#I played on randy adventure story because I could not bother to play on a hard difficulty lmao

[thosepoorsoulswhodwellinnight]

In other news i launched a 20 year old cow named Gretel with cataracts on both eyes into space yesterday so that was fun

[beyondthetemples-ooc]

“Why” tags are going here because Tumblr’s a baby who can’t handle all these words at once. :P

Why:

#but i spent my whole life absolutely CONVINCED that wings belonged on my body. it just... tok me a good long while to figure out Why.

#Oh THAT'S why everyone's freaking out over that post.

#at first I was like ''Wow this is Srentha to the core!'' And then I read ''why this unreasonable answer at the sight

#honestly this is why i'm basically addicted to empty-mind meditation?

#??? why do people do these awful things to Good People though

#i don't know how or why and i don't remember ever having Learned about That Letter? but my mind automatically knew it was 'hath' somehow

#Of course that DOES beg the question of why a LORd of CHAOS doesn't... you know. CHANGE it? ??

#first of all: REM WHY ARE YOU COMING to OHIO of all places???

#okay but. randy how did they MEET what's the STORY why are they HATING on TEXAS

#or like. a Sarcastic Joke because cyborg was once like ''why aren't you miss mary sunshine''?

#''What are you DOING. You RUN. ALWAYS RUN.'' and i was like. ''why bother getting into adventures if you're gonna RUN though..''

#I don't know why but I always score better on Customer Service Questionaires when I choose responses like ''I'm sorry

#i've never seen that still before and I CAN;T FATHOM WHY because that is FANTASTIC!

#I don't know why but ''novice suddenly ends up with super incredibly powerful abilities'' is one of my FAVORITE TROPES!

#I have no idea how/why but these just gave me Massive Leyla and Srentha Feels.

#my usual turnaround time for Dreams to Real Life is about two weeks. not sure why but it happens to like 7 people in my immediate family

#Especially with the bells. I don't know why but bells always remind me of that place. ~<3

#Nobody intrinsically knows how to solve problems that hurt another person. That's why COMMUNICATION is so important!

#also: Good Post re: Why Danny is So Actually-Great

#why does everyone spell ''bear with me' like that?

#i know right? Why did I never think of that??

#why do i love this so much

#that's basically why Evanescence became my favorite band. it's not all romo-/sexually-centric

#i've always read it the same way and didn't notice Why Everyone Stopped Liking Her but that also brought that particular Change to light...

#groans eternally in Tumblr's direction. why even bother with all these updates.

#Oh THAT'S why Eda could do glyphs! /joke

#thaaaat's probably why Fancie Word Choice has always been a strength in my writing.... {lD;;;;;

#velvet and sheer... why have I never seen that combination before? It's GLORIOUS

#That's probably why he's so good at spontaneous Travelling too. Lots of practice when trying to find her... /owo

#This is why House and Senate votes count though! The President may have a lot of control over the military but a strong H+S

#I know MC Escher was a master of this (whatever This is) and that's why he's one of my favorite artists.

#okay but I'm intensely curious why he didn't have a plan to take HIMSELF out and thought he'd have to rely on THEM dsfndsgmfhdgj

#I wonder why he'd need to attack/defend while shifted? Can he also use such magic when he's not shifted?

#but I think that variety is why her every new album is so refreshingly Different.  Her singing ALONE improves so MUCH with every album!

#the only difference is that I imagined the fire came with smoke and that's why her gasp was so strangled and she grabbed her throa

#honestly this is why i'm basically addicted to empty-mind meditation?

#i'm cleaning my room and i misplaced it. badfnmkngjf;lk this is why i hate cleaning

#but scenes like this are why i love DC's latest gen of animated movies

#that Friends As Family theme was super important to why i love the 80's comics too..........

#this is why i read fanfic

#i think she feels slighted in some way but i can't pinpoint Exactly Why let alone HOW.

#and it's like.. Halfo f why lapis's characterization is so Shaky for me? Because the girl barely talks??? And she has like 7 Speech Modes

#^^^^ GUYS THIS WAS ALERINA. This is the environment Dove was raised in! This is why losing her mother tore her apart! ^^^^^

#This is so so SO important and delves deeply into why language is so important for learners and general humanity alike. ~<333

#that's why my tag for Old People Stories isn't specific to any generation. it's just Shitty Adults Being Shitty

#I write primarily about OCs and I know that's why my readership is so low. I write stories for a Dead Fandom that has declined sharply.

