#I love Persona 4 and have played through more times than Mass Effect

[fredcasden]

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream of Final Fantasy XIV was totally focused on the new Main Story Quest content, and I loved it... mostly because of how gave a big push on developing Zero's character, with her gradually regaining her forgotten humanity. The scene with her having the dumpling was really cool, and I can safely say I will easily ship Zero with Alisaie as they have perfect character chemistry. And yes I was more than happy to see Alisaie involved with the main story, since of all the scions she is my favorite.

The new dungeon and trial were surprisingly straight forward, which I can greatly appreciate considering how some in the past have featured some really bullshit mechanics and gimmicks to deal with.

Now one of the side quests I came across last week was one that gave lore and context to two of the archifiends that were faced in a previous update, so after I was done the MSQ, I went and did the side quests for the two that were in update, which certainly added a lot more flavor to the motivations... and the whole deal with Golbez (the big bad of this story arc). It's really a tragic story, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how it eventually plays out down the line!

For the raid we dropped in on Kalenal while they were playing Final Fantasy XIV over at twitch.tv/kalenal!

Stream Clip Links

I think she likes Dumplings!

We got him! First Try!

I'm dead! Nope I'm Not Dead!

Happy birthday to long time friend of the channel Felkimchi!

So the update on my mom is as follows, she was deemed strong enough to begin chemotherapy on January 19th, with subsequent sessions every three weeks. Not sure when she'll be able to come home because there are concerns over mobility and she only had two physical therapy sessions.

Featured two Mass Effect short story commissions yesterday, which surprised even me considering it takes me a couple of hours to write a 2000 word short story. Next commission request was for a Dragon Ball story involving Future Trunks.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Straight COmbo #2, Difficult Challenge COmbo #2 and Block Combo for 31 minutes

What do you call a boomerang that never comes back? A stick.

Song of the Day: Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd

For tonight's stream, we're resuming the P3 side of the Persona 4 Arena Ultimax story, and we'll be going through that till the very end. Way I figure we'll get in at least two more full streams with the game because of the requirements to get the true ending and doing the Adachi DLC story.

So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

[pandacommander24a]

I, too, love Persona 4 and see it as my favorite in the series. It is a game that could have been extraordinarily cool and progressive but its not… There is subtext there but… text says one thing while subtext can only suggest another… So… I agree 100% with first poster. But You… Expected a Japanese game to be Queer positive in the age of "please fuck to fix our birth rates" the anime? You're going to have a bad time.

While Persona 3 Portal gave us an actual text queer relationship, it was still wedged in the dark corner and more; you have to know what they are talking about then explicitly show it for Harold. That is really the closest we'll get with the franchise, I think 5 does more, but.. You know locked in the land of exculisivity until later this month.

I know, other cultures are different, and the perfect world should be better than that and all that, but you are talking about a culture whose best-known proverb is “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.”

There is a long-tired debate that my white American ass can't do justice, but there is a lot of cultural pressure in Japan for a cithet tradition, except reject capitalist hustle. That's the real problem; creators might want to go full rainbow expansion but money first and money is best made without causing a problem for the customer… Executives might not like that. Extremes and business as always, it is the same reason Disney allows queer characters to be shown but easily edited out… Business first, anything second… Worst, this is a game trying to appeal to a particular group of people… People who are willing to play "hard" JRPGs, and the suits and data say, "go woke, go broke." Even if that has been proven not true.. but 2008 was, oh gods, really… Fsteak…

This isn't a defense; it's an explanation. Its cowardly and Persona 4 wanted to clear say something but its all subtext. Subtext, subtext, subtext, subtext… and if you picked up on it YAY! If not… Fsteak…

Yukiko and Chie are very queer, very in love with each other, and have adopted a dog together. This is almost clear text for Yukiko, who confesses Chie is seen very in the same light as any would-be male suitor is in fact there is a huge amount of I wanted you to be more from Shadow Yukiko to Chie, and Shadow Chie has very possessive issues about Yukkio. However… The pair also have to be availed to be romanced by the Cishet-only Male protag, for some reason. Played by a player who may not be interested in exploring two best friends with a pet-child and show no interest in anyone but each other romantically and seemingly doesn't notice physical attraction outside of each other. But Japanese Woman have such friendships before getting married… it is just a phase…

However, If you don't "romance" them…

Chie decides to join the cops, either way. Just she is now more aggressive in proving she is a bro. Comes to terms that she isn't a girly girl and is okay with it. It is clear for Chie that her community means a lot to her, especially the Traditional areas of the Inaba and the events of the murders made her realize she wants to keep it safe… like there is a personal motivational reason for that…

Yukiko the vision of proper Japanese femininity, and is the sole heir to the family legacy and is scared of what that tradition means. While yes, her story embraces tradition and rejects modernity, her story embraces not only the future; it is embracing her past and her community. In the story, this idea is something taken for granted by those around her, like her best (girl)friend, who has it in her mind to protect and guard the area for the rest of her life but it is like the sun rising, something that will happen tomorrow… Yukkio feels trapped because of this, a caged bird, so much if not exploring her drives and wants she'll bolt out of town, leaving the INN and community to do boring Japanese worker drone stuff. She takes what is less scary running away than staying behind, building her community, making her life with mostly likely Chie, and keeping the business going. All things that have real scary implications, yes she does't leave, but she accepts that the sun is going to come up tomorrow and she'll have to be the one to make sure the sun comes up, why is Yukkios persona the literal sun goddess and matron of the Imperial Japanese family… So to quote hiimdaisy SYMBOLISM!

Also Yukiko gets really frustrated that learning to cook for herself, her future and her business is for a boy, assuming again… the cishet male protag isn't dating her then it was a successful plan to date Yu Narukami.

Then my boi Kanji, who is attracted to Naoto, played for laughs, but Kanji is only interested in Naoto when he doesn't know what gender they are and presumes they are male. His entire shadow story is about coming to accept that he has a male attraction, his toxic masculinity, and how society expects him to behave in both sides of his "personas." Kanji is a man who cares so much about those around him that he'll single-handedly take on a biker gang because they woke up his grandmother, and, the next day covered in bruises and blood help a little kid pick out fabric for a stuffed animal. The English VO claimed he played Kanji as a gay man after ready the script and not just the Bathhouse…

Finally, Naoto, clearly not happy being a girl, is distressed when its revealed she has the largest bust of the cast, something that she hates almost as much as Risette, and given what we find out its clear that Naoto is using a binder.

Unless you, cishet only, male protag date her, and that's when you get to see them in a dress. A character who spend about 95% of the game dress as a boy, acting like a male character and refusing to correct anyone if they call them a boy. (Using neutral pronoun because there is a manga that has Naoto more clearly visibly female but canon on that manga is questionable at best but again…) Welcome to the suck of Persona 4.

Persona 4 be like "Be your true self! But only if your true self isn't gay, isn't trans, isn't too much of a tomboy, doesn't dress weird, inherits the family business and generally abides by cultural norms. You can like sewing but your friend will still call you a slur."

[sanstropfremir]

Hey love, hope you're having a nice day

My mom strongly believes Taemin has a thing for using some sort of element to cover his head in most of his MVs. Obviously we're both too dumb to catch the symbolism (if any) so I thought why not ask someone who knows?

So what do you think? Is there any deep reason behind the head bags or is it just an aesthetic thing?

anon!!!! mwah!!! i'm having a better day because you sent this in!!!!

your mom is right, taemin absolutely has a thing for covering his head, specifically his face! you can see masks and/or veils (under the cut):

in the hit the stage performance of sayonara hitori

in the offsick concert teaser

in the nippon budokan performance of i’m crying

in the move mv here (there are several shots from this scene), and here

in the want mv here

there’s a quick shot of him pulling off a veil in criminal

and of course, advice. and again.

also some other images:

1. from the ngda act 1 promo photos

2. from the 2kids promo photos

3. from the move album scans

4. the cover of ngda act 2 messiah version

5. an actual bag over his head in the criminal mv

6. from the most recent short vcr in the ngda beyond live

7. from the sayonara hitori album scans

this is not an exhaustive list because i know i’ve missed some; i'm 80% sure there was a mask with the red outfit in the ngda act 1 scans but this is enough examples i think to show that it’s definitely deliberate. and i'm not even bringing up all the times he physically covers his face with a body part or it’s obscured through an effect, because then we gotta talk about the famous choreography, the idea choreography, the just me and you vcr, and countless promo photos and album scans from essentially every era in his entire solo career.

the backbone of the kpop industry in its current state is the idols' faces. human nature has proven time and time again that the easiest way to catch an audience is through a pretty face (by whatever the standards are at the time), and in an industry built on militant commercialism, of course the emphasis is going to be on those faces. you can see it in every bit of content. turning physical albums into mass collectibles, with multiple versions, giant photobooks, photocards. an idol’s face IS their uniform. when an idol doesn’t want to be seen, what's the first thing they do? cover their face. (and people still take pictures of them anyways). i’ve seen countless times on vlives and ig lives where an idol is wearing a mask and there will be a stream of “show us your face <3”’s until they do. their face is their brand. every decision a stylist, a publicist, a company makes is to optimize exactly how beautiful they can make their idols look, because that’s by and large what the fans want. obviously it's a product of the larger trend in unattainable beauty standards fueled by social media, but i'm not going to talk much about that, because it's a lot. if you’ve followed me for long enough (probably just for more than a few days tbh, since i talk about it constantly), you’ll have noticed that i'm a huge proponent of ‘ugly’ hair trends, and i'm a huge proponent of ugly styling in general. when idols have to be fashion models as well as inhuman performing machines, you’re setting them up to everything that plagues that industry as well, which means massive complexes about their faces and bodies, in the most mild of terms.

‘ugliness’ has freedom in it. part of the reason why i’ve gone extra insane for advice as a whole is because it IS ugly. taemin’s extensions ARE awful. his hands are blackened and dirty the whole mv, and so are portions of his body. he’s visibly flaunting his real tattoos*, which are still deeply stigmatized in the east. we see him get in a car crash. in arguably the most flattering/conventionally attractive outfit, he’s got heavy mascara tear tracks. the song isn’t particularly melodic, the choreography is childish and jerky, the lyrics directly call out the people that treat him like an object. and of course, the mask. all of these are cracks in the facade, confronting us, on purpose, with the crumbling of his perpetually pretty, perfect persona. he's hurt, he's angry, he's got his hands deep in the grime of living in the public eye that the public refuses to see, and now he's going to smear it all over himself until you DO see it. at the end of the mv his triumph is not that he washes himself clean, but that he paints overtop. gesso on an old canvas; a fresh start, but fundamentally informed by the things underneath.

taemin uses masks as a way to deface himself. both in the literal sense of removing his face from the equation but also in the synonomic sense of the destruction, the obliteration, the vandalization of himself. of his brand. known as sm’s pretty boy since he was 14, who is he if he doesn’t have his face?

as a general device the masks are an entreaty to address him on his own artistic merit. but they do often have specific meanings within their contexts. in the i’m crying performance it is to remove himself as an entity all together; he is anonymous now, an unseen narrator to the performers on stage.** in move and want it’s for emphasis on his body; proof that he can still ensnare you with his limbs alone. pulling off the veil/reversing it back on in criminal as a revealing/concealing of the two sides of himself on display in the mv. the literal suffocation of one of those sides with a plastic bag. the voice in idea says ‘you are my messiah,’ but the cover of the album denies confirmation of that identity.

there’s more to be dug into here, especially with the ngda act 2 photos but i’d have to go back through my catholic iconography notes again and this would be a lot longer than it already is. i’m also looking at this from a western perspective, there are undoubtedly double meanings specific to a korean context that i haven’t clocked. but that’s the reason i love his work so much! it stands up to a lot of rigorous analysis and there’s always going to be something that i don’t catch right away, something more to learn.

