#THE GAMEPLAY LOOKS MOSTLY THE SAME BUT IM OKAY WITH THAT

[astrathecowboy]

OH MY GOD OH MY FUCKING HBJDVSCBIUHAUDB

[lunariamv]

its time, im in my charon era

ive made my first three rpg horror games :DDD

there's three because two of them are parodies and then there's one actual legit one

all three are in authentic charon game format: rpg maker 2000, similar art style, similar horror premise, short story

i did it for the aesthetic OKAY

⚠️ Before venturing into any of my works, please heed my disclaimer/rules;; I don't want obstructive people engaging with me or my works ⚠️

✿ warning: running these games is a gamble because rpg maker 2000 is old software that windows is trying to assassinate (i cant even run it on my computer sometimes, i have to use a virtual machine or the game editor lol) so i apologize if it doesn't work ✿

the readme has troubleshooting solutions, and easyrpg exists to combat this, but it's not perfect. for example, it changes the text a little bit, which ruins the aesthetic

if ur like me and u care about the aesthetic a lot, then use a virtual machine, otherwise if you have a laptop and not a hardcore gaming pc, the game will probably run fine.

(the one time that having low quality graphics is good xD)

windows 11 users beware, im sticking with 10-

when all else fails i have gameplays available on my youtube

🌸 HERE IS THE GAME MASTERLIST 🌸 PLAY THEM HERE

✿ warning: running these games is a gamble because rpg maker 2000 is old software that windows is trying to assassinate (i cant even run it on my computer sometimes, i have to use a virtual machine or the game editor lol) so i apologize if it doesn't work ✿

!! please care and heed my content warnings when playing these games, as they contain dark subject matter; i promise ill make less edgy stuff in the future its just rn i REALLY WANNA MAKE CHARON GAMES FOR FUN !!

the first two (Akeno Delusion and Carousel) are strictly parody games on the genre, and Doom Stones is the authentic 100% serious charon game

looking back akeno delusion sucks to me but thats cuz its my first one and i gotta start somewhere, the quality only goes up from there

eventually ill stop using rpg maker 2000 and make games with the other makers for more versatility but rn im in love with the retro aesthetic im so sorry

*my art isnt that good but im getting there ok!!

also just a heads up, im not 1 to 1 charon; the aesthetic, artstyle, and story elements are the same, but i dabble in male yanderes instead and i go different places with the story;

🌸 mostly male yans

🌸 protagonist is actually a character

🌸 story goes a little more in depth

🌸 more focus on the horror aspect than sexual

so basically im like a female charon right now heheheh

i plan to make more rpg games, but for sure i want to make at least three more games with similar story beats.

its because i want my own take on the concepts -- doom stones is my take on makoto mobius, but i also wanna make a "scavenger hunt a person's house" type game like makoto nikki and a yanderella equivalent (but the love triangle has more drama)

AND…. MIX ORE BUT YANDERE BUBBLE TEA??????? :DDDD

once im done ill move onto dsp era cuz i wanna make some actual rpgs; like with the cute assets and pixel art

🌸 please follow and support me if you like these and want me to make more; this is just a small portion in the large list of games i wanna make <3

💮 please feel free to contact me regarding game ratings if you sincerely think they're off, im a noob when it comes to posting stuff;; and im just going off code of conduct, if it has any hint of explicit content its going to be 18+, whereas implicit would be like 17+ idk

im not taking any chances lol

🌸 I'd prefer if people don't contact me about troubleshooting problems, but if they have to, carefully go through my instructions first. even then keep in mind i might not be able to help;;

💮 I'm posting these games on tumblr only because they're short. If I make longer games, I'll crosspost them to itch.io or something.

🌸 I'll also make a website in the future, but for now I'll post the games on here. Thank you for stopping by!!

[birdsareblooming]

god i wanted to be positive about sonic superstars because i am about every sonic game, especially with how still negative everything around sonic games can be. It's visually stunning and they actually tried something new with the areas instead of green hill reskins, at least mostly. but im confident i'm not choosing to be negative and picking anything to be mad about.

the game is infuriating to play. when just running through the levels as sonic it's mostly okay, but later boss fights ESPECIALLY for trip's story you have to play more than perfectly, and even if you play frame perfect the game will fuck you over via lack of planning. A blue missile just won't show up on your screen or in a way that's reachable. multiple of final boss fang's attacks are one-hit kills, which wouldn't be so bad if all of these boss fights weren't 5-10 minute long segments, where if you die at the end to some bullshit you have to go back to the very beginning. this includes Fang in golden city, where in the in-between segments things will hit you offscreen.

multiple times in the gameplay you are punished for going too fast. not stopped, punished. hit if not straight up killed. The point of the game is to build up speed, and if you do what it's designed to do in final boss fang as trip, you hit a one hit kill barrier and have to start all over.

Speaking of Trip, i hate to say it but after looking at her for very long her unmasked design is disappointing at best. She looks like a recolored modern Amy. And if that was the point like it looks like it is, it's a dumb idea. They should've focused on making her look like her own character and actually like a lizard. Other than the thing glued to her head she looks like a recolored amy you'd find on a forum in 2008 and I mean that in a poor way. She doesn't look like a lizard or even a sunglider. They gave her a hair accessory and an undercut and called it a day.

activly while playing as her i wanted the helmet back on. it's a much more fun/different design. everytime i looked down at her I just saw Amy. full stop.

don't even get me started on her dragon design. it just looks stupid. not only should they have leaned towards a more eastern oroborus dragon but god it just. looks dumb. not only that but that super transformation seems too overpowered for a character supposedly forgotten by the main cast until recently or just. some random girl.

At this time i have not reached the final boss, this is in the state trying to beat fang and once again dying to some bullshit on the first phase. Ive only ever reached phase 2 once and got hit by an intakill.

i don't care if it's "authentic"

the old games were also hard as balls for no reason. they were based on an arcade-style idea despite not designed for an arcade, where you want the character to die a bunch and go back to the beginning so they waste their quarters.

not only is this not an arcade game, but you already got my 60 dollars. The old games had many problems with how they played that I only survived via save-states.

this game consistently made me wish i pirated it. Specifically for the save state feature. with that feature I would've actually had fun. But I'm sent back to the beginning of a 10 minute long boss battle.

it's 2023, not 1991. why is your game like this. why is her design like this.

especially after following the bullshit that was the master king trial specifically. one guy on reddit sad fronteirs was easy and they decided to make all of their games need frame perfect runs to be beatable.

not only is this a disgrace to wanting games to be accessible to anyone, but holy shit I have a disability. my hypermobility makes my fingers hurt after all this. anyone with worse disabilities are fucked, and again no easy mode or save stating is offered.

i don't know if doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. but being forced to do the same thing over and over again for different results sure makes me feel insane.

if you read this thinking of buying the game and didn't have spoilers tagged. if you do. pirate the game. you'll have a much better experience than I am paying 60 dollars.

sonic superstars overall was disappointing in everything but visuals. and that's coming from someone who goes out of my way to spread positivity about sonic projects because I actively see them. I don't here.

truly the best way to describe it is disappointed.

