#SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 12 SIDEQUESTS

[tally-ace]

HOLY SHIT THE BOYS ARE BACK

[mariyekos]

FFVII Rebirth and Gameplay at the Cost of Atmosphere

This is probably going to be part 1 of a series of posts/mini-essays so I'll write more on it later, but while doing one of the Chapter 12 Sidequests in Rebirth, I finally figured out how to phrase one of my biggest issues with this game:

There are several places in Rebirth where they include special gameplay at the cost of good atmosphere. This often, but not always, accompanies either a change or new addition to the plot.

I've put some elaboration on what I mean below. For now, it's only looking at that one sidequest in Chapter 12, though it happens all over the game. But the tl;dr is that sometimes game shoots itself in the foot/misses completely when trying to create a certain atmosphere because it prioritizes a certain type of gameplay that is antithetical to that atmosphere.

The Monsters Aren't Real, and How That Hurts the Atmosphere

The sidequest in question is Lament of the Damned, the sidequest in Shinra Manor where you go with Vincent to explore reports of a crying woman. The thing that got me about this one was the combat trials.

What's in the Game

When you go explore under the manor, both Vincent and Hojo mention deadly combat trials, which is a great setup for some horror and an overall creepy atmosphere. Because wow! If Hojo has no qualms about putting his own experiments to death if they don't prove worthy, that means he's really messed up! (And that Vincent in particular has had an even more disturbing past than we thought). The manor was definitely creepy in the original with all of the monsters roaming the halls and the pop up Ying Yang in particular. There are no more battles in the Shinra Manor (besides Cait Sith's section), so maybe this is their way of making up for that.

Except... in the Remake, the combat trials are just simulations. You don't have to face any real monsters. It's all fake. There are no monsters roaming the halls unchecked anymore, nor are there caged monsters, created for the sole purpose of testing your strength. And this lack of real monsters totally kills the deranged/creepy haunted house atmosphere the original Shinra Manor had.

(Which, to be fair, is already changed by the under-manor laboratory being a huge complex rather than a couple of rooms, which is part of the larger shift in atmosphere done for the entirety of Nibelheim. I won't go into to detail in this post, but while I thought the Cait Sith gameplay segment was actually a lot of fun, I was disappointed by how it killed the vibe too).

Room for Improvement

I personally believe the combat trial aspect would be much creepier and much more effective if you were trapped in a room and real monsters were suddenly let loose on you. Then it would feel like a real fight for your life, and make Vincent's comments about how subjects were disposed of via combat trial all the more impactful. Because simulations can't kill you (or at least, don't seem like they should be able to), so in the simulation verse, there should be no direct consequences to losing. It seems a lot dumber to be killed by a simulation than ripped apart by real monsters. Less scary, though I suppose there's a certain appeal to being killed by the unreal. Still, I don't think they leaned into that hard enough. Maybe they meant to imply that creatures which lost to the simulation would be disposed of either by real monsters or just euthanasia afterwards, but meh. I still think that's less disturbing than throwing test subjects into a room where they either defeat the monsters that have been loosed on them, or die a grisly death. And even if they do somehow die to the simulations, something about it just doesn't hit the same.

Having the monsters only be simulations also loses the disturbing aspect of the basement being inhabited by monsters of Hojo's creation that exist for the sole purpose of testing other experiments of his. Because isn't that messed up? For Hojo to create beings whose sole purpose is to, ideally, be killed by his more successful test subjects? To have to face creatures which may have once been normal animals or innocent civilians who have been twisted to fight but can never be saved, so you must either kill them or die yourself? When the monsters you fight are just simulations, you lose that thought/fear of "oh no, look what he's done to these real living creatures, not only mutating them but sending them to their deaths for his amusement."

When the monsters are fake/just simulations, it means Hojo isn't hurting as many real people, and you don't have to face the disturbing idea of having to put down real beings who probably once had real thoughts and feelings. (Which would've been SO GOOD with the line Vincent has after the combat trials, where he DOES talk about Monsters having feelings. But the monsters you fight aren't real. Not until the very last one. So it doesn't hit the same).

So tl;dr of this section: the fact that the simulations are just that- only simulations, i.e. not real- both reduces the threat level in terms of danger to the character, and eliminates the disturbing realization that Hojo has created creatures who are (if his experiments are successful) are meant to die. Both the atmosphere of the manor and Hojo's character lose out there, imo.

Why the Monsters Aren't Real, or the Gameplay Reason

After beating the combat trials, I came to realize (the likely reason) why they made the combat trials simulations rather than real battles: so they could include combat objectives and so you can take the trials at your own pace (i.e. leave and come back).

Repeating the Trials/Combat Objectives

First, the combat objectives.

There are two types: timers and stagger. If you were fighting against real enemies, having a stagger requirement wouldn't make as much sense, since a real battle should really just be about surviving. Why would you need to stagger them? What would happen if you didn't? Would a monster be more likely to kill you if you didn't stagger it? That's not how it works in gameplay. As for the timer, I could see there still being a timer requirement in the form of these enemies doing some sort of enrage move after a set amount of time, but the stagger one doesn't make as much sense. (For people who don't know what enrage is, it's the idea that an enemy will use an unlivable attack against you. An unavoidable OHKO.)

By making the fights simulations rather than real battles, it then makes sense for Hojo (cough cough the devs) to implement certain specific requirements to progress. It also gives them a better excuse for why you might need to repeat the trials- you didn't meet the combat objectives, so now you have to do it again. Because the trials don't auto-fail if you don't meet the combat objectives, you just don't get to go forward.

But I think it loses sight of the creepy scientist and horror basement thing if what you're fighting isn't real. There is no penalty for not doing the trial "right." If there was an actual enrage at the end of the timer (i.e. if you just straight up lost/died), then that would be terrifying! Because wow, Hojo is willing to kill his subject if they're not fast enough! But no, he just doesn't pass them and has them try again. Which makes him less creepy/insane seeming, because now he's kinder because he's willing to give things a second chance. It's less impactful.

In my opinion, being able to implement combat objectives isn't worth that loss of impact. Because combat objectives don't have to be in this part of the game. Chadley has combat objectives in his simulator. If they want us to do combat simulator stuff, have us do it with Chadley. Don't hurt the atmosphere in the manor to include this dumb requirement, which not only means there's less threat in the form of the monsters not being real, but also kills any sense of urgency because you can repeat the trials as many times as you want, or even come back later if you don't have the time. It's a loss of atmosphere for the sake of gameplay in a bad way. They didn't have to write it like this, but they did. And it happens several times through this game.

Backing Out/Limited Creature Game Logic

Speaking of which...I think it's okay to have the occasional unskippable battle, or occasional battle arena where you have to beat them all to progress/do them all over if you run, but the devs sure don't. If the battles weren't simulations, it would make a lot of sense for them to be one after the other. Battles where you've got to do them all to make it through.

Since they're not real battles and are simulations you have to execute, it makes sense that you can come and go. But I don't think that's the order that concept was conceived in; instead I think the devs went "in order to allow the player to come and go at any time, we should make it so you only have to do the battles one by one, and a simulation would be great for that!" And the game really hand holds you with that. Most of Chadley's simulations have multiple battles in a row where you have to beat them all to proceed, but the ones in this sidequests are all individual battles with individual goals.

Now, I am all for accessibility and quality of life in gaming, and I really like that, for example, you can save basically everywhere now instead of needing a save point. But it's fine to remove a little bit of Quality of Life/Accessibility for a single sidequest where you face a battle gauntlet! I mean, the game already has points where it limits your access to Fast Travel so you have to progress the plot. And like I mentioned before, most of the Chadley battle simulations have multiple rounds too! Why not do that here, where you have to do the battles (at least the 4 simulation ones, I would be fine with stopping before the boss) before moving on? You can save right then and there! You're healed between battles too! It's okay to make things slightly less convenient sometimes for the sake of atmosphere! How cool/exciting would it be if Hojo set 4 rounds of monsters on you in a row, where you had to beat them all or game over? I'd love it. That would raise the stakes. And, it would make for a more unique atmosphere. But this isn't something that seems to be a high priority for Rebirth, which I find unfortunate.

(Sidenote, this happens with both gameplay and visuals. At least in the Cave of the Gi they had runestones instead of Jukeboxes... but they didn't bother to change the Jukebox in Vincent's room for some reason. Or to put it somewhere else if they didn't want to change the model. The jukebox and potion bench are so weird man. They kill the vibe made by the rest of the creepy basement full of coffins and candles. It's supposed to feel old and out of time, but the jukebox and bench ruin it.)

I could also see the argument that the devs made this a simulation rather than a real battle based on the logic that having an infinite number of monsters (for infinite tries to complete the objectives) makes less sense when they're real monsters rather than simulations, but I don't think that matters. This is a video game. There are already infinite monsters in the overworld. There can be infinite monsters here.

