#Nameless NPC's? Don't mind if I do!!!!

[hyperfixatedperson]

TTYD Bandit

So I've been playing The Thousand Year Door recently. This random, throwaway NPC is on my mind.

[justatalkingface]

If society is the reason for the personality of Bakugo, why aren't there more Bakugos in society?

If "strong" quirks turn people into violent a**holes, why aren't Nejire, Tokoyami, Kaminari, and that loud wind quirk guy relatively well-adjusted to social interaction.

The answer is simple: because it isn't society's fault.

Like, don't get me wrong, it didn't help, that's for sure, but Bakugou's problem isn't society, it's that he's a jerk. Bakugou is unironically high on his own brand.

Part of that is how other people treated him, true (though it was happening even before he had a Quirk, so it's not society in the way it's usually used for Bakugou, where it's about his Quirk), because he was cool and competent as a kid, which made the kids praise him, which fed his ego, which made him want to do it more, in a vicious cycle... but even with that, there's still something unique to him that is at fault here: he's told, as a kid, that he has a good Quirk, and he can be a hero with it. This is basic, bog standard encouragement; it's a good Quirk, but he's, what, ten? That woman is probably telling every single kid that their Quirk is great. But Bakugou, though, he hears this, and his mind instantly snaps to a conclusion: he realizes that he's The Best, TM. That he's special, that he's better than everyone else. And that? That's not 'society', that's not the fault of people around him, that's Bakugou's fault, Bakugou's problem.

I'll be honest here, kids are stupid; Bakugou isn't the first kid to have a delusion of grandeur and he's not going to be the last. What makes it different with him, though, is that it's more than just a passing phase. That philosophy, his fundamental superiority, is a train of thought that remains with him for the rest of his life, and not only that, it is a cancerous logic that festers in his mind like a disease.

You know how Bakugou calls everyone else 'Extras'? That's the logical conclusion of his superiority complex, of the idea of that he alone is special, superior, the honored one: because if he's special, what is everyone else? Less then him. An extra in his story. Or, as Shigaraki would put it?

An NPC.

That's concerning. More than that, that is deeply alarming. Unironically, I think that counts as a mental disorder of some form (probably narcissism?), and it also inherently dehumanizes other people... which explains why he's so casual about hurting everyone around them.

And to be blunt? That's a very, very bad thing. Dehumanizing other people is how people are taught that it's OK to hurt others, or even kill them; fundamentally, Bakugou is radicalizing himself against everyone who isn't Bakugou.

If they are less than him, if they are not 'real people', if they are just extras... then it doesn't matter if he hurts them, insults them, because... why would it? It's not like they're actually people, it's not like they're important. They're just extras in The Great Story Of Bakugou. They're just NPCs in the Hero Game he's playing, and nothing else.

People do horrible, horrible things to NPCs in video games that they would never in a million years do to people in real life. They do it because NPCs don't matter, not like real human beings do. Think, for a minute, how you treat the random characters in Fallout or whatever, the nameless mooks you that will always more of, because they will always respawn after whatever you do to them. Think about what would happen if you did that to a real person.

You can even see it in how he acts in the various flashbacks back when he was a child: when he was young, Bakugou was brash, a bit aggressive, but largely an OK kid. But as time passed, his aggression grew, and his respect for others shrunk. He went from insulting people (at times probably accidentally), to actively bullying them. He became more and more comfortable not just verbally abusing others, but then physically hurting them. By the time canon starts, Bakugou seemed to treat, and consider, other human beings as barely more than trash, and Izuku's existence in particular as something like a cosmic mistake he was 'graciously' tolerating.

And then we find out that he was willing, in fact, to kill people. It's very likely that, if driven to a corner, that people may be willing to kill to survive, but that isn't what happened to Bakugou: he was in school. He was unironically playing cops and robbers.

And yet, Izuku's basic unwillingness to just... give up, to just sit back and let someone maim him as much as he wanted is what 'cornered' Bakugou to the point he resorted to overwhelmingly lethal force. He doesn't feel an ounce of guilt about it afterwords, either, and he only stops because he's threatened... with being kicked out of the exercise. He's not even serious about, he's willing to kill someone but he values winning more than his murder attempt, winning at something that's essentially worthless, even. It's an impulse, one that he doesn't ever question or think about again after the fact.

To be fair, his... radicalization, or just plain assholishness, got noticeably cut back after that point (to the point where it seems more like retcon than character development), but if it wasn't for that? Clearly, no one was willing to call him on things before, so if he didn't get serious consequences, and he had killed Izuku? He probably would have grown more and more comfortable with killing, the same way he did with everything else he's done.

But it's more than just that. His parents are... well, they're good people, but... they don't seem to be the best at making their son not be an asshat; both of them were pretty OK with their son calling his mother a 'hag', and not even in a sarcastic, well meaning way, but as an actual insult.

His mom is cut from the same cloth as her son (normally, it'd be the other way around, but Bakugou's character probably came first), if more restrained. Unfortunately, that means she's probably a source of a lot of his more aggressive behaviors in the first place, and not just in a genetic way: he watched what she did, and then learned to do it from her. She tries to get him to stop the worst of it but she doesn't seem to making a serious effort? It's not a serious punishment, or a heart to heart talk about his behavior, it's... basiclly the fan gag, which doesn't really teach anyone anything?

His dad, meanwhile is more passive, grounded, but at the same time: he married Bakugou's mother. He's clearly OK with behavior in that vein. It's good he's not contributing to the problem, but he's not solving it, either.

At the end of the day, while there are contributing factors, not of them are enough to explain, much less justify, Bakugou's actions or personality. Society didn't make him like this. No one taught him that it was OK.

The only one with responsibility was Bakugou himself.

[martialartslover7]

Headcanon time: I feel like, the Blank Period after Shippuden was kind of a missed opportunity, in my eyes. Look, I get that everything needed to wrap up, but... seriously? We don't even get an emotional, on-screen scenario where Naruto finally becomes Hokage? Maybe after months of him forcing himself to suffer through these accursed Chunin exams (because bureaucracy fucking sucks, but, it is what it is), getting promoted to Jonin, before he can even HOPE to apply as Hokage?

(Image belongs to Ammitastic on DeviantArt)

Another thing, in the Blank Period, I don't care what anyone else tells me, Neji Hyuga, the GOAT, deserved to live, he did not deserve to die so disgracefully in the war, being turned into a wooden pimp cushion. Hence, I will not ever canonically acknowledge his passing.

You know what passing I WILL accept though, in my mind? Hiashi Hyuga. That piece of work actually deserved to go out like that, after everything he did to Hinata, her cousin and her sister (this is a can of worms I will open up another time). And because of his death, the Hyuga clan is left without a leader during the Blank Period. It would have given Hinata something to do, to actually participate in the process, along with Neji, on how they will be resolving this problem with the leadership question, mending the bridges with Hanabi too, outside of just being immediately reduced to a birthing machine. And don't get me wrong, I don't mind Naruto and Hinata getting busy (*wink*), they deserve it, but, the way it was shown off in the anime, came in such a jarring and abrupt way, I thought they would actually give it some time first, because, being an adult, is coming with a lot of unique difficulties, that need to be discussed first. I would have enjoyed some of that "being adults suck" point being discussed from Naruto's and Hinata's POV.

Like, before even having Boruto and Himawari, they could have just settled on enjoying life together for a few years, before the true stress with their jobs and children begin. They are not their families, they should be smarter about this.

