#The revive/next run mechanic is just Game Lore

[mayashesfly]

Document: The Traitor

(Or my personal take on the player in Pressure's Game Lore)

M-██████ - Codename: The Traitor, is a specifically made variant of M-████ made by Mr.█████ for the Blacksite Mission. (See document █████████ for more information)

Infected individuals by this variant are called Sleepers.

It has been modified to only find suitable Sleepers signed under the EXR-P unit. In the case of its current Sleeper dying, it will infect another EXR-P.

It is oblivious to its change of Sleepers, viewing its next run with its new Sleeper as another life. Though it does not grasp the concept that death is permanent and not reversible, viewing its next life as a normal phenomenon.

Due to its natural inclination to seek knowledge and take everything it can, it tends to gather all loose assets and all valuable equipment it can carry.

It excretes a colorless and odorless gas that Sleepers exhale, attracting Z-V06 when concentrated in an enclosed area, like lockers.

However, Sleepers inhaling this gas for too long in an enclosed area showcases symptoms of cleithrophobia and causes the Sleeper to leave the enclosed area immediately.

The smoke Z-283-Chainsmoker emits exacerbates this symptom.

As motivation for it to kill its current Sleeper before it can reach the Crystal, Mr.█████ has made a way to give it more information about the facility and its hazards when it changes Sleepers through the usage of the Saboteur's abilities.

It's shown to be effective during the early stages. Though currently, an unfortunate side effect of this action is that it now seeks out to survive until at least room 50 in order to meet the Saboteur.

[In the case that it reaches the Crystal, it will naturally make its current Sleeper fall down to their death before they can take the Crystal.

However, in its perspective, it believes that it actually took the Crystal and had to survive more rooms before it could 'win' thanks to Mr.█████'s abilities.

Depending on how it performs in this illusion, it will either meet the Saboteur as always when it 'dies' or transfer directly to another EXR-P unit thinking that it 'won'.]

Document: █████████

M-████ - Codename: █████████, are entities found in the █████████████ capable of entering the minds of people, taking root in the victim's brain to control their entire nervous system.

However, it is incapable of feeling the pain its infected individual experiences, leading their victim to be more susceptible to injury without being able properly treating it since it lacks proper self-preservation instincts.

Infected individuals lose autonomy on their own body, making them incapable of moving or talking. They remain conscious and self-aware even if infected severely, only retaining their capability to have their own thoughts and mind.

Dissections of the infected individuals showcases signs of brain damage left behind from a bright metallic-like substance, almost akin to mercury. Though most individuals have survived and recovered after being infected and released.

Transmission of unmodified M-████ is unpredictable as it is not traceable through any physical means. Though observations from known infected subjects showcase that key individuals in an infected subject's life can be more susceptible to being infected by M-████ as well.

One thing that is known about M-████ is that it has a natural inclination for seeking knowledge and taking everything it can, sometimes to the expense of the individual it has infected.

If someone you know suddenly developed an interest in exploration and/or asking invasive questions regardless of your closeness with the individual, contact ███████████████ immediately.

(Note: These documents are not affiliated with nor created by Urbanshade)

[thescrapbookingscientist]

Biweekly Media Roundup

- Trigun (Anime) - The current trend in the fandom is to draw Knives as a McDonalds worker to “Make his desire to kill all of humanity reasonable as a customer service employee” which. Hilarious, I love people.

- Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Video Game) - Obviously I’ve been having a blast with this, I love exploring the sky islands and caves, the Zonai and new monster designs are awesome, and the memes of messing with the Koroks and creating batshit machines have been wonderful. My main complaint so far is how they handle the NPCs memory of Link, I’d be fine with the main ones remembering him and the rest having a Tony Hawk-esque knowledge of Link without realizing he was in front of them, but it’s kind of sad to run into NPCs that Link definitely helped in the first game only to have them forget him - Like the people of Tarry Town and Hateno village. Ganon’s design is incredible though, amazing job there.

- Monster High (Cartoon) - Finished up the Monster High TV series and while it’s definitely aimed at a pretty young age group, I thought it was cute enough. I like a lot of the new designs with their differing heights and body types, I like how the characters hang out with multiple friend groups and seem to generally get a along with the whole class, and I like the LGBTQA+ and Autism representation being handled well in a show aimed towards children. 

- SSS Class Revival Hunter (Webcomic) - I was really craving more S-Class adjacent content and was led to pick up the next few series since I could get through the chapters in a couple days. This one was okay? I liked the time travel by death mechanic and the brain roommate force ghost, but the series lost quite a bit of momentum in the recent arc with it’s protagonist purposely dying of starvation to learn fighting techniques so that two groups of people could go back to happily murdering each other which. hmm. yeah I’m not feeling it homie, I basically disagree with all of your philosophies here. I might pick it back up after a few months of updates as I do appreciate the larger cast of largely unsexualized women, but ehhh It might just not be for me.

- When the Third Wheel Strikes Back (Webcomic) - I picked this up for the same reason as the previous series, and while there's very few chapters out I am enjoying it as an opener. As tropey as it is the world does at least seem interesting with several mysteries and complicated intrapersonal relationships mixing with political ones, which is fun. I also like the protagonist is a confessional Priest as that’s a pretty fun way to have him hear interesting lore and meet oddballs, so that’s cool. Honestly I’m biased because I always appreciate the “love triangle but the axis is not who you think” dynamic., but I’m looking forward to updates.

- Trash of the Count’s Family (Webcomic) - Reread this as it’s the Holy Trinity series I’m least familiar with. I do still like it quite a bit, and Cale in particular is a fun protagonist, but so far the rest of the characters are cute but a bit flat. Obviously that could change as the story goes on, and it’s possible they are more fleshed out in the novel, but for now I’ll still rank this as the least interesting of the trifecta, if not still an enjoyable series on it’s own. There’s also some great fanfic out there if you’re looking for wholesome found family stuff.

- The Locked Tomb Series (Books) - Harrow is really going through it huh. I miss Gideon.

- Crazy Ex Girlfriend (TV) - As I mentioned before, this series is turning out to be way better than I thought it would be, and honestly that it has any right to be considering it aired on the CW. I’ve been listening to the songs on loop, I love all the different styles, the rhythms, and the humor. 

- The S Classes That I Raised (Webcomic) - Still having a great time.

Listening to: A bunch of Crazy Ex Girlfriend songs, including I’m a Good Person, After Everything You Made Me Do, Nothing Is Ever Anyone’s Fault, and The End of the Movie, The Herse Song by Rusty Cage, Hey I Don’t Work Here by Tom Cardy, Jet Lag by Simple Plan, All Things End by Hozier, Lent by Autoheart, The Sound of Silence cover by Disturbed, and Holy Water by Michael Ray.

[lovelylarkgamin]

Outward (2020)

Gameplay: ⭐️⭐️⭐️❌❌

Style: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️❌

Story: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Multiplayer: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️❌

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️❌

Playable on:

PlayStation (4 & 5)

Xbox (One & Series X/S)

Window

Stadia

Online co-op: Yes

Local co-op (split-screen): Yes

Developed by a small studio called Nine Dots, Outward is unique in that the CEO Guillame Boucher-Vidal approached the game with the intention of getting it to work as a split-screen game, which is not a very common goal these days. The CEO, like me, bemoans the fact that so many great memories in our childhoods were playing with family or friends side-by-side and that games these days don’t really make a lot of efforts to make that possible. Not only did the development team have to make some sacrifices to split screen to work, but relatively low budget of a small studio meant they could not support elaborate cutscenes and lip synching in most modern games. All that to say, this game has more of a classic rpg style, which is good for me, a long time fan of D&D, KOTOR, Diablo, and other long-running rpg franchises, but if you find yourself easily frustrated at older games, maybe skip this one.

Now to the meat of the matter. I have mixed feelings about this game, as you can probably tell from my rating. Buckle up; I’m going to talk about what I didn’t like first, and then we’ll talk about what I did like. Just know that I am very aware of the limitations of a small studio and think people should keep that in mind when talking about games like these. I’d rather have small studios around instead of just a handful of big monster studios anyway, so I want them to succeed. You should too. We get more fun and variety that way, so look at small studio games with a forgiving lens, please.

Through that lens, I find the inability to level up in any way in this game utterly baffling. There are no skill trees, merely the ability to attain better equipment over time and recipes for food, potions, weapons, armor, etc to equip your character better. There are ways to adjust your stats to allow for magic, but it’s a trade off that sacrifices health and stamina in exchange for mana. You can purchase skills from trainers to improve health and stamina a little bit, but I could see someone going through a generous portion of the game before ever figuring that out. The studio claims to want to avoid crunchy video game mechanics with this approach, but in the end, I found it crunchier than a skill tree in a pause menu. Maybe that’s just me, but for a game trying not to be crunchy, there is a whole lot of trying to hunt down this person or that person trying to improve your character in some small way only to learn you were doing it wrong from the beginning. Be prepared to die frequently, whether from enemies, sickness, or cold/heat, and make sure you are strategically stashing money and unnecessarily items to cut down on theft from your unconscious body or over encumbrance.

All that being said, the game is stunning with vibrant colors and a unique and interesting art style. Whatever sacrifices the studio made paid off, and the local co-op is incredibly satisfying. You may get downed frequently, but with the ability to revive each other, that ceases to be crippling. Also, each time are downed teaches you something that you do better next time. There is a very thorough foundation of lore under the storyline, and that makes the world fun to explore. Honestly, it gives the feeling of playing WoW or something like that, and for a small studio, that’s pretty impressive.

I have my gripes, but overall, there’s a lot to like about this game. Make use of the Outward Wiki and the advice of dedicated players you can find literally everywhere. They help you avoid some of the frustrating aspects of the game. Also, don’t buy recipes, look them up. Save your money for cooler stuff.

Happy gaming!

[findingjoynweirdstuff]

Dream SMP Recap (July 7/2021) - Trip to Kinoko

Purpled begins to build a new UFO in Las Nevadas.

Tommy catches up with Sapnap and asks to visit Kinoko Kingdom, where he tries to make a new home.

---

VOD LINKS:

Ponk

Purpled

Tommyinnit

Captain Puffy

---

- Ponk, Purpled and Sam log on. Sam only has ten minutes to speak with Ponk

- Sam gives Ponk some advice and tells Ponk all about how people really like piston doors, like in the prison. Ponk asks Sam to tell him about the prison and Sam starts speedrunning explaining the story, talking incredibly quickly

Ponk: “What’s the prison? Tell me more about the prison.”

Sam: “Dreams in there. Dream’s there. He’s locked up, he’s in the prison. He’s in the prison. He’s in the jail. He’s in the jail, and I’m the Warden. And I watch the prison. I watch the prison. Yeah, yeah, and this one guy, he stole keycards in the prison because he wanted to be the Warden, and then I chopped his arm off and then I stole the keycards back and then I threatened his life after I’d already killed him once, but you see, he got to revive because everyone has three lives and that’s the rules, because if everyone dies, then the story ends, so we all have three lives, right? ‘Cause that’s the rules, and so he, I took one of them, so that guy only had -- then the story’s over, it’s a never-ending story until the last person dies for the third time, okay?”

Ponk: “Damn. So nothing lasts forever?”

Sam: “Nothing lasts forever, no -- nobody wan -- you know like, that kinda thing, so anyways, so this guy, so anyways, I had to take one of his full lives so now he only has two, and then he still had keycards and he still wouldn’t give them to me so then I had to take off his arm and then after I cut off his arm, bing badabing badaboom, it had the keycard in it, right? So I cut off his arm, now I had the keycard and then badabing badaboom, we’re all good now, everything’s good, and then -- I dunno, I dunno if he’s still upset about it, but that’s basically what went down with the prison. Dream--”

Ponk: “I’d be pretty upset if someone took my arm.”

Sam: “Yeah, yeah. I mean, he did steal those keycards though, and like, that’s on him that he stole those, so that’s not really--”

Ponk: “How if they didn’t even work! How if they didn’t even work, Sam!”

- Sam continues to talk at rapid speed explaining the prison keycard system mechanics. They still have several minutes left. Sam covered a lot of ground

- Next, Ponk asks Sam to tell him all about the start of the SMP, and Sam starts telling the story about how the first members joined and how they went fishing, and Alyssa caught the first nametag, how he took a break and came back after a long time

- After Sam’s meeting, Ponk is going to speak with Sam about lore. They have some cool ideas

- Ponk tells Sam about the failed TNT cannon

- Ponk starts running back to attempt Prison Break 2 before their time runs out. Sam waits at the prison to kill him again

- Sam comes to the summer home and Ponk starts stabbing him. Ponk chases Sam, then Sam chases Ponk, then their time runs out and Sam starts rushing back with Ponk chasing him again

- Sam logs off midair and Ponk returns to working on his project

- Later, Ponk starts taking down the casino

- On the one-year anniversary of Purpled joining the server (along with Tubbo, Fundy and Punz), Purpled gathers resources and begins to rebuild his old UFO at Las Nevadas

- Tommy sees the mini L’Targay Puffy made for him. Sapnap arrives and Tommy takes down the rainbow decorations

- Tommy tears down the dirt roof as well. Sapnap remembers when he, Tommy and Tubbo fought Dream there

- Sapnap hands Tommy some mushrooms from his kingdom

- As they search for Puffy’s house, Tommy asks Sapnap where they stand. Sapnap supposes they’re friends

- Tommy asks Sapnap to take him to Kinoko Kingdom. Sapnap tells him that’s where George lives

- Tommy finds Foolish’s letter to Eret and reads it. They walk to Kinoko while reminiscing on how they first spoke

- Sapnap steps on a landmine and they trade some wet

- They make it to Kinoko Kingdom and Sapnap teaches Tommy about shrooms

- Tommy sees “Dream” running around in the barn and is confused. He insists to Sapnap that he isn’t on shrooms. Sapnap tells him that Kinoko gives secondhand shroom effects. Sapnap thinks Karl’s memory issues are from the shrooms

- They keep walking around and Dream’s face appears and disappears out of nowhere

- Tommy has decided he could do with a retreat. They look over the ledge and Tommy sees Wilbur’s face staring back at him from the ground

- Tommy claims an area as his new home. Sapnap doesn’t want to allow it

- Tommy copyrights sunsets. Sapnap pays the diamonds to watch it

Tommy: “Sapnap? We may have had a bad history, but we can have a good future, alright?”

- He asks to stay here for as long as he wants since someone griefed his home

- Sapnap considers it. Then he robs Tommy and announces it while Tommy makes a new bench on the roof

- Foolish joins the call and asks if they’re looking to buy this place. Tommy says he is. Foolish says nobody has actually paid for the place yet, but Sapnap doesn’t want Tommy to live here

- Sapnap isn’t very experienced in mugging, but he took Tommy’s things. He aims a bow at Tommy and tells him to leave

Sapnap: “Tommy, I don’t wanna have to take away your -- how many canon lives do you have?”

Tommy: “Don’t make me think about my revival, man, don’t make me think about my death.”

Sapnap: “You’re gonna have one less, that’s all I know, if you don’t get out of here.”

- Sapnap says Tommy is friends with the guy who “blows up shit” (Wilbur) and he can’t have that here

Tommy: “There’s a difference between looking out for someone in a brotherly -- borderline paternal re -- that’s different, man. You can’t hold that against me, man, you gotta let me make -- fuck you!”

- Technoblade knocks on the fourth wall, impatient for Monopoly

Tommy: “In my time of need, you just kill me! In my time of need, you just shoot me up!”

Sapnap: “You’re a dick! You -- you know, you just act like you just fucking own the place!”

Tommy: “I didn’t act -- I act like you don’t own the place, which is true!”

Sapnap: “You haven’t changed.”

- Sapnap has the Nintendo Voucher. He shouts at Tommy to get out of here and never come back

- Tommy walks back to his house as Sapnap brags that he will spend the Nintendo Voucher 

- He leaves to go play a fun game of Monopoly!

