#I'm starting my 2nd playthrough

[epicawesomewin-art2]

what i think would happen if bowser jr and bowletta met

[dalishbee]

I lost Davrin and Assan and I'm so upset :')

[yansurnummu]

just had to do a quick scribble of my durge because he always looks .4 seconds away from bursting into tears and I love him. I like to think that his charisma stat comes solely from his sad wet puppy eyes

[silksworn]

out of mana. — ❛

some in-game Iraestras for funsies

[crazy-form]

i'm still only halfway done with gowr and while this is my second playthrough i am already fearing the emptiness and misery i'll experience once i 100% this game......

[my-current-obsession]

I have officially beaten FE Engage! Overall it’s a great game. I really enjoyed the gameplay this time, though a few chapters and paralogues were pretty frustrating. This was definitely the hardest FE game I’ve played (although ironically I found the final battle to be fairly easy), and mostly that’s a good thing. The extra challenge made it more satisfying when I came up with winning strategies. The story and characters were pretty good too! I definitely think this game has gotten unwarranted hate. Anyway, since I previously made a tier list showing my perception of the characters as units, here are some actual stats from the ending showing how right (or wrong) I was:

There was a 3-way tie for who made MVP the most between Alear, Yunaka, and somewhat to my surprise, Alcryst. They each were MVP 4 times. Clanne, Celine, and Alfred were right behind them, each being MVP 3 times.

Alear was unsurprisingly the fighter with the most battles (199) and wins (123). The benefits of being locked into EVERY story & paralogue chapter, I suppose. Her most used Emblem was Sigurd.

I talked at length about how good my Alfred was in the other post, and his stats back it up. He had the 2nd most battles (180) and tied for 3rd on wins (92). Most used emblem was Ike.

Similarly, Yunaka, who I thought might have the most battles and/or kills, had 166 battles and 92 wins. She was great, just not able to outdo Alear’s protag privilege or Alfred seeing a lot of action through Ike. She used Lyn most.

Alcryst had 150 battles and a whopping 107 wins. The boy killed. A lot. His most used emblem was Leif since I appreciated being able to switch weapons and fight back if attacked up close as well as potential Luna procs on Quadruple Hit.

I seriously undervalued how much use I got out of Clanne. He was 5th for both battles (127) and wins (89). Even though he’d fallen off by the end due to subpar magic attack, he did pretty well in early and mid game. His most used emblem was Micaiah.

As for other notable fighters, Citrinne, Diamant, Fogado, Rosado, and Kagetsu each had 100+ battles and 60+ kills. Everyone else either only achieved one of those feats, or neither. So these 5 finish out the “top ten” for my units, I guess.

I maintain that Hortensia is an MVP in her own right as a healer, but tragically the game doesn’t track that so her stats are poor since she didn’t fight much. Seadall was also essential to my team.

Finally one last fun statistic - the EMBLEM that achieved MVP the most was Sigurd. He contributed to 7 wins. I guess it’s not surprising considering he was the “most used” Emblem for 3 of my heavy hitters - Alear, Kagetsu, and Rosado.

[sansevierias]

one thing i hate about open world games is that most of the time the pacing of the story is dependant on player's actions. like they fill these games with fetch quests or even just smaller but still interesting missions, and if you want to do them, you pretty much always fuck up the flow of the story. like i hate that as a player it's my responsibility. and especially on first playthroughs you simply can't know what and when to do things for the story to flow nicely.

[revalition]

OCT 6 - VISUAL CALCULUS

Reconstruct crime scenes. Make laws of physics work for the Law.

simpler one again today, I'm just doing whatever I feel like for these :)

the pleasure wheel is very important to me. I never got it in my first playthrough (1 INT run, the bubble never came up) and I unfortunately can't do the missing husband quest anymore, so I haven't seen it in game... but I've read the dialogue and seen pictures, and it's incredible.

also! mentioned yesterday, but I'm doing my day off on mondays. so nothing tomorrow.

as always, quotes under the cut. I also put the viscalc part of my wips in there since I didnt hit the 30 image limit today

starting with one from the vault (the vault being a giant word document full of screenshots and ramblings. like these posts, but bigger!)

ty viscalc ily

he's just observing ok?

he likes timetables!!

he offers some dialogue options after this! my lovely quiet guy

hehe

viscalc - infected by mullen-mania :((( composure saying he used to be more polite!!

he's so sassy, I love him a lot

visual calculus making you retry the failed check!! volition would be proud

this is the only time he says 'sorry' haha. he is not apologetic!

it takes a medium visual calculus check to deduce this

ugh I loved this scene... visual calculus confirming it makes no sense made it so much better

viscalc!! who cares, just go look at his window please

poor harry is like ???

if you reject him he gets sooo rude, ily viscalc

he's so proud of it! as he should be <3

that's it for screenshots, viscalc just doesn't talk that much :( he has has the 2nd fewest passive checks of all the skills and only 2 anti-passives... but when he does talk, he has lots to offer!!

