#I’ve been playing side order dlc and going to my classes so I haven’t been able to draw Kiki in a bit

[soloragoldsun]

Pride Month Recommendations- Days 9-18

No, I didn’t forget this! I just haven’t had the strength to do long-ass posts of this nature. Hopefully, things will be better when I switch shifts at the end of the month.

Anyway, I’m going to go through my Steam Library for this list...

9. Angels with Scaly Wings by Radical Phi is a dating sim/mystery/sci-fi game where you can romance a dragon. As you can probably imagine, it is an ideal game for me. You are an ambassador from a dying Earth who has been sent through a portal to a world populated by sentient dragons. There, you uncover a series of murders and get close to certain dragons while trying to save their world and yours. The characters are very in-depth with largely tragic backstories. Get ready for some feels. Your character is referred to by they/them pronouns, leaving their gender open to your interpretation. You can develop a relationship with all five dragons, regardless. It’s a wonderful game with great worldbuilding and incredible characters!

10. Coming Out on Top by Obscurasoft is a game that I willingly purchased TWICE. The first time was when it was still in development, which I almost never do. Even when it was incomplete, I got an amazing experience from it! When I lost access to my old email and the game came out on Steam, I bought the completed version. The premise is simple in theory: You are a college senior who has just come out as gay, and can romance one of several guys over the course of the game. What makes this game stand out is the likeable characters, the zany settings you can find yourself in, and the hilarious dialogue! Each romance is unique, and even the non-romanceable side characters are memorable. It has good sex scenes, if that’s what you’re into, and you can even customize things like facial hair on your character and the bachelors. There are even mini-dates you can go on if you don’t feel like playing a whole route. This game has it all, and you can easily get several hours of gameplay out of it. I mean, did I mention that I willingly paid for it TWICE?

11. Dragon Age: Origins by Bioware was a gamechanger for me, literally, as it heightened my standards when it came to games in general. To this day, it remains on my top five list of greatest games of all time. You play as a character who eventually becomes a Grey Warden, whose purpose is to defeat creatures known as Darkspawn and stop a Blight that is descending upon your homeland. How you go about that fight, who you choose as allies, and your overall actions in the world are up to you. You can play out one of several backstories for your character, customize your class, and, of course, romance one of four characters. Two of the romanceable characters, Leliana and Zevran, are bisexual. In later games, you get even more romance options, but I feel that Origins is the best game overall. I could play it again and again, and have done so several times. Also, it’s on Steam, which means you can buy it and all DLCs without dealing with the annoying Origin platform.

12. Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator by Game Grumps has been talked about so much, I almost feel like I don’t need to. I will anyway. It’s a game where you play as a single dad who moves into an area that, conveniently, also has a bunch of single dads. As the title suggests, you get to date the dads you meet over the course of the game. This game is awesome because, among other aspects, it’s super inclusive. You can decide whether your dadsona is trans or not, whether your daughter is adopted, whether your previous spouse was a man or woman... The characters themselves are wonderfully-developed and three-dimensional. There are also many Dad Jokes. Also, Damian is best dad.

13. Gone Home by Fullbright is another game that is often talked about in LGBTQ circles. It’s an exploration game where you return home to an empty house and learn by going through different rooms, reading letters, and finding items, the story of your character’s family, particularly your sister. I love games that force you to explore and work for the whole storyline, because it feels so much more fulfilling when it all plays out. Gone Home does this brilliantly! I will say that it’s a short game for the price, so I’d recommend waiting for a sale.

14. Life is Strange by DONTNOD Entertainment is one of the greatest games I have ever played, period. I will never be able to say enough good things about it. You play as Max Caulfield, a photographer who has recently moved back to her hometown to attend the prestigious Blackwell Academy. There, she reunites with her estranged best friend, Chloe Price, falls into a mystery surrounding a missing student, and learns that she has the ability to rewind time. It’s a game where choices in the first episode will impact what happens in the fifth. All of the characters are memorable. You will absolutely fall in love with Arcadia Bay and get sucked into the mystery surrounding it. I played this game over the course of three days when I first bought it, because I just couldn’t stop. It remains one of the most emotional experiences I’ve ever had. As for LGBTQ aspects, both Max and Chloe are bisexual, and you can play Max as having feelings for Chloe and/or her friend Warren.

15. miraclr- Divine Dating Sim by Woodsy Studio is a fun little game about falling in love with an angel via group chat. Your character has been chosen to communicate with the seraphim (and Lucifer) concerning the implementation of the first miracle Earth has seen in ages. Most of the game involves chatting with the angels, deciding on a miracle, and entering private group chats to develop your relationship with the angels. You get to choose your pronouns, and Gabriel goes by they/them pronouns. I’ve only played one route, but it was pretty cute! The one annoying aspect is the fact that it’s modeled after a mobile game and sets chats for certain times. You can easily bypass that, however, by choosing to power through or rewind.

16. Nekojishi by Team Nekojishi is...a mixed bag, if I’m going to be honest. The likeability of the characters fluctuates a lot, and the True Ending had A LOT of issues for me. Still, I played the thing for nine whole hours! It’s a game about Liao, a college student and aspiring dancer whose third eye is suddenly opened, giving him the ability to see gods and spirits. Among these spirits are Guardian Tiger, a family guardian spirit who wants Liao to return to his family’s temple and use his abilities there, Clouded Leopard, who wants Liao to become a go-between for him and his worshipers, and Leopard Cat, who has possessed one of Liao’s classmates in order to convince him to create a temple for an earth god he’s connected to. Obviously, Liao isn’t so keen to abandon his own life in order to fulfill any of these wishes, but the spirits decide to remain by his side until he makes a choice. You can romance one or all of the characters, leading to different endings which, again, vary in quality. Still, the art and music are great, there are many tidbits on Taiwanese folklore, and it’s free! If you’re into gay beastmen and folklore, this is a good game to check out.

17. Night in the Woods by Infinite Fall is another game that played with my emotions. Like, it got so real, I needed to take frequent breaks during my first playthrough. You play as Mae Borowski, a college dropout returning to her hometown for reasons unknown to the player for most of the game. Falling into her former, aimless life, Mae reconnects with her friends while learning of the darker secrets of Possum Springs. Mae is pansexual, and two of her friends, Gregg and Angus, are in a relationship that is further explored if you choose to get closer to Gregg over the course of the game. This game delves into heavy subjects like depression, helplessness, the slow death of a town, and growing apart from the people you once knew.

18. I’m ending this list with a game everyone should know about: Stardew Valley by Concerned Ape. This is the peak of all farming simulation games! You play as a character who inherits a farm from their grandfather and moves there to escape their meaningless office job. Once there, you can develop your farm, fight monsters, explore, and befriend the townsfolk. Whether you play as a male or female, the romance options are all open. You can marry, have kids, and raise a family together. All of the characters have great events, but my favorite has to be my goth boi Sebastian.

Phew... Remind me not to let this go for nine days again. That took awhile... Anyway, I hope you find something you like. See you tomorrow!

[kierarutherford]

Dragon Age Question Meme

Thank you for the thought and nod @princessvicky01

01) Favourite game of the series?

If I have to pick, Inquisition

02) How did you discover Dragon Age?

I saw a trailer for Origins and I wanted it. Had to have it. Put a pre-order on it and have been hooked on the series ever since.

03) How many times you’ve played the games?

Origins: I broke the disk... easily over 70 times DA2: I broke the disk.... 54 times Inquisition: 17 times.. then my xbox disk drive broke... 

04) Favourite race to play as?

Mainly human, but I’ve enjoyed the elven play through as well. I haven’t touched the dwarf... in any of the games. BUT I love dwarves FYI!!!!

05) Favourite class?

Mainly mage. I’ve been everything else for story line in Origins only. I have never done two handed/sword and shield. 

06) Do you play through the games differently or do you make the same decisions each time?

Generally speaking I make mostly the same choices. Some of them I change up to see what happens BUT I have never done any of the sketchy stuff in Origins, like defile the ashes. NEVER. I play more of a Paragon with touches of Renegade. Or Lights side, with a pinch of darkness lol

07) Go-to adventuring group?

- Origins: Alastair, Shale and Zevran with a female Mage

- DA2: Varric, Fenris and Isabella

- Inquisition: Typically: Dorian, Bull and Varric. 

08) Which of your characters did you put the most thought into?

So far Diana Trevelyan. But Kyrie, my little fire cracker is earning some hard fought time.

09) Favourite romance?

Alright: Origins: Alistair (so hard to say no to him. Those puppy eyes.) DA2: Fenris - dark, broody with a gentle soul. Love him. Inquisition: Cullen. While I have romanced Bull and Blackwall, Cullen’s romance was so much more complete for me.

10) Have you read any of the comics/books?.

Not yet. I want to though.  

11) If you read them, which was your favourite book?

n/a

12) Favorite DLCs?

Jaws of Hakkon- it has a lot of lore in it, very lore heavy and it leaves me with a TON of questions. 