[uglyduckling339]

KY'S LIFE IS STRANGE DOUBLE EXPOSURE NONSENSE LIVEBLOG: Chapter 1

(spoilers obvi) (these will only make sense if u watched or played the game and even then it may be shakey lmao)

tutorial

(edit lmfao i forgot to post this on wednesday, its been sitting in my drafts so thats y some of the comments sound weird)

chat i fear this was such a bad playthrough on my behalf...

LOVE LOVE LOVE max having trauma. i want to see her suffer in this game

LIS2 PHOTO !!!!

something i havent seen alot of people mention is the fact that bc they have a diff pose, it's likely that they took a bunch (or at least 2) selfies and gave one to david then kept the other. (also means rhat chloe could have a version of this pic as well !!!!)

pricefield travelling bc they couldn't js settle down </3 (somebody remind me and i'll do my pricefield analysis btw)

depending on the outfit you pick, max can have pink tips !!!! #canonpinkhair

JOURNAL .

OH MY GOD SHES WRITING TO CHLOE.

stop okay i love this new journal. the idea that post storm she got a whole new one; max dissociating after the storm (she says the days blurred n stuff), max always being "stuck in the past", chloe never looking at her the same after she learned abt joyce, so much angst oml

"she left me" oh my god

okay i need to move on from the journal lmfao

ngl i actually love amanda as a friend. she fr brought max food and noticed rhat taking pictures helps her cope best

okayyy reggie is my new fav side character. he's such a cutie pootie fr

ew it's fake rachel amber

VINH?? THE VINH??

TAKE THAT BIPHOBIC MAX "FANS"

vinh and max have chemistry better then her and Amanda i fear

LMFAOO?? WHY DOES MAX HAVE THE REPUATION OF A LOCK-PICK?? WHAT DID SHE DO BRUH💀😭

i need gwen so badly tbh. i'm like 80% sure shes not evil and she's rhe david madsen of this game

actually ykw i need ALL of yall. this whole game is full of baddies

i love the accent that safi and her mom have.

that suicide question is fucking stupid bc?? the game is about solving a murder?? who would pick the probably option thats crazy (girl who picked the probably option)

i'm ngl from this point onward i started lowkey speedrunning the game and thats when i fucked up so i'm gonna replay soon and slow tf down😭😭

LORETTA WHEN I CATCH YOU LORETTA.

LET ME GET HER. LEMME AT HER.

im gonna beat this bitches ass oh my god

GWEN NO CUM BACK- I MEAN CUM- I MEAN CU-

shit i think gwen's rhe one i need to actually like me but like😭 im so bad without rewind

i love moses but blud is yappin too much tbh

yes king i miss her too. yes king men can cry too. yes king you can grieve. now give me magic

bye why is loretta theatening max.

max is SO unbothered by that threat💀 shes like "i rewound time to save my ex-gf from being shot and the kid who shot her continued to harass me for the rest of rhe week until my professor murdered him (and kidnapped me and killed my ex gf), this is so NOT a big deal"

chat so i MAY have gotten scared after gwen and avoided beefing with lucas. another mistake to fix next gameplay ig

yay magic

i miss using L2. R1 is such a stupid ass button

okay so all in all, its so interesting to see the ending percentages. especially knowing that its mostly super fans bc of the ultimate thing.

also interesting that as of 8pm EST on opening day, 59% of players chose bae>bay. also like a overwhelming majority romanced chloe and that is SO important to note to me

i'm 100% gonna resume chapter 2 tmmr and rhen likely start a new save at some point next week to slow down and REALLY focus on the details that i missed cuz i missed hella stuff

[1800duckhotline]

what is vampire the masquerade and whats killer is dead. i assume videod games but i could be wrong... you seem to be having soo much fun im nosaayy 😁

omg hi mani im so flattered u would ask!! yeah ive been in the throes of videogames lately AHAH... oc brained but videogame about it sort of...

vampire the masquerade is actually a ttrpg originally published in the 80s i think, but it keeps getting updated so its not like. anything super old... whenever i mention "vampire the masquerade: bloodlines" im talking about the 2004 videogame created based off of the ttrpg! im biased in loving vtm and vtmb since well. it's about vampires. but i think it's an unique take on them that like makes the supernatural aspect not too boring compared to the classic supernatural vampire take. since it involves clans, a lot of vampire politics and societal aspects to it all, etc... Bloodlines itself is not a perfect game (ill avoid geeking out too much about the brief dev hell history it had) but i value it so dearly bc its so 2004 and is so gothic/alternative in its genuine influence. also the story is goofy but really good too (with um, simultaneously, the con that It Is a 2004 Game, meaning it has a lot of weird bigotries that were normalized for the time lol). Unforchy it's almost unplayable without downloading an additional patch mod that restores also a lot of cut content ^_^ but you make do... its so easy to make ocs for the game and the general ttrpg, sooo many ways you can go with your characters!! Bloodlines itself as a game is an action/adventure RPG mostly focused on combat (with stuff like stealth sessions) as well as various ways to resolve different quests. the variety of said outcomes is mostly limited by the fact the studio wasn't able to polish the game at all for release due to activision, the publisher, pushing troika games (dev team) to release the game early to compete with half life 2 at the time (yeah crazy i know). that said, the dialogues can be really charming and fun and offer a nice variety of things to do.. its not perfect but seriously is the best vampire RPG game around so far..

killer is dead is completely different (mostly because i can never focus on one thing for too long lmfao), it's an hack and slash 2014 game created by suda51 and grasshopper manufacture (same game devs behind no more heroes, lollipop chainsaw, shadows of the damned etc) and it's. an okay game. i dont even know if i can explain the story bc its like, a clusterfuck. and usually clusterfuck stories are goichi suda's specialty but this one goes over the moon (funny joke if You Know). it's a pretty mid game. I love it on one hand bc its easy to play and very stylish, tho the shaders sometimes can give you an headache. I also love the protagonist (mondo zappa) because to me thats a butch not just some guy. Unfortunately the game has the very strong cons of being too short for the kind of game it is, and also has an infamously bizarre minigame that's called "gigolo missions"... you basically go on "dates" with beauties (sexy girls basically), you give them gifts until they 'love' you and then you go have sex and they give you weapon upgrades as a result. the date though consists of you building up your "guts meter" by looking at their boobs or legs so it's like. REALLY STRANGE. CANT HASHTAG IM SORRY FEMINISM OUT OF THIS ONE I'M AFRAID.... it's so conflicting bc apparently suda didn't want to add this function but publishers forced him to. oh well. a solid 6.5/10 tbh. idk if i'd reccomend it tho maybe gameplays are better than getting it at full price imo (i got my game as a gift)

UM SO SORRY FOR GEEKING OUT...I HOPE THE EXPLANATION WAS CLEAR. My brain keeps jumping from media to media with no pause... i wanna focus on ocs again but this keeps happening hahaha

[impostorsshow]

Okay so you’re my Legend of Zelda person

How are you feeling about the Echoes of Wisdom announcement? Surprised? Excited? Eh? Did you like what you saw of the game? The art style? The Echo mechanic?