Finally, going back to the idea of stagger and time objectives from above...you could technically do those with real enemies too. Have it so Hojo will just send more monsters at you if you fail. Make it real Hojo instead of hologram AI Hojo. Or have the AI be able to detect that the enemies weren't staggered/killed in time! Now that I think about it, there are combat objectives against real enemies in the overworld, so they technically didn't need to make these battles part of a simulation for combat objectives. But I still feel strongly that these battles were made to be simulations instead of real battles for the sake of combat objectives.

Last Thoughts (for now!)

FFVII Rebirth has leaned very strongly into AI, simulation, and advanced technology that had not been conceived/wasn't in the public consciousness when the original was released. At times, the game wants to lean very hard into this new technology at the cost of the atmosphere that made the original so great. It's a different type of horror. A different type of creepy.

Being trapped in a virtual world can be terrifying, but it's a different type of terror to being trapped in the real world. Being killed by simulations sounds disturbing, but it's a different type of disturbing than being killed by real creatures. The writers may have done this because they felt it was an equivalent exchange (hehe), but for me at least, I find what the original did so much more striking.

Full disclaimer, I am not, and have never been, big into sci-fi. Remake and Rebirth lean into high tech sci-fi more than the OG did (which 100% had its own sci-fi aspects! I mean, the villain is an alien for starters, and the evil scientists' actions are central to the plot!), at the cost of some of the more down-to earth horror/other aspects of the original. I find this disappointing. It's a different choice that is sometimes really cool (ex. with so much technology it becomes much more obvious that Shinra has constant global surveillance, which is very distopian), but sometimes worse (ex. President Shinra only being a hologram rather than the real guy in Reactor No. 5 makes him seem a lot less cocky since he doesn't show up in person).

I think Shinra Manor as a whole has absolutely lost the atmosphere that made me love it so much in the original. It went from a grimy mansion to a sterile lab. Both are good settings for horror, but they just don't hit the same. This sidequest suffered from wanting to be part of that sterile high tech lab, instead of the low-tech horror of the original where people/Hojo seem(ed) to be playing god in much more material ways. Which is...a different point better left for another essay.

We'll see if I ever get to writing it, lol. For now I uh. Haven't actually finished the game. I have 91 hours and am only about an hour slash two sidequests into Chapter 12, but I haven't had much free time to continue. Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to push through some more!

[namixart]

Loner

Read on AO3!

(Minor spoilers for for two conversations in Rebirth. One is from a sidequest in Nibelheim, the other happens when the party goes back to Costa del Sol in chapter 12. Neither is particularly plot-relevant, but still. You've been warned.)

Nobody had taken it seriously. Ha-ha, Cloud’s a grump, he’s prickly, he’s a loner, ha-ha, moving on.

He frowned at the back of Tifa’s head. You seemed fine on your own.

He pressed his lips together and flexed his hand at his side, uncomfortable. He wasn’t... good at being the centre of attention, he wasn’t good with people. Didn’t mean he wanted to—

“You okay?”

Nobody had taken it seriously. Ha-ha, Cloud’s a grump, he’s prickly, he’s a loner, ha-ha, moving on.

Loner

It really shouldn’t have bothered him. Barret hadn’t meant anything by it, and everyone else had just had a good laugh and moved on. Now they were engrossed in a conversation about Johnny’s hotel and whether it was going to be a pile of ashes when they went to check on him, with Yuffie providing an uncanny impression of the guy for Cid and Cait Sith’s benefit.

He frowned at the back of Tifa’s head. You seemed fine on your own.

He pressed his lips together and flexed his hand at his side, uncomfortable. He wasn’t... good at being the centre of attention, he wasn’t good with people. Didn’t mean he wanted to—

“You okay?”

Cloud shook his head and blinked twice, then turned to Aerith, who’d slowed down to match his step as the rest of the group walked on ahead. “Hm?”

“Everything okay?” she asked, furrowing her brows. “You look upset.”

He shrugged. “It’s nothing. I’m fine.”

Aerith hummed at his side, unconvinced. “Right.”

“Right.”

They walked in silence for a little bit. Cid’s bellowing laughter echoed throughout the streets of Costa del Sol, and Cloud was hit with an unreasonable wave of jealousy. Known them for five minutes and already he was fast friends with everyone. Not a loner, clearly.

“You really don’t look fine,” said Aerith. “You sure nothing’s wrong?”

“Sure,” said Cloud, keeping his gaze trained forward. “Don’t worry about me.”

He heard her sigh. “Okay. I’ll leave you alone, then,” she said, starting to speed up to catch up with the others.

It hit him like a slap. “Wait—no, I—” He fumbled to grab her by the wrist before she could get too far away. They both stopped.

Aerith turned to him with an expression halfway through surprise and concern. “Ah,” she said simply. “So there is something.”

Cloud grimaced and slowly let go of her. “I...” He couldn’t pretend now. He felt naked, vulnerable under her inquisitive look. 

Aerith cocked her head to the side, a silent question. 

Cloud opened his mouth to answer it, but then closed it again. It was so silly, so small, so childish. How was he going to explain to Aerith of all people that it bothered him that his friends thought he’d rather be alone than around them? Did they think he didn’t consider them friends at all?

“It’s stupid,” he muttered, letting his gaze fall to the side.

Aerith hummed. “That’s the way it is, sometimes. But if it’s bothering you, it’s not nothing. I wanna help.”

He bit his lip, still without meeting her eyes. She sighed again, and drew closer to him. She lightly took his arm and pulled him forwards a little. “Let’s go somewhere quiet, ‘kay?”

Cloud nodded slowly. “’Kay,” he replied. Then, he furrowed his brows. “The others—”

Aerith shrugged. “They’ll understand. Let’s go.”

He let her pull him through the streets of Costa del Sol, where even the shadows were warm. She seemed to know where they were going, and Cloud idly wondered how long she’d spent roaming the town their first time there. Eventually, they stopped in a small secluded plaza towards the outskirts of Costa del Sol, quiet and sunny. 

Aerith sat down on a bench and patted the marble next to her. “C’mon,” she said. 

Cloud wordlessly obliged. It was warm. They sat in the sun for a little bit, and Cloud closed his eyes to soak up the rays. He was going to be covered in freckles by the time the sun set, but it was nice.

The silence dragged on, fragile and tense. Eventually, Aerith was the one to break it.

“Is it Sephiroth?” she asked, quiet and hesitant. 

The name sent a shiver down his spine. He shook his head. “No. It’s—It’s dumber than that. Way dumber.” He frowned.

Aerith hummed. “I’ll listen anyway.”

Cloud sighed. It was stupid, but... if he could tell anyone, it was her. “It’s... what Barret said earlier,” he finally pried from his lungs, fighting to push every word out. 

“What Barret... About your driving? Oh, Cloud, he—”

“No, no.” Cloud shook his head. “The... loner thing.”

He could feel her eyes on him for a long beat. He drummed his fingers on the bench beside him, trying to get the nervousness out.

“I’m... not sure I follow,” she said then, slowly.

Cloud winced. He’d been hoping that Aerith would understand without him having to spell it out. He felt his cheeks warm up a bit and cleared his throat. “Do you think... Do you think I enjoy being alone?” he asked quietly.

She let out a quiet gasp. “That’s what’s bothering you?” No surprise, judgement, or pity in her voice; just trying to make sure she understood.

Cloud nodded. 

Aerith hummed. “Right. Well, does anyone? Enjoy loneliness?”

Tifa seems to think so, he thought bitterly.

“Not me,” he said, frowning. “I didn’t know you guys...”

Aerith sighed and leaned back on her hands. “I don’t think that. And I don’t think the others literally think that, either. But... you do have a bad habit of pushing people away. Just look at earlier.” She gave him a pointed look and Cloud tried not to squirm too much. 

“I...” He bit his lip. “I’m... sorry. I told you it was dumb.”

She shook her head. “It’s not dumb. I’m glad you’re telling me. I just wanna help.” She scooted a little closer and bumped his shoulder with hers.

He nodded slowly and looked away. “I’m just... not good with people,” he said. “‘Specially when there’s lots of ‘em. But I’m trying. A-And I know I’m too quiet sometimes, but...”

“Hey.” Aerith gently took his hand in hers. “It’s okay.”

Cloud blinked twice. He hadn't realised his voice had gotten shaky. He took a deep breath.

“I don’t wanna be alone,” he murmured, hating the way he sounded like a petulant child. “I just... can’t be the way you guys are.”

Aerith gave his hand a squeeze. “That’s okay. You don’t have to be an extrovert to wanna be around people. But you might wanna start showing them you care more.”

Cloud shot her a puzzled look. “What do you mean?”

“Well,” she started, playing with his fingers, “let people in. And ask to be let in in turn.”

He stiffened. Close as they were, there was no way she wouldn’t notice. She giggled quietly and gave his hand another squeeze. “I know it’s scary.”

Cloud wanted to deny it so badly, but they both knew she was right. 

Asking people to let him in had only ever led to rejection before. Why would things be different now? Wasn’t it easier to save himself the trouble and stay out of their hair? It wasn’t like they’d miss him anyway. He was like driftwood floating in the sea: good to hang onto if needed, but forgotten about as soon as he was out of sight. 