#you know? so that's why my Affirmations Tag is like 60% Steven UniversE Content at this point. 8F It's Helping Me Learn!

#It's a CIRCADIAN THING not an INSOMNIA THING. I don't know why my doctors don't believe it's NOT the same as INSOMNIA

#oh is THAT why my love language is ''all of them''?

#and i hardcore headcanon ry ouwearing glasses when he gets older. so why not?

#i Suck at the aCTUAL DRAWING art but i'm i na bit of a fallow period with the org and personal life. so why not?

#i'm already planning an aviary for the doves. so why not? (they'd be Very Separate from teh raven though. for obvious reasons)

#let's add to the Emotional Whiplash of Today pile. sure! why not!!

#but i got the dvd and i have vlc so why not use them i guess? i already had it in the drive for the extras and this way there's .....

#She can hop dimensions so why on Earth-- ALL the Earths-- hasn't she Been Relevant to ANY multi-timeline crisis yet???

#yes of fucking COURSE Dove and the rest are in Team Transition too!! Why on Earth-- on ANY earth! wouldn't I transition them too?!

#so why on earth did danny chase get shafted so hard?????

#about WHY or if she's GONNA be OKAY or HOW or--

#So gentle and soft and concerned and really quite quiet and subtle... which might be why others didn't pick up on the Love Vibe

#but the last one I reblogged didn't have that specified! 8O i don't know why one of my special interests is Unusual Instruments

#why WOULDN'T you snog a snitch if it could bring your dead loved ones back though? Why on Earth WOULDN'T you???

#but it's about ''they're very different. but they're friends!'' It just never talks about why or how that's important.

#(i think that's her full name for some reason but i don't know why or when i heard/saw it. somebody please correct me if i'm wrong!)

#I must be an Asker. I've never understood why people are so convinced they Can't Say No if someone asks?

#i also think PTSD makes you react to fear Differently from Pure Adrenaline Responses... but i can't unravel Why right now

#And also at the time I couldn't fathom why someone would think she was autistic. because i didn't know myself

#god this foreshadowing was just. so sincere and heart-rending and when this episode came out I *DID* wonder why she'd say that...

#I'm STILL trying to figure out why Srentha thought Dove was confessing that she has heartworm. (i know she Does Not in fact

#at first I was like ''Wow this is Srentha to the core!'' And then I read ''why this unreasonable answer at the sight

#i can't figure out why though

#If my Harmony Core theory is correct: it would explain why they're playing their music So Hard.

#the fact that my first reaction was ''why though'' is..... concerning?

#raven's like How? Why The HELL. and dove doesn't have a good answer besides ''it felt like i needed it.''

#fun fact: i misread this as ''zatana zatara / MICHIGAN '' and i was like... ''why the fUCK--''

#i don't know why there's all this fanart of

#and also sugar skulls are delightful but you should really know what they MEAN and REPRESENT and WHY they're sweet and flamboyant

#if someone is passionate; angry; or distressed over a topic: She doesn't always understand WHY until they EXPLAIN it. If they do at all.)

#oh hey why was THAT line never a meme

#this is why we need

#but that doesn't make it any less FRUSTRATING because I've been wORKING THROUGH the pptsd and why won't it STOP?

#(because that's why we have to pay for everything from movies to individual channels now. let's be real)

#i've never understood why winter and fall were the only ~fashionable~ seasons for wearing black.

#I mean to be FAIR some of the government DID mobilize and that's why we got the Stimulus Bill.

#But DC... this bullshit is why we can't have nice things

#and as soon as I looked it up: y first thought was ''Oh is that why we call them Abner?'' My second was ''Is that what *I* am?''

#also if you're as powerful as zee it probably comes second-nature so why WOULDN'T you throw it around to stop an argument?

#okay but if SPINEL doesn't know then how/why would BLUE know

#what? no i didn't just stare at this for a solid two minutes and read it over five times. no.. why would I do that?

#that's because it's not ''cool'' to hate on it so why would it be ''cool'' to like it ironically?

#why WOULDN'T you snog a snitch if it could bring your dead loved ones back though? Why on Earth WOULDN'T you???