(Personally, I’m really looking forward to the game, and it’s looking like the twink will finally have to be saved this time.)

I haven't seen much of the trailer and don't know what the echo mechanic is, I only get game info through my partner that stays up until 3-4 am their time to watch the Nintendo directs and I prefer to find out about zelda games far after the community has discussed it or play it blind myself with trusty non spoiler guide site zeldadungeon.com, but I love that we're getting another game in the chibi links awakening style!! It's my favorite, and my old comfort object that I lost was an amiibo figure of links awakening link, so I really hope they make a figure of Zelda I can buy - my family pirated every amiibo for Zelda that was released up to botw and they're about the size of the first index of my thumb but having a full figure of a Zelda character would be nice again.

I am also really surprised about it, and having Zelda as a playable character is amazing again. I only know of 4 Zelda games that have had the goddess reincarnation herself be the protagonist, 3 of the games were most likely released in the OG Zelda/adventure of link titles era or around the oracle games based on the cartridge? Art I saw idk it might also be related to the PC quest games that came out around the same time which for reference is the uh. "eXCUSSEEE ME PRINCESS" one I think that's the thing it's well known for that is a whole different convo with a different blog i know nothing of the older titles except the basics. Anyway anyway I own the 4th game I know about that no one else mentions because it's technically not canon and is worse off than Hyrule warriors is but it's called cadence of Hyrule I think just search up "Crypt of the Necromancer Zelda" you'll find it and I did play through most characters campaign including Zelda's in that one, and think it's definitely worth mentioning due to how different Zeldas gameplay is to links. Uh anyway based on that game alone I have very high hopes for the gameplay of Zelda, as well as the thinks the higher ups at Nintendo said about sticking with botw/totks direction and play style.

Lastly I'll be honest with you im sleep deprived as shit cause emergency irl shit happened last night and I havent been sleeping well in general so I forgot my big thing i wanted to talk about in this segment but uh. Salvaged bits are yada yada Zelda mechanics parallels to other games more characterization more well written fanfics that aren't JUST skyward sword and botw for her etc etc based on how they handled princess peach showtimes characterization [which like. Honest to God really hard character to write in 2024 due to her roots being damsel in distress 101 and people tending to mostly correctly point at any pinky extra feminine girl and shout misogynistic] I really don't think Nintendo can fuck this up, and I am fully confident they won't fuck it up :].

ALSO CAPE CAPE ZELDA CAPE SHE HAS A CAPE ITS A CAPE ZELDAS CAPE ITS SO CUTE GOOD CHARACTER DESIGN SHE HAS A CAPE ITS SO CUTE OH MY GOD CAPE CAPE CAPE SHE HAS A CAPE

Oh yeah actually I did like the little bit of the trailer I did see that link shot her free at the last second, showing he is still in character and they didn't shoehorn in an idea to have a female protagonist like other series would do, but that every side of the triforce is equally powerful. I expect this game to be like if links awakenings dungeon puzzles were used on the overworld, and based on another Tumblr post I saw there might be some diplomatic puzzles. Or at least dual sided quest lines

Uh is there anything else I was gonna say. Oh I'm definitely going to be live posting about when I play the game since my birthday [shoutout to sans undertale] is in September so im definitely planning to ask for it or get it myself, even though I know it comes out past my birthday

[wherestarsarestillasleep]

second batch of p3p impressions, just met aigis. talk to me abt persona games

-Akihiko is so autism. “hey girl did you know the breaststroke is the most efficient swimming method due to ababaabba” “i have no interest in this information.” autism to autism confrontation

ALSO why is his social link a different arcana than his persona?? Ik in the base game he didn’t have a social link and still had an associated arcana but like, Minato also had a Magician slink and they still gave that to Junpei

also it’s funny that the stat requirement to start his slink has absolutely nothing to do with his own standards

-persona games are so fucking fun and addictive. it’s impressive they’re split into two very different kinds of gameplay and they both manage to be pretty evenly fun and engaging. im way more optimisation brained with this one than 4 and 5 and you can restore your whole partys hp and sp for a fraction of the amount of money you naturally make exploring tartarus and apparently originally if you went to the ground floor tired party members would leave but i guess not in portable so like. It’s just completely viable and optimal to do everything possible in tartarus on one ingame date only in a huge chunk so that’s what i’ve been doing. i was in there so fucking long. the dark "”hour””

-Okay so in persona 5 for the first arc, maybe also the second, you are introduced to ryuji and he fucking rocks. he’s so cool he’s set up to be a really great character i would love a lot and for the duration of kamoshidas palace he is that. also in persona 5 for most of the phantom thieves they have a cool plot focused on them for the dungeon you recruit them and then the writing has little idea what to do with those characters for the rest of the game. the result is ryuji is awesome for one maybe two dungeons and then is replaced by an imposter because his main story focus is over and the priority with his character then becomes making him fit better into the Persona Funny Pervert Bro Character trope which mostly fucking sucks and makes ryuji mostly fucking sucks

Junpei is presumably the character that started that archetype for yosuke and most-of-the-game-ryuji to follow, despite this for the first while he highlights the good parts of that archetype the funny bro who is your friend half and then it got harder and harder to continue liking him as i progressed and then the beach scene was predictably dogshit and added him to the very large pile of persona characters who i have to mentally overwrite significant things about in order to like them

When you first meet him Yukari assumes he’s hitting on you but it seems like no he was genuinely just being nice and concerned about a new transfer student and his social link continues being that he is your bro and he even offers to be your wingman for other dudes with zero jealousy and then his main story dialogue is. not that. And like. I assume he has the same july jealousy arc with the male protag because it is mostly about him generally feeling insecure and directionless but it Really Fucking Looks Worse with femc route when Junpei has more than one case of dialog about how He Should Be The Leader Cause He’s A Strong Man And You Are Girls it looks like THAT’S the main reason he’s so pissy for a while. he does earnestly apologise though. i still want to like him but i hate persona

-YUKARI though yukari is good i like yukari more and more i still haven’t seen as much of her link as some others but she’s thoughtful and outspoken. i dont have as many words to say about her but i like her a lot and that she takes initative on things and called out mitsuru and shuji directly and also apologised for it later as well. also i was very confused for a while why she couldn’t take a single hit when she had the same endurance as Minako that was because she was tired.

-Mitsuru is so cool and pretty and epic. that is all. maybe if you were a Genius she might spend time with you. Fuuka is my friend :). Akihiko is my favourite probably.