Plus, this point is more of a stretch on my end, but, the anime talked about the "Madara Crisis" of sorts, where loyal, mentally ill followers of Madara demanded for the Infinite Tsukuyomi to return, which translated to me, only means: A Madara Crisis story. Like, it's not just nameless NPCs that are affected by this, but also specific shinobi that Naruto & Friends met, in the course of their lives. The Dead Rising geek leaves my body here. For real, imagine, some shinobi, like for instance, Kakashi (in my AU, Guy died fighting Madara, I really don't care what people try to tell me, him getting saved at the last minute just cheapened everything about his violent assault on Madara, sorry, I love Guy too, but if he died, he would have truly become a legend, think of it that way, it's sad, but a far more fitting end to his character), Hanabi, Shino, Tsunade, etc. being hit the worst by this Madara influence, where they would also join these followers, just wanting the emotional scars to close up, as some wounds just never heal, no matter how much time passes, and the 4th Shinobi war also contributed to their problems and emotional states. And they, in the context of a Dead Rising scenario, become Psychopath boss fights, except that, unlike there, you don't kill them. This saga would have given so many side characters a chance to take the lead for a change, and show off, how much progress they had made, coming over from the 4th war, to the Blank Period. I will just leave this here.

That's all for now.

[hexhomos]

oh god I'm freaking out now. I did not watch the leaks, but I had read some (similar) opinions and choose to ignore it because I don't trust the general media analysis capabilities of like 70% of tumblr. But I do trust you and I like reading your vikjayce and doomreed thoughts... is it really that bad? Isn't there anything salvageable?

Don't click readmore if you don't want vague spoilers.

I genuinely have no emotional investment in much, if not majority of what happens in s2. Maybe this is because I'm an industryperson and not exactly awed by the idea of 'inversion' for pointless inversion's sake, maybe because the past year of publicly televised USA-backed genocides have made arcane's fraught politics more detestable than ever. I abhor how married this show is to the message that every atrocity, no matter how vile or senseless, is 'committed for love' as an easy way to sidestep discussions of capitalism, exploitation, imperialism, and all the systematically-enforced evils that make up the reason Why this world is so brutally unfair. They literally took a guy whose entire deal is building human centipedes in his basement, making weapons of war, and inflicting as much pain as possible for the sake of a laugh and said 'oh... he does this for love,' and i felt like throwing rocks at the screen for how stupid that shit is.

The episodes I've seen feel shallow, limited and empty in their writing; the world has a raindrop's depth. There are maybe 10 people total in these cities and everyone else is a nameless, vapid NPC, functionally indistinct outside of how they rack up morale for a certain character. The animation is still kinetic, the music videos are still certainly a big part of the flashing lights, but i feel nothing for any of the characters onscreen except for contempt or mild disinterest.

It feels like a first draft put to animation. It's to the point where i believe season 1 should have closed without continuation and let You decide how the uncertainties pan out. (Have you ever seen Wicked? Do you know how everyone tells you that it completely falls apart in the second act so best pretend act1 is the whole thing?) The 'twists' it tries to pull aren't clever. If you're a game fan, you're left confused as to why some of this shit is included in this show and not some other region's show, if you know nothing of the game, you're going to be namedropped on lore buzzwords that get little explanation, give you no reason to care, but are placed as if they are a big deal anyway. Kind of feels like you're cheating both demographics. Parts of this season feel like backdoor pilots to greenlight a Noxus show -- the region who most thrives in the edgy aesthetics of cool awesomesauce grimdark fantasy imperialism -- and i just want all of these characters to die. But they end up getting all of the sob-story justification screentime while the poor people are either stupid kids or drug addicts. every single main undercity character is a drug addict of some kind, war-on-terror propaganda style, and the one who isn't has been surgically removed from the plot for majority of the runtime. I have to laugh.

The things some people were looking forward to - the gay romances, the gay divorces - will probably make more than a few fans go on to say threats of terrorism, but i still felt like i could see right through the script's flaccid bullshit. You're not getting a rise out of me like this. You barely fucking tried.

'Salvageable' is a dangerous word around me I'm notoriously obsessed with taking shit that sucks and recycling it to see if it can be improved like 'there is always hope' and all that gushy heart bullshit but like... that is between you and god. that is magic that happens inside your mind. it's work that you put into it, and that I predict people will be putting into it, out of their own volition. Or as a way to ignore what just happened.

[utilitycaster]

I don't know how you feel about it, but I was extremely frustrated last night when I found out that break was called after around 3 hours. I just felt that at that point they should have just made it a Crown Keepers episode instead of promising that BH would be back and then them barely being in the episode. I don't know, I'm usually really go with the flow with CRs creative choices, but this was just a real big swing and a miss for me. I wish this had all just been its own episode

So here's my feelings:

My thoughts on EXU Prime, and later Kymal, were that I love the player characters and their relationships and much of the worldbuilding (notably all of Niirdal-Poc and the Qoniira Tetrarchy) and I liked many of Aabria's NPCs but there were some pretty big gaps left in "what the fuck is going on" that left me feeling as though I wouldn't mind seeing the characters again but I didn't feel strongly about continuing the story in-world, if that makes sense. The Aevilux reveal, for example, was sort of what the main plot of EXU Prime hinged upon (ie, that was Myr'atta Niselor's motivation; that was what the deal with Ted was) and so the fact that didn't come out for over 2.5 years irl after it ended meant I'd just kind of said "well, some weirdo from Syngorn really wanted to do shit to Opal for some reason related to her sister, who is also her patron, and we don't know why either of these things is the case, and I guess that's what happened" and made my peace with it. Similarly, I don't know what the Nameless Ones want, and never have (other than, at one point, the circlet of barbed vision, and I don't know why they want it). I made a joke that Myr'atta, Poska, and Otohan are all kind of the same and honestly that is the thing: if you don't know why a villain is doing something - even if the reason is "because I love to be evil and terrible!" it's hard to care, and if those are only villains, it's hard to be invested in the story about the heroes either, even if you like the heroes as characters.

When I say I like how this ended, I mean it - I think it could have gone only a few ways, but I like that Morrighan and Opal have both become divine champions, Morrighan willingly and Opal less so (this is yet another case of "the gods don't do take-backsies on oaths", but also, I do feel for Opal despite it all because of Aimee's excellent work throughout). I mentioned how I felt about the exact details of Cyrus's death but I don't mind that he's dead. Fy'ra was a highlight throughout, as she frequently is, and I think she was faced with two extremely unpleasant choices and made a fascinating decision. But I'd have preferred to see this as a flashback (see next paragraph) or like. Just decide what happened. If I'm being extremely honest a lot of my issues with the Crown Keepers portion is that it felt like there was a very specific desired ending (Opal's complete corruption and Cyrus's death); I also said at some point well before that you can only do so much with the Crown Keepers while Dariax is there because Matt does, even if he's turning his brain off to play our Charisma-only kinda short king, know all the cheat codes for the main campaign. It's kind of like why how, even if the DM will control an absent player during RP, they usually have another player control in combat.

I don't mind that the Bells Hells portion was short. I think the choice to break where they did makes sense given everything else that went on. But I think that, criticism of the actual Crown Keepers portion aside, while you might have lost some of your audience for a Crown Keepers-only episode on the main feed, you would have preserved the drama of FCG's death better and gotten people more excited for the Crown Keepers if you had essentially run things exactly as done here but then just cut the two episodes together, which, as a pre-taped medium, they can now do! Hindsight is again 20-20 but: Run the first half of 92 as is. Break and tape a full Crown Keepers episode. Return to Bells Hells and narrate the message back from Dorian saying he'll be there, play out the rest of Bells Hells in the camp dealing with FCG's death, and then have Dorian arrive at the very end of that episode and end the episode when the party asks him what's been going on with him, then reveal there will be a Crown Keepers episode. Air your full Crown Keepers episode as episode 93, and then return to the main campaign with 94. It would have been better balanced in terms of time, people who wanted the Crown Keepers to return would have gotten hyped up, and people who dislike them or are neutral would have at least known what to expect and frankly if they skip the episode that's their choice to make. Hell, since there were 2 weeks? Could have even been like "hey, we'll do a Crown Keepers Marathon on Twitch and Youtube on some random weekday" to build up some hype!