The thought lodged itself uncomfortably in his chest. He pressed his lips together and didn't meet Aerith’s eyes.

He heard her sigh. “You know,” she started, still playing with his hand, “you’re kinda like a stray cat.”

Cloud turned to face her and blinked twice. “Huh?”

She giggled. “Yeah. One of those little guys who’re super skittish and hiss at you if you get too close. And they scratch, too, the little pests.”

“Thanks,” he muttered, frowning.

“There was this one stray back home in Midgar,” she continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “A cute tabby cat who used to hang out near the church when I was a kid. Mom always said to leave her alone, because she didn’t like people much.”

She had a soft, nostalgic smile on her face, and Cloud felt his own smile crawl on his face. “Guessing you didn’t listen.”

Aerith winked. “You know me so well. I just wanted to befriend the grumpy church cat! You can’t blame me.”

Cloud shook his head lightly and chuckled.

“Anyway, I kept going back day after day to try to feed her and get her to come out of her hidey-hole. Never, ever worked. She’d just hiss at me and scuttle off. But then... One day, I ran off to the church after some kids, well—” She cut herself off and waved a hand in the air. “You know.”

Cloud didn't know, but he could imagine. She’d said it before: she’d grown up with no friends. He could picture how other kids talked to her, and it wasn’t nice. She was still holding his hand, so he gave hers a light squeeze. 

Aerith shot him a half smile and continued, “Anyway, I went to the church to get away from them and have a nice long mope. And I guess that tabby heard me cry, because she came up to me and just crawled in my lap, purring like a truck engine!” She giggled. “It was enough to make me forget about those kids until my mom came to get me.”

Cloud hummed. She kicked her feet a little bit, knocking the heels of her boots together. “The cat stayed at the church, but she was just a bit less skittish after that. Never became super friendly, mind you, but she’d let me feed her and pet her every once in a while. She even let me help her deliver her kittens!”

He nodded slowly, fighting back a bemused smile. “And you’re saying... I’m like that?”

“Hm-mm! Exactly.” She grinned. “And if I could get that grumpy old cat to trust me, I sure as hell can get you to open up.”

Cloud laughed quietly and thought that they were sitting together in a secluded sunny plaza, holding hands and trading whispers and secrets. She was already there.

“Maybe,” he said nonetheless, as his smile faded a little. “But I think you’re the odd one out, there.”

Aerith shrugged. “I’ve always been the odd one out. But I promise you I’m not, this time.” She tightened her hold on his hand and leaned closer to him. “We love you,” she said matter-of-factly, smiling in a way that left him speechless and motionless, a way that left no doubt that she was being sincere and serious. “All of us. And we know you love us. You fall, we’ll catch you. You reach out, we’ll reach back.”

Cloud swallowed a thick knot in his throat, at once pinned in place and torn apart between the dark, potent fear she was lying to him and the burning and desperate desire to believe her. 

“So don’t push us away,” finished Aerith, gently poking his nose with her finger. “Because you’ll only hurt yourself as well.”

“I...” Cloud bit his lip and shook his head. “I...”

Her smile softened even more and she let go of his hand. But, instead of pulling away, she pulled him into a hug, wrapping her arms around his middle and holding him close. “I don’t hug you nearly often enough,” she said. “Is it cool if I do it more? This is nice.”

“Sure,” breathed Cloud, tentatively returning the hug. It was nice. He let out a shaky exhale as she rubbed slow, soothing circles on his back.

She giggled. “You’re not alone,” she whispered, drawing closer. “You don’t have to be alone. Let us in. We're here.”

In spite of himself, Cloud nodded. “Thank you,” he murmured. He didn’t know if he fully believed her, but he wanted to so badly it stung. Wanted to believe he could reach out and not get his hand slapped away. But, then again... He had just reached out to Aerith. And she was still there. Hugging him and telling him he didn’t have to be alone after all. “Thank you,” he repeated.

Aerith hummed, but didn’t pull away. Cloud didn't know how long they stayed like that before it eventually dawned on him that she wasn't going to let go first. She’d be there as long as he needed her to and, as embarrassing as it was, he needed a little bit longer.

Finally, slowly, Cloud drew in a deep breath and hesitantly let go of her shoulders. Aerith let him, but took his hand again.

“Feeling better?” she asked with a small smile.

Cloud nodded. “Think so.” He gave her fingers a light squeeze. A silent thank you.

She giggled. “Anytime.” Of course she’d heard it anyway. “Anytime at all. I’ll be here.”

“I know,” he caught himself saying. And, incredibly, miraculously, he caught himself believing it.

Aerith beamed. “Great!" she exclaimed, standing up from their bench and pulling him up with her. “Say, how ‘bout we get started on your quest to prove to everyone you're not a loner?"

He warily raised his eyebrows. “…Listening.”

“Let’s all go out tonight,” she said. “Just to have fun.”

Cloud frowned. “But we gotta—”

“The Keystone can wait one night," she said, threading their fingers together. “This is important too.”

He considered it for a moment. 

Another loner. As if one wasn't enough.

You seemed fine on your own.

Let him be, leave him alone, he's gonna be fine, he doesn't care anyway.

Alone, alone, alone. Always been, always will be.

And that won't change if you don't do something about it.

Cloud nodded. “Alright. Think I saw a bowling alley on the main street.”

Aerith grinned. “Oh, I am so gonna wipe the floor with you all."

He smiled as well. “You're on. Let’s go get the others.”

As they walked out of the plaza and towards the hotel, Cloud couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. Aerith squeezed his fingers again, as if her hand was the lifeline keeping him from drifting off into the ocean, to be discarded and forgotten about. But, with that tether securing him to land, he could learn to swim and make his way back on his own.

And his friends would be there, waiting for him.

He squeezed back. Yeah. That sounded nice.

[clvr-the-insect-enthusiast]

@jaimemes said:

Here’s your excuse to ramble about something! Anything! Talk about something you’re passionate about!

Spoilers for Bug Fables: the Everlasting Sapling. All chapters, including Leif's Request. Seriously, go play that game if you have the chance, it's absolute perfection, especially if you like Paper Mario.

So there's this guy, Leif, from the main cast. The Venomoth with ice powers that turns out to actually be a parasitic fungus, forcibly piloting Leif's corpse as a result of an experiment by the roaches in order to mimic the sapling's power.

Anyway, what I'm trying to get to here is they're absolutely broken (yes I'm using they/them, my headcanon is Leif is non-binary, feel free to catch these hands if you disagree). Especially if you stack all the poison medals.

I beat most of the endgame/postgame bosses, including The Everlasting King, TANGYBUG and Team Maki with nothing but poison Leif, and it was marvelous.

Here's what I did to make my game-breaking Venomoth of death:

Remember that exploiting the Bank of Bugaria makes the 100+ Berry paywalls for most of these items not as outrageous.

Before The Everlasting King:

Purchase a Heart Berry and a Bond Berry from the Berry Salesman for 100 Berries each after starting Chapter 3.

Steal a Bond Berry from the Bandit Hideout's kitchen

Complete all bounties for another Bond Berry

Claim the Heart Berry rewards for finishing the Lost Item sidequest, getting 25 points in Whack-A-Worm, making 50 discoveries (3 berries total)

Purchase a Super Pepper from the Berry Salesman for 150 Berries after starting Chapter 6.

Immediately after entering the Giant's Lair, backtrack to the Berry Salesman and buy an Iron Seed for 180 Berries.

After TEK:

Complete the Confidential sidequest, Leif being on steroids makes this much easier. Feed them the Iron Seed and Super Pepper you get as rewards.

Purchase all songs from Samira for another Heart Berry.

Finish the Loose Ends sidequest for one last Heart Berry.

Go back to the Giant's Lair to complete the A New Hope sidequest, claim the Bond Berry.

If you did everything correctly, at the maxium rank of 27, Leif should have: A minimum of 12 HP (14 after TEK) 3 ATK (4 if in front of the party, 4/5 after TEK) 1 DEF (2 after TEK)

Now, for the medals:

Before TEK:

Grab the first Poison Defender medal in Snakemouth Den (do it in your first visit, otherwise you won't be able to get it until halfway through Chapter 4)

Lose the festival's eating competition on purpose to get the Weak Stomach medal for free.

Buy 2 Poison Attacker medals from Shades in the Tavern, after starting Chapters 3 and 5 for 5 Crystal Berries each.

Buy the other Poison Defender medal from Shades for 4 Crystal Berries.

Defeat The Beast with the Hard Mode medal equipped to get the Reverse Toxin medal for free from Artis, or purchase it from the traveling caravan for 30 berries if you did it on easy mode.

Find the Eternal Venom medal in the Ice Puzzle in the Wild Swamplands.

Complete the Help me Get it Back! sidequest for the Leaf Cloak.

At the beginning of Chapter 3, buy the Status Booster medal for 3 Crystal Berries from Shades.