Currently Yukari is maybe the least useful party member and fell behind a bit but i like the look of her final skills in the end. Junpei for the last 2-3 boss fights has been almost exclusively rotating buffing everyone else also it is great that he can take a hit. Mitsuru is great for big damage and big heals and I like that Akihiko can passably fill any role you want him to be in at any point

It’s so cool that persona has both constant party members in your actual party members and a constantly rotating party in your personas because fusing newer higher level ones is much more likely than levelling your personas quickly enough to keep up. I made Oberon a while ago and he’s mad good, he’s still statistically up to par with higher level personas and with the skills i have on him he can take any role. in 4 and 5 i didnt pay all that much attention to exploring beyond the basic mechanics but taking deeper advantage of all the very many gameplay options they give you is really satisfying because persona games are difficult enough going out of your way to do all that leaves you well equipped without trivialising, at least this early into the game

-been trying to do all elizabeths requests but 1. i just missed exactly one on accident 2. fuck the golden shadows im not doing that ive managed to enter combat with exactly ONE hitting it from behind and then it had advantage and ran away immediately within battle?? 3. the requests where you get her an item from someone on a specific date i thought that was just the FIRST available date so i missed a lot of those... Also it sucks that enemies only drop items for her requests after you accept the request so I had to go back down floors

-odd that pharos main story link is a couple lower than sees main story link

-winning the low bar of least homophobic persona game. ik i just got past the part with the transphobic scene but i guess they removed it from either portable or femc’s route so I haven’t actually seen that

[mothuary]

Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance

Ok! so this review is for the first game that I actually started and finished in the new year. Yay! When I stumbled upon the last game I wrote a review for, I had actually been looking for this one: 

Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance was one of the first video games I’d ever touched in my life. I didn’t even learn it was a spinoff until I’d accidentally bought the mainline game two years ago and was supremely confused. Needless to say, I was really excited to see if this held up to my expectations. Now, this game is part of a kind of set of very similar games that were released by snowblind studios all around the same time, so BG:DA2, as well as the two similar games that take place in the Everquest universe, the first and second Champions of Norrath games. But this one is all D&D 3e babyyyy. Now Im not going to spend this review sucking up to WotC obviously, but it is very charming to re-play a game and see all the references I had been missing as a kid. I thought beholders were as well-known as dragons, lol. 

Now I know that the game has been, in recent years, re-released, so lets talk about what I like about it and see if it’s a worthy way to go on a little early 2000s fantasy nostalgia trip. 

First lets talk about your characters. You get a quite limited selection of three characters with pre-selected names and classes. You can also unlock Drizzt Do’Urden in the character select screen but i didnt know so I played as the elf Adrianna, and my 2P played as... human archer. whose name I forget. each of them has the stats and abilities you would expect, ie. the sorcerer starts with high int and low str, and can cast magic missile. Part of the great fun of the game is finding new weapons and armor to upgrade your character with, but seeing as the game is locked to the basic loot tables in D&D 3e, the loot is a lot more boring than I remembered. You’ll mostly get a couple of weapons worth clinging to over the course of the game, and sell everything else. But hey! at least the woman armor looks respectable. (image source cause its from someones letsplay but mega spoilers in there!)

Before I get started rambling about the gameplay, you might be interested to know that the music is done by the infamous jeremy soule so if you want some very morrowind-esque vibes, you can always give it a listen: ( x | x | x )

Okay so gameplay stuff. The game is set up in a bunch of dungeons where you look down from above and you go from “room” to “room” (they arent all literal rooms) and you clear out all of the enemies. Its quite cute, it does remind me of a miniature in a model set. Enemies dont respawn, so there IS a limited quantity of experience in the game. You can load characters from past playthroughs if you want to start out beefier, and this is recommended if you want to play the harder difficulties. Its also important to keep that in mind when youre playing with more than one person, because if youre always getting the kills, your player 2 will fall behind quickly. 

The game has some kind of clunky controls, I really hate how difficult it is to switch spells (you have to use the D-Pad and they give you like forty empty spell slots lol). This issue is especially bad compared to the way that champions of norrath handles it (basically offers you hotkeys, its way better). We also found that the archery was a lot less.... fun than just melee bonking bc there are really limited projectiles. by which I mean its just arrows. plain ol arrows. Also there arent any rings around the feet of your character to help differentiate P1 from P2 so i kept walking into walls. Its not helped by the fact that the gameplay is v simplistic hack n slashy so your eyes kind of glaze over sometimes. 

Another thing of note, which I never really noticed as a kid, is how front-loaded the game is. In the beginning of the game, youre completing a questline attached to the Elfsong tavern, and every once in a while, when you stop at the tavern to buy new weapons, someone will show up to give you a new quest. The quests were always part of the linear plot, so they didnt change the shape of the game at all, but they made the world feel more interesting. By the time you step into the second chapter of the game, the world begins to feel more flat and less and less named npcs pop up to chat with you. It ends up making the game feel really lonely. The NPCs that DO exist are animated quite well for a 2001 game, though, and I was really struck by their individually moving fingers which really helped them feel very emotive, which was underlined by the way that NPCs take up the whole screen when you talk with them. 

having a sexy bartender in the first five minutes of your game helps keep the audience engaged. 

Its a quite short adventure, it took my partner and I about a week to play all the way through and honestly? By the end I was mostly just kind of excited that I can move on to the second game now and see how much better it is. I think that the game is OK, but should you pay $30 new for it? NO. you can get ps2 copies used for $10. and if youre interested in playing BOTH of the games (and/or the champions games as well) i’d just.... buy a ps2. This game is very imperfect and leaves a lot to be desired. I would not recommend it to everyone, but I would recommend it to anyone craving a classic campaign but doesnt have a party. It does scratch the D&D itch but its not the best of it’s kind. That being said, if your time is limited, I’d say that most people would prefer the Champion’s games to this one. 

[astrxealis]

Apollo hi hello, I hope you’re doing well <3

I keep seeing your hades II rbs on dash and I am looking 👀 (I love seeing them sm) I remember wanting to get into hades a while ago but I never got the time <//3

So I was wondering what you like about it the most?? I’m considering buying the first game since there’s a discount going on but I was just curious about how the game is and all that, like your general thoughts on it. Sorry if this is random and coming out of no where :’)) feel feee to ignore this if I’m bothering you in any way

Anyways, remember to take care of yourself. Drink lots of water and eat your meals 🫶🫶 remember to take breaks and try not to overwork !!