So overall my answer is that I agree this wasn't a great creative choice. I don't think this means they shouldn't take big swings! But some will be misses and this was, while not an entire miss for me, at best a walk.

[cynical-gamer-media]

sorry i know i've been invading your mentions on twt about it 😖 but would you mind talking about anselma/rhea more? i want to hear your thoughts about them! they're a very interesting pair

I am more than happy to share! (Had a lot of fun going back and forth on Twitter too :D).

I one day thought about Anselma (because damn it Intsys we still don't know much about her!) and how we know she did reprehensible things (assist in the Tragedy of Duscur) to try and reunite/reconnect with her daughter, whom doesn't remember her because Anselma left when she was so young, to make up for lost time...

...and then I thought about how Rhea has also done rephrensible things to reunite/reconnect with her mother in a vain attempt to go back to the way things were (freely being out as a dragon, having her people, no genocide) because she loves her mom and she's a powerful entity that can make it happen! Right?

And I went 'oh wow these two actually have something extremely big in common: the thing that drives them to do what they do and the thing that makes them who they are'!

Anselma's name means 'protected by god; helmet of god; under divine protection' which links quite nicely to Rhea's connection with the literal Goddess. We also know Anselma attended Garreg Mach. Marrying with the emperor, and how Rhea Seiros has connections with them, they would have met a few times.

Alas we don't know much about Anselma as a person. In FEW3H a nameless NPC mentions she was kind, but was she really like that? Then again she could be like Rhea: genuinely capable of kindness, but also capable of cruelty.

(Also if we have people falling for Anselma so easily (Ionius IX and Lambert) then can anyone say that Rhea doesn't fall for her too ha ha!)

[tgrailwar-zero]

Oh- oh, sorry, I... I don't think I was crying about Eli-chan's music...

I think it finally just hit me. It took me this long to... to process where I am, I guess. That this is real. That it isn't just the escapist dream of a dying soul.

I'm alive.

I'm alive.

I. Am. Alive.

... why am I alive?

Why was it me? Why couldn't it have been anyone else? Of everyone else, of everyone worthier, why was it me?

... I should stop with this, before I tear up again.

... if you've recovered Eli-chan's Akogare ~ Tion track I wouldn't mind listening to that.

KEEPER: "Oof. Philosophy now, too? Still. As someone who's seen a lot of war, there's not much point to asking 'why me'. You were either stronger, smarter, or luckier. Maybe a mix of each. Everybody is equally worthy, so it just comes down those three things. You had the winds at your back, and you survived. Now you've just gotta keep living."

SLAYER: "Right. The answer is not complex, it is simply the fate granted to you by the gods. You have been blessed by Bishamonten's fortune, to survive such harrowing battles. To wit, it is not a matter of 'why' or 'how' you survived, but what you will do with your continued blessing of life as granted to you."

KEEPER: "Just like a pendulum, huh… I really can't get a read on this guy..."

SLAYER: "Ahahaha…"

KEEPER: "Right. Solar Cell. Well, in the simplest terms, life here is peaceful. Not much conflict, people get along, and everyone's so curious about how to expand and develop this world that there's always some sort of work to be done."

He guided you off the bridge, walking for a bit down the winding paths of the Nameless City-- or what would eventually become the 'Nameless City', anyways.

BOOKISH NPC: [ Keeper! Keeper! I finished reading that book you recommended… the 'Iliad'! Did people like that really exist on Earth? Were you in a story like the Iliad? ]

KEEPER: "I don't think I was part of any epics like the Iliad. Though if you're done with that one and enjoyed it, there's the Odyssey."

BOOKISH NPC: [ Odyssey… ah, like Odysseus! Did you know Odysseus, Keeper? ]

KEEPER: "No, he was a bit before my time. Still, it's a compelling read. Go grab the data from the archives, and let me know when you're done. I'd love to hear your thoughts."

With a nod, the 'citizen' ran off. You noticed there was a bit of a skip in their step. Genuine excitement at the idea of finding some new, exciting story to read for the first time. The SLAYER chuckled.

SLAYER: "…Your Noble Phantasm is really something, re-creating all of that knowledge…"

KEEPER: "As I am now, I can't recreate as much knowledge as I'd like or access as much of my 'Library' as I'd like. I basically have to individually manifest books, so obviously I started with my own favorites. Luckily the Moon Cell's data and the Freyr's Crystalized Wisdom helps speed some things along, but it's still annoyingly slow."

SLAYER: "Haven't you manifested about 10,000 books? In addition to everything else you've been working on?"

KEEPER: "Like I said, it's been annoyingly slow."

SLAYER: "Ah- finally I think I'm understanding why people fear geniuses like us! Still, why haven't I seen any books on my exploits? I would like to put in a formal request!"

KEEPER: "I'll get on it."

SLAYER: "Many thanks! The Solar Cell will learn much from reading about me, I think! It's already grown so fast, but my appearance will cause a 'boom', certainly!"

KEEPER: "Sure, sure. And it's not like I'm terribly biased. I haven't exactly put any of my war campaigns in the library either. If they start reading about and-- heavens forbid-- start idolizing my king's lifestyle… talk about a worst-case scenario."

After some more walking, you eventually reached a small shrine. It seemed busy, a number of Solar Cell Denizens wandering about and presumably worshiping the god here.

You heard the sound of footsteps approaching, before seeing a familiar face- for a number of reasons. The woman who resembled CASTER.

The PRIESTESS.

PRIESTESS: "Now this is interesting, I wasn't expecting to see you come here so early. Have you come to offer up something to the Heavenly Divinity?"

PRIESTESS: "Just kidding~♡ As shrewd as I can be, I'm not going to hassle offerings from a valued guest. So, Keeper? Slayer? You've been treating them well?"

KEEPER: "We've been doing our best."

SLAYER: "How lucky! Once more fortune is on our side. See, our guest has been a bit... unsettled, it seems. So I figured they could settle their mind here."

The PRIESTESS frowned.

PRIESTESS: "Well... that won't do at all. This is a place blessed by the Sun, a peaceful and joyous refuge from the darkness beyond. What's bothering you? If there's anything I can do to help, simply ask. No problem is too small."

[itsbenedict]

Games I Played In 2023 And Whether Or Not I Thought They Were Good (Part 3/4)

Well, it's 2024 now, and I'm still at these mini-reviews. Definitely gonna be four parts, I think.

[1] - [2] - 3 - [4]

Pikmin 4

I've already posted my thoughts about this one, but... I think this one's my game of the year. Tunic or Disco Elysium would have it, except they didn't come out this year- which leaves Pikmin 4, which is just such a tour de force of good interaction design. There's so many QoL improvements and bits of time-saving polish in it- I can't remember the last time I played a game with so few interface frustrations. (And they nailed all the usual good things about Pikmin, too.)

Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE

Man, this fuckin' thing... so this is the new IP from Kazutaka Kodaka, the Danganronpa guy, who decided he didn't want to keep making Danganronpa games. So obviously the first thing he did was just make another Danganronpa game.

It's mechanically almost identical. A murder happens, you spend some time combing the crime scene for evidence, then you go into an extended deduction segment where you use evidence on contradictions and play tangentially-relevant minigames to break things up. It's very the same thing- you go to the Class Trial Mystery Labyrinth and use Truth Bullets Solution Keys to attack wrong statements in Non-Stop Debate Reasoning Deathmatch, spell the word "knife" in an obnoxious hangman minigame (except this time it's an anime girl striptease), mind-snowboard down multiple-choice quizzes, and even do the exact same fill-in-the-blanks-of-the-comic-pages-to-recap-the-case finale thingy.