---

* we learned like yesterday that his hip tattoo is a peony, which he named as symbolizing freedom. peonies tend to have primarily positive meanings across east asian cultures, but in victorian floriography, they mean shame and sometimes anger.

** this style of performance is very common in cirque du soleil shows, especially the older ones from the early 2000s. it's pretty common to have a ballad or operatic singer featured as a ‘narrator’ to a specific story section of routine. i’m sure this is probably frequent in other places as well, but i’m naming cirque specifically because that’s where i’ve seen it the most, and also because there is an actual circus performer on stage during this. plus there’s a guy in a pierrot costume, who is probably the most famous clown***. (although the costume is technically wrong because pierrot is supposed to be unmasked. (ironic plays loudly in the distance))

*** clown of the technical variety and not clown of the honk honk birthday variety.

[antoine-roquentin]

Curtis: I am nervous about saying this to you, but I do think computer games have played a very powerful role over the past 20 years in reinforcing that managerial way of seeing the world. I’m nervous because you know much more about the games than I do. But it has always seemed to me that, at some point, as well as running around and shooting and solving puzzles, games introduced this other thing. Which was that you spend a lot of time choosing and managing things – not just how you looked, but what weapons and what powers you had, and how you could balance one against the other to produce the most effective online-being for the system of the game. That computer games were one of the pillars of the modern ideology which says that the most important thing is to keep the system stable

Booker: I’m sure you’re right about the influence of games, but I think you’re describing the front-of-house user experience, which is probably the part that’s influenced the wider world the least. Games where players are juggling equipment and abilities tend to be combat-heavy exercises in perpetual instability, and any kind of management game I’ve ever turned my hand to, where the aim is basically to build and maintain a stable system – whether it’s The Sims or Tropico, or whatever – usually ends in stressful chaos. Although maybe that just underlines why I shouldn’t be running the country.

But I agree that the principles of game design, the background structure, are popping up everywhere. A few years ago I fronted a Channel 4 list show about influential video games. They were listed chronologically, so we started with things like Pong, and the final entry on our list was Twitter, which I described as a “multiplayer online game in which you choose an avatar and role-play a persona loosely based on your own, attempting to accrue followers by pressing lettered buttons to form interesting sentences”.

At the time people sort of scoffed at that, and I was slightly taking the piss, but I do think we were right to classify it as a game, because it’s designed like one. Not just in terms of the “score” feedback, the retweets and likes and so on, but the rhythm of it, the flow of little moments of delight or disappointment, just like a Mario game. There’s a clear gameplay loop where, the more you engage, the less you want to put it down. If Twitter didn’t already exist, you could launch it today on the Steam game store as an RPG.

I don’t want to just dunk on social media, because it gives voice to people in a way that wasn’t really possible before, but its inbuilt tendency to encourage escalating, heightened speech seems guaranteed to ultimately turn a lot of users into performers, a bit disconnected from the complexity of what they feel. Sort of like the way people talk after a couple of drinks. Actually, I don’t know why I’m telling you this, because you touch on it in the series.

I’m not sure if you’ve heard the gaming term “grinding” – it’s sort of half-pejorative; it basically describes a player happily and voluntarily performing a series of repetitive tasks over and over, for hours or sometimes weeks on end, in the hope of some eventual reward. It requires some quite sinisterly well-calibrated game design to work properly. It has to feel like popping blisters on an endless sheet of bubble wrap – monotonous and fulfilling at the same time. If I had to invent a word to describe it, I’d say “emptifying”. I don’t know if it’s as evil as some people think – playing a game like that can be really soothing and oddly meditative. Like knitting. But I remember reading that these grind-y gamification principles are creeping into lots of real-life situations, like Amazon warehouse jobs, to make them feel less tedious.

Anyway, I’ll shut up about games now. I’d love to see you explore game design though.

Curtis: I think that’s a brilliant observation about Twitter. That makes a lot of sense. And I really like the idea of the gamification of everything. It’s also true in politics. Do you remember that man who Tony Blair brought into be his press person – Alastair Campbell? He immediately set up a thing in Number 10 called The Rapid Response Unit. Its job whenever Blair or the government was attacked was to immediately attack back, and monster them before they had time almost to breathe. It was very Twitter before Twitter – but it also had all the attributes of a video game. Number 10 became a place under constant attack from zombies, or whatever, from outside, and you had to spend your time stopping them coming through the windows or up from the cellar. And there was never a time to relax because there would always be another wave.

It was something that Armando Iannucci captured very well in the Thick of It – that constant attack sensibility. But that mood of constant crisis that Campbell created also had another function. It was a brilliant way of hiding the fact that you as politicians didn’t have any real ideas any longer. Gamification as a way of creating a world of constant hysteria that never allows you to stop and ask, “What is this all for?”

And I think that idea of “grinding” touches on something that I know in myself. That sometimes having to do an extraordinary set of repetitive tasks is really calming. I find it when I am editing – when at points I have to do some logging or checking, which is very time consuming. It does allow you to drift into a dream state, which liberates you from all the inner voices. You lose yourself, which, in our very self-conscious age, is something quite unusual. I read a piece a while ago that argued that people’s relationship to factory work in the age of mass-production was much more complicated than we think. That of course it was depressing and exhausting, but many people also liked the repetition in a strange way precisely because it allowed them to move into another state, into a form of calming and liberation.

[thedivinedemom]

An AU of DC with a mass crossover of PS4 properties.

Provisional name: Players Searching for Detectable Changes (Get the pun?)

The setup:

This is the future of DC, a world where the old guard has slowly withdrawn and the newer generations have risen to the occasion. The original Titans in particular, most of which have formed the new Justice League while many other, very similar teams had started to form across the world. One of which was a resurgence of the Teen Titans, led by an older and purified Raven. She wanted to make the Teen Titans something akin as it was for her, a place to belong and learn to use one's powers.

The first 'class' of such individuals include:

Stargirl (of the now-disbanded JSA and still getting used to the Starrod)

Blue Beetle III (Freshly attached to his alien symbiote and freaking out a bit)

Robin V (to work on his anger issues, mostly at the new Batman's request)

Kaldur (a half Atlantean half metahuman who is struggling with his identity and the surface world, Aquaman feels a kinship for the boy seeing their similarities)

Static Shock (a promising new hero but little experience working outside his city or in groups)

Mary Marvel (she's... she's going through alot. Fresh from a coma, her brother is distant as he acts as the new Wizard, and she may be, sorta kinda, being corrupted by Black Adam's gifted power)

The team was rough and there was plenty of head butting (Mostly between Stargirl and Robin/Damian as one is almost the unanimous leader while the other thinks he should be) but they were getting there. They were more of a clean up crew for the Justice League, they did more than the "kiddie missions" that the Outsiders didn't do, and they meant more than the PR grab that was the International team. Though they didn't seem to amount to more than that. They still did their best, pushing past the silent ridicule, as they went about their missions.

This may be why tempers were so high that day.

One day, outside a little city by the name of Weller's Point, the prisoner transport for the villain Plasmus had an "accident". Released and awakened the creature went on a rampage, heading ever closer to the populated area. Luckily, the mentor of the New Teen Titans could teleport. The new team did fairly well in the fight, though they did struggle a bit as Plasmus was not a being where simple brute force would work. It made the fight tricky and more than a bit... messy.

Messy enough that juvenile and emotionally compromised Mary Marvel lashed out against the downed villain but was stopped by her teammates... things escalated from there. Restraint turned blows and the whole team struggled to stop their powerhouse without hurting her. The ones who do the best are Raven, Stargirl, Blue Beetle, and oddly Static.

While both of the former could use their abilities to restrain her to a very effective degree Static was actively draining her of strength, or at least of the electic aura she was radiating and blasting with. Frustrated, done with the situation, and a bit petty Mary launched her largest attack yet by saying her magical word.

SHAZAM.

Virgil did what he did best, he handled that lightning as it came crashing down towards Mary and the Titans restraining her. Well, he tried. The bolt was just too powerful, too unlike anything he had ever encountered. He could not handle it and it was dissipating, if anything it clung to him or tried to jump towards the girl. He had to get rid of it and he had to get rid of it quickly, safely too if he could help it.

He shoved it into the ground, into the power lines. He did it as carefully as he could, trying to prevent overload or flashover as guided the charge into the power grid.

What happened next was a combination of a few things. 1. The Mystic and transformative properties of the Lightning, 2. It is effectively being filtered through a bang baby, 3. The kryptonite power plant owned by, provided by, and operated by Lexcorp.

This interaction, this new charge, cycling through the power grid interacted strangely with a number of devices but none more so than PlayStation 4s and the devices connected to them. This new electricity changed things, literally. It brought fantasy into reality.

Whatever game was loaded into became a part of our reality in a small way. Sometimes TVs, Controllers, and even the system changed to reflect items from the game but the bigger change came with the Players. If a person was playing their console during the surge then they would become a metahuman with abilities based on the playable character they were playing.

The city, the county even, was now flooded by an abundance of metahumans and items of varying power of devastation. Static felt horrible.

He couldn't help but compare what has happened here to what happened in Dakota City but on a wider scale. And this time it was his fault. His sense of responsibility wouldn't, couldn't, let that stand. He had to fix his mistake and his team was dragged along for the ride.

The story to follow is a mix of Final Crisis and Kingdom Come with a bit of the Young Justice cartoon in events and themes, a few twists and likely a bit lighter in tone but to the DC geeks this should give a rough idea… Maybe a bit of Marvel's Civil War but hopefully not the rushed knee-jerk mess that that ended up being.

But it's here that I start having issues with my planning. One part in worry as outside the set up we start to follow the perspective of OCs (something rarely smiled upon) and another part in wondering which OC to focus on.

Now, one thing I love in fiction is progressive powers and the conflict escalating from the different paths people take in said progression. In that vein, I have a pair of protags in mind as well.

The main two/co-protagonists:

The Lawkeeper- a cop before the change and now a member of a task force made up largely of those affected by the surge. A gamer, a man of color, and a believer of the spirit of the law. He doesn't always get along with his fellow officers but he believes in what the blue does. He believes that an organized response is what is best.

His abilities are based on those of Jesse Fades of Control. Meaning he has tremendous psychic potential but he needs 3 things to reach his full potential.

1.Items to bond to so he can generate these psychic abilities. Jesse's used altered items of her universe to get thematic abilities from them (ex: a safe to generate a shield, a carousel horse for a dash ability, ect). Here he can use items generated by the surge.

2. A patron/partner entity to help guide, give insights, and empower. It also let's the user enforce reality, basically becoming an anti reality warper.

