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drdubz · 2 years ago

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SPOILERFUL Thoughts on Freedom Planet 2.

It��s like 5am and I’m awake and thinking about FP2. I kinda love this game. I love it enough to have gone through 2 of the 4 campaigns and am happy to start the next. Gameplay is crisp and fun, some of the best I’ve had with an action orientated 2D platformer. The art is gorgeous and the writing is charming in a Saturday morning cartoon kind of way without feeling too much like it’s trying too hard (except Mayor Zhao, fanfare a bit too much and under utilized, but that’s personal preference talking) which is refreshing. It even manages to be somewhat mostly respectful to the concepts it portrays, namely tackling the messy concept of colonialism and its effects through the ages. It’s sanitized to an extent, but not at all brushed to the side and is treated with enough respect an acknowledgement that it doesn’t come off as sympathetic to the current powers. That, however, is an entirely different blog for someone more knowledgeable on the subject, and not what I’m thinking about.

What I’m thinking about is the first playthrough I did with a character I really liked at first. After that and the second playthrough with Lilac, I feel that she is severely held back in her potential. I was also not prepared for how much of a cop (derogatory) she was.

I’m talking about Neera.

So, her design whips and her gameplay is fun. Her whole deal is she’s a peacekeeper and advisor under direct command of the current major power of the the world, the Magister of Shang Tu, and is fiercely protective of her home and people. With the game’s main antagonist Merga sharing a similar mantra, she’s set up to be connected as such. This kind of doesn’t land and makes her seem more like the sideline protagonist the other three members of the playable group treat her like, which in itself is an interesting concept.

In the first game she was a boss, an obstacle for the other three. Now she’s thrown in awkwardly with them to stop a common foe and since she’s new, brushes up against the other three’s more carefree nature. That in itself is interesting enough. The actions of someone dedicated to her home Shang Tu, the ruling power whose leaders did do an oopsie woopsie fucking colonialism that they changed history of centuries ago but has since then mellowed out and isn’t that any more, is a perfect blueprint for some good ol’ “are my ideals correct” action.

Her duty rubs up against the other three in some interesting ways too, though here lies the missed opportunity. She composes herself too quickly, and the others just shrug their shoulders and run with it. She literally threatens to kill one member and it’s played off as a joke. In the grand scheme of things, her ideals aren’t really challenged, rather just tested on easy mode. ‘Is it correct to protect my people from someone wanting to essentially destroy the planet?’ Obviously yes. ‘Is it okay to do it by any means necessary?’ Uh... not really? Unfortunately, that is the extent of it, and it feels wrong given the gravity of the Shang Tusians ignorance to the attrocities of the past.

The Game plays out in three acts. The first two have a system where you select an episode out of three, which then forces you into a series of levels ending in a major plot point. The choice exists to break up the linear nature a little, and honestly it’s welcome. However the problem arises that these plot points have to be developed in a way that would make sense for them to be done out of order. There are moments in the main story where single members break off from the group to pursue their own goals. Carol runs off to convince her sister to not do something dumb, Milla has a run in with Serpentine from the old game and wrestles with her origin and Lilac decides to go alone to confront Merga, as she and her are the only water dragons remaining on the entire planet. This is marred slightly by the fact that the game still has to run with the episodes, and the levels and scenarios still play out the same only with different dialogue. Neera doesn’t have this. Her foil is built up to be the treacherous Askal, but in the end it doesn’t quite land as she doesn’t have a moment where she breaks off to stop him, and EVERYONE basically has the same fight with him. In the first game, there were different levels for different characters, albeit only three instead of four. This game doesn’t take advantage of that, and while it works fine, the story never fully reaches a level of threat and drama it desperately tries to show. It is here that I reveal who I feel should have been Neera’s foil:

This idiot. This absolute goober. This dumbass who isn’t even used in the final levels onboard Bakunawa. I definitely feel this game needed some level mixup among characters. The jungle assault could have been mandatory, and solidified the intent to break up the characters for a spell (with Carol observing from a distance on her way to confront her sister), since tensions are high after Carol’s departure. Admittedly Milla’s moment could have been in the first act where she encounters Serpentine again, but she and Lilac can work together in this, as there’s a point where Milla and Neera argue about the destruction of the jungle.

At that point Neera could have absolutely splintered off, as she’s already had to deal with a traitor Askal, a deserter Carol and now a teenage Milla questioning the purity of her resolve, with Lilac taking Milla’s side (who’s already gone off at Neera for dubbing Carol a traitor). Kalaw at this point is setting up beacons around the island they’re on to do... something, but the group decide it’s wrong and go after him. It’s a halfway point in one of the episodes in act two, and I feel it is not the best send off for one of the most charismatic and interesting villains who’s trying to be a hero. When defeated, he goes mask off, he admits to it when the characters accuse him of cosplaying as a hero, and he truthfully and desperately WANTS to be one, thus is moved by the very real injustice that Merga went through. He is still misguided and he can realise that, but the moment Neera is all high and mighty about it, he could have slammed her with the truth that she was willing to ruin an entire country’s ecosystem, HIS people, to save her own people, making her mission dangerously similar to Merga’s intentions. This could have been Neera’s personal level, where the Magister questions Kalaw truly wanting to save Parusa, and Neera, already frustrated, goes after him with the intent to simply stop him, not discern his intentions.

Once those intentions are revealed, it could be a real moment where she realises the shit she feeds herself, the nationalism that poisons her world view. The exclamation point would have been when her own Magister, her superior, tells her what she believes in is just, but ultimately wrong, which again happens, but was going to happen regardless of Neera’s own worldview changing or not.. In the end, everyone has a piece to say about Merga’s intentions to her face after they defeat her. Neera could have empathised in a way that admits that, in a different life, if the roles were reversed, she would have absolutely done the same. The difference is that she had people to tell her no, and enough failures under her belt to humble her. She could have been flawed as hell, but ready to change. It’s there, but it’s not quite been built up enough, and that unfortunately could be a flaw of the game’s linear design.