13) Things that annoy you.

That once you complete the main romance sequence there really isn’t anything more. Maybe I’m being greedy but I want more.

14) Orlais or Ferelden?

Ferelden. Dogs, sturdy men without pompous pants. Mask free. Sign me up. 

15) Templars or mages?

Mages. I feel they get a hard shake just for being born different. Plus if a templar negates their magic, it’s curtains for them. Unfair fight. 

16) If you have multiple characters, are they in different/parallel universes or in the same one?

Ah, they exist in different universes. I don’t really see how they could interact. Maybe one day but not now.

17) What did you name your pets? (mabari, summoned animals, mounts, etc)

Origins: Fluffy DA2- Carver (lol) Inquisition: Inquisitor

18) Have you installed any mods?

No, wish I could though because omfg people have amazing mods!!!!

19) Did your Warden want to become a Grey Warden?

Surana did what was asked of her. It was her only way out of the Circle. In a way she welcomed it, in another she exchanged a stone cage for a time cage. 

20) Hawke’s personality?

Purple with a touch of straight face.

21) Did you make matching armour for your companions in Inquisition?

Nope. I avoid plaidweave unless Blackwall is involved. Oh yes, lumberjack fantasies. 

22) If your character(s) could go back in time to change one thing, what would they change?  

Oh wow, uh... here we go:

Diana: She would have been at Kinloch. Pulled him out and taken him away. Kyrie: Grabbed her mother and hid. Hyacinth: Ran away before the Conclave. Kiera: Stayed with Cullen through his withdrawal longer. Found a way Lara: Told Fenris how she felt sooner.

23) Do you have any headcanons about your character(s) that go against canon?

Kyrie’s mother is an escaped mage from the Circle. Her father was a templar, who helped her escape.They lived as apostates on the outskirts of small towns for years. 

24) Are any of your character(s) based on someone?

Bits of myself really. 

25) Who did you leave in the Fade?

Stroud. Alistair is King in my timeline and happily married to his Surana wife.

26) Favourite mount?

Ok, I never used them. I know, I know, strange but I didn’t like them. No offense. I collected them, stocked my stable full but never used them. 

[mahalzevran]

DA 20+ Questions

Tagged by @antivan-surana​ thanks! Tagging @situationnormal​ @the-dread-doggo​ @acepavus​ @aroundofgwent​ @lakambaeni​ @kxnways​ @fuckbioware​ (no pressure ofc) and anyone who wants to?

The rest is under a read more because it’s long

01) Favourite game of the series?

Origins, only because you got less and less op as a mage as the games went on. I love all the games tbh.

02) How did you discover Dragon Age?

My friend got my sister into it. They kept talking and talking about it so finally I was like “ok lets see what the big deal is” and here I am now

03) How many times you’ve played the games?

I’ve done Origins twice fully, DA2 four times fully (omg I didn’t realize this until now lol) and DA:I just once fully. I have one unfinished playthrough of Origins with a Cousland, and I’m in the middle of maybe two of DA:I. I think I’ve gone back and replayed certain parts of both Origins and DA:I plenty of times.

04) Favourite race to play as?

Elf I guess? Though I’ve only fully played as a human and elf. I’m in the middle of a dwarf playthrough and I’m thinking of doing a qunari one in the future. It might change idk.

I just really liked playing as an elf in Origins so that’s why I got into elves. But the funny thing is, I wasn’t even thinking of playing as an elf when I played for the first time. I wanted to play as a human. I just did it on a whim.

05) Favourite class?

Mage, hands down. Realistically, they’re the most versatile class. They can do range and melee since anyone can learn how to fight with weapons. But the last two games won’t let you so :)

Also, this stems from the fact that I’ve been a harry potter fan since I could remember.

06) Do you play through the games differently or do you make the same decisions each time?

In my full, proper playthroughs that I’ve finished, it’s slightly different but still the same basic ideas. Sided with mages, agreed with Anders, etc.

But I am planning to try an evil playthrough in the future so

07) Go-to adventuring group?

DA:O (I have two)

Leliana, Wynne, Shale - the OG crew; they were my main crew in my first playthrough and it was a pretty even party

Zevran, Leliana, Alistair - the elf crew; esp. with Rhian they’re all elves because I saw a theory that Leliana is half elf and I’m down

DA2

It’s a mixed bag. If I’m not playing as a mage, I usually take Anders a lot because we need a healer and Merrill can’t heal. I tend not to take Sebastian as much after I max his friendship. After Sebastian, I take Aveline the least. Other than that I just mix it up. Unless I’m romancing someone, then I take them every time.

I’d love to take Anders, Fenris, and Merrill out more often but I hate how mean they all are to each other (looking @ u bioware 👀)

DA:I

My first playthrough, I mixed it up a lot in the beginning but then I ended up bringing Solas, Cole, and Blackwall a lot near the end for some reason?

I love taking Vivienne, Dorian, and Solas out, especially if I’m playing a mage, because it’s such a pretty fireworks show

In general though, if I’m romancing someone I take them with me almost always.

08) Which of your characters did you put the most thought into?

I think it’s a tie between Rhian and Lu.

09) Favourite romance?

To no one’s surprise, it’s Zevran :3

Solas is second because I just really like that angst.

10) Have you read any of the comics/books?

I’ve read The Silent Grove, Those Who Speak, and Until We Speak (because someone gifted me the Omnibus) and The Calling.

I also have Hard in Hightown, which I should probably read lol, and the art book of inquisition.

11) If you read them, which was your favourite book?

The Calling solely because of my mom Fiona and my dad Duncan. 

12) Favourite DLCs?

Awakening because I love everyone and its also really funny that Rhian, who is 19 at that point, had to basically babysit people older than her and also run a whole arling.

I love both Legacy and Mark of the Assassin. Mark of the Assassin was really funny (though I hated the stealth part). I love Legacy specifically because when I was fighting Corypheus, both Varric and Anders K.O.’d and it was just me and Carver. It was a special family moment bringing down a whole entire magister together. I also hc that that was canon and it brought Kaia and Carver closer together.

13) Things that annoy you.

I’m gonna talk about the game bc if this is about the fandom, then that’s a whole other thing.

Anders’ writing for one. It doesn’t make sense that he’d approve of giving Fenris back to Danarius. And also that he wouldn’t tell f!Hawke that he’s bi? Then there’s the fact that Anders, Fenris, and Merrill all don’t get along when they have a lot in common.

Anything that was written by Lukas Krisdkjsdhkdk. Aveline, Sera, etc. he did a really bad job.

Also didn’t like that mages got less OP in the last two games.

There’s also the tone-deafness? Dorian, a brown man, saying slavery is ok. And also there’s the dialogue between Solas and Vivienne where Solas supposedly “owns” Vivienne. I think he says something like “may you learn”? Solas, a white person, saying this to Vivienne, a black woman, when there’s obvious colorism in Thedas? I think not.

There’s probably other but I can’t think of them right now.

14) Orlais or Ferelden?

Orlais is too snooty and Ferelden doesn’t season their food. I pick Seheron and Laysh because that’s where the Asians are at.

15) Templars or mages?

Mages

16) If you have multiple characters, are they in different/parallel universes or in the same one?

Originally, my canonverse was Rhian, Kaia, and Luwalhati. Alden and Bolin were part of an AU. Then Alden finagled his way in there, then I decided to have Bolin in there too. So now i have twin Hawkes and Bolin is part of the Inquisition (if he’s a companion or not, I haven’t thought about)

I have plenty of other OCs that I’m planning on, but they’re currently sorted into a different universe.

17) What did you name your pets? (mabari, summoned animals, mounts, etc)

Pikamon for the Origins mabari. It’s a mix between the names of my two dogs, Pikachu and Cinnamon

Cinnachu for the DA2 mabari, also a mix of Pikachu and Cinnamon.

Lu’s mount is the royal sixteen (hart), which is given to you by Clan Lavellan if you manage to keep them alive iirc, and its name is Luntian, the tagalog word for green which is her favorite color. (In a teen!Lu AU, her mount is the bog unicorn bc she’s an edgelord)

18) Have you installed any mods?

It would be more surprising if I didn’t. How else would I manage to have my characters look like the’re poc?? And also get rid of whitewashing and have some continuity. I usually just do cosmetic mods if it’s my first playthrough. Then I do like “cheats” after I finish the game fully.

Fun fact, I once spent like 2+ hrs modding Origins to have the Zev romance the way I want. I also stayed up until like 5am trying to make Solas look like his concept art lol (it didn’t really work)

19) Did your Warden want to become a Grey Warden?

Rhian didn’t not want to become a warden. She read about them and thought they were an honorable order, but she didn’t expect to ever have a chance to become one. Her goal was to just go up in the Circle hierarchy, maybe even become First Enchanter. Then when the time came, she didn’t really have much of a choice.

20) Hawke’s personality?