#but it's not like a ragey angry thing. it's like........ war of attrition? why yes i think i WILL sign the 47th petition for the same thing

#over and over again and rewound and replayed until i got the whole spell written down. why YES I'm a little hyperfixated! why do you ask!!!

[professorprophetess]

Companions in Video Games

Within games, especially RPGs, you will inevitably come across companion characters for your protagonist to interact with or have a starting party that you are with or will gather. These side characters all have different aspects to them and add stuff to the gameplay experience over all. How this has changed over time is interesting. Going back as far as the fourth generation of games on the SNES there is Secret of Mana that comes to mind. Next I’ll just jump ahead and across platforms to Kingdom Hearts for the PS2, and finally we round this out with two more modern titles: Diablo 3 and Persona 5. There are countless games I could have chosen, but for this these are the ones I’ll use.

With Secret of Mana the player character—Randy— starts off alone after getting kicked out of his village. Then after the first few quests he gains Primm—the female warrior— and Popoi—the sprite child— as companions. Along the way the party characters do have some plot relevance here and there but from then on, that’s who are in Randy’s party through the conclusion of the game (Secret of Mana). The companions are given their own motivations as they adventure with Randy helping him on his quest, and they tie in, but much of what is done is story mandated and the companions are there.

This is similar to how companions are handled with Kingdom Hearts. This time player character—Sora—not only starts off alone but ends up having to fight a major boss alone and then ends up on a new world before he is paired up with Mickey Mouses’s sidekicks: Donald Duck and Goofy. They do have interactions throughout the game, and there are guest party members that can be swapped out for one of the pair since the party is limited to three characters. However, a lot like Secret of Mana the interactions between Sora, Donald, and Goofy doesn’t have much impact on the game that the characters can really affect. They’re just there, as friends because the game says so (Kingdom Hearts).

Whenever we jump ahead to the modern games I’ve selected —one a Western RPG and one a JRPG—things are a little different with the JRPG than the Western One but not by too much. With Diablo 3 you still gain companions when the game dictates that you will, especially those that will accompany you into battle. Another departure between Diablo 3 and the prior games is (unless you’re playing online in a multiplayer mode) you are limited to only one companion character. Each of these characters have an initial quest that is played with them and afterwards they are free to be chosen. They even have other specific side quests related to them depending on what part of the game the player is in. Also given time are the three artisans that can be recruited to the hero’s cause. Covetous Shen, Miriam the Vechin, and Haedrig the Blacksmith. Not only are these three also quest activated (through the first play-through that is) but as artisans they can be leveled up and occasionally there will be side quests that can be undertaken to expand more about them. e.g. Haedrig’s apprentice disappeared with his hammer, if one explores one of the first maps enough, they’ll find his apprentice met a sticky end. Speaking with the companions can also reveal more about them and unlock new bits of dialogue if one had been a bit lax in doing so prior (Diablo 3). However, as interesting as all of this is, beyond the initial things, none of these are mandatory. The player is given a choice on whether or not they want to continue grinding through the side character dialogue that isn’t banter whenever they’re with whatever hero the player’s chosen to play (in my case, I’m always a female wizard). You can unlock an achievement for taking the time to talk to them, but beyond completionists seeking achievements, the game leaves it up to your choice. Whereas with the prior games mentioned the companions’ stories really don’t go beyond whatever the main plot demands but you also were sort of given an easy way to resolve most of the pertinent threads to these characters. Which leads to the most recent game Persona 5. Like Diablo 3, the party member companions are unlock able through story based missions from which they’re permanent members of the party afterwards. Certain other companions (or confidants as they are in Persona 5) are also unlocked by story events—e.g. Sae Nijima. However, beyond that, the player has to go out and make the choice to find all the other confidantes that they can unlock and level up certain abilities to even start on that confidant bond. For instance, the character of Haru Okumura is one of the last party members to join the party in the main story of the game. Yet, in order to even start her confidant bond the player character needs to have specific levels of Charm and Knowledge to even start with her. Now, the player doesn’t have bother with these but it will severely hamper their game later on as the stronger the bonds between the protagonist and the other characters he can have relationships is, the more abilities cheaters can unlock—especially those in the main party (Persona 5).