Game dev is hard though. What we have is a pretty alright, cohesive and interesting enough story wrapped in solid and exciting gameplay. It’s fantastic overall, but I feel it could have been pushed to extraordinary if the game let the story really get into that personal shit.

As for the future, I don’t want a Freedom Planet 3. I want that DLC where you’re limited to two characters, to wrap up Merga’s arc alongside Lilac. To see the adventure of one of the two remaining water dragons on the entire planet desperately trying to find closure, would be beautiful. Also, Merga I imagine being turbo Lilac, would be sick to control.

But yeah, my thoughts on what I feel is missed potential in an otherwise incredible experience. I’m gonna eat. Laters!

#freedom planet

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cryo-lily · 2 years ago

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Swtor Player Asks

2, 6, 8, 9, 15

Thanks for the ask!

2. What is your favorite class and why? And/or list the player classes in order of most -> least favorite.

Honestly? Jedi Consular has been been my fav so far where I started a redux play through of my Main so I don't repeat my first blind play through where I made some choices I wasn't happy with. I'm honestly all about the Wise Healer slowly becoming more and more disillusioned the more the Consular class story goes on; Wanting to do good only to be just another pawn in just another war.

But I will say Sith Inquisitor quickly shot up the list to a very close second. Just everything about that class story really. Zash? I both love and hate her. Seeing her on Nathema the first time made me go feral. I'm totally not debating playing with the story beat of she didn't die then and will come back AGAIN later down the line... lol. That and the whole force ghost story bits, and the end of the class story? *(Chefs kiss)*

Least fav? Jedi Knight. The whole light vs dark side bits were waaay to ridged for my tastes. Yes Kira was like a little sister to my character, No that doesn't mean she's turning to the dark side.

6. Do you primarily play Republic, Empire, or a mix of both sides? Is there a specific reason for this preference?

Currently I mostly play the pub side only because most of my Cartel items/purchases are reedemed on Isadola (my main). I have been slowly leaning towards playing more of both as I dust off my Sith Inquisitor more and more. But I'm not gunna lie I love the Imp fleet a lot more, it's design is much more up my alley.

8. Name your top favorite companions (feel free to include reasons why).

Ohh, that's a bit of a list but I'll stick with my top 5. Top of the list is Lana hands down, She's Issie's better half among other things that would be too long to list here. Number 2 slot is HK-51, I've had him for less than a few weeks and I would already die for my assassin bot buddy. Next in number 3 & 4 is Nadia & Ashara, My fav force students that are borderline sisters to each of my mains. And number 5 is Khem Val easily, I love my big morose monster of a teddy bear. He reminds me a lot personality wise of my old cat. So yea.. I got quite attached to him.

9. How about your least favorite companions?

Doc. Hands down, no list. Dude does not take "no" for an answer. Kira was close to killing him? Girl would have to get in line behind me as I throw his ass out the air lock. At least Tharan took the hint when you shoot him down, but fuck does Doc just not let it go if you're playing a female jedi. Not to mention he's so fucking full of himself. I could rant all day about this, and no shame to those that do like him, but Doc just rubbed me in all the wrong ways and there was no way I could get rid of him. He made a tedious playthrough like I was pulling teeth.

15. Show us your main(s)!

You mean fav swtor OCs/ my mains? Hell yeah!

First we have Isadola Ardeen Shir (Or known as Issie by those closest to her); Jedi Consular, Miraluka.

This girl can hide so much trauma in her.

I've been trying to write more stuff for her considering she's the Character I have almost literally all my time/progress on. I feel I need to do her backstory justice.

Now my other main, Or in Issie's case the other side of the mirror-

We have the Sith AU Issie, otherwise known as Atteia Ulla Shir, Sith Inquisitor.

Small changes in their shared backstory resulted in her becoming Sith instead. In this timeline she lost her original name, and was given another.

In some sense they are both the same person and different people. And if you forced them to meet, they would probably try to kill each other over who suffered more in what little of their pasts that they share, but would be stuck in a stalemate because they are both on the same power level as the other.

Best quote I can borrow for these two is from Bioshock Infinite: "Constants and Variables". These two are the almost literal embodiment of that quote.

#swtor #swtor ask game #swtor ocs #Thank you again for the ask!!#Always happy to just talk/rant about this game with other players!! ^-^#oc: isadola ardeen #oc: atteia ulla

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asteriuszenith · 4 years ago

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So anyway, time for your daily "PLEASE PLAY THE GLITCHED DEMO AND SHOW THE GAME SOME SUPPORT" reminder to all my followers because I have been loving this game so damned much ever since I've found out about it and played its demo.

I added the link to the source of this post cause tumblr works better with that but anw.

Just a little bit of warning about GLITCHED. It's a very heavy fourth wall breaking (if the fourth wall even exists in this game) meta game with the characters directly mentioning you and the main character talking to you. In fact, with what the game is planning on exploring in its themes, the main character's derealization and existential crisis might trigger your own derealization so please keep that in mind. And uh, there may be some... Deaths. There's one in the demo, I won't say where but yeah, some trigger warning on that too.

That aside, GLITCHED is a really good game and it has so much lore brimming within its surface and so much stuff to discover with its essence system that every single replay will give you something new to discover. Not only that, each essence basically gives you a new set of choices, a new set of possible scenarios for a situation and wide varying options for how you can resolve or exacerbate a situation that no single playthrough is going to be the same. And I literally mean that.

So basically how it works is that there are different essences in the game, like... Major personality quirks and whatnot. That's not to say you can't change essences mid game because you actually can! Depending on how you've been venturing through the world of Soren and the choices that you make you can change from one essence to another.