Beat Wave 40 of the Cave of Trials for a TP Saver medal,

Beat the Broodmother in Hard Mode for a Miracle Matter medal, or buy it for 30 berries on easy mode.

There's some other things you should do if you want the ultimate Leif, more notably:

Complete Leif's Request to unlock Ice Rain.

Buy healing items that also raise your attack, such as Spicy Fries.

Now, if you equip every medal on our precious little blue thing, the following should happen to Leif:

Will instantly get poisoned when fed.

Will get +2 attack when poisoned

Will get +2 defense when poisoned

Will get healed instead of damaged by poison

Will never heal from the poison status naturally

Will be less likely to be targeted by enemies

Will have a higher chance of freezing enemies

Their attacks will cost 1 TP less

If knocked out, will instantly revive in 2 turns

Using Ice Rain under these conditions, with Leif in the front of the party and under the effects of Spicy Fries allows you to nuke your enemies with up to 28 (32 if they're weak to ice) damage in one turn. And that's not including Turn Relay.

Now, this might not seem like a lot, but consider Bug Fables uses very small numbers for everything, similarly to Paper Mario.

Of course, this isn't everything you can do. If you level up your medal points enough, you can also try some setup strategies that require a few extra turns but can make Leif deal upwards of 60 damage with one Ice Rain, such as Strong Start + Hard Charge + Enfeeble/Deep Taunt, or even Berserker if you want to conserve your TP for healing with Vi instead of using Ice Rain nukes. But that's up to you to decide, since there's dozens of ways to mess with the Poison Leif strategy.

[silver-wield]

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Review Chapter 12

Okay, this collection of posts will be filled with spoilers, including clips and screenshots, so if you don't wanna see things, then don't look. Some of the things I'm gonna highlight will include references to Remake and other sources to link with the overarching plot. This is a straight path playthrough with no sidequests or extra content.

Onto the guilded saucer!

First things first, we gotta find Dio, and with arrangements made to represent him in a battle royale the next day (yeah it's the OG monster battles only way better) we head off to get some sleep.

Entering hotel we hear an announcement that a contest to become Rosa for the play is over and they're not accepting more entries, and yet as we pass Aerith we see her writing up an entry that she not only enters late, but wins. Because that's how things go when you're the Mary Sue and decide you wanna do something.

Yes this annoys me. If a contest is closed then you don't get to enter, let alone win. This is bullshit.

Anyway, Cloud has a two hr nap in which we get another sneak peek into Zack's world where he hears a bunch of confusing info from Marlene before heading off to find help for Cloud, but gets intercepted by a note from Biggs.

Back in the main scenario, Cloud has a date. What happens on each date is specific for Cloud's feelings to them, though all the dates are optional and there's no default.

Jessie plays a vr ballerina version of Rosa, which makes Tifa and Barret cry.

The second stage of the play is viewer interactive where the audience can take the role of a character in it.

There's three battles and some fun dialogue choices. If you confess to Varvados instead of Rosa, Barret breaks character for a second to be all "are you kidding me with this?" 🤣

The third act of the play is the contest winner singing. Yeah, I'm still annoyed they let her win a closed contest and somehow have music and production cued to the lyrics she hastily scribbled down within two hours of learning about the contest.

After the play is the gondola ride, although it's now called the sky wheel. Each date has a different conversation and plays out to a different mood depending on how Cloud feels about them.

In both Tifa and Aerith's dates we see a flashback to Tifa telling Aerith about how Cloud recalled Zack. This is before she started writing the song lyrics. Tifa tells Cloud she hasn't had a chance to. Aerith tells him nothing important was spoken about.

Tifa goes onto imply she's aware Aerith has feelings for Cloud, and Cloud reassures her the only one he has feelings for is Tifa before they share the only kiss in the game.

The following day we see the Turks on approach to the GS before we hit up the arena and get into a series of battles that ends in a second round against corneo and his sewer monster.

Obviously our heroes win and give him an extended cut of their threats from Remake before he runs off to go harass people in Wutai ready for part three.

The devs in a shady bit of piss taking, have Cloud and Tifa high five just like he did with Aerith in the last set of coliseum bouts.

With Dio triumphant, we're about to get the keystone when the Turks get in the way. Cait Sith betrays us and the party splits to chase his traitorous ass down.

Cloud, Tifa and Aerith are our trio for the rematch against the Turks but before we're done, Rufus shows up for another one on one with Cloud.

Why? Who knows. He's a petulant sob who doesn't like losing 🤷

After Cloud kicks corporate ass, we go on a kitty hunt, but one that's more serious than finding Tifa or Betty's kitties.

When we finally catch up to Cait, it's too late to stop him. The Turks leave and Cait has to face the music. Tifa stops Barret from shooting him, but everybody has had enough and leaves him behind after Vincent lets them know he can find the Turks location.

The play itself is the bulk of the chapter and we get three different versions of it. I honestly have very little interest in Loveless and I found the first part kinda dull. The interactive part is fun and also has slight differences in dialogue and actions between each of his dates. I've only played Tifa's because, frankly, idgaf about the other dates. The intimacy between Cloud and Tifa on the sky wheel is everything and I'm so glad they showed how proactive Cloud is with her. He initiates the kiss and everything else. He engages her with conversation. He's the one staring at her while she's looking at the fireworks. He's being shown as very much into her.

[fictionkinfessions]

(FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH SPOILERS - nothing too plot-heavy, but just a forewarning; i am sending this just after finishing a sidequest in chapter 12)

i have so many feelings right now, good lord. i... was not expecting to see zhijie and nayo and billy bob and polk in the game, and i am *so relieved* they're all okay. like, i knew they were all okay in my specific canon (mostly; polk was hit with debris from the plate falling and was left with a limp, but they were all *alive*), but it occurred to me before i picked the game up that in the actual game square enix might've killed them off, so. it was a bit of a weight off to see them alive and well.

and god i hope they *stay* safe. it seems like nayo and billy bob and polk are staying put at where they're at in rebirth, so i think they should all be fine. but i know zhijie's heading home to wutai, and i'm so worried he's gonna join the fight and he's gonna get killed and i don't know that i can handle that, even though i know *my* version of him was fine. i... really.... do not want to watch someone i love die again. i played crisis core (multiple times), i already had to watch zack die, please do not kill off another man i was in love with.

anyway. in my canon, after we got together, he once mentioned wanting to bring me back to wutai with him, and i wound up taking him up on that. we got hitched there about 2 years after meteorfall. so if you'll excuse me, i'm gonna cling to those memories to try to keep myself from stressing about a theoretical for a game that probably won't even come out for at least another 3 years. -kunsel, ff7

x

[the-al-chemist]

On Reflection - Author’s Notes

The Circle of Khanna may be officially on a week’s hiatus because of @kathrynalicemc’s Lineage Challenge, but Chapter 14 seemed like a good place to take a breath. Not only does this chapter mark the 2/3 point, but it also is the start of a bit of a shift in tone for the story. It is also one of my favourite chapters of Year 6, has gone through a lot of changes since the start of my writing, and had a lot of thought put into it, to the point that there is even concept art!

So, without further ado, welcome to the director’s cut that no one asked for or even wanted! Cut below for spoilers for The Hexley Saga Y6C14: Reflection, and mentions of grief and trauma.

I am not a natural angst writer. The first piece of angsty/dark writing I included for the Saga was Y3C4: The Problem with Penny, and I hated it. But, in the process of writing the scene in which Penny tells Artemis about the night she witnessed the death of her cousin Scarlett, I came up with the idea for a similar scene following the death of Rowan. Originally, the plan was for this scene to echo the first one, but instead of Artemis fetching Penny back from the Room of Requirement, it would be the other way around.

The problem was that this scene didn’t allow Artemis what she really needed to start to move on: a way to come to peace with the guilt she felt over Rowan’s death, a chance to say goodbye, and Rowan’s blessing for her to move on. In the HPHM game, there is the Headboy/Headgirl sidequest that allows the MC to do those things. There is no way that Artemis is Headgirl material, nor did I like the idea of Rowan appearing as a ghost or vision, so I had to come up with an alternative.

The idea of using the Mirror of Erised actually came to me before the Mirror of Erised TLSQ was dropped, but I have taken this scene as my compulsory nod to this sidequest. It fitted my idea perfectly - Rowan alive and well and forgiving is exactly what Artemis would see in the Mirror of Erised, the Mirror canonically is kept in the Room of Requirement, and Artemis does require this moment.

There was only one problem with including the mirror: Penny. Because, as much as I adore Penny, she would not be able to focus on Artemis as soon as the Mirror came into play. The scene would shift to what Penny saw in the Mirror of Erised, and that wasn’t what was needed here.

The focus had to stay on Artemis and Rowan’s reflection in the Mirror, and there was only one character who could allow that here, because there was only one character who would be able to stand next to Artemis (just stand there and be with her, even in what is arguably her lowest moment ever) in front of the Mirror of Erised and not realise that this was not just any old mirror. That character was, of course, Charlie.