Persona 5 is not the first game to have this be an option by a long shot, but it’s become more common as of Persona 5’s release to have a system where the player has to recruit characters to be friends or even recruit party members in some cases of games within the prior generations, e.g. Star Ocean. However it has become more common and understandably more complex in how you go about interacting with companions and/or recruiting them. See BioWare’s two most popular RPG franchises for instance: Mass Effect and Dragon Age. I think this evolution in party member recruitment is partly due to technology growing to allow this and a way to make games more immersive as well as add some variability to game play. e.g. In Persona 5 my first play through I had the protagonist romance Ann but in my second play through I had him romance Haru. I also, in my first play through, missed out on a lot of the companions because I didn’t know to look for them and the five social stats—knowledge, charm, guts, proficiency, kindness— had areas that were lacking for those relationships. It gave me something to work on to open up new options for companions and later new side quests. Same could be said for Diablo 3’s companions. The difference between them is in Diablo 3, the companion quests were added by Blizzard to occur after merely talking to the companions as opposed to grinding out the relationship in different outings like in Persona 5. When looking back to the past and to the present, companion relationships are getting more sophisticated in RPG games because it is both a trend that players seem to like this, and it adds more depth to the games. “Do you think an RPG do without these relationship aspects and still be fun” one might ask me and the answer is: yes. Not all games have to do this, take the most recent Kingdom Hearts title for instance. It’s certainly an RPG but it does not do any of that and is still a very well received game (Persona 5, Diablo III, Kingdom Hearts III) . In short, as games change and evolve, so do many aspects of game play. The companion systems are just one of those.

Works Cited

Diablo III. Blizzard, Windows, 2012.

Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 Collection. Square Enix, PS4, 2017.

Kingdom Hearts III. Square Enix, PS4, 2019.

Persona 5. Atlus, PS4, 2016.

Secret of Mana. Square Enix, SNES Classic, 2017.

Works referenced

Dragon Age: Origins. BioWare, Windows, 2009.

Dragon Age II. BioWare, Windows, 2011.

Dragon Age: Inquisition. BioWare, Windows, 2014

Mass Effect. BioWare, Windows, 2007

Mass Effect 2. BioWare, Windows, 2010.

Mass Effect 3. BioWare, Windows, 2012.

Star Ocean: The Second Story. Square Enix, 2009.

[sending-the-message]

The Night a Demon Called My Late-Night Radio Show Part 3 by blackfridayswitch13

Part 1 Part 2

As I mentioned before, there have been numerous experiences throughout my life. It just went into overdrive after the phone call from Randy the night he and his demon or whatever he was possessed with called me.

Not to mention, there was that woman in green that kept popping up throughout the following years, so let’s address that. I had gotten married and we had a daughter, Olive. Olive was always my pride and joy and she was a lot like her mom. She was smart from a very early age and even had a bit of my sense of humor. She had started kindergarten and after that things started to get weird.

She was just a normal 5-year-old, at first, then she began to tell her mother and I stories about her new friend. Her new friend would visit her on the playground at school. She said her new friend was nearly 7 feet tall and after a while based on the stories she told about Henrietta we confirmed that she wasn’t real. There was the fact she could fly for one, and the other walk into walls and go through them.

My wife, Beth, and I just played along as it isn’t unusual for little kids to have pretend friends. We would hear Olive talking to herself in the attic that we had converted into a playroom for her. She played with her Barbie dolls talked to no one and she was basically a kid with a lot of imagination.

One afternoon my wife was showing Olive how to make Christmas cookies. They had the kitchen a complete and total mess and Olive was just giggling playing and rolling out the dough and making things out of them. Beth was trying to show her how to use the cookie cutters, but Olive being who she was wanted to make her own things. That was Olive, always thinking outside of the box.

My mother looked at the shape of one of them it appeared to be something with a head and feet but couldn’t make out much more. She put them in the oven and they made every color of the rainbow to ice them with.

Finally, they were done and cooled off enough to decorate them. My wife showed her how to put eyeballs on Snowmen with little black sprinkle eyes she had bought at the local craft store. Olive laughed at the eyes and she seemed to want to put them on everything even things that shouldn’t have eyes like the candy cane shaped cookies.

Then Olive got out the icing and started to really concentrate on making one of them. She was serious and determined to make it look perfect. Beth noticed her daughter seemed to really be concentrating on her little project.

“Olive what are you making there a Christmas tree?” my wife asked puzzled because Olive had been using all the green icing and most of the black.

“No, this is Henrietta my friend.”