Kaia is blue and Alden is purple

21) Did you make matching armor for your companions in Inquisition?

At first, I didn’t get what the big deal was with crafting. It didn’t seem fun at all lol. Then I tried it and was hooked. I don’t have them matching, but I do tend to try to match my Inquisitor with their LI in some way.

My usual procedure for armor in Inquisition is like this. I make everyone wear heavy armor and pick the materials that have the highest attributes, not caring how ridiculous the colors are. Then I go to tint them using a guide for each companion’s color scheme. This is the same for helmet but I usually have them turned off or have no one wearing one.

The only exception is Varric, Cole, and Blackwall. I have Varric wear the rogue armor that looks like his DA2 outfit, and Cole and Blackwall wear the Grey Warden heavy armor. I tint the grey warden armor using a guide for its color scheme.

I have Bull, Vivienne, and Cole wear their unique helmets.

22) If your character(s) could go back in time to change one thing, what would they change?

Rhian - She’d probably want to re-do how she told Zevran that she wasn’t exactly dead.

Kaia - Taken Quentin’s threat more seriously and killed him before he got to Leandra

Alden - He has no regrets

Luwalhati - wouldn’t have taken Sam and Wis with her so they wouldn’t have had to have died in the conclave explosion

Bolin - None, all of his decisions led him to Dorian and he’s happy with that.

23) Do you have any headcanons about your character(s) that go against canon?

They’re all at least part Seheron?

I also hc that neither Carver nor Bethany die because Kaia was able to cast a barrier on both of them before the ogre got them. Then they both became Grey Wardens because Carver contracted the taint in the expedition and wouldn’t join the Wardens unless Bethany came with him too.

Another hc I have is that Sebastian didn’t leave when Anders was spared and stayed to help out. But he went his separate way after because he still didn’t approve of sparing him.

Oh shoot, I almost forgot. The most against canon thing I’ve done probably? Rhian didn’t do the Ritual but she did slay the archdemon without dying. Rhian’s an arcane warrior, so when she slayed it, she was partway in the fade. Being partway into the fade was enough for her essence, I guess, to survive it. But she’s not mortal anymore and kind of a spirit now? So she periodically has to chill in the fade because being in the real world takes a toll on her.

25) Who did you leave in the Fade?

In the game, it was Stroud. I killed Loghain and no way is Alistair gonna be trapped in there. Fiona will be sad. So I made Alistair king in the game only, so Stroud was the one that was left.

This is another off canon thing I did. In my actual canon, Alistair is the warden contact. The Hawke that comes to the Inquisition is both Kaia and Alden. Alden brings Fenris with him because he doesn’t go anywhere without his Boo-Boo. Bethany and Carver also come because Weisshaupt was being weird and it seemed like they would be safer in the Inquisition. Lu + her party, Alistair, Kaia, Alden, Fenris, Bethany, and Carver all come to Adamant. Because there’s so many people, everyone was able to escape the Fade. No one is left behind.

26) Favourite mount? The nugs! All of them :) 

Though I don’t really use the mounts lol

[sulevinblade]

DA Question

Tagged by: nobody, I just wanted to play

Tagging: @gremlinquisitor​ because I haven’t seen you do it yet

01) Favorite game of the series?

Inquisition, hands down. 

02) How did you discover Dragon Age?

Fun story, I first played Origins somewhere between seven and nine years and never got my Brosca out of Orzammar. It was on PC and I just couldn’t get used to the controls. Then I made a friend who is a hardcore Bioware fan. Xe got me invested in Mass Effect first and I marathoned all three games (almost, I haven’t actually finished me3) then got stubborn and refused to play Dragon Age, but xe sent me Origins and I had no reason not to at that point. I still held out till this past summer, but once I started I never looked back.

03) How many times you’ve played the games?

I’m on my second Origins playthough, DA2 only once so far, and uhhhh technically I’ve only finished DAI once but I have three other playthroughs I intend to see through to the end.

04) Favorite race to play as?

I love dwarves, oh my god. There was never a question that my first Warden would be a dwarf, and I only waited as long as I did for a dwarf in Inquisition because I don’t like the Cadash origin. Bring back my Orzammar dwarves!

05) Favorite class?

Warrior, always. I have a couple of mages and enjoy them, but I am a warrior player at heart always, my first protag will always be a warrior, and I tend to love warrior characters too.

06) Do you play through the games differently or do you make the same decisions each time? 

So far in Origins, my choices have been largely the same, though I think I’ll try to save Conner this time. I have a Hawke right now who I’m trying to play as red but it’s SO HARD, I just like being nice to people and making friends! So far many of my Inquisition choices have been the same, except for romances, but Varevas is going to drink from the Well where Ghilanel let Morrigan do it, Astoria’s going to conscript the templars where both of them recruited the mages, Varevas will disband the Inquisition while Ghilanel kept it going, there are a lot of changes coming when I get time to play through stuff.

07) Go-to adventuring group? 

Origins is always Alistair, Zevran, and Wynne, no matter how hard I try to make myself mix it up. I was warned about DA2 so I changed it up for maximum friendship but if I had my way, it would’ve been Jonah, Aveline, Anders, and Fenris or Varric. Three guards and a healer meant leaving a lot of chests unopened so I tried to bring Varric along when I could. Ghilanel’s go to was Solas, Dorian, and Varric, and so far Varevas’ has been Dorian, Sera, and either Bull or Blackwall.

08) Which of your characters did you put the most thought into? 

Ghilanel has the most time and creativity invested in her at this point. I didn’t put much thought into any of them going in beyond appearance and who I wanted to romance (though Ghilanel was originally going to be a Cullen or Blackwall romance, fucking egg ruins everything) but Ghilanel grew and grew as I played and thought about her. Leohta, Jonah, and Varevas all have a lot to offer, but in terms of being developed and able to support a story of their own, it’s definitely Ghil.

09) Favorite romance?

Dorian, oh man. I just swoon, he’s perfect.

10) Have you read any of the comics/books?

I’ve read almost all of the comics (I’m halfway through Knight Errant) and I have many of the books but haven’t actually started any of them yet.

11) If you read them, which was your favorite book?

I enjoyed Magekiller a LOT!

12) Favorite DLCs?

Descent. The Wellspring is possibly the most beautiful environment in any of the games, I almost cried when my party got there, and everything leading up to that was also visually stunning as well as exactly the kind of lore I live for. It also features my beautiful wife Valta and her perfect husband Renn which is just a bonus. I will say, though, Jaws of Hakkon could easily surpass it if they’d like, put out a novelization of Ameridan’s Inquisition. Trespasser was incredible too but sadly I was spoiled and that took a lot of the fun out of the end of it.

13) Things that annoy you.

Little things like not being able to swim and not hearing banter when you’re on a mount. Bigger things like the fact that in order to make an informed decision about Orlais (as a player) you have to have read an entire other novel because the game doesn’t give you the information you need, even if it’s also not necessarily things your character would know. All the sort of stock things, like Cassandra not being bi (among other characters but she’s the one that makes me the most angry), Bioware whitewashing their own characters, no dwarf romances. Not even touching on fandom stuff.

14) Orlais or Ferelden?

Ferelden always.

15) Templars or mages?

Templars, to be contrary (by which I mean I have Opinions about this and while in general I side with mages in all things, I still say Templars).

16) If you have multiple characters, are they in different/parallel universes or in the same one?

I only really have one complete world state right now, with Leohta romancing Alistair and putting Anora alone on the throne, and Jonah romancing Anders and running away with him at the end of the game, but within that Ghilanel is the Inquisitor with Varevas as her clan’s First who survives the Conclave with her; Astoria as a rebel mage who joins up before even considering going to Redcliffe because her nephew is the Inquisitor; and Leohta attending the Conclave undercover as a Carta member and trying to maintain that cover after Haven.

17) What did you name your pets? (mabari, summoned animals, mounts, etc)

Leohta and Jonah both named their mabaris Leon, and Buian named hers Taz.

18) Have you installed any mods?

PS player, no mods here

19) Did your Warden want to become a Grey Warden? 

It beat the alternative. Die in the Deep Roads now, or die in the Deep Roads later. Leohta chose later. 

20) Hawke’s personality? 

Blue as the summer sky over Lothering, Jonah is a pure child.

21) Did you make matching armor for your companions in Inquisition?

Only for their love interests; Ghilanel and Solas were all green and gold until the breakup, then she dyed her armour deep red. Varevas and Dorian are white and red. Leohta’s all warden armour, just like Alistair. Astoria would match Bull if Bull wore more clothing...

22) If your character(s) could go back in time to change one thing, what would they change?

Leohta would’ve been more careful with Zevran’s heart to avoid having to dump him right before the final battle.

Jonah would’ve investigated the alleged serial killings sooner, to possibly save his mother.

Ghilanel would’ve worked harder to make something of herself before the Inquisition knowing she’d need it later.

Varevas would’ve... I dunno. Probably flirted harder with Cullen, he’s hilarious when he’s all out of sorts over it.