This isn't a bad thing, necessarily! (Except the stupid spelling minigame, my beloathed.) Danganronpa's formula works, and (with one egregrious exception in the form of the awful case 3 with the resistance guys) the deduction is all pretty solid. Rain Code falls down where it deviates from that, mainly. The new things it's trying almost universally don't work.

Firstly... it's sort of inverse Danganronpa in that instead of a fairly stupid and contrived setup and ending that don't really matter and bookend some satisfying and dramatic cases in the meat of the game... it's a satisfying and dramatic setup and ending that bookend fairly stupid and contrived murder cases that don't really matter in the meat of the game. Rather than having a core cast that develops and interacts throughout the story, the core cast (really bad, incidentally; Halara is the only good character, and the obligatory comedy pervert boy is the worst he's ever been in any Kodaka work) is totally ancillary, and all the cases involve random sometimes-nameless NPCs introduced specifically for that case. You could cut the first four chapters of the game and leave just the prologue and finale, and you'd have a better game. The central plot mystery is actually really cool! Shame you have to faff about with Junko Enoshima Shinigami for four boring cases in between.

Special shout-out to the mini-mystery sidequests the game is crammed with for you to do between cases- they achieve the impressive distinction of not-having-a-single-one-of-them-be-interesting. If you play this game, skip them entirely- the only reward is EXP to spend on a thoroughly useless skill tree.

Ori and the Blind Forest

Already posted about this, so I'll just copy-paste what I said when I finished it- it's a very polished and enjoyable little metroidvania! I kind of love how saving the game is an anytime action you cast with mana like any other spell, that’s a fun little gimmick- and the “bash” power that lets you use enemy projectiles like boost pads is so fun. The story’s very simple and straightforward but accomplishes what it set out to do, with a very effective final moment, emotionally speaking. Not a game that’s going to really stick in my brain for longer than a couple hours after finishing it (e: yeah nope I'd have forgotten I played it if I hadn't been keeping a record), but very pretty and very pleasant.

(Except those godawful instakill gauntlet escape-the-dungeon sections, oof, those are overlong and so pointlessly mean. Why the hell would you give the encroaching wall of instant death rubberbanding so no matter how fast you go, you never win any breathing room and you’re never more than one slipup away from having to restart the damn thing?)

Raft

I posted about this one a couple years back:

It’s a survival-crafting game like so many others, except instead of a big empty asset flip wilderness, you’re on a raft drifting through the wreckage of an apocalyptic flood that destroyed civilization. The basic loop of “reel in trash” -> “expand raft” is pretty satisfying, and the islands you can visit to progress the story have some pretty fun things going on. I’m waiting to play it in a group with some friends before I finish it.

and I finally got a chance to do that this year. I get the feeling it would've been substantially more annoying solo, since the engine and fuel logistics that become necessary lategame are so complicated and time-consuming, and the later islands are gigantic and want you to pick up like a dozen tiny collectibles scattered across them.

Then again, maybe it would've been substantially less annoying if I didn't have to keep CONSTANTLY CRAFTING BLUE PAINT because SOMEONE thought it'd be FUNNY to keep REPAINTING ALL MY SHIT RED, PYRO

Grounded

Likewise, I got to finish Grounded with a group, too- again copy-pasting my take from when I finished it:

Grounded overall has good voicework and a simple but well-executed story and does a lot with the Honey I Shrunk The Kids concept- but I think it was substantially dragged down by all the gear crafting nonsense, grinding for parts to upgrade the best armor sets that have slightly bigger numbers so you can survive hits from bigger bugs. Subtract all the pointless crafting of globs and plating and whetstones for marginal stat bonuses and just balance the game around the base weapons and armor, and you’ve got a much tighter experience, I think.

Also- small thing with an outsized impact- the base-building element is fun, but building a new base requires a specific array of crafting materials that just aren’t available in most regions of the yard (egregiously, acorns, which seem to find their way into every crafting recipe but only exist at the oak tree.) Building materials for anything except grass/weed bases are way too scarce (and necessary for other things) to have much fun building bases in remote parts of the yard, where earlygame starting resources (nonetheless fundamental to building anything) are harder to find.

Also dandelions shouldn’t take up the one accessory slot and thereby make all other accessories mostly unusable because they implicitly come at the cost of You Die If You Fall Off Stuff, in a game with a ton of verticality. They’re so indispensable that they basically lock off all the most unique rewards in the game.

There’s a lot to praise (Wendell Tully is a very fun character, the setpieces are super cool, the way a little backyard becomes a world of adventure is the core concept and does a lot of heavy lifting) but it’s a game that’s weirdly choked by a handful of very small nuts-and-bolts game-design-level decisions that seem to have been made thoughtlessly and could’ve been easily fixed. Mixed feelings, overall positive.

Pokemon Too Many Types

It's a Pokemon Emerald mod that does three main things:

Randomizes the parties of non-gym NPC trainers

Allows you to see the summary page of enemy pokemon

Adds a shitton of extra types to the game, and retypes a bunch of pokemon (including extra mon from up through gen 8) and moves to use those new types- often giving pokemon three types at once.

It is... fucking wild. And one thing I didn't realize I was missing from Pokémon in general is... not already having the types and type chart memorized introduces this fun element of guesswork, trying to determine what types are probably weak to other types. Do we think "Furry" is weak to "Gender"? What happens if you hit "Crab" with "Guys"? Was that "Angy"-type attack super-effective against "Baby", or "Gun"? It's hilarious and injects a lot of life into an old game.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder

Just managed to finish 100%ing this one December 31st. It's... uh, it's a 2D Mario game. People are freaking out about it because the art style is slightly different, but it's really just a 2D Mario game. Nothing to write home about. It's got this gimmick where each level has a hidden "Wonder Flower" that makes the level into something crazy and wacky, but it's really nothing that couldn't have just been... its own normal level in a different 2D Mario game. Like, they hold back on the level designs so they can hype them up when you get the flower. Some of them are cool but mostly they're just standard fare.

The main thing of note is that this game has a badge system, where you can equip one of a selection of unlosable powerups for each level, which can sometimes break the game wide open. Maybe you get an extra wall jump, or you can use your hat to glide, or you start each level full-size, or... well, none of them are as good as the one that just straight-up gives you a double jump, so it hardly matters in the end.

(Also, all my hate for that fucking super-duper secret special double-final bonus level where it keeps switching up what badge you're using. Why would you make the final segment the one where you have the invisibility badge on so you have no feedback on how exactly you fucked up and died?! You can't get better at it with practice, because you never have any idea what you did wrong! You just have to get lucky!!!)

Cuisineer

Another one I have a more in-depth post on- it's a roguelike action game crossed with an arcadey restaurant sim game, which I have mixed feelings on. It's very visually polished, and if you use the right weapon and approach it the right way the combat is pretty fun, but its level design and upgrade economy kind of force you into playing it that one specific way. The restaurant management half of it is a lot better than the dungeon-crawling half, IMO.

Cavern of Dreams

This one's a retro-looking N64-style collectathon platformer, and it's just a really nice time. The dragon's various movement abilities feel satisfying, there's all kinds of fun shortcuts and secrets to discover... and it does this cool thing that you wouldn't expect from an N64 game, where items you can pick up in levels can be carried through loading zones and used in other levels. There's just a lot of very clever level design, charming creatures, and good vibes. Not too long, either- I put in about 7 hours. Very cute, very polished, worth a look.

-

Going to finish up these reviews in a bit with a fourth post, which is going to be all the games I played but didn't finish.

[1] - [2] - 3 - [4]

[darkx-the-dragon-kn1ght]

Chapter 22- Part 12

The orderlies can wait, we’re having a moment here!

