of barbarity, violence, and warmongering imposed on the qunari by the rest of thedas by continuing to make them an opposing enemy force with the exception being a couple of friends they have neatly packaged for us. the unsatisfying conclusion to the mage-templar schism in inquisition is inconsequential. who the player chose to HEAD THE SOUTHERN CHANTRY as divine is deliberately made irrelevant. the dwarves are still isolated and ignorant of their origins save for harding (assuming she doesn't end up killed) and a single closed-off group. and the slaves in tevinter (again, mostly elves)? conveniently kept out of sight and conversation when we finally get to minrathous. everything that happened to fenris to make him the character he is, arguably the most impactful and sympathetic out of all the da2 companions, is not even addressed, much less tackled. all of it is swept under the rug.

i wanted dragon age: dreadwolf. i wanted a solid conclusion to a story almost 20 years in the making. a dragon age reboot might even have been a great idea somewhere down the line, but this was not the game to do it with. it was supposed to be a sequel and they couldn't even get that right. did i enjoy parts of it? of course! i finished it! but i won't be doing it again. the game clearly intends you to, considering a significant portion is locked away by decisions players are forced to make pretty early on, but i can't make myself do it. it makes me way too sad.

i could go on about how i, a queer and nonbinary adult fan, thought their handling of gender and LGBTQIA+ identities was heavy-handed, infantilizing, and felt so out of place within the setting it makes easy fodder for the "woke=broke" crowd that wouldn't have been receptive to queer rep anyway, but that would need to be another post in itself. not to mention the romance! unfortunate that i chose to romance lucanis not knowing his is now notorious for a lack of content, meaningful dialogue, pacing, and actual development. i won't even get to see the other romances in comparison because, as i have said, i will not be replaying.

[onelastskip]

Just out of curiosity, how many MCs did you make for Keyframes? Can you tell us a bit about them? I'm interested to know :D

OMGGG HAIII!!!

Technicallyyy 4? I played through the game on all seasons but my other MCs aren't as fleshed out (and I haven't drawn them...) — but I'll talk about what I have anyway!

So obviously Chi was my first baby girl, autumn, romancing Percy straight away, I yap about her a lot already but here's a fun fact I haven't mentioned yet, her full name is Chi Huệ Aubade, very cool!

My next mc was Mika (she's sort recycled from olba, sorta not because I hate the idea of being unfaithful to cove, idk if that makes sense just the way my brain works) she's a summer and... well I was supposed to romance Elio... but then the Percy summer meeting hit me like a truck and I went for him again... now she probably won't get fleshed out but I'm thinking of doing a male mc elio summer run (for real this time, no percy shenanigans)

And then I have my spring mc, Nari, and- I will admit I was very close to reromancing Percy but no! they are a Jamie romance (slowwburn tho) cause I found the cupcake confrontation was so good with a spring personality. So they're uh, well to describe them, in a word, they're self-assured (technically two but semantics). They're extremely competent and they know it, they have a big ego and tend to be overconfident, brash and competitive. Andd they also have a crippling fear of emotional connection and an avoidant attachment style. love my little guys who are so smart yet so very stupid. Anyway their dynamic with Jamie is sort of teasing? They were expecting to be annoyed by him bcos of his reputation but they ended up liking him more than they thought. They have a sort of "people disappoint me" expectation, a lot of the friends and relationships they've had in the past were shallow (not for lack of trying? but nari really didn't put any effort in) they only really mesh with deja and cam and don't even try to form deeper relationships with others, the boys are the first friends they've made in a while, and their first time besides with cam and deja actually trying to connect with people. They're an ISTJ and fun fact about them theyyy are very good at chess.

And lastly my winter mc, Yumi (name pending.) they're my no romance route (or slowburn? it depends how it plays out I guess). They're... to describe them in one word. Chill (lol). They're an artist turned law student and they are very go with the flow. They are also doing a minor of sociology! They stopped painting in their last year of highschool because they were told they needed to start taking things seriously (they had pretty bad-average grades before). While they're generally patient and relaxed, when they do get angry, they are no holds barred, cussing out authority figures, not a single thought in that brain, they get very passionate when they're being confrontational. They're an INTP and fun fact about them they know how to skateboard.

