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notebooks-and-laptops · 3 years ago

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Dragon Age Inquisition Mod Recs

And finally we reach inquisition. I have...so many mods for this game. As before, all are from Nexus Mods and currently I’m only using DAI mods (though if I ever branch out to frosty I will do a separate rec list for those). I’ve marked the ones I deem ‘essential’ as **.

Character creation Mods

**Enhanced Character Creator - THE dragon age inquisition mod for character creation. It completely revamps the character creator; adding blood swipes, hair colours, letting you edit how ‘shiny’ your skin/hair is, all sorts. It also re-organises the character creator so that things are grouped together a little bit more sensibly. The only issue I’ve ever found with it is that it crashes with Qunari inquisitors.

Hair

**Modded Hair in DLC - make sure you have this installed if you want your modded hair and hair colour to show up in the DLC’s, otherwise you run the risk of crashing the game

**SK Hair retexture - retextures the hair for your inquisitor so it’s less clumpy (particularly modded hair), there are a few options to chose from that give the hair different looks

SK Hair Pack - a great range of hairstyles for every kind of inquisitor, this is where I got DeLila’s hair from as well as a few others

SK Mini Qunari Hair Pack - be warned, some of these clip (the long ones) but they’re really lovely. This is where I got Aban’s hair from if anyone remembers my pics of him.

Qunari Ponytail - what it says on the tin; a ponytail for FQ (this was Taash’s hair if any of you remember my pics of her)

Qunari Ponytail Long - what it says on the tin; for FQ

Qunari Female High Bun - What it says on the tin; for FQ

Tweaked Bun - for HF, DF, EF

Crown Braid Hairstyle - HF, EF, I have an inquisitor planned for this hairstyle who I am very excited about

Bob with Bangs - EF, DF, HF, a really lovely replacement to the normal bob with bangs in the base game

Gameplay Mods

**Party At the Winter Palace - This mod is one of my most essential mods, it lets you bring everyone to the winter palace. You’ll still sneak around with whatever team you pick, but the others will be present for you to talk to and ask their opinions on things. Which just makes sense considering the fact that they all imply they were there in dialogue post-quest. It also means you’ll always get Sera’s Red Jenny quest.

**More Banter - exactly what it says on the tin. Inquisition has shitty banter times. This helps improve that.

**More Inquisition Levels - I like to do everything in my DAI playthroughs and I like to buy the manuscripts that increase your inquisition levels to get the perks quicker. This unfortunately means I often max out early. This lets you continue to collect the inquisition levels/perks post level 20.

**Immersive Starting Armours - just makes the role playing aspect of the game better in the beginning, with plenty of options to chose from.

Schematics Spree - allows you to get the schematics for all the main weapons etc. in the game early in the shops around Val Royuex. Great for if you’re playing an elf and want the dalish armour early.

World Tweaks

templar banner banned - is your inquisitor anti-templar? Does that templar flag on the stairs to your quarters piss you off? This mod removes it

Improved Mabari Textures and Recolours - anyone else think Cullen’s dog looks a bit...off in Trespasser? This mod fixes the appearance and allows you to pick a preferred coat colour

Stephy’s Odds and Ends: Two Moons - In here you’ll find the files to add the canonical 2 moons Thedas has back into the game in the Hissing Wastes. Again, another small thing but it makes my brain happy

Dress Up/Dress down - a complete revamp of Orlesian NPC’s outfits throughout the game. It’s absolutely stunning as far as designs go. Personally I use ‘Dress Up’.

Band of Misfits Portrait Replacers - This replaces the character portraits you see at the left hand side of your screen. A nice thing to change up the feel of your game every now and then

Inquisitor Armor Leather Shoulder and Thigh Pads - I get...irrationally angry at the stupid leather bits on the warrior armour that never seem a good colour to suit my inquisitor. This is a quick fix for that and just edits their colours slightly.

PJ replacers

Vashoth Maiden - For FQ, I really like this one for my more feminine Qunari women

Scion of Glory - for MQ, FQ, pretty looks for your inkies who like to show some skin

Jammies of the Kadan - All races/genders, I love these, they all incorporate the Dragons Tooth somehow. I’m using the elf one for my current inky Merripen and it really suits him

Casual Jammies retexture Elf Female - for EF, really beautiful and fancy casual outfit for your inquisitor

Eles female elf Jammies rexture - I love these! They’re the first PJ replacer I used back when I was playing Gwyneth.

The Carta Cut - the best dwarf PJ retextures out there, particularly the Gambeson which I used with DeLila

LL Inquisitor Uniform - EF only, a more understated change to the inquisitors PJ’s

Nimue: Ra'lah PJ Edit - EF only, but stunningly beautiful

Skyhold Outfit Mesh Edit - HF only, this also works with Frosty - very pretty knitted jumper style I can’t wait to try

Companion Appearance/Outfit Mods

Warden of the North: Blackwall Remade - I just use this for the man bun but I LOVE the manbun on Blackwall.

Cole: Angel and Demon - a retexture for Cole that makes him ever so slightly creepier

Silver Knight: the Celtic Commander - Beautiful Outfit Mod for Cullen

The Golden Lion - another outfit Mod for Cullen

Nasty Girl Sera - a patchwork outfit for Sera which really fits the vibes of her character. I’m honestly completely in love with this mod and use it always.

**NPC Subtle Tweaks - get’s rid of the shinny/oily skin affect on the NPC’s. I don’t use the Cullen/Cas/Leliana face edits, just the no-more-shiny ones.

Dear Lady Montilyet - pretty outfit retextures for Josie

Josephine Hair and Face - Again, I just use the hair in this one, but there’s a file that let’s you just use that (same as with the Blackwall one)

Winter Palace Outfits

**Exquisition - the BEST Winter Palace outfits imo. They’re all stunningly beautiful

Exquisition Remix - a remix of the above mod

Inquisition Branded Finery - has the inquisition logo on the back of the formal wear + various colours

Inquisitoral Fashion - there’s only a few DAImods (rather than frosty) in here, but again, they’re all stunning. They’re very shiny though if you’re not into that

Winter Palce Outfit retexture - I don’t like this one as much as the others, but it has a more dalish feel for your elf inkies

Champagne and Truffles - Again, not one of my favs, but a silky retexture of winter palace outfits

Sumptuous Silk Finery - More silky retextures of the outfits based on Champagne and Truffles

#dai #dai mods #dragon age mods #dragon age #dragon age inquisition #sera #blackwall #winter palace #winter palace outfits #formal wear #cullen #cole #josephine

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goldenxchoices · 2 years ago

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Choices LIs

I've done something like this before, but it was nearly three years ago, so it's time for an update. (Plus, I saw this floating around, and I was bored, so why not?)

Books with a single LI: I tend to default to the female version of any customizable LI, especially on a first playthrough. I'll sometimes romance a male LI with a male MC, but I rarely do m/f romances. The exception is A Very Scandalous Proposal; I don't like the Ava sprites, so I almost always choose Simon instead.

In this category, I like Trystan Thorne, Kieran, Dakota Winchester, Simon Montjoy, Manu Nakeli, and Kit Jackson. I feel pretty neutral toward Cassian Keane, Clarke, and Jacqueline Monroe. I don't like Sam Dalton. And the entire book Surrender can kindly fuck off.

Across the Void: Gonna be honest, despite having read this through at least twice, I wouldn't be able to tell you a thing about the LIs or their personalities. I think I went for Titania my first playthrough - or was it Kepler?

America's Most Eligible: Jen's my favorite here, though I'd like to try a run where I dump someone for Bianca.

Baby Bump: Myra.

Bachelorette Party: Aisha.

Big Sky Country: I love Juliette dearly, but sometimes my Hallmark-loving brain kicks in and I have to pick Sawyer.

Blades of Light and Shadow: All four are amazing and I love them. I love my ladies the best, but I have a soft spot for Tyril as well. I'd love a big polycule here.

Bloodbound: Kamilah takes the top spot, but Lily's a close second.

A Courtesan of Rome: Sabina and Syphax are tied as my favorites, and I'm becoming more fond of Cassius the more I play. I'd like Antony to go away forever, please.

The Crown and the Flame: For Kenna, I alternate between Val and Annelyse. For Dom, I prefer Sei.

Desire and Decorum: Annabelle, always.

Distant Shores: I actually tend to go for Edward here, surprisingly. Almost always with a male MC, though.

The Elementalists: Shreya or Aster.

Endless Summer: I've tried all four. With female MCs, I tend to lean toward Quinn. With male MCs, I like Estela or Sean.

Foreign Affairs: Either Tatum or Ayna.

The Freshman: Becca is my queen. I also like Kaitlyn and Zig, but it's hard to pass up Becca's route.

The Haunting of Braidwood Manor: Eleanor. Is there even really a choice here?

The Heist: Monaco: Sonia. This is one of the few instances where a guaranteed female character is written as the "main" love interest, and she's amazing and I love her romance route.

Hero: Eva.

High School Story: Emma or Maria.

High School Story: Class Act: Skye.

Home for the Holidays: Holly.

Hot Couture: Luz.

Immortal Desires: Both. Both is good.

It Lives Beneath: Probably Imogen or Tom.

It Lives in the Woods: Andy or Ava.

Laws of Attraction: Aislinn.

LoveHacks: Ben.

Mother of the Year: I love all three equally. I literally cycle through them each time I play.

My Two First Loves: I went for Ava the first time, but I really love Noah as well.

Nightbound: Vera or Cal.

Open Heart: Jackie and Rafael are my favorites, but I think Bryce is awesome as well. I can't stand the other guy.

Passport to Romance: Um... Marisa, I suppose?

Perfect Match: Hayden, Sloane, and Alana. Though sometimes I'll go for the entire polycule, because I can.

Platinum: No strong preference here. Maybe Raleigh? Though I like Shane's vibes as well.

Queen B: Zoey, with a dose of flirting with Poppy.

Red Carpet Diaries: Teja, I guess, though the whole series is sort of meh for me.

Ride or Die: Probably Mona's at the top, though I have enjoyed doing Colt and Logan runs before.

Rising Tides: No preference. Honestly, I don't even remember who I chose the first time.

The Royal Masquerade: Kayden. Mostly because of the looks thing, honestly.

The Royal Romance: Hana. Though if I could choose Olivia, I'd be all over that.

Rules of Engagement: Dean for the MC, and Mira for the Party Twin.

Save the Date: Lindsay or Simon.

Slow Burn: Still playing for the first time, but so far I think I prefer Julia.

Sunkissed: Eliana.

The Unexpected Heiress: Gemma.

Veil of Secrets: Kate and Naomi.

Wishful Thinking: Jaime.

Wolf Bride: Morgan. Go away, wolf dude.

#playchoices #gw.text #can you tell that i'm gay #i do try the male romances more than i used to #but i still love me some choices ladies

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gb-patch · 4 years ago

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Ask Answers: March 30th, 2021- Part 1

We’ve been really focused on getting the Step 3 DLC done and keeping up with asks kind of got away from me, aha. Thank you for waiting for a reply! We’re still definitely behind, but here’s a good chunk of responses!

I love Our Life so much but if the release of the step 3 dlc is in April, please don't "release" it on April 1, my poor heart can't take that prank 😭

Don’t worry! I’m horrible at pranks, haha. When we do post something specifically for April Fool’s it’s always to pretend it’s a joke when in reality it’s something we’re actually planning to do. But we don’t have anything like that arranged for this year. Any posts on April 1st will just be like normal.