- tired

TIRED HELLO HI i am doing WELL RN !! but also not because there's so much reqs bcs final week before break but also i am doing mostly good <3 I HOPE YOU'RE DOING WELL AS WELL !!!!! <33

okay omg YEAH i am currently super obsessed my brain is so -@;!()!-?-&!;/!@,' (sobbing) but TYSM FR WAH ..... >___< and honestly i really do rec hades it's so good (I GET YOU BTW i haven't actually. like got incredibly far in the game but i do have a fair amount of time in it + the only reason why i have it tbh is bcs of a family member <//3)

(OKAY I PUT THIS UNDER A READ MORE IF THAT'S FINE I'M SORRY IF THIS GOT LONG i was just replying normally and didn't realize i said so much oh my god)

OKAY SO. okay. tbh i'm not completely sure what i like the most but it's probably a combo of the art design/style + gameplay + characters. the art i'd say is incredibly beautiful and unique !!! the designs are really lovely and all (esp as someone who is a big fan of greek mythology which is one factor as to why i love the game so much!) <3 the gameplay is REALLY fun. and good. it's a roguelike game and it actually ties to the game's concept of death and resurrection ?? (underworld stuff. zag is literally the god of rebirth) and it's REALLY good at what it does. very addicting. no run is exactly the same and i personally didn't think i'd be fond of roguelike games but hades just really hits with it !! (a lot of people who don't like roguelike games seem to think this way too). tbh if hades is your kinda game then it genuinely is. sort of. really a Perfect Game ?? story + gameplay + visuals are like the three pillars of it and as far as i personally know all of that is just incredibly good. the protag is likeable, the other characters are likeable, i don't know some of the most important story bits yet but so far it truly is very interesting, each run is connected to the last (such that if you get a different boss, zag actually says smth abt that! it is a very fluid game. if that's properly describing it). LOWKEY EVERYONE IN THE GAME IS HOT. most likely bcs of the artstyle which is really just so nice <3 BUT YEAH i don't really like roguelikes bcs you kinda restart progress right? but hades really feels productive with each run (i even look forward to dying in game!!!!!) and there's so much failure but i don't really feel frustrated. it's a really rewarding game imo and no wonder a lot of people considered it to be their goty of 2020 (and it won a few awards for that too i think) <33 SORRY FOR RAMBLING SO MUCH BUT YEAH .... the game genuinely is just so good. also the voice acting is actually great. ALSO the romance options are super cool (AND POLY IS ACTUALLY POSSIBLE I THINK. INCREDIBLY COOL) and yeah the devs are worth supporting from what i know and are very inclusive it seems. might be wrong tho FKHSKDNSJ (EDIT: I FORGOT TO MENTION THERE IS AN AROMANTIC CHARACTER IN HADES AS WELL. SUPER COOL. actually im not too sure but yeah)

DW THIS IS VERY WELCOME AND I WAS GLAD TO RECEIVE THIS FR !!!!! not a bother at all >;)) lowkey should put this writing for my school work SOBBING BUT NW LOL IT'S JUST A BIT FUNNY TO ME

so yeah SORRY IF THIS IS WAY TOO LONG and TYSM AGAIN !! and for the very much needed reminder gah i should drink water fr >___< <33

[warriorofthesky]

tbh my main fear rn is not destiny dying (i think its too big of an IP to just... die like that), it's destiny becoming not-for-me

i feel like i played myself even getting invested in this game now lol i play mostly for the story (i enjoy the gameplay a lot, but i'm never grinding for anything, be it titles, weapons, armor, etc) and it SEEMED to me, as someone who got into the game in march 2023, that the story was getting MORE focus. comparing shadowkeep to the final shape or even lightfall feels unfair from a story & mission design perspective bc shadowkeep sucks ass at both (despite having a very good beginning and ending, most of the campaign is just not it imo). so to me it felt very "wow they sure got a lot better at doing campaigns, that's so cool, im excited for whats next" and whats next at the time was the final shape. which i loved. so onward and upward, etc.

except we apparently aren't getting more expansions. which, okay, doesnt necessarily mean things will get worse storywise. i usually do not care for the extra stuff they drop with expansions (i would have loved the final shape just the same if they hadnt released the dread, prismatic, the new strike or whatever the new pathfinder system is, for example) so as long as they give me a cool story with cool missions i'm good. it doesn't even need to be in a new destination.

but. i mean, everything else we are hearing about the story content sounds bad to me. i was already a bit wary of episodes bc they were sold to us as self contained but the idea that content packs, whatever they are, will be smaller in scope and less related to each other turns me off BADLY. i dont like the villain of the week style of storytelling, which is what episodes look like to me (so far). if content packs are just episodes in new destinations, im not sure i will stay interested in the story at all. and that just sucks lol

like i know people loved into the light but i didnt care for it. i didnt hate it either, it was fine. but if thats the level of story we can expect from the non-content pack stuff... well. i might as well just watch the banter (and cutscenes? if there are any?) on youtube. its not worth it for me in the end.

was this game just never for me and now its more obvious? idk. i loved the story and the characters to bits. i love the lore. i always thought the seasonal storytelling was flawed bc it got better when played/watched at once instead of drip-fed, but i was okay with how things were in the year of lightfall. i liked, even loved, most of it. and now it feels like they are just going to cut every single corner possible when it comes to storytelling.

thats how it FEELS, not what it will be, i know. i will probably stick around to check whatever frontiers is. but im not hopeful at all and that sucks bc while ppl were losing their minds over lightfall i was very happy and excited for the future. rip

[rpfisfine]

For the gaming asks: 11, 24, 30!

HEYYYYYYYYYYYY win thank you so much and sorry for being so late smiles in a regretful and apologetic style

11. favorite game genre

answered!!

24. if you could live in one of the games you’ve played, which one would it be?

thats such a beautiful quastion i honestly remember having wanted to live in pretty much every single game ive ever played no matter the genre but probably subnautica..i literally don't care that i would be stranded on an alien virus infected planet completely alone with nothing but sea creatures ranging from adorable to mindbendingly horrifying to keep me company and no hope of a rescue i would literally be thriving i think...... i was born to live the faceless subnautica man lifestyle

30. favorite aspect of a game (e.g. exploration, combat, fashion/customization, environments, graphics, bosses, roleplaying, etc.)

(is it gonna be really really genuinely annoying and horrible if i say gambling......i know its not an actual aspect at all but i mean this completely genuinely whenever a game has a gambling mechanic or even just some kind of undercover mission where you need to win at poker or sth it immediately becomes a hundred times better in my eyes like there are only a few game worlds within which gambling wouldn't make sense otherwise you can only benefit from adding in like a weird guy who sits in the corner of a pub who allows you to gamble. you have nothing to lose)

but okay im gonna answer in a less lame fashion and go one by one in like a process of elimination so exploration = good but also becomes a stressful and tedious process when a world is annoyingly big bc you're always Missing something and at some point it always turns into only caring abt unchecking boxes and crossing locations off a list than genuinely caring abt what they have to offer. combat & bosses = depends on how finely tuned the combat mechanics are in the game obvs if they're horrible or have aged rly badly then i only thoroughly enjoy it like 50 hours into the game once i have bent the gameplay to my will but if it's good (like in current cyberpunk 2077 for example) then im literally attacking everything that moves bc its fun and awesome and im good at it. environments = sometimes face the same problem as the exploration aspect but when they are truly truly unique and distinct and feel completely different from each other i rly love just going around and soaking up the atmosphere of different locations. graphics = not that important to me i think liking a game purely because of its graphics is one of the shallowest things the human psyche is capable of obvs it sucks when a game is borderline unplayable bc its appearance makes you want to vomit (like this game called black and white does anyone remember black and white.....) but there are sooooooooo many gems that also happen to look like garbage but that shouldnt make you want to not play them... give old bad looking games a chance....... for me