WAIIIIT- I'M GONNA USE THIS ASK TO YAP ABOUT THE ENNEAGRAM (sorry anon my attention span is kinda fucked, ADHD ramble incoming)

Okay I've mentioned before Chi's a 2w3, little lore drop, she's got family issues (eldest daughter in an asian family /hj) but yeah there's a lot of pressure from that direction, that's part why she's doing a law degree (polisci? I forget how it is in america), she was rushed into picking a degree and just went with what she was best at. Anyway I should probably explain the enneagram oops, OKAY, so she has a type 2 fixation, which basically means, she's got a gaping hole where her self esteem is and she tries to patch that up by creating relationships (people pleaser...), that's why she tries to be as helpful as possible all the time, she's got a deep seated fear of abandonment and feels like she can only be loved if she's providing some sort of support (usually as an emotional dumping ground) to the other person.

Buttt, thankfully when she got to college she met Deja and Cam, who did NOT fuck with that kinda behaviour so she's slowly getting better, I imagine over the course of her time at college she gets better at loving herself and sets boundaries with her parents, fixes the relationship (the other drama is she has younger siblings who are still with them and yeah) idk I just like writing character arcs like this it helps me understand my ocs better I think

onto my other mcsss:

uhh Mika's a 7w8, but I'm gonna skip her since she'll probably get reworked into something else anywayyy

so Nari has a type 5 fixation, their whole deal is they need to feel competent, need to feel like they understand the world around them because it's a scary place and if something doesn't fit in with the way they understand things that means they understand nothing. Anyway, their little character arc would actually be centred on the relationship, it's a story about them accepting emotional vulnerability, letting down their walls, losing their rigid world view, and choosing to trust in another person and fall in love :3

Yumi (name pending) has a type 9 fixation, their problem is... well basically, on the surface, they're confident, calm, collected, composed (heh alliteration), they really seem like they've got it all together but internally they've resigned themself to being another cog in the machine. They've lost their passion in life and they're stuck in the pit of "it is what it is". Their character arc would probably involve them dropping out of college and pursuing something they actually care about, that being art.

[beevean]

Sending this anonymously instead of replying to your post cause I don't want the omori fandom harassing me for ranting about it

I'm not saying everyone who likes omori or Sunny is like this, but this was my experience knowing someone who was a huge fan of both.

All I knew about it before was from this person irl I used to be friends with. It never seemed like my cup of tea so I haven't played it and all I know was they thought it was a really good depiction of mental illness and they thought Sunny was their precious baby boy who can do no wrong and "just like them fr fr".

Seeing the omori critical posts recently I think sheds some light on what they meant by that, except they have no self awareness about it.

Because the reason I had the falling out with them is because they repeatedly did and said a lot of hurtful things, and blamed it all on mental illness (which I have enough of the same issues and know other people who do, to know that it does not make you treat your friends like shit) and would make it all about themselves and how it hurts their feelings that other people are rightfully upset about what they did.

idk sorry for the vent I just feel like, at least one of the reasons people like him is because they are just like him as much as they say. Even if nothing they do is ever as extreme as murder the same mindset applies to any way of refusing to take responsibility for wronging someone you claim to care about. 

I don't think liking a character is in and of itself a red flag but anytime someone says a character is literally just like them AND they say the same character is pure and innocent and can do nothing wrong unironically, I'm just like (insert that gif of the blinking guy here)

Wow. Well, this is a lot to take in. I'm really sorry about your bad experience with your friend, I know the type both online and IRL :(

The exchange I got on that post was very telling. I got told that Sunny is "relatable" because "he's the quiet shy friend". I said "I would relate to the way he shut himself out of the world, but I don't relate to why he did it." I was told "eh it's fine I also relate to Kel because he wants to help everyone, but I'm not good at basketball!". I said "yeah but Sunny has blood on his hands and went along with a cover-up story, that is so hyperspecific I can no longer find Sunny relatable, now he's more of a morally flawed character with his own past". I got basically a 👍 in response, conversation completely shut down in total awkwardness.