- Puffy sees that Tommy took down the mini L’Targay and is disappointed

- She goes to Sam’s base to see Fran until she realizes Sam is watching the stream

- She comes back later with a cat and puts the cat where Fran was. She hides Fran offscreen

- Puffy also rebuilds Tommy’s house into red white and blue colors using diorite, Netherrack and blue wool. On the roof she puts a picture of the Queen

---

Upcoming events remain the same.

[bonesingerofyme-loc]

Witch Queen

I actually can like things, you know.

And Witch Queen was one of them. Destiny has had a rollercoaster of a lifetime, a lot of ups and downs, but hey, I’ll call it when I see it.

Witch Queen was really solid. I don’t know if I completely agree with folks saying that it’s the best campaign to date - I still think The Taken King was an overall more coherent experience, but I think it does come damn close.

For the first time, I actually had almost no complaints about the writing. People were serious, the events had the right weight, there was a minimum of nervous self-conscious insecurity that had riddled several of Destiny 2′s releases, and - by Asurmen - our Guardian actually spoke. Multiple times. And with varied inflections.

To get my main complaint out of the way - I think, and I’ll be paying more attention on my Legendary playthrough, WQ may have relied a little too heavily on the Books of Sorrow. It may have not explained enough and expected players to understand off the bat. As much as I love the lore books and how well written they can be, you can’t expect players to have read something released in another game like 6 years ago. Again, I’m not positive here, because I hadn’t considered it while playing as being a massive fucking simp for Hive I know all this shit backwards and forwards. But we’ll see on the legendary run.

Next up, though, is the good.

The level design. Yeah, shit, this is Bungie back again. There was pretty much no filler or fluff to pad out the runtime of the campaign and none of the missions felt much like backtracking or just re-using environments. The aesthetic of the Lucent Hive and Savathun’s throneworld was gorgeous and just the right blend of vibrant gardens and life and the old baroque, gothic Hive architecture beneath. It’s still achingly Hive, but has grown. The design of the maps themselves were solid, I never felt constrained or particularly lost, there was a great variety of diversity in the different encounters and even some of the mechanics.

No fucking champions. As implied above, I did not go through on legendary first. I wanted to just play it and get the story, then I’d come back and do it again. Though I’ll say that it did feel a bit easy to me, mostly because of an over-reliance on despawning of foes when thresholds are met, but that’s been a consistent issue in Destiny. The Lucent Hive were great foes, threatening and intelligent and dangerous even when overleveled. You definitely want to focus them down first. Which does lead into the above problem, which is that often when crushing the Ghost, it causes the encounter to end and all the other Hive to despawn. This kind of steps on the whole point of Hive lightbearers, which is that they rarely ever have a chance to revive because if you just focus their Ghost, the encounter is over, gg. In fact, I didn’t have a single Lucent Hive revive on my entire playthrough. So they could use maybe a bit of love, maybe a faster respawn time or something.

Story! Man. I’ll be honest, WQ was going to be make it or break it for me. Djem actually asked what it would take for me to drop Destiny, and I was honest. I am extremely against warping the Sky and Deep into some bullshit, grey Jedi, uwu muh complex morality paradigm. I am sick of that shit. Fucking everything is doing that to be cool and counterculture because its so boring to have objective good or evil, so let’s be trendy and cool and so deep by making it greeeeeey that now actually that’s the cliche, that’s the mainstream, actually having Right and Wrong is now the outlier. So that would’ve been a make-it-or-break-it. 

I am still leery about a few of the comments in WQ about the Deep being ‘neutral’, but otherwise the story still did pretty well hold up that the Traveler and the Sky are pretty objectively morally good, with the servants of the Darkness pretty objectively morally evil. Yay.

I think it did a great job respecting the Books of Sorrow, while still adding on reveals that did not retcon what came before, but instead provided further context that perhaps we did not know, but still slots quite without difficulty into place. This being the reveal that the Traveler had chosen the krill, but for the manipulations of the worm. Is this a necessary twist? No. Does it invalidate the Books or what we seen in it? Also no! It was already evident Sathona was being heavily manipulated - this is just another layer on it. 

And Savathun, speaking of. I think the cutscene of her death might well be the single best cutscene in the game and an example of why I still stick with Destiny through thick and thin. Despite questionable and sometimes infuriating design decisions, gameplay changes and dog-awful releases, there is a fantastic story to tell in the world they’ve crafted. The scene of an ancient, ruthless monster who had been driven for her entire existence to live, at all costs, unable to trust or do anything but manipulate, lie, scheme, and try to control the universe itself, realizing that she was at the end of the road and choosing to have, for the very first time, faith. And not just faith, but faith in her oldest and bitterest foe, because she finally understands its nature. 

It was such a vulnerability in that scene, and yes, Savathun had plans within plans, but there’s no evidence that if Immaru had not revived her then, that she would not have simply stayed dead as a doornail. She really did lay it all out on the line, throwing herself at the mercy of her oldest foe with only faith and hope. 

Glorious.

All in all, yeah, Witch Queen was solid. I’m pleased to see the team and lead are tapped for Lightfall. It bodes well. Deliver this kind of quality again and maybe Destiny can start to actually be a reliable yearly release.

I’ve something to write up about how the developments in WQ are also perfectly thematically appropriate for the Light/Sky and how we (as in the Vanguard and Guardians) really should’ve seen it coming. But that’s later.

[netheritenugget]

Alright, I'll bite. What sort of King is Eret here? And what manner of monster?

Sorry this took so long!  I had too much fun writing this post and it’s super long now.  Oops.

(I made a couple of posts about a Dream SMP Undertale AU)

If you’re good at reading between the lines this post contains major spoilers for Undertale. I know the game has been out for ages, but if you care, block the tag "Dream SMP Undetale AU"

IRL Eret is very fond of ferrets and flamingos, and they're very cool animals, but they aren’t that intimidating for a monster design.  But Eret also likes bears (their stuffed bear Ted is their unofficial channel mascot) and that's definitely boss-monster material.  So I think Eret would be a bear monster of some kind, just for the sheer intimidation factor.

I think Eret would be a good king, policy-wise.  They'd do their best to bring hope to the Underground, and they wouldn't be the one collecting human souls in this AU, that's someone else who is well-known for killing people (:  As for how people perceive them, and how they got there...  Welllll...

Eret wasn't the first King, that title goes to Wilbur, who was the King when the War of Humans And Monsters happened.  Eret was loyal back then, but that loyalty wavered when the monsters lost the war, and it fell apart when the realities of living underground made the other monsters restless and bitter.  Many people blamed Wilbur for losing.  Eret did too, and became very outspoken against him.

Dream took advantage of Eret's anger, poisoning his mind and feeding his resentment, and encouraged them to challenge Wilbur to a duel for the crown, telling them they'd be a much better king than he is. (:  Eret challenged Wilbur, but the duel was not to the death, it was points based, though of course with all duels the chance of death is there.  Eret won without killing him, though, and Wilbur gave them the crown.  He was naturally extremely upset about being dethroned, but otherwise everything was fine.

Until Wilbur ended up murdered the next day.  The first suspect was Eret but there was no actual evidence who the culprit was, since monsters turn to dust after death and there weren't any witnesses.  Eret's reputation is damaged, faith in their leadership shaken.

The Player arrives in Cogchamp (the Ruins) after their initial meeting with Dream is interrupted by Fundy before Dream can kill them.  Fundy tries to talk to him, but he just runs away, claiming that the situation is "too awkward."  The player learns that Fundy is living there to escape the emotional turmoil of losing his father and his doubts that Eret isn't as innocent as he claims.  Fundy misses Eret very much, wondering if they were alright after he left, and saying that he wants to go fishing with them when he goes back, like he and Wilbur used to.

Fundy gives us some lore about Dream.  Fundy stopped being friends with him after Dream got very suddenly "too Weirdchamp" about everything. Fundy says he's seen Dream with a human who fell down before, but he never saw the human again, even though he looked all over. Dream denied it when he asked.

Fundy also fills the role of acquainting the Player with game mechanics, though he's much more chaotic and prankish, and the Player becomes his friend.  He tries to prevent the Player from leaving Cogchamp because he's lonely, but ultimately relents because he knows he can’t bring himself to hurt someone who was nice to him.  Unless it's a Genocide Route, in which Fundy doesn't try to fight the Player, and instead flees to the rest of the Underground, to warn Eret and the other monsters. </3

But this post is about Eret, I'm getting sidetracked here.

Everyone else's reactions to current events is mixed.  Some monsters like Hbomb and Puffy stubbornly believe that Eret didn’t kill Wilbur, others like Purpled are just upset that they felt the need to overthrow him in the first place.  The Sleepy Bois want them dead for killing their family, and are planning to assassinate them.

Niki is the closest to Eret, and talks about them the most.  She talks about how they were her emotional rock during the War, and that though they're still good friends, she's seen less and less of them lately, and they don't smile as much anymore.

Despite how things turned out, Eret still tries their best to be a good King, and bring people hope.  Whenever the Player goes to a new area and finds a new box for items, they always find a piece of "you matter <3 - Eret" item inside that grants temporary defense.  Eret also built a lot of important public facilities in the Underground outside of Cogchamp, like a museum in which the Player learns of Wilbur’s heroism in the War of Humans And Monsters.  They also built several bridges and an aquarium for monsters in Waterfall (because of the water level problems Waterfall is having).

Much like Asgore, the Player's opinion of Eret is based entirely on what others have to say about them. The Player might feel strongly that they're too nice to have done something like this, and something else is going on, or that Eret definitely could have killed Wilbur and the Sleepy Bois are right to seek justice for a wrong that has been committed.

Boss Battles:

For Eret's boss fight in the Genocide Route...  Oh boy.

Eret’s fight isn't as difficult as Technoblade’s would be, but it’s difficult because you can't damage Eret in the beginning.  In spite of Eret's protests, Niki comes to try to protect them, shielding Eret from all damage until you kill her.  Then Eret goes into a sorrow-fueled rage and enters into "No-one Knows" mode, removing their sunglasses.  They use their last words to beg the Player to find enough mercy in their heart to Spare Fundy.

The last person the Player kills in the Genocide run is indeed Fundy, who Eret was hiding in the Castle.  It's not a fight, it's just murder.  It's very sad.

Before the boss fight in the Neutral Route, we're privy to a conversation between Eret and Ghostbur, in which Ghostbur comes to visit the castle. Eret tells Ghostbur they're sorry for everything they've done, and that taking his place was the biggest mistake of their life.  Ghostbur claims other people say they killed him, and asks if Eret did.  Eret avoids the question, stating that they've already told Wilbur the truth about what happened many times, there's no point if he can’t remember.  Ghostbur presses the question, stating that even if he'll forget later, he'd like to know, because he does remember being Eret's friend, and he's worried about them.  The Player is noticed before Eret can answer him.

Eret fights the Player alone.  Eret admits to the Player that they should probably be a good sport and just die, they don’t want to hurt a child, but they know the Player needs their soul to leave, and they're too afraid of death not to try and fight.

When they lose, they lament that things turned out this way because they thought they could do a better job than Wilbur, and that they can't seem to do anything right as a King or a mentor to Fundy.  They try to give up their soul to the Player, who spares them.

Only for Dream to kill them, steal the soul, and destroy it.  Because he's Dream.  Dream also reveals to the Player that he was the one who killed Wilbur, because the underground is boring and he needs entertainment. He's been collecting human souls, not to destroy the barrier with, but to become God.  Dream goes Photoshop Flowey Mode and fights the Player.

Pacifist Route:

After completing the Neutral route and starting the Pacifist Route, the Player is pointed in toward Eret's castle basement by Dream.  The Player discovers a Necromancy Lair (a creepy equivalent to the True Lab in Dr. Alphy's house) with the Wilbur resurrection shrine in it.  Once the Player finds the scattered pages torn out of Eret’s diary, it's revealed that Eret suspects Dream killed Wilbur, but they have no proof.  The diary talks about how Ghostbur was the result of a secret project by Eret, their failure to revive Wilbur.  Their diary also informs us that Dream often comes to torment them about this, taunting them about they'd just made things worse.  Eret questions whether or not to step down as King, but wonders who would be able to take responsibility, since Prince Fundy is missing.

The Player also finds a book by someone named "Callahan" about dreamon summoning that Eret was researching (and deemed too dangerous to use, due to the warnings within).

In the final fight against Dream, the Player can Save Eret by giving them pink wool, and reminding them that they matter to Fundy, Niki and the Player.

At the end of the Pacifist run, Eret and Fundy reconcile.  Eret crowns Fundy King, and declares that this is how it should have been from the beginning.  IDK if Wilbur is revived or not, depends on how bittersweet of an ending I want, maybe Ghostbur just has their memories restored without bringing them back to life?  But during the end credits, the three of them can be seen fishing together.

[cynthiaandsamus]

Custom Toonami Block Week 79 Rundown

Code Geass: Lelouch is establishing the official United States of Fuck Imperialism which is like the UN but actually does stuff, plus he has to deal with the fact that CC’s lost her memory and is acting like a demure slave girl harem choice from a VN. Charles is still trapped in the Human Instrumentality Shadow Realm so everyone figures this is a great time to unify everyone against Britannia. Kallen beats the shit out of Suzaku for being a dick to her all this time and the Knight of Ten is making his rounds because they realize they forgot to give him any buildup and he’s going to be a miniboss later so they have to cram all his being a dick personality into like five minutes while all the Knights of the Round assemble to prepare for an attack on Japan once the National Federation is formed. Llyod and Cecile for some reason enhanced the Guren for Suzaku even though he’s clearly more used to the Lancelot but apparently they enhanced it too much and made it a death machine like the Talgeese in Gundam Wing so Suzaku has to stick with the Lancelot. Looks like the Guren will have to sit and collect dust unless a certain pilot is rescued and then immediately has a convenient upgrade. Amazingly all the countries go along with everything Zero says and give up their militaries and have the Black Knights be the official military of the Federation. I don’t know how that works given that the Black Knights have been struggling to fight off one nation’s military idk how it’s supposed to substitute for a dozen nations’ military but I guess they conscript support and troops from the other nations or something. Charles comes back on the tv after the Federation is formed and is all “Awww what a cute little UN you have, fuck off bro.” which you’d think this’d be the perfect time for him to just out Lelouch as Zero and wreck the Black Knights’ morale but he doesn’t for some reason and they’re just gonna fight. Lelouch is freaking out and knows that having everyone want to murder the Britannian royal family includes Nunally so he calls Suzaku who just straight up goes “Bro cut the crap are you Zero or not?” and after so much plotting and scheming Lelouch just comes right out with it. Suzaki agrees to protect Nunally as long as Lelouch meets him alone at the Kururugi Shrine where this all began.

Inuyasha: This is another one of those Modern Day filler episodes which are always fun. There’s just something about Inuyasha running around in modern Japan being Spider-Man and saving people and catching bank robbers on the way to deliver Kagome’s lunch that’s so thoroughly entertaining. Basically Inuyasha spends this whole episode jittery that everyone’s so chill and ready to relax after Naraku just got away and is probably an inch from death but after a big adventure in the modern era where Kagome is as usual unprepared for her test, he ends up passing out on the bed after insisting a little battle with Naraku wouldn’t exhaust him. It’s a really cute little episode to let everyone bide some time and reflect on the past arc now that we’re starting a new wave of filler before we get to the Band of Seven and Mt. Hakurei stuff.

Yu Yu Hakusho: The first match of the tournament is about to begin and Botan, Shizuru, and Keiko come in with Koenma who is sick of baby jokes and puts on his bishonen disguise to impress everyone. There’s some neat lore about how they gave Koenma the guest team every year to bribe him into not shutting down the tournament without giving him anything of value and how the bloody show of the Dark Tournament pacifies the demons so they kill fewer humans, so that’s cool. Since Yusuke is still passed out, Kuwabara is de facto Captain and decides on simple one on one matches while the other team Captain just kinda roasts an eight of the crowd to see if it’ll wake Yusuke up. Kuwabara’s in the first match versus Prototype Killua, complete with afterimages and yo-yo tricks. They size each other up for a while and Kuwabara shrugs off getting his fucking neck broken surprisingly well while they go back and forth with “Well I can track YOU better” for a while. Togashi really loves his yo-yos of death so those have Kuwabara on the ropes and turn him into a fucking kite ready to slam back down into the arena, so yeah, Kuwabara’s having a rough time of it.