Aha, classic choke point maneuver! I’ve played Fire Emblem, I know what Noel’s thinking!

What the huh!? Where’d THEY come from!? You didn’t block the other doorway! You gotta take advantage of BOTH choke points!

Pfft- Noel just sounds so disappointed, I love that for him.

Ah, so Shelly’s gonna be our Double Battle partner throughout all this! Makes sense, Heather is her friend after all. But I do feel at least kinda worried because…well, I just realized I forgot to go back and buy more healing items after battling Cain. I was just so riled up after what happened to Heather that…well, it just slipped my mind.

I'm just gonna…see what happens if I try to interact with the door down there. I doubt it'll do anything, but just to be sure-

…Oh. We can just leave and come back. They put the place on lockdown, but didn't lock the front door? These guys suck too!

But even so, it's good for me, because now I can go and buy more healing items! And after that, we can really get this raid started!

Let's see- what do the NPCs have to say?

Oh, girl. :( Don't worry Shelly, by the end of this I'm sure you'll have several honorary sibling figures, who will be much better for you than your actual sibling!

These poor random nameless kids scattered about- what are they thinking about all this? They're probably so confused and also susceptible to Cain and Xera being bad influences-

I gotta say, these lines and others before them are probably the most determined Shelly's been so far- like, here, she's not even stammering or anything. Guess that's just yet more proof of how much this means to her and how much she cares about Heather.

Previous

Next

[kawaiioni]

Hello! ^^ I’m not sure if you remember me reblogging one of your LOP pieces and you had been so kind to read my tags and ask for my thoughts after completing the game! And didn’t know how you would be comfy in me sending you my thoughts, so I figured I would do it through an ask! <:)

I finished the game a couple days ago and I’m still reeling from the experience😭 I never thought I could find the courage to play, much less beat a soulslike game, and to know that I actually accomplished that, and with a game that feels as special as LOP makes me so emotional and feels so bittersweet!🥺

Rambles aside I absolutely adore the art direction, themes, and play style of the game! As someone who loves music and the impact it can play in the tone and experience of anything, seeing the emphasis on music just made me so happy! And the characters? Literally so so invested and I want nothing but the best for all of them (with some exceptions ofc!)! The developers did a wonderful job with fleshing out the npc’s, along with the environments!

And final note because I don’t want to clog up your inbox/ send in a behemoth of a message ^^; I have very few complaints or things that I wish could be changed/fleshed out, and one of those is regarding the presence of the puppets and the puppet frenzy! I’m not mad at the addition of the carcasses or the other story beats they chose to use, I just really liked the puppet enemies and where the story could have potentially gone! I just enjoy the non standard horror-ish vibes the puppets had to offer! <:)

Thank you so so much for being so kind as to read those tags I had written out so long ago😭 I’m not sure if you remember that reblog (and I hope it isn’t a bother to send this in! ^^:), but I knew as soon as I gathered my bearings after completing the game I really wanted to send some thoughts in! If you don’t mind me asking, what were your favorite aspects, characters, songs, enemies, …etc, from the game?🥺 Or any thoughts about the game itself?

Thank you so much for your time, please know there’s no rush or pressure to read or respond whatsoever! I hope you have an amazing day/night! <:)

OML!!! Hi!! 😊💙

Yes I remember you, I was so eager to hear your thoughts cause I know you said you were in the midst of finishing the game, I love hearing everyone's thoughts when they finish one of my fav games and LOP has become my new fav game!!

You saying that you are reeling from emotions is just how I felt when I finished playing LOP, it's such a well written game and above all else- has fantastic art, story, music, and characters, plus much much more!

I can go into so much detail about what my favorite things are!

My favorite section of the game is Rosa Isabella street, just the way it introduces that section from just seeing more of how Krat was- literally made me fall in love with the section! (I also like the exhibition, just because we got to see what Venigni/Geppetto made!)

My favorite character has to be a blend of them- I really liked Polendina, Lady Antonia, and also the broken puppet we find! They made me feel the most in the story! (Of course P, Venigni, Eugenie, and Romeo!)

The records are the absolute best, my favorite 2 records have to be Shadow Flower, and Proposal, Flower, Wolf (Golden)!

The enemies are really unique, I tend to like the more creepy ones like the ones in the Opera house or even the Maid puppets cause UGHHH they give me the shivers!

My favorite boss fight has got to be the nameless puppet or even the Bishop!

Overall my favorite aspects of the game are how different you can play each time! You can play heavy, light- a blend, you can have so many different weapons with different handles HELL, go crazy and take the Spector/throwables in there and go ham! It's overall my favorite thing, as well as how it uses the environment to tell a story!

Don't ever feel like you are flooding my ask box or even shy about sending me stuff cause I am so down to talk about my fav things in the world!! I am even willing to talk about my criticism of the game but this answer is so long! 😭😭

I'm even gonna follow up with some questions myself!

Who's your favorite character?

Who's your favorite boss?

What record was your favorite?

What boss gave you a hard time?

[fictionkinfessions]

(canon deets)

Amos dressed about the same as how she appears in canon- or at least, what little glimpses of here there are. I think she had either a deep brown or a blue corset (more like corset *belt* but still) and lace-up boots. Lavender eyes too, they were so cool!

Counting it because they're not explicitly mentioned or shown, I think I have most of my mother's appearance and then my freckles from my father. Also my father looked like a slight variation of the male NPCs in Springvale, for reference. I think my mother had some sort of floral-ish perfume too 'cus I keep thinking about all this and that keeps coming to mind.

I don't recall much of Amos's personality, but I know I saw her as an old sister figure. She was kind enough to teach me to wield a bow! :D

I *think* my red-haired warrior, he was one of those folks where he seemed rather mean/aloof but then he wasn't as bad when you got to know him. That being said, he too tried to teach me how to use weaponry. He used a claymore (greatsword) & tried to teach me to use one too, but after I nearly broke my foot from dropping the weapon on me...yeah. He taught me to wield a sword though! :]

And of course that silly little wisp... ironically enough, not a lot of memories with you, my friend, but I *do* remember putting him in a sock- like that "we put him in a sock 'cus he kept trying to eat the turkey" cat tiktok. Mischievous little fucker /affectionate

-Nameless Bard, genshin impact

s

[everrainrp]

Can we keep important characters in a cat's backstory vague? I'd really like to have other people's characters be worked into mine instead of NPCs, so I kept them nameless.

Hello!

Yes, I don't see why not! As it stands now everyone in server has LEAPED into creating connections with one another, I'm certain other Torrentfall members would love to create connections like that!

Our biggest concern that we focus on in this regard is to keep family trees in mind so they do not become questionable!