and i think through the process of elimination i have arrived at the conclusion that my fav aspect is fashion / customization & roleplaying all at once i LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE roleplaying not even for like major game defining decision stuff but mostly when it allows you to do the most mundane things like having tea in the morning and making your bed and doing chores and petting dogs and picking up your hat when it gets knocked off and fashion & customization kind of ties into that as well im always like well michael gta wouldn't wear these sunglasses because he hates them (source: my mind)..... arthur would never wear this fancy dress shirt and top hat bc he doesn't bathe enough etc. like my preferences for what i would actually like to see a character wear come AFTER what i think the character itself would want to wear. but yeah to put this whole insanely long thing very briefly roleplaying is my favorite aspect

gaming asks

[desudog-gone]

just dumping this here bc i wanna put it out there

my hc for body type nad changes through awakening of chrom + robin (necessary reminder that my robin is not a human, and is a sort of artificially created shapeshifter who was raised around humans. his body size changes depending on his diet because what he eats stays in him when his shape changes. (his mass cannot change- he can seperate into groupings of smaller objects but cannot be larger than what exists of him.) and the amount of abstract mass (just a pitch dark color slimelike base form) depends on his diet. so the more he eats would displace inner mass, making him appear perhaps taller if he decided to use the extra displaced amount for that. further, food that doesnt give him energy is just converted to physical mass. so more food = bigger in any regard, less food = smaller in any regard. so this is something that fluxuates often- but like a snake, he doesnt need to eat much because he doesnt digest fast enough to do so. so hes less impacted by food scarcity) (can you tell i like writing fictional/monster biology lol) think of robin like hes made of wax, which can be poured into different molds. a lot of wax could fill just 1 large shape, or multiple smaller ones, but if theres not enough, it wont fill it entirely. (a man sized robin couldnt turn into a horse- they dont share the same amount of body.) however, adding something to displace wax to fill up the mold further could, like adding a rock into it, the level would rise. so when he's eaten something, its similar, theres a static non-body displacement inside him, which could be small like an apple, or larger like a few days of dinner.

-----

pt 1.

chrom older teen chrom is basically as lean as he is in canon at this point. despite being royalty, hes roaming about with the other shepards rn, and because they hunt for their food, its not a very secure source and probably mostly lean meat like rabbits, and probably happily gives portions of his meal to his little sister if it wasnt that good of a night for hunting. hes also basically constantly moving and burning energy, he has the metabolism of a 17 year old so all in all hes pretty lightweight. his sword skill is -okay- (hence why future-past lucina matches him in strength and skill, plus canonically he does get better as he levels up, gameplay wise.) he doesnt need to shave often and his body hair isnt coming in too thick yet. generally hes kinda scrappy looking and probably pushes himself a little too far and spreads himself too thin.

robin i hc robin as about just 1 1/2 years or so older than chrom. he's short and thin (not in a healthy way) because his species size is dependent on diet frequency, he avoids eating often too after joining up with the shepards because hes self conscious and wary about breaking his human disguise while hes still trying to hide it here. hes shorter than chrom and has a somewhat inconsistent facial look because he hasnt really learned to return to the exact same form every time*. can eat human foods but sneaks out to eat bodies after perticularly draining battles, as human foods are not as physically or magically energy producing due to his nature as an artificial creature of dark magic. *this inconsistency is also generally true to his body hair, although its hard to notice anyways because he has light skin and light hair. however, he never has facial hair.

---- pt 2; ~5 year timeskip

chrom at first, chrom gains weight and a scruffier look as a result of a settling depression as he mourns his elder sister and grapples with a title he's anxious about receiving. eventually he starts getting back into the swing of taking better care of himself and being more confident in his abilities as a leader, using his sisters death to strengthen his resolve and his closeness to the ever supportive robin to fill in the rough patches. as he gets active he doesnt lose much weight (which i want to note- im describing neutrally. his weight gain isnt morally connected to anything, just like in real life. it just happens) as hes older now, and his metabolism is evening out, and now that hes at home much more, his meals are more stable and with more rounded nutrition and variety. his body hair is thicker and has to be more regularly maintained and by now hes just back to shaving his face regularly (to robins protest, who likes a stubbly face). as lucina is born(formed?) chrom decides he will do what he can to not lose his heart and stability again. during valm, he builds back up a lot of the muscle he hadnt been pushing while he was busy settling into his new position and family. chrom is more easily stressed this time around and isnt so ignorant as he was before and takes the war more seriously after having faced personal loss. the exercise has settled him into the dadbod hes earned.

robin robin has learned much better how to return to the same form each time he leaves it, but doesnt worry as much anymore as chrom is aware of his inhumanity, but still tries to keep it under wraps for the publics sake, considering theyre still uncertain about him as a plegian at all. he's settled on a more mature face than before and often looks just as tired and worn as he actually is, spending many days and nights handling legal matters for his fiance, and then being hard at work with lucina, who is artifically created the same way robin is. due to a consistent diet and lack of losing pieces of himself in battle, robin is now just as tall as chrom, sometimes a bit taller, and has a little bit of a "i work at a table for most of my time" tummy and posture. not much of him changes physically during valm, although hes often seen looking less preened and a smidge more frazzled- but work at home has just been replaced with tactical work, so his already dark eyebags and clenched jaw doesnt really intensify that much worse. battling with his growing migraines while grima attempts to contact him more and more, he relies on chrom to help him find peace and footing, who is more than happy to be his husbands rock. he bites his nails about lucina back home and the war at his feet often. after the reveal of the future past lucina, his stress continues to worsen as his daughter is now also on the battlefield, but he works harder to look more presentable, doing what he can to help be a good role model to lucina as well as work oh her distrsut to him, which as this point is mostly puzzling. robin also falls back to being shorter (although not as short as before) than chrom, although this fluctuates.

--- pt 3 / grima

chrom chrom hasnt changed much from before, not given much time to settle, hes thrown right back into the frying pan with the return ot plegia as a threat. he works hard despite having unrecovered wounds at this point. generally, this chapter is very much revolved around robin. after the weaker fake out bolt, chrom still suffers a circular burn on his torso which eventually scars over.

robin the relentless now battering of grima in his skull takes a toll on robin, whos mental health effects physical health as he distrusts himself after being possessed. unable to bring himself to eat human remains as he needs to for its magic properties in the context of his species due to it reminding him of his closeness to grima, he faces physical weakness and a growing urge to hunt, which only makes him further parinoid about his fell blood. espessially frazzled, robin spends almost all his time either planning for the next meeting with the enemy or allies, or out on a walk to "clear his mind", which is moreso because hes afraid of lashing out at others.