since I have extra screenshots this time, here is viscalc in my two WIPs

spring storm:

I've done everyone except the motorics guys, and I think he was the hardest so far. figuring out how to use the negative space to capture all his details was hard

banner:

he's just in the background hehe. this is the first time I drew him! but I like how he came out so I kept a lot of the design for today's.

ok that's it! see you tuesday

[city-of-heavenly-heartbreaks]

Attempting the Lucanis romance...again

Don't get me wrong - I love Lucanis as much as the next girl, but when I completed my first run of the game with Rook x Lucanis, I realized way too late that something wasn't clicking for me. They were cute, but in my mind, I could not imagine them existing together after the events of the game. I love continuing the story in my head, imagining what life would be like for these characters, and I kept drawing a blank.

I played that first version of Rook very close to my own personality - dry humor, a little sarcastic, and overall very casual. The American VA did a great job portraying the kind of personality I was going for, but the voice acting was part of what pushed me away from Lucanis and towards Davrin in my 2nd playthrough with the same character. I don't know what it is about American VA Rook and Davrin, but I was constantly thrown off by their chemistry, even after locking in a romance with Lucanis. Finally, I sacrificed around 15 hours of my game to go back and switch because I couldn't take it anymore 😂 THEN that decision led to me scrapping the entire playthrough so I could start fresh with my Grey Warden Rook/Davrin romance. She's been featured heavily on my page and I love her ❤️

All of this to say - I put a lot of time and love into my characters, and sometimes I need to go along with whatever feels right for them instead of trying to force what I had planned. That version of Rook wasn't right for Lucanis, but I think this one will be. I'm using the British VA this time, and so far, she's very good at delivering the more serious/stoic vibe I'm going for with Rook. Time will tell, but these two pretty people with their burden of responsibility and repressed fear of letting everyone down definitely deserve each other.

[zombiec4ke]

Hey there, I saw that you were writing wheatly, and I was wondering if you could write ADHD reader and wheatly? I'm fine with gn, but I prefer fem, but whatever is the easiest for you! Or you can write anything! Sorry for rambling. This is my first time asking for a request(?)!-📀

a/n: My 2nd request yippeee!!!! sorry if I didn't write/describe ADHD right; everyone is different in how they act with it. Also Y/N's pronouns aren't really mentioned in this warnings: none....I think? also it takes place when Wheatleys working at the facility (I haven't played games just watched playthrough so my apologies for any mistakes in lore) also it isn't mentioned straight up that y/n has ADHD but..yeah- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wheatley's single blue flickered to life as he received the message from his boss, GLaDOS. he hummed as he read the contents. Seems like a new human signed up to work here. The core scrolled through their emails, finding the newest employee's name. 'Y/N L/N' Seems like a nice name he thought to himself turning to the door waiting for the new arrival 'patiently' (he was spinning in circles the whole time bored out of his circuit board-) finally after HOURS (10 mins) He heard the door open and closed, turning his optic-eye to the source. A young human with h/c hair and an air of nervous but at the same time energetic energy. Wheatley's optic-eye taking in the fidgeting. "Ah, Y/N? I'm Wheatley, the head of the human department. Nice to meet you." He said short and sweet, wanting to say more but knowing GLaDOS would surely turn him into robo parts so he chooses to keep it short. the human looked up at Wheatley, blinking a few times as they tried to focus on what he was saying, "Oh, hi Wheatley! I'm Y/N...well you already know that but-...It's nice to meet you too....so do I just… start working now orrrrr?" They fidgeted a bit more, their hands rubbing nervously on their pants.

Wheatley's optic-eye flickered in understanding, "Of course Mate! You'll be going through the usual orientation, then GLaDOS will assign you a task. I'll show you the ropes." He said rolling in front of the human. "You're quite lively, aren't you? It's quite a refreshing change from the usual subjects we get in here...always so borinnnggg..." He commented, spinning in a circle as they both walked to the office- place-thing idk- Y/N followed Wheatley, "Oh, uh, thanks? I guess I'm just really excited to be here, I've researched so much….maybe too much- about Aperture Science and I'm glad to finally be here!" They continued to fidget, their hands now in their pockets as they tried to keep them still. Wheatley took note of that. "And here we are Mate! You can take a seat at a desk that GLaDOS told you was yours and you're good to go." Y/N nodded and plopped down on her seat getting to work not knowing that just by breathing they now has a needy robot's attention time skip You two get married and yap together forever /j ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ a/n:...Idk this is honestly a shitpost and I should've waited till I wasn't burnt out because of school but...here ya go! hope you like it even though its dog doodo, might re-write this tbh or add part 2

[hpowellsmith]

Your writing for this game is flowing so fast and it makes me so happy, cause my anxiety didn't let me wait for RA without checking this form everyday lmao!! It has the potential to be as good as Creme!!