23) Do you have any headcanons about your character(s) that go against canon?

I’m sure I do but I can’t think of any just now, which is odd.

24) Who did you leave in the Fade?

JONAH BABY I’M SORRY I DIDN’T KNOW so from now on it’s gonna be Stroud

25) Favorite mount? 

Ghilanel liked the Royal Sixteen and Varevas loves his Dalish All-bred but in general I don’t bother with them, I like the banter more than getting around faster.

[commenter2]

3rd South Park video game ideas

The video game South Park: The Fractured But Whole is just as good as its predecessor and then some, and with the good ratings the game got I’ve been thinking about what a possible third game of the series would be like, so here are some ideas I have that I think would make for a good 3rd South Park game, which I hope comes out sooner then Fractured But Whole did.

First is the theme. Since the last two games were on medieval fantasy and superheroes, two things kids like to imagine and play as, I can personally see the next game being about space, specifically about things from sci-fi movies like aliens with powers and weaknesses, spaceships and laser guns, and robots.  

The plot of the game could be about how the kids are now playing a space themed roleplaying game that involves factions (maybe 3, like one is run by Cartman and Stan, another by Kyle and Kenny, and one by Butters and Jimmy) trying to take over the galaxy aka South Park. They were enjoying the game until Kevin Stoley gets involved as apparently his vast knowledge of sci-fi shows and movies is making him win the game (maybe he could have some of the recurring characters like Timmy and Tweek work for him ?), so for a part of the game its up to the South Park characters with the aid of the new kid to stop him, and to do that the new kid first needs to unite all the factions. Of course later in the game, maybe after defeating Kevin Stoley the kids discover the plans of a race of aliens (maybe a new race, not those grey aliens that moo like cows) who plan on taking over the world and must work together to stop them or else there world is doomed of being conquered, or for a joke turn into a giant mall.

As for a subplot that involves the new kid, I could see it being about how its hinted that the aliens want to capture him after discovering his powers, maybe it could be revealed near the end that his powers, as well as his parent’s powers were a result of the alien race experimenting on them in order to make a weapon that has the power to gather followers (or soldiers) with ease, but forgot about them for some reason, maybe for a joke its revealed that the leader of the aliens got drunk and deleted the info by accident. 

I can also see a side story where we get a minor antagonist from a US government employee. See in both games, people tell the new kid that the US government would want to use his social media popularity powers for there own selfish needs, but so far nothing like that has happened. So what if at some point a villain did try and do this ? This could also work for the story as maybe one of the US employees that are trying to capture the new kid is really an alien spy.

The game could end with the aliens retreat after defeating the boss and everything turns back to normal, however the parents of the new kids decide to move again, due to all the craziness that has happened over the past few days in the town, plus to hid the New Kid and his powers again, so the kids say goodbye and maybe we could hear the new kid talk for a few sentences and the game ends. Of course the series doesn’t have to end like this in fact depending on how good the 3rd game is, I hope they make a 4th.

 Gameplay wise I could see it being the same as Fractured But Whole, traveling around South Park as your character, all having classes with specific powers (some classes I can think of are robots, aliens that can transform, and a class full of high tech weapons), and having fights with enemies where you can move around like in the previous game. However maybe there should be more things to do in the game like maybe some turret shooting levels (maybe while in space) or puzzle solving challenges, as well as maybe less collectible missions/trophies. There should also be a running button as I felt like even with the fast travel areas it takes awhile to get to places.

Here are misc. ideas that I think would be interesting to see in the next game. 

One idea I have is having Randy Marsh as an ally or summon. You have to admit Randy Marsh is one of the most popular adult characters on the show, so what if for the next game, he could aid you in the game this time by fighting alongside you. Same goes for PC Principal, he is just as cool and having him being able to help the New kid would be cool as at least a summon. 

Another idea is for villains. Maybe as a callback from the previous games, a recurring threat could be kids who are still playing the D&D and superhero games that might be cool as they could use powers from previous games you and other characters have used. Maybe PC Principal could be a boss fight, just like how it was depicted in the Fractured But Whole trailer if him being a summon doesn’t work.

I also think DLC should return but unlike in Fractured But Whole, I insist that they all have trophies and achievements to unlock, cause it was a big shock to discover that they didn’t. Also I believe all DLC should have stories in them like the Casa Bonita and Bring the Crunch, instead of just having 2 of them and a training simulator. 

Also though its cool traveling around South Park in the game, I also like the idea of going to other planets in the game, whether its part of the main game or as DLC. It be cool having the characters do what they do on planets we haven’t seen before or awhile like the planet Starvin Marvin was left on, the planet where Mint Berry Crunch is from, and maybe Mars or a new planet ? I also like the idea of them going through time and to different dimensions like going to the atheist future Cartman once ended up at, or going to the realm of Chuthulu.

 What are your thoughts on my ideas ? What else would you like to see happen in he South Park game ?

[tomoneofakind]

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the Nintendo Switch is a port of Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U.  This was a game that I wasn’t planning on purchasing, ever.  After I got the Mario Kart 8 Wii U bundle 4 years ago and all of the DLC that followed, why would I buy the same game for the Nintendo Switch again?

Impulsive buying, you can be a good or bad thing.

Deluxe does have some noticeable differences from Mario Kart 8.  Most of the locked content from Mario Kart 8 has been unlocked from the start.  You start with all characters unlocked, all of the race tracks and grand prix courses unlocked, all cc cart classes and mirror mode unlocked, all DLC is included from Mario Kart 8 so you don’t have to repurchase the content, and two new characters, the Inklings, from the Splatoon series.   Some of the cart parts from the DLC packs will still need to be unlocked by collecting a certain amount of coins which are collected after each race and will unlock randomly.  All coins collected are cumulative so you can race multiple times without worrying if you got enough coins on any race that you do.  This version of the game came out in 2017 but Nintendo is still supporting Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with the recent addition being able to use the Nintendo Labo Products as a controller for the carts and Link’s Master Cycle Zero and look from Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild. Even at full price, I thought that this was a fairly great value for the game.

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Call it my hidden highlight, I like the ads that appear around the tracks and on the load screen for Mario products.

Deluxe looks great and runs at 1080p and 60 frames per second (FPS) while docked and 720p while in portable mode on single player gameplay.  Mario Kart 8 had 1080p resolution, but ran at 59 FPS at times.  I didn’t notice that until it was pointed out to me.  The most common cause that I’ve heard was due to a bug in the programming.  Mario Kart 8 still looks good, but once you know that fact, you will notice it every time that you play on Wii U.  With more than 3 players on the same screen while dock, the game goes down to 30 FPS but still looks great.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has the most tracks offered in any Mario Kart game.  There are 48 tracks to choose from and 8 arena battle tracks.  Of the 48 courses that are offered; 28 are new theme courses and 20 retro tracks from prior Mario Kart games.  I don’t want to sound like that it’s a complaint, but 4 of those 28 courses are not Mario related.  It’s not bad but I find it a little misplaced to see Mario on an F-Zero racetrack.  Still, I’d say that some of my favorite courses in the game in no particular order are:  Twisted Mansion,  Sunshine Airport, Electrodome, Cloudtop Cruise, Excitebike Arena, Moo Moo Meadows, Hyrule Circuit and Big Blue.

With the exception of Baby Park, all of the tracks all have three laps. The tracks now are on the walls as well as underwater. While the underwater segments was already in Mario Kart 7, the on the wall and ceiling is a new addition to the Mario Kart series. It’s a fun and creative way to ride with anti gravity.  You can even get a speed boost when you bump into another racer while in anti gravity parts of the track.

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So, the vehicles are anti gravity, but the racers aren’t.  How are they able to stay in the vehicle without being strapped on when on the side or upside down on the track?

The main screen has 42 different characters to chose from.  While a great variety of racers are offered, I feel it gets away from “Mario Kart” when I see Link, Inklings and Villager from the Animal Crossing in this game.  How can there also be F-Zero tracks without Captain Falcon as well. Each character has different attributes with size and weight and affect the top speed, handling and acceleration of your cart.  Cart customization is back from Mario Kart 7 as well as the addition of the ATV vehicle.  The customization is the only thing that I wish I was able to find a chart online what the best cart and racer for each track is.  I can’t ever seem to create the right cart for the right track.  Anyone reading this and knows of any, please let me know.  My usual favorite racers are either Link or Rosalina.

I just realized Peach is the statue in a “Statue of Liberty” type pose in Toad Harbor.

I like that the game is very beginner friendly. If you haven’t ever played a Mario Kart game, Deluxe has smart steering and auto accelerate feature.  The former makes staying on the track easier without falling off if you take a turn too wide or short and the latter automatically accelerates the vehicle.  This allows the player to not have to hold down a button to accelerate.  The auto accelerate feature is great because I don’t have to hold down the acceleration button.  I sometimes jam down the button thinking that my Kart will go faster if I do.  It was also a way I introduced this game to my friends who either haven’t played at all for awhile without having him be discouraged.