Like. There is such an aversion to talk about the very core of the game, the fact that Sunny put his hands on his sister, accidentally killed her, and then allowed everyone to believe she killed herself until the very last moment. Everyone is all "oh he's such a scrunkly, no thoughts head empty, so autistic <3" or swear up and down that Headspace actually gives him so much depth to analyze (depth he doesn't show with his actions in the real world because Kel drags him around like on a leash, but okay), but suddenly we can't talk about his greatest failure? Why, because then your blorbo looks bad? Or do you feel bad?

not to be arrogant but if someone asked me why I love Hector and Isaac so much I'd drown them in screenshots taken by me and my own analyses and still wouldn't shy away from the fact that they're both bastards. I relate to the motherfucker who killed his ex friend's wife out of spite, not because I killed anyone, but because I understand that level of jealousy and resentment. It's fine to relate to characters who aren't angels because you share similar flaws. Just be aware of the fact, you know? Like you said.

I understand, in a way, people who relate to Sunny due to his circumstances: again, he's depressed, he hates himself, he secluded himself in his own home and through the Sunny route he learns to touch grass again, things many people have gone through. But that's not the conversation I see. The conversation I see is either "he's autistic like me <3" (and by autism we mean that he doesn't talk and has a perpetual resting bitchface lol), or "I too have hurt people, and so I am inspired by Sunny taking courage and facing the truth, he's such a wonderful and strong person", garnished with "the reactions of his friends don't matter, his own wellbeing is what matters <3", which 1) whatever mistake you have made, I am positive it's not on the same level as accidentally taking a life and hiding from the repercussions, like that is on a completely different level, and 2) why does the grief of the other friends not matter? Because they're not as Mentally Ill as the protagonist? Because Sunny shouldn't have to face any consequence for his past actions because he's just a poow widdle guy 🥺? Is that what the game passes as a message?

Sorry for the rant. I understand that I popped out of nowhere in the fandom so it makes sense that few people would answer to me. But the few answers I got were so wishy-washy. "He's cute! He thinks! He cares about his friends in his own head! He's just like me!" okay but. how would you describe his personality if you were writing a wiki article. you're supposed to love the guy, right? And what does it say that "relatability", projecting yourself into the character, is the most frequent reason to love said character?

Anyway, I wish you all the best with your new friends, and honestly thank you for this ask that is way more detailed than anything I've seen so far lol

[my-past-disgusts-me]

Ask game ask game <3

🪓If you could design a first trial, what would you do?

💭What is your favorite yttd AU idea?

🏆Who do you think the ultimate survivors will be?

🪓 If I could design a first trial, huh? Man... I've been asking myself this, actually, because of my Mr Beast AU (I'm just calling it that, it doesn't have anything to do with Mr Beast) and I uh, haven't had any good, concrete ideas yet. My most interesting one is thematically potent for the characters I put in it. Ironically it's also the least clear. It's in my notes as "something to do with the moon" so. I guess the only one I've actually thought out is the mirror room puzzle. It's pretty much the one Sara did before the first game, but with communication issues this time! One contestant is in each room, and they have to talk with each other to make the rooms mirror each other, before the time runs out. Normal stuff. I've also got a character in just. A normal escape room. So that's fun.

💭 Which AU is my favorite? You're killing me here, my god. So. Obviously there's my survivors AU, the one I've made a few sketch comics for. Both Sara and Shin survive, they can't get rid of each other, they become friends on accident, etc. etc. Ryoko is there. I might be bringing Midori back for that one too but ehhh idk. The stuff I've written for that is interesting but it's straying too far into whump territory for this AU. It's a cool way to fuck with their character arcs though.

There's also my two new silly AUs, YTTD Hoodwinked AU and YTTD Nerdy Prudes Must Die AU. They're pretty fun. I don't think they're my favorites though. Oh and Ranpo in the Death Game AU but I haven't touched that one for a while. Not since the yaoi.