Is chapter 7 the last chapter you'll update before you submit HB to COG?

Thank you, that's incredibly kind 🥹

I'm really pleased that Honor Bound is going so fast and (generally) smoothly, it's been really nice working on it almost full-time. I think Chapter 7 will probably be the last update I put up publicly (it's currently up on Patreon and will go up for everyone on 2nd July).

I'm hoping to write as much of Chapter 11 as I can during June, and hopefully complete the draft in July. Whenever it is completed, what will then happen is:

I will send everything to my editor who will give me notes for Chapters 11-12

I will revise Chapters 11-12

Then at various times, with some overlap the following will happen:

The whole game will be closely reviewed by one of the CoG editors who will send me notes (in the past it's usually been an editor who isn't my main one, so it's fresh for them)

Automatically-generated playthrough seeds will be read by a number of continuity readers who will give me notes about errors, unclear stuff, or sensitivity issues

The beta test for the whole game will happen (usually this is announced publicly and can be signed up for by email - I say usually because a couple of games haven't been organised like that lately and I'm covering all my bases)

Through all that, I'll be editing the game in response to the feedback and putting up updates for the readers and testers.

Once all the edits are done, the game is polished to my satisfaction, and playtesters have slowed down and aren't finding errors anymore, the game will go up be copyedited. That's the stage at which I twiddle my thumbs and feel at a loose end, and also start thinking in more detail about what I want to make next. It's also the stage at which I'll have a clearer idea of the release date.

Then once the copyediting is finished and I've answered any queries about it, once the release date comes around we're ready to go! (I can't remember the timing for my other games, but for Royal Affairs, it was 4 months from the full draft completion to the release date.) And that's the point where I get jittery and nervous, and panic about self-promotion. But I also try to do something nice to celebrate.

After a couple of weeks I have a reasonable idea of sales and reviews (though I really try not to obsess over either) and can use that to make further decisions about what I do next.

So that's an essay you didn't ask for about what my next few months are going to be like!

[annakie]

We've been waiting literally ten years for a new Dragon Age game and now that it's going to be here tomorrow I am very much not ready.

My life needs to be a little less chaotic right now (it won't be until the middle of November.) The earliest I'm going to really be able to sit down and play more than a few hours is the week of Thanksgiving. But hey, I am staying home alone for Thanksgiving weekend so then I'm going to really get to devote time to just playing the hell out of the game.

I'm gonna be so behind.

It was a hard choice but I think I'm going to break the mold of me always playing a rogue first in Dragon Age games and having literally NEVER played a fighter type character in any DA game (or most any RPG ever.)

I haven't paid a ton of attention to the options yet but after a quick skim several weeks ago I think I'm going with a Grey Warden Fighter romancing Emmrich first.

Basing her off the character I just got done playing for a few years in 13th Age who is a 40-ish year old woman who, when she was only 20 years old had to make a hard call that ended up going very badly for her and it was kind of her downfall, so she spent most of the rest of the last 20 years trying to make up for it.

Second playthrough will be a rogue or mage who romances Davrin.

---

I've honestly BARELY gamed the last several months, what with all the renovation stuff happening and other stuff going on in life.

This weekend I swore to change that and, after spending all day Saturday working on house projects, decided to pick back up my ME3 playthrough that I had gotten to Thessia on and never finished.

But then I had to reinstall the game since the SSD I had been playing it on died. Then I had to reinstall all the mods, and picked up a few new ones. That took a few hours to make sure I got it all right.

I did end up playing, and actually got through Thessia... and then I was tired of being at my computer all day and went outside and read a book on the patio for awhile. Then I realized something was wrong with my new airondeck chair and spent an hour fixing it (my bad, I screwed two screws in the wrong place it turns out.

By the time all that was done it was time to prep for my Sunday night D&D game.

Not gonna finish before tomorrow since I'm running D&D tonight, too and still have to do Omega in there. (Plus the Citadel Epilogue Mod AFTER the game.) Ah well.

Never did finish my 2nd BG3 playthrough.

Never did finish writing my BG3 fic. It's just languishing.

Never did play Starfield more than a few hours despite buying the deluxe edition.

Started playing My Time at Portia and still haven't played more than like 8 hours of it, despite enjoying it (with lots of mods.)

Hoping now that the house is getting close to being done where I want it to be that maybe next year I can spend some time focusing on hobbies more.

Not that I regret a single thing about how I've spent my time this entire year. :)

Working on my last two house renovation posts, too. Definitely want to finish that since my two favorite rooms (after the master bath) I saved for last.

[malicedafirenze]

I unintentionally skipped a lot of the romance content in Baldur's Gate 3 and I want others to learn from my mistakes:

So: I managed to lock myself out of romance entirely and ended up alone, which was a huge bummer and a serious crack in my motivation to play the game. I finished my playthrough (because I was already close to the end of Act 3 when I realized it), and plan to do another one eventually. I'm making this post in hopes of a) keeping others from making the same mistakes and b) to possibly get some additional insight re. what to watch out for in my next playthrough.