Omigod, can you end the game in love with Cove but not in a relationship? My character stayed calm at the restaurant and Cove slept over at her home and I think I may have missed it. I'm delirious if I did, may never stop laughing. The children are idiots

Haha, yes, it is possible to be in love and still not get into an actual relationship. There’s no forced ending where the two are made to confess their feelings and accept, it’s all optional/avoidable.

How can you see the new main character cut-in images? I'm not trying to be rude, but, all of my playthroughs, but I haven't seen them yet. (I know you can go through an entire game without seeing them, but I have went through multiple games.)

It’s a bit of a spoiler to say here, but you can check out the guide we posted on Steam HERE!

Is it possible to win first place in the library quiz with Lizzy (Step 1 DLC)

Yep, it is! Someone made a guide for the answers HERE (it’s also on Steam). We probably shouldn’t have required a perfect score to win a children quiz, but oh well, haha.

Hello!

In the future (in step 4) can you marry Cove even if you are friends? I would love to have a platonic wedding with him!

I’m afraid not. As much as he cares for the MC when they’re besties, Cove would only really want an official marriage if it’s based on romance.

Hello! I bumped into Our Life randomly last month, and it is one of the best coincidences I have ever laid on. I love how the choices and little details in the story changes throughout the game, and I'm excited to keep supporting you! I'm absolutely in love with Cove and would like to ask what keeps him to be especially interested in the MC? Other than how you can choose what fondness level you have with him, what ultimately leads him to be in sync with us? Sorry if it's a little much & thank u!

Cove likes the MC because, regardless of the different personality traits you can give the MC, they meet him on his level, listen to him, understand him (even if you’re indifferent and not really close the MC still gets where he’s coming from), and if you’re fond/crush/love than you’re there for him. He finds the MC someone he can respect, trust, and, if they’re close, feel safe with. I’m glad you enjoyed the game!

hi there! for xoxo droplets i see the that female pronouns are used in the description, in the actual game can you change the pronouns or are they stuck as female? i'm aware the game is free, but i have a bad habit of buying dlc's before playing the game so it would be helpful to know before i spend money on it. if anything i'll save that money for more our life dlcs when they come out :D

XOXO Droplets does have a set MC. It’s the story of a specific person rather than a game about making your own story. All of our games prior to Our Life were about exploring MCs that were fully fleshed out people in their own right, so you can’t get the OL experience from what we did before. But we do plan to do more custom-style MCs going forward from here!

For the our life nsfw dlc, will you have to be in the patron to have it or will there be another way for people who really support the game but can't pay to get it?

I’m afraid not. We might put it up for sale somewhere other than Patreon someday (though never on Steam or Itch) since we know not everyone can use that site, but it will still cost money on any other hosting page we use. It’s unfortunately not a piece of content we can give away for free.

Hello! I finally got to play Xoxo Blood Droplets and it mentioned about a DLC coming out soon. Is it already out or are you still planning it?

We are still planning to finish it when we can, we just had to put it on hold because 2020 was a tough year and we needed to put all our focus on Our Life. There’s some of the extra DLC stories available for beta testing on the Patreon.

Is there a link to the soundtrack for Xoxo Blood Droplets? I really like the music in this game!

That’s not available yet, but we’ll probably put it up for sale once the rest of the stories are done.

Would there be any chance for XOXO Droplets OSTs to be released in the future? (Please take my money-)

We might! There are some things we wanna do and fix before we really start advertising XOXO Droplets things again, but hopefully it all comes together.

Why does Cove dislike Shiloh so much despite all of Shiloh's efforts to get along? I can understand his dislike for Lizzie, but why Shiloh?

They met under bad terms (with an arranged play date he had no choice in), Shiloh’s sort of pushy himself when it comes to trying to get along, and Cove thinks he’s just kind of unusual in how he interacts/reacts with people. They don’t click, basically.

Is there a way to have your character be a tsundere? And have Cove toughened up a bit due to that? Sorry if the is a stupid question! ^^;

Maybe? The options in the game aren’t based on those types of personality tropes and I don’t know them well enough to say if you can accurately find a way to make it work with the available options. But it’s not a stupid question, I’m sure plenty of other people have considered something similar c:

do voiced names work only with their exact spelling? cause my mc is called Sophia and one of the voiced names is Soffia so i was wondering but if only works like that it's fine (sorry if i made any mistakes, english isn't my first language)

“Voice” and “text” are separate! You can pick the “voice” you want and then type in whatever “text” you prefer. And your English is really good.

Will OL:NF be based on a season/break like the first game? Or some other type of setting?

Our Life: Now & Forever takes place over the full course of Autumn. So, the start of school and then into the fall holiday season type of time period.

Will we ever see a jealous cove😭😭 please im begging u-

Only in small ways, really. Sadly, I’m just not someone who enjoys jealousy in stories and therefore I don’t know how to implement it in a way that feels enjoyable. Maybe I’ll figure out a angle I can work with in future projects.

Do you have any plans with Our Life once step 4 has been released along with step 3's DLCs?

After the Step 3 DLCs and Step 4 we’ll be releasing the Cove wedding DLC, the Derek romance DLC, and then the Baxter romance DLC. The project will likely be considered fully complete at that point.

Hello, I just needed to first of all sat how amazed I was when I discovered this game. I thought I would be disappointed by the lack of love interests, but you worked so hard to make sure Cove is the Best Boy for so many different people!! It really has been my comfort game for a while now, and I think all the different choices you allow make it the best romance game I’ve played in my life. The only problem is now my expectations for love are Cove level, and no one can live up to that. You’ve put so much consideration to make this game super inclusive and I think it’s amazing. If I can ask, for the exclusive NSFW Patreon dlc, will it only be available for the month it comes out? Or could I become a patron months later and still be able to download it. I just don’t have a job right now otherwise I would LOVE to subscribe to your Patreon and definitely will once I have the money again!! Thank you so so much for making such a lovely game that’s brought me so much joy.

Hiya! I'm so sorry for sounding like a complete degenerate for asking, but will the nsfw moment on patreon still be available even if i'm not a patron of the month it comes out? (e.g. i didnt pay/join the necessary tier before the moment is released) Thank you for your hard work on OL, I really connected with Cove in a way I never anticipated.

Thank you very much for such kind words! The Patreon DLC will be up for download on the Patreon indefinitely once it’s done. Just like the normal DLCs, you can pay to get it whenever you like but it won’t be up for sale until it’s finished. So take all the time you need.

Sorry to bother you guys, but there was an earlier ask detailing the OL LI's love languages and I was just wondering- Would that be for them personally, as in what they do, or the love language they enjoy receiving the most? Because I know for some people it's different for both on giving and receiving and was a bit confused, haha. Sorry for the trouble, your games are really nice!

For Cove and Derek it’s what they like to receive and what they give. For Baxter, it’s what he likes to get. What he gives is tailored to his partner. He’s flexible that way~ And it’s no trouble.

asking (and also fanning... fanboying? fangirling? fanpersoning? screw it- from a distance) anonymously because my confidence is nonexistent.

will you be doing a kickstarter for our life: now and forever? i know it's probably been asked and mentioned before, but will you be doing a kickstarter akin to the one done for our life: beginnings and always? if so, will you be doing similar tier rewards? (if you guys do so, i will [politely] throw my money at you).

now, to the fan.. personing? FAN. uhm. to the part where this anonymous agender idiot will begin to act as the fan they are.

THE GAME IS SO. SO NICE. IT'S CUSTOMIZABLE. I'M REALLY HAPPY ABOUT THAT PART. AAAAA I ALSO ENJOY THAT YOU GAVE US THE OPTION TO JUST STAY BEST FRIENDS OR SOMETHING A8DBAIHEW- AND YOU INCLUDED AROS AND ACES IN THAT SEXUALITY CHOOSING PART- aaaAAA AND YOU MADE ELIZABETH FILIPINO- THANK YOU SO SO MUCH FOR CREATING SUCH AN INCLUSIVE GAME!!!

to summarize; will you be doing a kickstarter? and thank you for creating such a nice game. i, and likely the majority if not all of those who have played the game, am thankful.

Aw, thanks <3! I’m so happy it was such a nice experience for you. We are planning on having a Kickstarter for Our Life: Now & Forever. It’ll have similar rewards to the Our Life: O&A Kickstarter, but some changes will have to be made. Like, we’ll definitely need to increase the rate for getting a voiced name. Originally it was $3USD, which was super low for how much work it really took to add in a customized piece of voice acting, aha. Live and learn.

So sorry if you've already answered this, I looked but I couldn't find anything. Is the 18+ DLC coming out alongside the Step 3 DLC, or do they have different development timelines entirely? I'm so excited for all the DLC coming out in the future, and even though the release dates aren't out, I'm already counting down the days. :)

They have different development times and will come out separately. Despite taking place in the same Step period, they’re disconnected pieces of content and making progress on one doesn’t mean the other is closer to being finished. The normal Step 3 DLC is releasing first. It’s great to hear you’re looking forward to them!

Hey!! I'm absolutely LOVING Our Life! I have been pondering on one question though, what's Cove's ethnicity, if there is a set one? Or is it something we can Headcanon?

hi hi! i wanted to say first of all that i absolutely adore our life. it's one of my favourite games of 2020, and i think it was just the perfect dose of positivity we all needed, even if you didn't intend to release it during such a hectic year lol! secondly, i wanted to say: if it's alright to ask, what ethnicity is cove? :-0 and what about his parents? i was just curious about it ^^)/ thank you!!

Cove’s mom, Kyra, is white. But his dad’s, Cliff’s, race doesn’t come up and players are able to headcanon it. So Cove is half white and half whatever you prefer Cliff to be!

hello! there was a post on the patreon where you can run your fingers down cove's chest in errands - how do you get that scene? ♥

That was an old mistake on my part- you can only get that scene in the Ending rather Errands. You have to leave the big family dinner at the restaurant to go into the car, be dating Cove for a while, have Cove come see you there, and then mention using your hands when Cove makes a joke about hands.

in baxter’s dlc, is there any point where you can tell him about the previous renters of the condo?

You can talk to him about that in the normal Step 3 DLC!

—– —– —– —–

Thank you for all the interest in our games everybody :D

We released a new FAQ! It answers common questions and we’ll keep adding more to it. Please check there before sending an ask. FAQ Also, if you prefer to just see the main posts without all the asks/reblogs, feel free to follow our side account instead: GB Patch Updates Blog

#our life #Our Life Beginnings & Always #Our Life: Now & Forever #ask #ourlifeba #ourlifenf #gb patch #gb patch games #long post

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anneapocalypse · 3 years ago

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Dragon Age: Origins Re-Play (City Elf Rogue)

Crosspost. Originally posted on dreamwidth on 5/5/20.

Warnings: discussion of fictional sexual violence and coercion, abusive relationships, canon-typical power dynamics and political power structures.

After all these years, I think I've found my favorite Warden.

Well, let me back up.

It's been a long time since I've fallen down the Dragon Age well. I put it like that because picking up this game always seems to mean I get deeply immersed, and the game takes over as much of my life as I can reasonably allow until it's out of my system and I'm ready to move on. So needless to say, I don't play all that much, because I can't really afford that most of the time! But if there were ever a time to fall facefirst into a fantasy world with fictional problems I can actually solve, now would be it. And now that I'm through the first game, here is a long and rambling entry all about the experience and the thoughts on the game and the universe that this new playthrough has given me.