3. A bonded morph weapon or a weapon to come to his hand when called.

The knight- a recent college graduate who instantly decided to go the route of the caped hero. She, after figuring out how to get her powers to work, instantly went the route of a caped crusader. Going out to the streets, saving lives, stopping instances of surge item abuse, and (in the humble opinion of the local Police Department) getting in the way of operations. In her opinion they were taking too long to get things done.

Her abilities are based on those of Prince Noctis of Final Fantasy XV. This means she has tremendous physical and magical potential but like the above she has a number of check marks needed to gain access to the character's full power.

1. A gem/crystal to draw power from.

2. 13 magical weapons to boost strength. The generated game weapons will do and I have most picked out in a way that likely would help the plot progress.

3. The blessing of 5-6 gods.

4. A power ring of some king to channel all this power.

I keep debating the two above as I do like the idea of both of them climbing in power and clashing over conflicting ideals of what to do with their power. At the same time, I think that just smooshing aspects of both into one (which is actually where they started, a single character) and play off the different ideologies of how best to help people from within her friend group and precinct along with internal conflict. Maybe have the one be a fellow officer they butt heads with because of the... precarious nature

Another OC I was thinking on, keeping with the theme of what to do when you have power, is a thief who played Persona 5. Like both of the above they would be crippled in their ability to use their abilities without a way to fake the connection to. In this case, without the Mementos App, they would need an item that could affect or enter the hearts of others. Luckily, more unlucky really, there are plenty of items floating around that can do just that. Namely Keyblades.

Most other Players are an odd mix but most are variations of the Shooter build. Peak physical humans who heal quickly and often have bullet time. But there are enough other variations to cause trouble. Demigods of unreal strength, men and women who can easily tap into a patron for powers from the outside, 2 variations of spider powers, cat eyed men and women who can cast magic with simple gestures, and so much more. But the real issue was the first two, the demigods without a parent to protect them and those easily connected to a divine source.

The disembodied New Gods of Apocalypse were very happy with those groups. For how bad this can be please look at what happened to Mary Marvel in canon Final Crisis.

Thoughts and opinions would be appreciated.

[catherdrashepard]

Darrow is Not Going to Die at the End of the Series Part 3

The more I think about all this, the less fandoms I plan on talking about because otherwise there will be like 50 parts instead of 4. For this one, I’m still not done talking about video games. BUT THIS TIME, I will be focusing on Persona 3 and Persona 5 (I’m sorry Persona 4, your narrative doesn’t quite fit the argument.) Spoilers ahead for Persona 3, Persona 5, and Dark Age.

As you all know by now, or at least you should, I am a slut for Atlus. Any games they release I’m interested in and 9/10 I will want to play them. So, it only makes sense that I would bring it up in a post about Darrow not dying. Again though, I’d like to point out that creating an ending for a video game is going to be different due to the fact that it’s reliant on the player.

Anyway, Persona 3. The game focuses on a group of high school students who enter a secret time of night in between midnight and 12:01, called the Dark Hour. Their school transforms into a towering labyrinth that they have to fight through to find out more information about the Dark Hour. They also have to fight large monsters who represent the 12 Major Arcana and, when they all have been defeated, they then have to defeat Nyx. The player has two options before the final fight. If they kill Ryoji, who is the harbinger or Nyx, the end of the world (called The Fall in game) is postponed and everyone forgets everything that happened. We don’t get to see it, but it’s implied that The Fall will still happen, and everyone will die. They just won’t be aware that it’s a thing at all. This is the Bad Ending.

The Good Ending is if you choose to spare Ryoji and when he becomes Nyx, you fight her. Which, btw, is really long because she revive several times. After that, the protagonist has to face Nyx solo and is able to defeat her with the help of their party and all of the other social link the player established throughout the game. The way Nyx causes the end of the world is by combining with Erebus, and so the protagonist uses his own life force to seal Nyx away to prevent this. In the epilogue of the game, called The Answer, this is explained in more detail about why The Fall happens and what exactly the protagonist has done to protect everyone. You play as one of your former party members in this epilogue because at the end of the original story (called The Question), the protagonist is essentially dead, although I think the actual description is that he’s permanently in a coma.

This is where it relates to RR and Darrow. It’s a little different from Mass Effect because the player actually does get to witness what happens after the original game ends and the protagonist is dead. (The Answer takes place during a time loop though so we only get so see how the former party members are doing and not Japan as a whole). This is particularly interesting to me as there aren’t many games I can think of that shows the consequences of the main character dying (permanently) by giving you more playable content. In fact, Persona 3 is the ONLY game I can think of that does something like that. Also, to detour back to Mass Effect, Persona 3 (and 5) also have the same technology issue going on. No one can replicate the big bad so once it’s gone, that’s it. BUT, with the inclusion of the epilogue, it’s possible that there are still things that can be done in the Persona 3 universe, and the protagonist isn’t entirely necessary.

To play devil’s advocate for a second, if Pierce DID decide to kill Darrow, I think it would make the most sense for it to be something like what happened in Persona 3. Darrow would have to finish off the biggest threat (kind of up in the air who it will be by the 6th book), and give his life to do it. This would have to be done before the end of the 6th book, which would continue the story with someone else in Darrow’s circle. Or, if Pierce chooses to kill of Darrow at the end, there would need to be at least one more book detailing the recovery efforts of the rest of his group. I mean, he could do something like Hunger Games (goodness knows there’s plenty of comparisons) where there’s a short epilogue but the difference in that is that Katniss was alive in her epilogue. RR isn’t a video game, so some of the story elements don’t necessarily apply, but it feels wrong somehow to have Darrow just be dead. Especially because every death so far has had some kind of impact to the story.

To continue the Persona thoughts, I wanted to bring up Persona 5. This one is a little bit different because the main character doesn’t die in the end, but there is a considerable sacrifice. Also, I would say the plot of Persona 5 is more similar to RR than Mass Effect or Persona 3 are. In Persona 5, the main characters fight corrupt individuals inside their own minds and change distorted perceptions they have of themselves and the world around them. They usually do this by stealing a “treasure” which ends up being the source of the distorted perception. Now that I think about it, Lysander reminds me a bit of a Persona 5 villain.....which is probably something I’ll put in another Lysander post.

What makes me think of RR is that the main problem lies in the powers at be being corrupt and taking advantage of those they perceive as inferior in some way. This point is especially obvious during the last Palace in Persona 5 (not counting the extra semester in P5 Royal). BUT ALSO in Persona 5, the final boss is called Yaldabaoth, who is the God of Control. It’s another saving the world kind of deal, but your goal is to change the hearts of the general public. Based on the lead-up to this battle, I got the impression that you end up trying to restore the free-will of the people. But the cost ends up being your ability to summon Personas and continue making the same changes you had been. You sacrifice a part of yourself and make the changes the responsibility of the people who should have been responsible in the first place.

I suppose, again, I’m arguing for Darrow dying at the end but....I could see something like this being an end to RR. Where the defeat of the corrupt system requires a huge sacrifice by Darrow. Of course, his life could be considered for that, and I honestly wouldn’t have any idea of another sacrifice that could count, other than his loved ones. BUT, Darrow has already lost so much to this war he is fighting so it could be argued that he has already sacrificed enough to justify a Persona 5-esque ending. Just think of all the trauma, and all strained relationships, and the death of so many of his friends. Also, to bring back the technology argument, once the P5 protagonists defeat Yaldabaoth, that’s it. It’s implied that he can’t come back and cause the same problems. Whereas in RR, the Society has the possibility to return and cause conflict once again.

This last point in particular will be brought up again in Part 4 when I discuss Voltron: Legendary Defender, and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.

[randomidiocyncrazies]

going into more detail about the P2/P4/P5 Persona Q idea, I’m thinking of breaking the cast into the following chunks:

P2 IS: Tatsuya, Lisa, Eikichi and Jun (separated from Maya in Xibalba)

P2 EP: Maya, Ulala, Baofu and Katsuya (before Tatsuya officially joins the party but after the P1 party member leaves?)

P4: entire IT (cultural festival like in PQ, or after fighting the culprit)

P5: all PTs (before Casino heist like PQ2)

Having the P2 cast all come from the EP timeline with Lisa, Eikichi and Jun getting accidentally involved & regaining their IS memories works too, but the storyline would have to revolve around that + Tatsuya’s reaction to justify introducing that plot element imo, cause it’s A LOT to deal with. Also if the overarching plot is centered on P2 (particularly the IS party members), then why are the P4 and P5 casts involved? Also while I think it’d be interesting to re-introduce Philemon and Nyarlathotep to the Persona setting and have them play a bigger part—especially since Nyarly isn’t banished until the end of EP—their involvement might skew the plot too heavily towards P2? (although I admit the “nobody remembers this adventure” ending of PQ games would work especially well for Lisa, Jun and Eikichi here) 

tbh PQ had quite a lot of nods to P2 IS (the clock tower, school mysteries + moving statue urban legend on P4-side, and the true form of the main antagonist). I kinda like the idea of the setting being a fake school like PQ, with details of the school influenced by the persona users when they arrive, but the story might have to be tweaked a bit (different final boss probably, and maybe bring in more themes in P2/4/5). 

potential themes

I liked that PQ and PQ2 had plots that were ultimately about the new characters, since it justifies their inclusion (and i think it’s a bit unfair if the game focuses too much on the cast of a particular game). I have mixed feelings about some of the execution of PQ and PQ2, but I do appreciate the intent behind it. I do think reinforcement of the games’ themes could help make the overarching story more cohesive, so here are some potential themes with P2, P4 and P5 in mind:

rumors, gossip and the role of mass media are important in all 3 (4) persona games here: P2 antagonists manipulate various media to generate rumors, and in turn manipulate rumors to bring about the end of the world; the Midnight Channel in P4 reacts to local gossip and it’s about the casual dehumanization of individuals through media (mostly TV); in P5 people’s perception of the PT is literally a plot point, and the game reminds you of the PT approval rating almost constantly

(distorted) memories is primarily a P2 thing (”worse than death\ forgotten”, Nyarlathotep’s manipulation of Jun and Philemon’s deal to the IS kids, Tatsuya’s ‘sin’) but it could work with the mystery aspect of PQ games. Distorted memories arguably lead to distorted self-perception (P5), and uncovering the truth is P4′s jam

as mentioned in the previous post, the tension between P5′s teenage rebellion and P2 EP’s adult guidance could be really fun to explore and incorporate into the plot. Persona games are about coming of age, but with EP there’s also a secondary theme of guiding the younger generation and fully grappling with adulthood—the heroines of PQ and PQ2 are quite young, but I can potentially see the new character(s) being a little older here (maybe 17-18?)

stroll ideas

Of course the reason why this idea exists in the first place is all the potential interactions between everyone! There’s just so much potential with all the different dynamics and topics they can discuss :3 Here are a few ideas:

Stomping Grounds: P2/4/5 discuss where and how they bust Shadows. P2 “we had to sleep in dungeons sometimes!!!” is incredibly envious that demons aren’t running around the real world for the others. P2 and P4 are jealous of P5 for not having to repair/replace ruined clothes (”you just think about cool clothes and they appear on you?!” “man we should try that in Xibalba...” “it’s really not that simple! Morgana can explain it better, but basically it’s our mental image of rebellion” etc etc).