PSA: Pick a Partner before Act 3

The key learning here for me was this explanation from the poly mod

In BG3, romance is divided into 2 steps: dating and relationship(also called partner). Dating is basically where you are at after the 1st romance scene. Relationship is where you are at after the 2nd romance scene (relationship also unlocks the kissing menu). BTW, If you enter A3, all dates will break up with you (partners won't, ofc).

I hadn't realized this until well into Act 3, at a point where going back to a save to properly fix it would have meant replaying large parts of Act 2 as well - I decided to finish my run instead and then start a completely new one later.

Note: lots of spoilers below. (click here to read this post on reddit instead)

My Romance Woes

I read in advance that you couldn't romance multiple people (except for the specific Halsin combos with Shadowheart and Astarion) and therefore turned down Gale and Lae'Zel early in the game (not realizing you could just date/bonk them without fully committing or getting anyone upset)

I didn't take approval all that seriously, thought I'd have more opportunity to fix things later. I was playing pretty good guy, and ended up with high approval for Karlach and Shadowheart, but low for Astarion. Weirdly, I don't recall an option to romance Shadowheart (no clue what I missed?) and the only option I had for Karlach was at the Tiefling party, where I went with Astarion instead. I had a scene or two with him, but then didn't progress further in the relationship, without really realizing what I was missing.

I wanted to romance everyone, sat on the fence for too long, and ended up not romancing anyone at all, by missing a thing or two in act 1 and 2 and being too late to fix it in act 3. Don't be like me, it feels bad man.

Early Act 3, I got Astarion's breakup dialogue ("we haven't spent a night together in some time" --> him explaining it was just transactional and he doesn't see the value in it anymore) and got super worried, but when trying to look up if I'd messed up, I didn't find a clear answer for without more spoilers, so I just continued playing Act 3, including all of the companion quests.

I later learned that I missed out on at least one important Astarion romance interaction by not going to Moonrise Towers until after freeing Nightsong. (when the Towers are already on high alert, i.e. I could only fight and not have a lot of conversations)

After realizing I had messed up companions romance, I instead fucked everyone it was unwise to fuck (Emperor, Mizora, Harleep...) for fun and to see what would happen... but chickened out and reloaded after Emperor and Mizora. Still, got to enjoy some fun content that way!

The ending I got (going to Avernus with Karlach) was really cool and made me cry a lot. I then did try to reload my last save though, to see if I'd get any other epilogue content if I didn't go to the Hells, but... apparently that scene on the docks (Astarion goofily running off, everyone kinda agreeing to go party after this, no other conversations with anyone again.... is just... it?

Idk how much of this is the lack of romance, but I really felt like something was missing there. I at least wanted to talk to everyone again one last time.

This is a post about my romance failures and regrets so I'm not gonna talk about everything else that I loved about the game, but just in case this is getting a bit too negative: I had an absolute blast with the whole game regardless, I'm stoked to give it another go the "proper" way (i.e. with romance). I also generally think it's really fucking cool that this game's romance options depend on how you behave, and that you can't just e.g. give someone the right kind of gift 20 times in a row to make them love you, like it works in games like Stardew Valley.

Next Playthrough Plans

I'll probably wait for another patch or two - considering how much got fixed and tweaked with the first three patches, I suppose it's worth to wait a bit and see what's coming

I'll play with the Poly mod next time and try to romance all of the Origin characters.

I plan to play with the camp notifications mod, as well as the approval ratings in dialogue mod. Both in hopes of being able to game the romance a bit better and get much of the romance in one playthrough

I'll play Dark Urge (haven't seen any of that so far!), but probably still go for a "good" playthrough mostly

I plan on equipping & levelling all Origin companions and switch them out more freely, in order to get approval from everyone and edit my party as makes sense depending on story events (e.g. take Lae'Zel to the Creche, take Gale to the Ketheric fight...)

I want to romance everyone. I already saw some tips for early game Astarion approval and assume the aforementioned mods will help in optimizing this

Am probably not gonna do anything all that differently otherwise because my heart can't take an actually evil playthrough

Aand that's about it. As mentioned, I'm mostly posting in case this helps anyone else.

I was really damn sad when I realized I had locked myself out of all romance, because the romance was a significant part of my motivation to start playing this in the first place. At the same time, I loved so much about the game that I still got a lot out of it in 110+ hours even with minimal romance content.