I dove into Origins a couple weeks ago with the intent of replaying the whole series… and actually finishing Inquisition this time around. And uh, playing all the DLC I never got to, oops. It's not for lack of interest I never played them all, and I never actually meant to skip them; I was holding out on Witch Hunt, for example, because I always meant to play a male Warden and romance Morrigan but I just never got all the way through that playthrough and most of the time I prefer to play a female character so it's probably just never going to happen. [Edited to add: Famous last words, Apocalypse.] In a more general sense, despite beating the main game a couple of times, I'd never quite found a favorite character and definitive playthrough I would carry forward into the rest of the games. I've played through most of the origins and started several characters I was fond of, but I haven't completed one since my second playthrough.

Despite my love for the games, Dragon Age fandom also isn't one I've delved far into, though I did skirt the edges for a few years (and you'll find a few poems set in the universe if you dig into my AO3). I found BioWare fandoms to be particularly… volatile, and I had the unfortunate experience of encountering a lot of people with a lot of opinions about the "right" way to play the games, which pretty much runs contrary to the entire way I think about RPGs. My way of enjoying a video game is no more right than anyone else's, and with every playthrough the way I see the story and the characters is heavily colored by the character I've chosen to play. I think that's part of the fun. With games like these, every playthrough is a new story.

Gameplay Thoughts

I decided to play on Casual this time around, as I've already beaten the game a couple of times and I'm more interested in experiencing the story than in making the combat challenging. I enjoy the combat, but I don't enjoy getting stuck and struggling over and over to beat an enemy without dying.

Although the game will allow you to do the main quests preceding the Landsmeet in any order, they actually scale by difficulty in a specific order (as detailed here) and so on a higher difficulty or as an inexperienced player, it is very possible to stumble into a high-level quest too soon and get stuck, as I did multiple times on my first playthrough. I'm a much more experienced player now, with a much better understanding of the game mechanics, so I'm much less likely to get stuck now. And of course I could simply do the quests in the optimal order—but that also dictates which companions will be available for which quests. (For example, if you always do Broken Circle first, you'll never have the opportunity to recruit Zevran before that quest and you'll never get to see his Fade nightmare.)

So playing on Casual actually broadens my options for role-playing and character interactions quite a bit! And on this playthrough, that's what I'm here for.

I also made a point on this playthrough of exhausting the companion dialogue branches as soon as they became available so as not to miss anything. This can be a little comical at times, as it's possible with most companions to rack up approval points very quickly through dialogue, and thus you can advance relationships very quickly if you choose the right responses—and that's why, in the past, I've sometimes tried to space out the conversations just to roleplay a relationship progressing more organically. In doing so, though, I've definitely missed some things! I heard dialogue I've never heard before on this playthrough, and even played through a companion quest I've somehow always failed to unlock despite knowing it existed.

I also managed to accidentally start romancing Leliana while I was already romancing Zevran, which was entertaining. I do enjoy the fact that if you tell Leliana she's welcome to join you and Zevran, she sounds surprised but interested, and I wish it were possible to actually romance them both as a triad! Sadly, the game is not built for polyships, so I had to load a save to avoid creating a love triangle and breaking her heart. I always save before making the rounds in camp so I didn't lose any progress.

Character Creation

My first two playthroughs were both Cousland, romancing Alistair; human rogue just happened to be the first origin I chose, and the second was my "do-over" playthrough in which I actually consulted walkthroughs and did all the sidequests and got all the cool stuff I missed on my first, spoiler-free playthrough. This tends to be how I play RPGs. I've also started several unfinished playthroughs, and at this point I think the only origin I haven't played through is dwarf noble. I'll probably play through it sometime just to see it, but I doubt I'll complete the game; after two Cousland runs I've had my fill of nobles and would much rather play an underdog. [ETA: And that's 0 for 2.]

After some deliberation I decided this playthrough would be a city elf rogue. I almost always play a rogue; I have no interest in warriors [ETA: Okay, really, past!Anne, this is just getting embarassing], and while mages are cool, I just have a preference for daggers and archery and subterfuge. I also decided I'd be romancing Zevran. It was a tough call between him and Leliana, but I thought my scrappy city elf would have a lot more in common with the Antivan assassin.

And thus was born Ilana "daggers at dawn" Tabris! Alas, I am playing on console at the moment and the 360 doesn't have a built-in screenshot feature, so until I employ some more creative methods (or do a PC playthrough for screenshots) I don't have a good picture of her at the moment to share.

The City Elf Origin

For my readers not familiar with Dragon Age, in this setting elves are a marginalized people; they were formerly enslaved in Ferelden, and still are in some other nations. There is a cultural divide between Dalish elves, who live nomadic lives committed to reclaiming and preserving their cultural heritage, and non-Dalish elves, who may live in impoverished "alienages" within major cities, or work as servants for land-owning humans. It's easy to see some parallels to real-world marginalized groups in the Dragon Age elves and there are plenty of valid critiques to be made based on seeing the elves through that lens. When it comes to in-game immersion, I'm of the opinion that the story works best if you don't assume a direct parallel to any one specific group, and that's all I'll say about that at the moment.

The city elf rogue origin is a rough one, probably the roughest in the game, and this is a game where one possible origin is the player character's entire family being murdered. In the city elf origin, the PC's cousin is raped just offscreen; the PC rescues her and several other women from further brutality but arrives too late to stop what happens to Shianni, though they do have the option to kill the men responsible. Whether this was a good storytelling decision on the part of BioWare is another conversation for another day. Suffice it to say I've seen this origin before and I knew what was coming, and for that reason I honestly never figured this origin would be a favorite for me.

So it was a surprise that Ilana has turned out to be my favorite character I've built yet in Origins. But there is more to the city elf origin than that one awful event, and there are some things I uniquely like about the Warden being an elf who grew up in the Denerim alienage, keenly aware of human politics and their own status relative to it, but also surrounded by a close-knit community. I think it gives the Warden a unique perspective, just as the Dalish elf or circle mage or Dwarf commoner have their own unique perspectives.

Companionable Thoughts

Through some dialogue I think I missed on previous runs, I realized that prior to the battle of Denerim, Alistair seems to have a lot of faith in Loghain. I suppose this makes the betrayal cut that much deeper.

I've always had mixed feelings about hardening Alistair because I don't particularly like the way that conversation goes, or the way the game frames Goldanna as a bitter shrew and a gold-digger when in fact she's an impoverished working mother trying to get by who has little patience for a well-heeled stranger barging into her life and asking for her attention and affection. I'm not saying Alistair doesn't have a right to be upset, but I think the dialogue as written doesn't really allow for the Warden to sympathize with Goldanna's side of things—as indeed a Warden who grew up in poverty might do. I also don't think the dialogue option, "Everyone is out for themselves. You should learn that," quite nails what Alistair's real problem is.

I can however appreciate that the spirit of "hardening" Alistair is supposed to be convincing him to stand up for himself—and that the results of said hardening can be something of a mixed bag.

Seeing him through the eyes of a new player character gave me a new perspective on Alistair. It really stood out to me this time around how much he saw the Grey Wardens as a family above all else, despite having been recruited a mere six months ago. That's certainly enough time to get attached to people, but it's also deeply colored by Alistair's longing for a real family, and I think it's fair to say he projects that desire onto the Wardens, sometimes to a fault. At the Landsmeet, for example, if he's appointed to duel Loghain he will kill him no matter what, even when it ruins the plans he and the Warden had previously agreed upon, because he takes Duncan's death extremely personally and is unwilling to set those feelings aside for anything. When the Warden discuss the future of the Grey Wardens with him, he is still hung up on the fact that things will never feel the same, rather than the fact that the order must be rebuilt and maintained for whenever the next Blight comes.

None of this is to disparage Alistair as a character; he's a character I like, and I think his flaws make for a more interesting story no matter what the Warden's relationship to him ends up being.

I think it's easy to see, though, how Alistair's view of the Grey Wardens differs from Duncan's. One thing that was neat in this playthrough that I hadn't seen before was that I had Ilana do some stealing in the camp at Ostagar. Turns out, if Duncan sees you stealing, he'll praise your skill, but warn you that you should practice that skill with caution, because the law will not be kind to a thief, and your status as a Grey Warden will not always help you. It's one of many small things that demonstrate Duncan's commitment to stopping the Blight at any cost, and his understanding that they need everyone they can get. In the same vein, he points out to the city elf upon their conscription that it is not an act of charity.

This becomes relevant later. Particularly for this playthrough, because I'd decided early on that I would be conscripting Loghain, which I'd never done before and was interested to see how it played out. But more on that later!

Somehow, I have managed to miss Leliana's companion quest entirely on all my previous playthroughs, possibly because I didn't exhaust all the dialogue options at the right times—but the wiki also tells me there was a known bug, so it might not be my fault at all! The encounter with Marjolaine is very brief; what's really important is the conversation with Leliana that comes after.

It was especially significant to me that I had already taken Leliana to the Urn of Sacred Ashes, where the Guardian told her that she made up her vision of the Maker for attention.

And the thing is… I sort of believe him? That is to say, I don't think the Maker spoke directly to Leliana, but I do think that she believed that, at least for a time. If you listen to the way she describes the dream or vision she had, it's very vague, a series of images open to interpretation. I don't think Leliana consciously made up a story for attention. I do think that Marjolaine was an emotionally abusive partner in ways that long predated her betrayal. Leaving her left Leliana with some deep wounds that even the Chantry could not fully heal. She still had a need to believe that someone was commanding her and looking after her as Marjolaine had done. Not having fully examined those wounds and the emotions surrounding them, she simply found a replacement for Marjolaine in the meantime, one that gave her the sense of direction and security that she had lost. So in a sense, the Guardian is correct that she had a need to feel special, and chosen. But I don't believe it was conscious. I think Leliana truly had what she interpreted as a religious experience, and later, she has the opportunity to examine those feelings and experiences with a more critical eye.

Since I'd never triggered the companion quest before, seeing Leliana hardened was also new for me, and I must say that all of this makes Inquisition!Leliana (at least what I've seen of her in my incomplete playthrough) make much more sense to me. She hasn't lost her love for the Maker or the solace she found in the Chantry, but she has accepted that the life of a bard suits her better than the life of a cloistered sister. The Leliana we meet in Inquisition is a Leliana who has found a way to keep both of these things in her life, and that seems to me like a good thing. I haven't finished Inquisition, of course, and it's been a while since I played it, so my thoughts may change when I get there. But these are my present thoughts.

I hadn't actually planned on doing the Dark Ritual this playthrough. I've really never liked it, because coercing Alistair into having sex with someone he hates feels uh... bad, and the cutscene makes him look so distressed, it's just... always left a bad taste in my mouth. The idea was I'd conscript Loghain and have him die killing the Archdemon. Somehow it didn't occur to me that with Alistair leaving the party and Loghain in his place, it would be Loghain taking part in the ritual, not Alistair.

So I had to play through it once just to see, and it honestly came across much less creepy to me. Loghain seems a little perplexed, maybe, but not distressed, certainly not visibly repulsed as Alistair is. It didn't feel coercive in the way it had with Alistair, and in the end, I decided to keep it.

Romantic Inclinations

I was briefly very tempted to romance Leliana, because I do love her and I've never completed a romance playthrough with her. But I knew Zevran was going to be the best fit for Ilana and I was determined to see that one through.

And it was so, so worthwhile. I ended up absolutely loving Zevran's love story. I love that it can start out as more of a friends-with-benefits situation, in which the characters sleep together early on and flirt a lot and only after Zevran is free of the Crows do they confess that they have well and truly fallen for one another. I like that Zevran gets scared when he realizes how deep his feelings for the Warden are, and I enjoy the way that resolves. And I like the fact that even when they are in love, neither of them ask the other for promises.