--- postgame

chrom after robins sacrifice, he searches without end for him, hanging onto nagas words that he can come back. he neglects returning home and to the throne to do so, and fails to take care of himself worst of all, often going hungry, pushing himself physically, and getting frustrated with others and himself. lucina eventually shakes it back into him that he must carry on for everyone no matter what and he reluctantly spends less time searching, and more on himself and others, but still feels lost and incomplete. finally being able to start his duties as exalt for good once he finds him, chrom settles into a less active life, serving as the public face for his kingdoms new era while robin works out the paperwork side of things. he shaves inconsistently, essentally leaving his beard growing out only for however long robin can convince him. (robin says its a mature and kingly look, but chrom thinks its scratchy and strange to see in the mirror.)

robin im retconning the mark of grima disappearing because i think they look cool. robin returns to his desk work posture and living in a castle closeness to food, but struggles with his creature of darkness hunger. his nature returns to being level headed and intuitive, able to find peace and stability after returning to the world of the living, eventually leading to the creation of the twin morgans. he enjoys the imports from his home country now that theyre no longer waring and are now working on repairing the bond between each country. although he has clothes from the castle tailors, he prefers to wear plegian clothing, seeing himself as the most important ambassador to the country of his birth while the distrust between each country repairs. although it changes often, he averages out as about the same height as chrom.

------ other notes:

im a "each eye has a brand" lucina chrobin truther. so theres that. Lucinas hair lightens slightly over time, when he would eventually be in her late 30s to early 40s, it would reach an only slightly blue sort of silver color, where it would stop changing. it changes as it grows, so in her 20s, she has a sort of ombre going on.

the morgans have mirrors of eachothers brand mark, with the brand of the exalt on morganf's left hand, and morganm's right, with the brand of the exalt on the opposite for each. (who each have chrobs blue hair.) the morgans are entirely identical physically, only robin and henry can tell them apart, as robin can naturally see their magically aura, and henry navigates via using a sort of magical sonar, and can hear them as separate noises their souls make, and plays stupid about how others get confused. robin enjoys using the twins to troll others, which is why he dresses them the same and cuts them the same haircut. chrom doesnt really think its funny but the kids enjoy it too so he doesnt care.

owain is trans in my hcs, and isnt out to anyone except robin, who asked because plegian culture percieves gender differently than ylissians do, so the both of them act confused on why lissa's baby is a girl. despite this, owain spends lots of quality time with his family, after witnessing his parents die in his timeline, he wont let the discomfort of hearing his deadname deter him from spending time with them, and enjoys playing with his "little sister" who can sometimes be a bit too rough and tumble for the other kids because of her claws. (lissa is a human, but ricken is nonhuman, sort of like a sphinx thing, which owain is in turn. although both of them usually just use a human form because thats the norm)

[gallusgalluss]

finished inscryption 

[20cm]

check-in tag :] tagged by @bwaldorf tysm ramasha!! 💓💓 time to talk abt my blog for a bit

why did you choose your url?

i just really love follow: find you<3 one of the most mx albums of all time 💕🥳

any side blogs? if you have them: name them and why you have them

i mostly have inactive ones!! (old fandoms) but i can name some current sideblogs i use

untagged general references @hanamizake

photoshop resources @200410

langblr references @zhiluanpo

how long you’ve been on tumblr?

unfortunately a long time <3 since 2012 (tho this blogs from nov. 2020)

do you have a queue tag?

nope!! my queue is untagged both because its easier and because im indecisive with tags

why did you start your blog in the first place?

i remade back in october/november because i wanted a fresh start <3

why did you choose your icon?

i made it because blue hour era yeonjun took over my brain for a bit (he's still there)!!

why did you choose your header?

same as last 😭😭 i made it because i just Loved tht era + the pink mullet + goth cowboy look was so .... like . exactly my niche

what’s your post with the most notes?

had to break out the notes counter site across my 4 blogs ive had (old main + two old sideblogs)

this blog: this painting of oranges w/ a short poem i wrote! (2.7k)

old main: hate to admit its an old gameplay video bc i used to be an overwatch blog but it has 2.2k notes

sideblog 1: old fanmade mv 4.7k notes but i dont like to count it so we'll go with old fanart from jan 2020 w/ 1.7k notes!

sideblog 2: fanart w/ 960 notes:)

so like. technically that one video but ill count my oranges instead <3

how many mutuals do you have?

128!! most of my followers are muts 💓💓💓

how many followers do you have?

174 :] and im SO happy about it i hate having a large following im not joking 😭😭 once it gets above 1k its hell

how many people do you follow?

308 <3 i like to keep the number below 300 usually but whatever<3

have you ever made a shitpost?

that term literally means nothing anymore but like yeah probably <3 i like to make jokes ^_^

how often do you use tumblr each day?

like i dont actively use it every day but i sort of alternate between checking it occasionally and death scrolling... i usually have it open passively in a browser tab even if im doing other stuff

did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? who won?

fight? in public? with another BLOG? who WON??? babygirl im not that messy

how do you feel about “you need to reblog this” posts?

if theyre important informational posts i try to!! uhm. if its anything else tho where its just like.. guilt tripping over stupid shit i literally do not care babe ill block the post

do you like tag games?

YES i adore them its so so fun <3 i love getting tagged even if im nervous about tagging muts 💕🥰

do you like ask games?

yes yes yes <3 i dont do them often bc im either not online at the right time or i dont have the energy but i like sending them in to others when i see them :)

which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

god i dont know like what does that even mean anymore... i def have 2 muts who i REMEMBER vividly seeing them and their posts around a lot over the years and w/e so like.. maybe 2 of them <3 but i wont name names tht feels weird

do i have a crush on a mutual?

no but i DID originally meet and become online friends w/ my boyfriend because of tumblr + being mutuals years ago :)

tagging: @porthavens ; @sodrippy ; @gaemin ; @kihyunsgf & @transyebaiyi bc i know yall are okay with/like being tagged 💕🌸

[wings-of-angels]

im telling my friends how much i love them today so hello!!!!!

MAXXXX!!! you are the most chaotic person i know i think which is saying something. we don’t talk that much but i see you on my dash all the time and we’re not really in the same fandoms so i usually don’t understand what’s going on but it LOOKS funny so i laugh anyway. you’re my cool and sexy friend who has a slight obsession with tea and i love you sm for it!!!! make sure to drink water and eat something if you haven’t lately 💞💞💞 ilysm!!!!!! 💕💕💕💕💖💖💖💖

OMG ALLYSTER :DDDD HIYA!!!!!

Thank you honestly 🥺💖🥺💞🥺💖 I see you on my dash talking about ur fandoms all the time asw (pretty sure its mostly dream smp stuff bzjzjs) and i never know whats going on but each time i see it, it makes me want to watch the yt series/gameplay so badly 😩🤚

And 🥺💖💞🥺💞🥺🥺 thats one of the coolest ways anyone has ever described me before djsjsjsj thank you!!! I can die happy knowing I am that one chaotic friend with a slightly odd obsession with tea 😌💞🤚 thats honestly all i want in life.