Smart Steering in indicated by the antenna on the back on the vehicle.

Included in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a battle mode with arenas.  While Mario Kart 8 had a battle mode, they involved going around the courses and hitting opponents and popping balloons.  Here, it’s back to the arena battle 5 new and three classic arenas from prior Mario Kart games.  The balloon battle returns and a new mode called Renegade Roundup.  A cops and robbers mode that “The Authorities” kart racers with Piranha Plants must capture “The Renegades”  If a renegade is caught, they are sent to jail but can be broken out if another renegade is free and passes the jail cell.  If “The Authorities” capture all of the renegades, they win.  If they don’t, then they lose.  Also brought back from Mario Kart Double Dash is Bob-omb Blast and Shine Thief.   Bob-omb blast has you attack your opponents with Bob-ombs only, and Shine Thief is a capture the flag type of game.  A new power up introduced for the battle mode is the cape feather which allows you jump spin in the air and to steal a item if your opponent has one.

When playing Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, it does feel like the only way that you can win is with luck.  I feel that it doesn’t matter how good you are, if you get hit with a barrage of items you can go from 1st place to 12th place in seconds.  Watch my video below.  It is a simple of one of many races on Cloudtop Cruise where I go from second to seventh in seconds.

The only thing I thought that Mario Kart 8 had over Deluxe was the ability to post highlights of your race to Youtube.  Yeah, it was only 30 seconds, but I liked the idea to share this way highlights of your race to friends.  I hope that Nintendo will add a patch to allow to put videos on Youtube again.  I know that you can use the Nintendo Switch Share to post on Facebook or Twitter, the audience just doesn’t feel the same to me.  If not, by at least Mario Kart 9,  Nintendo should allowing longer videos to share on Youtube.

When Mario Kart introduced 200cc class, it felt a bit precedented.  All the game before Mario Kart 8 would only go up to 150cc.  So with 200cc, you expect a new faster experiences when you race.  You do experience that for the most part.  But, to me it just feels like the difficulty was bumped down.  It’s like 150cc is the new 100cc.  200cc is a challenge, as smart steering is the only way I can compete in the class.  You are given a new drift boost if you turn off the Smart Steering.  When you drift on a turn you see sparks if you hold down the drift on a turn.  After a while when you develop purple sparks, you have a Ultra Mini Turbo which you can use for a speed boost nearly equivalent to a mushroom.

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Blue, yellow and Purple (available without steering assist).  The different types of drift boosts that you can get.

Mario Kart 8 added a lot of new useful items and add a bit of help during your race.  You have the Piranha Plant, which chomps at other racers and items along the track.  It can even eat a blooper about to shoot ink on your screen.  The boomerang, which gives you three shots and can hit opponents ahead or behind you and come back to you after it’s thrown.  The rare crazy 8 item, that gives you 8 items circling your kart.  There are a:  Coin, Mushroom, Bob-omb, Star, Blooper, Green Shell, Red Shell and a Banana.  The only new item I find good and bad at the same time is the megahorn.  It is the answer to stop the spiny shell if you are in 1st place, but I find myself rarely getting this item when I’m trying to overtake the lead.  Even when I do, I’m holding it throughout the race missing other items that I could be using to boost or protect my lead.  Plus you lose the item if you are hit with the lightning bolt item.  It might have been so bad if I was able to switch out the items.  Mario Kart 8 Deluxe brings back a Boo that can steal any racers item and make you briefly invisible.  Deluxe allows you have two carry items at once but you can’t switch the items.

I enjoy this game series.  I never played any of the Mario Kart games until Mario Kart: Double Dash for the Gamecube.  I don’t really play too much of the online racing, but I hop on and race once in a while.  Mario Kart is a series that is best played together.  When you and your friends get together and play in a living room area or game room.  It also can test your friendship sometimes.  Especially those that play innocent that they don’t know what they are doing, and win most of the time by luck.  (You know who you are!)

What are some of the things that you enjoy about Mario Kart games?  Please let me know in the comments or message me.  Thank you for reading.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the Nintendo Switch is a port of Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U.  

[garrettsthings]

Garrett’s Reaction to Nintendo’s E3 2018 Presentation

Hello friends! I’ve made no secret about how hyped I was for Nintendo’s E3 presentation this year and so I’ve decided to write down my reactions to each of the games featured. So here we go:

Daemon X Machina: I’m actually really excited for this. I was never super into the Armored Core games (I’m not sure why since I have an unhealthy love for giant robots), but I think this looks rad. It’s like if Armored Core (yes I know people from that are working on this) was given to Platinum (yes I know nobody from that are working on this). I can’t wait!

Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country: This looks cool, but I still need to beat Xenoblade Chronicles 2. But as a side note, Nintendo why do you hate the English dub of this game so much? It’s nowhere close to the worst English voice acting you’ve ever done. Do you remember Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn? Do you remember “To wing brothers! Keep up if you can!”? Because I do! And Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is NOT that bad.

Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee: Don’t get me wrong, I’m looking forward to getting the Eevee version but aside from the news about Mew being included in the Pokeball plus, we didn’t learn anything we didn’t already know about these games. This video just served to remind us that the games still existed. Guys, I don’t want to make this whole post be negative, but if you’re going to show us a video for a game we already knew about, it better end with Spider-Man getting beat up by the Sinister Six!

Super Mario Party: I haven’t played a Mario Party game in a very long time (unless the top 100 minigames one counts) but this does look cool. The tank game that requires two Switches makes me nervous as a single player gamer though.

Fire Emblem Three Houses: Okay, here we go! THIS is what I came for! While we’re not given much in the way of story or explanation, the game looks great! Having a player avatar (though I hope he or she is not a silent protagonist) is always welcome, and the having an army at your back had my jaw on the floor. Not to mention, we finally get a female Lord (ten bucks says that’s not her class) who can use axes! I’m just praying the game doesn’t move too far away from the best parts of the last two games. I want my supports and romances!

Fortnite: I have no interest in this game, but I’m happy for the people who were asking for this. Who knows, I might even give it a try. It’s not like it’ll cost me anything.

Indie Games: I’m not super into indie games so I was pretty meh on this segment. I will say that watching the Treehouse play Overcooked 2 later was a lot of fun though.

Octopath Traveler: Dude I LOVED the demo for this game and now you’re telling me there’s another one coming out IN TWO DAYS!? I don’t know what I did to make the developers of this game like me so much, but clearly I need to figure out what it is and then just do it constantly.

Starlink Battle For Atlas: I literally heard about this game for the first time yesterday. I have no idea what it is or what it’s about aside from space battles, but I love me some Star Fox and that’s enough to intrigue me into looking closer.

Arena of Valor: This is another game I’ve never heard of until now. Looks very Diablo-esque which is fine, but not my thing.

Minecraft: I could have sworn this was out for the Switch already. Oh well. Again, not my thing, but I’m happy for those who do like it.

Sushi Striker: Played the demo and I absolutely loved it. I pre-ordered it on May 26 and I’m still waiting for it to start shipping. The things I do for free shipping I tell you...

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle Donkey Kong DLC: Yet another game I just realized I need to play more before I get some really cool looking DLC for it, lol.

Pixark: See my reaction to Minecraft above.

Just Dance 2019: ... reeeeeeally not my thing.

Dragonball Fighterz: I’m not a big fighting game fan, but once again, I know there were people waiting for this game to come to Switch and I’m happy for them.

Splatoon 2 Octoling DLC: As someone who loves the lore of Splatoon, this DLC has me tempted to actually get Splatoon 2 while I still don’t need to pay to play online.

Captain Toad Treasure Tracker: Ooooh.. I LOVE Captain Toad. I might need to get this one. Maybe the 3DS version. I prefer that console for games that rely heavily on touch controls.

Crash Bandicoot: Blah blah blah not my thing, blah blah happy for those who like it.

Ninjala: Um... what is this glorious looking thing, and why am I only learning about it now?

Carcassonne: *puts on glasses and gestures to this game as if it were a butterfly* Is this Settlers of Catan?

The rest of this montage except TWEWY and Mario Tennis: I’ll just save us all some time. None of these are my things, but if they are yours, congratulations.

TWEWY: Oh you better believe I’m getting this! I just hope it doesn’t force us into using touch controls.

Mario Tennis: I liked the demo but I didn’t love it (translation: I got my ass kicked online and I’m still sulking). I don’t know if I’ll get the game.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: I’m only a casual fan of Smash, but I can certainly understand the hype for this game. Even I’m salivating at that Ridley trailer. Still, we didn’t need Sakurai to walk us through every single character. That chewed up a lot of time that could have been used for something else.

Overall, while I felt this presentation was the weakest of the big three this year. I still enjoyed it. While I’m disappointed there was no Bayonetta 3 or Metroid Prime 4, we still got plenty of good stuff. Honestly, Fire Emblem was all I needed and I got it. And let’s not forget, Nintendo has a history of announcing new stuff in the days following its E3 Direct. I wouldn’t be surprised if we got a weird and wonderful little new IP announced either tomorrow or Thursday.