[glowing-gravity]

hey, I've played all the Persona games, I can weigh in!

first up- there's no need to play the games numbered games in order, though you probably would want to play persona 1 before persona 2 because some characters return in minor roles, and play persona 2: innocent sin before persona 2: eternal punishment because that one's a literal sequel. persona 3, 4, and 5 have some very minor references to previous games, but it's nothing major at all, so you don't really miss anything if you don't recognize the references!

a lot of people start with persona 5 because it's the most recent! like previous said, though, if you start with persona 5 and then want to go back and play the others, you'll have to adjust to having fewer and fewer of the quality of life features, haha, so keep that in mind.

onto the specifics per game, which might answer your question a little more thoroughly:

persona 1's PSP port is good! you just don't want to play the original ps1 release of it (aka Revelations Persona) because they REALLY "localized" it with weird errors, edited all the characters' sprites to make them white (except one teammate they made black), and cut the entire second storyline out. persona 1 also doesn't have really any dating to speak of- I think there's maybe once where the protagonist gets asked which female teammate he's interested in? it's very much a dungeon crawling jrpg, that basically goes from dungeon to cutscene to dungeon with little in the way of "breaks" in between, and most character interaction takes place during cutscenes or areas where you can briefly talk to your teammates

persona 2: innocent sin also got a PSP port at the same time! this one's also the best way to play it, and it's honestly even smoother than p1's port imo. persona 2's sequel, eternal punishment, doesn't have an official english release of its own PSP port, unfortunately, but there's a fan group that translated the game if you don't want to play the somewhat-janky original ps1 release! persona 2 is currently the most outright lgbt-friendly persona game, as the protagonist in innocent sin is canonically bisexual, and can pick a male teammate as well when asked who he's interested in, and one of the male teammates is interested in him as well. there's two wlw npcs, and some nameless trans npcs around the city that can be encountered. keep in mind, however, that innocent sin's PSP port came out in 2011, so there may still be some things about the portrayal that feel a little dated. also, persona 2 is still very much dungeon crawling with cutscenes, though there's a bit more freedom to it and what you can do with your time

persona 3 is best played on its PSP port as well (persona 3 portable), with the most quality of life features and a female protagonist option, though only the ps2 rerelease (persona 3 fes) has the epilogue of the game. it does have a remake coming out in early 2024 as well, which should have quality of life improvements on par with persona 5, but lacks the female protagonist option and epilogue, so it's still not perfect. also, please be aware its theme is "death", and it features suicidal imagery (most prominently in that teammates need to shoot themselves with a fake gun to summon their personas), so it may not be for everyone! it's probably the heaviest persona game, and while very emotionally impactful, it's worth knowing what you're getting into. persona 3 is the first one to feature the Social Links prev mentioned, which means you balance an everyday life and friends with the dungeon crawling and story aspects, and can also more properly hang out with and date characters. there aren't any male characters that the male protagonist can date via social link, but there are two female characters that fall in love with the protagonist regardless of the gender you pick, and one male character that states he'd feel the same about the protagonist regardless of gender.

persona 4 is best played in its rerelease form (persona 4 golden), either as its original ps vita release, or its steam/switch port. persona 4's theme is truth, which involves a lot of characters confronting things about themselves they were denying, with a clear LGBT theme. however, it has a reputation as the "gay and homophobic" persona game for a reason- while there's one character who's heavily implied to be gay, and another heavily implied to be trans, the game walks back on these at the last second, and there's a lot of homophobic comments from some characters. it's very blatantly a product of the time it was made, which makes it feel authentic in its presentation of what the characters grapple with to some players, and uncomfortable to others (and sometimes even both at once). the protagonist can't date any male characters, however there is scrapped content where he was originally going to be able to date one. with the steam port, people have made mods restoring this link (along with a mod to stop the game misgendering the trans character), so that sort of thing may be of interest to you if you'd like to try persona 4!

persona 5 is best played in its rerelease form (persona 5 royal) as well! it originally came out on ps4, and was since ported to steam and switch. persona 5's theme is rebellion (against society, primarily), and the playable characters act as phantom thieves who change the hearts of really terrible people in an attempt to reform society. as the most recent numbered release in the series, it has by far the most quality of life improvements, and the best graphics by a distinct margin. there's a ton of stuff to do in this game besides the dungeons, and even besides the social links really. you still cannot date any male characters in it, though. there is a drag queen who runs a bar you can visit (she's great!), but there are also two cutscenes with very stereotypical gay men, where the joke is that they're pushy gay guys (which was at least improved from the original persona 5 game, where they were predatory gay guys).

as for the best place to start, that really depends on you! p1 is perfectly fine if you like to start things from the beginning (or if you otherwise plan to play every persona game, and don't want to feel like you're "losing" features if you go backwards), p2 is what I'd recommend if you're most invested in having LGBT characters present, p3 is a really good place to start if you want to begin with a more "modern" persona game (ie, that has the social link system and isn't almost entirely dungeon crawling), p4 is what really started putting the persona series on the map and probably the goofiest tone persona game overall (despite some of its obvious flaws), and p5 is the most recent one that a lot of people start with simply because it's newest and showcases everything the series has to offer!

sorry, that was a lot of info! I wanted to try to answer the question as thoroughly as I could, both for the anon and anyone else who might be interested, hah! feel free to shoot me an ask if you want me to elaborate on anything; I tried to keep this as spoiler-free as possible while still getting the info in there that felt most important!

Hope this is okay but I'm curious about the Persona games because of this bracket tournament and I'm hoping someone can recommend where to start? Do you need to play all of the games in order? Which game has objectively the best dating options? Which if any games are the most LGBT+ friendly?

I've never played a persona game before but feel free to infodump in here people!

[300iqprower]

I don't know how to explain it—I'm sure someone else made a longer better post about how I feel but....

I really like Patxi. Five Lostbelts in and I still like Patxi. Maybe its the fact that unlike 2,3,4 and possibly 5—they use Patxi (a grown man) as a device to show how horrific the Lostbelts are (or how they've been conditioned to think its normal) the children in the LBs are used as a device to show how bad it is but it feels like they're pandering?

Liek they're using the kids as a way to gain sympathy (multiple dialogue choices and characters mention them being children) and that's all well and dandy but it gets real repetitive when you come across the third kid—Ajai was there but he wasn't at the forefront I'd definitely relate to a man wanting to protect his daughter from getting wiped from existence by excessive praying than the child not understanding why (probably should've worded that better) mostly bc my parent made a lot of sacrifices to make me happy.

Lostbelt 3 didn't even give the kid a name which is something I think is fucked up despite them being a minor character.

I also like Patxi as a person because he's a pos towards cast but slowly warms up to them when they do for him—which is extremely natural given his situation and the fact that we're basically staying in his house for the time being.

I also like his CE because its basically "f*ck you, I'm a Wolfman with a gun!" And it has some utility compared to the CEs you gain from the other LBs (they stopped giving out servants for some reason)

I swear I'm not a furry.

I'M FINALLY READY TO ANSWER THIS. OBVIOUS SPOILERS ARE OBVIOUS UP THROUGH THE END OF ATLANTIS.

POINT 1.

PATXI IS THE SINGLE BEST WRITTEN CHARACTER IN THE SERIES. PERIOD.

Like I know i say that's Goredolf, but i mean that in the sense of Goredolf is the best in terms of ongoing character development. As far as fully written characters go, who have had their big moment, and we've seen it all play out for them? From Solomon to Gilgamesh to Arash to Opehlia to Meltryllis to Jason to Jalter to Orion to Moriarty to Napoleon to Ivan to Salieri to Avicebron to even my beloved Asterios....none of them are as well written as Patxi.

And to explain why, I need to start with why, as you pointed out, the other lostbelt NPCs don't even compare, even when they're also well written.

Let's start with the nameless LB3 kid because I find myself typically playing devil's advocate with that one; I'd argue he's the second best of the lostbelt npcs after Patxi. People are, understandably, quick to think of the kid as throwaway given they're never even named, but I always say who I will refer to as "Kid" being nameless as a representation of what life was like in LB3. In SIN, all life is deemed valueless compared to Qin Shi Huang. They bear the "burden" of being the only "true human" and in the name of that all other humans are seen as meant to live short, productive, content lives of never wanting for anything but never achieving anything. Kid is nameless, but not faceless. Unlike most nameless NPCs, he still has a face and varying expressions. He has a role in the story, accompanying us throughout a lot of it and forming an explicit connection to us, particularly Spartacus. And at the end of the lostbelt, when Qin Shi Huang wanders his dissolving world, who should he meet but Kid, a nameless boy reciting a poem he learned from the emperor's greatest enemy, standing side by side with the "True human", the two brought down to the same level as they both dissolve into nothing. To sum it up, Kid both gives us exposition about the world like the rest of the lostbelt NPCs, but crucially gives us insight into what life is like there. He never had any ambition towards anything until we came along, until Spartacus taught him what it meant to have hopes and dreams, and by the end of the chapter that "nameless nobody" is just as much a person both in the mind of the audience and the context of the world as the "True human" emperor who believed that he was carrying a burden for his people.