And then there's the other big contender. The Mr Beast AU. AKA I put 100 fictional characters in the Your Turn to Die death game (said in the mr beast intro voice)! Oh man. What a whopper. And I have lore reasons for it too. Now picture this: The death game is over. Sara wins. She goes on with her life, distraught for a while, but then only numb. When the time comes, she takes over ASU-NARO. With her at the helm, research pivots from recreating people artificially to regaining them for real. Flesh and blood. That's right baby, they're playing 5D chess with multiversal time travel, and they're about to find out what happens when that shit goes wrong. Meanwhile, in 14 other worlds, shit goes haywire there too. The cast of YTTD wakes up in their old bodies, from the start of the death game, with all their memories intact. And a hundred newcomers awaken too.

Mm... I think the mr beast AU is more interesting to me currently, just because I loooove crossover AUs and banging my toys together like rocks. I put all my favorite niche media in there. We've got My Student Spirit, we've got Rhyme and Reason, we've got Ghost Junk Sickness, we've got 7Seeds. I even have The Neverending Story! We've got extra scientists, we've got actual robots, we have a cat with a job, there's a man who is literally a ghost and another who can talk to ghosts and they are both the nicest (lyinggg the ghost is an asshole. Just like me fr). And freaking out at the center of it all is our good old primary cast, trying to survive all over again.

I'm having fun with it. Tsukasa Tenma is dead. Herlock Sholmes is dead. Dima PAFL is dead and Dr. Temnova doesn't know yet. Olezha has a real body again but he can't go tell his roommate because his roommate is in the death game and they can't have people moving willy-nilly from the administrative side to the game side, now can they? Emu Ootori has blood on her hands. So does Kotaro Mita. Man I love this AU. I have to make something other than a spreadsheet for it.

🏆 Who do I think will win? Sara, obviously. I don't think there's any way that she doesn't. I don't think Keiji will, or Shin. If she does get to take someone with her, I think it'll be Gin in the logic route. I also think that maybe we'll get a choice in the emotion route. To save either Kanna or Gin. Which kid gets to live. Kinda fucked! But what about this game isn't lmao. Regardless, I'm excited to see what happens.

[stillalittlelostngl]

So here are the rough outlines of a few things I'm working on rn. Please let me know if any of these sound interesting or if I should scrap em all together. A few I have mostly done but idk

Nanami x reader

- corporate life nanami before he goes back to the school. TW lots of corporate lingo the first few chapters and nanami is an excel guy. Reader is the assistant to nanamis senior manager so they're familiar with each other and dare I say friendly? Reader has ce and can see curses but wasn't born into sorcerer society so family and reader have just always been convinced it was a mental illness until a situation with level 2 grade curse has nanami saving them and he kinda has to spill the beans on everything. Gunna try and tie it back to the main plot of jjk with reader also being a motivating factor for why nanami went back - he wants to get them help too. Multi part fic, a little canon divergent but not sure how much.

Naoya x reader - this is gunna be a full blown horror story

- hello arranged marriage and reproductive horror. TWs for very bad misogyny (both internal and external), infertility, miscarriage, and eventual psychosis of reader. Essentially reader comes from a prestigious family and is matched with Naoya. Reader is the "perfect wife" but then the issue of infertility comes up (haven't decided if it's naoya or reader who's infertile) and it causes reader to spiral. This will get kinda dark ngl. This one isn't as far along as the other tbh I'm still deciding if I even want reader to be the one who naoya is married to or instead if reader would be a surrogate for them. That option would definetly give me more horror elements to play with both in the internalized misogyny aspect and reproductive aspect. If surrogate route then I don't think reader will make it to the end. Like naoyas wife will snap and murk them most likely. I wanna play with that idea of the perfect wife and how unsustainable it is. Also wanna be considerate of folks who are infertile. I personally can't think of a horror story that centers infertility (a lot of one's I've seen center fertility in and of itself - like having the child is the horror element) but if this is a trope I don't know about then I won't be doing this.

Younger (think 19 - early 20s) naoya x reader nsfw

- completely different story from the previous. Idk if it'll be a whole fic or just one shots that can be read together but again tw for misogyny. Basically naoya is attracted to reader even when she's supposed to be like everything he claims to detest about "the modern woman". Reader treats him like the dog he is. Not a lil love story by any means - this is just hate sex and naoya being degraded but maybe a soft moment or two between em.