And dw, i just had some pasta and tea so im all good on having drunk/eaten water and food 😌🤚🥺

Ily sm Allyster!!!! 🥺💞💖💞 I hope youre doing okay and you better be taking care of urself 😤😤😤💖🤚 ily!!!!!!!!! :D

[nbapprentice]

You said a while back that while Supergiant games (Bastion, Transistor, Hades) was mostly okay, you had some words about them. I was curious as to what those words were, since Hades' full release is soon.

okay. alright. ive been playing hades lately so i definitely want to give my two cents (or dollars by the size this is gonna get). but let’s go Step by Step

the good: i want to throw a whole Endorsement over supergiant games with the art direction and its characters, which is what keeps me coming back again and again, and what i can assume is that most people are attracted to. 

gameplaywise, they have a Format they stick to which has become their staple, not to their detriment but to their advantage, like... gameplay tropes, so to speak, that they stick to (such as the addition of special conditions that give a disadvantage in exchange for more long-term rewards)

i fucking adore that they take one concept per game, go for it, and when they’re done they are Done; they don’t bother with sequels, they don’t want to run things to the ground and i fucking respect that. They have their themes, and they stick to them (to various degrees of success).

that said, like every piece of media, they are not perfect and this has to be analysed and spoken about

CONTENT WARNINGS: genocide and ethnic cleansing, antisemitism, misogyny, homophobia, suicide, and mentions of incest, and a general Spoilers warning

bastion: touches on ethnic cleansing, and not in a way i’d say is satisfactory. our narrator and one of our Sympathetic characters is one of the men who worked on a world-ending weapon meant to use against the Ura (a group of people coded as East Asian) which after a bit of googling is literally called “the final solution” if there was ever a war between the Ura and the Cael (who feel like rly tan white people to me). jesus fucking CHRIST.

we also meet more Ura other than our two named characters and we have to kill most of them. so that fucking blows.

the game tries for “being a genocidal monster will get you fucked up and blown up” which duh, but i feel we shouldn’t have had a person responsible for war crimes be one of our friends no matter how bad he feels about the whole thing, or the people victim of war crimes become villains in the latter half of the game. zia’s father could’ve taken ruck’s role ez pz.

transistor: the weakest of their games, imo; the lore and writing are fairly flimsy and i did not come out feeling Satisfied, especially because it had this rly good build-up that did not pay off. not to mention... their villains? 3/4 were gay people. lol. two married guys (not even explicit, you only realize by their shared last names) and the ps*cho lesbian trope (iirc she wanted to kill the protagonist’s lover or something). the female protagonist also ends up killing herself to live forever in a digital paradise with her dead lover. it’s. god. 

very Aesthetic, GORGEOUS music, interesting gameplay; had potential, i do not feel like it lived up to it at least as far as the story goes.

pyre: now this one. this one’s BEEFY. where transistor felt flimsy, pyre is rich; lots to sink your teeth into, rich in lore and loveable characters, again w the beautiful music, themes of cooperation and togetherness. my favorite of the cast is volfred sandalwood, the only Black (or, well, Black-coded) revolutionary i’ve ever seen portrayed with this amount of sympathy.

onto the bad: they literally have a Class of character named “Savage”; there’s the “mystical mentally ill person” trope; there is an overwhelming amount of explicit m/f pairs (one of them being. a romance that formed in a single day and then both of the characters were somehow willing to risk it all for each other? PLEASE) while the only hints of gayness are... hints. especially when Jodariel (another of my favs) is teased to have feelings for the player regardless of gender then only gets an ending with a male character with whom she has nothing in common 🙃

hades: and now. this one. music: gorgeous. character designs: spectacular (aphrodite is straight up naked but it’s so... natural and casual, it doesn’t feel sexualized at all). voice acting amazing. character interactions charming and endearing. as a greek mythology nerd, it was nice to see them go for the obscure shit like Zagreus at all, NOT portray Persephone and Hades as a loving couple, AND portrayed the gods as the bunch of petty assholes (some more benevolent than others) that they are. imo they’re too generous with their portrayal of achilles but i’ll allow it.

and finally... it seems all those criticisms about having all the gay characters hidden in the shadows paid off, cuz we got (aside of patroclus and achilles) a bisexual polyamorous protag. Holy Shit! and it’s not even playersexual, romance whomever you want shit without the routes recognizing each other: he explicitly talks about how he’s thinking abt them both (though it’s like “yeah usually mortals take one lover but gods love many huh” polyamory is a human thing too bro!!!!!)

and this is where it all goes, well, at least vaguely downhill lol. ok so the incest warning i gave up there? well. it’s not... outright incestuous. but it has some ugly implications. i want to emphasize: the characters never refer to each other as siblings, nor do they treat each other as such (thanatos, in fact, only recognizes hypnos as his brother, and megaera only sees the other furies as her sisters), but they were all raised by the same woman, Nyx... zagreus and thanatos even grew up together (im assuming megaera didnt meet zagreus until he was fully grown).

this is complicated even worse by the fact that they tried to trick zagreus into believing Nyx was his mother. he realized pretty early on this was not true but like... adoptive mothers, anyone? granted i can believe that bc of the attempt at deception that probably ruptured any attempt at actual familial closeness, and it’s not like hypnos and thanatos saw zagreus as their brother at any point, so they were p much aware of the truth too. with the fact that thanatos even looks like goth miles edgeworth (im not kidding you can google him up right now its literally edgeworth in a cowl) i rly feel they were aiming for Childhood Friend Anime Rival Man than the “surprise kiss bc ur not actually related <3″ shit. zagreus never once refers to nyx as his mother in-game, and also refers to thanatos and hypnos as her sons, never his brothers.

so yeah, like. if one’s feeling generous, zagreus and thanatos are more of a “my father is emotionally closed off and neglects me so my best friend’s mother basically raised me” kind of situation... just pulled off in, perhaps, the worst way possible (why didnt they just say Zagreus was told Hekate was his mom, that’s such an easy fix? or that he was born of nobody other than Hades??? [gestures at athena])

but then, the gods. aaaaaaaahhhhahahahh the gods. demeter shows up! and she calls zeus, hades and poseidon... her foster-brothers. which somehow would make the persephone thing less fucking awful, apparently. they really. really really did not need to do that. she could’ve just said “my fellow gods” or whatever. or my “god-brothers” or something, to pretend it was just a weird god alliance thing??? i dont know but implying that foster family isn’t family is just... bro, the dynamics still exist.

Don’t Like That.

i even contacted supergiant games over this. they reassured me they were even trying to avoid the incest of the original myths bc they didn’t want to mess with such a heavy theme. i believe them... but i really think they didn’t think this through. compared to something like fire emblem fates this is nearly benign, but the implications don’t look good :/

tl;dr of the tl;drs: i admire their artistic philosophy and the heavy emphasis on fresh gameplay, characters and their relationships; i appreciate that it seems that they listen to criticism?; i don’t appreciate that they didn’t think to at LEAST talk to adoptees when making a game about family.