I am well acquainted with Alistair's romance, and make no mistake, I did enjoy it greatly—but it's very complicated. Alistair is inexperienced in both relationships and sex, his feelings about the Grey Wardens are deeply tied up in his desire for a family, and he is unwillingly at the center of the political conflict in Ferelden because of his parentage. All of these things deeply affect his romance, and in fact they're part of the appeal of that story. That Alistair's personal flaws can come out more starkly in romancing him is also a feature, not a bug to me.

I remember being a bit taken aback during my first playthrough (in which I romanced Alistair and did not harden him) when right before they had sex he told my Cousland he couldn't imagine being without her, and then almost immediately after he said he had no idea what being King would mean for them. It was startling to realize that despite his feelings he wasn't necessarily committed to standing up for the Warden being his queen—and that's with a Warden who's a noble! But if anything that enhanced the story for me; less fairy-tale perfect, but a more realistically flawed character. (Jolene Cousland, it should be noted, had no such qualms; I played her as a benevolent but kind of selfish woman who was used to getting her way, and she put Anora on the throne and kept Alistair in the Wardens with her purely so that she would never have to share him with anyone!)

Alistair's romance is one that feels fairy-tale sweet but doesn't necessarily have a happy ending when it collides with duty and politics and Alistair's own flaws, and I do like that about it, for what it is!

Zevran, on the other hand, is much more the "bad boy with a sad past saved by true love" trope, certainly just as appealing in its own way! I think for my own part, at least right now, Zevran just appeals to me more. I like that he's more experienced and less sentimental; I enjoy his sauciness and I love watching him open up to the Warden about his past as they grow close. And though the ending slides are not all necessarily canon, it does please me that Zevran is said to stay with the Warden and help train new Wardens though he never becomes one himself, which is pretty much exactly what I was already headcanoning.

Theories

I found myself thinking about the nature of the Guardian of the Urn of Sacred Ashes this time around. It's never quite explained how he has lived for so long (though there may be some canon on that that I haven't gotten to yet). It's possible the power simply comes from the Ashes, or from Andraste herself somehow. Given Wynne's experience with a Fade spirit joining with her to extend her life, I wonder if it's possible that the Guardian has also been sustained by a spirit who approves of his motives.

So, knowing what we know now… Goldanna definitely isn't Fiona's child, right? From the sound of it, she was actually the child of a servant who died in childbirth. It's unclear to me at this time whether Maric is in fact Goldanna's father as well (after reading The Stolen Throne, I am confident he is not), but it doesn't sound like it. So the confusion arises from the untruth Alistair was told about his mother; she was never a serving girl, and Goldanna is probably not related to him in any way.

Worldbuilding Thoughts

One thing that struck me early in the game is that the priest presiding over the elven weddings, while she pleads with Vaughan to leave them alone, is really powerless to stop his violence against the elves. I think this says a certain amount about the position of the Chantry relative to the nobility. Priests may be exclusively women in this world but it does not follow that Thedas is an egalitarian society; it very much isn't, and there is ample dialogue throughout the games to support this.

One thing I spent a lot of time thinking about in this playthrough was land, and landholding as sociopolitical power in this universe. It was a pleasant surprise to find that I did have the ability to enact some change for elves in Ferelden; among the boons Anora will grant you as Queen, if you say you want your people treated fairly, she will declare the Alienage part of the bannorn and appoint an elven Bann (I appointed Shianni). And with the Arling of Amaranthine granted to the Wardens, as long as the Warden-Commander is an elf, that's two elven voices in the Landsmeet. The Landsmeet holds most of the political power in Ferelden. This is certainly not an instant fix for the marginalization of elves in Thedas, but it's a step, and a big one. (This is also part of the reason I don't care for the idea of the Warden-Commander stepping down after just a few years when they could continue to wield that influence.)

According to the wiki, there is an ending slide indicating that if Shianni is made Bann of the alienage, she's later murdered, and there are riots in the alienage prompting a crackdown from the monarchy, so… that's not great. I didn't actually see that slide in my game, however, because it's bugged, but I suppose it is still canon.

But my point isn't so much where things are better for elves following the Fifth Blight—I'd agree with Cyrion that the influence of an elven Hero can only be a good thing in the long run, but also systematic injustice doesn't just vanish overnight. What really interested me was the larger question of land as power. So long as Ferelden works the way it does, as a feudal monarchy/aristocratic oligarchy, controlling land is the only way to have real political power. (This is not only true under feudalism, by the by, but that's another conversation for another day!) Elven oppression isn't just about humans being mean to elves, or elves living in poverty. So long as elves are systematically prevented from holding land, whether Dalish or city elves, they will continue to be disenfranchised. Land is power; that's why Amaranthine is such a big deal, why the Alienage Bann is such a big deal.

The principle that land is power also has ramifications for mages, and that made something click for me that I never really put together on previous playthroughs, despite the fact that it's basically laid out for you in The Arl of Redcliffe quest. The whole reason Arlessa Isolde goes to such lengths to hide Connor's magic is that mages cannot hold land or titles. If Connor is a mage, Eamon has lost his heir. Now I don't doubt that Isolde genuinely loves Connor just as her son; she's willing to die to save him, after all, without hesitation. But his magic also means that the Guerrin line will be broken unless Isolde bears another heir. And as we can see from his opinions about Alistair and the line of Calenhad, Eamon is the kind of old aristocrat who puts great stock in bloodlines. Without an heir, his family line is ended, his lands lost.

(This also comes up in Dragon Age II, by the by, with the mention of the Amell family being tarnished by magic in their bloodlines, but we'll get to DAII in another post!)

Anyway, this all puts into sharper focus the systematic disenfranchisement of elves and of mages as well. So often in Dragon Age, the oppression of mages is put in terms of their being locked in a tower and hunted by templars if they resist. And to be clear, those are in fact the primary stakes for most individuals. In DA2, in particular, we see that abuse of mages by templars is a very real problem.

But at a societal level, the disenfranchisement of mages comes down to this: mages functionally cannot own land. No matter how powerful or wealthy their family, magic strips the individual of property rights under Ferelden Chantry law. There are no mages in the Landsmeet, by design. I would imagine that a mage Warden being granted the Arling of Amaranthine would be almost as big a shake-up as an elf. The wiki tells me that a mage Warden can ask that the Circle be granted independence, though this, like the Alienage Bann, seems to also provoke a backlash. Though I guess it's been retconned now, the ending slide for an independent Circle had Cullen murdering three apprentices and eventually escaping from prison, "a madman and a threat to any mage he encountered."

Land is power in Ferelden, and as long as this society functions the way it does, the only way to real political power for elves, mages, or Grey Wardens is to hold land.

DLC

There is something a little comical to me about the montage of Cailain's last days and his death that you see when the Warden gazes on his body in Return to Ostagar. I'm not exactly saying there should be no emotion attached to Cailan's death, but well… the Warden barely met the man, and as a city elf Ilana Tabris was not exactly overcome with reverence for the King of Ferelden. It might be more appropriate framed by Alistair than the Warden, but even Alistair's grief at Ostagar is much more centered around Duncan than Cailan.

I haven't yet managed to get very deeply attached to Shale as a character (though that could still change), but I do appreciate her relevance to the Orzammar questline and her own search for answers about her past.

I never actually got around to playing the pre- and post-game DLC for Origins, and was very excited to finally experience them as a part of a playthrough I was so happy with.

Leliana's Song was great fun. It definitely provides some insight into Leliana's life before the Warden; it's one thing to hear about it, another thing to see it through her eyes. I think the ending really drives home the sting of Marjolaine's betrayal and the loss of belonging and purpose that drove Leliana to the Chantry.

Going into Awakening, I was initially unsure exactly how long after the end of the main game it was, and what I could assume to have transpired in the meantime. The Warden-Commander seems unfamiliar with Vigil's Keep so one has to assume this is their first time going there. I do find that a little odd once I realize that it's six months since the Archdemon was defeated, but I suppose there are plenty of ways to fill in those blanks.

I also have to wonder when Warden's Keep was written in relation to Awakening, because the existence of Soldier's Peak ends up feeling a little redundant with the Wardens being given the Arling of Amaranthine and Vigil's Keep. I say a little redundant, because Warden's Keep is largely about Grey Warden history, where Awakening deals with other themes I'll get into later. And maybe the ending of Warden's Keep is more meant to imply that it becomes the Drydens' new home, but I like Soldier's Peak and the idea of it becoming a Grey Warden base of ops again, and the fact that the game gives you a storage chest there certainly implies it's at least a little bit that.

The story sort of requires that there be Grey Wardens at Vigil's Keep when the darkspawn attack, and also that none of them survive so the Warden-Commander can have everything fall back on their shoulders and also feel the necessity of recruiting more Wardens. It does feel a little bit like plot necessity, like oh, those Orlesian Wardens did finally arrive, but you never got to meet them and they're dead now, oops. And I think the explanation for why they were all killed when that wasn't actually the intent was a little flimsy. Nevertheless, it functions to get the story rolling, and I do like this story.

I enjoyed King Alistair's brief visit and the tension that allows. I don't know how intentional it was, or whether this scene just doesn't take Alistair's possible falling out with the Warden into account, but I appreciated that while there's an option to respond to him sarcastically (which I of course took), Alistair doesn't sound hostile himself, just kind of… wistful. It doesn't feel discontinuous with the falling-out necessarily. There's distance, but he can't quite hide that he still cares.

As this was my first playthrough of Awakening, I did miss a few things, accidentally locking myself out of completing a couple of sidequests and not triggering all the companion quests. I will definitely be replaying Awakening at some point and probably with Ilana so that I can complete her story the way I'd like.

Saving the city of Amaranthine was not a difficult choice, especially with the Keep fully upgraded. Whether or not to kill the Architect was a much more difficult choice. I played through the ending in which I killed him, slept on it, and decided to load and play the other ending, and sparing him ended up being Ilana's choice.

I love the letter from Zevran found in the Codex during Awakening. It makes sense that he would have some unfinished business to take care of with the Crows and it's a good enough reason to explain his absence. The letter is very characteristically Zevran and the closing of "Yours always" is so sweet.

I didn't love Awakening's ending slide for Zevran quite as much, as it adds an ambiguity to the outcome of their relationship, which… it doesn't really ruin anything, because it never says for sure what happened between them, I guess it just seemed unnecessary to me to cast doubt on what the main game's ending slide had implied was a happy ending in which Zevran stays with the Warden. That is the ending I prefer, and I choose to read the Awakening end slide as more hearsay than truth. (Awakening's slides are already not fully canon; Anders did not in fact stay with the Wardens, but eventually left for the Free Marches and wound up in Kirkwall.) And looking at certain wiki entries pertaining to Inquisition, it looks as though the Warden and Zevran do stay together, so I shall be content with that. This is all, of course, through the lens of me being freshly off playing through this romance and being in starry-eyed love with it! None of this is bad storytelling, just me being sentimental about it.

Likewise I'm not in love with Awakening's ending slide for the Warden herself. I understand that by indicating that the Warden-Commander stepped down from that role not long after the Blight, the series is relieved of any future need to account for their whereabouts. And again, looking at some canon from Inquisition, it looks like there are some good reasons for the Warden striking out alone. That said, I do prefer to imagine that Ilana remains Commander of the Grey for some years, as the rebuilding of the order is a task she takes quite seriously.

Regardless, I can certainly imagine Ilana would be ready for some respite following the events in Amaranthine, and that she would take that time to seek out Zevran in Antiva to aid him in his own quest, leaving Loghain to oversee the Wardens until her return.