My wife stood over her and just watched as Olive painted her little cookie. “What is Henrietta like?” she asked as she watched Olive take out the red icing for lips.

“She is nice, she tells me things about stuff.”

“Like what things?” asked my wife slowly beginning to realize that something was odd about this Henrietta.

“Like stuff mommy, like how her friend the Master is always watching and how Evan and Maria are only nice to me because they want to trade the sandwiches with me you make for me.”

“What? Who is the Master?” Olive laughed, and my wife just looked at her. “Look Mommy I made her belt just like she wears on her green dress.” My daughter didn’t know the difference between a suit and a dress but when my wife told me later I knew then that the woman in green had been visiting my daughter.

Things got even weirder after that though. Olive had been told by my wife she was not allowed to hang out with Henrietta until we met her.

“Okay I am excited for you to meet her!” she had said and then running off to play.

My wife and I looked at each other. I had told her about the weird radio show call and the story of the weird woman in Green. Who was she? At least I had some sort of name for her now. I pondered calling a priest even though I was not Catholic. We hoped by telling Olive that we needed to meet her friend that if she was just a ghost she would maybe stop bothering with her on her own. Then maybe this woman would leave my family alone once and for all. I know it sounds crazy, but it was worth a shot I thought.

The next day I was sitting at home alone and my wife was in the backyard with Olive. They were hanging up Christmas lights and Olive was playing in the snow. I heard a knock at the door and when I went to the front door to open it there was no one there. I thought maybe it was Olive trying to be funny and went back to my chair and the television show I had been watching.

I heard the door knock again and I got up irritated this time. I opened it wide and again there was nothing there. I was about to go tell Olive to stop playing around but I let it slide. Kids would be kids.

I went back to my seat and sat there for about 10 more minutes when the knocking began again. This time I had it. I looked out the back window and I could clearly see Olive and my wife building a snowman. There was no way Olive could have gotten to the front of the house and then the back that quickly. I gulped and went to the door again and slowly opened it this time.

Again, there was nothing there and I started to feel uneasy. I looked around and then I looked at the front porch. There was a box just sitting there unopened with a red bow on top of it. Had it been there before? I just grabbed it and took it inside and sat it on my kitchen counter. Whoever had left it must have really wanted me to find it since they kept knocking. Who left this box? What was in it? I looked at the package it was a gold box with a big red ribbon on it and a little card.

I opened the card as it did not have a name on it. I looked down at it reading it in disbelief.

“KJ, Master is still waiting, in the meantime please enjoy. -H”

It was short and simple and all the proof I needed that Henrietta was real. I looked inside the package and it was an Obituary for a Randy of Louisville Kentucky. Randy? Randy? This was all the proof I needed that Henrietta was indeed real. Who was she? What was she? My face went white as I stood there. I read and re-read the obituary numerous times but nothing really stuck out.

When my daughter came in the house she smiled at me. “Daddy did Henrietta bring you the gift she told me she was going to give you?”

My wife and I just looked at each other. I had to find a way to rid myself of this woman.

The next few days I noticed Olive seemed depressed and so my wife and I sat her down to ask her why she seemed so sad recently.

“Henrietta said you guys don’t like her, so I can’t play with her anymore. Why can’t I play with Henrietta Daddy?” I had so many things going through my mind as what to say but my wife spoke for the both of us.

“Because we asked to meet Henrietta and since she doesn’t want to meet us, you can’t play with her.” It sounded reasonable but later that night my daughter woke from a nightmare, at least I thought it was a nightmare.

She was balling her eyes out about her favorite teddy bear trying to pull her hair and how it had hurt. My wife and I were not sure if it was real or if it was just another bad dream, as kids often have them.

“We have to do something!” my wife said to me.

“I don’t know what to do!” I said to her.

Then it dawned on me, Jim now had a group of friends he hung with that did paranormal investigations. I figured I would call him in the morning and have him come by.

I had not seen Jim in almost 7 years, but I found him on Facebook. I messaged him that night to see if he was free to have a beer the next day or sometime in the coming week. I left him my cell number and told him to call me or text me.

The next morning, I got a call from a very enthusiastic Jim. He had not changed one single bit.

“Hey man I’m free tonight after Abby takes the twins to ball practice.”

I agreed, and we met up later that evening. I found it easy to talk to Jim even after all the years that had passed by. We both were married now with families. When I asked him if he recalled the woman he had seen that day she came to my door he nodded and seemed uncomfortable.