If you see any red flags about my plans for the next playthrough (or if you have experience with the mentioned mods!), I'd appreciate comments and insights. Other than that, here's hoping others can learn from my mistakes. Thank you for reading <3

[wildcreativemastermind]

SWTOR: Jedi Consular Companions

Listen, I like the Jedi Consular story in SWTOR. It was the first story in the game I completed, and I still enjoy replaying it. I downloaded the game to play a Jedi, and the consular story gives, at least I think it gives, a better Jedi experience than the Jedi Knight story does. The big drawback for me however, is the companions.

We'll start with Qyzen, the first companion. He's a trandoshan and friend of the PC's master. At first, I actually liked him. The thing of him declaring the pc to be the Scorekeeper's Herald was not good, and I really think shouldn't have been there in the first place, but it was a single drawback. The Jedi Council is shown to have concerns about Qyzen and Yuon's (pc's master) friendship. When I first started playing, that last point got some eyerolls out of me. I've seen the movies, I know Jedi are allowed to have friends. However, on this 2nd playthrough, I'm fully on the Jedi Council's side concerning Qyzen, if anything my opinion is harsher than theirs'.

Qyzen, as he is, should not be allowed at the Jedi Temple. This guy has hunted Wookies for sport and shows no remorse for doing so. He doesn't believe hunting wookies is wrong. What if there are any wookie Jedi? Padawans? Initiates? Younglings? Their safety is more important than Yuon's or Qyzen's feelings, get him away from the Temple and off of Tython.

What I think should've been done with Qyzen: honestly, he doesn't need that many changes, two are all that are needed. 1. no calling the pc Scorekeeper's Herald. This never made sense, the pc is not trandoshan, not part of trandoshan culture, and does things that many Jedi could do. A nickname does make sense, both in universe and from a game development standpoint. I think something like "young hunter" (possibly "master hunter" later) would make more sense. It would be an acknowledgement of the Consular as a fellow and friend in a transdoshan way without placing undue importance on them.

2. don't have Qyzen be a wookie hunter. This is really the big one. It would resolve a lot of the issues that are created by Qyzen's presences as it is in the game. Maybe there's a group of trandoshans who think there should be limits on what can and can't be hunted, sentient species can't be hunter the same way animals can. Qyzen could have been part of this group (or even still is). This could even tie into Qyzen's side quest later of the wookie killing trandoshans based on information from a trandoshan. In the version I'm suggesting, the trandoshan who gives the wookie info on who to kill is telling the wookie to kill trandoshans who have sworn off hunting wookies. The wookie kills these trandoshans anyway because they're blinded by vengeance. When Qyzen and the Consular encounter this wookie, they could help get said wookie off the vengeance path or kill them to avenge the dead trandoshans.

We'll do Tharan next. Why is he there? He could find excitement, and probably be happier, without the Consular. He doesn't seem to like much about the Jedi, especially not their using the Force. I interact with this guy and I wonder why he doesn't try to find excitement and adventure elsewhere. Surely it couldn't be that hard for him to get his own ship.

My ideas for Tharan: scrap him, introduce him many planets later, or change his character to fit someone who'd hang out with Jedi.

Ideally, I think he should be scrapped, I simply do not find him likable. If we're going to change him instead, I think I have a solution. Make him a scientist who used to study the force. Instead of seeing something he doesn't understand and being rather averse to it, he wants to understand how it works. His dreams and aspirations on this were crushed by not finding enough funding, or something else happened to prevent him from studying the force. Working with the Consular on Nar Shadaa could than reawaken that ambition, and maybe he could use the Consular for his research (if they consent of course), it would give a clearer reason for him to travel with the Consular specifically. And maybe Syo and Fain tried to help with that study back in the day. It would change Tharan's focus, but it would make his extensive time around Jedi make more sense and explain why he'd have an anti-mind trick device (is that really part of exo-tech? that bit struck me as odd). Perhaps Tharan's working on Nar Shadaa could have been him seeking the most profitable work he could get since he couldn't fulfill his ambition. He could still have his tech knowledge, it just wouldn't be his main interest.

Now for Zenith: Zenith on his own is okay, not great but okay. He doesn't quite have the glaring issues some of the others do. My problem with him isn't really him, so much as that he's yet another companion who doesn't approve of the Jedi Consular acting like a Jedi. I think if we had at least one companion before him who did, I'd have a better opinion of Zenith.

Finally talking about companions I like, let's talk about Felix. Felix himself is fine, good actually. He's the only Jedi romance I actually like (I'm squicked by master/padawan romances, and Doc is just awful). The problem with Felix isn't Felix, the problem with Felix is that he shows up far to late. He's the first companion the Consular who fits the bog standard playthrough and is one of the romance options, and yet he doesn't appear until the last planet of chapter 2. This means he doesn't get the time he needs to be explored, as his own character or his relationship with the Consular.