Golems of Amgarrak I did not particularly enjoy, as it's mostly one big tedious puzzle. The connection to the Harvester in Dragon Age II is interesting, but all in all I'm not sure it's a DLC I would bother playing again. As it's not even mentioned in the Dragon Age Keep for importing into Inquisition, I doubt it would be any great loss to skip it.

Witch Hunt was short but satisfying, even as it raises many questions. I'm always happy to see Sandal again and it's neat that he's at the Circle Tower. I actually had a great time browsing all the library books in the Circle Tower, and it was one of the highlights of the DLC for me. Ariane isn't the most memorable character, and it's a little disappointing that her conflict with Morrigan resolves itself with no real interaction between the two of them; she and Finn definitely kind of feel like they're just thrown in so the Warden can have companions, and it's a short DLC so you don't get to spend much time with them, though I did find Finn to be a lot of fun. I was certainly entertained to find Ariane wearing armor identical to Ilana's.

In addition to that armor model, this DLC reuses a lot of environments to get you to Morrigan, and its real focus is that final confrontation.

I don't think it's a particularly expansive or cohesive DLC all told, but I did enjoy it, especially the ending. I like that it's still possible to end things on a friendly note with Morrigan, even if you can't go with her. I know Morrigan shows up in Inquisition and that's about the extent of what I know, but I'm pretty excited to find out what she's been up to in the meantime.

The one DLC story I've left unplayed is the Darkspawn Chronicles, which I honestly don't have a ton of interest in, and for those who've played it, I'm curious if there's anything really interesting or canon-critical that I'm missing. BioWare is notorious for the fact that no content is truly optional if you're invested, and that has certainly become very clear to me with the rest of these DLC (and the novels, and the comics), but Darkspawn Chronicles is basically an AU from my understanding, and playing as a darkspawn does not really interest me. Am I missing anything? Let me know!

#blunders of thedas #anne does dragon age #crosspost

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cryo-lily · 2 years ago

Note

Swtor Player Asks

2, 6, 8, 9, 15

Thanks for the ask!

2. What is your favorite class and why? And/or list the player classes in order of most -> least favorite.

Honestly? Jedi Consular has been been my fav so far where I started a redux play through of my Main so I don't repeat my first blind play through where I made some choices I wasn't happy with. I'm honestly all about the Wise Healer slowly becoming more and more disillusioned the more the Consular class story goes on; Wanting to do good only to be just another pawn in just another war.

But I will say Sith Inquisitor quickly shot up the list to a very close second. Just everything about that class story really. Zash? I both love and hate her. Seeing her on Nathema the first time made me go feral. I'm totally not debating playing with the story beat of she didn't die then and will come back AGAIN later down the line... lol. That and the whole force ghost story bits, and the end of the class story? *(Chefs kiss)*

Least fav? Jedi Knight. The whole light vs dark side bits were waaay to ridged for my tastes. Yes Kira was like a little sister to my character, No that doesn't mean she's turning to the dark side.

6. Do you primarily play Republic, Empire, or a mix of both sides? Is there a specific reason for this preference?

Currently I mostly play the pub side only because most of my Cartel items/purchases are reedemed on Isadola (my main). I have been slowly leaning towards playing more of both as I dust off my Sith Inquisitor more and more. But I'm not gunna lie I love the Imp fleet a lot more, it's design is much more up my alley.

8. Name your top favorite companions (feel free to include reasons why).

Ohh, that's a bit of a list but I'll stick with my top 5. Top of the list is Lana hands down, She's Issie's better half among other things that would be too long to list here. Number 2 slot is HK-51, I've had him for less than a few weeks and I would already die for my assassin bot buddy. Next in number 3 & 4 is Nadia & Ashara, My fav force students that are borderline sisters to each of my mains. And number 5 is Khem Val easily, I love my big morose monster of a teddy bear. He reminds me a lot personality wise of my old cat. So yea.. I got quite attached to him.

9. How about your least favorite companions?

Doc. Hands down, no list. Dude does not take "no" for an answer. Kira was close to killing him? Girl would have to get in line behind me as I throw his ass out the air lock. At least Tharan took the hint when you shoot him down, but fuck does Doc just not let it go if you're playing a female jedi. Not to mention he's so fucking full of himself. I could rant all day about this, and no shame to those that do like him, but Doc just rubbed me in all the wrong ways and there was no way I could get rid of him. He made a tedious playthrough like I was pulling teeth.

15. Show us your main(s)!

You mean fav swtor OCs/ my mains? Hell yeah!

First we have Isadola Ardeen Shir (Or known as Issie by those closest to her); Jedi Consular, Miraluka.

This girl can hide so much trauma in her.

I've been trying to write more stuff for her considering she's the Character I have almost literally all my time/progress on. I feel I need to do her backstory justice.

Now my other main, Or in Issie's case the other side of the mirror-

We have the Sith AU Issie, otherwise known as Atteia Ulla Shir, Sith Inquisitor.

Small changes in their shared backstory resulted in her becoming Sith instead. In this timeline she lost her original name, and was given another.

In some sense they are both the same person and different people. And if you forced them to meet, they would probably try to kill each other over who suffered more in what little of their pasts that they share, but would be stuck in a stalemate because they are both on the same power level as the other.

Best quote I can borrow for these two is from Bioshock Infinite: "Constants and Variables". These two are the almost literal embodiment of that quote.

#swtor #swtor ask game #swtor ocs #Thank you again for the ask!!#Always happy to just talk/rant about this game with other players!! ^-^#oc: isadola ardeen #oc: atteia ulla

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budugaapologist · 3 years ago

Text

my honest opinions of the ac games (theres only 4 good ones)

AC1: you cant pay me money to play this i do not care dude nothing in this interests me because of the mechanics in it. the only things i like from this game are maria and malik and calling altaïr altaïqueer other than that i dont give a shit.

AC2: not good. hype not deserved. combat system sucks as well as the parkour and thats like the selling point of the games.

Brotherhood: same as above; not good/hype not deserved. stalking isnt sexy btw.

Revelations: the only ezihoe game i "liked" but even then i just really hate ezio, id rather play as sofia.

Chronicles: i dont have a desire to play them though i do consider the china one. only problem is guess what fucking bitch is in it.

AC3: as an american the main story is the most boring thing ever. running around in the homestead and frontier is the only part that is good. the naval combat is dog shit.

Liberation: i cannot tell you what happens in the story. i have played this maybe four times. i dont remember anything but the beginning and end. it was fun to explore but the audio in the game is just bad. i think this would be cool as like a pixel game.

AC4 Black Flag: i still have dreams about this game. the story is very good and all of the side characters aside from burgess and cockram have their own rememberable characteristics. graphically its beautiful ecen on ps3 and with some really unconventionally attractive characters. the side content isnt overwhelming and the hacking is a nice change of pace from battling ships and taking forts. its genuinely super well balanced and edward is a relatable character. i would prefer more equality with the clothing on the male/female assassins since. well. either make them both whores or both prudes. but other than that its a great game, the naval combat isnt hard it just takes a few battles to practice. also you can play this game without any other prior ac experience, i know this because i did and i loved it on the first play through. ever since then every other ac game is disappointing aside from Syndicate and Origins.

Freedom Cry: if you so much as try to argue that this isnt worth playing i'll kill you. if you play r*gue and dont consider playing this i genuinely believe you are racist. playing AC4 i think that FC is mandatory after it. this is the only expansion i condone spending money on. im not spoiling anything. play the fucking game.

R*gue: its racist. i said what i said.

Unity: you know when pretty people have no personality? okay but now make that a game. i will reblog gifsets of this game but no. i will not play it again. also?? theyre not even french theyre british you tellin me a canadian company couldnt get french VAs?

Syndicate: literally so easy so stupid i love it. i feel so good at video games when i play it. i recommend it to people a lot because its "inclusive" (i feel more indian people wouldve been nice. also a lot of the women are just evie 2) and its easy to relate to either jacob or evie. the story isnt that great but its fun to follow along with anyway and the side content isnt super overwhelming. i love how gross they made london look its a great touch.

Origins: i also recommend this one. basically i only recommend AC4, FC, Syndicate, and Origins. i find the drama of this one real good, its a revenge story that is compelling especially if you have a kid or have dealt with child loss. the second game to ever make me shocked after a death (first was ac4 with thatch). i also love the fights with the gods and i really love the african biome and i think its super overlooked in media, i think more rpg games set in african-esque areas would be cool. honestly the only thing that keeps me from playing this game over is i always get busy halfway through a playthrough. also that one elephant mission terrified me. i think about kensa and khaliset and taharqa and shadya a lot.

Odyssey: when it comes down to it this game is boring. idk what you want me to say its really boring. lgbt cash grab. way overhyped, its not that interesting and theres just too much in the game. it suffers from prioritizing quantity over quality. sure theres some great lines in the game and a few okay characters but a lot of if not all the characters are one dimensional and bland, as well as the movements and facial expressions. i think the ac franchise shouldve been wrapped up in origins, this wouldve worked better alone.

Valhalla: ugh where to begin... i couldnt even get halfway through this game. this is just Skyrim without the dragons and todd howard. and what is Skyrim without todd? boring and uneventful, apparently. why on earth are we able to change history so much in a game franchise that was originally about reliving history? just make the main character a woman if theyre supposed to be one, like in odyssey, the "having an option to be a man" is so fucking stupid. if being a female character makes AAA games unsellable riddle me Horizon Zero Dawn and Tomb Raider. this should have been a spin off game or a stand alone project.

anyway, those are my thoughts. no, i will not being playing any new ac games. at this point the only ac games i dont have blocked in my tag sections are black flag, liberation, origins, and syndicate (and unity but thats because i do enjoy looking at it. pretty but no personality, like i said).

if youve never played an AC game before, the only ones you should play if youre interested are black flag, freedom cry, syndicate, and origins, in that order or with syndicate first, though seeing as freedom cry and origins are very heavy games having a stupid one in the middle can help balance the anger and tears.

for those that have played ac games, obviously this is my opinion and you may have other opinions, but i dont honestly care, no arguing that 'actually blah blah is a good game' on this post im not gonna listen, make your own post ♡. im pretty fed up with most of the stuff that comes out of the franchise anyway.

at the end of the day, play what you want and dont ;) pirate the four ac games i recommend if you are interested in them that would be sooo bad haha ;).

#i talk #assassins creed #ubisoft #but no really if youre gonna say something about my opinion being wrong homie... you wont change my mind ♡#ive got six years of game design under my belt. i know a bad game when i play one #feel free to agree with me and hate on the ezio games though :)

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ljreflet · 3 years ago

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Beta-Test Playthrough Results!

So I just finished up my first beta-test playthrough of this gender-lock-free mod, and I almost cried seeing it come to life honestly LOL.

To be 100% honest, I love the Pegasus Knight class line—it’s my favorite class—but I usually prefer playing as male avatar characters so I never really was able to enjoy any of the games to the fullest ㅠㅠ (except for Fates which thankfully is mostly free from the gender-lock haha)

But anyways, here’s my experience with this test-playthrough, along with who I reclassed and how they performed:

(Warning: REALLY long post coming!)

M!Robin, M!Morgan (Pegasus Knight, Dark Flier [Robin], Falcon Knight [Morgan])

I mean, Robin’s Robin LOL. Now that both male and female Robin have the exact same class access, there’s no more weird distinction between the two’s performance since they can both access Galeforce (and you can enjoy playing the gender you prefer playing without worrying you’re missing out on one thing!). I don’t really need to explain much, since no matter what build Robin does, they’ll always be insanely strong.