After deciding to include Charlie instead of Penny, the scene began to take shape in my mind. It gave me a choreography, because Charlie had to have his back towards the Mirror whilst Artemis was shouting at him, and it meant that Artemis could get to a far darker place and still be able to be brought back from the brink. It allowed for her to really let out every bit of rage and the tears, and thereby start to allow herself to heal. I drew the concept art that night, and wrote a very rough draft the scene down immediately after, until I eventually fell asleep at around 3am.

The scene was inspired by three things, all of which are referenced in the concept art:

Chapter 12 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, in which Harry discovers the Mirror, and Dumbledore warns him of the dangers of believing in what you see in it.

The song “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac (I’ve been needing to bite my tongue for months after @gaygryffindorgal posted that this song reminds her of Artemis. When I said that the song inspired a chapter of the Saga, this is it!)

The Season 6 episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer “Grave”, specifically this scene, also known as “The Yellow Crayon Speech”, in which Xander brings Willow back from the point of complete destruction, just by offering his stoic and unconditional love and friendship.

The scene also references Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland (the book Artemis reads to Rowan, chosen partly for because it was previously referenced in Y2C3: The Black Quill, and partly because the specific line I took from the book is very fitting to this moment), and Sally Rooney’s Normal People (specifically the moment in which Marianne asks Connell who his best friend is, and he simply replies “you are”, and then I start ugly crying). It is probably the scene that made me want to keep writing this story when I got to the point of being so emotionally exhausted that I nearly gave up - which happened several times, like I say, I don’t do well with angst - and I’m incredibly proud of it. So I just wanted to tell you all about it.

As always, thank you for reading, and sorry for going on.

Al x

Links:

LANDSLIDE

THE YELLOW CRAYON SPEECH

[timegears-moved]

so since you’ve been posting about them recently, what pokémon fangame(s) would you recommend? gay stuff and a good story would be a big plus obviously

okay so here's what i think abt the ones i've played (under a read more because it’s long)

rejuvenation:

my personal favourite!

it's long as fuck. my total playtime was at like 150 hours by the time i finished. that was with exploration and doing all of the sidequests but even without that the story alone could take up to 100 hours.

the story in general is really compelling. the only parts that are kinda meh for me (without going into spoilers) are the bladestar and hospital of hope plotlines.

with it being a pokemon fangame it being edgy at some points is pretty much a given, so uhhhh, tw for some violence, death, minor amounts of blood, a town being captured and enslaved, cults, and the game becoming survival horror and psychological horror at two different points in chapter 15.

there's an additional optional side story called where love lies that is recommended to play after chapter 12 i believe. wll is in desperate need of some fine tuning so it can be difficult to get through but it's there if you want it.

the characters are really good and i love a whole lot of them.

it's an episodic work piece so as more versions come out it could last a very long time

takes place in the fan region of aevium.

all pokemon up to gen 8 are planned to be available (obviously not all are available as of right now because it's incomplete). the devs will also add any further pokemon that get revealed in future updates (such as gen 9 when that comes out).

you can have any of the starters up to gen 8 as your starter (popplio fans stay winning) and you can catch the other ones at different point.

there are aevium forms and rift pokemon. aevium forms should be self explanatory but they're really neat and rift pokemon are basically better dynamax pokemon.

there are 18 gyms for each type and an elite eight rather than an elite four.

there six options for what the mc looks like: three dark-skinned ones and three light-skinned ones. going further there's a masculine, feminine and androgynous option for each. and even though you choose your gender in this game (with male, female and nonbinary being the choices available) they aren't genderlocked, so you can be a feminine guy or a masculine girl. i do take issues with how nonbinary is treated like a third gender here but honestly i'll take what i can get at this point.

at some point you unlock the ability to choose between two looks for the character of your choice. so not huge customization options but hey they're there somewhat at least.

banging music. a lot of them are reused or remixed existing official pokemon songs but the original songs that do come up slap (the gym leader theme??? hello??????)

there are different challenge modes available. unfortunately this is a bit of a mixed bag for me because even when playing on casual i found some fights to be incredibly difficult. if you can soldier through them then that's great but if you find yourself struggling don't beat yourself up about it.

i know this is the part you've been waiting for: the lgbt stuff. like previously said the mc can be nonbinary if you wish but here's the other ones from what i can remember: venam (wlw), melia (wlw), adam (gay), crescent (bi i think?), erin (ace), ryland (trans man), and a character who originally came from reborn who uses xe/xem pronouns. there's also a side quest early on where you can help two guys get together.

tldr; if you can handle the length and difficulty then i definitely recommend rejuv!

rejuv mutuals feel free to add any details that i might've missed :>

reborn:

rejuvenation is a spiritual successor to this

a lot of the stuff from rejuv still holds up here (6 mc options (with nby choice), 18 gyms, etc.) but tbh i find it hard to recommend this one because i’m up to the beryl ward rn and it's been very bland.

takes place in the fan region of reborn.

there are pulse pokemon here instead of rift pokemon, and i think mega evolution is the best thing to compare these to.

i think there's pokemon up to gen 7 here. same starters as rejuv except for the gen 8 ones.

aside from the mc the only other lgbt character i know about is your rival cain, who is bi. there's probably more (such as the xe/xem character that reappeared in rejuvenation).

just play it if you're really interested. it's not required to understand rejuvenation's story and while it personally does nothing for me you might like it!

phoenix rising:

tbh i'm still at the beginning of this game so i don't have a lot to comment on unfortunately but my only issue so far is that the game can be laggy when it runs.

it's episodic just like rejuvenation and is currently still being worked on, with the first episode having been released.

i've found it to be very cute and charming so far. it's probably one of the only pokemon fangames to not have unnecessary edginess. ofc i'm still at the beginning so i'm remaining cautious incase the game decides to go fucking bonkers at some point.

takes place in the fan region of hawthorne.

there's no gender option for the playable character so their gender is entirely up to interpretation. you're only asked to choose a masculine or feminine style at the beginning that'll decide your default look and eventually you can unlock trainer customization and the customization options aren't genderlocked. idk how thorough the customization options are beyond that though.

i can't remember how many pokemon are in this one by generation, sorry. i have seen up to gen 7 so far though.

the starter options are petilil, growlithe and staryu. different but not inherently bad.

one of the rivals, perrin, uses they/them

relic forms! basically this game's version of regional variants. ambipom got one so that was more than enough to sell me.

insurgence:

still in the process of playing this one but it's pretty good!

i really can't say much on the story atm but it's drawn me in. though it's definitely the edgiest one out the ones i've listed so far so tw for these things: blood, violence, death, cults and a disturbing scene of pokemon dogfighting.

good news is that there's a light story and a dark story. i'm currently playing the dark story as that's the original but from what i can tell the light story is basically the same except without the above. you can also change modes at any time so if you try the dark story and find it to be too much then you can change to the light story no problem.

characters have honestly been kinda hit or miss for me so far but i'm holding off judgement until i finish it.

takes place in the fan region of torren and i think there's additional regions to explore during the postgame, making for lots of content.

pokemon up to gen 6 are available.

this game has delta forms, which again, is basically regional variants. there's a fuckton of them too so it makes for some fun team planning.

the starters options are eevee and delta forms for bulbasaur, charmander and squirtle. eevee is available from the game corner after the 2nd gym so you can let that influence your decision. i chose delta charmander because it looks sick as fuck.

there are new mega evolutions for prexisting pokemon as well as mega evolutions for delta forms.

eight gyms here but each gym is based around a theme and uses two types rather than one.

aside from minor npcs there isn't much going on here in term of lgbtness. the mc is also restricted to just boy or girl options this time. i'll be pleasantly surprised if i find anything major though.

there's trainer customization but tbh it's rather lacking. the clothes are neutral but the hairstyles are genderlocked (there is a bald option for the male mc and you can wear a poop hat if those do anything for you).

so basically:

recommend: rejuvenation and insurgence

can't say but hopeful: phoenix rising

play if you want but i personally don't like it: reborn

[preserving-ferretbrain]

Review and Digression: The Black Magician Trilogy and Fantasy in General

by Dan H

Friday, 04 January 2008Dan remains unnecessarily complicated~

I don't read a lot these days. I'm lazy and easily distracted. When I do read, I tend to read fantasy. Growing up on Narnia, D&D, Warhammer and Terry Pratchett left me with the kind of mind which adapts to fictional worlds far more easily than real ones. Unfortunately despite having an abiding infatuation with the Fantasy genre, I don't actually ... well ... like it very much. Leaving aside the fact that a lot of it just isn't very good (a criticism which could be levelled at any genre, including literary fiction) it tends to be overlong, rambling, and full of annoying details about the history of imaginary places. George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, for example, began amazingly, creating a rich and detailed world with a complex multiple-viewpoint narrative, creating a real sense of the unfolding of history, and I loved the early books with a passion. The later books, however, got horribly bogged down in history and worldbuilding and the annoying obsession with detailing every last second of events in the Seven Kingdoms as it unfolded. Similarly while I loved The Hobbit, I could never get past the first book of The Lord of the Rings because of all the goddamned scenery. And the least said about Harry Potter the better. 