Given his being a love interest and having the Sith holocron in his head that does absolutely nothing during the class story, Felix just screams underexplored to me. The fix with him, introduce and make him a companion in chapter one, maybe he could be on Tatooine so he could still be on a miserable middle of nowhere planet. And do something with the holocron during the class story, maybe we run into a Sith who knows about the holocron in Felix's head, and Felix and the Consular have to work together to deal with the problems that come from this. The love between Felix and the Consular (whether friendship or romance) could be used to help him in this. Also, don't end his romance with marriage. Instead, just have him and the Consular agree for them to be permanent, it accomplishes the same general goal without doing something that would make certain the Consular would have to leave the Jedi.

Now for Nadia, I like Nadia as a character, but there are some problems, especially with her as a love interest. The big issue with her, like Felix, is that she becomes a companion to late in the game. I think she should have become a companion at Quesh. This would allow her and her and the JC's relationship more time to develop.

As for the Nadia romance, it has so much wrong that I'm seriously considering saying it should be thrown out. The game's romances in general have power imbalance issues, but JC/Nadia has got to be one of the worst in this regard. I can ignore it with Felix cause it's not highlighted (it also helps that Felix is the one pursuing the Consular), but I can't do that with Nadia.

Okay, so the JC becomes her Jedi master and she starts to see the male JC as something of a father figure. This would have been genuinely adorable if she wasn't expressing romantic interest in the JC, and soon after her father's death.

Another part of the power dynamic in this is that Nadia is a Senator, she is the JC's boss. This doesn't get highlighted in the game with Nadia specifically, but it is the case.

Honestly, Nadia just shouldn't be a romance option, so much would have to change to make it not concerning that I don't even want to bother.

But what about male consulars? Shouldn't they get a romance option? A female one since this game came in 2008 and queer romance wasn't gonna happen?

Ok, genderbend Tharan and make her the male Consular's love interest. Keep Holiday, she could be a friend and assistant instead of a girlfriend (maybe there could be subtle hints of Holiday and lady Tharan being friendly exs) No I'm not elaborating more on that.

[jodqriel]

games (re)played in 2024

(games in bold = 100% achievements)

Rollerdrome (2022)

Balatro (2024)

Cult of the Lamb (2022)

Chants of Sennaar (2023)

Carto (2020)

Stardew Valley 1.6 (2016)

Moonglow Bay (2021)

Sable (2021)

FAR: Lone Sails (2018)

Spider-Man (2018)

Titanfall 2 (2016)

Little Kitty, Big City (2024)

Lil Gator Game (2022)

Dungeons of Hinterberg (2024)

Another Crab's Treasure (2024)

Loddlenaut (2023)

Flintlock: the Siege of Dawn (2024)

Sifu (2021)

Spyro: Reignited Trilogy (2018)

more yapping under the cut

looking back i'm like wow AAA gaming who? very few of these games are from this year too - some of them were a 2nd 100% playthrough on a different platform. i wish Another Crab's Treasure got more love, absolutely adored it and thought it was really clever, it's a close race between that and Balatro for my GOTY. otoh i understand why Flintlock wasn't talked about at all because it's so close to being an amazing game, but the team clearly must've run out of budget

still wanna 100% Jusant again after playing it last year, and might be looking at a RDR2 replay sometime soon

honorable mentions: games I started but didn't finish (let alone 100%) for one reason or another

Dave the Diver

Caravan SandWitch

Blasphemous

The Messenger

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy

Lonely Mountains: Downhill

Star Trucker

[misarem]

yapping about Kill the Past under the cut cuz im now free from the 25th ward finally

THE SILVER CASE

-it feels cliche to say the first game was my favorite but uhhh haha. knowing suda, The Silver Case probably didn't fully accomplish what it set out to do but to me, it's so self-contained and demonstrates such ownership of a style that mostly came out of necessity that i can't not admire it, and i'm also so fond of my playthrough of it which was so fresh and curious, compared to the other two games which were fun but I was thinking too much abt how it connects to TSC

--also just the way i played this game is so special, i was very committed to the darker aesthetic to the point where I only played past like 10pm for a while, which is funny cuz the opening of the game is straight up paranormal but by the 2nd chapter transmitter loses that edge until debatably lifecut. tokio is also haunted and paranormally but by that point i just started playing normally. it sorta reminds me of paranormasight which starts out so spooky and the curses are very present but a few hours in it sorta reverts to being a pretty normal feeling but still very good detective mystery. at one point a character does an escape room ala zero escape and its funny. but TSC doesn't stray from its initial vibe as much as paranormasight at all.

-i also played the parallel stories of TSC separate from each other rather than alternating, which made placebo such a slog but i almost feel like I appreciated both stories more that way, even though i would have loved to experience how placebo compliments transmitter

--despite not clicking with placebo at first, tokio is like one of my favorite characters this year hes such a fucking Guy. and you experience him so intimately in placebo in a way i can't even describe but is effective by the end.

---theres a bizarre and esoteric mental link in my brain between tokio, ange from umineko and fucking flynn moore from the furry visual novel Echo because of them being like surprise deurotagonists (sp?) that get fucked up from having to search for the truth about the past and how theyre all chained by it. do you think they would put happy colors in my padded cell or would it just be all white.