There are six essences:

1. Harmony

2. Bastion

3. Conquest

4. Insight

5. Drift

6. Zeal

So the main character, Gus, he's basically ala... Frisk but he KNOWS that you are there. Like he literally talks to you and you can talk to him. With those six essences, the major one basically presents his main personality. For example, Insight Gus would make him more curious and more prone to asking the right questions to the other characters, you also get a bit more lore about the world in this playthrough. Harmony Gus on the other hand would have an easier way of deescalating a conflict, letting you go for a more 'pacifist' sort of playthrough. Those kind of stuff.

So a good example on how diverse and complex the choices system based on the essence system is that... In Insight vs Harmony Gus, one of the possible boss fights would be sort of an unavoidable conflict because only Harmony Gus could appeal to the boss' actual feelings about their role and encourage them to take the path that they actually wanted to take (I'm being as vague as I could because I don't want spoilers ha). Drift Gus on the other hand would be more likely to rush into a situation and then be more dismissive or far too curious that it's too much. Like an example of this would be, one character in the game demo laments that their life has never been the same since the incident. Drift Gus could pry for details on what event exactly caused that situation and the character would tell you their backstory AT THE COST of getting into a fight with them because their emotions overwhelmed them while telling you their story and they just... After the battle, they're just basically given up. Harmony Gus in that situation would be able to empathize with the character and soothe them, reassuring them at the cost of not being able to find out about their backstory BUT the character would give you a neat equip item and would be able to overcome their own grief over their situation.

And that's just like... Two of the differences that your main essence could cause in your gameplay! There's so much more! Outside of the essence system, you can also choose how to proceed in a location.

For example, Covewood, there are at my count four different ways you could exit out of Covewood. Three requires you to communicate with the characters in the location and the last one is a shortcut out of Covewood that I found with the essence skill that Drift essence gave me! And of course, with this game being heavily dependent on the choices that you make, the way you went through Covewood will affect future events in a way that we currently haven't seen since... You know, that's for the full game.

Oh and another thing! So magic exists in the world of Soren and you have a main magic skill based on your Main Essence. The ones that I've found are

1. Harmony - Eases the worries of the other characters when used on them and also gives your character the ability to see lost souls and help them pass on with the magic

2. Insight - Allows you to examine every item and character with more details. I've found a lot of lore stuff about the world of Soren from the artifacts that I've examined with this skill

3. Drift - Allows you to find hidden pathways and items. A good example of this would be, I was able to find a path into a house that I didn't even know was there in my past playthroughs without having to get the key to go inside it from another character. I also found hidden pathways to nice items and also majorly, a hidden pathway to an exit out of Covewood without having to deal with the other characters and routes in the location.

I still haven't seen the other skills since I've only done those three essence playthroughs but yeah! There's so much stuff that you can do here.

Anyway, that's it for my daily PLEASE PLAY GLITCHED AND SUPPORT IT reminder to everyone lmao.

You can access the demo in the source link that I attached to this post! :D

Peace out~

#glitchedgame #indie game #game recs #game

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marina-roslinka · 4 years ago

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This is my first time writing something like this, so it's a little bit sht, but I'm posting it anyway since I promised it to you guys.

Michael, Trevor, and my rant.

The first thing I want to say about those characters is that I believe they meant to be together, they cannot exist without each other. Yes, I know it sounds like cheesy line from romantic novel. But before you roll your eyes, let me explain.

Let’s remember their signature colors: blue and orange. You see, I think they play a big part in understanding them as individuals and as a relationship and their dynamics. You can read about the color analysis here if you like to.

I personally want to look at it from a little different perspective. To be more precise about elements Fire and Water: Trevor represents fire and Michael is water of course.

Those two men have a different understanding of what life is supposed to be and what it means to be alive. Trevor being a fire element is always trying to rile up Michael, making him angry and emotional like himself.

Michael on the other hand obviously thinks that Trevor is too much, that he needs to calm down and too bright, too hot, that eventually, he will burn not only himself but also everyone else around.

We see examples of that a few times throughout the game. For example when he tried to convince Trevor to change his current lifestyle and “grow up” and it’s not good for him.

“M: Alright man, here we go. Tough love time. T: I'll take it tough, I'll take it sissy, I'll take it any way you're giving it. M: When you gonna get it together, bro? Most guys as they get older, they pull their foot off the gas. T: You always did like to judge people. M: I ain't judging, I'm trying to help. T: Help with what? You think I need help 'cause my lifestyle is worse than everyone elses? M: The speed, the horniness, the killings. T: You kill, and you satisfy your urges - only you think you're above everything. Tough love time! M: Fine. Fine! You think what you like. But you know I care, and you know I tried.”

Going back to the whole "They can't exist without each other" thing.

Why?

Too much fire you will burn. Too much cold, you will freeze. This is the exact reason why I think that they need each other. To create a balance. Again, you can clearly see this in the story. Michael is depressed, sad and bored out of his mind by the pool.

Trevor is crazier than ever with no direction and no purpose. Just pure chaos.

“T: Mas o menos. Michael didn’t have a nerve back then. I didn’t have a direction”

It’s obviously not perfect since they both are fucked up people.

You can describe Michael's attitude towards Trevor with the same example. You can love fire for numerous reasons, right? You can look at and feel calm, feel warm or maybe it helps you to reflect on yourself. However, fire is also very dangerous. It can be unpredictable. One spark can light the fire and it may not even possible to stop it.

But Michael is able to.

Throughout the game Michael said and done things that made Trevor very angry. Like, other people would have been dead angry. He can make him change his mind or even stop him from killing someone. Because, as I said, he represents water.

This is why I believe that Michael’s fear of Trevor is not usual. He is afraid of those big sparks that out of his control like when he betrayed him for example. He was afraid Trevor would find him and kill him. Part of him believes he deserves it because of all the guilt. Trevor is the face of karma and he came back to collect the debt.

However, thirty seconds in the car since they left the house he felt that everything is ok and that he is not in any danger so he had no problem with insulting and overall being an asshole to Trevor right away.