Gojo x reader

- just a one shot of when gojo and reader went to school together. Gojo is an annoying little shit and reader absolutely hates his presence on a good day but gojo don't know how to read a room. Reader gets sick and gojo plays nurse despite their protests. Very soft and fluffy. Could age them up and go the nsfw route with this and it'll take place when they're teachers instead. Have this mostly finished and will probably be posting either way - just don't know if it'll be nsfw or not.

[badedramay]

tentatively excited for jannat se aagay because i think its premise looks Just different enough for it to be semi-interesting but im pretty much all in for Mein as of rn lol.. i think ayeza is a genuinely good actress with star power who gets relegated to the same roles all the time so this darkish glamorous tone has me so intrigued.... Not really a wahaj fan but i think their chemistry was chemistrying enough that if they actually do go the morally grey route for ayeza i'll watch.

also i saw you ask for green tv recs and i don't wanna be one of those people that says ALL OF THEM bc how counter-productive so here's some base-level reviews for the ones i've watched: tumhare husn ke naam is a classic romance that i think earns the 90s drama comparisons. very sweet so far but i think its most unique aspect is that this is the first time since mera naam yousuf hai probably that ive been endeared to an imran abbas character lol. jeevan nagar is really funny and rabia butt is a gem i'm very excited for her career but tonally it's something i have a hard time getting into.. reminds me of old pakistani skit shows but elevated to a certain level. kabli pulao i actually haven't seen which is blasphemous but the premise didn't intrigue me at all... might give it a chance for nadia afghan. 101 talaqain has an interesting story but i couldnt continue it because the direction was choppy and contrived. idiot suffers from a lack of defined secondary characters but the main two are very very endearing and well-acted so its like... if youre willing to sacrifice your time watching ahmed ali akbar and mansha pasha play the main couple from 3 idiots. finally, i think 22 qadam might be my favorite? its directed well and the storyline is actually intriguing so far even though from the teasers i was worried about how they were gonna do the cricket stuff (they managed it well). couldn't tell you about the romance bc there's been one interaction at the point im at but hareem CARRRRRIES and wahaj actually plays charismatic foil pretty well. sorry these are all just rambles but i hope u have a great day <3

I don't think Ayeza gets relegated to the same roles though? she tries to switch it up whenever she can. of course her "damsel in distress" roles outnumber her other characters but she has given a success in Meenu (a bubbly character) and in Mere Pass Tum Ho and Yaariyan (negative characters). Laapata toh had her playing a bubbly, negative-ish character. she definitely has the range and she looks terrific onscreen. even more so since she has started taking charge of the styling of her characters. her wardrobe in Mein looks ek dum GORGEOUS I just know Imma be salivating on her looks alot. Wahaj-Ayeza chemistry..idk..haven't been WOWed by it yet but i am hoping the drama itself will change that perspective.

thank you for the rundown about Green Ent's shows! i still haven't gotten the time or frankly even the inclination of checking out any of these. I read multiple complains about the channel's shows' having techincal issues that overall impacted the quality of the shows and honestly that has me hesitating in checking them out. alsoooo...maybe it's just me but there's something a little "off" about all of the dramas either the casting or the kind of stories that are telling that just doesn't pique my interest? i am not writing the channel or the content off entirely..i hope it will offer me something in the future that will have me taking this channel seriously but so far, I am far more concerned about shows that happen on the Big 3 channels of PakTV and am treating Green as just a beta version of a channel that needs time and continuous tinkering to work out its chinks before I consider it ready as a channel to be invested in.

[shai-manahan]

Besides like for troubleshooting and making sure the game runs right and that ,have u ever like sat down opened up dashingdon and played HM (idk if that would be enjoyable for u since u know what would happen and all but who knows u might be suprised) if u have played it can u tell us bout yr MC ?? And how do u feel about NSFW questions??

Hi! I don't feel too comfortable answering nsfw asks, so apologies for that!