Now contrast this with another one I see get treated as a throwaway nobody but I would argue gives us important insight: Timi. Whose name you probably dont even recognize and I sure as hell had to look up. The kid from Lb5.1 who had an almost comically small role and a DEFINITELY (probably unintentionally) comical demise, if only for the looney tunes style "Heel-turn realization followed by atomization". But regardless it establishes what Kid did in the opposite sense. The crux of LB5's obligatory "world destruction guilt trip moral conundrum" thing is that not only is this world devoid of suffering like LB3, but on top of that seems to have the genuinely fulfilling lives that LB3 lacked; these people still have hopes and dreams...But that ends up thoroughly disproven when we realize what those hopes are. We see these established people, a named character and everything, unquestioningly throw their life away for a cultish desire to be so much as noticed by higher beings. In the same way Kid having no name emphasized they are still their own individual, Timi's fully established identity and motivations show us how hollow their "fully realized" existence truly is.

Of course now is the one that's....divisive, to say the least. Or at least that's the case from everything I've seen on Asha. I'm kinda in both camps. On the one hand, they're overly reliant on her being an "innocent child" type character, on the other hand though she's genuinely the most emotionally impactful lostbelt NPC after Patxi IMO, and a fantastic reminder of why no matter how much it may feel like cruelty to kill these worlds, leaving them to continue with their fundamentally warped existence would be an even greater cruelty. That said, her Ajay was underutilized in the name of that "feel bad for the child" schtick and so Asha's writing flip flops between heartfelt/impactful and saccharine/pandering, but that's more a core issue of the scenario's two lead writers than a character-specific issue (just another example of how Lostbelt 4 has everyone's strengths AND everyone's weaknesses from how basically everyone pitched in). At the very least though, she fulfills her role of informing us and getting us attached to the world she inhabits, and providing a new and meaningful perspective when its end comes that reflects why we must keep pushing forward. Yes there's the annoying pitiful child thing, but it's far from just taking the easy way out or skipping on the role that's meant to be filled by the character.

...That'd be Gerda. I really don't think I need to go over why Gerda does not work but I will. Gerda's entire character is "look how cute and innocent I am UwU don't you feel bad about me???" and she tells us nothing intrinsic about the world in which she lives. She's EXACTLY the kind of character I would expect from Sakurai not having any pre-existing material to work off of. Her dialogue is entirely redundant at best, with all her exposition dumps being repeated or told in more detail by Ophelia, NotSkadi, or NotSitonai. In the case of that first one they are flat out told in a far more meaningful way because we actually see Ophelia's traumatized perspective on the whole "Sunday" thing. Then, at the end of it all, Gerda doesn't even really give us insight to what the world fading is like, instead giving the only example thus far of the post-tree scene telling us nothing new and not showing us any consequence to our action, instead simply having it all vanish like a dream with no direct relevance to Gerda herself. Her role is supposed to be showing the naïve and transient life the stragglers of humanity live out under NotSkadi, but the contrast between that perspective and the reality in which they live in is never explored; it's simply stated to be bad as if the reason is self-demonstrating in a way that would not even required Gerda to exist to be conveyed. All of this isn't even getting into her sheer lack of characterization beyond "child." From start to finish Gerda tells us nothing unique about the world in which she lives, and there is no role she has that another character does not fill more effectively.

And it's for all those reasons that Gerda is the exact opposite of Patxi.

Patxi is unique from the rest of the major lostbelt NPCs in multiple ways. He's the only non-human. He's the only non-child. Most importantly, [of the first 5 lostbelts] he's the only one who opposes us at any point. Like you said, whereas the other ones are all children and that makes it feel pandering, Patxi being just some guy eliminates that and makes him feel a lot more real, and that's amplified by once again like you said him being the only one who ever acts antagonistic towards us. A big part of all this ties into why Lostbelt 1 is the perfect execution of a "first lostbelt", how it perfectly sets up the premise and moral dilemma as well as set an incredible standard for what a Lostbelt should even be, and I don't wanna be here for eternity going over all of that so I'm going to hone in on the stuff specific to Patxi. Unlike all of the other Lostbelt NPCs, Patxi is set up and treated as his own character. He's named, has unique portraits, we see his POV frequently, he's fully characterized with his own goals, he plays a major role in the lostbelt's events, and he's given even more focus than most of the mainstays who joined in the same chapter (Goredolf, Chihuahua, etc). None of the other lostbelt NPCs fulfill all those things, heck even if we axe that last and most notable qualifier, Patxi is still unique in that list. Kid has no name and was not present for the latter part of the chapter. Asha had no unique role in the story and existed only to give us a perspective rather than to do something specific. Timi's entire purpose is to be killed off frighteningly quick with no actual role. This isn't to say I think they're all bad - I've outlined why I think all three of them are effective enough characters...but they still very much pale in comparison to Patxi, because Patxi was treated as his own individual who was important to the story. Who is important to the story, because he's the one Ritsuka made a promise to that they still need to keep.

The restate the point of the lostbelt NPCs, they are there to give us insight into the world we're destroying, and conveying that in order for our world to survive, other worlds with people just like us must die. They're there to make the worlds feel alive; Rituska is constantly cautioned against forming attachments because of these reasons, but by their nature Ritsuka inevitably finds people they want to help even if only in the moment. Where this diverges is how most of the lostbelts try to make you care. I say most because one of the many failings of Lostbelt 2 is its inability to make up its mind on this. Lostbelt 3 shows you a stagnant world where people live meaningless but happy lives. Lostbelt 4 emphasizes that it's a world where (supposedly) suffering is systematically erased. Lostbelt 5 is presented as a utopia. Lostbelt 1 is different. There's no unravelling why "this is bad actually." It's shown from the word Go to be a cruel and uncaring world with nothing to live for but another day of survival. There's no attempt to make you care on the grounds on "People seem happy here" and instead a wholehearted commitment to showing you something far more direct: These are people too. The reason you care that people might seem happy in the other lostbelts is that same reason, because they're people too. Rather than just imply that though, or focus on one specific thing wrong with the world, through Patxi we're shown all of it. We're shown what a miserable existence that world is, we're shown why they want to continue living regardless, we're shown how the yaga are people just like us, and we're shown how they came to believe that their life which seems so unbearable to us is still one worth living to them.

"Gerda" could be a thousand other people in fiction There’s only one "Patxi"

[venteamocha]

Hello! Sometimes I see you post stuff from IF blogs and I've recently started playing some IF games, which I've enjoyed so far. Do you have any IF stories you'd recommend in particular? I'm not attached to any particular genre and I don't need romance or a self-insert main character, (though I'm not opposed to either). Though, it's a definite plus if it's LGBTQ+ inclusive! I'm not really sure what the "cornerstones" are of IF so I'll take any and all recommendations haha

Oh god, I play so many IFs. So many. And it’s not even close to all of them, but I’m trying!!

Tbh IFs without romance seems to be very rare, I think because when I think IF I think Choice of Games, and those pretty much always have romance in them. At least, the most well known ones do. But a well done one without romance would be nice too!

Okay, this is a list of my favourites! They’re all LGBT+ inclusive, and most have gender selectable love interests, or at least ones that change gender depending on the gender and sexuality combination you pick. In no particular order, of course.  Behind a cut because I’m gonna give them each a mini review. Because I haven’t done that yet.

(There are so many.)