Lisa’s Brutal Makeover Corner: Teddie gets jealous when Lisa demonstrates her makeup skills on Jun and wants to get dolled up too—he won the Yasogami cross-dressing pageant after all! He has to be the prettiest!!! 

Butterfly Effect: several P4 and P2 characters try to use P5 cast’s knowledge to their advantage, but is stopped by the detective trio to prevent potential time paradoxes

Say It With Flowers: Jun and Haru (and Yukiko?) discuss flower language, share gardening tips, and swap demon/shadow intimidation tactics. Everyone around them is slightly afraid of their enthusiasm on the topic...

Fashion Gurus: Eikichi and Yusuke have a discussion about ~aesthetics~ and comment on their companions’ styles. Kanji is roped into the argument

Fashion Gurus Strike Again: Ulala, Ann and Rise discuss latest fashion trends and comment on the others’ fashion choices

The Audiophiles’ Alliance: Futaba and Yosuke chat about headphones and the greatest bops (with Futaba lamenting she can’t make him eat his words because the song she’s thinking of doesn’t exist yet in his time). Eikichi—aka the great Michel-sama—senses a prime opportunity to get some new fans... 

Strangers in a Familiar Land: Lisa and Ann get into how people tend to act... weird about them due to their foreign looks; Teddie, on the other hand, loves the attention his human form gets from the people around town (and the girls conclude that Teddie would probably get into trouble in a big city)

Everybody Loves Kung Fu Fightin’: Makoto, Ulala, Lisa and Chie show off their moves and swap training tips. Lisa and Chie talk about their favorite martial arts movies and convinces the others to check them out

Big Bro’s Worries: Katsuya and Yosuke complain about their younger brothers, while P4 and P5 protags are slightly smug that they don’t get that much trouble from their sisters, especially P4 protag 

Velvet Room attendants

Since P2/4/5 all have multiple Velvet Room attendants, they’re gonna double up on some jobs to avoid over-crowding:

P2: Demon Artist: he’s in charge of the Workshop. Unlike the other attendants he’s human, so Margaret and the twins are probably intrigued/unsettled by him and Marie might also be curious as someone else who also stays at the Velvet Room but isn’t really an attendant

P2: Nameless & Belladonna: they handle the healing service. They can sense something unusual with the P2 cast due to the split timelines, but it has no bearing on the plot. I’m on the fence whether to include a healing service at all, but if there is one I think it suits them, since their music is supposed to put guests at ease

P4: Margaret & Marie: like their PQ and PQ2 roles, Margaret manages the Persona Compendium and Fusions, and Marie handles skill cards

P5: Caroline and Justine: the twins handle the quests, since Margaret does the fusions. Caroline enjoys ordering the persona users about

[you can find more on this AU tagged under PQ Triple]

[pi-creates]

Hey Pi!!! So far I really liked games you mentioned like King's Quest and TFTB so I'm curious would you like to recommend any other? :D

Depends on what you’re into, anon. And you’ll have to keep in mind I’m mostly talking from a PC perspective, I’m always behind in terms of consoles.

If you’re in to story-telling without heavy gameplay:

I adore Oxenfree. Which is basically a 2.5D game that is a little bit horror, a little bit puzzle solving, and mostly about making dialogue choices to determine your ending. As for the story, you play as Alex, a girl in her last year of high school as she goes to an overnight beach party on an island with her friends. Spooky shenanigans happen. (This game does have some death and suicide related topics/imagery, so be aware of that if that’s something that you’re sensitive to)

For something even more puzzle heavy, there is the Zero Escape series of games. I remember playing the first game on the DS, but the full series is available on PC now. This is another horror-ish game that involves clicking on locations in a room to find objects and solve puzzles. The story revolves around your character waking up inside a locked room with no idea how they got there, and no idea how to get out. The problem happens to be much bigger than just one room, as you find yourself pulled in to a game where breaking the rules, being too slow, or failing a puzzle, will result in a very quick, and very explosive end. (This game also features blood and death)

Then if you’re in the mood for something chill and just fun - I love the Katamari Damacy games. Just... roll the ball. Roll the ball and make it a bigger ball. Roll up the fish and watch them be all wiggly. The story isn’t important, though it is wildly bizarre. Just lose yourself in the absurdity and the music.

Or if you’re in to more gameplay heavy games:

I will always recommend the Dragon Age series of games if you like RPGs. If you’re into fantasy settings with elves, dwarves, mages, dragons and world-ending calamities, then this will be right up your alley. I love it. The games are massive, there’s plenty of side missions to explore, your decisions are important, and the characters are just... I love them. I love the 2nd game the least - but god damn, I still love it. Even if every single one of these games broke my heart.

On a similar vein, If you like sci-fi games with aliens and a little bit of shooting, the Mass Effect games are good too. The original trilogy anyway... though the ending is... well... infamous for being not great. But to put it simply, if you like interacting with the characters, and you like a big universe where your actions have consequences, then you’ll probably like the Mass Effect games.

Then there are the Persona games. I personally haven’t played the first 2 games in the series, but each game is self-contained so you can pick up any and roll with it. If you aren’t familiar, these games are half about your characters social interactions and school life, and half about battling through dungeons full of shadows. The actual threat you’re facing changes between games, but 3, 4, and 5 are all definitely very good games. Also very long games... so be prepared for a long haul.

If you want to play Persona 3, I would recommend getting the PSP version (Persona 3 Portable) since that adds the option to pick the female protagonist - and regardless of whether you usually play these game as male or female, the female route is more enjoyable to play. It balances things out better in my opinion since it lets you befriend more characters in your immediate team. 

And I do also enjoy the Borderlands games - though they can be kinda hit or miss. If you like shooters, and don’t mind some silly or crass humour, then it might be worth a go. Though I won’t lie, the story and humour can sometimes be too much for me too. It just depends on whether you are capable of ignoring the bad parts and enjoying the rest of the experience. And annoyingly, they have some damn good writing at parts, and so it’s frustrating when most of the good stuff is hidden behind a boner joke.

Or if you want to go a little old-school and try one of my favourites from a long time ago... Psychonauts. This isn’t a choice heavy thing, but it’s super quirky and creative. Basically, you play as Raz, a little boy who ran away from the circus to join a summer camp for psychics. You then go on adventures inside people’s heads and try to unlock a secret going on at the campgrounds. Very fun - but you’ll probably need a controller for this one since there’s quite a bit of platforming. 

And that’s all I can think of off the top of my head...

[meredithalden]

DATING SIMS ARE GOOD AND YOU SHOULD PLAY THEM: A MANIFESTO

hello everyone, I am here today to talk to you about the most important literary genre ever created. yes that's right. you know exactly which one I mean.

This write-up presumes that you know absolutely zero about dating sims (to be more specific: dating simulation videogames), except for the fact that they exist. If you didn’t know that, well, now you know that. If any of this is a retread, my apologies. Please feel extremely free to comment, make corrections, additions, pile on, discourse, etc.

Part 1.  JAPANESE DATING SIMS: INCEPTION

Dating sims weren't invented by Konami, but they're the ones responsible for massively popularizing it and establishing all the now-classic genre standards (or genre cliches, depending on how you look at it). Tokimeki Memorial came out in 1994 for PC.

Per Wikipedia, lightly edited for clarity: "In a typical dating sim, the player controls a male avatar surrounded by a variety of female characters. The gameplay involves conversing with these girls, attempting to increase their internal 'love meter' through correct choices of dialogue and action. The game lasts for a fixed period of in-game time, such as one month, or three years. When the game ends, the player either loses the game if they failed to properly win over any of the girls, or they 'complete' one of the girls' routes, achieving eternal love (or getting sex, depending on what type of sub-genre the game falls under). This gives the games more replay value, since the player can focus on a different girl each time, trying to get a different ending."

Tokimeki Memorial (and all of its subsequent sequels and spin-offs) take place during the 3 years of the player character's Japanese high school career, including archetypal events such as the sports festival, the cultural festival, Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's day, and (at the end of the game) graduation.

A poster on the Something Awful forums made an extremely comprehensive screenshot & text-based Let's Play of Tokimeki games 1 through 3, and also one of the spin-off games, where the genders are flipped. In that spin-off, the player avatar is a high school girl, pursuing various boys. (In general, gender-flipped genre variants where you play as a girl are referred to as "Otome Games," i.e. "Games for Young Ladies").

These Tokimeki Memorial Let's Plays are archived here.

In order to understand this foundational series, you definitely do not have to read this whole archive (it's approximately 1 billion words altogether. These games are long and text-heavy), but I would recommend reading reading the summary write-ups for each game in the overview page that I linked up above, and maybe the first couple update chapters for each game, so you can get a feel for the overall vibe & conventions of the genre. Or you can probably find a bunch of video LPs on YouTube, if that's more your style! Or you can play them yourself! (I played Girl's Side 2 on a Nintendo DS emulator, and enjoyed myself a whole bunch.)

I like this particular Let's Play a lot because   A. Reading is just personally easier and faster for me than watching   B. The author is really thorough and takes the time to explain all the idiosyncratic Japanese cultural tropes and references that come up, and I think that's neat.

Part 2.  THE CONTAGION SPREADS

Any game with characters that you can "romance," or build up their "affection stats" by making various choices, owes this mechanic to dating sims.

Some examples of games from completely different genres, which nevertheless incorporate dating sim mechanics:

Every Dragon Age game, every Mass Effect game, every Knights of the Old Republic game (thanks for doing what you do, Bioware!), Fallout 4, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, Skyrim, Grand Theft Auto 4, Stardew Valley, Harvest Moon, Final Fantasy 7, the entire Persona series, The Witcher 3, indie darlings Oxenfree and Night in The Woods…

And also, there are a bunch of games that ARE straight-up dating sims, but stray from the genre-typical high school setting and genre-typical cast of beautiful hetero romanceable characters. They may also stray from the convention of having every character be "winnable."

You probably already know about Dream Daddy, where you play as a dad, and date other dads: https://kotaku.com/dream-daddy-creators-explain-why-you-can-t-smooch-all-t-1797354455

Rose of Winter is about a female mercenary warrior hired to escort 4 handsome princes: https://kotaku.com/rose-of-winter-is-a-visual-novel-about-first-love-1788036938

Katawa Shoujo is about a boy who transfers to a school for disabled children: http://www.katawa-shoujo.com/about.php

Monster Prom is about getting hot monsters to agree to be your prom date: http://monsterprom.pizza/

Part 3.  HEY YOU. YEAH YOU, BEHIND THE LAPTOP. HEY. YOU. I'M TALKING TO YOU.  

*puts on sunglasses*  Let's get...... metafictional.

I’m not going to say much about any of the following games. Just play them. Play them blind, or as close to blind as possible.

Play this:

don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story

Here is a non-spoilery review if you're curious to learn more first: https://killscreen.com/articles/review-dont-take-it-personally-babe-it-just-aint-your-story/

And then play this:

Hatoful Boyfriend

steam store link (DON'T READ ANY STEAM REVIEWS.)

Non-spoilery review here: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/12/hatoful-boyfriend-review-love-pigeons-japanese-dating-sim

And then play this next one.