“She was freaky as freaky comes man!”

“Yeah, I don’t know how to explain it, but she has been following me for years.”

“Years?” he asked confused. I then told him about the night Randy called me from that radio show, and what happened to me that night and even weirder how after I moved in with him she followed me and that is when he met her. I explained to him about Olive and the package.

“There is only one reason I can see she is around you. It’s Randy.”

“But why?”

He chugged the rest of his beer and sat it down hard on the table. “That is what we have to find out. What do we know about Randy?”

I pulled out the obituary, I had brought it with me just in case. He looked at it and then gasped. “Did you even look at the date of death on this?”

“I think why?”

“It’s three days from now.”

I looked at Jim and I could not feel my feet. It all didn’t make any sense. How could I get an obituary for a guy with a date in the future?

We decided to track down Randy and find out if he could help us figure out what was going on.

I told my wife what we had planned to do, and she offered to help in any way she could.

What we managed to track down his last address thanks to the White pages on the internet. Randy didn’t have social media or anything like that, that would have been useful. Instead, we did things the old-fashioned way, we got in our car and traveled to Louisville.

There was a cold front that caused a mighty snow storm on the way which we both found odd. It was like some sort of supernatural force was against us from the beginning. Of course, Jim was in his element and was enjoying every second of this adventure.

A stroke of luck hit as soon as we crossed the Ohio boarder. There was barely any snow in Kentucky, so we kept driving. We found the little house that was where Randy lived and when we got there we braved the way up to the door and knocked.

We waited for what seemed ages and were about to leave when the door opened. I thought I was going to be sick. It was Henrietta that greeted us with a smile.

“Hello, can I help you?” smiled the older woman. There was something off about her, though she wasn’t wearing 5 inches of caked on white makeup and she wasn’t wearing the green suit. She had her hair up in a bun and wore a white sweater like someone’s sweet little grandma. There was no way this was the same person.

“Is there a Randy that lives here?” Jim asked first.

“Oh, yes that is my son. My name is Pamela perhaps I can help you. What can I do for you?”

She must have recognized the strange look on both our faces and she noticed the cold brisk air.

“You know what? Why don’t you two come in and chat I just made some homemade eggnog. Please.” She said insisting. We both looked at each other and went in.

I sat the table and she handed both of us a napkin and a cup of eggnog. The house was small but very clean and I knew then this was not the same woman.

“You two look like you just seen a ghost.” She laughed sitting across from both of us.

“It’s because you look like someone.”

That is when she got a strange look on her face. “You must mean my mother.”

We both looked at each other. “Did your mother wear a green suit by chance?”

“Oh, that horrible color was her favorite. She died in 1947 when I was just 6 years old. She was a horrible person, and mother. Tell me what did that evil witch do this time?”

I slowly explained to her my story and she listened and seemed to understand. Then she took out something from her glass curio cabinet. It was a small photo album of a little girl with black hair just like her mothers. The woman standing next to her was a much younger and more attractive version of the woman in green.

Henrietta, it seemed, was very involved in a practice of occultism that involved making sacrifices to the ancient God Moloch. It was crazy she soon went crazy and apparently, she only got this way after getting involved with a very influential man in the local town. He was very involved in an organization like Satanism or something. She had nearly tried to kill Pamela in a ritual when her father came home from work just in time. He ran her off with a gun and she never saw her mother again. She died in a car accident a few weeks later, as she was on her way to meet her lover.

“She is still haunting people and wherever she shows up bad things happen. I noticed it with Randy when he was younger. He had some weird encounters and then I had to call a friend of mine who was sort of a medium. She told me the only way to get rid of her is to always have something around you that is either lavender colored or smells like lavender. She hated lavender I know it sounds crazy, but it is like its own exorcism.”

“Why would she send us here? I mean she gave us this obituary for Randy? "What about Randy? This was left on my porch the other day, that is actually partly why we are here." I said handing her the obituary.” asked Jim

“It was to scare you. She wasn’t counting on you being smarter than her. Demonic entities often try to trick people. It is the fear she feeds off. You can’t be afraid no matter what you do.”

We sat with her for a long while and then thanked her.

So far, we have followed her advice, and we keep lavender flowers all around our home, and my daughter’s room is adorned with lavender flower decorations now.