Playing HM, however... I'm not sure if it's also the case with other authors but I used to do that a lot lmao. It's a great way for me to see through the lens of a reader and properly assess if the game is interesting enough for my own tastes, and I enjoy the story, too (Idk if that's weird to say but oh well), at least until imposter syndrome hits. Sometimes I also end up noticing spots where I could add some choices or dialogue options, so I liked doing it.

Haven't done it since writing Chapter 2, though. I've been repeatedly reading the scenes I've written since last year before the Prologue + Chapter 1 rewrites, so I couldn't make myself read the demo this time around. Which is probably why you don't see as many choices in there (?), 'cause yeah, I never really got to properly check it out.

Now, for my MC.

I've honestly got several MCs reserved for different playthroughs of HM. There will be decisions in the future (plus a game mechanic too spoilery to explain) that will affect a lot of events within the story, and there's no way on earth that I won't be trying out every single one of those routes lol.

But if we're talking about a canon playthrough of mine, I'll probably choose my touch averse enby MC who's a complete mess. Alcoholic, self-blaming fool who still wants to prioritize the city and the public despite everything that had happened (and yeah there'll be some variations depending on your blame + motivation choice), uh... what else... my MC punched Bale (still conflicted between this and just walking away lmfao for so many reasons), lies to everyone around them, and has a very critical opinion of the police including themself all the while feeling guilty about exposing their own colleagues. Will never kill anyone but will also keep probing into everyone else's business---an action that will end up very badly for them but it is interesting so :)))). They have a Wits + Force combination of skills, and their mental health issue stats are like, over the roof (including stress, cynicism, another one I can't mention, and perhaps more.)

I think that's all I can share without this being a very long essay, so I'll stop there. I'm choosing these options for my MC mainly because I do know what's gonna happen, and there's always a way for them to recover from whatever it is they're feeling if they so choose, but I do hope everyone who'd be choosing them can detach themself from the MC's situation because the MC's thoughts can be... a lot to handle. There's a lot of ways you can customize the MC, though, and not just in appearance or preferences. The way you make decisions for them also shape who they are and the events that will unfold around them, so I do hope you all enjoy that and more!

Now that I've done that, why don't y'all share stuff about your MCs, too? 👀

[zmeu-ra]

Organizing my thoughts on Sonic Frontiers:

Sonic Frontiers is my favorite Sonic game in a decade (Generations was the last one I wholeheartedly enjoyed). But it’s far from GOTY material.

The story takes itself seriously! Hallelujah! So refreshing. I haven't decided if the plot is that great yet, but it's definitely more competent than what we've had lately. There are both genuinely touching and funny moments.

Sonic feels good to control in the islands. I appreciate the option to tune his handling. Once you find what works for you, getting around is a lot of fun.

The island layouts are messy. They’re giant playgrounds with routes and challenges to explore ("open zone"). This is a cool idea in theory, but messy in practice. I hated the random boost pads and springs that pull you into challenges if you accidentally touch them while running somewhere. It’s like Sonic has ADHD and is constantly shifting between different hyperfocuses. I’ll admit it was fun at first; zooming across the island, getting pulled into exciting new challenges, but once you’ve completed them, they become useless obstacles. If they could somehow give me a reason to go through these routes again, they would be less annoying.

One of my main issues with the "open zone" layout is that it disconnects Sonic from the game space. Most things you interact with - platforms, springs - aren't part of the world, they're just laid on top. It would've been nice to interact with the world itself, characterizing the Starfall Islands a little more, but I also see how difficult of an undertaking that would be to design and program.

Cyberspace is a cool concept with hit-or-miss execution. The 3D parts are nice, the 2D parts are not. In 2D, Sonic's physics skew just enough to be sluggish and annoying. I do appreciate the level designs inspired by past games, it shows how well layouts like Metal Harbor hold up. It should have all been 3D, but that’s pretty demanding so I get why they didn’t commit. And of course, all the stages have total banger tracks.