Be advised that it gets heavy. If you play it at night, maybe don't be alone in the house. Content warning: “This game is not suitable for children, or those who are easily disturbed.”

Doki Doki Literature Club

steam store link (DO NOT READ ANY STEAM REVIEWS. DO NOT READ ANY OTHER REVIEWS. DO NOT READ ANYTHING. DO NOT GOOGLE THIS GAME. DON'T ASK YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT IT EITHER.*)

*If you want to know why it's good, or if you want to know more about the specific nature of the content warning before deciding if this game is okay for you to play, feel free to ask me. I'll let you know whatever you need to know to make an informed decision so you can feel comfortable.

~ The End ~

Thank you for coming to my thesis defense. Everyone, be sure to tell me which dateable dads, pigeons, monsters, and fictional Japanese high school students you think are the cutest and the best and most dateable.

[junkyardlynx]

Pt. 4

“That kid always hanging off you guys...Thom or whatever. Your third wheel. He’s the one that told us the particulars about you.” Diane Lewis spat her words out, caught between anger and dread. She tucked a length of blonde hair behind her ear and continued, fixing the both of us like a cornered rat. We shared a confused glance at Thom’s name. We’d known him almost as long as we’d known each other

“I mean, obviously we could smell the wrongness coming off of you. It reeks. We simply didn’t know what it was. Until Thomas came along and told us who you really were, we’d chalked it up to your family’s history. The Innhamlets - middling necromancers of no particular note according to our ledgers. Amazing how close and yet how far off we were.” She laughed, then. It was true - the “Innhamlets” kept their heads down as far as notoriety went. Their financial holdings were modest for a mage family and their public deeds went as far as “subcontracted spirit removal specialists.” They had no prestigious lineage and no extreme meritorious deeds to their name. 

That’s why they were the perfect mask for us. 

No one outside of our families knew that the Innhamlets were merely an offshoot of the Culaine line, a convenient face to show the world. A Culaine scion would be sent to school and into the world under the Innhamlet name. When the time came, they would either choose to take their place as a Culaine with all the terrible benefits or they could remain in relative obscurity as an Innhamlet.

I’d never considered myself an Innhamlet. I wore the name as a persona and gotten used to responding to it, but there was no chance I’d lead that kind of quiet life. Even if I wanted to, my path was set. 

“It was what, three months ago? Thomas showed up in my office after tennis practice ended. Said he knew what we were, and that he’d help us.”

“And what are you?” Sarisa’s voice was low and sharp, and she rose her foot as if to press it against Miss Lewis’ windpipe. The phys ed teacher laughed dryly and slapped at the foot in front of her face with one hand.

“Loyalists. Cultists, I suppose. Heirs of the Flame.” Miss Lewis’ thin fingers reached up to her red track suit and pulled the collar down. In the space between her clavicle and neck lay a squirming mass of something, just below the skin. It seemed to seethe with an angry sort of heat. My mind was cast back to the mountains of history books in my father’s sanctum below our house.

The mark of Soritoroth, Master of all Second Layer phenomena, said to have been born from the flame of a distant star long before the formation of the Earth. A demon of unrivaled wisdom and unmatched hatred. Scholars have argued and debated over Soritoroth’s calamitous influence, but a few major things have been decided on by the majority. 

The first and most important piece of information is that five extinction-level events have occurred across the planet throughout time. His coming marked the first and greatest change.

Magic had already existed upon the Earth before Soritoroth’s ill-fated descent and first death. Best described as pure “life”, it seeped into every living being in a form called “mana”. His arrival split the world into “two” Layers - the First and the Second, the pure gravity of his being drawing the latent mana out of every creature, sundering their bodies and forming a sort of paracausal “second layer” around and through the earth. This Second Layer, suffused with an impossible amount of man and existing outside the realm of cause and effect, gave form to Soritoroth’s slumbering nightmares. 

These nightmares were demons.

Four more times, Soritoroth would awaken and feast upon the living creatures of the Earth, supping the mana from their marrow before hibernating for eons. His demons would slip through the Second Layer into the First, spreading the seeds for his awakening and, when humanity came to be, influencing their thoughts and actions. Usually without physical form, demons would speak through intermediaries and in lucid dreams, bargaining with a talented mage in an attempt to gain corporeality and walk among the First Layer, where they would shed blood and reap mana for their lost Master. 

Thus continued the cycle.

Until the Ancestors betrayed their demonic familiars and crafted the Seal of the First Layer. The Seal was a stopgap, meant to hold Soritoroth in bondage until someone with the ability to drive him from our star arrived. Apparently that was me. I still had trouble believ-

My reverie was broken as Sarisa’s foot lashed out, striking the concrete wall with enough force to send a plume of dust into the air.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

Woah, she said it.

“You haven’t seen it, girl. You and Jeal have been playing house, falling all over each other. You haven’t seen what’s out there. The chaos, the bodies, the ever-present flame. The fire rises and Soritoroth’s vessel is nearly complete. If you had half a brain in that pretty little head, you’d hand over that reeking sack of mana and assure your survival.”

“I don’t care what you’ve “seen.” I don’t care what you’ve done to your body, I don’t care how many pieces of your soul you’ve sold. I don’t believe a single word you’ve said other than the part about you being a cultist. Why are you even bringing Thom into this? He doesn’t know magic, he’s just a regular guy we’ve known forever.”

“Ah, to be young and dumb again. You two really don’t get it, huh? I’m telling the truth, Jeal Culaine. Thom looked at you two and was jealous. His best friends know magic! They showed him once! They saved him once. And now? Those best friends are falling in love. It’s so delicious, I can’t help myself. You two can’t even see it yourself, can you? He’s been left behind again. So we gave him what he wanted after he told us. In retrospect, it really couldn’t have been anyone but him. He’s been soaking in that delicious power rolling off you for twelve years. Who else could it be?”

“No.” My voice was ripe with despair, my reeling mind barely able to keep up with the conversation unfolding before me. It couldn’t be.

“Little Thomas Jude is becoming something else as we speak, boy.”

The earth beneath our feet began to tremble, nearly bringing us to our knees. It rose feverishly before a crisp snap seemed to kill the rumbling, as if something delicate had broken. With that momentary distraction, Diane Lewis had slipped through Sarisa’s legs and started sprinting for the door, already throwing up barriers of ice behind her in an attempt to cover her escape. 

She was too late, though. 

I’d pulled my lance from a Wound and twisted my hip in the same motion, throwing my body weight forward to release my weapon like a missile. With a horrific crimson crackle, it easily penetrated and shattered the walls of ice, stabbing through the back of Miss Lewis’ right knee. She pitched and rolled forwared, slamming into the dirt just outside the doorway, bleating in pain and frothing fury. With a desperate rage she clawed at the gravel and concrete, nails biting for purchase, but there was no escape. I extended my right hand and concentrated mana into my palm, pulling the weapon - and one Diane - back to me. Slowly. Being raised as a mage hardened my heart to this kind of violence and suffering from a young age, but even I felt sickened with myself. Something dark was rising in my chest. I buried it deeper.

The lance dragged her body along the corridor, covering her body in soot and ash from the bodies that had been sent in by the cultists. As she arrived at my feet, I gently plucked my beloved lance from her flesh. Sarisa cut in, pressing her heel down on Diane’s ruined leg. More screams. 

Her voice was cold. I’d never heard her like this before. It scared me, a little.

“Where’s the summoning ritual taking place? Where’s Thom?”

[thesizeofthefight]

✼ ⚄

✼ - Do you think the character/characters you role play as reflect who you are?

oh sure, to a degree! there’s always something i can relate to in a character i write. it’s part of what draws me to them, because as humans we like to look for that point of connection and go from there, and i think that goes for irl friendships/relationships as well as relating to fictional characters. there’s something about these characters that draws us in and interests us, and makes up want to know more about them; whether that means we more strongly resemble that character than not, or we just want to understand a character like that, both say something about who we are!

do i think i am keith kogane because i write for him? of course not! but do i see traits that i have in him and use writing for him as a way to better understand them/work through them a little? sometimes!

⚄ - Do you play videogames? Have a favourite?

i looooove video games. my all time favorite is always gonna be final fantasy vii because that was my intro to rpgs and still has one of the most compelling storylines i’ve ever played, but a few other top favs:

final fantasy iii, vi, viii, x, x-2fire emblem (i’ve played 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 but none after)legend of manaskies of arcadia: legendsxenogearsdragon age 1-3mass effect 1-3every harvest moon game ever (at least before they switched to story of seasons, i haven’t played any of those. animal parade is probs my fav though)stardew valleypersona 3 & 4 (have five, haven’t played it yet)super mario rpg (and also every super mario game ever tbh)pokemon (gen 1 through.. i think i played sun last???)

i also love those dumb games where you build theme parks. and the sims. and a lot of others. look, i’ve been playing games since i was 9, the list could go on forever

[vansypencil]

Reading Report Task – Identity

Alone together -Turkle Sherry

Always on

     Antipodal title of the book attracts readers’ attention by the first glance, Alone together (2011) by Sherry Turkle, however, this essay will concentrate on Chapter 8: Always on particularly. This chapter focuses on how the intimacy and changes in attitude of people with their communication technologies. Specifically, it is concerned here not with the political uses of the Internet but with its psychological side effects of mobile phones, e-mail, text messages, and online interaction in America. Turkle targeted on a range of people she met at conferences and at Parisian dinner parties and some strangers in millions she encounters on the subway. Those who seem to give priority to online users rather than people who they are physically being with. She further discusses the habit of online role-playing video games by teenagers, making changes that they would like to make in real life by investing in different virtualized personas for themselves.

     To understand Turkle’s point of view, charts above providing data of the tendency of American using mobile phones since 2004, which gives more information of the year 2011, when Alone Together was published. Those statics emphasized the various of opportunities for exploring identity offered by computers and networking.

Turkle does not negate the advantages of communication technologies, she briefly claims it and deeply digs into the downside of the Internet devices. After a decade of developing, smartphone brought into positive impact on business, education, medicine, …; but “we all are cyborg right now”, said Turkle (2011, pp. 152). Resulting, Second life is born, on which she claims is a virtualized space where people are investing their feelings and time on. Here, she differentiates “real life”, in which people are physically living and “cyberspace”. An individual, two worlds.

People can join in variety of overlapping and non-overlapping cultural and sub-cultural groups; therefore, they have different identities at different stages that structure their cultural identity (Communication Theory, 2015). People’s new cultural identity is cyberspace. They contribute on communication, by text, email, mobile phone, …; build virtual society and identity with social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, World of Warcraft, … Each individual on the Internet contribute to virtual cultural community, with their unique personal life history and experience.

Consequently, multiple of definitions are redefined. People who are online is users; chatrooms, websites and social environment are multiuser domains (2011, pp.157), the act of using a mobile phone is considered as watching their lives “scroll by” (2011, pp.163).

Turkle exploits on young generation to clarify her points. She says rendered virtual self are “often the fantasy of who we want to be” (2011, pp. 153) and “lived out parallel lives” (2011, pp. 158). Our relationship on social media changes: “individuals as a unit. Friends become fans.” (2011, pp.168). Cyberfriends are not trustful to share with when certain events happen, such as being ill, children’s success celebrations or death of parents. Overconcentration on video games is popular as:

“[…] the virtual environments were most compelling because they offered opportunities for a social life, for performing as the self you wanted to be.” (2011, pp. 158).