I picked up Trudi Canavan's The Magician's Guild out of a smug sense of irony. The blurb on the back, which describes a none-too-original situation with a Magician's Guild who march through a city protected by a shield of pure magic driving out vagrants, only to find that a plucky young slum girl can penetrate their defences by means of her hitherto unknown magical power, left me with the impression that the book would be at best amusingly awful, but worth picking up on buy-one-get-one-free.

I started reading the book with the same patronising self-assurance, quietly laughing at the rather generic fantasy names and the peculiar made-up wildlife. About three chapters in, however, something happened. I realised that I was actually really enjoying reading the book. I wasn't storing up scathing comments to put on the internet at a later date, or constructing detailed point-by-point analysis of why the series was subtly advocating neo-Marxist doctrines through the medium of a story about wizards. I was actually enjoying it. Taking a moment to think about it, I realised that the source of my enjoyment was something I had seldom seen before in a fantasy novel: the plot was actually progressing. Every chapter, something happened which built on the things that happened in the previous chapter, and set up the things that were going to happen in the next chapter. It introduced conflicts and then resolved them, usually in the space of less than two hundred pages. Not only that but, wonder of wonders, once something had been resolved, it stayed resolved. There were no "protagonist gets captured, protagonist escapes, protagonist gets captured again, protagonist escapes again" sequences. Not a page in the book is wasted on irrelevant descriptions or pointless sidequests.

On her website (which I will say more about later) Trudi Canavan describes herself as having a short attention span, if she is bored writing something - says Trudi - then she assumes people will get bored reading it. Perhaps the reason I loved these books so much is that Trudi's attention span seems to match my own almost exactly. Every time I found myself thinking "okay, I've had enough of this plotline now," the plot would be resolved within two pages and taken in a completely new direction. Each book in the Black Magician Trilogy is in two parts, and in between parts one and two, the book changes gear completely. In The Magician's Guild, for example, the first half of the book focuses on Sonea (the protagonist) trying to avoid being taken in by the magician's guild, while the second half focuses on her trying to avoid being thrown out again, and the transition comes at exactly the point where you start thinking "okay, I've had enough of this girl running away from people now". This pattern repeats in books two and three, with the change of pace at the half-way point being both refreshing and genuinely surprising.

Canavan's mastery of pacing extends to the overarching plot of the trilogy as well as to the individual books. A common problem in Fantasy series is for it to be obvious from chapter one of book one how the series is going to end, which makes the rest of the series into so much pointless preamble. I know I promised I wouldn't bring up Harry Potter, but the last three HP books are an excellent example of this problem. Once Voldemort comes back, it's obvious that we're just waiting for Harry to hit eighteen so he can confront the bugger, and books five, six, and seven are just 1500 pages of buildup. Canavan, on the other hand, very carefully reveals her plot elements only at the point at which they become relevant. The plot of book two is set up in the last chapters of book one, the plot of book three is set up in the last chapters of book two. At no point do we have to ask ourselves why we care about subplot X when main issue Y is clearly more important.

To put it another way. Trudi Canavan is blessedly aware that she is writing a novel, a work of fiction intended to entertain a reader. There is a popular adage that a fantasy novel is like a window into another world, and too many fantasy writers take this literally, seeming to view their books as something which you look through in order to see whatever happens to be going on in their secondary creation at a given time. Canavan never loses sight of the fact that she is writing fiction, telling a story, trying to entertain people.

This becomes ever more apparent if you look at her excellent

personal website

, which is full of beautifully down-to-earth bits of information and opinion. A rather nice section on her weblog explains the sorts of fanmail questions she won't be answering, one of which is "Pedantic Irrelevant Detail Questions". In particular she points out that "You know, if I didn't mention it, it was probably not relevant". As our esteemed editor has already pointed out

elsewhere on Ferretbrain

there is a nasty tendency for modern writers (particularly fantasy writers) and modern readers (particularly fantasy readers) to view works of fiction as having some kind of set, external reality, and to view questions like "is Dumbledore gay" or "how do you explain the discrepancies between the Star Wars prequels and the implied backstory of the original trilogy" as having a definitive, relevant answer. Throughout her website, Trudi espouses a beautifully sensible view of her work. She views writing as a craft you get better at by practising, and her books as works of fiction she created to entertain an audience. She also comes across as charmingly geeky (check out her pinboards full of notes and hand-drawn maps).

Looking back at the above 1200 words, I seem to have been rather embarrassingly gushy. I'd love to redeem myself with some sarcastic barbs about style or characterisation, but I genuinely don't have any. I could make some kind of joke about the made-up animals (all of the animals in Canavan's worlds are fictional, with the peculiar exception of horses) but it seems frankly churlish to do so (particularly given the fact that she has explained and defended her decision to pack her world with invented rodents on several occasions). The Black Magician Trilogy is by no means great literature (which is good, because great literature bores my tits off), but it is well written, engaging fantasy. It's tightly plotted, masterfully paced, the protagonists are all interesting and likeable.

I still wish she'd call a cow a cow though.Themes:

Books

,

Trudi Canavan

,

Sci-fi / Fantasy

~

bookmark this with - facebook - delicious - digg - stumbleupon - reddit

~Comments (

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Wardog

at 16:31 on 2008-01-04Also she's hotter than Scott Lynch...

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Rami

at 18:26 on 2008-01-04Yay! I liked the Black Magician trilogy too -- although I thought bits of it did seem just a tad contrived -- and I'm glad it's not been ripped to shreds :-)

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http://davidlynch.org/

at 08:03 on 2009-11-25This is an excessively late comment.

I, too, really enjoyed the Black Magician trilogy, but there were two things in the final book which annoyed me enough that I'm unlikely to ever go back and reread it.

(Spoilers ahoy, gentle reader.)

First: Akkarin's death felt pointless, and seemed to mainly happen so that the trilogy could end on an "awesomely tragic" note. It sat poorly with the tone of the rest of the series, and broke my immersion in the world. Actually, the death itself I'm okay with... it was Sonea finding out she was pregnant that really got to me.

Second: The only character in the series who's sympathetic to gay people turns out to be gay... it's just he could never admit it to himself until now! This just bugged me. All it would have taken is for him to not be the only tolerant person, and I'd have been fine with it.

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Dan H

at 11:22 on 2009-11-25I'm okay with Akkarin dying - I kinda felt it was heading that way. I mean once you've got life-energy transfer magic it's pretty much mandatory for somebody to sacrifice themselves with it.

The "and then she turns out to be pregnant" thing was a little bit irksome. If only because I'm beginning to get sick of the fact that people in fantasy settings only *ever* seem to get pregnant after their partners die (and then *always* do). It's like some kind of extremely severe population control policy in Fantasyland.

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Wardog

at 13:27 on 2009-11-25This is completely off-topic but zomg, you write WoW add-ons! That is way cooler than being a director.

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Rami

at 17:12 on 2009-11-25

zomg, you write WoW add-ons! That is way cooler than being a director.

I almost agree. I mostly think

lj.py

is much more amusing than Mulholland Drive;-).

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[static-teevee]

okay okay okay okay mostly nnk2 and it’ll have spoilers,, this is Super long and a mess you guys don’t have to read it I just wanna Scream

so i got nnk2 for christmas and was like “okay cool” cause it was on my list but ive never been Super into nnk? just cause it was a game i never owned but watch a play through for YEARS ago and liked but only got about to where you get swaine (ithinkthatshisname) before getting busy and forgetting about it

and like true to me i spent over 30 hours on the game in a week, one of the days having 12 hours pooled into it. just cause i like?? everything about it

the characters could use fleshing out in bits but there’s dlc for that yeah?? i think?? and the diversity of the main cast is Lacking but i still enjoy every one of them. there’s not a single character i hate and if chapter seven didn’t turn out to be a Roland Plan and he actually DID betray Evan i would have probably dropped the game then and there

it’s one of my few games where i didn’t spoil anything for myself along the way, save for small hints that were inevitable as i snooped around the fandom for stuff and that made my experience So Good i need to do that more cause that’s what i did for the persona games and it’s probably what i love them so much now

ofc mr fucking president stole my heart the Moment he was protective towards Evan so,, can i Talk about how much i love-hate the exicution of his character

cause he’s supposed to be Cool™️and Stoic™️ or whatever which i can see but also i associate with silent protagonists n stuff. I think of him like a stern dad who obviously wants to get shit done but cares for the people around him very openly. in flavortext (i think that’s what it’s called) he’s constantly singing compliments to Evan and supporting him and it’s Cute and Good

and as fine and dandy as it is i really wish we got to see more about his past. we get a cutscene before fighting Doloran w his son that’s mentioned like,, Two times outside of that. no mention of a wife from what i remember either. and w the cutscene he’s Obviously got some survivor’s guilt or something but Never Talks About It and like,, let him Expresss let him Emote