Fate Zero: Waver’s been having strange dreams about Iskandar, and not the ones people usually have about him. So he goes to get a basic history lesson on the historical figure that’s been chilling on his couch for a few weeks and spending all his money on xbox live arcade. They also go through all the ridiculously obvious historical inaccuracies and Iskandar’s just like “idk bro, I’m here so the book must be wrong” which is hilarious because Fate also does this with more modern historical figures that we have pictures of and shit so they basically sit there saying all historians have no idea what they’re talking about and gaslighting the field of history as a whole. On the way back Waver’s upset that Iskandar’s so awesome that it basically takes any effort on his part to win and it won’t be an actual achievement despite the fact that they’ve taken out like… one servant, MAYBE, and most of the other historical figures are equally over the top. But still Iskandar says that if your aspirations are big enough it doesn’t matter how big or small you are, everyone’s tiny in the grand scheme of things and clawing at greatness you can’t truly perceive is what matters. Also Caster and his boy have found the wreck they made of their workshop of dead bodies and are kinda fucked up about it but also ready to fuck up more people because God sucks or some shit. So Caster summons a Bloodborne monster which you think more people would notice and mention during Shirou’s time, like nobody in UBW ever said “Hey remember like seven years ago when a giant Bloodborne monster appeared in the river?” so I’m guessing there’s some kind of perception blocking going on. But yeah everyone’s gonna jump on the Bloodborne Monster next time for the season premiere.  

Konosuba: So we pick up where we left off and Kazuma is working off his debt by… killing more toads. Wow this world really is like a video game, we get the same five enemies over and over again. However they’re fucked without Darkness throwing herself into monster orifices looking for a good time so Yunyun has to save them. We already met Yunyun in the OVA so it’s kinda weird to be re-introduced to her here in basically the same way but their relationship is basically like Gai and Kakashi if they only did the lame dorky challenges Kakashi suggested when he’s too lazy to think of a good one. Also there’s a cat now, I don’t think that really comes to anything, just a scene of Megumin going “we have a cat now” and everyone’s like “kay”. Kazuma and Megumin play Naked Chicken to see who can get more naked before the other backs down and end up taking a bath together because they’re both stubborn assholes. Also we get a quick snippet of Yunyun and Megumin’s backstories which you can basically make Yunyun’s the swing scene from Naruto (idk why Yunyun is bring out the Naruto references in me today) and Megumin is stealing bread like Les Miserables in increasingly bizarre and disgusting ways because she’s ridiculously poor or some shit.

Sailor Moon Crystal: So turns out that Usagi and Mamoru BOTH had their shots with the ‘fucks everything up’ sword with a pocketwatch and… the discarded gems of the four knights? Idk how that works given they were humans and also dead but what baffles me more is that both Usagi and Mamoru very obviously did not get hit by the sword but decided to fall down dead and not move for a couple minutes despite their shots very much being blocked and there being no blood. Anyway Queen Metalia has the crystal, bullshit is happening, 1000 years of darkness, you’ve seen Xiaolin Showdown, you know the drill. The remaining four Guardians get a cute little flashback of Usagi saying what she likes about them and then they give up their lives to revive her inside the dark energy blob of Queen Metalia and crystals and lights and shit happens and swords and wands are pulled out of nowhere and you know how a final boss goes, they beat it with the power of believing in themselves and shit like that. Also apparently the only difference between sealing Metalia away and killing her is hitting the giant bullseye on her forehead so yeah, hopefully she’s down for good this time. I don’t want to complain because this show was genre-defining but it’s hard to find things to say about something so generic and milktoast, it’s the Seinfeld problem where there’s been so many more interesting iterations that it’s just kinda “get on with it already” at this point. The only real markedly noticeable thing about it is how plainly and unashamedly it is about being a power fantasy for teen girls, and there’s something to that, harmless power fantasies can be fun but it just feels like the physical mechanics of this kind of progression being “She feels this shit REALLY HARD” is less exciting than some of the alternatives

Durarara!!: It’s the big Masaomi backstory episode and we get the whole deal of how he formed the Yellow Scarves and got into a relationship with Saki because Izaya wanted to orechestrate a gang war because that’s what Izaya does all day is orchestrate gang wars. It’s kind of amazing how many kids in this show are like “I don’t know how it happened but one thing led to another and suddenly I was at the head of one of the largest gangs in the city” like they kinda really yadda yadda over how that actually happens. But anyway Saki gets hurt in the gang war and Kadota’s gang has to save her because Masaomi’s adrenaline wears off at the last second and he can’t try and rush in and save her. I mean Dota’s van got there first anyway so how much he’d have been able to help would be doubtful but he feels bad about not even being able to try and Izaya says that fear and failure of his past will dominate his future actions which is exactly what he’s doing by letting his paranoia and frustration lead him to a war on the Saika army. Dota-chin tells him to face up to it and stop running or live with the shame of lying to Saki but Masomi can’t do that and his shame and determination to reverse the situation leads everyone into chaos as Anri discovers his secret.

[wolf-pearl]

Alright I really want to talk about my theories concerning eternatus. Especially since most of the theories I've seen about eternatus assume that it's evil. This is going to be a very long post, so I'll put all the full explanations under the cut.

Here's the short version of everything under the cut:

Eternatus is not complete.

Eternatus could be pieced together with wishing stars in a similar way to how zygarde can be constructed from zygarde cells.

Eternatus represents the universe and the concept of infinity/eternity.

Eternamax is not natural for eternatus.

Eternamax eternatus is not a hand, it's either a hydra or each finger is an eye :)

Eternatus went on a rampage after escaping the power plant because the process of using eternatus for energy was actively harming it.

2 possible explanations for how Rose found eternatus.

Rose was reviving and mistreating eternatus (something out of character when compared to everything we know about Rose) because he didn't realize that eternatus was alive until he was in too deep.

@criticaaaaaaaal ​‘s theory on the connection between eternatus and eternal floette

Why did eternatus start the original darkest day, and how did eternatus end up torn to bits in the first place. 

Theory 1: the eternatus we see in game is not complete. I know that I've talked about this before and so have others, but since this is going to be a collection of most if not all of my eternatus theories, I might as well include this. My list of evidence for this theory is as follows:

it doesn't have every wishing star and piece incorporated into it, and those are literally pieces of its body. Case in point; Sordward and Shielbert stealing enough wishing stars from Sonia's lab to not only forcefully dynamax a large number of pokemon, but also drive one of the legendary wolves mad. That would take a lot of wishing stars.

It is skeletal, but then when it is eternamaxed it is not all that skeletal. Perhaps an echo of its original appearance?

ok, but it's a SKELETON.

if you have watched it move in the poke camp, you may note it both moves like an eastern dragon and moves painfully slowly. Perhaps it is attempting to replicate how it used to move when it was whole, and it's sluggishness is due to moving via magic and sheer force of will instead of tendons and muscles. That, and lacking large portions of its body is probably causing it to be in agony.

I have some thoughts on how eternatus ended up missing parts of its own body, but that's something I'll come back to later in this post.

Theory 2) eternatus can be constructed from wishing stars in a similar manner to how zygarde can be constructed from zygarde cells. The basic idea is that if you were to collect enough wishing stars together, they would coalesce into eternatus' core. This would probably take a truly massive number of wishing stars. Alternatively, there could have been a unique wishing star (vaguely reminiscent in function to a zygarde core) that was originally eternatus' core. This 'core' wishing star would merge with any wishing stars it came in contact with, eventually reigniting into an active eternatus core. In either case, giving this newly reformed core more wishing stars would cause it to grow and eventually develop into eternatus.

Theory 3: eternatus represents the universe and infinity/eternity. I've seen people asking about this occasionally on this website, but I haven't seen a lot of actual theories. I've come to the conclusion that eternatus is an embodiment of eternity and the universe because a) it's name, and b) it's eternamax form is a spiral galaxy, with its core representing the super massive black hole found at the center of every galaxy.

Theory 4: eternamax is not natural for eternatus as well as excruciatingly painful, thus why we can't eternamax eternatus in game. My thought is that originally eternatus could gigantamax itself as a last resort self defense mechanism. However if eternatus attempts to use that ability it goes horribly wrong due to its body no longer being complete. Instead of gigantamaxing eternatus basically turns inside out as eternamax. Some evidence:

it's triggered by OVERLOADING its core. You know, that thing that is most likely a mini star/powered by nuclear fusion (or possibly worse, powered by something eldritch). That can't go well.

eternamax eternatus looks like its body has completely broken in ways that it shouldn't. The "hand" is actually its head TURNED INSIDE OUT, its spine has been pulled apart, its wings(? I honestly don't really know if that's what they are) are floating around the spiral, and its claws are currently floating in a ring around its core.

This could give a lore reason for why you can't eternamax eternatus; it is physically excruciatingly painful for Eternatus, and it would be cruel to force them to.

Theory 5) eternamax eternatus is not a hand, and the "fingers" are either eyes or heads. I already made a post about this that you can find here. It's real cursed. My own curiosity lead to my downfall, so now I must curse others with this knowledge.

Theory 6) eternatus went on a rampage after escaping Rose because using it for energy actively harmed eternatus. Although it's never explained how Rose was going to use eternatus as an energy source, I think it's pretty safe to say he planned on draining energy from eternatus' core. Problem is, all of eternatus' energy comes from its core. Eternatus is probably kept alive by the energy of its core, so draining its core would be draining its life force. That would definitely cause eternatus a lot of pain. In all likelihood eternatus was probably lashing out because it thought its life was in danger.

Side note: I've seen some people suggest that the reason eternatus went on a rampage is because it was being force fed wishing stars. Personally I think that it's more likely that eternatus can naturally reabsorb wishing stars into its body. It's never really implicated that Rose was specifically feeding the wishing stars eternatus, he only says he gave the wishing stars to eternatus. If you can just throw a bunch of zygarde cells together and they'll become a 10% zygarde, I don't see why eternatus wouldn't be able to osmosis wishing stars into itself.

Theory 7) how did Rose find eternatus. I originally talked about this on a thread by @bl00diedhell. You can find their original post here! Anyways, I have 2 different options for how Rose found eternatus: 

One possibility is that Rose had been collecting a large amount of wishing stars in hopes of running experiments on them. It was known that wishing stars emit energy, so maybe he was trying to see if there was a way to use them as a renewable energy source. Eventually Rose would have accidentally stockpiled enough of what are literally pieces of eternatus’ body for it to reconstruct itself. One moment it’s a pile of wishing stars, the next they’re glowing and clumping together until poof: you now have one sickly looking god. Or at least eternatus' core.

Another possibility focuses on how Rose owns the galar mines. If I understood the lore correctly, then the glowing gems all over the caves are used for fuel. Not only that, but considering how much time Bede spends hunting for wishing stars in the mines its more than likely there are a lot of them down there. It could be possible then that eternatus had been hibernating somewhere inside the mines. Maybe while excavating a new tunnel the miners open up a sealed cavern with a hibernating Eternatus within. It would probably look similar to the cocoons of yveltal and Xerneas. Something like that would get reported, so Rose would come to investigate.

Theory 8) Rose abused eternatus for power because he didn't realize that eternatus was alive until he was in too deep. Before I explain further, I'd like to credit @swapauanon for bringing up the idea that eternatus was originally just it's core at the start. You can find the thread with their theory along with my original post about my theory on why rose abused eternatus here.

Firstly, let's talk about how out of character Rose's actions towards eternatus are. Everything we learn about Rose in game points to him caring deeply for all of the inhabitants of Galar, both human and pokemon. He’s even the one who gives the player the “pokemon are our friends, partners, and family!” spiel at the start of the game. So it makes zero sense that he would ignore all of his principles and abuse eternatus for an energy source... Unless he didn't know that eternatus was a living being. This could be possible for a number of reasons:

The closest comparison for reconstructing eternatus from wishing stars is zygarde. But zygarde cells have features that make it clear they are alive, notably their face. This is not true for wishing stars. They appear to just be rocks, no features that could reveal how they are actually alive. There is nothing about eternatus core that proves it's alive either.

the legends of the hero and the darkest day do not at any point hint that the darkest day was actually a living pokemon. This means that Rose wouldn't have gotten any evidence or warnings about eternatus actually being alive by reading galar's legends.

Although there are some rock type pokemon that at first glance don’t particularly have any living characteristics, I can’t think of any that don't at least have a vague caricature of a face. And as I've mentioned already, wishing stars don't even have that.

Unlike both zygarde cells and any rock type that lacks obvious living features, wishing stars and eternatus' core are completely immobile on their own.

All of this put together would result in Rose not having any reason to think eternatus is alive. He didn't realize he was trying to use a living pokemon as a power source, he would have thought he was just harnessing the natural power of a special material. It probably took a long time and a lot of wishing stars for eternatus to start resembling a living being, and even longer for it to start responding to its environment. By the time Rose realized that eternatus was a pokemon, he might have felt that he was in too deep and had poured too much time and resources into trying to use eternatus for power to turn back.

Theory 9) @criticaaaaaaaal 's theory on how the eternal flower floette is connected to eternatus. This theory belongs to @criticaaaaaaaal! Seriously this theory belongs to them, all I did was help them patch up holes in the theory with my obsessive knowledge of eternatus and built a bit onto it. You can find the thread about their theory here! Anyways let's get to the theory.

Let's start with some necessary background info: one of eternatus' pokedex entries states that it came to earth 20,000 years ago, meaning that it was on earth for 17,000 years before starting the darkest day. That means it would be reasonable to believe that eternatus was a wandering legendary for that time. Skip to 3,000 years ago, there is a massive war in kalos that kills AZ's floette. AZ decides to make this ultimate weapon to bring floette back. Thing is, this kills thousands of innocent pokemon in the process. So, if AZ was willing to kill thousands of pokemon, who could say he wouldn't kill a legendary too? Maybe AZ captured eternatus and began using parts of its body to power the machine, but due to eternatus being immortal this doesn't kill it. The machine imbues floette with eternatus' power, making floette immortal. After the machine is activated, eternatus escapes and starts the darkest either as retribution for what AZ did to it, due to being too compromised to control its own power, or both. Here's a list of evidence to back this theory up: 

Junichi Masuda confirmed in an interview that the reason AZ is so ridiculously tall is due to the power of his ultimate weapon affecting his body. This could definitely be used as evidence that AZ was using eternatus to power his machine, as eternatus' power causes living things to get huge.

AZ's ultimate machine requires a legendary to function. In X and Y Lysander uses yveltal or Xerneas, it's possible that a different legendary could have been used by AZ.

Kalos and galar are based off of France and the UK, respectively. That would make them geographically very close. If Eternatus was a wandering legendary,  it could easily travel between kalos and galar.

Both the war in kalos and the darkest day occurred 3,000 years ago.

There are some striking visual similarities between eternatus and eternal floette.

Theory 10) possible reasons why eternatus started the darkest day, as well as how eternatus became incomplete. I’m putting this into one theory because my ideas on how eternatus got torn to bits and why eternatus started the darkest day are deeply connected. First off, let's start with some important info. as mentioned before, one of eternatus’ pokedex entries states that 

“It was inside a meteorite that fell 20,000 years ago. There seems to be a connection between this Pokémon and the Dynamax phenomenon.”

There’s a lot to unpack there. First, this means that eternatus was on earth for 17,000 years before causing any problems. Something big must have changed for eternatus to start the darkest day. Second, it doesn't explain why eternatus was with that meteor. That leaves open some possibilities.