Same with Morgan too, but I was so happy to see my son as a Pegasus Knight LOL.

Ricken (Pegasus Knight, Dark Flier)

Ricken was the first one I reclassed since Dark Flier Ricken sounded really fun to use. The beginning was a little bit of a struggle since his strength is really low so getting past E-rank lances made his killing potential low, but Pegasus Knight’s bases relieve his speed issue and he was able to double from the get-go. He wasn’t too far off from Sumia’s offensive start. Thankfully though, I found 2 Shocksticks and that lasted him until Dark Flier promotion.

Once he promoted to Dark Flier, he definitely maintained his place as my staple tome-user. His speed and skill were consistently even and the class really helps him out by giving him the speed to double most enemies (with a Valkyrie Henry pair-up). The best part was that Dark Flier Ricken isn’t overpowered in the slightest, but the class just improves his performance. The strangest thing though was that his defense was second to Cherche? How that happened, I have no idea LOL.

Panne (Barbarian, Berserker)

To be 100% honest, I’ve never been a fan of the Berserker/Warrior classes in the first place, and I was contemplating between Wyvern Rider and Barbarian for Panne. I ended up choosing Barbarian mainly because I actually had the chance to, so I did it for the sake of the gender-lock-removal. However, I didn’t have her sprites completed, and I only had her custom sprite for Barbarian.

As expected, she had the highest strength stat in my whole army, and thankfully her naturally high skill stat kept her hit rates high—which low hit rates tend to be a problem for Berserkers.

I always used Panne as a lead with Wyvern as her class, but since she was an infantry unit, I found that I kept her in the back (supporting Cordelia) more often than before. This was mainly due to movement, but I used them about 50/50 after I chose to reclass Cordelia into a Hero.

Overall, Berserker Panne is an insane offensive lead unit, and with Axefaire, she’ll excel either as a Berserker or Wyvern Rider. Just keep her away from Mages haha.

Henry (Valkyrie)

Henry is another one of those units that benefit significantly from the gender-lock, with access to Troubadour/Valkyrie. I skipped out on Troubadour, and went straight to Valkyrie after Second Seal-ing at level 10 Sorcerer--that way he ended up as an offensive Valkyrie rather than supportive.

The main thing that benefits Henry is Valkyrie’s base speed. He strangely has a low base in speed, but a decently high growth at 40% (higher than Cordelia’s). Valkyrie bumps up his speed by 4 points, which does make a difference.

Henry’s actually great once his speed issue is fixed, like with his high skill piled with Vengeance, he can become a crit machine. The biggest downside though is that he can’t utilize Dark Tomes as a Valkyrie and he loses 5 points of defense (still the tankiest out of any of the other Troubadours lol).

I paired him with Ricken--who was a Dark Flier (aka Galeforce-user), so I had Ricken lead and Henry support, but Henry was definitely viable leading Ricken as well. Usually, the pattern with these two went: Ricken kills, triggers Galeforce, then Henry takes the 2nd kill.

Gaius (Falcon Knight)

Gaius was one of the last characters I reclassed. I originally wasn’t planning on reclassing him since the Thief line works well enough for him, but I was thinking about and I was like “nah, I’ll do it.” So, I ended up Second Seal-ing him at level 10 Assassin.

Since Cordelia has Mercenary in her class set, I had Gaius and Cordelia switch weapon duties.

Falcon Knight and Assassin roughly have similar stats, so his offensive performance wasn’t drastically different (extra Res was a plus). The plus side was that, with his amazing speed and WTA against swords, he was one of the few that could double late-game Swordmasters. But what really upped his game was that he became a FLYING LOCKPICK.

I’m the type of player that likes to open every single chest in each map, and having Gaius soar around the field made things a lot easier and quicker.

Also, did you know that Pegasus Knights have a special Lethality animation? It’s different from their crit animation haha.

~*~*~

And there you have it! I also had several of my 2nd gen units in gender-lock-removed classes, and I’ll probably make another post about them later.

Last but not least, now that I’m complete with this playthrough, I’ll be getting back into working on the sprites. I have about 104 left to go (256/360 complete), so I’m hoping to release this mod by next month or February!

#fire emblem awakening #fe13 #playthrough #please stop gender locking classes #im literally begging

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memethemastermonarch · 3 years ago

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Mass Effect Tag Game, Except I Get No ME Mutuals

To celebrate finishing 3, here I go!

Been a fan since: Late February 2022. I got into it from a combination of this Youtube video by a Tali simp about ME3 and I just finished Dragon Age Origins after watching some TikToks on it and figured I’d go on a Bioware marathon. I originally meant to switch between Dragon Age and Mass Effect to keep myself balanced. I ended up playing the whole ME Trilogy one after the other.

Favorite game in the series: Absolutely ME2. I love all the games for different reasons, ME1′s exploration and ME3′s combat, but 2 is the most balanced. The large cast, the companion side quests, the way the ship was bigger, WAY better outfits for Shepard, and the scanning feature were all so fun. My main gripe in MELE is that ME2 is the only game that limits your weapon arsenal. Why the hell do Vanguards need an SMG? They don’t hit hard and suck unless it’s the DLC one!!! Other than that it’s so full of content despite being shorter than 3 by how many hours I’ve played.

MShep or FemShep: FemShep. I am female and I always prefer female MC voices in games anyway. Although props to MShep’s VA, love VAs that interact with communities.

Earthborn, Colonist, or Spacer: Colonist. The side quest in ME1 is very sad and that one little clip of dialogue in 3... my heart.

Biotics or Tech: Biotics. Nothing beats floating enemies in the air or blasting them with Flare.

Paragon or Renegade: Paragade. I feel it fleshes out my Shepard more, although I’m a massive hypocrite sometimes with my choices of dialogue. It’s fun as hell though, and it’s how I could easily save both the Quarians and Geth.

Favorite Class: Vanguard supremacy! I also really love ME3′s Sentinel since I wanted to change up classes and wanted to keep up with my character’s biotics gig. Vanguard was super fun, but kind of hard to master for ME2. I’d say Vanguard would work best for me in 3 since I charge in or just run around the battlefield. I definitely want to do an Infiltrator playthrough though.

Favorite Companion: Garrus! I kinda of forced myself to use him and Liara in the first game to see why everyone likes them, but only Garrus stuck the mark for me. Liara’s cool, but Garrus surprisingly was so cool an in depth in 1 compared to many other characters for me. And how they develop him even further with the next games.. ugh! He’s amazing, like if Nick Valentine and Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd combined but before either was even an idea.

Least Favorite Companion: Zaheed is the only companion in the games I do not like, which actually shows how the casts is either very well written or at least likable. Not Zaheed. With how he and Kasumi’s dialogue was designed, it’s hard to get to know and understand him as a character. Plus he is a boring asshole WHO SET A FACTORY ON FIRE! Look, I’m all for revenge, I let Garrus kill that stupid traitor because that’s not something you can forgive, but don’t fucking put other people in danger for it. Dude even dies pathetically too in 3.

Squad Set Up: Garrus is always there like a little girl’s worn out teddy bear, balancing out my biotics. And Tali whenever she was avaliable. Liara, Kasumi, and Samara were my backup teammates

Favorite In-Game Romance: Garrus 100% all the way. I love his chemistry with Shepard, especially my Shepard. They are opposites in playstyles, and they are each other’s impulse control on stupid decision making. I love romances who banter like an old married couple but balance each other out on a deeper level. I also have massive respect for Tali and Thane fans, Tali being my second favorite character, and Thane just being a sad character. Thane simps make me cry because those guys are the queens of angst.

Favorite NPC: Donnelly and Daniels by far. Going down to Engineering felt a lot more alive with them around. They were cute and really funny. I wish they got together :(

Favorite Antagonist: Uhhhhh... uh oh. I don’t really any particular favor towards any of thems. Saren is cool, that fight cutscene at the bomb area is way cooler than with the Salarians. The Illusive Man has cool motivations and corruption arc, especially with the comics. The Reapers being ruthless AI is cool. The Collectors are sad too. Nothing sticks out to me though. I’ll just say the ME2 final boss I guess. That shit was badass and made me so hyped up.

Favorite Loyalty Mission: Miranda and Tali’s are so good!! They aren’t tedious like Thane and Samara’s, and the emotions I’ve felt during them were very sweet. Kasumi’s would be up here too if I didn’t suck at undercover missions.

Favorite Mission: Virmire is the mission in Mass Effect 1 that let me truly realize that my choices would be rewarded or punished VERY heavily at certain points. Doing Wrex’s mission before, choosing which teammate to sacrifice, and the hype before going to Ilos was what ruly made me enjoy this series. Mass Effect 1 is a good game. Virmire and beyond make it a great game.

Favorite DLC: CITADEL! CITADEL! CITADEL! CITADEL! Call it the inner weeb from me, but I do believe that the new Mass Effect would benefit from a companion system similar to like Three Houses or even Persona 5. I KNOW I KNOW it sound cringe but Citadel shows us that we love those moments between Shepard and the crew. AND they could get more character development and dialogue. No more calibrations! Or at least let us invite the gang to the bar or nightclub or just to watch a movie. I loved eating with my students in Three Houses, and I’d LOVE to go on dinner dates with Garrus and Tali. Other than Citadel, Omega and Shadow Broker are really good too! Aria’s Flare really made me know why you should not fuck with her. The Shadow Broker DLC was also a nice little archive for the squad’s personal information, getting money, and just watching people be stupid as hell in the vid showcase. Definitely has a nice reward for completing it.

Control, Synthesis, or Destroy: I chose Destroy in case we can port our Shepards from LE in the next game (I doubt it but I don’t like taking chances) but all of them feel sad. At least Control has a badass idea behind it. So... Idk I just want some Garrussy man. Just let me be happy in the next game

Favorite Weapons: I’m a very bad Vanguard. I like the geth assault rifle from the first game, and the Widow sniper rifle. Guess I have another reason to like Garrus. By 3 my Sentinel used snipers, assault rifles, and pistols in case I have no ammo. My power suffered as a result but I WAS RIGHT ABOUT AMMO AT THE END! I like to be prepared :(

Favorite Place: The Normandy SR2 before the Alliance fucked it up, and the Plaza from the Citadel DLC. I loved playing arcade games and getting decorations for my house and then hanging out with my friends :)))

Favorite Quotes: AHHH I SUCK AT REMEMBERING BUT THAT VOLUS THOUGH

“I am a biotic god! Fear me!”

-Niftu Cal, the Volus from Samara’s recruit mission

Thank you for reading this. I loved reading other people’s experiences and I hope more people get to have fun in the Milky Way in the future. I have no ME mutuals, so anyone is up to doing this too! I’d love to hear more opinions on the series.

#mass effect

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kenkamishiro · 4 years ago

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Jack Jeanne Playthrough Part 3 (April 5)

1 month later. April 5th in the VN. Kisa is at Univeil and excited she passed the entrance exam. She runs into her childhood friend Yonaga who's also been accepted. He's shocked that Kisa is attending too, but before she can explain Suzu joins them, introduces one each other.

Quartz's theme is "transparency" where many inexperienced performers who haven't specialized yet tend to go.

Onyx = Jacks whose forte is in dance.

Rhodonite = Jeannes who specialize in song.

Amber is where talented and unique students gather.

Suzu theorizes Kisa would be in Rhodonite because of her appearance, himself in Onyx because his physical abilities make him more suitable for dancing than singing or acting. Yonaga would like to be in Quartz.