I wanna say stuff about the other mcs but now that i think about it they Severly lack the development Roland and Evan have, which is a crime >:/ maybe things will be revealed in sidequests or something but for now I’m :/

also i Love that Evan is the main character. it being a child just,, works really well. While with Roland we can relate because of his lack of worldly knowledge, Evan wants to see everything in a good light no matter what and it rubs off on you tbh. idk its hard to explain but im glad he’s the Main character

and uhhhh Why did they wait until 2/3 through the game to give us Bracken. you can’t pull a Haru you just. can’t. it doesn’t give the character enough time to settle, especially with the following chapter being almost entirely linear with Roland in DDD so we don’t even see her. She seems super interesting and i wanna know more but we just?? Don’t get enough of her it’s a tragity

We spend SO much time in Goldpaw and that leaves Hydropolis, Broadleaf, and DDD like unworthy contenders. Like we don’t even Get to a new place until I think chapter 5? idk exactly but it really felt like all of Goldpaw was too long. The music got really grating

SPEAKING of music i love 90% of it. Obviously some songs get repetitive which leaves the score lower but very rarely did I dislike a song. Prime example is that one plays during the Trial of Kings or whatever with the ticking clock. That was stressful as FUCK

as much as i like that nnk2 Wasn’t a direct sequel to nnk kinda?? Wish we could’ve Seen some characters from the first one. It’s obviously been years but what if,, it hadn’t been that long and you could see like adult Ester (??? Whatever her name is?) running around. that’d be neat.

idk idk I’m running out of things I really really really like this game despite all the negatives I said. sorry it got Rediculously long I’ll edit it on my computer later so there’s a read more

[the-honey-bear]

2017 Games Review

I played a lot of really awesome games this year! Below are all my thoughts on them. The score out of ten is based solely on my level of enjoyment, so expect a lot of bias!

1/ Mass Effect 1 7/10

A good start to the ME series! I’ve been a fan of the Dragon Age games for a little while now, but I was put off by the shooter element in ME. However, it’s actually really fun to play! and the attention to characters and story in these games are the same reason I’ve always loved RPGs. This one is a little jankier in the controls to play than the later games but GAY SPACE ROMANCE. Driving the tank thing isn't much fun, but Shepard is great and I liked how you could play the character in different ways.

2/ Mass Effect 2 - 9/10

I ACTUALLY STARTED WITH THIS ONE. I played it late 2016 and liked it so much I bought the whole trilogy, which just happened to be on sale on ps3. Then I played it again, because I wanted to carry over my romance with my girl Liara into the third game. The way the sidequests are wrapped around the characters works so well WHY DON'T MORE GAMES DO THIS /looks at all the games where sidequests compose of random fetch quests for random people./ I especially liked how all your actions came into effect in the final mission, and ACTUALLY HAD REAL, DRASTIC EFFECT.

3/ Mass Effect 3 -9/10

I feel bad for this game cuz it's got such a bad rep because the ending is very much, ehhh. BUT THE REST OF THE GAME IS GREAT. The tension really gets amped up in this one, and you really feel like you're fighting against the odds for the sake of the universe. Also the citadel DLC is incredible.

4/ Tales of Berseria – 10/10

MAN this one comes up close on Graces' coattails for favourite Tales Of game. I should probably score this an 9 considering I had a few issues (the skits definitely go for quantity over quality in places) but fuck it cuz I can't think about this game without getting emotional about it and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it all year. Velvet is an incredible and refreshing lead and words cannot explain my love for Laphicet. I was hooked on the story right from the word go and honestly my friends were barely able to get me to leave the house during the weeks I was playing this, so.

5/ Horizon: Zero Dawn – 10/10

I felt so bereft after finishing Berseria I impulse bought this from the playstation store AND I DON'T REGRET IT AT ALL. If I had to recommend one game I've played this year it'd probably this one, because it's just so well-roundedly wonderful. Combat is fun, the open world is gorgeous and feels very much alive, Aloy is a fantastic lead, and damn, the story knocks it out the park. Once the plot moves past the warring tribes to the sci-fi stuff it goes from good to AMAZING. One of very few games where I ended up scouring the game for any and every data point. GO PLAY THIS.

6/ Nier Automata – 9/10

Everyone on my TL was playing and raving about this a few months back but I finally jumped on the bandwagon in the summer. The combat is ridiculously fun to play, and the world in this game is weird and bizzare and pretty damn sad, without managing to be dreary. For the first half of the game I had trouble empathising with 2B and 9S, and I got a bit bored replaying the same part of the game as 9S (2B is more fun to play as). Once the last section of the game started however it really kicked it into gear. I ended up liking and sympathising with the three leads by the end of the game, and it definitely started the waterworks a few times. A very unique feeling game.

7/ Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep – 5/10

I started off really liking this one. The combat is definitely the most fun I've had in a KH game, and feels a lot more fluid than in 1 and 2. I got pretty bored visiting the same Disney worlds, though, especially on my third playthrough with Aqua. I would have liked to have seen the last ending but I ended up getting burnt out.

8/ Nier Gestalt – 9.5/10

Whaaaaat, you say. I scored the old school Nier higher than the higher budget, more fluid, definitely more-fun-to-play sequel??? Why, you ask? Kaine, that's why.

I love the way Nier games play with different ways of telling a narrative. The original Nier I’d argue is the most successful with the way the story changes on replay (Automata does a similar thing with 9S, but I’d argue it doens’t work quite as well). I can’t say any more without spoilers to series newcomers, but I’ve never been so thrilled to feel so horrible.

I knocked off half a point because I had to push those damn boxes in the temple too many times. Hasn't Nier suffered enough???

9/ Child of Light- 8/10

A wonderful little game that oozes atmosphere and charm. All the characters speak in verse, and the soundtrack is outstanding. I loved whipping about the skies with Aurora, and the battle system is simple but addictive. It's only 12 hours long or so, and the ending feels a bit abrupt, but the rest is a delight.

10/ Stardew Valley 9/10

I'm unsure where to put this on my list, since I've been playing it for months and months, hahaha. Basically if you're a fan of Harvest Moon, this is Harvest Moon+++. It's all the things that got me addicted to the series, with a lot more freedom. You can design your own farm!! you can design your own farmer!! you can marry any of the bachelor or batchelorettes, irrespective of gender. My main complaint about this game is that I can't stop playing it :<

11) Final Fantasy XV – 7/10

I'm an old school FF fan and have been side eyeing this game ever since it came out. Got burnt by FF13 and was nervous about getting too excited about FF and being disappointed again. THIS WAS DEFINITELY BETTER THAN FF13 (don't ask me about that game, I will be very unfun and complain about everything). It's very different than previous FF's, but I enjoyed the open world and all the faffing around you could do in it. What I didn't expect was to be strapped in during chapter 9 and taken for Arydn's wild ride all the way to the end. It definitely could have been paced better, plenty of things could have been explained better, but I got so invested I played the final 5 chapters in about two days, so can I really complain? Also ily Lunafreya (when's your dlc coming out)

(the games after this I haven't finished, so I haven't rated them)

12/ Dishonoured 2

I've only played a few chapters of this game because it's been years since I played a proper stealth-based game and I die a lot, but the strength of the worldbuilding in this game really shines through in what little I've played. The world feels very alive, right down to all the NPCs on the street.

13/ Pokemon Sun

I played about 10 hours of this game when it came out, and then got a ps4 and forgot all about it RIP. On my second attempt I'm appreciating it a lot more! It's a very charming game. My favourite part is petting all my pokemon. <3

14/ Tales of Vesperia

This one is a second attempt, too! I've had real trouble connecting to the story in this game, and I still don't feel like I've completely got the hang of the battle system. But the characters are extremely likeable the game has a level of polish I've not noticed in any other Tales Of game. I definitely plan to finish it!