The combat is a little bit... meh. It's fun and flashy, but doesn't have much depth (this is coming from a DMC fan, so take it with a grain of salt). Also I played on Hard Mode, in which I died a lot but was still never very mentally stimulated, so I wonder how brainless combat is on the lower difficulties.

That pinball machine was torture.

The Titan battles were the stars of the show. I was jumping out of my seat fighting Giganto, and my heart was racing for Knight, but Wyvern truly sent chills down my spine! Just wow. The music, Super Sonic in the moonlight, those combat setpieces... the Titan battles are just *chef's kiss*

Except for Supreme. What a letdown! Did they run out of time working on him? He’s just a spicy Giganto! Why is the apex of the Titans, corrupted by an eldritch force from space, so boring??? And I totally burned through his health without even thinking about it. “I’m Here” barely hit at all.

And that final boss? Ikaruga? I’m down for sudden genre shifts, but shouldn’t the game’s grand finale be a climax of all the mechanics the player has learned up to that point? You go from Metal Gear Rising-esque adrenaline rushes against creatively-designed Titans, to shooting a monologuing rock for 2 minutes. Was there a planned phase two that was more like a Titan? Idk, it wasn’t badly made or anything, but it felt like a weird decision.

Finally, I'm curious how much the plot will change the status quo. It sounds like Amy wants to go "spread love" whatever that entails, Knuckles is considering leaving the Master Emerald more often, and Tails wants to adventure solo to prove his heroism to himself. Does that leave Sonic alone in the next game? Is he open to hang with different crowds, like Team Dark or Silver/Blaze? If so, bravo for creating an opportunity to work with other characters, Mr. Flynn.

All in all, good game. Room for improvement, but still the best we’ve seen from Sonic in a long time. Not bad for a team of 60~ devs. I'm hopeful for the future! 2022 is the year of Sonic!

[dirkxcaliborn]

This game probably won't rank very high on my list. There's things I like about it, but the character interactions are kinda starting to piss me off. (Ofc part of the problem is that I started the game with the only character I liked enough to put up with the issues, so now I'm just getting increasingly irritated dealing with the rest of these bastards lol). I didn't look too closely when I bought the game, but the art isn't quite what I was expecting. I think the forward facing art is nice but the side views are really off putting.

Idk I've started to get into the habit of playing the most interesting looking route in a VN and then dropping it... which isn't the way I'd like to do things. There's overall lore scattered throughout the routes so I want to finish them all?? but I haven't touched Variable Barricade or Nightshade since completing all the endings for the route I was most interested in.

At the very least I've done two routes of this game so... halfway there lol. I'm just hoping I like one of the other two. This last one was just very 🤢 I was fairly neutral to him at first, but the last good ending I played was bleugh and the bonus scene was also very eughghgh. That character in general has so many questionable things about him, and it just started to outweigh the likeable features. I just want to learn more about the main character bc I quite like him.

[one-hell-of-otaku-is-here]

Just finished uultra c - Bl game by the same dev who made Hashime of Old booktown... slight spoilers, so dont read if you haven't finished it.

I'd avoid mentioning a big reveal... and it was ok?? The first two routes/chapters were good (I got really confused in the first one, but most stuff got explained in the second , but it was still a mess), but ofc last couple, it had to be weird... like Kaouru and Tamamori, kind of weird but kind of even more so. I have so many questions, and Idk if they will make side stories for each endings but but it'd be nice to know what happened to Juuro and Yomi cos like... they are the main reason for this mess (or one of them, like 100 %, is and I am mad that I can not hate him). My fav couple is Akira and Kagome but they were also the healthiest and cutest out of three (mostly thanks to Akira who has the biggest heart ever and he's also kind of tsundere which I love) but my favourite character is actually Shirou cos like he's all sly and that but at the end he melts and goes all uke for Isshiki. I am actually glad they resolved their issues classic enemies to lovers roupe, but my fav couple is still the first one. btw side characters... I actually kind of want Tarou plushie, and Uran was my fav side chracter ( a big suprise - she's a futanari and I approve!). I gave it a score in tags below, so go play it if you haven't, and for now, I'll be waiting here for the next Adelta game... or any other new BL (looking at u slow damage localization when)