In Turkle’s previous article she produced in 2008, Always on/ Always on you: The tethered self, she provided an example of Julee who role plays her own relationship with her mother with controllable results. She reused her argument on becoming invisible identity. Specifically, book-released-in-2008, Peter’s identity become anonymity, invisibility; and Turkle is treated as if she was not on the train since a drunk man on his phone being loud (2011, pp.155). She might misjudge the latter situation as misunderstanding of impoliteness. Handful of further miserable examples of Internet addicted persons she mentioned which cannot be confirmed whether they are legit, can be easily found in her books.

 If Turkle’s negatively evaluating process of communication technologies applies on any others problems, it will fit. In daily life, even before the invention of the Internet, people at anytime, anywhere have to deal with unsatisfactory relationships and poor intimacy and authenticity one way or another. We cannot consider friends on Facebook trustworthy or not, also in real life, we select those who can be trusted in a group, a team, … We wish for perfect relationships with the loved ones. We want to buy things in our wish list. Most importantly, we always want to show our most idealistic, impressive identity of ourselves to others. Hence, individuals collectively choose who they want to be on the social media. People would not (or at least intentionally) wear gown to job interview or put a drunk picture of themselves on portfolio or do any misbehaviors. The virtual space is one of many raising platforms which reflects on real life struggles.

 According to sociology, new concepts will be accepted and considered appropriate by majority of community in aspects of cultural phenomenon, patterns; language; social structures; gender orientation. In this case, Turkle is on the minority side. Articles with disagreement on her books are available broadly on the Internet. Stafford (2011) had a knee-jerk dislike since he points out her anecdotal assumptions on relationship between human and human or human and robot. He indicated the public had the same moral panic over the invention of mobile as mass production of books. Stafford agrees that we have had this mutual issue for decades; however, he could not find her clarify the outlines of the problem or debate any solutions. Masnick (2012) added Turkle’s argument became was not convincing as he continued in his Podcast.

      My chosen object represents a number of aspects of my identity is a camera. This would be more relevant to Turkle’s points only when I choose to post my photos on social media. I will reveal my identity through the pictures, which reflect my choice of subjects, angles, shooting set-ups, … I partly agree with her on:

“In the course of a life, we never “graduate” from working on identity; we simply rework it with the materials at hand.” (2011, pp. 158)

Completing identity is an everlasting progress. The more I photographs I take, the more fluent I am. I enjoy hiding myself behind the camera and looking through its lenses since I can be on behalf of it. To be more specific, people would feel less awkward when I point my camera at them as if I became the camera or invisible. It is better than their reaction to me be creepily staring at them. Moreover, my intimacy to the camera are making bond together as it is by my side on every journey. I have gradually built my image of me with my camera in my friends’ mind and they are getting used to it.

      In this digital age, self-promoting on the Internet is crucial, I must represent my identity of illustrator and drawing skills for getting known to company and recruiter. Moreover, acknowledging of my doings to the Internet and the Internet’s impact on me is the best method to make use of virtual space. Alone together still provides a valuable knowledge on the negative impact of communication technology unquestionably, along with it, contradictory responses are also reliable consultancies.

  REFERENCE:

1, Turkle, S. (2011) ‘Always on’, in Alone Together: why we expect more from technology and less from each other. pp. 151-170

2, Turkle, S. (2008) ‘Always on/ Always on you: The tethered self’ in Handbook of Mobile communication studies, James E. Katz (ed.). pp. 121-137.

3, Mobile Fact Sheet (2019). Available at: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/mobile/ (Access: 17 th November 2020)

4, Cultural Identity Theory (2015). Available at: https://www.communicationtheory.org/cultural-identity-theory/ (Access: 17 th November 2020)

5, Stafford, T. (2011) Why Sherry Turkle is so wrong. Available at: https://idiolect.org.uk/notes/2011/04/27/why-sherry-turkle-is-so-wrong/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed. (Access: 17 th November 2020)

6, Masnick, M. (2012) Sherry Turkle Says Technology Is Making Us Lonelier Because We Spend Less Time Alone, Or Something [Podcast]. 24th April. Avaible at: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120423/14264618618/sherry-turkle-says-technology-is-making-us-lonelier-because-we-spend-less-time-alone-something.shtml (Access: 17th November 2020)

[sloblesbian]

been doing a new years resolution & reflection post every year since 2014 so im gonna continue that trend. 

personally this was a really great year for me. it’s very weird. things are objectively bad. if you think too much about the future things start to fall apart. there isn’t anything to rely on, outside of my own ability, and that’s limited in what i can do without support. but. it’s not hopeless. i dream a lot of finally graduating and getting a job that will keep me more than just barely afloat, and of what that could mean for me... i won’t graduate for at least 2 year (i need 56 more credits-- i think after 2 years i’ll have 2 more classes to get in, unless i manage either some summer courses or 2 semesters of 5 classes, both of which are unlikely) and even then i know finding a job is hard. theoretically i could start now but i find it difficult to work 30 hours a week and go to school. i’m also afraid that i might make less at an entry level job than at my current job... but maybe this summer i will apply at some bookstores & libraries. 

also... i really love my girlfriend. she’s coming to stay with me for 2 weeks in march and i am so excited. it’s been a good year for us. every day i talk to her and she really understands and like, gets me you know? i am amazed and i fall in love some more. 

also i accomplished a ton in 2017. maybe not the things i set out to (i finished 1 sock that i started last november, lol, and the only short stories i read were a few online and for school) but i transferred to RIC. i only took 2 classes because i couldnt register till june but i got As in both of them and my gpa is a 4.0 which has never happened in my LIFE. i’m excited about the classes i’m starting this month, and after i finish spanish & anthropology i should only have english classes from then on out. i wouldn’t say i love my current job but it’s miles better than working in retail. it’s less stressful and while i’m generally working less hours i am making a little bit more. it feels necessary & helpful as opposed to being in an endless capitalism machine that only exists to grind me down for unreasonable standards. 

but i did read 100 books which was real touch & go for a while.. the first couple months of 2017 i barely read & felt like i had lost my ability to plow thru a ton of books, then the middle of the year i caught up & jumped ahead... fell behind, etc. i finished my last book on the 28th though. i read a lot of comics; my page count for this year is way down, but it doesn’t matter. that’s still damn impressive. 

and for things i didn’t plan at all but still accomplished: i wrote 4 pieces of fiction this year. i mean. they’re all fanfiction, which isn’t really something i even read never mind write, which i think is maybe??? sort of even more impressive? i’m going to try and write some original stuff in the coming year but like. right after nanowrimo, my friends and i, who were previously in the fictional coalition of writers who don’t write, uh, all started writing. which is great. but i mean. i started writing in february? march? i wrote a 10k word fic, and then a short follow up, a short pjo thing, and i wrote another 6000 words this month but it’s not on ao3 cause it’s like... a complementary piece to something that isn’t finished yet, lol. overall about 20k words which isn’t too much in the long run but i like that i wrote 4 completed pieces. it’s nice because i had sort of let myself give up on writing because... i mostly don’t enjoy it. i don’t like scrounging for ideas. but i do like planning things out enough, outlining what i want to happen, and then writing the whole thing. it’s like writing a list and then accomplishing it which... as u know, i love. as far as i can tell uhh most people don’t need to do this. i really have to know like. the end trajectory of a piece before i start writing. i don’t have to know every detail but if i am confused to where it’s going i can’t write it. i’m not great at ideas but i am good at making things happen. it feels nice to accomplish something creative, when i basically haven’t since i uhhh dropped out of art school. 

also, i wrote 47 reviews, which, damn! i (read: my bff & roommate mags) put up a new website, even if it is going to come down this month (i think. i wanna transfer everything first) and i wrote a review nearly every week and a lot of them were good. like. that’s a lot of writing, between fiction & what have u, what category do my dumb reviews fall under. 

(FOOD/DIET warning i dont wanna put it in the tags of the post just skip this paragraph) oh also i cut dairy & eggs (& also gelatin & honey, i guess) out of my diet, & i feel very very good about it (also i think i lost something like 20 lbs-- i don’t weigh myself but uhhh thats good thats very good). when i stopped eating meat in 2010 i lived with my mom & my intention was to one day go vegan but like... i didn’t want to put the strain on her & also i sometimes struggle with food things. but it’s gone really well. it’s nice. feel good. love to cook. very good at it. 

so like...... a really good year for me. here’s what i want out of 2018

i’m cutting my reading goal down specifically because i don’t think it’s something that can grow exponentially and i think the main reason i was able to accomplish it was because i didn’t have too much school this year. when i started setting goals for myself in 2012 my original goal was 50 books; that’s what we’re going back to.

every year (except 2016 when i was realistic) i told myself i would read more short stories & knit more. i’m hoping that having less to read (which i prioritize over all other hobbies) will give me more time. also i have a desk & a chair set up which... idk... helps? i put some knitting stuff there & grafted the toe of a sock the other day, so i hope it does, at least. i read a short story yesterday so i hope that’s a portent for 2018. i want to finish the time travelers almanac at least. i have a lot of collections and i do enjoy them. it’s just easier to get through novels than anything else. 

if u follow my twitter you have probably heard me say this but: 2018 is the year of the video game for me. im, uh, terrible at games- im fairly certain i have dyspraxia, at least mildly (im wildly, wildly uncoordinated)- but for a while i was playing a few because i had done it enough that i had gotten better..... well, this year i played persona 5, which i really loved like. more than any video game in a long time. i know a lot of people were disappointed with aspects of it (rightly so) but i had never played another persona game so i think that probably shaped my opinion some, and also, i think p5 dealt with issues that i really love to see in fiction & generally don’t, even if it ultimately dropped the ball. anyway. it kind of revitalized my interest, and i want to play more. i have p4 that i want to get through. i never finished usum. i have a bunch of games on steam & mags let me sign into their steam library too & they have about 400 games (thats not an exaggeration). i wanna replay me2&3 for sid. i want to practice so i can play games that are more difficult than i usually do. (mass effect being the sole fps i can play, usually i can only play very linear rpgs (think pokemon & dragon age) and uhhh puzzle games, god i love puzzle games) 

so, more concretely:

read 50 books

try to read more short stories

knit more

play video games

do well in school

that sounds good. happy new year.

[biscuitreviews]

Biscuit’s Top Games of 2017 and Personal Game of the Year

2017 was a great year for gaming. Although the end of 2017 has a few people dubbing this “The year of the loot box” with games such as EA’s Star Wars Battlefront II, Destiny II, and Call of Duty WWII, just to name a few, I don’t think we can encompass a whole year of amazing games, from a few outliers.

Unfortunately, for a lot of the great games that came out this year, I wasn’t able to play a lot of them because I didn’t own a PS4 or a Switch. I just recently acquired a PS4 and will be playing catch up on many of these great titles. So the games listed below are the ones that I personally played this year that I really enjoyed.