Unfortunately things not that easy and simple as always. They can be good for each other just as bad. Fire can be dangerous to water and water can be dangerous to fire. (This is why Trevor doesn’t like to take showers xD) It reminds me of all those scenes when they get angry at each other, but stepping away so they won’t hurt one other.

I am going to leave Fire/Water here, just keep it in mind for the rest of analysis or whatever this is. I’ve never done it :D

Now for the ultimate question. Do I think they love each other or they hate each other?

Well… Just as their history together it's complicated.

The very moment Trevor pulled the trigger of his flare gun with no hesitation, Michael definitely knew that Trevor is a dangerous person. Then he definitely knew Trevor has serious mental issues.

Why did he stick with Trevor before and even after? Well, the most obvious answer is that he just cares about him. They instantly clicked together or as Lamar said “Love at first sight”.

The other thing that played a part in Michael’s affection at the start is that Trevor is like a shining loud toy for Michael's brain. I see M as someone who grasps at every opportunity to experience intense emotions. Trevor is like a walking time bomb that won’t explode around you. It also perhaps made Michael feel special. It’s not healthy but happens to people nonetheless.

I believe that Michael does love Trevor, but he also hates the things that he does and Michael hates himself for still loving someone like Trevor.

“Why do I love him why do I care for him, I'm not supposed to. He is a horrible person. He is a monster. What is wrong with me?”

The other thing is very common for people to have desire to help another person who's hurting. No matter how much messed up they are we still can feel sorry and I'm sure Michael felt the same and still feels the same. This also leads to his frustration about Trevor.

“Why can't you be normal? I had a hard childhood but I didn't turn out that bad”

He’s also repressing his feelings because of internalized homophobia. In addition, it's just frustration on top of frustration on and on.

Michael hates himself for many things he's done. When Trevor came back he got so overwhelmed that all of this just start boiling inside of him. And when you can handle it he just surrenders to the common emotion – anger.

(It seems to me that fans expect Michael to figure out why Trevor is doing this, why he says that what real feelings are behind the words and actions. You know, be the wise one. )

At first glance it may seem that Michael does not care about T and I can see why. Since the game does it like we see Trevor as the one who tells the truth and Michael as the one who lies. Especially on the first playthrough you can easily fall for this little manipulation. Because of this we perceive Michael as a liar. I mean, yeah, he uses lies as a defense mechanism. Therefore, it’s natural for us (and Trevor) not to believe him when he said “I care. I missed you”.

Trevor is a liar too. Yes, I know, shocker.

The most common thing I see people say about Trevor is that he is a loyal person. All because of this rule about “brothers”. Nope. Maybe he likes to say that, but in reality he is not.

Take Brad as an example. Bless him.

Trevor talked about how he planned to stop working with Michael, but pushed him away because he thought he would leave him. If you hang out with Lamar, T admits he was literally going to kill Brad. Not like Michael of course. He wasn’t gonna stab him in the back. Just stab him in the face I guess.

Trevor didn't kill Michael, not because of some creed. It’s just because he still loves him and cares about him. In the core of everything it’s just love.

Trevor is obviously a dick to Michael because he's hurt so much. Can you imagine how painful it was, to lose the only person you loved and loved you back? Then to find out they betrayed you. Like, Trevor literally thought, Michael was using him from the start. Though, he doesn't hate M, like he said so many times. Trevor hates himself for being this way, for being not good enough, for Michael to choose him. Again and again.

Betrayal.

“M: I don’t know, man, I’ve made such a mess of things. Constantly…my whole life. Chase things. Get them. Hate them. Chase things, get them, hate them…”

I feel like often people don’t even consider Michael's feelings or mental issues. Trevor also says very hurtful words to M. Yes, he understands the reason behind Trevor’s anger, but this doesn’t negate the fact those words hurt a lot. I mean, he was even offended by the fact T didn’t hug him. As usual, he cannot cope with feeling of guilt and everything again comes down to aggression.

I also want to remind, that despite the killings, Michael didn’t abandon Trevor. He was even letting him to see his children. Also name Tracey is suspiciously similar to name Trevor. Isn't it a display of love? Can you imagine how many times Michael forgave T for doing something crazy?

Well, Michael was just afraid of Trevor hurting him or his family if he tells T they’re done.

Trust me, if M didn’t give a shit about his best friend, he would’ve just killed him.

However, Michael and Trevor's relationship before Ludendorff wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows.

I personally think there were four main reasons:

1. He was just tired of living the way he did. 2. Safety of his family. 3. The FBI breathed down their backs and suggested him a ticket to freedom.

In fear of losing Michael Trevor pushed him even more. Most likely thought their relationships could only last if they were connected by the partnership. An example of this is Trevor’s negative reaction to Michael's words that he wants to be done with robberies and make movies.

“T: I could feel like I was losing you, so I pushed you harder. I thought that how to keep you in the game and I didn’t want to lose you. I’ve said it already, haven’t I?”

4. As ironic as it may be, in the desire not to lose Michael, Trevor himself turned out to be the last drop, for his best friend’s decision.

Conclusion: they should stop being dumb-dumbs and be honest about how they really feel.

And therapy. A lot of therapy.

#gta 5 #michael de santa #trevor philips #trikey

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myuntoldstory · 4 years ago

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saeran after end after thought

it took me a ducking month and some change because i had to farm hourglasses. when i started playing i kept getting the bad ends and i got so frustrated i didn’t touch the app for two weeks. i had to consult a guide to finally reach the end.

i wanted to play this because i needed to see where jihyun ended up and... well... we all know what happened there. anyway...

i have many thoughts and feelings about this ae. i don’t know if i can ever properly organise them, but i’ll put it in bullet points for now. this is my personal feelings, not any kind of fact. i have nothing against nearly anything and anyone (character or real) involved in this game. i’ll always love and appreciate them for being in this game, for creating this game, for giving us something to love for the past four or five years.

these thoughts are rather unfiltered. this is me coming out hours after finishing the ae. i might change my mind after letting it marinate for a while and after reading up some more about it.

it’s all under the cut. it’s long and rambling. there’s no need to read this, really; the ae is a month old after all, but i just needed to get this out. also, it’s salty as hell. literally saltier than the dead sea. it will dehydrate you... best to not bother with this.

also spoilers.