It's possible that eternatus was struck by the meteor and then dragged to earth with said meteor. The combination of the initial impact with the meteor,  burning up while entering earth's atmosphere, and then crash landing would almost certainly cause some serious damage to eternatus. This could explain why eternatus didn't leave; it was too injured to do so. However, this probably wouldn't cause the catastrophic damage necessary for eternatus to be literally torn to shreds, not to mention how it would be rather difficult for eternatus to start the darkest day while literally completely shattered. Nonetheless, eternatus could definitely have sustained enough damage for a relatively small amount of wishing stars to be scattered. That also means people could find those wishing stars and discover their power. 

To sum all of that up, 20,000 years ago eternatus gets struck by a meteor and dragged to earth. The combination of being hit by the meteor, entering earth's atmosphere, and then crash landing results in eternatus getting damaged, preventing eternatus from leaving earth. This damage also caused a relatively small amount of wishing stars to break away from eternatus and scatter around the galar region and possibly other nearby regions. Due to wishing stars inherit power, they would become a rare and sought after resource. 

So here is where this can go in different directions. 

Option one draws from @criticaaaaaaaal 's theory. After Floette dies, AZ begins working on his ultimate weapon. Since he was a prince it would be likely that he had access to a small amount of fallen wishing stars. AZ decides to attempt to use the wishing stars to power his machine. He may have even gotten promising results from experiments, something like being able to breathe life back into floette's dead and dried flower. However, his small sample of wishing stars didn't have enough power to bring floette back. So AZ decides to try and get more directly from the source: eternatus. AZ manages to capture eternatus and harnesses the legendary's energy to power his machine. How he does this I'm not entirely sure, but one possibility is AZ may have cut open eternatus's chest to get direct access to its core. No matter how AZ went about harnessing eternatus' power, doing so critically injures eternatus, destabilizing its core. After the machine is activated, eternatus escapes and attempts to gigantamax. However due to its now unstable core and extensive injuries something goes wrong. Instead of gigantamaxing eternatus undergoes eternamax, setting off the darkest day. 

Option 2 draws from what the tapestries in hammerlocke leave unsaid. It's stated that the tapestries tell the story of the creation of a kingdom in galar. But who was in control of galar before the darkest day? It's very unlikely that there was just simply no civilization in galar before the darkest day. So let's say there was a different kingdom. The king of this kingdom may have been seeking to increase or legitimize his power. Considering that the current known lore of calyrex is that it used to rule over all of galar, it's more than possible that a human king would feel threatened by a powerful legendary such as eternatus. Maybe the people of galar revered eternatus, and that fueled the king's insecurity even more. So the king decides that to protect his own claim to power he needs to get rid of eternatus. The king raises an army and sets out to ambush eternatus. Eternatus is caught off guard and vastly outnumbered in the ensuing battle, and is grievously wounded. In a last ditch effort eternatus attempts to gigantamax, but their core overloads due to their injuries, causing them to eternamax instead.

With either option the end result is the same. The darkest day begins, and the 2 heros and the legendary wolves come to defeat eternatus. Upon its defeat, eternatus' body is beyond the breaking point. The strain of the unnatural transformation brought upon by eternamax, it's unstable and overloaded core, and numerous injuries causes eternatus' entire body to shatter like glass. Wishing stars are scattered all across the galar region, some being thrown into orbit, eventually to return to earth years later. The energy eternatus generates now freely pours out, and over time this culminates as power spots and raid dens.

Hi! If you managed to read all the way to the end, all I can say is holly noodles thank you so much for reading my long rambles! It's been bothering me for a while that so many people just assume eternatus is just a big bad evil villain. I don't remember this much animosity for any other legendary, and there is literally a legendary that is the embodiment of death. And guess what? The embodiment of death is actually just a silly birb that likes sweet pastries and wants to be pet. 

[gamex2020]

Saturn Games

12 Sega Saturn Games All Gamers Should Play

After the 16-bit console war between Sega and Nintendo, Sega started to noticeably lag behind. However, just because consoles like the Saturn and the Dreamcast weren’t extremely successful in sales doesn’t mean their library was lacking in awesome and weird genre-bending titles.

Not every franchise got to “graduate” from the fifth-generation of consoles, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t fantastic. Modern gamers might not know much about these, but these are truly memorable Games From Sega’s console-exclusive heyday. Get your hands on these games however you can; they’re really unique experiences on a very distinctive console.

Guardian Heroes

Before Castle Crashers showed off how fun a beat-em-up can be with RPG mechanics and simple combos, there was Guardian Heroes. This game was well-received when it originally came out on the Saturn, but now, it’s largely forgotten. The series has a spinoff on the GBA and a port to Xbox 360/Xbox One, but other than that, there’s been no word of a sequel or revival–not even a rumor.

The game controls like a fighting game with juggle combos, aerials, special moves, and a mana bar. There are only six characters playable in the story mode (two unlockable), but there are fun multiplayer versus modes to mess around with. After defeating a character in the story mode, they’re unlocked for use in multiplayer, and the combos can get pretty crazy with six concurrent players.

Dragon Force

Dragon Force is from an era where “RTS/Tactics RPG” wasn’t that unique of a genre. Nowadays, we have Fire Emblem, but Dragon Force was smack-dab in the middle of a golden age of Langrisser, Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy Tactics, and many other SRPG hits.

Something that sets Dragon Force apart from its peers is that it focuses on large-scale battles instead of small-scale ones. The fights aren’t duels like in Fire Emblem; generals can collide with 100 troops on each side, duking it out in skirmishes. Time passes in “weeks,” which lets the plot advance while you make out-of-battle decisions.

The game sold well at the time, but its sequel (also on the Saturn) never left Japan. No one spoke much about this game after the Sega Saturn kicked the bucket, which is a real shame; Dragon Force is a true diamond in the rough.

Astal

Action platformers were falling out of vogue by the time the Sega Saturn hit the stores. Astal, however, came out early in the system’s lifespan, and was still able to capitalize on the craze. The titular character Astal can grab and throw objects or enemies. He can also slam the ground and blow big gusts of air. On top of that, he has a super meter that commands his bird companion to bounce around, knocking out all enemies on screen.

This is a fun asymmetric co-op game, too. The second player plays as Astal’s bird companion, instead of just a palette-swapped version of Astal. The bird has his own unique set of attacks, making this game worth checking out with a friend.

Astal is short, but has challenging gameplay backed up by a unique hand-drawn aesthetic. Many indie games nowadays use hand-drawn graphics as a selling point, but it was really rare during the fifth console generation. The main character has had cameos in other Sega games since, but there’s no word of a sequel, revival, or crossover with another franchise.

Mr. Bones

At its core, Mr. Bones is an action platformer about a reanimated skeleton that can lose and regain limbs instead of using health or lives. That’s not totally accurate, though; certain levels were based on non-platforming genres, with rhythm game elements, Breakout-style gameplay, or perspective changes. It’s more like Lawnmower Man on the SNES rather than Castlevania.

The first run-through of the game is extremely silly and fun, especially going in blind. Getting used to the “skeletism” meter to replace the traditional health meter takes some getting used to, but it creates a fun sub-game of trying to hang onto all your bones. It really sucks not having your legs and being unable to jump in a platformer. Mega Man wouldn’t be as fun if he had to climb on the ground with his arms–but that’s part of what makes Mr. Bones so hilarious.

Mr. Bones had a very polarized reception, with some critics praising how much variety there was in gameplay while some others would have just preferred a normal platformer. This isn’t the greatest platformer of all time, but sometimes it’s just worth playing a game where the developers threw caution to the wind and put in every single gameplay function they felt like.

Policenauts

Before Hideo Kojima made Metal Gear Solid, he was making story-focused adventure games for a variety of platforms. After finishing the cult cyberpunk game Snatcher, he set to work on Policenauts, a sci-fi story about astronauts that are also law enforcement officials. It came to the PlayStation, the PC-9821, the 3DO, and of course, the Saturn.

Policenauts is like a cross between a point-and-click adventure game and a visual novel. It’s interactive, and requires the player to be a good detective and figure out the right dialog options to select and the right items to interact with. The Saturn version is also considered superior to other ports because it has first-person light gun segments not seen elsewhere.

There is an unofficial translation patch available for the Saturn, which uses dialog from an earlier fan translation for the PlayStation. If you want to see where Kojima honed his writing chops, play Policenauts. You’ll be the cool person that’s already played it once it gets an HD remaster.

Note that this came was never released in the U.S. and can only be played on Japanese Sega Saturn Consoles!

Princess Crown

Do you like classic beat-em-ups? How about collectible armor and items? Do you like a cutesy anime style backed up by serious gameplay? What about classic RPG enemies and locations with high-quality pixel art? If you answered yes to any of these, pick up Princess Crown.

Princess Crown is the brainchild of Capcom veteran George Kamitani. Because it was released near the end of the Saturn’s lifespan, it was a commercial failure, which led to Kamitani getting blacklisted in the games industry. He later went on to found Vanillaware, which re-established him as a developer.

Princess Crown’s core gameplay went on to spawn many spiritual successors, such as Odin Sphere, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, and Dragon’s Crown, all made by Kamitani. It’s great for the industry to have specialists like him.

Note that this came was never released in the U.S. and can only be played on Japanese Sega Saturn Consoles!

Mystaria: The Realms of Lore/Blazing Heroes

If you’re a fan of classic grid-based tactics RPGs, give Mystaria a try. The graphical limitations of the Saturn give it a unique, blocky, and vibrant aesthetic. There’s twelve special characters for you to get, and the story changes depending on who you want to recruit first. The story is not that complex, but being non-linear is a huge plus for keeping gamers engaged.

The menu system for navigating combat is cumbersome at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s fluid and fast. Plus, there’s a first-person camera mode, which is novel and weird. Try to play it in that mode, because you can’t get that in many other tactics RPGs.

Take a look at Mystaria if you feel like seeing what was once considered “next generation.” The game might seem archaic or underdeveloped now, but when it was released, Mystaria heralded what RPGs were going to look like, with 3D spells and effects backed up by camera changes to create cinematic fights.

Mystaria was released in North America as Blaze Heroes; they are the same game!

Crusader: No Remorse

There aren’t many games by Western developers on this list, but Crusader: No Remorse has definitely earned its entry. It uses pre-rendered graphics with an isometric perspective, much like the original Fallout or Diablo games. The gameplay, however, focuses on shooting, action, and interactable environments rather than RPG mechanics.

The environment destruction and playability is really where this game shines. There are alarm switches, non-combatants, puzzles, and a perspective that supports tactical gameplay rather than run-and-gun shooting. Most of the objects you see can either be destroyed or turned on your enemies in creative ways. If there’s a trap set for you, you can set it for somebody else.

There’s a sequel titled Crusader: No Regret, but it is only on MS-DOS. The first Crusader is actually recognized as an inspiration to the Fallout team. If you’re a fan of post-apocalyptic Western games, No Remorse is worth playing alone just for its contribution to the genre.

Die Hard Arcade/Dynamite Deka

Die Hard Arcade isn’t extremely faithful to the movie it’s based on, but the liberties it takes are genius. To start with, it’s a beat ‘em up that focuses on fighting game-style combos and improvised weapons. It also uses texture mapping that gives it a realistic feel, not unlike the sports games of the era.

Beat ‘em ups were falling out of favor at the time (much like tournament fighters and 2D platformers), but Die Hard Arcade kept things fresh. It’s got classic mainstays of the genre, like end-level bosses and two-player co-op, and the game brings with it a simple 3D setting and a boatload of attack options.

It’s short, but you’ll be happy to play it again and again, using new weapons and trying new combos. It’s really hard to beat crime bosses on the head with a broomstick. (Plus, Dynamite Cop on the Dreamcast is a great sequel, even though the setting is obviously different.)

Last Bronx

Last Bronx is, in many ways, a distinctly Japanese game. The setting is an alternate-future Tokyo where gangs and criminals rule. It’s a 3D fighting game that plays a lot like Virtua Fighter, but without ringouts. All of the characters and locations are unmistakably Japanese, with little room for the “worldwide fighting” variety the genre usually features.

Even though gamers in North America didn’t give the game too much attention, it was an instant classic in Japan. Casual gamers loved the variety of modes, the weapon-based gameplay, and the fluid animation. The graphics are better on the arcade, but the Saturn version is no slouch.

If you end up liking the game, there’s comics, a novel, radio dramas, and even movies to go along with it. Don’t bother watching the movie if you’re not a fan of the game, though…it’s pretty rough.

Magic Carpet

Peter Molyneux is popular these days for two things: over-promising on series like Fable, and getting mistaken for Stefan Molyneux. In his heyday, he was the king of making solid games with innovative aspects, like Black and White. Even before that, though, he worked on Bullfrog’s Magic Carpet.

The title describes it pretty perfectly. It’s a 3D flying game where you control–you guessed it–a magic carpet. The goal is to destroy monsters, collect their magic mana, and use it to build up a castle in each level.

The game is subtle, smooth, and some pretty simple fun. It’s great for zoning out with the lights off, flying around in the early-polygonal 3D environments and enjoying the sprites and spells. It probably won’t end up being your new favorite game of all time, but it’s a unique experience for the Saturn.

Theme Park

No one needs to be told that Roller Coaster Tycoon is a great series, and they’re undoubtedly some of the greatest games of all time. Before there was RCT, there was a game simply titled Theme Park, developed by Peter Molyneux and his crew at Bullfrog Productions.

The gameplay is self-explanatory for anyone familiar with the sim genre. Set up your rides and manage the logistics of the park. Try your best to keep it clean, keep it profitable, and most importantly, keep yourself from getting addicted. There are some elements in this game that aren’t seen often in other sim games, like managing the park’s financial stocks and negotiating business deals. Once you’ve made enough money on one park, you can auction it off and make another on a new plot of land.

Theme Park saw high critical acclaim upon release. Even though there were plenty of sim games sprouting during the fifth generation, Theme Park had a playful aesthetic and wasn’t as serious as Sim City or other competitors. Like many other sim games, it was developed with PC gaming in mind, but the console ports (including the Saturn) are just as smooth.