What did you think of Nintendo’s presentation? Sound off in replies or by reblogging.

[xb-squaredx]

Fire Emblem Warriors Review: Starring Fates...and Some Other People

When Hyrule Warriors hit the Wii U, it was my first Musou or Warriors title, and I largely enjoyed it. I was hoping that its success would mean more Nintendo franchises done in this style, and Fire Emblem was at the top of the list. Years later, and we’ve gotten just what I wanted. Fire Emblem Warriors proves itself to be an enjoyable, engaging action title that not only pays tribute to the Fire Emblem series, but improves upon the Warriors formula with the integration of more strategic elements from the games on which it is based. All and all, it’s a pretty fantastic experience…as long as we leave talk of the roster out of it…

Fire Emblem Warriors has the kind of set up you’d expect in a title like this. In the kingdom of Aytolis, twins Rowan and Lianna are besieged by the forces of the Chaos Dragon and must gather together an army of warriors from other worlds in order to stop it and wouldn’t you know it, they’re all from the Fire Emblem franchise! The story that follows is pretty basic and more than a little predictable, but it lets all the characters bounce off of one another, and it does its job. It helps that it’s fully voice-acted, which I always appreciate. At any rate, Rowan and Lianna fit into the Fire Emblem world a lot more than Lana ever did in Hyrule Warriors, and overall the flow of the game feels true to the series, while being a good tutorial for players just jumping in.

Speaking of, if you haven’t played a Dynasty Warriors title or one of the many spin-offs, these games are all about carving through hordes of enemies, using flashy attacks that can take out entire armies in one go. The difficulty isn’t from the combat, as most enemies are little to no threat to you most of the time. No, the challenge lies in balancing all of the various objectives that appear in any given battle. Taking out a specific group of enemies or capturing a particular enemy fort, as well as rushing to aid an ally in need and defending your own forts from attack. Characters have a basic chain of combo moves, some skill trees to unlock more attacks and make their general abilities stronger, as well as super moves and an “awakening” mode to hold in reserve. Now, if you have played any of these types of games before…what I just described isn’t exactly new or ground-breaking in any way. If you’re familiar with this genre and didn’t care for it, I doubt that Fire Emblem Warriors is really gonna change your mind.

That being said, it features a number of new mechanics it borrows from the Fire Emblem series, and on the whole, it’s a marriage of two gameplay styles that goes good together and helps alleviate some of the problems that crop up in the Warriors games. I found myself pretty overwhelmed in Hyrule Warriors as so many different problems would need solving all at once, but I simply couldn’t juggle them all by myself and my CPU allies were no help. This game directly fixes that by not only giving players control of several characters that they can switch to at any time, but also the ability to command your troops and give them specific orders. You can have them defend your forts or a particular character, take over enemy forts or focus their attacks on specific enemies. I’d still say the AI leaves something to be desired, but it REALLY helps cut down on the amount of problems I have to tackle. It’s good to be able to swap between different characters too, as everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses that need balancing.

The Fire Emblem series has the famous weapon triangle that influences just who you send into battle and who specifically to target. Sword-wielding characters struggle against lance users, but can take out anyone with an axe with ease. Archers make quick work of Pegasus knights and magic users can rip through heavily-armored units like they’re tissue paper. These have largely been brought over into Fire Emblem Warrior’s combat and they work surprisingly well. Characters that have an advantage in the weapon triangle do more damage and trigger an enemy’s Weak Point Gauge more often, which allows for a powerful attack when emptied. Archers taking out flying units with two or three attacks is pretty cathartic, and as you go through the game, certain weapons can come with skills that allow for bonus damage on horseback units, draconic units and more…it really does make a difference and keeps combat from being too tedious…as long as you’re on the right side of the weapon triangle.

To help with that potential bad matchup, the game ALSO includes the Pair Up mechanic from Fire Emblem Awakening, letting you place two characters into one unit, and if you pair up characters that you can control, you can swap between them at the press of a button. This not only helps cover for weaknesses, but works to also increase support levels between units, which allows for minor boosts to stats when characters are paired up, as well as the occasional support conversation. It’s really impressive how many features were so well integrated and feel so genuine. It’s more than just a Dynasty Warriors game with a new coat of paint; it feels just like how a Fire Emblem game would play as a 3D action game.

Outside of Story Mode, the bulk of your playtime will be going through History Mode, which recreates famous battles from various games, down to the top-down layout and enemy placement. This game’s answer to Hyrule Warrior’s Adventure Mode, it contains a variety of challenges as you progress through a given battle. Each enemy is a different challenge: some require you to kill a certain number of enemies in a given time limit, while other challenges have you tackling a basic mission with special limitations, like only being able to use axe-wielders or characters from a specific game. This is where a number of the game’s unlockables are stowed away and even after beating a given map, there’s incentive to play through them again.

Now, I’ve avoided the elephant in the room long enough, but by far the most contentious aspect of the game is the roster of characters. Fire Emblem Warriors draws from three games primarily: Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (a.k.a. the one with Marth in it), Fire Emblem Awakening (a.k.a. the one that saved the franchise) and Fire Emblem Fates (a.k.a. the most recent new game). Lyn from Blazing Blades and Celica from Gaiden are playable as well, however they aren’t part of the main story and are hidden away deep in History Mode. Fans are displeased that so few games are represented, but I can see why Tecmo Koei would go this route. Hyrule Warriors only focused on three Zelda games: Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword. With that being said, after all of Hyrule Warrior’s DLC and its 3DS port’s DLC it ended up covering the likes of Majora’s Mask, Wind Waker, Link’s Awakening and A Link Between Worlds, feeling like a much better representation of the Zelda series than when it started. Unfortunately for Fire Emblem fans, THIS game doesn’t seem to be doing that. All of the announced DLC for Fire Emblem Warriors is going to build from the three core games that make up this crossover, and what’s worse….some of these characters are already in the game as NPCs. It’s hard not to feel slighted, as if this game is pretending that the Fire Emblem series only has three games that matter. But the problem with the roster doesn’t stop there.

While there is a good amount of variety in the playable cast, from archers to spellcasters, and all manner of reps from the base weapon triangle, there are still some disappointing shortcuts that have been taken. Despite the developers wanting to not focus on sword characters too much (their stated reason for fan-favorites Ike and Roy not making the cut), they still take up half the roster. While there IS variety to them (Xander’s horseback acrobatics give him a different feel to Chrom’s raw power approach, as an example), there’s still a great amount of moveset clones. While everyone has unique special attacks, all other attacks are identical. Lucina takes after her father, Celica is a clone of Marth for some reason and while this may change later on, future DLC character Owain is a reskin of Ryoma. On top of that, the three archers in the game all have the exact same moveset, as do horseback magicians Leo and Elise. The one that hurts the most are the three lance characters in the base game, all three of them Pegasus knights with the exact same moveset. Why they all have to share the same moveset, yet the axe-wielders Frederick, Lissa and Camilla are all distinct from one another I’ll never know. It doesn’t help that if you want to pick someone with a lance, you have to put up with a weakness to arrows. Within the game, only Robin, Corrin and Tiki feel truly unique, and even then Validar is an NPC that borrows Robin’s moveset at times. If the game was going to pack in so many identically-playing characters, I see no reason they couldn’t have greatly expanded the roster.

Outside of that, the only other major issue I have is how stingy the game is with giving out Master Seals, which promote units and unlocks the rest of their skill trees. Unfortunately, this means that characters will be stuck with incomplete movesets until you find enough to promote everyone you want to use. On top of that, in the games of origin, promoted units often gained a new class that allowed for the use of different weapons but sadly that option doesn’t exist here. Despite Chrom’s Great Lord class allowing the use of a lance, he’ll stick with the sword here. It could have opened up options for a few different characters. Otherwise we have weird situations where, for Frederick’s Awakening attack, he uses a sword, his axe AND his lance…but sticks to the axe at all other times. Or how Lucina pulls out a bow for her Awakening attack and then pockets it, never to be used again.

Presentation-wise, the Switch version of Fire Emblem Warriors looks pretty good overall. The models are of decent quality, and the action flows pretty well…and can get even smoother if you go into the settings. The game provides player with the ability to turn on “Performance Mode” to reduce the resolution a bit in exchange for 60FPS, which is a pretty decent trade-off. Unfortunately, this isn’t an option for handheld mode and it should go without saying that the New 3DS version doesn’t have the feature at all. Music doesn’t really stick out too much to me overall though. I appreciate a lot of little nods and extras that can be found in the game. Unlocking a model viewer, having various characters be the system voice (and scold you for playing late at night), and all of the support conversations are either funny, heartwarming, or a mixture of the two. All-in-all, this feels like a game that was made by people that were passionate about the Fire Emblem series and the love really shows.