Mass Effect Andromeda

This will probably be odd to see this game on someone’s “best of” list when this title is going to be on a lot of “disappointed” or “worst of” lists. Personally, I enjoyed Andromeda. I will admit that on release there were some weird animations and the writing was a bit weak in some areas. However, even some of the greatest games with great stories, have some places where the writing in their story was a bit weak. Uncharted 4’s Nathan Drake’s brother that he just never talked about ever is a perfect example of this. Great game with an equally good story, just the sudden appearance of a brother felt shoehorned in and forced despite Sam actually being a good character in his own right.

Nonetheless, Mass Effect Andromeda’s environments were beautifully crafted and the combat was extremely fun. Being able to switch to a different class on the fly to have the necessary skills to fight different enemies adds another element of control during combat. I really enjoyed myself with this game and it’s disappointing that the majority was hung up on the first few hours of the game, rather than playing through the entire game to see it’s shining moments.

Doki Doki Literature Club

Although this psychological horror disguised as a cute visual novel takes a bit to get into, once it reveals it’s true self, the ride doesn’t stop. Without spoiling much, this game slowly and I mean SLOWLY pulls back the curtain to how truly messed up this game can be. The game’s twist is something that truly impacted me and it’s something I applaud this game in accomplishing. If you haven’t played this game yet, go in blind, don’t look anything up, it will make the scares and the twists, that much more impactful.

Fire Emblem Heroes

I had two mobile phone games that I played a lot of this year and Fire Emblem Heroes was one of them. Yes this is a more watered down version of Fire Emblem, but despite that, it’s still a really fun game and will require strategic thinking, especially if you try the higher difficulties. This game eat up quite a bit of my time in the February and March period. It’s also one of the few mobile games out there that gives you plenty of opportunities and chances to build your team and gain new units without succumbing to microtransactions and it was something that I really liked with this game.

Magikarp Jump

The second mobile game that came out this year that I played quite a bit. This in my opinion was the definition of a great mobile game. It’s a game you can play for a few minutes while waiting in line because of how easily you can start and stop a play session. The ability to play the game offline was also an awesome feature and once again you can go through this game without purchasing any microtransactions.

Cuphead

Although I never finished this game, the 1930s cartoon aesthetic of the game was truly unique for a video game. I also loved how the story was built with couch co-op in mind. Yes you can play this game solo, but it is clear that the ideal way to play this game is co-op with a friend. I also really liked the easiness of how co-op was handled. You can be playing a game and have a friend join you while your playing in the overworld and they can exit out just as easily. The difficulty of this game was also one of the key on the major points with this game and it’s no joke. Many gamers have compared the difficulty of the game to Dark Souls. Now, personally, I have never played Dark Souls so I can’t really say for sure because I never played Dark Souls. Something I hope to remedy in the future.

Horizon Zero Dawn

I’m actually currently playing this game and I have to say I am loving it so far. I definitely see why gamers and critics alike just can’t stop talking about this game. It features a strong female protagonist, it’s a sci-fi setting, it’s open-world, and you get to fight robot dinosaurs. On paper that sounds like a fantastic idea for a game and it really is. I will be doing a review of this game once I complete it. It may take me a bit because I bought the Complete edition which included all of the DLC for the game.

Sonic Mania

In celebration of Sonic’s 25th anniversary, Sega decided to release not just one but two Sonic games. This is a game that is a love letter to Sonic’s past and is appropriately priced. This is a must have for fans of the Blue Blur, especially for those that grew up playing Sonic during his golden days.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of Wild

This is a game that really allows you to explore and experiment with its world and mechanics. To this day, many players are still finding neat things that you can do to where people are still saying “You can do that?” I can’t help but wonder what other mechanics and secrets are still to be uncovered. My favorite moment, although simple, is still something that I will always remember.

When I started the game I was wandering around the Great Plateau. I saw a small group of bokoblins at the bottom of a hill. I was at the top of the hill and next to me was a boulder. I pushed the boulder and it rolled down the hill crushing two of the three bokoblins. Simple, but something I’ll always remember.

Biscuit’s Game of the Year: Persona 5

This is my personal game of the year. This game not only made advancements into the turn-based RPG formula, but everything blended so well together. The menus, the interface, injecting personality into a silent protagonist, it’s a fantastic game. Completing the main story took me 101 hours and that was just going through the main story and doing some side quests and missions.

It also gives more of an emphasis on choice, not in a narrative perspective, but in a gameplay perspective. It’s something I think many people often forget when it comes to choices in gaming. It doesn’t just have to be only narrative choices to shape the story, it can be choices in gameplay to make things easier or harder during the journey. Do you increase your social stats to be able to increase your Confidant rank? Do you work a part-time job to have money for items and weapons? Do you hang out with a Confidant to increase their relationship to gain advantages in combat? All of that will shape how your gameplay experience will go and what advantages you’ll have throughout the game.

This is easily my favorite game of the year and is a definite must play. Even if you’ve never played any other Persona title, this is the game to play as it’s friendly to new players in the series.

I actually started playing Persona 3 right when Persona 5 came out and worked my to it. Also as some of you might know, my first review on this blog was Persona 3 and I marathoned the modern Persona games back to back to back.

[princehandsome]

So, I wanted to make a list of all of the games that came out in 2017 that I actually played, and kind of briefly discuss what I thought of them. 

The list ended up being longer than I thought, so the games and such are under a readmore! Everything is pretty much spoiler free, minus some very light, first-hour spoilers I talk about when it comes to the premise of a game.

The main highlights of this list are: Resident Evil 7 is my game of the year, because it’s so damn good, and also it was a really rough year as a Dangan Ronpa fan, because New Dangan Ronpa V3 fucking sucks.

The year kicked off really strong with Resident Evil 7, which I was incredibly excited to play after the electrifying E3 trailer, and the playable teaser. This was fresh off the cancellation of P.T., so there was a big hole in my heart to fill, but Resident Evil 7 knocked it out of the park with ease. The whole experience is so amazing, managing to inject some good survival horror elements into a tired franchise to revitalize it, while not losing that over-the-top, B-Movie Resident Evil charm. The DLC only elevates it, with the Banned Footage tapes being bite-sized additions of the gameplay you love, while stuff like Not A Hero and The End of Zoe changes up the gameplay in fun and amazing ways.

Hitman has never been a franchise I’ve been into, but I decided to try the new episodic version of it that’s come out recently, and it’s a lot of fun! I’m god-awful at stealth games, but the game offers you some pretty cool guided assassination plans, if you’re terrible like I am, while more experienced people can find faster or more elaborate ways to do it, off-script. It’s a lot of fun, and if you’re into stealth based games, I’d definitely recommend it.

Being a recent Switch owner, naturally I had to pick up The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as my first game on it, because, duh. It seems like a fun game, but there’s something there I just can’t get into; maybe it’s not giving me the story fast enough? Maybe it’s the sometimes wonky controls? I really can’t say. The combat is easily my favorite part, but I find myself losing interest when I’m not finding hidden treasure or slashing enemies to pieces.

An extremely controversial game to come out this year was Mass Effect Andromeda, the newest Mass Effect installment and the first one to not be made by the main Bioware team, as far as I can recall. It’s true that a lot of the faces are wonky (or at least, they were on launch, I’m seeing that patches have made them better) and that some of the writing is weird, but I still really enjoyed it. Combat has never been better, and the RPG elements are still satisfying enough to keep you invested. Any game that lets me really customize my character and pick some relatively diverse speech options has my heart from the start, and there really wasn’t anything in Andromeda that lost me. Frankly, I’d love to see this team tackle another Mass Effect game, using what they learned from Andromeda, but that probably isn’t going to be a thing after the reception to it.

Being incredibly into Dangan Ronpa, it may come as a surprise that I’ve never played Zero Escape, so when I got Zero Escape: The Nonary Games as a Christmas gift, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’m barely an hour into the game, but I’m super into it so far! The puzzles are cool and fun, all of the characters are interesting so far, and the plot gives a very effective air of tension to everything happening. This game is definitely going to be what ends up scratching my Dangan Ronpa itch for 2018, but I’ll speak more about Dangan Ronpa below.

Being a huge Persona 4 fan, I was pretty optimistic about Persona 5, which my fiance @shutupshea was really hyped up about. I’ve gotta say, I really don’t care for it. Persona 4 was a game bursting with optimism and love, with tons of warm interactions with total random strangers, and even through the dark events, the main theme of it was friendship, and love, and the different ways that can manifest. The only real theme I got out of Persona 5 was... the world is bad, and people are bad? People in positions of authority will always abuse their power in the most over-the-top, cartoonish ways? Don’t get me wrong, I know that there are a thousand shitty people in a thousand positions of power, but it just feels overly cynical to get beaten over the head with it in every line of dialogue from every single character. The gameplay seems fun and deep, I just can’t really get into the narrative of it.

Being a fan of Outlast, and a super fan of the Whistleblower DLC, I was really pumped up for Outlast II, and it was... okay? It was kind of a mixed bag. On one hand, I think there were a lot of good gameplay improvements, and the overall pacing of the story felt like it moved along at a better clip, leaving me less frustrated. I also thought the ending was much, much better, via having greater emotional impact. On the other hand, I felt like some of the dark elements were... too dark? Not to say they like, personally offended or disgusted me, moreso that they made it difficult to take the game seriously. When you see the fifteenth mass grave, it less horrifies you, and more makes you go “how can there possibly be this many dead people in one town?” Overall I liked it, and I’d recommend it to horror game fans, but it was a lot weaker than the first game, and doesn’t even hold a candle to the Whistleblower.

Prey is a game everyone’s super into, and having played two or three hours of it so far, I’ve got to admit... I don’t super get it? Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun, and it reminds me a lot of the original Bioshock; the design is good, the weapons are varied, there just isn’t anything there that keeps me... super interested, I guess. It wasn’t like Rapture, where it’s filled with all of these incredibly colorful characters and antagonists, it just seems to be goo aliens and your dickhead brother trying to stop you from regaining your memories. I’m assuming some big bombshell is coming soon, but my main issue with it is that the plot feels incredibly... vanilla, in the early game.

I think I wrote a blog post about the original Injustice, which I was gaga over, and Injustice 2 is an improvement... somewhat. The gameplay is good, and the customization of each hero/villain is awesome, really letting you craft a distinct visual and gameplay style. That being said, I feel as though the story was much weaker (until the very end, the last couple of chapters are very emotionally strong) and the roster of characters was a little disappointing. No Nightwing... No Deathstroke... No Doomsday... What’s the point? Overall, it’s a worthy sequel, but it didn’t top the first, in my heart.

I didn’t want to put any remastered games on my list, but the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy earns a spot through virtue of being a remaster of such an old game series, leading a lot of people to play it now for the first time. I’m a huge Crash Bandicoot fan, it was my game of choice growing up, and I still fondly remember playing Crash Team Racing with my parents (where’s that remaster?). All in all, it’s a very competent remaster, with basically all of the weird quirks and certainly all of the difficulty in-tact, and I’d highly, highly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t played Crash Bandicoot before.