1. during the first playthrough the game mechanics were wonderful, novel, and immersive. but years later and for the sake of an ae? unnecessary. it’s too long. it’s too much work. i did my due when i played the game during ray’s route. why do i also have to work for something that should have been my reward? why do i still have to worry about hearts, choices, and game branches? why do i have to go through multiple endings? it’s an after end. it’s after the ending.

of course i love new content, i love more content, but not like this. and i know i sound super entitled. if i was impatient i should have justt read the wiki, but i wanted the experience, but not this specific experience. lucky it’s the pandemic and i have more time on my hands, but in normal circumstances my life is very different from what it was in 2016. i can’t be waiting for chats and making plans around it to get to the after ending. honestly i expected something like the secret ends or even similar to the style of jihyun’s ae... but no. apparently, chertiz thinks it’s fun to make us spend three and a half days to reach an AFTER END.

2. saeran choi needs love... but, in my opinion, not ours. not mc’s. the love he needs is his brother’s. the person he needs most is saeyoung choi. he’s suffered so much, endured many things no person should ever endure. of course he deserves romantic love, but i feel like he needed to recover first. that’s why after all this im firmly in the very bare, maybe even empty camp of preferring secret end saeran choi over ray route saeran choi.

3. never in my life has a game made me exhausted about the act of forgiveness. i feel a little sick. it’s terrible to say that, i know, but i am just so emotionally exhausted. there is this heavy feeling in my chest that makes me want to cry because i feel like i somehow destroyed a part of myself?

first it’s the saviour in jihyun’s ae. it’s still her in this ae. but in addition to that there’s also the prime minister? when does it stop? at this point we might as well forgive the twins’ mother too. she imprisoned her own sons to benefit from their father; beat the shit out of and starved saeran to the point that he wanted to die, but there must be a reason behind it, right? like all the villains in this game her choices are not her own; they are the product of their circumstances and we have to understand that.

i just... i understand what cheritz is trying to convey here. and granted saeyoung is not as forgiving, but this isn’t his story. it felt like the forgiveness was nearing some extreme by the end of it. i don’t think there’s anything wrong if you’e unable to forgive. if the only way for you to move forward is to not do so i feel that’s valid. as long as you’re not hurting anyone and that you’re not hurting yourself, you do whatever you need to recover. forgiving is not the only way, the noble way. not everyone’s backstory you have to understand and take into consideration in order to move on. even if they realise what they did was wrong, it’s okay not to forgive. sometimes that’s what we need to take care of ourselves.

im rambling on this point, but im going through this currently. it’s not as extreme as the choi twins or the rfa, but all my life i’ve been forgiving and understanding and it chipped away at me. even at my expense i forgave everything and it landed me in a place im struggling to get out of. i needed justice and this ae didn’t give me a bit of that... at least not in the way i needed.

4. cheritz said this is the grand finale, but... it didn’t feel like it? again this is me being entitled, but i expected something more. something bigger. something poignant because after this mystic messenger is over. i expected some kind of epilogues in the form of story modes. of course i appreciate everything the company has done, especially the efforts of the writers, artists, voice actors, and everyone, but... it’s so rushed? it such a short farewell that instead of getting catharsis and satisfaction i felt... drained. and i feel sad that it’s all over because im not ready to say goodbye and that goodbye is far too short for me.

i don’t know im just sad it’s all over.

also, the conclusion they come to is the dissolution of the rfa once everyone found their happy ending. i... this is a group that has been through some shit and that doesn’t make them closer somehow? the rfa app lies neglected and abandoned as everyone moves on with their lives? that is so... lonely? at least for me.

i mean, of course, not all endings have to be necessarily happy in the “everyone gets together once a week for dinners” kind, but i just... i dont know i expected them to be closer somehow. maybe they are. maybe outside the app they’re all closer, but... i don’t know. i feel sad they’re abandoning the app.

5. and then there’s kim jihyun.

and im... i dont know anymore. if you know me, follow me, or have read any of my fics you know im a jihyun fan. i love that man and YES i know his sins. we all do.

as i played the ae i started to hope that he’d die in the end instead of suffering through this egregious character assassination. yes, i literally preferred that he died and that i go through that pain instead of suffering whatever this is. obviously i dont want him to die, but this is like killing him anyway. they killed the essence of him, who he is as a person. hell, they probably killed him already and just installed a stranger in the ae because that v is not our v. all throughout the game he’s been kind and compassionate and selfless. his whole thing is about protecting the rfa, the mc, saving the saviour, and sacrificing himself for them. this is the idiot who gives you his hearts when you’re being actively nice to his abuser and saeran in his route. his ultimate happy ending involves everyone being happy, reunited, and given the proper mental care. he went away for two years, putting a much needed pause in your budding relationship, not only to recover from his trauma, but also to rescue saeran and help him recover too.

yes, v enabled the saviour even before another story. he lied. he put everyone in danger. he’s reckless and he keeps secrets way more than what’s natural. but he will never let any of them come to harm. my memory is fuzzy but im sure he never lets the rfa get in danger. he was devastated when yoosung got injured. he also tried to rescue seven and mc in the secret ends thats why he got shot. this guy always looks out for everyone.