[monochromemedic]

Yeah I’ll admit, I really need to find out more about the Fallout and Borderlands boys. I keep meaning to. Well, there must be a way we can still talk about it. Um . . . Maybe I could be like a sounding board? You can all say your thoughts on your them and I’ll respond? I wanna help in any way I can.

long 

Boone’s backstory is so sad and depressing you can tell that Carla was probably his first and only love and if not he loved her to death and the fact he had to kill her or thought that was the right thing to do to save her from being a slaver while she was pregnant honestly was the right choice seen as how the slavers are insinuated to be treated and have literal bomb collars on them and the fact that that haunts him so much along with the fact he committed the war crime at Bitter Springs and just makes him cruel, quiet and rude even though he’s a bit caring through all the stuff makes me sad and it’s so memed on probably because Boone is so secretive about it and it’s his whole backstory but it’s so good and sad and i think meme on it to make it hurt less. Boone might be shorter then alot of the companions in the game but like he’s strong and built kinda he’s a bit squishy but like that bitch shoots like a god damn champ i love that asshole Deacon should have been romanacable, his backstory is also pretty fucking sad of him being a bigot against synths and then when he actually killed a supposed synth he saw how sick it was and wanted to change his life and move on from his stupid college group he was in only to find out the girl he was with is wife when he settled down was a synth and his group came back and killed her and he went apeshit and killed them all back and then got into the railroad to help synths and was probably so disgusted in himself and his pass he doesn’t use his real name anymore and changed his face so many times apparently and all his disguses have sunglasses probably meaning he doesn’t like to show his eyes is just sad he’s so self hating despite how cheerful and jokey he seems on the outside. Like when you go to pretty sites there’s a chance he’ll go ‘she would have liked this’ and the first time i heard that in the lighthouse it broke my heart like i’d wanna help him move on he’s so scared to get close to literally anyone but he deserves to move on. Sturges is underrated little fucking greaser mechanic southern hospitality built like a brick shit house secrectly a synth why the hell can’t I fuck him or have him as a companion fucker builds a teleporter out of scrap he’s cool let me kiss him Todd Howard. Danse is great big secret synth, war asshole so eager to please and be involved and loved that he goes and be’s with douchebags to be accepted he’s way too good and im glad you can get him out of there because he deserves the world. hes so shocked when you say you like him or love him he’s so shocked it hurts with his big old puppy eyes that guy has probably never been with anyone ever and it’s sad because he’s great and he talks like a robotic dipshit. Vaughn is a champ short short king. literally short then like everyone of his friends. smart ass boy, secretly buff cause he ‘put an exercise bike in his cubicle’ is funny but they fucked him over so much in borderlands 3 just making him a psychotic asshole who loves his body so much running around naked and doing nothing he’s so much more then that and the fact they don’t take advantage of the great lore he had and flanderized him into this one note annoying character pisses me off to no end and if in the next game he isn’t in there and isn’t fixed i’ll do it myself doing my boy so dirty. Like yeah he would adapt to being on this alien world with cruel creatures and people to kill him but it was shown that he CAN and did it well in a short time but apparently the more time he spent on there he went crazy like no there’s people who have lived there or have been there for longer and didn’t go crazy why the hell would vaughn would, they just wanted ‘haha silly small buff man’ that’s so shallow he’s so much more he helped take down handsome jack, he helped his fellow helios survivors and was a leader for them on Pandora and made a small little army bandit group that was well put together. he’s also so down on himself thinking that Rhys is so cool and that he questions one time that Rhys will leave him cause he’s meeting so many cool people and handling it well and thinks that Rhys will go so far and he’ll just be left there like that’s sad. Rhys is weird but so put together, fought off handsome jack ai and made great sacrifices like he ripped off his own robot arm and cybernetics in his head and eye to ‘kill’ him that takes so much guts. they also kinda fucked him over in borderlands 3 but not as much as Vaughn. They made him seem inept and more like a joke but Rhys is entertaining as he is he doesn’t need to be so childlike. I’m happy get got his company like he wanted and revived Atlas into a great gun company and honestly the Atlas guns are some of my favorites in that game it’s just so fun good on him. Tim has been through so much. getting plastic surgery and faking his death to him mom who laughed when she heard he ‘died’ just to pay off student loans is so real but depressing in the same vain and then he had to work directly under Handsome jack who hit on him and then made him do so much dirty work and then locked him in a casino full of other doublegangers of jack and now he’s the only one that’s alive and he’s fucked up in the head starting to act  a bit like Jack cause of Dna implanted in him which idk how much that would work but he has to write on the wall to remind him he ISN’T jack like fuck you jack you are such a bastard man Tim is a sweetheart. Like yeah Tim can shoot you in the face and not care but it’s not what he wanted and he shows cowardness and disdain for it alot of the time.

[dungeonecologist]

WILD ARMS 2 - Golgotha Prison

The name is not subtle, but the reference itself is actually oddly superficial.  At the end of the dungeon, Ashley is separated briefly from the party and Lilka and Brad are captured and tied to crosses, evoking the characters Dismus and Gestas, the thieves crucified during the same execution as the biblical christ.  There is little reference to that actual narrative however, instead seeming to draw from the fact that the name Golgotha is taken to be an epithet to mean literally “A Place of Skulls,” which seems rather appropriate and obvious for an execution field.

Bookending the start and end of this dungeon, we fight the boss monster, Trask.  First in a scripted “loss” and then in a solo match with Ashley’s new dark henshin hero form, the “Grotesque Black Knight,” Knightblazer.

“Trask” is yet another transliteration* issue that comes from the juggling between languages.  It actually comes from the Tarrasque, another monster most readily identified from its appearance in the original Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual, itself originally taken from semi-obscure French myth of Saint Martha of Bethany and the Tarasque of Tarascon.

*(I realize I use this word a lot and it might not be as common use to others.  A “translation” lifts meaning between languages; a “transliteration” is to lift written characters between them.  Example: “Left” in English translates to 左[the direction] or 残[what remains] but transliterates to レフト.  Inversely 左 and 残 both translate back to English as “Left” but transliterate as “hidari” and “zan” respectively; and レフト transliterates back into English as “refuto.”)

Surprisingly, the Wild Arms 2 design (which would also go on to persist as the core design throughout the rest of the Wild Arms series) is based more on the original myth than the D&D representations tend to be: While the end product looks nothing like the depictions of the Tarasque of myth, it retains the spiked turtle shell, the prominent dual horns, poisonous quality, and fins on its head here account for being “half fish.”

Also of note is that the title card identifies it as a “Dragonoid” and it has various metallic and machine-like features.  These details are neat because it positions it as being not-quite a dragon, to work around a fact that will pop up much later: That dragons in Filgaia are extinct.  And also to play into the fact that Dragons in Wild Arms are semi-mechanical lifeforms.

In any case, our scripted loss to Trask the first time around ends with the team knocked out and imprisoned in what appears to be a disused execution ground and associated holding cells.  In our escape we run into monsters fitting the theme, who appear to be natural inhabitants, rather than guards put in place by the Odessa terrorist soldiers who are actually holding us here.

First up is the Wight, a classic undead warrior monster generally taken from D&D, but with a little more behind it than you might expect.  The term Wight in English lore actually traces back quite far as an archaic term with little to no real association with monsters.  The real intersection with name and subject comes from an early English translation of the Nordic Grettis Saga; In it the zombie-like creatures now better known as Draugr were referred to as apturgangr (lit.”againwalker”) but were translated as Barrow-wight. (lit.”[burial-]mound person”)

This may seem an odd choice, but the translation came at the hands of the eminent bookman William Morris.  I say “bookman” because he was not just a prolific author of prose and poetry, but a pioneer of the revival of the British textile and printing industry.  He and his wife, Jane Burden, did extensive arts, craft and design work in book and print design, book binding, and wall paper all stemming from the intricate design of modular and tiled printing blocks and stamps.  Oh and he translated various works of epic poetry and myth into English, including old Roman epics, French knightly romances, and of course Norse sagas. (all of which he wrote and published what was basically fanfiction of, btw)

His seemingly erroneous “translation” of the Barrow-wight came as an attempt to reflect a comparable agedness to the name: Rather than translating from old Norse into modern English, he chose what he thought a suitable old English equivalent; “Barrow” referring to pre-christian Anglo-Saxon burial mounds, and “Wight” meaning “thing” or “creature” but often used disparagingly to refer to a person.  The nuance there is actually quite clever, as the old Wight referred pretty exclusively to those living, even if it didn’t specify by definition, and that uncertainty or contradictory kind of implication uniquely fits a description of the undead.

This term would be picked up by J.R.R. Tolkein for use in Middle-Earth, retaining their lore and function from Norse legend to describe undead warriors.  And from there you can follow the usual chain of influence to D&D, where the shortened term Wight really solidified itself as synonymous with the undead, and eventually down to Game of Thrones, where George R.R. Martin cleverly brings the whole thing back around to old risen bodies of northern warriors, not unlike the Draugr of Norse myth.

Anyway in Wild Arms 2 we get some sorta death yeti ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Next up is the Ghoul, which I think we all know is a pretty generic term in modern parlance, but it’s specific origins date back to pre-Islamic Arabia.  It entered into English via translations of the original French translation of 1001 Arabian Nights, where it appears in one story as a monster lurking about the cemetery devouring corpses.

The Ghoul identity as a corpse eater quickly broadened into flesh eaters, and the association with lurking about graves in turn marked them as undead themselves until eventually the term became loosely applied to any variety of undead, including the thrall of vampires, supplanting the flesh of the dead with blood of the living and achieving a truly far removed meaning.  Even in modern Arabic the term now broadly applies to any number of fantasy monsters. 

And so long as we’re dabbling in pop culture transplants; the Arabaian word Ghul is in fact the same used in the name of the Batman villain, R’as al-Ghul, whose name/title has always been erroneously translated as “Head of The Demon.“

I have no idea why it’s a chicken with a mohawk but i love it

And finally the Bone Drake.  I don’t know that this one actually has any real specific lineage...

“Drake” is generally a synonym for dragon, although there is some case of fantasy semantics where different settings will try to define distinct body types of dragons each with their own name, in which case Drakes are often either dragons which simply don’t exceed a certain size (generally no bigger than a non-magical animal such as a dog or a horse) or a wingless variation of whatever the setting’s prototypical dragon might be.  I don’t know for certain, but I think this distinction in modern fantasy started with Tolkien’s wingless fire breathing dragon, Glaurung, and its offspring who were referred to as fire-drakes.

In any case, the specific term “Bone Drake” Doesn’t seem to appear with any visibility prior to Wild Arms 2, which leads me to believe it was just their name for a generic bone dragon-like creature.  It does make for an interesting companion, aesthetically, to Trask being here, although there don’t seem to be any implications that Trask lives in this dungeon at all.  Other than just being an obvious combination of cool fantasy things, it may also be pulled from Dungeon & Dragons’ Dracolich/Night Dragon; an undead (often skeletal) dragon raised from the dead, often by their own necromantic spells, hence the term “Lich.”  For whatever reason they are oddly reminiscent of shield crested dinosaurs like the Triceratops or Styracosaurus.

The attack Rhodon Breath doesn’t tell me anything either.  I think it’s just meant as “Rose Breath,” translating the “Rhodon” bit pretty literally, and references the smell of roses being present as a funeral, or else the palor of the faded pink color also called “Rose Breath.”  There is some apocryphal reference to a Rhodon but of no significance that I can tell.

Clearly the theme here is death and the undead, and with some small stretch on part of the Wight, we could even say skulls all befitting Golgotha’s “Place of Skulls” epithet.  It’s a really neat way to build this dungeon, albeit a little on the nose.  But I really like the idea that the dungeon appears to be abandoned and now haunted by all these reanimated corpses and bones before the villains arrive to use it for their plans.  Oddly there isn’t much of a martyrdom theme here, although we’ll get plenty of that a little later once we recruit our second magic user, summoner, christ figure, and perfect beautiful boy, Tim Rhymless to the team...

Anyway we get out, we fight Trask for real.  Ashley turns into a saturday morning superhero.  Trask gets solo’d.  And we all just kinda move along without asking too many questions...  Although the game dialogue describes this new form as a “grotesque black knight” the sprite work, 3D model, and even original character art don’t really convey much in the way of “grotesque” but in the context of the tokusatsu, henshin hero elements it’s not too hard to imagine that the design was meant to evoke a similar aesthetic to gruesome suit heroes like Guyver, Kamen Rider Shin, and Devilman.  I do love the gill/tendon-like organic vent structure in the pauldrons that stay.  And although it’s not visible in any of these images, but the D-Arts model has an exposed segment of vertebrae between the shoulders; that along with the teeth(?)/ribs on the open chest panels really helps bring out more of the “grotesque” quality of the design.

[kalimarsdreamlog]

Dream 170: The Dragon Boss

This one has been almost completely rewritten since I had it over a year ago. Nothing major though, just making it easier to read, putting things in chronological order, and taking out the rambling. 

Like many books, I'll start this one off with the map. Yes, I was so immersed in the dream for so long in-dream time that I knew the lay of the land. It was quite large. The map is not to scale. The seas were much bigger.

The dream was set in a kind of medieval game. Link was in it, but she preferred female pronouns. She wasn't Linkle, just normal Link. It seemed normal enough in the dream, especially since I was Link some of the time. (Yay dream PoV-switching!)

The story revolved around a few characters. For a lot of it I was the last royalty of the fairies, orphaned at a young age. My name was Valeret. While the game mostly took aspects from an open-world Legend of Zelda, there were some Lord of the Rings things scattered in to the side. As Valeret, I was friends with Gandalf. Early on in the dream I went missing. I was actually hiding out in the Dark Forest from Sauron, but Link and Gandalf didn't know that. They were so desperate to find me that they even asked the all-seeing eye himself. Of course, I was hidden from view with the help of a friendly bear. So that didn't work.

And so, Link went exploring the areas between the final boss room and the Dusty Plains we called home to find me. There was no stamina wheel to worry about, and Link could use both the paraglider and the in-dream equivalent to loftwings, which in this dream was a (relatively) small dragon. She could also use the whip from Skyward Sword to grab onto distant things, which was useful for jumping from her dragon-loftwing to the towers surrounding the Wild Plateau. Said towers were mysteriously cluttered with stamina fruits despite Link not having a stamina wheel. Little did I know this was a sign for later.

Under the Plateau were hidden caves. It was a maze under there, but not only did you have to be careful not to get lost, but you basically had to play The Floor is Lava. Why? Because the floors were not dry, and the tide pools were connected to the Electrified Sea. Understandably, touching it meant instant death. Link jumped off her dragon-loftwing and glided into one of the caves. Unfortunately, she misjudged her landing and fell in the water, instantly turning into a spirit.

As a spirit she went to a ghosty waiting room type of deal. Suddenly I was Valeret again, (rather than just passively watching Link) also in the waiting room of spirits. It was cold. I remember not being able to get warm and assuming it was part of being dead. Well, now that I was dead there was no reason to hide from Sauron, and once Link informed me that she and Gandalf were looking for me I realized the wizard could get us out of here and revive us. I used fairy magic to send up a beacon asking for his help. He practically teleported us home in his hurry to get us somewhere safe.

Home was kind of odd, but beggars can't be choosers. It's rare to have a home to go back to in LoZ adventures. In the middle of the Dusty Plains was a runway used for landing biplanes, the other quick way to travel across the map. I landed a couple throughout the dream, but I don't remember what I was flying them for or when. Next to the runway were these tube-rooms not unlike tube hotels you can find at some airports. There was enough room for the bare essentials, like a place to sleep and get changed, but that was about it. Still, it was home.

Time passed and we progressed through the game until we were finally ready for the final boss. The final boss was a great big fire dragon that looked like Smaug, and was about as powerful as Smaug too. Basically, she was Smaug but female. According to the lore of the game, only Valeret could kill "Smaug." Link could help wear her down, but Valeret had to land the final blow, otherwise the fight would just start over.

We approached the boss room. There was an Emblem on a tower above the entryway. A Fire Emblem, to be precise, containing the power of "Smaug." As soon as we stepped foot on the land containing the boss room, the Emblem flared, and "Smaug" burst from the tower on top of the boss room. Link jumped back on her dragon-loftwing to prevent the boss from flying to our home and setting it ablaze, trying to lead her back to the boss room where the fight could take place. While she did that I was stuck trying to get to the boss room on foot, and, lo and behold, Valeret had a stamina wheel. "Smaug" landed in the field next to the path, lighting the field on fire. Every time I would slow down to let my stamina wheel refill (because of course there were no stamina fruits here) she would breathe fire in my direction, and I'd have to start running again. Link would then swoop in to distract her so I could have a little time to recover.

At last I made it to the boss room. Link flew in after me with "Smaug" flying in after her, and the fight was on.

The fight itself felt long and hard, but that was probably because I was physically going through the motions of the fight without using a controller. I was in the game after all. Had I been playing the game from the outside, I would be pretty disappointed if that was the final boss of the game. "Smaug" would fly around the edges of the circular boss room. Trying to cut her off from ahead would lead to getting incinerated via fire breath, but trying to catch up to her from behind was impossible. Somehow you had to cut her off from the side and do damage that way. After enough damage was dealt she'd slow down and we could latch onto the sides of her neck. Due to bad programming she'd get stuck in a stun loop where she couldn't attack us. After getting stunned a certain number of times she'd fall to he ground, where Valeret could end the fight with a killing blow.

When I finally landed the final blow the boss flew up, up out of the tower on top of the boss room. To escape her fate, to light our home on fire, I don't know, because she didn't get far. Her fiery power defeated, the Fire Emblem turned to one of ice, freezing her in the air, as was the only true way to defeat her.

And so ends part one of the dream. And so also ends the rewritten part of the dream, for I am tired and have other dreams to post.