Olive still has strange encounters but so far none of us have seen Henrietta. That was over a year or so now. I’m just hoping it stays that way. There are signs that she is still around, I have heard of other people having encounters, but my family has been free of that old bat in green since the night we met Pamela. We couldn’t be more thankful for her.

[geekade]

Geekade Top Ten: Hopes for the Secret of Mana Remake

While I’ve never considered myself a “hardcore gamer,” the videogames that I’ve played throughout my life, I’ve played exhaustively, and Secret of Mana is one of those games. Over the past 24 years, I’ve spent hundreds of hours playing through this adventure-RPG, and although certainly not a flawless game, its visuals, music, combat system, enemies, and sheer fun make it one of my favorite videogames of all time.

A few weeks ago, I was ecstatic when I learned that a remake of Secret of Mana is scheduled for February 2018. While the trailer for this remake reveals, among a few other things, updated graphics and voiceovers, there are still many unanswered questions regarding what will be redone for the new version. I’m not expecting, nor do I want, a complete overhaul of the SNES game, but there are some things that I hope the re-designers have considered and improved upon. Bust out those tiger bikinis and fire up some fairy walnuts, because here are my top 10 hopes for the Secret of Mana remake!

10. Better A.I.

The reason why something so important is this low on the list is because it’s such an obvious problem that needs correction. Everyone who has played this game has likely encountered a situation where a quick escape was impossible because a party member was stuck around a corner. We’d hit that invisible wall, unable to advance out of harm’s way because of faulty A.I., and it was game over. Unnecessary backtracking on a screen in order to get a character “unstuck” or having to switch characters in the middle of intense action is an enormous annoyance. Hopefully the production team solves this seemingly simple problem, because I do not want to encounter the subpar A.I. that I’ve been dealing with for over two decades when I play solo.

9. Reduce the use of recycled sprites

While this is surely still a common practice, in the 90s, this trope was everywhere in videogames. The slightest color change between characters meant that they were completely different characters, even though they otherwise appeared identical. For example, while Tropicallo and Boreal Face are likely related, shouldn’t the latter look a bit more intimidating, considering it’s a stronger boss? This might seem like a small point, but increased size, meaner facial expressions, fangs, spikes, and other additional features, would cause enemies to appear more threatening as the game progresses. I don’t think the production team needs to create completely new characters, but since so many enemy and boss sprites are reused, I think more than a color change is necessary, feasible, and an opportunity to make enemies look more interesting. Modern games can display plenty of detail, so I hope the development team takes advantage and updates enemies’ physical traits.

8. Improved weapons

As weapons are upgraded, it becomes increasingly time consuming to charge them and execute powerful attacks. Why even bother doing this when a spell takes seconds to cast? Sure, magic points are limited and so are magic-replenishing items, but during later-game boss battles, weapons are nearly useless. Although the player can somewhat control the A.I.’s behavior with the “action grid,” if all three characters charge their weapons simultaneously, that may leave the party open to attacks, and definitely slow progress. By shortening the amount of time it takes to charge weapons, the game can move at a pace suitable for the battle system. If weapons were more effective against bosses, players could truly work in unison and avoid the effective but mundane spell-spamming system.

7. Improved Magic

I don’t believe that the original system to level up magic is a bad one, but near the end of the game, it takes an unreasonable amount of time to completely level up different elementals. Having to cast a spell nearly 100 times in order to fully power up a single elemental is a pain in the ass, but that has to be repeated multiple times for the two characters who wield magic. I would like this task to be even just slightly easier, instead of the tedious chore it becomes on the SNES version.

Furthermore, the spell animations and the types of spells themselves could be improved. “Evil Gate” sounds very sinister and scary, but the actual animation is just a weird portal that spins, makes a creepy sound, and then disappears. Perhaps a claw could reach out of it and grab an enemy. There are plenty of different possibilities for different spells, so I believe that creativity could be applied to much more magic in the remake. Also, instead of 3 spells per character’s elemental, why not 4 or 5? If enemies’ weaknesses are tweaked, this could add a lot more fun to an already cool and creative magic system.