in what world is he okay with drugging the twins? making deals with the villains? the idea of trapping the twins in the saviour’s delusional, twisted family life? he’s not the type to be okay just standing there when his best friend’s life is falling apart or for even causing it. when zen, jaehee, and yoosung get backed into the corner he wouldn’t have been just idle. but in this ae all he does is play stacking chairs, buy strawberry yoghurt, and echo the saviour’s words like a puppet. he asks only mc to save herself and like... jesus christ he never gets a break. he doesn’t even get the same gesture of forgiveness everyone and their father gets. he goes through a trial and jail, which is fair enough, but he’s also a victim of abuse and suffering and despair and mental illness. but somehow because it’s v it’s okay that this is all he gets. somehow he doesn’t deserve any compassionate resolution.

literally the only time he’s happy is his route and after end and even then that happiness is not his own. even then there were concessions to be made before he could get it.

seriously. it seems like cheritz hates him. they think little to nothing of him. if that’s the case why even make content for him? he’s not even meant to be romanceable in the original stories. they could’ve just ignored the petitions and left him as a side character. i mean, i dont know if i prefer that honestly, i do appreciate the content we got, but as his fan it hurts to see all this half-hearted decisions. and to see all this hate still pouring out for him, now magnified because of this ae.

this is like a tiring odyssey, starting way back when he got shot and killed all because he loved someone. he loved the wrong person and it’s the wrong kind of love and he committed his crimes because of it. he had a hand in making the rfa and mc suffer, but still all he did was love. and i know that sounds blind and naive and ignorant and im sorry for not picking up the nuances of his relationship with the saviour, but that’s all i saw. i saw a guy loving the wrong person and it made him make all the wrong choices leading to a bad life.

gah. i am drained people. i am drained, and frustrated, and tired.

#jihyun kim #mystic messenger #tag this please #im sorry for this #i dont know why im apologising #i guess for my thoughtless rambles #it became a rant #this is all unfiltered #dont bother reading im just ranting #ive had like an hour sleep today because reasons #anyway thats not an excuse or anything #ANYWAY these are just stupid thoughts #i had to let it out

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crystalelemental · 3 years ago

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I have 20 minutes before I have to feed the cat and get started on these courses that finally allowed me access, so let’s take a moment to talk about my good friend Thracia 776.

I made it through Chapter 5, and got both sidequest chapters along the way. So that’s fun. I decided to play on Paragon mode, because I don’t give a shit about challenge, I’m here to try and enjoy the experience for a game whose story I actually really like.

Currently, Leif is doing pretty well, mostly seems to do great with strength and speed, but his skill is bad and I don’t think he’s gained any build so that’s fun. I think Macha’s been the most unprecedented hero so far. She’s had two 6 point levels. That’s really good. Brighton’s had mostly 1 point levels so he’s not doing so hot. Asbel seems super magic screwed, he still only has like 4 magic at level 7. Not looking forward to that long-term. Tanya actually got some fantastic levels too, including a lot of extra strength, so I’ll be doing my damnedest to get her back.

Chapters 1-3 remain pretty enjoyable. Moreso now that I understand capturing as a mechanic and how to do that effectively. A big issue before was not knowing how to set up a good capture, but now that I’m in the swing of it...I kinda like this feature? Like it’s kinda cool. Only kinda, though. And the “only kinda” part kicks in as soon as you hit Chapter 4, where everything starts breaking down, but I’ll get to that.

I’m currently playing with the Lil Munster patch, which also allows me to see the hidden skills for units. Such as Miracle+ on Eyvel, which just literally prevents her from ever dying. I did not know that was a thing, and let me tell you, everything going on with Chapter 5′s pitfighters is suddenly a lot less bullshit. Yes, you can argue all you want that it increases the tension when you don’t know it’s there, but also fuck that.

Chapter 4 is really where I think I’m going to start complaining. Which is funny because on a second playthrough? This is actually a pretty fun chapter. You know, mostly. Facilitating the escape of the civilians was pretty simple and fun, and it honestly helped out Karin the most, since she wasn’t particularly threatened by a guard holding a captive. I was also pleasantly surprised at how engaging that map managed to be in terms of just...gathering Vulneraries. Like, looking at it, I expected a disaster, but judicious use of the thieves and maybe a capture here and there actually nets you enough to equip everyone with a full vulnerary.

Until the trouble. Let me be frank: I am always one for soft resetting when a character dies, and I’m trying to break myself of that particular habit a bit. It’s not that I want to not care about characters, so much as recognizing that some characters I don’t give a shit about so why reset everyone else for them? I play a quick run of Shadow Dragon before this, and just let people die, and honestly it was a lot more engaging when you’re not resetting for stupid things. But there was one unit who causes two of the three resets, because I couldn’t afford to lose him. Julian. I couldn’t just lose the thief and that utility. Resets occur not because of character love, but because you cannot give up the utility presented.

I feel like that’s part of early Thracia’s problem. Chapters 1-3, it’s pretty easy to keep everyone alive, especially with Eyvel being actually invincible, and having three super units in Eyvel, Dagdar, and Finn. If you got the Vouge and the Brave Axe, Osian and Halvan are actually ridiculous too. But once you hit Chapter 4, things feel like they change to a level that’s a bit absurd? If you didn’t successfully set up recruitment of Dalsin, I kinda feel like Chapter 4 and 4x are just impossible. The only way to damage these armor knights are Leif’s Light Brand at range, and Dalsin’s axe. Pretty much everyone else is dealing about 2 damage, and hoping for a crit, with none of them having the B-rank swords to make use of Armorslayer. So the chokepoint strategy to the north feels decisively impossible because of how much damage you take, how little you deal in response, and how hard it is to actually break through and take out the mages when their numbers dwindle. Not to mention one less unit means you have less defense against the soldier reinforcements, and it’s that much harder to protect your thieves. Which, actually, speaking of: Thieves plural. Which requires you actually got Lithis. You probably did, his condition is super easy to achieve. But. My recollection is that the original version of this game didn’t give you little icons to tell you when people could talk to one another. So unless you just figured out that Leif can talk to Eyvel (but not the other way around, that’s too much), you’d miss the hint about “Just catch him and hold onto him.” At which point I feel it is fair to say people might release him after taking his stuff. And then you only have one thief. Which is. Not great. And slows down that prison escape significantly.