Fire Emblem Warriors won’t convert people on the fence about the Warrior formula in general, and I think plenty of Fire Emblem fans will take issue with the roster (particularly if you hated Fates, since that’s half the roster!) but it’s far from a bad game. It improves on the basic Warriors formula with a great merging of gameplay elements from Fire Emblem, and still delivers on addictive one-man-army action. So…when’s Kirby Warriors, am I right or am I right?!

Until next time,

-B

[burnouts3s3]

Fire Emblem: Three Houses, a review

(Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit unprofessional blog post written by an unprofessional blog poster. All purported facts and statement are little more than the subjective, biased opinion of said blog poster. In other words, don’t take anything I say too seriously.) Just the facts 'Cause you're in a Hurry! Publisher: Nintendo Entertainment Developer: Intelligent Systems and Koei Tecmo Games Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP): 59.99 USD How much I paid: 59.99 USD Rated: T for Teen due to Blood, Suggestive Themes and Violence. Can I play offline: Yes How long I played: 128 Hours to go through all 4 story routes while watching the (skippable) cutscenes. Microtransactions: 24.99 USD for an Expansion Pass, a digital license that allows downloading additional future content for the game. What I played on: My Nintendo Switch Dual Audio: Yes. Both English and Japanese voices are available. Notable Localization Changes: Certain lines were rewritten. Petra, a foreigner from a different land, speaks more like Borat than anything else. Dorothea used innuendos that have been written out. Performance Issues: The game runs well enough, for the most part. I noticed a lot of soft textures and pixilation when the game was in docked mode. In handheld mode, I noticed quite a few dips in framerate. In game movies tend to look choppy and stilted in docked mode. While in the Monastery, I waited at multiple loading screens, certain characters will not pop up until after a few seconds and certain doors into other areas take a couple of seconds to open. Can I play without 2 Joy-con controllers?: No, both controllers are required. My Personal Biases: I’ve been a fan of Fire Emblem since someone recommended me Fire Emblem: Awakening for the 3DS. So far, I’ve enjoyed the modern titles for the work such as Awakening and Fates. I bought Shadows of Valentia, but haven’t gotten around to finishing it. I never played Fire Emblem: Warriors. My Verdict: Trying to make the jump from handheld to console while retaining all the key elements is a bit of an uphill battle for Fire Emblem. While the core mechanic still remains charming, the open world exploration aspect and calendar system don’t exactly mesh well. Still, give it a shot. Buy it. Fire Emblem: Three Houses, A Review

After much waiting and the inevitable spin-offs into mobile and musou territory, Fire Emblem finally releases its latest iteration. This time, it comes to the console, the Nintendo Switch. Will Fire Emblem manage to retain the charm it had on portable devices? Let’s find out in this review of “Fire Emblem: Three Houses”! You play the role of “The Professor”, child of the mercenary, Jeralt and newest member of the Church of Seiros. Under the guidance of the Archbishop, Lady Rhea, the Church of Serios guides the land of Fodlan through an age of prosperity. There you can pick between the Three Houses and will teach one of them: Future Empress Edelgard and the Black Ravens, Future King Dimitri and the Blue Lions or Future Duke Claude and the Golden Deer. However, things are far from peaceful as a new threat emerges to shake up the church. While tutoring your students, you must also uncover the mystery surrounding the land and how best to resolve it. Certain elements for previous Fire Emblem titles had to be stripped when making the jump from handheld to console that’s sort of a handheld. The extensive character customization found in Awakening and Fates is gone, as players are limited to playing a male or female avatar. The game’s key feature, support conversations, is still there. Earn enough Support with a student will unlock a conversation with them. You can either talk to them while exploring the monastery or they’ll call you on a free day to celebrate. However, you can only unlock the S Rank / Romance ending by completing the main storyline and getting an epilogue. You cannot just grind support levels and unlock the endings before completing the main campaign like in previous titles. The Three Houses have individual storylines and the leaders of each house have different goals. Edelgard has ambitions and will stop at nothing to achieve them, Dimitri has regrets about the deaths he’s witnessed and it’s changed him and Claude is trying to keep the peace while breaking down the borders. One of the cooler aspects of the game is to recruit or ‘poach’ characters from different houses. If you level up your MC with enough of a stat and Combat Skill, you can recruit another character that’s usually exclusive to another House and into your own. For example, if you have at least 15 Strength and a C rank in Bow skills, you can recruit Bernadetta, a unit usually exclusive to the Black Eagles, into any House you want. However, because of the nature of the game and the branching paths, you will not be able to poach the House Leaders and their bodyguards. For example, no matter how high your stats or combat skills, Edelgard and her loyal friend, Hubert, cannot be recruited to any House other than the Black Eagles. The unit characters themselves are basic stock types: the loyal servant, the shy girl, the loudmouth, anime Edna Krabappel, the big eater, etc. Granted, Fire Emblem always played it fast and loose with stock types but I enjoyed the batch this time around. It also helps that in conversations with other characters, the units have interesting chemistry, as in Petra realizing Caspar’s father killed her father in a previous war, but is willing to look past that or Dorothea, who was born a commoner, putting Lorenz, a snobby noble, in his place.   The feature I was missing the most was the ability to have S class conversations between other members besides the Main Character. In Awakening and Fates, you could have romantic pairings and those pairings would produce new units, a child, to fight alongside them. However, since that feature is gone, you’re stuck with one person. The “A” Rank is considered the romance and will affect the ending titles. Since I achieved the A rank between multiple NPCs with one another, they’re automatically assigned with certain characters. (What’s interesting is that certain A ranks offer platonic endings. I was completely shocked to find an ending where Leonie and Shamir join up in an ending together to form a mercenary group as buddies). I miss seeing different characters romance one another and how said romance would affect a new unit. For example, I liked the Donnel and Maribelle pairing in Fire Emblem: Awakening and seeing their child, Brady, join the fray. So while NPCs romancing each other is still there, the child units are not there (or may possibly appear in a future DLC, but I doubt it). Of the Four Routes, I found the Blue Lions and Dimitri’s the most ‘complete’ or the most scripted and detailed of the bunch. The other routes are fine, (Edelgard and the Black Eagles is pretty interesting), but the Blue Lions route seems like the one done first or the one most detailed. New to the franchise are the use of battalions, troops that can be assigned to units to give benefits. Some battalions can attack without being countered and inflict status effects such as poison or no movement. Other battalions can heal nearby units or give them more mobility. Best of all, units with battalions grouped together can ‘join up’ and unleash a stronger attack. However, certain battalions can only be assigned to specific movement types. So only Pegasus troops can be assigned to Flying units. By upgrading a new combat skill, Authority, Units can access higher levels of Battalions that deal more damage. Be careful. If your unit takes too much damage, Battalions will retreat and you’ll have to replenish them with Gold. Also new to the franchise, Epic Beasts, large monsters that take up multiple squares, multiple health bars and have armor. While your troops do reduced damage, you can ‘break’ the armor, exposing a weak point and allows other characters to deal additional damage to the monster. The game introduces an open world element, in which your character runs around the Monastery and helps NPCs with quests. In the monastery, you can take up quests with award you with Renown. By using Renown, you can repair the statues which grant you bonuses in learning skills. As you complete side quests, help NPCs and complete story missions, you gain Professor Levels which in turn levels up your Activity Levels (the amount of activities you can do in a day) and Battle Levels (how many substantial battles you can do in a day). Higher Activity Levels means you can do more Faculty Training sessions, dining sessions, cooking with specific NPCs and have Tea Parties. Yes, you can have Tea Parties with NPCs to increase their support levels. You select specific topics out of 3 and if you get all three topics correct in a row, you can get a bonus question to answer. This is a great way to increase support with units if you’re tired of grinding in battles. You can also do other tasks such as fish and garden, to earn ingredients to cook with other students to deepen the bond. You can also spend time with students such as eating together, attending choir practice. In addition to teaching your students, you can also level up your own skills by talking with other teachers and getting Faculty training, spending an activity point to earn experience with a certain skill. For example, you can train the faith skill by using faculty training with Manuela and Rhea. To be honest, I found this aspect of the game most tedious. I find fetch quests boring enough without having the story need to rely on them, but running around and looking for individual students to chat up or professors to level up really got on my nerves. Yes, there is a Fast Travel system, but the open world aspect feels wasted on Fetch Quests. The game also introduces a Calendar system, meant to mark time and schedule dates in order to meet with other students. During most weeks, you will do as all professors do and lecture your students to improve their skills, such as sword or axe. You can also assign group tasks for 2 students to pair up and improve their flying, heavy armor or riding skills.   By assigning tasks, the students will devote themselves to learning certain weapon or spell skills throughout the week, so you won’t have to grind skills in battle. You can assign them 2 skills to double up or have them focus on one skill to speed up the progress. As the same time, you can spend energy talking to individual students and teaching them skills. But, students must have motivation to increase their learning. Motivation can be earned by answering students’ questions correctly, giving the students correct gifts or lost items or spending time with them by eating together or cooking together. Any unit can pick up any skill and become any class, but certain units are more proficient at certain abilities than others and will level up a skill faster while leveling up other skills at a slower pace. However, some students have ‘budding skills’ where in if you give them enough personal instruction, they can become proficient in the skill. For example, it’s possible for Dorothea to become a Cleric if she puts in enough points in Faith (White Magic). However, she will level up Faith slowly while she’s more proficient in leveling up Reason (Black magic) quickly. It’s clear on the outset that the game wants to discourage grinding, or at the very least, limit it. While you could spam a low Level mission, eventually units stop gaining experience and you’ll have to take a higher level mission or quest. And since missions or quests usually require spending energy, you’ll be limited on how much you can do per day. Paralogues (side stories that flesh out individual characters) return, but because of the calendar system, they must be completed before a certain date or be lost forever. In addition, certain bonds cannot progress until the paralogue has been completed. However, completing paralogues rewards battalions and unique weapons. Even the support conversations cannot advance until past a certain story point and players will be given messages such as “It will take some time for this bond to develop”. On the same coin, should you neglect a support conversation and unlock it after a major turning point in the game, the game will inform you that “you missed the opportunity to deepen this bond”. It’s almost as though Nintendo wants to replicate the SMT: Persona formula but it feels artificial instead of organic. (If I need to spend a whole week lecturing students, why can’t I go explore the Monastery?) The game also alters promoting a unit’s class or role. In previous games, a unit with a high enough level could use an item, an Advanced Seal, to advance to a higher class and gain boosted stats and bonuses. While Seals are still available, units now must pass certification exams, which allow the chance of failure if a Unit’s skill isn’t advanced enough. For example, Dorothea can take a certification exam to become a Warlock at Level 20 with a B rank in Reason (Black Magic), but has a chance to fail because the requirements suggest an A rank. It's possible to waste a Seal on a character who isn’t ready (though anyone with enough sense will just save and reload and grind until said unit passes the exam). After you finish your 1st campaign, you can import your save into New Game Plus and import the renown you put into the Statues. Better yet, you can take the extra renown and purchase class levels, professor levels and support levels you already unlocked in previous playthroughs. You can also use Renown to lower the cost requirements by unlocking support ranks. For example, using renown to unlock the C Rank for Dorothea (that you had to have earned in a previous playthrough) will lower the cost of recruiting her into another house. In terms of Performance, the game runs alright. I noticed a lot of soft textures and pixilation when the game was in docked mode. In handheld mode, I noticed quite a few dips in framerate. In game movies tend to look choppy and stilted in docked mode. While in the Monastery, I waited at multiple loading screens, certain characters will not pop up until after a few seconds and certain doors into other areas take a couple of seconds to open. Granted, I’m willing to overlook less than stellar performance in service of compelling characters and gameplay and Fire Emblem: Three Houses has plenty of that. The English Dub in the game is top notch. Granted, a lot of localization issues occur (Fans tell me that Petra’s lines were altered to make her fit better and some of Dorothea’s innuendos aren’t in the English version), but I enjoyed it for the most part. Many professional voice actors lend a hand here: David Lodge, Erica Mendez, Veronica Taylor and so on. But it’s Tara Platt who steals the show as Edelgard. Dub watchers often accuse Platt of using the same voice in multiple roles, but she really delievers both emotion and variation between switching between an Edelgard before and after the major plot point. JAPANESE VOICES ARE AVAILABLE IF YOU PREFER IT. CAVEAT: I enjoyed Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and was having a good time rerolling characters and chatting up members of my house. However, I couldn’t help but feel the new elements padded out the game instead of adding to it. Along with the lack of avatar customization that Robin and Corrin had, as well as Romantic conversations between non-MC members and the ability to produce child units, I wasn’t as obsessed with this title as I was Fates and Awakening. (Magic feels particularly unbalanced this time around. Where in previous titles, you had to purchase magic, store it in your inventory and it was capable of breaking as all other weapons. Here, it replenishes after every battle and doesn’t even take up inventory space.) And yet, the New Game Plus import, branching paths and the ability to poach characters from opposing Houses kept me engaged much more than I expected it to. Also, I did enjoy having tea time with Edelgard and Dorothea. Verdict: Buy it!