In part two, I got to be the boss dragon.

After being defeated I had turned over a new leaf due to the efforts of a very nice Valeret, who hadn't enjoyed all the fighting. Now I considered the people living across the electrocuted ocean from my boss room to be my friends, because they made me see reason that destruction wasn't the way.

It turns out the reason they needed to defeat me was that when the emblem over my boss room was fire, it scorched the lands around their home and made them unlivable. The ocean would sometimes flood the area too and electrocute anything in its path. When the emblem was ice the ocean froze, protecting them from it, and the formerly scorched lands were able to thrive. The only way to change the emblem to ice was to defeat me, which stopping my destruction had been a nice bonus.

Well.

People from the opposite direction of those lands needed the emblem to be fire for their water sports. Trivial, but it was all they cared about. They tried to take me under their proverbial wing and convince me to turn the emblem back to fire. I didn't know my friends' lands revolved around the ice emblem, so I agreed because these other people were annoying and I wanted them to leave me alone.

I returned home to my boss room and beyond to the lands of my new friends only to discover the havoc that the fire emblem had wrought. I was still weak enough to be considered defeated if I got hurt somehow, so I dove into the ground to defeat myself and turn the emblem back to ice.

As expected, the other people didn't like that, so they gave me something to strengthen me against my will. With that I was powerful again, and the emblem changed back to fire. I was so angry that I went back to the lands of the people obsessed with their sports and was intent on destroying it. Screw turning over a new leaf—I was doing this for my friends, and I was powerful enough to do it.

Turns out the Mechanical Sea between my boss room and the lands of the other people was treacherous, full of great machines with missiles and lasers. I flew higher to avoid them, but ran into guardians from Breath of the Wild. I had three of them focusing their lasers on me at once, and no matter how powerful I was I didn't want to see the consequences of that. I went back to my boss room and waited for my friends to come defeat me once again.

Table of Contents

FAQ

[hacks-and-heroes]

Hacks and Heroes #2

So let's talk about a favorite series of mine, Fallout. And what better time? With Fallout 76 on the horizon like a mediocre tsunami, the SEO is perfect.

The question is how would one go about adapting Fallout into a tabletop setting. Well that's easy actually, plus there are a bunch of hacks out there for Fallout already. I'm gonna point out a few key things that make a Fallout setting, and then get into the hacks.

So first there's themes. The most forefront and clear theme of Fallout has always been the cautionary tale of nuclear war. Atomic annihilation and Cold War era fear mongering is shown through its mix of propaganda posters, devastated landscapes and visual aesthetics. The distinct 1950s art style, especially Vault Tec’s Vault Boy, show a campy contrast to the horrors the world shows. Things like the upbeat music and pulp sci-fi weaponry mask a dark undertone. For those who plan on game mastering a Fallout game, I highly recommend playing the first two iterations to really get a sense of this tone.

Political agendas, conflicting ideologies, fate of technology, capitalism, communism, colonialism; all play a part in a great Fallout story. A good mix of these elements will truly help bring together any Fallout story.

So let's get into the hacks:

Fallout GURPS/Exodus-

I want to start with the two oldest Fallout hacks. Fallout has a history with GURPS, being the system it was first based on. Originally, GURPS was in the title of the first game. However, after a rift between developers, GURPS was dropped. However, several years ago someone revived the idea by adapting Fallout for the GURPS RPG system. While I have never played GURPS, it seems this system is the closest you'll get to a system that feels like the original games would translated to paper.

If you prefer a system with more number crunch, GURPS is a safe bet. It's also a well made book with a lot of detail and lore. It was made around the time of Fallout 3, so it may feel a bit outdated. It does include stuff from Fallout Tactics though. So I appreciate that.

Now onto Exodus. Exodus is a “licensed" Fallout game. Or at least that was the idea. At some point during its creation, the license was pulled. So what would have been Fallout d20, became Exodus. One of the major problems with this particular game is that it is a game based off the d20 Modern system. Sadly for the old SRD games, they have not aged well, especially d20 Modern. I only recommend this adaptation if you really enjoy the old d20 games like 3.5 and Modern. Even then, the poor cover up and woeful bestiary will probably be a turn off.

Fallout 5th Edition-

To start, this is probably one of the best and most detailed fan conversions I've seen. It has so much content for what is essentially a free sourcebook. The font and graphic design is great. There is multiple racial subtypes, backgrounds, and over 100 pages of Fallout monsters. There is a piecemeal armor system that will be a nice touch for those most familiar with Fallout 4. Seriously, for a class based system, this is probably one of the best portrayals of Fallout. Hell, it has stats to play a goddamn Eyebot. Who wouldn't??

Now it isn't all perfect. The biggest flaw is that many of 5e’s base classes are considered unviable. This would be fine, should the book offer replacements. Instead the book suggests purchase of a supplement that has classes more suited for the game. I totally understand why this is such, after all it is a free fan made conversion. However, an additional class or two would have more incentivized purchase of the other book. The only other gripe is that that 100 page bestiary is a lot of the same creatures with very minute changes. Similar to the games, though in a pen-and-paer RPG it's a bit needless.

(I will have a review of that class supplement for those interested midway thru the next week.)

On a side note, while there are Pathfinder hacks for Fallout, there aren't any detailed enough to really mention. With enough effort, one could customize it to fit a Fallout setting. I may go into it in the future as I tackle other topics.

Savage Fallout-

Okay so now we get into the most extensive collection of Fallout hacks. There are a handful of these for Savage Worlds, so we’ll just go at them in no particular order.

Savaged Fallout!

When you Google Savage Worlds Fallout, this is the first one that you’ll encounter. On a blogspot aptly named, there are about 13 PDF downloads by Shane Hensley. It is clearly a passion project, having started in 2003, though it has gone dark since 2016.

I’m gonna get the bad out of the way first. This hack is ugly, poorly laid out, and sometimes confusing. The books are almost entirely black and white with a plain font. Only do the location books get anything in the way of images, though the actual maps tend to be weak. The hindrances added to the game are actually quite good, representing traits from the game quite well. The edges on the other hand...are extremely poor. Anyone who has played a lot of 3.5 or Pathfinder will start having flashbacks as they see edges boasting +1 to two skills with no flavor text. Compared to some of the later Savage Fallout stuff, it’s pretty sad. My final complaint is the Weapons Cache book is a supplement that details out things like Alien weapons, Chinese weapons, and a few other unique items from the games. However, the book is not more than a bunch of paragraphs and stat blocks.

Now onto the good stuff; both the Wasteland Survival Guide (Player’s Handbook) and Overseer’s Manual (GM’s Guide) are well made, new mechanics are introduced well, and the items will bring back fond memories of Fallout 2. The location books are a fun homebrew addition. I have not read all of them, however, they are good for brainstorming if nothing else. If you’re looking for a hack for Fallout for Savage Worlds, this is not a bad first place to start.

Wild Wastes

This one won’t come up right away, but I was quite pleased to have discovered it. If I was going to run a Savage Fallout game, I’d probably be referring to this book the most. To start, it is a beautiful two PDF set, barely clocking in at over 20 pages. The backgrounds and fonts fit the Fallout aesthetic and the layout is pleasing to the eye. It uses some licensed Fallout art in it, which helps it for sure.

By contrast to Savaged Fallout, the edges in this book are fantastic. Now okay, mechanically they aren’t much different than Savaged Fallout, but they at least look nice. There are less hindrances, but the ones that remain hold up on their own. Also the race options are fleshed out well, and there are two options for Super Mutants, if you are so inclined. This hack also introduces the Psyker. Basically this is adding psychic powers into Fallout, which may seem out of place to those who don’t know about Fallout Tactics. Truly it’s a fun idea, but whether it stays is up to your GM.

The second PDF that goes along with Wild Wastes is a 9 page add-on for equipment. There isn’t a lot to say about it besides that it is extensive. While it isn’t 5e Fallout extensive, it does have weapons, armor, and items from every game and more. If you are looking for items for your Savage Fallout game, look here.

Fallout: And How to Survive in the Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland When Your GM is a Total Dick.

Quite the mouthful there. So this hack is similar to Wild Wastes in that it uses a lot of licensed Fallout art...also it is only about 16 pages. That said, it is much more dense. The inner workings are black and white, but more well laid-out than Savaged Fallout. The font is a better choice and while tiny is laid out in a way that’s not hard to follow. This hack also stands out because it essentially works stand alone. You’ll need the core Savage Worlds book for more in-depth rules, but the character creations process and most hindrances and edges are included in the book.

One of my only gripes with this particular hack is its approach to weapons. Similar to GURPs, weapons are more or less divided into categories of damage, and then just given flavor for their look. While I can see the plus in this way, it tends to leave your players and GMs in the dark if they aren’t used to doing so. The armor is also truly wimpy (a +4 bonus for power armor??). That also extends to the races which get one trait a piece before being forgotten.

To circle back to something positive, this hack does include “tinkerin’”, a skill for customizing weapons and armor. It’s a simple enough system and more than welcome for those who like having to craft unique weapons.

Gunrocksgaming Savage Fallout

This isn’t a PDF like the previous three hacks. This one is a blog that includes very little but is worth mentioning for a few reasons. It has rules for character creation, which include playing robots, a first for these hacks. There are little in the way of hindrances but the edges are good. The equipment is sparse but well done, as are the setting rules. This hack does have another plus which it is the second of these hacks to have a bestiary. It’s hard to compare how these monsters compare to their in-game counterparts but with two hacks it probably wouldn’t be easy to make one that satisfies you.

Aaaaand that’s all for now!

While there are no doubt other Fallout hacks for other games, these were the best I could come across. I’ll cover it more in a future post, but another excellent post-apocalypse game is Apocalypse World, as well as the system it is built on. It can also be used for Fallout, with some modifications.

I hope you all enjoyed this and found it informative. Feel free to comment, send feedback or ideas for later posts. Next week I’ll be back with a different kind of post. This week was all about hacks that already exists. What if there’s a game you want that doesn’t have a hack though. Well, you’ll have to make it up yourself then! So next week we’ll tackle another Bethesda brand favorite, Dishonored!!

[nintendotreehouse]

Dragon Quest-ions Answered: Fujimoto-san Talks Dragon Quest Builders

Hi hi, everyone! Theresa from Treehouse here. Hope you’re still having fun saving the world of Alefgard, and keeping it out of the Dragonlord’s clutches.

With all of these sconces and braziers, you could say I have a thing for fire…

The Dragon Quest series is a powerful force in the world of Japanese RPGs, and Square Enix has quite literally rebuilt the experience from the ground up, creating something exciting for fans and newcomers alike. As for me, I’ve had the wonderful opportunity of working with them leading into the launch of Dragon Quest Builders on Nintendo Switch, and as a fan of the game myself, I took a moment to ask the game’s producer some burning questions…

Theresa:

This game takes place in the world of Alefgard—the setting of the very first game in the Dragon Quest series. Why did your team decide to return to this important location in the Dragon Quest franchise?

Fujimoto-san:

We felt the objectives and setting of the game would be intuitive if the world from the first Dragon Quest had fallen into ruin, and you were tasked with recreating it as you saw fit.

The final boss of the first Dragon Quest, Dragonlord, has a famous line, “I give thee now a chance to share this world and to rule half of it if thou will now stand beside me.”

If you answered “Yes,” the world would fall into darkness. Game over. But Dragon Quest Builders takes that world clad in darkness and allows you to rebuild it as you see fit. This game challenged us to create an alternative, hypothetical world, one that progressed differently in important ways.

Also, we used graph paper when we were creating the 2D pixel tiles of Alefgard’s geography in the original Dragon Quest game. So, in a way, Dragon Quest Builders revives the original game world with both 2D and 3D blocks, and we hope everyone will play this reborn vision of Dragon Quest.

It’s difficult to pull off that look and look regal in an evil throne room.

Theresa:

The cities you rebuild, like Cantlin, are from the first Dragon Quest game as well. How did the development team go about choosing which specific cities players would get to rebuild?

Fujimoto-san:

We had an idea to reverse the order in which players visited cities throughout the original Dragon Quest story. The flow we ultimately chose starts the player out near the Dragonlord’s castle, sending them off to rebuild surrounding cities and finally revive Tantegel Castle, the starting area of Dragon Quest, only to return to the Dragonlord’s castle across the sea.

Theresa:

On the subject of building, this is a pretty significant step away from Dragon Quest’s traditional gameplay style. Why did you decide to reimagine an established RPG franchise as a building game?

Fujimoto-san:

The Dragon Quest numbered series continues to be created in the tradition of classic RPGs in which the hero saves the kingdom. While we use those traditional RPG elements as the focal point for non-numbered Dragon Quest games as well, we also use those titles to experiment with other ways to play in the Dragon Quest world.

With Dragon Quest Builders, we sought to create a play experience that had never been accomplished before—a marriage of Dragon Quest RPG elements and sandbox elements that lets you freely create things.

Sandbox-style games are not something that most Japanese players are deeply familiar with, and we developed Dragon Quest Builders with this in mind.

My immediate reaction to anything that was once dead and comes back to life. *insert repeated attack button presses*

Theresa:

Looking at this game, some people might think that it’s simply a building experience, but there’s actually a really engaging story here too. Can you please tell us more about how this story was developed, and how the building elements were integrated into it?

Fujimoto-san:

From the very beginning, we decided that the overall story would be about getting caught up in the Dragonlord’s trap at the end of the first Dragon Quest game, having the world fall to ruin, and then reconstructing the world. But we knew that charting out the plot and the building gameplay elements simultaneously would result in a half-baked, non-cohesive game. So, instead, we focused on designing the gameplay first, basing the mechanics on what we wanted the user to create at various points and what tools they would use to accomplish these builds. That way, even just the simple act of playing is fun and highly motivating. Finally, we then thought up details of the plot that would work well with these mechanics as we fine-tuned the gameplay.

The goddess has spoke-eth—I shall rebuild this land and claim it my own! …Err, fine, I’ll claim it for the people, I guess.

Theresa:

Since the game’s original release, how have you seen new players, as well as Dragon Quest fans, react to this “classic RPG-meets-builder" style of gameplay?

Fujimoto-san:

It feels like we’ve allowed Dragon Quest fans who haven’t played a sandbox style of game to easily discover the fun of this play style through this carefully crafted mix of RPG and sandbox elements.

This is the same type of reaction we received when the first Dragon Quest game expanded the appeal of the RPG genre in Japan 30 years ago.

Theresa:

Since Dragon Quest is such a long-running series, there was a lot of deep lore for the development team to draw upon while working on this game. What is your favorite surprise or Easter egg hidden away for fans to find?

Fujimoto-san:

There’s a lamp that you’ll need certain building material to craft. If you make this lamp and place it in a room, some sort of change will happen to the villagers. In Dragon Quest, this is a household element and one minor, fun item.

The Slime with the little beanie hat is my personal favorite throwback in this room. Super cute!  

Theresa:

While knowing Dragon Quest lore certainly adds to the experience, players don’t need to have played previous Dragon Quest games in order to follow what’s going on and enjoy it. How did the development team ensure that this game would be so accessible for new players?

Fujimoto-san:

For Dragon Quest itself, the game designer, Mr. Horii, always chooses mechanics that the player can instinctively understand, and puts his heart into creating something that anyone can relax and play without having to look at the manual. When Mr. Horii playtests a game still under development, he always plays it as if he was a brand-new player. Then we revise all the stumbling points.

Dragon Quest Builders was developed with similar tests in mind, ensuring that even those with no knowledge of the Dragon Quest series can freely enjoy the game.

Theresa:

It’s an interesting design choice to have the player start each chapter from what is essentially square one, as they teleport to the next town with the most basic equipment and no access to their previous materials and constructions. What made the development team decide to structure the game in this way?

Fujimoto-san:

Actually, the initial plan was not to split the game into standalone chapters, but rather to have everything connect in one overarching flow. But during the development process, the director, Mr. Niinou, suggested that we make a big shift in this plan. He proposed that we split the story into more distinct chapters to address a problem that occurred when all of the pieces of the narrative were more interconnected.