-I also feel like I came out of TSC a lot clearer than I did FSR or 25W, I'm sure I missed several details at first but the shelter kids stuff and kamui as more of a role and a criminal influence than as a person wasn't that hard to wrap my head around even though I thought the silver eye stuff was so whatever. i kind of wonder if part of the reason i clicked with it faster was because I'm such an mgs2head, and the whole kamui thing is sorta like what the solid snake simulation appears to be at first

-also the mackerel phones video about Kusabi is so good and feels like a must watch for how well researched it is and how accurately it nails the feeling and message of transmitter.

-TSC also uses film window a lot better than 25W and it might be worth researching how the latter being a phone game affects things but i just got off that game

-also would kinda love a translated version of the PSX version someday just to feel how different it is. idk if certain ppl hate the official translation so much maybe they should do it themselves ooooh

-i havent read 4.5 and i meant to do so before 25W to have that context about sumio and sakura and i kindaaa didnt so lol i have to do that eventually.

FLOWER, SUN AND RAIN

-"flower, sun and rain" is like a speech tick to me in the way of like, rupaul on the weakest link immediately defaulting to chaka khan when he doesnt know the answer to a question

-i wish i felt flower, sun and rain the way I felt TSC. i had a decent time with it and even had a good sense of humor about the more obviously tedious parts and the OST, and I get how mundane it's supposed to be, what it's saying about living in peace and the lie of paradise, but it didn't click with me as much. maybe a pitfall was being so attached to TSC when i played, i was probably looking for something i shouldn't have instead of just enjoying the game for what it was altho i didn't hate it or anything.

--ideally this also gets a translation on its original console cuz I like some parts of the PS2 soundtrack and id love to experience all the art assets and music in PS2 quality.

---sorta tangent. i love the opening tracks for all of these games but Anata no Tameni might be my favorite, beyond just being amazing its so dramatic and unlike the rest of the series and it really stands out. the ds opening in comparison might actually be my least favorite because of that lol

-i think that the mondo/kodai revelation is so funny just because it's an idea you'd either keep in the back of your mind or just wave off because of how dumb it seemed but regardless it's constantly staring you in the face. assuming you even played TSC before this

--sumio was never super proper or anything, i don't think, but his personality here compared to TSC is so funny, he can spend 20 years with bottled up rage and fake his way into an incompetent police force without slipping thaaat much but here he has enough small inconveniences to hit a kid over it. kind of an interesting play on like the salient thing about personality and the self being buried and it feels like an early version of like a shiroyabu situation. not the last time i will compare sumio and shiro.

--i also think its funny that the model of sumio mondo looks pretty similar to kodai compared to the key art of mondo and we should explore that one day

-i wanted more out of toriko kusabi, she was a fun diversion and i didn't expect her to be a tokioesque second protag or anything but idk. she was fun when she went against sundance and at the end and her being like a subliminal kinda suggestion to sumio's buried memories of her father i think is cool. in a less meta sense it's also cute that shes working for her dad i wonder if tetsu has to like try not to step on christine everytime he comes home from the bathhouse at like 2am. actually i dont remember what their family situation even is

-speaking of kusabi i think him like being the guardian/ferryman for sumio's journey is so so beautiful and true and i like that he gets to pull him back from the depths the way sumio sorta inadvertently did in parade/kamuidrome.

--its also really funny to me kusabi just disguises as a chubby white guy. it was probably a fatsuit but i feel like kusabi could be like 50lb away from being a bear anyways. its like the grocery store deli scene in bobs burgers.

---i also appreciated parade from transmitter way more playing this and thinking about sumio. when i played parade the first time i loved connecting the dots on everything but then it kinda got buried by kamuidrome and lifecut. and now im such a shooter for sumio kodai. look at me talking about the previous game wooo.

-i think the character designs in this are funny for how little of them you can actually see. everyone loves yayoi and yayoi is such a serve but my other fav is ken. all the punk details are completely lost in the actual game. the models also super undersell stephen carbione's look, cuz in-game he sorta looks like tokio but then you see his key art and its like yea he would look like that.

-tokio was in this game

-i think edo macallister should be a bellhop in every video game with a hotel ever. im going to the other side of the country soon and if the guy behind the desk at the hotel isn't edo i will be severely disappointed.

-i love that its hyenas. i think there should be like tokio morishima as an anthro hyena and he still has his domesticated turtle or at least like hyena sundance or yotaro or something. i think ppl would be quick to anthropomorphize tokio as a literal turtle guy.

-the eleven children stuff is whatever, i do like that theres a bunch of sumios running around but idc for all the other implications and like step and remy and koshimizu and whoever else. is sumio mondo still deaf and mostly relying on lip reading? cuz i dont think that gets brought up again. i mean he wakes up to a phone ringing every morning but i guess those are the clones. if the hearing is referenced early in fsr and i just missed it then that would be very cool. maybe thats why the voices for the characters are abstract and illegible. maybe flower sun and rain is the best game ever.