[mariyekos]

11 Facts About Me

Tagged by @burgermiester85

1. The whole reason I got into Fire Emblem was because my brother mained Marth in SSBM, and wouldn’t me choose the same character as him. I thus switched to Roy, who really kick started my FE obsession even though I’ve never played his game. When he was replaced by Ike in Brawl, I mained him instead (Roy is back to my main in 4 now thanks to DLC), and got to love my “singing guy.” I really wondered why he was always trying to sing, since he screams “laa~!” in his up b (I think. He songs in a few of his moves), which I spammed, so I looked up his game and found PoR. Then I watched it online, watched RD next, bought FEA when I saw it in store after going to buy Animal Crossing, and so on. So thank you big bro, for stealing my character choice. Because if I had kept with Marth, I would’ve looked up FE1 and been uninterested, or I’d not have looked FE up at all. After all, the reason I did look it up /was/ because of Ike’s “singing.” I have memories of calling him singing guy when talking about Brawl with my brother back when it came out. Ah, the good ol days…

2. It bothers me to listen to things at odd values. As in 7, 11, 13, etc. I always move it up or down one, even if it’s not as nice sounding.

3. I have such bad second hand embarrasment that I put down FFVII before finishing it for almost two years when I reached the scene with Cloud, Hojo, and the black materia, because it was so weird I couldn’t take it. Now I run a FFVII blog with 500 followers (more than this one, my personal… Oh well). That scene still weirds me out though, even after 6 playthroughs.

4. My mom is left handed, as is my half-sister by my dad, but I’m right handed. Despite this, I still gag whenever I hear someone uses their left hand to write. I have to turn away whenever they have a pencil in hand, and I suggest all you who follow me click unfollow now if you are left handed, before I find out and block you myself. It’s repulsive***

5. My mom and brother can move their toes individually and to each side, making it easy to pick up things with their feet, but I cannot. It makes me feel inadequate.

6. I used to take Circus Class since the son of a family friend did, and walked on a ball taller than me. I was very young, and don’t remember anything other than this giant blue ball and buying a cloth lizard after practice one day.

7. I’ve been to the opera several times, but haven’t gone in years. I really miss it, and want to go see another one sometime soon.

8. Throughout elementary school, I had about 4 different recurring nightmares. They switched to different ones in middle school, went to unique ones starting in high school, and right now are infrequent but still terrible. Frequent themes are me melting, getting mauled, getting shot several times, being ppublcly and majorly shamed, being chased by something that makes my heart pound so hard it wakes me up in pain, and being with someone who is shot/murdered in some way that I have to drag around the body of while I struggle on also injured. I also have nightmares way more frequently than dreams.

9. When I was 6, give it take a year or so, I was at a friend’s house for the day when his parents decided they wanted to go to Mexico for dinner. So, they packed me in the van with him, themselves, and like 3 or 4 of his decade older siblings plus their boyfriends and girlfriends, and took me across the border, no passport or anything. And this is post 9/11 America, which made border crossing really strict. I also look absolutely nothing like them, so I have no idea how that worked out but it did. All I remember is that I ordered a quesadilla and hated it, thinking it was the worst quesadilla of my life. That real, authentic Mexico quesadillas were no good at all. Little me was weird. I think it was the cheese or something.

10. I competed in a big math competition once (for my school district at the time, which had 42,000 students (the largest secondary school district in California)), but my advisor was pretty last minute so I only had two weeks to study. Two weeks where I studied the wrong thing, since she had been misinformed as to what I would be tested in (I learned the basic format, but didn’t practice the right problems if that makes sense). So, when I showed up to my event and saw the rules, I got a 1 minute explanation and was set to the test. I still managed to get 1st place, by a 13% lead.

11. My memory is terrible, to the point that I don’t remember anything that happened over 2.5 years ago, with a few exceptions for really notable things. When people talk about elementary school and other things they did when young, it really confuses me how they can go into such detail. I don’t remember much, and most of my memories are unclear, so it’s just odd. Do people have actual memories of events? Most of my “memories” are just stories I’ve told so many times I “remember” them (aka know the details pretty well because I’ve said them over and over.)

***kidding, of course. My mom and half-sister are left handed though, so I keep my keyboard mouse on the left side of the computer. I cross my arms so I can use my right hand on the mouse and left hand on the keyboard as I did it as a kid and haven’t grown out of it. It looks really silly, but works for me so I don’t mind. Right arm goes under, in case you were wondering.

No typo check, so have fun.

Thanks for the tag! I’ll tag whoever shows up first in Tumblr mobile tagging system or is sitting in my phone notifications.

@ichaichalivinglegacy @meanwhileinaditch @sleepinglionhearts @shianamajisty @magitek