Then there’s 4x, where you really need 4 strong frontliners to block off attacks, and if you don’t have Dalsin I honestly feel like you’re just hosed, both in terms of taking too much damage, and having too few units to deal with the mages. I’m not going to say it’s impossible to deal with, but for a putz like me it feels pretty impossible without the big tank man on deck.

Then there’s the issue of capturing. Capturing only works if your build is higher than the opponent. If you have a lower build, you can’t capture anyone. Which is all well and good when you have four chunky axe bros and a cav on your side. Then you can capture just about anything, especially with Tanya and Ronan giving you some nice chip damage to set up those easy captures. But Chapter 4-5, you really don’t have many options. Brighton is consistently able to capture, but Fergus isn’t. 8 build isn’t bad, but it’s not enough to capture one of the soldiers and take their vulneraries. So if you didn’t get Dalsin, you have one guy who can consistently capture people. One. The thieves can steal, but Lara’s build is so low she basically can’t steal anything heavier than a vulnerary or door key, and she’s got 14HP so good luck leaving her in range of anything. So like. That’s fun.

Point being, some of these challenges feel distinctly impossible without save states as a result. I think the biggest offender was admittedly an optional one: the two Loptyr mages in front of the chests in Chapter 5. Man, those guys are fucked. Tremendous damage output, poison, and had an absurdly high crit rate that would one-shot anyone if it hit. I think Leif was able to deny the crits with Light Brand but I’m honestly not sure. The fact you had to deal with two of them, or risk Leif having to chip them 3 damage at a time at range, was kind of a problem. That’s the kind of thing where I don’t really know how you’re supposed to manage that, and save states feel incredibly necessary if you’re going to stand a chance. Granted, this is optional, you can escape and just leave those chests. But this isn’t the only situation I can think of where the game just plays stupid, and usually the stupid is with mages, because magic is resistance and no one has any. Except Karin, who is delightfully too weak to actually KO a mage in response. So that helps. Situations across Chapters 4-5 have been difficult, because of the presence of magical hits that can 2-shot people if they connect, and a lot of situations feel like you’re desperately hoping for a particular attack to connect so you don’t start losing people left and right. And then the attack misses anyway because 100% accuracy doesn’t exist, and whoops now you’re gone.

Despite that, I’m still enjoying this more than my first time through. Maybe it’s familiarity with the game and its mechanics, but I do feel like being able to clear Chapter 4 without screaming is a good indicator that maybe it’s not as bad as I remembered. We’ll see though, there’s much worse to come.

#personal shenanigans #thracia 776

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benisasoftboi · 5 years ago

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Gushing time.

Rune Factory 4 Special arrived a day early, so my entire day has been consumed in nostalgia. The original Rune Factory 4 was the first video game I ever bought on release day - I remember saving up all my money and making my mum drive me to like three different shops trying to find one that had it. I was already a fan of the franchise - before then, Rune Factory 3 had been my favourite video game, across the board. Aside from a playthrough of the first game last year, I haven’t played a Rune Factory game in a long time, certainly not RF4. But just starting up the game and hearing the music again, it was like it was suddenly seven years ago. Running around Selphia and seeing all the characters again - I love JRPGs, have played a lot of them, and I can think of very few that have characters that have stuck with me this long. And the aesthetics - the best thing about the Rune Factory franchise has always been the aesthetics, the music, the scenic and character design, just the general world. It’s a beautifully whimsical balance of urban and fantasy, and it’s the only JRPG world I think I’ve ever come across that I would genuinely want to live in. Rune Factory may no longer be my favourite game franchise - but I don’t think there has ever been another series that has felt so much like home to me.

Here’s a very long selection of personal highlights from the art book (by which I mean photos of the art followed by my rambling opinions):

Yeah, see, here’s the thing - Rune Factory 1 is not a good game. I could write an entire essay on why it’s bad (I actually started and got pretty damn far before realising no one’s interested in my two thousand word review of a game that came out over a decade ago - the short version is ‘Misty Bloom-fucking-Cave’. Anyone who’s played RF1 knows exactly what I mean). Don’t get me wrong, it has good qualities - excellent boss fights, for one, and also, as with the rest of the franchise, it is aesthetically wonderful. But ultimately, it feels less like playing a video game, and more like playing a proof of concept for a game. Which I guess it kind of was - and I can’t hate it because we wouldn’t have the rest of the series without it.

But it literally ends with a dragon spewing plant breath on a tank to make a turnip grow out of the gun. ‘Profound’, my arse.

It’s Raguna! The “master sowrdsman!” (that is not a typo on my part that is a direct quote from the ending of Rune Factory 1 this game’s script had so many issues-). And Mist! My favourite of the ‘canon’ love interests!

Best girl! When I was a kid, my favourite love interest in RF1 was Rosetta. As an adult, it is Tabatha. I don’t know what it is about her that I find so likeable (she’s as lacking in personality as any other RF1 character), but... idk, I just like her a lot.

Camus’s big ambition is to leave town like even once. He will never achieve it

Fun fact about Melody is that she’s extremely depressed, a fact that comes up once in an optional side quest and is never addressed again. It’s incredibly dark for an RF game

Fun fact about Lukas is that he sucks (he’s one of those ‘obsessed with talking about how hot all the girls are’ characters, an archetype that thankfully doesn’t show up again in these games). But also, interestingly enough, thanks to one of RF1′s many, many script errors, if you marry Rosetta (the girl Lukas is the most obsessed with), he’s supposed to express disappointment that he lost her to Raguna - but instead, he implies that he’s disappointed to have lost Raguna to her. The translators typoed their way into giving him a sexuality change. Which is honestly kind of amazing.