To illustrate this problem, imagine that you’ve just rebuilt the town of Cantlin and moved on to the next area. If you’re still able to access the location you’ve completed, then collecting the resources you need for the work ahead will be a very simple task. And there goes the challenge of the game! We realized that it would be too easy of an exploit to harvest new materials by continuing to build up Cantlin throughout the game. For this reason, we changed direction and split the story experience into chapters, so that the player would be able to create each area with a refreshed outlook.

In making this change, there was a concern that you wouldn’t be able to revisit your experiences from chapters you already played*. So, we designed it so that, as the chapters unfold, some sort of progression occurs. It’s a spoiler, so I won’t say any more than that… (laughs).

*Spoiler-Free Note from Theresa: Discovering fun details in Story Mode is really fulfilling! Normally, sleeping in a game is a simple act to restore health, but in this game, there’s something more to uncover. Also, after completing a chapter in Story Mode, you’re able to unlock similar areas within Terra Incognita, so you can gather and build things that you’ve encountered previously.

There’s a satisfying feeling in creating so many things, and that over time, you’re able to build better and more complex creations. And in doing so, you feel this nice progression for your skills in the game, which sets you up for the ultimate challenge near the end.  

I hear the next town’s gonna be a real fixer upper…

Theresa:

Fair enough! (laughs) Let’s change topics, then… This game features music from a wide selection of Dragon Quest games. How did the team decide which tracks to include?

Fujimoto-san:

Well, to start, since the game is set in the world of Alefgard from the original Dragon Quest, we created arrangements of all of that title’s music. From there, since the game was developed with creation at its core, we pulled in songs from the numbered series that are relaxing. And for the emotional story scenes, we used stirring music from across the series.

Theresa:

What was the thought process behind adding the Great Sabrecub and Dragon Quest Game Pak as exclusives for the Nintendo Switch version?

Fujimoto-san:

Terra Incognita (free-build mode) is a vast land, so we thought it would be fun to enhance the player’s ability to move about quickly, take down monsters, and gather materials. That’s where the Great Sabrecub mount came in.

In Dragon Quest, the Great Sabrecat often appears as a mount, but in Dragon Quest Builders, its head didn’t look quite right, so we decided to use the cute Great Sabrecub for the first time.

We also have completely recreated the look of the original Dragon Quest game’s cartridge on the Famicom. We had an idea of placing it in the land of Dragon Quest Builders, and from there, thought about the possibility of creating retro Dragon Quest themed blocks and objects.

Pouncy! Pouncy! Pouncy!

Theresa:

As a follow-up question, can you tell us more about why the development team decided to make this exclusive content only accessible in Terra Incognita?

Fujimoto-san:

If you use them in the story mode, it breaks the balance of the game. Since strange blocks and objects exist in the landscape of Terra Incognita, we made sure the exclusive content was only usable there.

Theresa:

Thank you so much for your time today! As we wrap up here, do you have anything else you’d like to say to the fans?

Fujimoto-san:

We’d love it if you used the in-game feature to upload the cities and landscapes you’ve created in Terra Incognita. We are very interested in seeing what sort of world you have created in Dragon Quest Builders. I’m sure there are those who have beautifully revived the cities, or others who’ve completely destroyed their world’s mountains and cities and everything... (laughs)

We are working hard to develop Dragon Quest Builders 2, so we hope you are looking forward to it.

Also, for those of you who haven’t played Dragon Quest Builders yet, please go try the demo.

Ever feel like your day is just taking you around in circles?

Theresa:

Thank you so much to Fujimoto-san and the rest of the team at Square Enix for providing us some of the gritty details behind the development of Dragon Quest Builders. For me, this game has been a great intro piece to the Dragon Quest franchise and a comfortable gateway into building-style games. I hope you all get to experience it and share your stories—as well as your building masterpieces!

That’s it from me for now. Tune in next time, fellow gamers! ^^

—Theresa A.

[zippdementia]

The Main Resident Evil Games, Ranked

I’ve been playing Resident Evil games since Resident Evil 2 first terrified me as a 14 year old. I have fond memories of having to have my friend play through the sewer sections in that game, the ones involving giant spiders... and I also have fond memories of eventually overcoming those fears to achieve the coveted A Rank on the game and unlocking Hunk and Tofu (God, I had way more time back then). Since those early days, I’ve played through every main game in the series and have mostly kept up with the lore of the side games. It remains one of my favorite go-to franchises for its atmosphere and fun mix of horror and action, not to mention its over-the-top story, which always feels a little bit like Capcom browsed Reddit for its favorite fan fiction than turned it into an official game.

That said, this list looks at only the nine main games in the series (that’s Resident Evil 0 through 7, plus Code Veronica) as those are the only ones I’ve played, outside of obsessing for a month or two on Umbrella Chronicles... oh, and a brief, extremely un-fun run through Outbreak.

Because I started the series so long ago, I have a love in my heart for the old school fixed camera games and those that give us a healthy dose of survival horror over action, but I’ve tried to be as objective as possible in creating this list, keeping in mind that of course such things can never stray too far from the subjective. Also, as an added bonus, I’ve included a “scariness” ranking for each game separate from the main ranking. This, of course, is COMPLETELY subjective.

And with that, let’s do *assumes dark growly voice* RESIDENT EVIL: RANKING.

#9: Resident Evil 6

Resident Evil 6 is a mess of ideas and intentions. From the beginning, its development was hampered by too many cooks in the kitchen as various directors and producers continually changed their mind as to what the game should be. Eventually they settled on making it everything by breaking up the game into three extremely different short games, one that relies heavily on horror aspects, one on action aspects, and one on shooting aspects (including heavy use of a widely panned cover system). Unfortunately, these three approaches are intrinsically opposed to each other in terms of genre, gameplay, and aesthetic. Instead of pleasing all fans, this approach guaranteed that no matter who you are, you are going to like exactly one third of Resident Evil 6 and hate two thirds of it. It also highlighted for fans that Capcom no longer knew what its series wanted to be. The asinine story which arguably jumped the shark as far back as Code Veronica now captured that shark, put a saddle on it, and rode it around an arena while Chris Redfield did steroids. In short: the story was so nonsensical, it seemed to leave nowhere else for the series to go (a problem they just sort’ve ignored in Resident Evil 7). Resident Evil 6 has some fun elements to it, and it fixed many of the problems people had with bad companion AI and clunky run and gun mechanics, but it wasn’t enough to make the experience a good one.

Scary rank #9: In addition to being a poor game, Resident Evil 6 almost completely moves away from the game’s horror routes. Leon’s campaign has some nice tip of the hats to the old series, but the game never becomes scary. The fact that you run around with a partner for the entire thing and that those partners quip ridiculous lines like “it’s really powerful, especially against living things” means you’ll be cringing in embarrassment more than fear from this title.

#8: Resident Evil 0

Released in 2002, Resident Evil 0 feels like the final evolution of the old school style and systems of Resident Evil’s fixed camera games. The controls are smoother, the use of weapons easier, you can drop items directly on the floor and the game will keep them there for later retrieval, and there is the buddy system which represents a very early attempt at cooperative AI. Unfortunately, despite all of these improvements to the mechanics, the experience itself feels too well worn by this point to be very exciting. You can tell that the developers themselves were growing tired of the formula as they start to move away from zombies to other monsters... like, er, frogs. Yes, unfortunately the replacements aren’t very interesting: frogs, baboons, a giant bat, and an operatic villain feel like weak additions to the series and make it seem like the developers were out of ideas. The story fills in some of the backstory of the mansion incident but ultimately doesn’t push us forward towards anything new (which is what fans really wanted and wouldn’t get until RE4). Aside from an incredible opening sequence on a train and the criminally underused character of Billy, Resident Evil 0 is a very polished but very bland experience.

Scary Rank #6: The scariest thing about Resident Evil 0 is managing two characters. Trying to gather enough supplies for one person in Raccoon City is a trick in itself. Having to keep both members of your team well equipped, well healed, and ready to deal with the plethora of enemies they will face can be harrowing. It’s the rare occasion where having two does not feel better than having one. And then there’s the leechmen. I don’t know if it’s because they are sturdy or seem to pop up whenever you least expect it, or maybe it’s that music that plays when they attack, but the leechmen will freak me out and leave me with the jitters every time they show up. None of the other enemies are very frightening, though, and anytime I get too scared I just think back to that cinema scene of Markus singing opera to his leeches... and burst out laughing.

#7: Resident Evil Code Veronica

After the events of Resident Evil: Nemesis, no one was sure where Capcom could take the story next. Raccoon City had been destroyed, Umbrella Corps had fallen, and all of our heroes had been given somewhat happy endings. Enter Code Veronica, which blew open the possibilities again by reintroducing Albert Wesker. By now, Wesker is so well associated with Resident Evil as to be a cliche, but it was a huge surprise in 2000 when he was revived, green lizard eyes and all, to take on Chris Redfield once again. Suddenly people were talking about Resident Evil again and where it might go in the future. This success, however, is less impressive now that that future has arrived and there are better games to play in the series. Code Veronica always favored innovation over polish and it has not aged well as a result. Most notably, the game seems to demand more speed and fighting ability of its player than previous entries, pitting Claire and Chris against such fast moving villains as the Matrix-inspired Wesker and his pack of lightning quick hunter beasts. Combats tend to be fought in tighter quarters, sometimes to extremely frustrating effect, such as the infamous “Steve” battle (also, I hate Steve), or the Tyrant fight in the back of an airplane. Players who have not properly kept up their inventory with powerful weapons and healing items can find themselves stuck in these places, struggling with the clunky controls to try and dodge extremely damaging attacks. The atmosphere and story make Code Veronica worth the experience... but only barely.

Scary Rank #4: A lot of Code Veronica’s scares are due to the feeling that you can’t handle what the game is throwing at you. This is, as described above, a mixture of awful controls and enemies that are far too fast and resilient for most players to be able to take on with that control scheme. Still, it does make the experience harrowing. More legitimate scares come from the creepy gothic atmosphere and the bizarre nature of the Ashford twins. Alex is... ridiculous. But his sister Alexia brings to bear all the things we all hate about creepy little girls and then throws in some incest and patricide to boot. Alexia is a genuinely disturbing addition to the Resident Evil roster.

#6: Resident Evil 7

Resident Evil 7 had the Herculean task of redeeming Resident Evil as a series after the missteps of Resident Evil 6. And, for the most part, it succeeded at this. Choosing to return to the series’ horror routes, RE7 draws upon the influences of other games in the genre, most notably Alien Isolation and Outlast, to craft an experience that feels modernized and on par, atmospherically, with some of the best Resident Evil titles. There are moments that are absolutely terrifying and the game doesn’t stop feeling tense until very near the end. Gamers like myself who grew up with RE1 and RE2 love this return to form and find that the first-person perspective retains the feel of the old fixed camera without being as restrictive, creating a horror experience where you are constantly wondering what’s behind you (but at least have the ability to turn around and check). Even fans who are newer to the series seemed to collectively breath a sigh of relief when they played the game. Reading forums and Reddit threads reveals that most gamers find the game to be fresh and smart, and are happy that it lacked the emphasis on lore and the over the top mustache-twirling villains that dominated previous titles. Objectively, though, there are flaws that I think will not be looked on favorably the more it ages. The blocking system, for instance, feels shoehorned in as a quick fix to disguise the fact that you can’t dodge or easily slow an approaching enemy down. Then, too, the game tries to be an action game near the end and utterly fails at it, only highlighting its unsatisfying shooting mechanics. The Molded are scary but overall a let down as enemies, with little variety between their forms, and the boss fights are the worst in the entire series, being clumsy and frustrating and a weird tonal break from the rest of the game. So for as much as it gets right, Resident Evil 7 is hopefully a stepping stone to something better.

Scary Rank #3: For the most part, RE7 does stop being scary after the first couple of hours, but holy shit those first couple of hours. There is more terror crammed into the initial exploration of the Baker house than in the entirety of most of the other games in the series. I was actually glad when the scares let up a bit to give me a breather, but it never quite reaches the same “heart attack” level again. That doesn’t mean there aren’t moments of terror sprinkled throughout: the wrecked ship has wonderful atmosphere, and despite having terrible boss fights, the battle against Margueritte is a stand out experience, making you constantly spin around to see if that creepy woman is crawling around behind you. More often than not, just as you turn, she’ll drop on you from above. Seriously, I don’t know how people play this on VR.

#5: Resident Evil 5

As the game that introduced functional multiplayer into the series, Resident Evil 5 remains popular to this day. As I type this, there are probably at least a dozen people live-streaming the game on twitch for the billionth time, and people are still tuning in to watch. Resident Evil 5′s lasting power comes from an absolutely incredible campaign that takes players through a wealth of diverse environments. Its combat situations are well crafted and each one feels a little different from the last, demanding different things of its players in each new area. Whether it’s fighting your way out of a crowd or solving puzzles while keeping back hordes of enemies, Resident Evil 5 keeps throwing new things at the player to ensure they don’t get bored. Its boss fights are similarly diverse and well paced (with a couple exceptions... that stupid jeep fight key among them). Graphically, it still looks good and mechanically some people think (myself included) that it actually plays a little smoother than its successor, Resident Evil 6 (some people say it looks better, too). The game’s main failings come from the fact that it is about 100% less fun to play as a single player experience and from the fact that the game let go of pretty much any horror elements, opting instead for pure action. The result is a game that is one of the most fun to play in the entire series even while it is also the furthest removed from the roots of the series and probably feels the least like a Resident Evil game.

Scary Rank #8: Resident Evil 5 traded in dark nights for African sunshine and switched out zombies for... tribal warriors? No matter what RE5 does, it just seems to be less scary then when it was done before. The Lickers make a triumphant return... but aren’t as scary as they were in Resident Evil 2. The El Gigante fight in the jeep is frustrating and feels like a weird arcade game. Only the fight against Jill and Wesker manages to be tense and even there tension is somewhat broken by Wesker’s drawling accent and ridiculous dialog. Resident Evil 5 is an action game first and foremost, which does little to sell it in the scariness department.

#4: Resident Evil 1 (REmake)

Resident Evil 1 (even before being remade in all its graphical and mechanical glory on the Nintendo Gamecube in 2002) had all of the right elements to create a lasting franchise. It featured incredible sound design and cinematic camera angles, designed not only to keep you guessing what was around the corner but to emulate camera shots used in actual horror movies. For the time it was released, it was mind blowing, unlike anything else on the market in terms of both ambition and quality. More than anything, it was its precise timing that was so impressive. For a horror experience to be good, the timing has to be perfect. That’s easier to do in a film, where the director has control over what the audience experiences and when they experience it. But in an interactive game it’s very difficult. There has to be just enough breathing room to get the player comfortable. Musical cues have to be spot on. That jump scare has to happen at exactly the right moment to have its full impact. And for all of this to work the director has to be able to anticipate what the player will do and where they will go and when they will do it. Resident Evil understood these barriers and crushed them with a key understanding of how gamers play. REmake only improved on this with added enemies (like the infamous Crimson Heads and Lisa Trevor) and new jump scares. The result? Very few of the Resident Evil games since REmake have felt quite so well made. Some took bigger risks, and some are more memorable, but the one that started it all established a formula so good that everything else the series does has been informed by it. Wesker, the Tyrant, creepy mansions... they are all here and as good as ever they will get.

Scary Rank #1: Resident Evil 1 never stops being tense. You never seem to have enough ammo, never enough healing items. You always wonder if this time through the hallway will be the time something jumps out at you. The remake makes this worse with the inclusion of Crimson Heads, which make zombies rise from the dead faster and more resilient (and with a heck of a scary growl), but even the original kept the mansion scary by throwing in those damnable Hunters just when you thought you’d cleared the place out. Speaking of the Remake, can anyone say Lisa Trevor? Dear lord, she alone gives this the number one spot on the list. It may never make your heart pound as hard as Resident Evil 7 does in its most intense moments, but Resident Evil 1 keeps the pressure on for longer and it truly is a sigh of relief when you get picked up by Brad’s helicopter at the end of the game. The first is still the best when it comes to putting your heart in your throat.