Yonaga: Quartz...would be nice.

Suzu: I get what you mean!

Yonaga: Huh?

Suzu: Tbh I enrolled in Univeil cause I really admire Tachibana Tsuki, the legendary Jackace of Quartz!

Kisa: ...!

Suzu: That's why I wanna be in the same class as Tachibana Tsuki...come to think of it, your last names are the same.

Kisa: (If people find out I'm related to Tsuki-nii, it might make it even easier for them to discover my identity...! But it might be better than lying poorly...)

Kisa: It's true. It's the same (nonchalantly)

Yonaga: ......

Suzu: Maybe you guys are distant relatives!

Kisa: *nervous laughter*

Yonaga cuts in and says they should go check which class they're in. Kisa thanks Yonaga for the save. Their year is the 78th class of Univeil. All 3 are in Quartz.

Kisa gets called to the headmaster's office.

Chuuza congratulates her and informs her about her admission. The only ones who know that Kisa is a girl is him, Quartz's homeroom teacher Enishi Rokurou, and now Yonaga, Kisa's childhood friend. Chuuza is surprised that someone who knew about Kisa enrolled in the school.

But if anyone else finds out that she's a girl, expulsion. But since a lot of students are feminine, she won't have to go out of her way to act and dress like a boy. He reminds her to build trust with the rest of the students, and aim to become a lead and aim for the top.

Kisa arrives to Quartz's homeroom late.

??: Yes, yes, come right in.

Kisa: (The teacher...? But he's in a student uniform.)

??: You were called in quite loudly during the school announcements. Did you run into any issues on the first day? Theft, robbery, manslaughter, extortion, coercion, or a bank robbery, perhaps...?

(Please watch the clip of this scene. Can you tell he and Furuta share the same VA? 😄)

Fumi: No one like that would be in our school, Kuro.

??: But wouldn't be great to have such a plucky 1st year around, Fuumin! All the world's a stage!

Fumi: And, if the cops came?

??: I concede! Law is what keeps society together.

Kai: ...you two are bothering the 1st years.

Kisa finds a seat by Suzu and Yonaga.

Neji Kokuto (3rd year, 76th class of Univeil) welcomes the 1st year students to Univeil and Quartz. Class leader-slash-scriptwriter-slash-director-slash...all kinds of other things! He provides an info-dump about Univeil for us.

5 performances in total: Rookie, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Univeil Exhibitions. The Rookie Exhibition is where the 1st years take the lead roles, which is going to be held May 30th. Today is April 5th, so less than 2 months remain. Most viewers will watch over them warmly, but others will be more strict, like journal reporters, critics and avid Univeil fans. Neji will write a script to allow even novices like them to shine on stage. Casting will be announced mid-April. Upper years are also participating and support the 1st years.

Neji: If you have any questions, all you need is to ask. I'm sure all our seniors here will be more than happy to help you.

??: What, no way.

Neji: With some exceptions of course! Mwahaha. Mikki's a 2nd year now, you can be a little nice to your juniors, hm?

??: ...

Kisa notes he looks cute like a doll. Shirota Mitsuki, noted for his singing. He catches Kisa staring at him, and she apologizes.

Neji asks if anyone has any questions. You're given 3 options: 1) How casting is determined, 2) Type of training to be done, 3) No questions.

Casting is based on Neji's subjective judgment. Everything from how they're doing in lessons, campus life, the way they walk, talk, physique, voice, facial expressions. Essentially based on his intuition, which he uses to find gemstones in the rough.

Training I'll explain later, there's gameplay related to it.

Neji finishes his spiel and passes it on to Quartz's homeroom teacher, Enishi. Pretty low energy. Lessons start tomorrow. Class is dismissed.

Suzu meets Kisa outside the Quartz dorms and asks if she's ready to introduce herself to the other students. He notes it's hard to find people since Univeil is so large. They chat for a bit, Suzu asks Kisa to call him by his first name, so Suzu-kun it is.

Inside Yonaga's dorm. He's finished unpacking, though he's still yet to put away his books (on theatre). He asks how Kisa got into Univeil, and she explains what happened. Yonaga says he'll help Kisa to make sure she stays at Univeil. He's glad that Kisa is here with him.

Yonaga: Kisa-chan, about Tsuki-kun...

Kisa: I can't get in touch with Tsuki-nii, but I'm sure he's doing fine wherever he is.

Yonaga: I see. Yeah, I'm sure he is.

(Isn't that sketchy? Maybe he turned into that weasel with the moon on its belly lol)

Kisa begins her search for the Quartz students. At the Univeil courtyard, Kisa hears Mitsuki singing.

"Within this chest of mine I dance, the rhythm of possibilities"

Kisa: (I'd heard he was lauded for his singing, but he really has a beautiful voice...the lyrics paint the scene in my head.)

Mitsuki: ...could you not stare at me like that? It's uncomfortable.

Kisa: Oh, I'm sorry!

Mitsuki: Oh, you again. The 1st year who came in late.

Kisa: Yes. My name is Tachibana Kisa. It's a pleasure to meet you.

Mitsuki: Huh...you've got a face like a girl.

Kisa: Eh? Y-yes, I suppose so.

Mitsuki: A high-pitch voice. A delicate figure. And a Jeanne at that. At least be aware of your own features.

Kisa: I-I'm sorry.

He sighs and introduces himself. 2nd year, 77th class of Univeil. A Jeanne and a tresor (songstress/diva) of Quartz. VA is Kajiwara Gakuto (Asta). Kisa compliments him on his singing.

Mitsuki: So you were eavesdropping.

Kisa: I-I'm sorry.

Mitsuki: Well, not like I care either way. Later.

Kisa: He left...I guess he doesn't really like interacting with people. But his voice really was beautiful.

(If I had to describe Mitsuki's tone, it would be similar to Kenma, but a bit more antisocial lol)

Kisa finds Kai in the forest, seemingly concentrating on something. She decides to come back later, but Kai notices her.

Kai: ...? Quartz's 1st year?

Kisa: Yes! I'm Tachibana Kisa.

Kai: I see, you're...

Kisa: Yes!

(awkward silence between the two)

Kai: Mutsumi Kai, 76th class of Univeil. I'm a 3rd year.

Kisa: So I should call you Mutsumi-senpai!

Kai: Kai is fine. You can call me that around other people too.

Kisa: But...

Kai: ...

Kisa: ...(agrees)

Kai: ...

Kisa: T-then, I'll call you Kai-san!

Kai: Okay.

Kisa notes Kai is the Jackace of Quartz. And since Tsuki was also the Jackace, that means he must be talented too.

Kai: I'm a vessel meant to garnish the Aljeanne. Nothing more, nothing less.

Kisa is confused by his statement. Convo ends.

Kisa runs into Neji next in the hallways. He enters a room then promptly comes back out.

Neji: Welcome!

Kisa: Ah!

Neji: What're you doing in a place like this?

Kisa: I'm going around introducing myself to everyone in Quartz.

Neji invites her into his workroom where he writes his scripts and plans his staging. But he also performs on stage, any male or female role, from a shining prince/princess to old grannies/gramps.

He's currently working on the script for Quartz, but he won't reveal it just yet. Kisa asks if the other class leaders write the scripts like he does, but Neji is a special case, who screenwrites, directs and performs.

Neji: Once you get carried away, you can't see what's going on around you. What we do has no end to it. Acting, dancing, singing, they're fields that you can pursue for a lifetime. You could reach the stars, or merely end up as a master of none. No matter how much time, it will never be enough. It's a terrifying world out there. That's why it's so engrossing. The stage is a colossal device. The Jacks and Jeannes make up the gears, and I am the craftsman who pieces them together. Let's create a fantastic stage together, Tachibana-kun!

Neji must continue writing, and wishes Kisa the best for the Rookie Exhibition. (Neji definitely talks the most out of the main cast lol. And fast too, talks a mile a minute and tone varies hugely)

Kisa finds Fumi standing languidly in the middle of the dance room, taking deep breaths before beginning to dance. A Japanese-style dance where his movements are gentle, beautiful and brilliant. He comments on Kisa staring intently at him, just like during the entrance exam.

Kisa is surprised that Fumi remembered, despite the number of applicants.

Fumi: I remember you and the red-haired guy well cause you two danced so terribly.

Kisa: Oh...

Fumi: I'm just kidding. Though the red-haired guy really did suck.

Kisa introduces herself, and Fumi pauses at hearing the name Tachibana. 3rd year Takashina Sarafumi, 76th class of Univeil, but he prefers being called Fumi, no senpai honorific attached. Kisa ends up calling him Fumi-san.

Fumi: Let's have fun, Kisa. (leaves)

Kisa: It's overwhelming seeing him up close. So that's the power of an Aljeanne.

Kisa goes to her room excited for her new life at Univeil and retires for the night for her 1st day of classes tomorrow.

＊＊＊

previous || next (to be updated)

#Jack Jeanne #Ishida Sui #JJ playthrough

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jumin-deserves-better · 4 years ago

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My thoughts on all the Mystic messenger characters and their routes :

Ok, last week I finished playing the mystic messenger game. I completed all the routes, DLCs etc. And, OMG, WHAT A RIDE WAS THAT ! . It doesn't have any appealing plot like other otome games, but this game sure did capture my heart,which most of the otome games fail to do so. The fact I could relate to some of the characters, I felt bad for them, concerned, weirded out at times , and so happy when they changed into a happy person because of me. The game deserves all the praise it gets, 10/10 👍

In this post, I will give my rating based on my playthrough for each character, and I will also say who is my true route as well, i.e, the route I fell in love the most, And please remember, these are based on MY opinions alone, please don't come at me, if it doesn't match yours 👀, Feel free to share your opinions about the characters as well & this post is way long beware ~☆

My playthrough order : I followed the recommended playthrough to get a clear picture of the storyline.

Zen 》Yoosung》 Jaehee》 Jumin 》 Seven》 V 》 Ray.

And for your kind information, I never played this game to get a bad ending, i didn't want to hurt those precious fictional characters just for getting one CG 🤐, but I do know what happens

SPOILER FREE!, I will be just giving MY OWN ratings , except for the rika part lol don't worry, ladies.!