[infinitexmadness]

A rant about FFXV (Spoilers duh)

Okay so I just need to rant about this game for a minute. Don't get me wrong I loved the game. But honestly it feels like after waiting 10 years they only spent 10 days thinking of the plot. It was originally supposed to be Final Fantasy Versus XIII which FFXV is basically FFXII Part 4 with the crystal and oracle and Prompto basically being branded a L'cie and Lunafreya's brother getting turned into a Ceith at the end lol. I watched some channels do an "Everything Wrong with FFXV" and Honest Trailers did and honest trailer of the game which I highly suggest you check out. First of all, what is this game about? Simply a bunch of bros hanging out. Yep. So the king sends you off on a journey with your three friends in a convertible to go meet Lunafreya in what's enenmy territory and on another continent no less. That they end up taking a boat and train to so why take a car anyways? Half the game you become side tracked with bounty hunts and treasure hunts for random strangers for 8 chapters and forget what you're even supposed to be doing. Which is the new objective is get to Crown City because your dad died and you're the new King. So you have to visit these lost tombs and get the kings power right? Well not exactly. You only visit like 3 of these tombs in the main quest and some are only found when doing side quests. Hell there's even a tomb that's blocked off for the entirety of the game. So there's really no point in going to these Tombs when Noctis gets the power anyways just by putting on the ring Lunafreya gives him to defeat that watergod. You end up getting all the swords power which you didn't even collect in the tombs (so that story line is pointless) and you hover in mid air while attacking the enemy with all the Kings sword power. Again, what's the point of going to like 3 tombs if you get this power by putting on a ring? It seems to me like FFXV side quests are better than the actual main quest and story line itself. Honestly I would be fine with just the side quests and Chocobo festival and DLC's. The main quest itself is so confusing and rushed it seems they changed it last minute or literally just came up with it just because they wanted their game to be more about just bros on the road. Which in the end would've been better if it WAS just bros on the road. I'd play it again and never finish Chapter 8 because all 8 chapter are basically fun sidequests. Once you move on past chapter 8 they rush into a story line that seems really under developed like someone dreamt about it and decided, "let's do this in the game." And even you rush through all 15 chapters without doing side quests first of all you probably won't be leveled up enough to fight anyone but most importantly you wouldnt care about the main characters. There's a touching motel scene where Prompto tells Noctis his true feelings about how he feels and his part in the friendship and how he's not strong enough. Here you can have Noctis tell Prompto he IS strong enough and you value his friendship. Its a touching moment you won't get if you rush through the game and never sleep at a motel. You miss out on tour opportunities and chocobo races and the side quests really help you fall in love with these characters. No one even ships Luna and Noctis because okay they knew each other for like the first 6 years of their life, now they're engaged but its arranged and they haven't seen each other since they were kids so its not like there's a love connection there. Hell everyone ships Noctis and Iris because they actually hang out and know each other. That's why I'm starting to think they killed off Luna so Noct could be with Iris. But then the ending you see Noctis with Luna all happily married like how??? You haven't seen her in 12 years you guys communicate through a dog and a notebook you didn't once call or text her how could you even have feelings for her. Because you have a touching moment when you were 6? It was just stupid. It wasn't well thought out and was rushed. Something they threw together last minute because they just wanted to release the game already. Basically I'm just really disappointed in the main story plot. It could've been avoided honestly I didn't even want a main story plot. I think I speak for more than myself here when I say my favourite parts of the game were the small things. Tours, fishing, chocobo races, I get it though how in the end its a tail of friendship and they bonded on this journey. But Noctis slept in crystal for 10 years (FFXIII plot) and they didn't even grow old together which was sad to know. They did die they didn't die who knows. I just couldn't care less about the main plot. What was this game about? How would you describe it? "A bunch of bros on the road" is what Pewdiepie said. And he isn't wrong. The main plot isn't really there? What was the point? Why was Ardyn even mad, bro? So he was Noct's uncle and wanted to be King but by the end of the game there's no one alive. Who's there to be King of? 😂 honestly its like FFXIII chaos broke loose there's demons everywhere and people are dying. And Ardyn is like "I want to be King" like lmao go ahead no ones alive anyways. Just like what was the point? Okay so Noctis kills Ardyn in the end and what happens? Do all the demons disappear and its a happy light filled world again? There was no point in anything...what do you think? For me personally summing this all up . . . . . long rant short, the main plot and story line sucked ass and it was rushed and stupid and didn't make sense. But the side quests were super fun and amazing and made me fall in love with the characters. I'm super excited for the DLC's it seems like more fun side shit to make you love the characters even more. Overall I'd give the game a rating of 5/10 based off the main plot. 10/10 for main character development. But Lunafreya's role was so insignificant and small she gets a 1/10. 2/10 for dying.

[mariyekos]

Collection of my Meta/HCs/Fics/Prog Posts

This exists mostly for myself/for organizational purposes, but if anyone else happens to find this feel free to check it out.

After an age of mostly FFXIV posts, I've branched out a bit. This is separated by fandom, and only goes back to about 2022. This does not include all of my "highlights", but it does have some of my faves.

Devil May Cry

Meta/Analysis/HCs

Vergil in DMC3, And Unlocking Dante's DT - Analysis post examining the first fight between Vergil and Dante, why Vergil didn't kill Dante, and why he might have intended to unlock his Trigger instead.

On Vergil's potential actions in DMC3 if he knew about Nero - short theory on whether Vergil would have acted differently if he'd known he had a son.

Post DMC4 Nero's potential suspicions about Dante being his father - my additions to someone else's post about how Nero might've wondered about his parentage and why he didn't press the subject.

Dante and Vergil, Four Halves of Two Souls - Rambling on about how I like to HC Dante and Vergil each have one half of the same two demon and human souls.

Lady Post-DMC3 - Musings on the aforementioned, and what I think Lady would do with her inheritance and the family home.

On the Devil Sword Dante and Dante serving as a Seal - An exploration of how Dante might be impacted by creating/absorbing the DSD, which is made of the Sparda/Force Edge + Amulet, which used to help seal the Human World from the Demon World.

Dante + Vergil and Demonic Instincts - A short bit of rambling about how/why I think their demonic instincts would be stronger than their human ones.

Fics

a chosen torture - Post DMC3 Dante is falling apart, torn between the desire to hold onto his humanity and an urge to let his inner demon run free. (Link leads to tumblr post with tags and additional details)

Ru(m)ination - Nelo Angelo ruminates on Trish, the amulet, and the chains Mundus has set on his mind. (Link leads to tumblr post with tags and additional details)

A Thick Skull - In which Vergil is female and the question of whether she remembers Nero becomes a whole lot more loaded. (Link leads to tumblr post with tags and additional details)

Replacement - In which Dante dies on a mission and Vergil is left grappling with what to do in the wake of the death of the only twin anyone liked. Inspired by this post by @/spaceacerat.

Within a Forest Dark - After defeating Mundus, Dante finds himself stuck in Hell. While looking for a way home, he finds something- or someone- unexpected, and proceeds to make several bad decisions. (A DMC1/DMC5 fusion)

Fic Ideas/Rambling

Ancient AU - two ideas for fics in which Dante and Vergil are a few centuries to millennia old, one exploring a DMC1/3 fusion, and one looking at an alternate DMC4. As of now, I do have the first chapter of the DMC1/3 fusion in my drafts...

Final Fantasy VII

Meta/Analysis

FFVII Rebirth and Gameplay at the Cost of Atmosphere - One essay of (hopefully) a few, this one focusing on a certain Nibelheim Sidequest in Chapter 12.

It's Okay to Be Selfish Sometimes: Barret and the Motivations of Avalanche in OG FFVII - A look at how the OG FFVII sends the message that sometimes it's okay to have a selfish motivation to do a selfless thing, and that that does not invalidate the goodness that your personal motivations may inspire you to do.

On Video Games and the Input of The Player / The Importance of Aerith's Disc 1 Scene in the City of the Ancients (OG FFVII) - Redacted for spoilers! But this goes into why I think the fact that you, the player, control the pace of things in video games is so impactful.

Future FFVII Rebirth Essays - A list of essays on FFVII Rebirth/Remake and how they compare to the OG, featuring some short musings on each essay

Final Fantasy X

Meta/Analysis

Yuna in FFX and The Power of Wanting to Live - Yuna's realization in the Macalania Woods gives me the chills, and I just had to gush about how important it is to me as a person.

Final Fantasy XIV

Meta

Souls and Aether: A look at Estinien’s sense of self and Nidhogg’s place within it - How Estinien was impacted by Nidhogg post-3.0/3.3.

Estinien in Endwalker and Problems with Characterization - Tl;dr I think EW Estinien is quite different than HW Estinien even though they're the same character at their cores.

Dragoon theorycraft: Haldrath (revisions in progress) - Originally posted by scrollsfromarebornrealm, I just added on some thoughts!

As Azure Fades Analysis Part 1 - Azure Dragoons: Aging and the Impact of the Eyes - A look at a new official FFXIV Sidestory where Estinien experiences the memories of Haldrath's death.

On Nophica and Halone's Comments in Myths of the Realm - Reblog of another person's post, regarding Nophica's thoughts on the Elementals and Halone's thoughts of the (misuse of) faith.

Headcanons

Ishgardian Fangs (note: this is just a fun thing to throw around, not really something I wish was/think is true 100% of the time)

Pandaemonium 9-12 Possible Story - A crack theory treated seriously, with a what-if Erichthonios sealed himself away

Fics

Umbral Winds - Estinien post Ultima Thule and the feelings that come with that.

Subservient to our hearts - Estinien Drabble Collection

An (Un)official Recounting of the Life and Deeds of Saint Shiva - Completed for the Fantastic Fauxlore mini bang, a fic looking at Shiva's life as told in official Ishgardian Accounts and the true history.

My Prog/Raiding

TOP Clear - Achieved 12/3/2023. I'm so proud of us!!! Link to a post about it which includes both my thoughts and the clear video.

DSR Clears - Achieved 4/10/2024 and again with a second group on 5/28/2024. Let's gooooo team!!!!!

M4S Clear - Achieved 8/8/2024 on Week 2! Pretty cool. Beat our P4S record of Week 4.

Other

Manufactured Divinity - A favorite concept of mine.