Mind Blind: I absolutely love our big brother Nick, I love how witty and sharp so much of the dialogue is, I love how the MC clearly has a rather large handicap, but is still such an important person to so many people and not looked down on in the slightest. And when they are, we all know it’s because that person is a jerk! They’re not defined by what they aren’t, but what they are, and that’s a great message.

Shepherds of Haven: Part of why I love this one so much is I just love fantasy settings and this one just pulls it off so well. The cast is full of amazing characters, and I gotta say I die inside pretty regularly for not being able to afford the patreon content, lol. The author puts so much amazing stuff on there, and gives us so much great content in the game and through answers on tumblr, and you can tell this whole thing is just the best thing ever to them, and that makes it the best ever for us readers too!

The Wayhaven Chronicles: I’d be shot if I didn’t mention this one, the series that literally killed dashingdon when the book 3 demo dropped!! Again, another author that cares a lot and does their best to do right by their fans. We’ve been given drip after drip of these amazing characters backstories, and I just cannot wait for more! It’s definitely very romance centered, but the overall plotlines are also very good, and I have to say that no matter who I romance, I just feel like the group as a whole is a family. And that’s wonderful.

Speaker: I really like the lore. I really like the lore. I can’t wait until we get more of the overall plotline. Mostly I want my Speaker to get in deep trouble so Seb, Li and Seer (best sister ever) go off and beat the shit out of whatever is causing it. This probably says something about me, but what can I say, I thrive on angst and inflicting near death injuries on my OCs. Sometimes I even kill them, although all of this is offtopic. Or is it? I guess we’ll find out, although I doubt we’ll actually be able to kill off Speaker. And yes, I am definitely playing the Seb & Li poly route. I love them both so much. 

Wilhelmina: I love vampires, ok? Ok? And this one is based off Dracula!! The OG!! And you can choose Drac’s gender!! Shit, sign me up forever!! Yeah, she might be literally killing my bff, torturing my fiancé and low key fucking with my mind, but vampires are hot!! Let me live! Or not. But yeah, this is a really well done retelling of the Dracula novel and I like how well it works as an IF. Did I mention I like vampires?? Especially when they get all monstery?? (This one has an MC with a set gender, as it’s based on an already existing literary figure. Mina can have a same sex relationship with dracula, if you make drac a female, or with Lucy, a female love interest.)

More Things in Heaven and Earth: Hi Nell!! First off, I gotta uncover a deep shame of mine. My family literally has a Shakespeare heirloom collection. As in, my greatgrandfather passed down through the family a collection of Shakespeare that was published in 1911. In ye olde englishe. I tried to read it when I was like 10 and was like what language is this?? What the fuck? What the fuck??? And ended up reading As You Like It, a bit of Romeo and Juliet, and a little of Hamlet. Didn’t touch the rest of it. I only got into the other stories through trashy ya reimaginings. That said, this retelling of Hamlet inspired me to go read the whole of the original and now I have a lot of fears for these characters that I’m so much more attached to, oh god I hope my Ophelia has a happy ending. I hope Hamlet himself has a happy ending. The dialogue is so well done, everyone is engaging, and yeah it made me finish an old af book when nothing else did. (This one also has an MC with a set gender, female, for the same reason. However, there are two gender variable love interests, so you can very much play a bi or gay Ophelia if you so choose.)

Guenevere: I love King Arthur. All the myths. I have so many books based on the King Arthur mythos, oh dear god. I love pretty much every version of it. All the movie and tv shows too! I just can’t get enough of those knights. I could go on for paragraphs about how courtly love worked and how all the different social castes were, but I’ll try not to. This series lets you customize Guen as a character to an amazing degree, considering that she’s also based on an actual literary figure like the other two I mentioned above. It really feels like she becomes your own character, and yet she still exists within this world very very well. I worry quite a bit that the author might have bit off more than they can chew with the current book they’re working on, what I’ve seen of it looks absolutely massive in scale. What is out so far is a wonderful read though, full of drama and laughter and lots of chances to make the story your own.

Bastard of Camelot: Yep! Another King Arthur series! Sue me! This one lets you set Mordred’s gender though, so it’s more inclusive in that way. It is very interesting to play as one of the “bad guys” of the King Arthur mythos. You can play them as straight up evil, as good, or you know, a bit of column a and a bit of column b. Or they can just be a rude little shit. It’s got dragons too! You get a dragon pet! Dragons are cool. It can be a bit tough to play sometimes, since a lot of people dislike Mordred quite a lot because of prejudices. Hopefully this will change a bit later in the series if you’ve been a fairly good person up to that point. Gotta say though, as a warning, that Mordred is a product of incest. It’s not glossed over, and it does cause a lot of problems for them in the story.

God of the Red Mountain: I just love that this inspired me to read more chinese mythology tbh. There is just so much here! And it’s just such a good read. I wish I was better at describing things. The MC being a spirit that you can define, the whole setting, most of the love interests also being spirits, the massive amount of history and culture and lore, how it all fits together. It is such a well done story. I really wish it got more attention than it does. I still miss Big Sister. I still can’t wait to find out more about the foxes, and how we can heal our MC.

The Nameless: Another one that lets you play as something otherworldly. I love the lore behind this one, and I love all of the cast I’ve met. I kind of like that our MC isn’t loved right off the bat, that we’ll have to win over all of our love interests and even the other npcs. I’m up for the challenge! Everything I’ve read on the tumblr for these characters just makes me love them all more tbh. I love how much they’ve written for all of them! Most of all though, I love Oisein. All the art of them is just *chef kiss* and their personality is magical.

A Mage Reborn: This is a really recent one but!! Wow, it’s really well done! That cliffhanger!! Oof!! Not many books literally start with killing your MC off! That takes guts! I told the author this already, but I love the way they formatted this, the way it starts with the end, so to speak, and then fills it all out. It just made everything feel so poignant, how MC is literally looking back at all these moments in time in the last minutes they have before they die. Shit. That’s powerful. And there’s gonna be more??? Can’t wait for that angst. Give me that drama. Of course I picked the one who had me killed, that’s just how I am!

These are all just the COG type games, there are a few twine games with graphics I’d throw on here, but the list is long enough as it is and they feel like they’re in a different category to me. Maybe it’s just me?

[electricprincess96]

Not even picking my free unit and refuse to spend a dime on this banner. If Gatekeeper got in legitimately I wouldn't care because I used to like him But now every time I see him it's just going to be a harsh reminder cheating still wins. And the only way to not reward is it praying for the banner to tank so IS will finally pay attention. I love heroes I don't want it to shut down but if it did because of this? Good. I can't stand cheating

Oh I'll still pick my free unit, bastards made me go through this toxic fandom I'll freely take the product of their labour without paying for it (although I highly doubt the product of their labour will be that interesting, only character I think they'll get super creative with is Eirika because they've genuinely done all her obviously alts already).

But I won't spend money on it. It would be one thing if Gatekeeper won fairly, like if he got like 1k votes more than Marth. But there is no way in like 3 days he not only overtook Marth but nearly bested Edelgard's vote total from last year (last year which included being able to vote from multiple devices, not needing a Nintendo Account and no doubt wide spread botting. Like I'm sorry Nameless NPC is in no way shape or form rallying that many votes in 3 days, I'd be calling bots if Chrom had managed that never mind Nameless NPC #401)

Yeah the whole ordeal stinks of botting and I ain't cool with it. But I wonder how profitable Brave Banners actually are to Heroes. You get a guaranteed one unit free and the majority of the people take their one unit and go, not bothering with the rest or try to +10 them so I wonder if IS genuinely don't care about cheating in CYL because its just a Heroes tradition by now and thats the only reason they do it every year but they don't actually care because it doesn't make them much money. Like I highly doubt last years CYL made them as much money as L!Edelgard or L!Dimitri banners do.