#3: Resident Evil Nemesis

Resident Evil Nemesis is a roller-coaster from start to finish, packed with so much action that it is hard to remember that it is possibly the shortest game in the main series. Nemesis doesn’t waste space, transforming Raccoon City into a constantly changing arena. Running around the ruins of Raccoon City as the zombie invasion hits full swing, you witness the city fall further and further into destruction as the streets gradually fill up with harder and harder enemies. No area feels safe in Nemesis, as even spots you’ve cleared previously can repopulate with new enemies. I say “can” because Nemesis keeps players on their toes with a randomly generating enemy system that changes where and when certain enemies appear, meaning you can’t get too comfortable in Raccoon City, even on subsequent playthroughs. And any time you do finally get some breathing room, the quiet is interrupted by a deep voice growling out “STARS...” Originally intended to be only a side story, Nemesis earns its rightful place among the main series mostly due to its titular villain, who is the most impressive of all of Resident Evil’s monsters. Years before Papa Baker would chase you through the halls of his bayou home, the nearly unstoppable Nemesis was already terrifying players by breaking all the old rules of where an enemy would go, chasing players around huge portions of the game’s map, breaking through doors and walls to continue the chase and even equipping a rocket launcher to target players at a distance. There are other innovations that shouldn’t go unnoticed here, either, such as a last-second dodge feature that encourages players to be more aggressive and get up close with enemies. There’s also the “choose your own adventure” timed choices that pop up in intense moments, like when the Nemesis is bearing down on you and you have to choose to jump out of a window or try and blow him up. Sometimes one option is better than another, and sometimes the option changes the story, leading to high replayability. And if you ever get tired of the main game, there is the unlocked Mercenaries mode. That’s right, it wasn’t Resident Evil 4 that started that. Like so many things, Nemesis did it first. All of these quirks and innovations, alongside the incredible non-stop pace, make Nemesis still a blast to play today and one heck of a send off to Raccoon City.

Scary Rank #2: Because the action moves so fast in Nemesis, you will never get a chance to calm down. Not to mention Nemesis himself is a walking jump scare. If Resident Evil 7 proves that being chased makes for some of the scariest moments in a video game, then Nemesis makes you feel chased for the entire game. The only thing that keeps it from being as scary as Resident Evil 1 is that it is over sooner.

#2: Resident Evil 4

Resident Evil 4 represented a revolution in the series, ushering it from its old-school fixed camera routes into a more modern over the shoulder style of play. I struggled with this change throughout my entire first playthrough, upset with the fact that it abandoned the old formulas. Gone were zombies, gone were most of the scares, gone were most aspects of survival horror. But then I also found myself dreaming of it, saying “heheh, what are you buying?” until my girlfriend asked me to stop, and starting over and playing it over from the beginning as soon as I had beaten it. Despite the change in direction, it was a game I didn’t want to end, and I’ve gone on to purchase it on nearly every system its been released on. I’m not alone in this: Resident Evil 4 is one of the most successful games in the franchise and indeed one of the most influential video games of all time. It didn’t only redefine what Resident Evil was for an entire new generation of gamers, it also redefined how people thought of third person shooters, opening the doors for everything from Gears of War to Uncharted. If you load it up today, you’ll find it takes an hour or so to get used to the older controls, but the game was so well designed that once you do you’ll see how everything in the game caters to those controls, creating an enticing run, stop, aim, shoot cycle that is addictive and never stretches beyond its limitations. Of the over the shoulder Resident Evil games, Resident Evil 4 feels the most complete, not requiring a co-op experience to make it good nor relying on years of lore to understand and care about its story and characters. Resident Evil 5 may have been fun, but it never got quite this good again.

Scary Rank #7: Resident Evil 4 is often tense, because of the nature of its gameplay, which forces you to stand still while shakily aiming at oncoming enemies. It never really gets scary, though. Enemies are too slow and your bullets too numerous, your spin kicks too awesome, to make you truly feel vulnerable. It does get props for a certain boss that chases you relentlessly through a certain caged area... oh, and for the Regeneradors. The Regeneradors, with their constant snuffling sound and their twitchy gait, are among the scariest enemies ever in Resident Evil. But a few minutes of pure terror isn’t enough to ignore the heavy focus on action and the fact that Leon carries enough firepower to wage his own war.

#1: Resident Evil 2

Resident Evil 1 may have started the franchise but it was Resident Evil 2 which jumpstarted the fan base. Resident Evil 2 had a lot to prove, mainly that this series could survive (pun intended) more than a single outing, that it could expand its scope, grow its cast of characters, and build on its setting. And boy did it deliver. If Resident Evil 1 broke ground when it came out, then Resident Evil 2 dug deeper. One mansion became a city. The two selectable characters did more than have different items and slightly change the order of events. Now, you had to play both characters one after the other to experience the full story. As if that wasn’t enough, the game changed depending on which character you played first, and in order to see everything the game had to offer, you had to play four times. Granted, two of those times would feel awfully similar, but the A&B scenarios changed just enough about the story and scenarios to make it well worth every second. The scares of the first game remained mostly intact but now a healthy dose of video game action was thrown in and boss fights became more numerous and dynamic, creating what remain the series’ best and most diverse boss fights. Simply put, Resident Evil 2 is a masterpiece of realized ambition that hasn't been matched by any other game in the series. It’s one failing now is that it is old, both graphically and in terms of controls. There’s a reason that fans have been clamoring for a remake of this for so long! But I’m glad Capcom waited so long to do it. Resident Evil 2 needs more than a new coat of paint. It is a carefully constructed experience and care is going to be required to give it a second life on par with the original experience. Here's hoping 2019 delivers on that.

Scary Rank #5:  One of the best things about Resident Evil 2 is that you aren’t playing special forces this time around. Claire Redfield is a simple citizen and Leon Kennedy a rookie cop. They feel, from the opening cutscenes, completely out of their element which added a wonderful connection between them and the player. Unlike the first game, you don’t start off in a safe situation that grows worse the longer you explore. No, you start off in a goddamned car wreck, surrounded by zombies and not nearly enough bullets to fight them. From the beginning, Resident Evil 2 highlights that you need to run to survive. Then it introduces Lickers, which add a whole new element to jump scares and you think that the game may be too frightening to keep playing. But also around this time it introduces you to grenade launchers and shotguns and lots of ammo for both of them. This makes the Resident Evil 2 scares manageable because the reaction to anything that moves in that game is to scream and then douse it with either buckshot or acid rounds.

[effloresceawe]

Post 6. A Ludological analysis of El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron.

Introduction:

El Shaddai: ascension of the Metatron is a single player hack and slash game unlike any other. Its gameplay style is the classic third person hack slash location based game that follows a linear path. But it also has 2D platform and rail shooter elements.

Narrative.

The story of el Shaddai Is based on the dogmatic texts called “The Book of Enoch”.

It tells the story of Enoch, a human so righteous and kind that god gave him a place amongst the angels. Which was unprecedented. One day Enoch is working as a clerk in heavens great library, and is approached by Lucifel (who is obviously Lucifer before his fall, giving the player an idea of the timeline without having to specify it) with a request (not command, showing gods respect for Enoch), 7 angels have fled from heaven taking some of God’s knowledge with them and god asks Enoch to go get it and them back. Also God will grant Enoch immortality on earth to defeat the angels.

Enoch doesn’t even have to think about this, he immediately gets going.

This gives the player an idea of Enoch’s character from the very start. He is a true hero, he knows people are in troubles, asks no questions and acts immediately. Ibrave yes, but maybe also a bit stupid?

He takes a kind of celestial elevator down to earth. When he arrives he has to make a start as time moves differently in heaven than it does earth. So it’s been about 100 years since then angels fell, an in that time they have had a lot of time to hide themselves from even god’s gaze. They have also shared god’s knowledge with the humans and technology has disrupted the natural evolution of mankind.

Enoch searches for their whereabouts for a very long time as the angels have hidden themselves very well. The game goes into a sort of montage at this point letting the player control Enoch as he runs along the bottom of the screen. Telling the story of Enoch’s journey to find them over around 200 years in a very sort amount of time.

Enoch eventually finds a tower the angels have erected in behind a hidden veil, he then starts to ascend the tower, he is greeted at the very beginning of the tower by Beliel, the head angel, and is quickly trounced by him, this is a clear indicator of the angels vanity, belief in the own power and that they are still out of gods reach.

Enoch recover from the beating and continues up the tower through each of the fallen angels separate worlds, each reflecting their own desires for a life on earth, i.e. a nursery, a nightclub, a futuristic landscape that humans had created with the knowledge that the angels had stolen from god. Enoch then climbs the tower defeating angel after angel, every now and checking in with Lucifel and eventually meeting up with the child reincarnation of the Istar.

I will say this about the games narrative though, that it kind of just gives you the story expecting the player to know it already. It’s very broken and the miss a lot of back story, which they constantly reference. So the player doesn’t really know what is going on. What element of the backstory the player get given in the form of the freeman note, which come in poetically vague verse that the player must decipher, thus, not really giving a back story at all.

The narrative is an age old hero’s journey trope, he given a quest by an unseen entity, given incredibly powers by this unseen force and then must do whatever he has be asked of, much to his own detriment.

Information:

The player is given all the information at the beginning of the game, In a 4th wall breaking tutorial. A tutorial that treats itself AS a tutorial.

I narrative information through the game is provided exclusively via characters and collectables.

The environment itself give the plater information too. The linear paths tell the player where to go with no deviation.

There’s definitly a lore component to the narrative, but its comes across more thought dialogue, which comes mostly from lucifer, home oddly enough act’s as sort of a virgirl to you dante in this game.

Components:

All in all, el Shaddai has very little components. There is one playable character, a variety of enemies and collectables. That is all.

The game is an exercise in design by subtraction. In the attempt to make something pure. Fitting being that it’s a game about angels. Nice little aesthetic  tie in there, honestly the whole game is a masterpiece of theme, using an concept as ethereal as “grace” and then building a game around it. Where every component of the machine feeds back into the spirit of the thing. Inspired is what it is. Truly breath-taking design.

Collectables:    

Red orbs = Fill up “hyper mode”

Hearts = health (Obviously)

Freemen notes = Notes of the corpses of the freemen resistance group, telling the story of the fall of Istar

Istar shards = Shards of Istar’s armour littered throughout gameplay, Unlocks a “invincible armour” on next play through.

Weapons = Arch, veil, and gale. (Sword, shield and gun)

Ruleset:

 The games ruleset I also incredibly simple. Gameplay is 80% combat and 20% platforming. So it’s safe to say that the core gameplay aspect is combat.

All aspects of the combat can be boiled to a basic rock, paper, and scissor formula.

Enemies and bosses follow have three styles of combat  based on the weapon the have (in the enemies case) or what type of attacks they use (in the bosses case), The weapons create the ruleset, and players ability is the what affects the outcome.

 Enemies/weapon outline:

Knight/Arch (sword): quick and agile, weak to gale as sword is to gun. Strong against shield, as it is quick and able to “get round” the shields defences.  

Archer/gale (projectile): swift, graceful and with over powered tidal wave like attacks that simply over power a player equipped with an arch. Weak against veil.

Tanks/veil (Shield/gauntlet fists): slow, but incredibly powerful, three hit kill enemy. Strong against projectiles as its shield can deflect the projectiles and get in close to enemy and overpower. Weak against archs as they are too fast for them.

Enoch cannot die either. Given the power of immortality by god. The player can press the back two buttons in a rhythmic pattern to revive Enoch in battle, but if you are unable to do this in time, Enoch will miraculously turn up at the beginning of the area in which he died in.

The basic, stripped down, main goal rule of el Shaddai is simply: fight your way to the top of the tower.

   Goal hierarchy:

El Shaddai goals system is a purely narrative driven as opposed to a token/point/prize/score goal system game mechanic.

As I said before the main goal of el Shaddai is to get to the top of the tower and kill the angels. There are no other goals. The player can collect collectables along the way, but there is basically no deviation from the narrative.

You are given a quest from god and you do what he asks of you. But as the game progress the narrative changes from just simply kill the angels to something more empathic as the narrative develops.

Interface:

The interface is minimal to the point of non-existent. There is no HUD, so no health bar, score or gauge indicating “hyper mode”. The player can only tell the characters health by the amount of armour that hasn’t been beaten off him and by the edge of the screen becoming red and cracked.

This is an emersion tool. Making the games seem more like a movie than a game.

It is worth mentioning that if you play through the game again, after the first time, you are given an option to have a HUD display. Showing health, HYPER bar and even a score. The reason for this seems more like humour than placating a certain type of player.

It also indicates that on the first play that the director did this so you would play it the way he intended it to be played, as a work of art.

It also goes along with the games sort of self-referential surreal humour that japan is famous for.

Players:

There is only one player. The player moves the character through levels fighting enemies as they come to the top of the tower.

The player’s motivation at the beginning of the game is simple, because Lucifel and the archangels have told Enoch (or rather the player) what his motivation is. Stop the angels from messing up earth. The player’s motivation changes due to the narrative changes.  Basically, as other characters are introduced the game/players motivation elements become more varied.

Game mechanics:

In regards to game mechanics, el Shaddai is unusual compared to other hack and slash games. In which there would normally be a light attack and heavy attack. El Shaddai gives the player very little controls, you can block, steal/purify, jump and attack.

It’s the player ability to time button presses that affects the outcome of combat. Mere button bashing in el Shaddai will not do. The player must be graceful as an angel in his button combos.

In combat the player cannot “lock on” to enemies. But rather is controlled by the player pointing the character in the direction of the enemy and then the character will lock on automatically.

As I said before the combat mechanic is a rock, paper, and scissor formula.

If Enoch has no weapon equipped he can beat an enemy with his bare hands till the enemy is stunned, and then can proceed to steal said enemies weapon. You will need to do this during battle, but fortunately in every battle there will be enemies with corresponding weapons that the player can steal. Weapons of enemies are “impure” and must be purified by Enoch, the weapons also get impure as you use them on enemies. The less pure the weapon is the less damage it can do and the more likely it is to shatter.

Environments:

In regards to environment compared to other hack and slash games, el Shaddai is unique. Theme and boss architypes are directly connected to the environment. The look and style of each level is related to the currently chapters “Boss”, Thus making the environment and narrative basically two sides of the same coin, telling the story through environment.

Each environment that the players finds himself is also incredibly beautiful, Using perspective, screen filters and illusion to create unique style.

Theme:

The theme of el Shaddai is evident. The whole game is dripping in dogmatic Christian myth. There’s a weird extra layer to it though, Its almost like a romanisation of the thing, maybe because Christianity is so prevalent here in the west, whereas compare to Japan, Christianity is treated more like a mythology.

A game so steeped in angels mean its very gameplay is graceful. The gameplay mirrors the theme and vice versa. The story theme is simple also, it’s about doing the right thing even if it’ll kills you, and from the antagonist point of view, it’s also about free will. (As it always is with angels).

The game also has a lot of humour, it’s fairly self-referential in the special kind of surrealism that only japan does, there are lots of moments when the game is very self-aware.

Personal Opinion:

It’s is an absolute shame that El Shaddai remains a relatively hidden gem. It’s a absolute work of art. The voice acting is amazing- It’s just so raw and perfectly realistically delivered. The art style is unlike anything ever, It’s like a journey through different eras of art at some points. The gameplay is akin to games like Neir Automator (even thought it was its predecessor), in so much like Nier Automator it absolutely defies genreization.  It’s not one thing, its many, all working together in perfect harmony. It’s not trying to fit to many opposing and messy ideas into one thing, to be gorged on like an all you can eat buffet. It’s a journey instead. Taking the player on one hell of a ride.