THE 25TH WARD

-what if we were all protagonists.

-i dont think this game uses film window as well as TSC but i do like the art and how much of it there is in correctness and matchmaker, also the different styles.

-i love yotaro osato sadly hes so funny and fluffy. hes osato in my notes and in normal convo but i want to call him yotaro affectionately. i do love tsuki too hes such a sufferer.

--i think theyre a teeeeny bit like like p4 adachi and dojima if they were both murderous.

-i feel bad for the lady that gets murked immediately in correctness i had a funny voice for her in my head

-shiro and kuro god bless them are funny and parallel sumio and tetsu to me. both sumio and shiro grapple with their criminal power, although sumio goes against the hc unit while shiro attempts to but finds himself back with them at the end, and while kusabi over time softens quite a bit and learns from sumio in a more overt way than kuro being literally the "japanese dirty harry" and not having as much of an arc, they both are compelled enough by their partner to rein them back in. just the surface level so i dont have to write a whole essay in a stream of consciousness type of post

--what even happens to them bc as far as i can tell, shiro just continues to be a tool of the state and kuro maybe? shoots her superior and then the 25th ward blows up.. with them on it? like okay at least tsuki got outta there.

--on the shiroverse timeline. theres conflicting sources on if his immortality is a kamui thing or a sumio mondo thing or something else and thats funny. the sources all being fan wikis and tvtropes because fuck this game that zero people played and negative people have documented.

-i need to like hold myself back from analysing meru as trans because its so clearly done for shock value but it somehow aged really hilariously now with how prevalent trans egirls are. liek theres a strange almost unearned truth to how meru exists online versus irl.

--kind of all of the gay/trans mentions in these games are like this although kusabi you can at least take in sorta good faith?

-i need to think abt what i thought abt tokio here. its increasingly funny how online he is for being a normal dude in the late 90's early 2000s.

--his portrait in yumi is kind of a hear me out but all the cgs of older tokio look crazy. tokio in general looks a mess in this game and its funny. look at him try to be masc

-i mentioned mgs2 above and the 05 chapters of these games are so reminiscent of the s3 plan and the patriots with the frontier etc using the city to collect data and the protags having to figure out where they fit into it. during TSC, i was paying a lot of attention to the story as it related to the advent of technology. it felt really relevant to kamuidrome and all of placebo but mostly ended up as background/context to the story. it was used a lot more here and i really liked it. chat logs are a great framing device in all the routes since they add so much flavor and emphasize the loneliness of life in the 25th ward (semi-related: in both TSC and 25W, the environments are devoid of people in film window, and i think this works way better for 25W than it did for TSC). placebo is yet again a good example of this with tokio only really interfacing with the world through his computer most of the time

--in terms of twists, i might actually like "the city is just a means of data collection ready to be wiped at any moment/it resembles a computer more than an actual city and life there is so impermanent that its hard to tell how real it all is" better than the end point of tsc which was "they were trying to mass process children to find a means of immortality" which i was so whatever on even though the game is trying to be crazy and also say something about like life and aging in society, but in tsc i like "they were mass grooming perfect civilians and inadvertently making them susceptible to crime" as a conclusion a bit more. but i mean 25W also poses so many more questions than it does give answers so.

---despite everything i think it was an interesting idea for suda and masahiro yuki and masahi ooka to create the 25th ward almost as a sandbox to explore more of the ideas of the first game like how the internet affects human connection, communication, sharing of information, and how people are affected by criminal power/kamui. it was a cool idea in the original but i love actually getting to see shiroyabu steadily become more unhinged (death filing), kurumizawas pervasiveness, tsuki and osato coming to grips with their own (esp osato's immense) criminal power, etc. in spite of all of the loose ends and craziness, sometimes you really need a space to work out your ideas and express yourself and i commend grasshopper for doing that so i could have played this on a nokia in 2005. in japan

overall these were video games. very excited to forget everything about them when i fixate on something else. tsc might actually be one of my fav things i played this year. would love more analysis of the 25th ward, theres some essays/interpretations floating around and ghenryperez will get to his video on it eventually. maybe i need to be the change i wish to see but also boo putting effort into writing and analysis sux.

i started sudas works with nmh, then 2 before stopping until i played killer7 a year ago and really liked its style and sense of humor. i think this happens to a lot of people, and then a year after that i started tsc. i wasnt originally that interested in nmh tsa but now that i know theres hello 25th ward characters in it i might have to try. and then nmh3 after that. and then i also wanna play twilight syndrome/moonlight syndrome when that gets a translation because of lunatics. and i also got killer is dead when it was on sale for like 2 bucks. we can enter the greater sudaverse.. together