6. Careful with the music

The remake will apparently contain “new musical arrangements.” Does this mean the original compositions will be replaced by completely new songs? Does this mean the same songs from the SNES version will simply be updated with fuller sound? Does this mean a bastardization of the original music? While the song in the new trailer is fantastic, at this point, fans can only speculate about the rest of the soundtrack’s quality. Secret of Mana certainly doesn’t have the enormous soundtrack of something like Earthbound, but this game has some of the most amazing music on the SNES. Each track, though varied in style and instrumentation, invigorates each scene and area with perfectly fitting music, and regardless of the variety of musical styles, the entire score still feels cohesive and complete. Each composition is a goddamn masterpiece, so I am very defensive and a little nervous about the remake’s music. I hope that each track remains largely the same, perhaps only complimented with more vibrancy.

5. Let Flammie fight

Don’t get me wrong, I love Flammie and he is very useful in the original game, but I think adding a few assists in battle would really make him a badass. Come on, he’s a dragon! Perhaps instead of directly entering a fight, he could simply help the party attack an airborne enemy. Even if it’s just once in the game, let Flammie destroy a castle or stomp on a boss. My point is that he has a lot more potential than just a convenient mode of transportation, and I think this remake is the perfect opportunity to prove that point.  

4. A bigger world/more exploration

While the world of Secret of Mana looks pretty big and some of its locations are beautifully detailed, there are only so many places to go, and some of those places are very small. On the SNES, areas may appear huge while the party flies over them, but up close, those areas are either inaccessible or simply consist of a few screens. I think that this can, and should, be expanded for the remake. It’s well documented that Secret of Mana was originally intended for the SNES CD add-on, but much of the game was scrapped when that peripheral was cancelled. Among other things, many areas and paths in the game were deleted to save space for an SNES cartridge. Nearly 25 years later, limited cartridge space is not a concern. I hope there are expanded towns and routes between them, and even new areas, castles, and dungeons.

3. Cutscenes for more story

The Mana Tree’s origin, Serin’s final battle, Popoi’s village, Primm and Dyluck’s history - there are so many chances to embellish the story of Secret of Mana with cutscenes and additional dialogue. As I’ve mentioned, a lot of content was removed from the original game, and Ted Woolsey allegedly had only 30 days to translate Secret of Mana. Since there are no longer such constraints, I think it would be amazing to see visual accounts of events that took place before the beginning of the game, and additional dialogue between characters as the game progresses would serve to enhance the experience. I don’t think movie-length cut scenes or a novel’s length of prose are necessary, but the developers of the remake have a chance to truly enrich the story that this game can definitely deliver, which ties in with my next point.

2. Make the Generals less general

Something that I’ve wished since I was a child is more focus on the villains of Secret of Mana. I’ve always loved interesting villains, and while this game has its share, none of them are characterized very well. Sheex, Geshtar, and Fanha stand around most of the time they are present and don’t feel like they are true threats until they transform into monsters. Was Sheex trained in Ninjitsu as a part of the Emperor’s army? Did Geshtar have to get a license to ride his flying motorcycle? As a primary antagonist in the game, Thanatos most definitely deserves an origin. Has he always liked eccentric headwear? I hope each of these villains is granted a spotlight and history, because interesting characters lead to better storytelling.

1. A better final fight

The evil empire and its generals have been defeated, but there is still one thing left to do in order to save the world: defeat the Mana Beast with the Mana Sword. The visuals and the music during this fight are amazing, but unfortunately, the combat is lacking, and the small platform on which your party can move hinders the climactic battle of the game. I hope that there is something larger to stand on than a handful of small squares, and more to do than cast Mana Magic on Randi, only for him to stand around and charge his weapon. Perhaps a large section of the Mana Fortress could be designated for the battle, or even the entirety of it. The battle could move around the Fortress as the Mana Beast tries to attack from different sides and angles. Allowing all three characters to get more involved offensively would certainly make this battle more fun, especially if it’s multiplayer.

In the original game, the Beast casts “Wall” in order to negate offensive magic, even when your party dispels it, so perhaps this can be changed. Allowing the other characters to consistently attack with both weapons and spells, albeit damaging to a much lesser degree than the Mana Sword, would make the battle a lot more engaging. Even Flammie could be utilized here. This is the end of the game! The final fight! Make it more unique and fun!

So there are my top ten hopes for the Secret of Mana remake. What do you want to see in the new version? Is there anything that I missed? Did I ask for too much, or too little? Leave a comment and let me know! In the meantime, I’ll be endlessly pacing back and forth in anticipation of February.