Anyways, let's just jump into it ;),

Zen 🤍:

THAT SMIRK THOUGH 😏

His route : 9/10 ( not the best route, but I liked it anyways, as he is my 1st route)

His character: 8/10 ( I don't like narcissism or narcissistic people, I know it was his coping mechanism, but I kind of dislike those type of men, his attitude in Jumin's route, kinda pissed me off apart from that , he is great ! )

Is he my true route ? : NO, I don't like guys who are narcissistic, I understand that that its was his coping mechanism, to make him believe in himself, but still being narcissistic all the time is not ok, I have a bad memory because of those type of guys, moreover, I am not that confident irl 😂 , I mean the MC in Zen's route,will have to say lots of weird ass choices, and the fact that will impress him⁉️, i wouldn't even say those choices irl to anyone . I wouldn't mind being friends with him though. He is definitely the ideal BF material, but he is just isn't for me..Sorry, Zen.😅

Yoosung 💚 :

AWW CUTIE 🥺💕

His route : 9/10 ( apart from the "You are just like Rika", I personally enjoyed his route, the character development was the best at the end 👌)

His character : 9/10 (OMG! He is just so cute, I am not the one to get attracted to the 'younger guy' type, but this guy just changed everything for me, but he needs lots of attention , beware, yandere yoosungs will pop out if u don't care about him enough, and the fact this guy was the only one who was supportive for Jumin's relationship with MC in Jumin's route , showed how much of a cutie he is!, unlike others 😒, he was a bit annoying in V's route, but it is understandable, he deserves to knw the truth about the person who he admires )

Is he my true route ? : Kind of a YES & a NO. Eventhough I enjoyed his route more than Zen, like I said earlier I am not into those 'younger guy' type, he is a guy who loves to be babied and protected by a mature MC , and well...I am not that mature either 😛,in reality, I am a independent person, but when it comes to relationships, i liked to be babied 😏. I personally think he deserves someone better than me, I don't want to ruin his happiness 🥺

Jaehee 🤎 :

A friend in need is a friend indeed, my bae,Jaehee! 😄

Her route : 7/10 ( ok, I am gonna be honest here, I did not enjoy her route, I was happy that she realized her dreams and goes for it, but do we have to ruin a character just for making this route dramatic? Yes, I am talking about Jumin, Do u guys even know, how much I struggled to even start Jumin's route, I was literally scared of him because of his potrayal in this route as that jerk which he was btw,this route actually made me avoid Jumin for sometime.I expected the relationship between Jumin and Jaehee to become a healthy one, but oh well, whatever, & the after ending was just frustrating,all the RFA members just isolated Jumin, seriously, eventhough he did wrong things ,I felt so bad for him, imagine his thoughts at that moment , ugh...Jaehee deserves a better route, I am just not a fan of 'downgrading one character to give more importance to the main one', it's just bad writing)

Her character : 8/10 ( she is an amazing friend, a bit mature one at that. But personally i felt , if she really wanted to pursue her dreams ,she could have resigned, if she is not liking it . She was behaving a bit ignorant at times, especially in Zen's route. She could have communicated with Jumin beforehand about her difficulty in handling the job? I knw it's very difficult to suddenly quit the job, but she has every right to resign,she does have the money to open a coffee shop, thn why?. Don't come at me, and tell me that I hate her just because she is a female character,HELL NO, I like her but still her route made me have mixed feelings. She was being rude at times , I really understood why CHERTIZ did this, to show women can liberate themselves to work for their dreams, but in a professional point of view, I still think the route could have been handled better. Small businesses success isn't as easy to get, and in my point of view it would have been nice to show how MC and Jaehee make it through in her route rather than making Jumin a jerk, because it ruined Jumin at first for not only me but also a number of players ,but oh well,🏃‍♀️, I do like her, she could be a great friend, nothing more that that )

Is she my true route? : NO, I am straight. I see Jaehee as a friend. Some ask a romantic route for her, but I don't mind about that , I was just glad that I could help her to realize her dreams as a FRIEND.

Jumin 💜 :

I don't see a selfish jerk here, I see a soft boi , in a gigantic body, who is just lonely

His route : 10/10 ( Seriously, I did not expect to like his route one bit, I thought I would hate him more, but turns out, I freaking fell in love with the flawed "him" , HECK YEAH! this was the only route where i was being TRUE TO MYSELF, did not refer any guides, understood his loneliness, I could relate to him so bad, I was happy to help him during his vulnerable times 🤧.Zen was annoying ,but I didn't care much about it, because I knw why he was like this. I prefer the good ending, and yes he does propose for marriage to whom he have talked for only 11 days, but I was very sure he will listen to you, if u don't want the marriage immediately )

His character : 9/10 ( He is so cute in his own way,mature, intelligent,awkward and even gets insecure,because he thinks he does not deserve you?! , you deserve better than me ,Jumin 😫, he does get possessive and irrational and that could make others uncomfortable, but for me, I understood that as well, being an empath myself ,as this dude never had a relationship with anyone,he is new into this, I don't mind teaching him new things about the world, about love. His characterization in Jaehee's route was god awful and cheritz did a bad job in it , I think they decided to make him like this, just for DRAMA,Jumin might have a bad way of showing emotions but he is not a soul less demon. I have seen people calling Jumin an abuser, but I didn't see that at all, he was being an idiot and he acknowledges it, every damn time, an abuser doesn't do this at all, and no..I don't think Jumin is dominant daddy material one bit like how the fandom perceives him. This is his first relationship with a woman, I feel he would be sweet, embarrassed loving and a loyal husband material, and I love his "opposed to living together before marriage" thing as well, as my religion follows that too as well )

Is he my true route? : A. BIG. FAT. YES. HE IS JUST MY TYPE, dear lord. I have never seen someone so perfect and also with flaws just like me , this guy made me realize that all along, I just never showed empathy towards others and that's why no one wanted to talk to me irl, I didn't care what people told about me. He seriously made me understand my own flaws and I corrected it, he made me into a better person, big thx , Mr.Jumin . Morever , I was being myself in his route only, I loved all of his calls , he brings up the strangest things just to talk to you, that's just so cute WTH , this man will be so loyal I am sure of it !.I don't really care about his riches, I am just in love with his true self 😫🥺

707 ❤ :

The main man of this game, hmmm....

His route : 7/10 ( ok, I was so hyped to play his route , cuz even before I started to play this game, 707 was so popular, I expected a lot, but it was a meh for me...he did have a VERY HEARTBREAKING PAST , he was suffering from a lot of things, I understand. But the whole route wasn't that gud though...and his secret endings are just painfully depressing and angsty, V's death just broke my heart, I felt so frickin bad for Jumin, how would he even handle those things?.It just destroyed me completely. Moreover I don't find 707's jokes funny at times, his route had good plot, but 707 failed to impress me in his own route)

His character : 7/ 10 ( oh boi,I am scared that I would be slaughtered with hatred for telling this, the fact that he was faking his own personality was very shocking to me, I did not expect that. I despise tsunderes ,and 707 is the literal definition of it, so yeah, It ended up being annoying for me. Even though I was hella depressed like 707 before, I couldn't find him #relatable at all. I don't knw why , but I couldn't see him more than a friend 🚶‍♀️)

Is he my true route? : NOPE. I was not impressed by him at all, don't knw why lol, I tried to like him as he is THE REAL TRUE ROUTE,but it is still not getting into my heart, maybe because I already started to love Jumin, idk. I felt bad for 707, I wouldn't mind helping him as a friend, but as a significant other...NAH....,I am not into these type of guys 🥴,sorry seven...

V 💙 :

I can understand why Jumin and V were best friends...they be looking like DADDY 👀

His route : 8 /10 ( for me, I was happy that V finally understood that he was basically a obsessive simp for Rika, I hated that he blamed himself more, which somehow I agree, I feel like he could have said something to the RFA , yoosung was hella annoying in this route, he spoke as if Rika is an angel or something, which she is not btw, yoosung, she brainwashed saeran and freakin created a cult, and this is not something an angel would do 🥴, V is not just flawed or anything,he doesn't even love himself,and so clings to rika because she was so wonderful in her eyes as an idea .He kept the freakin truth hidden,just because Rika doesn't want to, of course, my baby,yoosung will ask about . V is too emotional,and he was a victim of rika's abuse and manipulation just like Saeran,I liked the plot and though I didn't fall in love with him , I did have a tinsy bit of crush on him, mainly because of his looks, more like a puppy love, the voice acting was on point 👌)

His character : 7/ 10 ( boi could have handled the situation with his crazy GF much better, he actually let Saeran get brainwashed by Rika, he could have done something, and the fact that he liked Rika only as an idea, showed that this guy was in a very toxic relationship, Rika and V are the perfect example of what happens when two people who doesn't love themselves date, and he was clearly the victim of Rika's abuse and manipulation. I also don't think he is an angel either, he has done some wrong things definitely, and the fandom should acknowledge his wrong doings)

Is he my true route? : NO. Though Jumin and V are very similar , I did not like the fact that he simped for his crazy GF out of his obsession alone and though, she was clearly showing red flags earlier, he thinks that the power of love can change her lol . He was so confusing for me to understand. 😂

Ray 💖 :

His route : 10/10 ( The drama , the music, the plot & the voice acting was just fantastic, I was blown away by this route, but that doesn't mean I liked Saeran as a character, the boi needs therapy, not romance lol, sry,and the recovery from his brainwashed state was unrealistic )

His character : 7/10 ( seriously, the voice acting for both the personalities was just mind blowing, he is such a well written character, but his abandonment issues isn't something u should romanticize about, he loved the affection that the MC was giving , but one wrong move, he will change just like that , he confused affection with love. Some are telling that Jumin was abusive, which he is not btw , for me, suit Saeran was super abusive, WTH)

Is he my true route ? : HELL NO. Eventhough he was practically innocent because he was under the influence of that elixir or some kind of a drug and brainwashed by Rika , I would never in my life try to have a romantic relationship with those kind of people. I may like him after he receives proper therapy ,but NO, just No, I can help him as a person, but I wouldn't go for a kiss or something with him. 🙄

Rika 💔:

This scene still gives me goosebumps 🙄

Her character : -infinity / 20 ( she deserves this uwu)

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Ok, hear me out, I hate Rika so much , i know she has been through a lot, i really do.. but it doesn't mean you can emotionally abuse and brainwash Saeran, he would have been a better person,she turned a person who loves ice cream and cloud watching into a self destructive psycho, another story showed how much she is capable of by her words , She manipulated V to not tell RFA that she is gonna start a cult, WHAT THE HELL, V, do you not knw what she is trying to do here 😳 ? But whatever,V was being manipulated by her "playing as a victim" tactics, she also played with Jumin's feelings for her, I was about to throw my hands on her, how dare u do that to my man ??, made yoosung to obsess over her to make him think that she is absolutely a gud person, and left him to ponder over her so called 'passing' , making him unable to move on from her.

And oh god,the backstory did not make me feel bad for her one bit, it only made me understand why she has become like this. Like dude, I understood she had a shitty past, but so did the other members of RFA, but did they all become like a manipulative victim player? Hell no.. they learned from their mistakes and they change, but even when all the members were trying to help her, she denies that she doesn't need a therapy. She deserves a proper mental therapy and a proper jail time. NO EXCUSE FOR THAT, she did the same manipulation and brainwashing for all of her disciples to get them into Mint eye.

But as a character , Rika just rocked it for me , she was so successful in making me and a lot of the fans hate her as an antagonist. Her voice actor was so gud,she had such a good way of speaking manipulative, like God, I understood why all the RFA members were all kind of whipped for her, she is such a master piece as an antagonist. 🚶‍♀️🤫

Vanderwood 💞👀 :

I NEED A VANDERWOOD ROUTE 😫

His character: 10/10 idk, why am I giving a rating for him though? I just love him 😂

Ok, I know he is a side character, but for some reason, I liked him more than 707 lol 👀, I just spoke with him only in one chatroom , but boi , was I whipped for him 😜

*******************************************

My favourite to least MM main characters and routes :

JUMIN - 19/20 ( 1st)

YOOSUNG - 18/20 (2nd)

ZEN & RAY - 17/ 20 ( 3rd)

V & JAEHEE - 15 / 20 ( 4th )

707 - 14 / 20 ( 5th, it's not that I hate him or something, it's just that I was neither IMPRESSED by his character nor the route, I don't mind him one bit! )

Rika -Though she doesn't have a route or a gud character she deserves a -infinity/20 ( and no place in my heart 🚶‍♀️)

Overall, this game is the best otome game ! , I actually paid for getting the hourglasses, I mean, I suck at patience, I was so intrigued by the story, but it was seriously worth it !. There are a number of otome games which charge more than this.

Anyways,

Thank you, Cheritz for creating Mystic messenger. This game totally changed how I perceived life, love ❤ and Romance 💕

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