Telltale’s Batman Season 2 managed the unlikely feat of making me really enjoy a Telltale game, episode by episode. I really loved the first season, it being the first Telltale game I’ve ever enjoyed, but I had to ask myself if I’d still like it if I had to wait 1-2 months in between each episode. Would it hold up, having larger expectations for each episode? As it turns out, it certainly holds up! Having cool and original twists on each classic Batman baddie, a tone and visual style that’s right at home with the best of the Arkham games, and just generally dynamite character writing, Telltale’s Batman is fantastic for fans and newcomers alike, to the whole Batman mythos. Now, where the heck is Deathstroke, and where’s my Batfamily, Telltale!?

Back when it first came out, I played about two weeks of Destiny, non-stop, before I got really bored and jaded. I never bought any of the DLC, because I’me one of those people that thinks that you shouldn’t have to pay money to have a good game, but it got at least a solid chunk of my time, and some good memories with my buddies doing Vault of Glass. Destiny 2 held my attention for about two hours before I went “this is boring” and turned it off.

Never played anything in the Divinity series, but a buddy of mine recommended Divinity: Original Sin 2 to me, as it’s an Oblivion RPG, and it was new, and I could play it for free off of his Steam account. I must have put, I dunno, ten hours into it? It’s an extremely good RPG, but mostly I was put off because, and I’m showing my age here, it just felt too old. I didn’t hate it for that, but eventually there’s only so long I can spend in a top-down view of tiny character models, clicking buttons on a hotbar. There came a point where I just got sort of tired of the gameplay, but if you don’t mind stuff like that, then Divinity: Original Sin 2 is probably like, one of those hundred hour RPGs.

Now, I’m obsessed with Dangan Ronpa. My avatar is Dangan Ronpa, my header is Dangan Ronpa, I talk about Dangan Ronpa almost constantly. It’s safe to say Dangan Ronpa is my favorite franchise ever, even moreso than stuff like Star Wars, and Super Dangan Ronpa 2 is probably my favorite game of all time, despite my misgivings with it. So, you’d think New Dangan Ronpa V3 would be an easy GOTY for me, right? I’ve played through two chapters (the prologue, and Chapter 1) and I got a little bit into Chapter 2, and I reached the verdict, almost right after Chapter 1 ended, that New Dangan Ronpa V3 actually sucks a butt, and is probably the worst Dangan Ronpa game thus far. Whereas other games had very strong emotional cores and casts of characters you instantly fell in love with, New Dangan Ronpa V3 has left me feeling cold on... just about everyone. There are a couple of characters I like, here and there, but for the most part, I just... don’t care about what happens to any of them. Anybody could get murdered, and anybody could be the culprit, and I’d basically feel nothing. I don’t find myself curious about what the overarching mystery is, I don’t find myself pondering the identity of the master mind, I just... don’t care about any of it, which is probably the most damning thing I could say about a Dangan Ronpa game.

On the subject of sequels to games I liked, The Evil Within 2! I always thought the first game was actually pretty good and a lot of fun, and I’ll love Joseph Oda until I die, and the sequel was... pretty good? It falls into that area for me where I think all of the gameplay improvements were great, but overall the story was much weaker, and so were the characters. It didn’t feel as fun or varied as the first game did, like it had the same amount of imagination, but in much lesser quality. Out of the three main bad guys you fight, only the first one is really interesting, and the recurring Anima enemy was the only super memorable boss fight. Overall, it was a fun followup, but I still like the first more.

Doki Doki Literature Club came out of nowhere and took the world by storm, and I’m so so glad I was able to avoid spoilers about it and go in relatively blind. I knew that it had a horror twist to it, so I was expecting it to start glitching out and having eerie stuff happen, but I really wasn’t expecting to get so invested in it. It’s an experience that’ll stick with me for a long long time, and I’ll never forget the best girl, Natsuki. The game is amazing, and if you’re reading this and haven’t experienced it, go do it! It’s free on Steam, and try to stay as blind as possible!

I’m one of those people that buys Call of Duty every year. I always have fun with them, they always keep me occupied for a few months, and I generally don’t have anything bad to say about them. There’ve been some weak years, especially with Black Ops 3 for me, but Call of Duty: World War 2 is a competent little package to bring CoD back to its roots, in both a literal and figurative manner. An emphasis on classes, boots on the ground, World War 2, it’s basically everything the fans asked for, and it’s pretty solid! My only complaint is that I think I’m getting too old for twitch shooters, because my aim and reflexes are getting god-awful, even though I used to be amazing back in the CoD4 days.

Star Wars: Battlefront 2 is an even more controversial game than Mass Effect Andromeda, from Loot Boxes to laggy servers to yadda yadda yadda... I never really had much of a dog in the fight, to be honest. I play stuff like Overwatch and Counter Strike, so loot boxes are pretty par for the course (Counter Strike even makes you pay them to open the box!) and while these boxes did technically give an advantage, I don’t find that the Star Card system allows for anything too wild, as far as power gap due to lootbox elements. By and large, I didn’t care, but it seems as though the narrative of the game has basically become the loot boxes, leaving many people unaware that it’s actually a fun game! There weren’t any paid lootboxes present at launch, so all lootboxes here are earned in-game and in-game only, and usually just contain garbage anyways, so most of what you’re going to be doing is from gameplay too. All in all, it kind of makes me sad that this was the game people decided to rail on for lootboxes (despite so, so, so many other games having them and getting away just fine) instead of holding it up as a massive improvement over the first game. Overall, I still think it has some flaws, but with a full year of free DLC and many features (like trooper customization!) being confirmed to be on the way, I’m really happy to be playing it now. Honestly I think I play Battlefront 2 more than Call of Duty, or... any game on this list. I really really like it.

[solidandsound]

My goal for 2017 was to beat 50 games. Unless I finish anything else over the next couple of days (doubtful), my actual number is 46, which I’m still quite happy with.

Some of these were games I’d already started before 2017 (e.g. Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, which I played most of throughout 2016 and finished in January). Many were small indie games, some only a few minutes long (e.g. Secrets Agent, which is maybe ten minutes). Some were more middling offerings (e.g. Aerannis, which I clocked 8 hours in), and some were the big, exciting games that 2017 is coming to be known for. There are also many games I played significant amounts of this year that do not count towards the above number because I haven’t finished them (like World of Final Fantasy, which I got for Christmas last year but still haven’t finished despite returning to it every couple of months).

DLC also makes calculating that number a little more difficult, especially the way DLC is more frequently being handled. Final Fantasy XV was released towards the end of 2016, and I ‘finished’ it, at the latest, in early 2017. But that was only the main story. There are a few DLC episodes out now (I’ve played two of them) as well as story improvements and a bigger DLC campaign. I could finish those, but the developers have stated that there’s going to be even more DLC in 2018, which is bizarre for a game that’s a year old, but less bizarre now than it used to be. Breath of the Wild’s DLC took a while to be released (also not part of the above number for that reason), and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 looks to be releasing DLC until at least autumn 2018. For a person who likes his games to be one and done, this trend is frustrating. Companies want their games to last longer, to remain fresh in our minds so we can give them more money. This is largely antithetical to the pursuit of games as an art form, and it’s also annoying. I like finishing things. Not knowing when the DLC is gonna stop robs me of the satisfaction of saying a game is complete, of adding it to my end of year count.

The best game I played that came out this year is almost certainly Persona 5. For all its failings, it is a solid, polished RPG that at least tries to tackle social inequality. Most of the games I really loved that I played this year are actually from years prior, however. I’m glad I finished Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne this year, because it made me appreciate Persona 5 even more.

I dove into two older series I’ve always loved this year. One is Breath of Fire. The only BoF game I’d completed before was IV, but I’d played a lot of III as well. I went through I, II, and III in 2017, finishing the entire main series (Dragon Quarter notwithstanding). IV remains my favourite in the series, but all the games are oozing with charm and personality. Very few games manage to feel as original as BoF, even though they are, at the series’ core, standard JRPGs.

The other series I dove into is Xenosaga. Last year I replayed Xenosaga Episode I. This year I replayed Episode II and then finally, finally finished Episode III. I’ve long considered I to be one of my favourite games of all time, but III is a masterpiece that manages to surpass it. Its only faults are in the spaces where you can tell the series was supposed to have more titles in it before it was cancelled prematurely, and maybe one annoying sidequest. And the fanservice. Otherwise it is nearly perfect, and ends the series beautifully. The KOS-MOS showdown near the end has got to be one of my favourite gaming moments ever.

On the indie side of things I loved Read Only Memories, the queer sci-fi I’ve always wanted; Curtain, an artful representation of abusive relationships; Even the Ocean, a mindful environmental fable with impeccable mechanics; We Know the Devil, one of the most poetically written visual novels I’ve ever played; Lieve Oma, a touching tribute to memory; and Strange Flesh, a bizarre gay sex beat-em-up. I also loved Longest Night and Longest Night: Lost Constellation, two free side games for Night in the Woods, which is definitely on my list of games to play for 2018. If you were curious but not sold on NitW, play those two games and they will sell you on it.

Which brings me to the games I’m looking forward to playing (and/or beating) in 2018. Night in the Woods is up there, and they just released a fancy new expanded edition, so it seems like the perfect time to finally jump in. The new Steven Universe game, Save the Light, is out now as well, and given how good Attack the Light is, I would be a fool not to play this one. Blue Reflection also has me curious, as a Persona-lite game with magical girls, even though it’s gotta be a fanservicey mess. And I can’t forget about Tacoma for more queer sci-fi.

I plan on doing a deeper dive into the Shin Megami Tensei series as well. I’m already playing Persona Q and Tokyo Mirage Sessions, and 2018 is the year I finish both of them. Once those are off my plate, I can jump into Digital Devil Saga, which was gifted to me this year, and then more of the core series, maybe starting with the first Shin Megami Tensei on iOS. Who knows when SMT V on the Switch will be out, but I want to burn through more of the series before it gets here.

I’m also playing and plan on finishing Atelier Sophie (might check out more Atelier after), Beat Sneak Bandit (and I still have Bumpy Road to play to finish my Simogo backlog before they announce their new game), Bravely Second (the devs keep hinting at a Bravely Third), Fire Emblem Fates (it’s just Revelations left, and I wanna beat it before getting to Echoes which was a Christmas gift), Valkyria Chronicles II (stoked for VC 4!), and as I’ve already mentioned, World of FF and Xenoblade Chronicles 2.

In my backlog to be hopefully played this year are Horizon Zero Dawn (I’ve been wanting to play this since it was announced!), I Am Setsuna, Kentucky Route Zero, Lost Dimension, Mass Effect 3, Muramasa, Nights of Azure, Owlboy, and lots, lots more.

Some games coming out in 2018 I’m looking forward to are Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker’s Memory, Radiant Historia Perfect Chronology, Alliance Alive, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, Ooblets, Heart Forth Alicia, The Last of Us 2, and Kingdom Hearts III (not sure about 2018 for those last two though).

Shout-out to Splatoon 2, the only multiplayer game to keep me playing even though it doesn’t satisfy my craving for endings because it never fucking ends. It’s just that good.

I hope 2018 is relatively slow for new game releases, so I can do some much needed catch-up. 2018 also looks like it could be a good year for my writing career, as long as I focus enough, so I’m only planning on beating a modest 40 games. If you’ve read this far, feel free to chat me up about what games you’ve played this year. As evidenced here, I can go on forever about video games.