LOOK AT THIS SLIME THIS IS SUCH A COOL SLIME LITERALLY EVERY OTHER JPRG SLIME GO HOME DRAGON QUEST GET FUCKED (jk I like Dragon Quest a lot and its slimes are cool too). Wish you could see in-game that this is what they’re meant to be like.

I just generally love the monster designs, they’re really charming

Rune Factory 2! The RF game with the most weirdly mundane protagonist name (Kyle. In the main four games of this franchise we’ve got Raguna, Micah, Lest, Frey... and Kyle). The two generations thing was actually very cool, but when they say ‘each chapter captures a different lifestyle’, what they really mean is ‘the first half is a weak Harvest Moon I’m sorry, STORY OF SEASONS game, and the second half is a pretty good Rune Factory game’

lookit this little fuck

Yue Yue Yue! I love Yue so much, she’s great. She’s kind of like a much chiller version of Anna from Fire Emblem.

It’s really cool that we got to see grown up Cecilia (she was in RF1). I have this silly headcanon that if Kyle doesn’t marry Mana, Nicholas (her friend in 1) comes to visit Cecilia one day in the hazy-post game future, and meets Mana, and they get together. While Yue is my favourite, I do genuinely like Mana a lot, and I just want her to find love, I guess.

Here’s original Barrett! There’s a reason he was popular enough to make a reappearance (well, aside from the whole grumpy pretty boy thing he’s got going on) - he was a great character in this game. His and Dorothy’s relationship is also definitely the most compelling of the rival romances. Bonus Max, who also has a little shout-out in RF4 (check the diary in what will become Dylas’s bedroom at the start of the game)

Ray is male, but apparently he was originally going to be a female character, as he has an unused portrait in a wedding dress. My friend and I agree that this makes him a Trans Icon

Monster designs remain excellent. Especially the goblins

Skipping over Frontier (and also Oceans later), as I never got to play it growing up due to not having a console, and still haven’t got around to it - might try this summer. Except I do need to point out that these guys should be memes. I don’t know in what way. But they should.

Rune Factory 3! My first RF game. The transformation thing was very cool, even if it was basically useless outside the main story. My friend and I spent hours mucking about in the WiFi dungeon. I loved the desert settlement and all of the dungeon designs in general, and man, RF3 is just great. I hope it gets a remake one day.

Raven Raven Raven! I LOVE Raven (as do most). Her story with Micah is the first time I can remember getting genuinely invested in a video game romance. I’m so glad she cameos in RF4. I love her. She’s wonderful.

I have an odd fondness for Marian. When I was about twelve, I decided to do a playthrough where I deliberately romanced the least popular bachelorette. After poking around on forums, I determined that character to be Marian, and did a run with her. And... I actually came to really like her. I find her endearing. I get that people find her annoying and don’t like her... unethical medical practices, but doing that run has still made me a pretty protective of her. It’s been a long time since I played RF3, so maybe I’d change my mind if I replayed now, but currently, as far as I’m concerned, Marian’s a good’un.

I think I also used to low key ship her with Collette lol

Pia’s official art has always been super weird to me because it’s so not what her character is like in-game. She’s a ditzy airhead. This makes her look so serious

RAINBOW! Another character whose art makes them look way more serious than they actually are. Daria is great and would be a meme if this game was more popular. I think she’s also implied to be a relative of Margaret.

I’ve always been super confused about what Kuruna’s skirt is meant to be. Is it fur? Is it part of her shirt? Is it even a skirt at all?

Check it out, it’s the guy everyone would ship Micah with if this game was more popular

I want Zaid to make a reappearance and interact with Doug. Pretty sure it’s canon that they’re from the same clan? Think it would be very interesting.

RF3 definitely had the coolest farm. Also, still love the desert settlement.

This is from Oceans, so I have no context, but it’s just so cool that I had to share

Rune Factory 4. Culmination of the series is right - when I was playing it for the first time, I remember being blown away by just how much it is a true love letter to the franchise. I have never come across another game series that so consistently grew and improved from entry to entry. RF4 was a perfect ending.

Not that I’m complaining about getting RF5. Quite the opposite.

But if it had been the end (as we all thought it was until about a year ago), well, like I say. Perfect.

Well. Aside from soda can nipples. Can’t believe they didn’t fix those. Though in some ways, that would have made me sad too

Dolce has such a cool design, in both human and monster form. I’ve always kind of crack-shipped her with Margaret, for no real reason at all

Vishnal! I love Vishnal. Vishnal is pure as heck. Marrying him this time around.

Doug! My choice from last time around. Another character who looks more serious in his official art than he is in-game (well... most of the time)

And then there’s Dylas, who looks much happier here than he does most of the time. Kind of looks like he and Doug swapped bodies, actually. There’s a fanfic prompt for you.

Their ship name is Dyldo. I love them

Leon is nostalgic for me mostly because my friend and I used to get into a lot of arguments about whether or not he’s the hottest character in the game. She maintains that he is, because muscles. I maintain that muscles aren’t actually that attractive. It is a rift that divides us to this day

(He looks oddly... younger in this art though? Weird)

Sechs Empire is such an unfortunate name. Seriously. How rushed was RF1′s localisation team? All those script errors, and then this (the Sechs were the antagonists in the first game, and were only referenced in passing in the rest until RF4 - so it was a bit of a ‘sins of the father’ situation by then).

Seriously, try saying ‘Sechs Emperor’ out loud and tell me you can take this man seriously

I??? Love??? Them???

I??? LOVE??? THEM???

Still confused as to why Kiel, Xiao Pai, Arthur and Margaret are on the cover now. Don’t get me wrong, I like them, but... Amber, Dylas, Dolce and Leon made way more sense? Even the Archival Cover makes more sense (Vishnal, Clorica, Forte), as those three are all kind of Lest/Frey’s servants (well, Forte for the whole town, but still). Of those first four, all but Arthur basically lift right out of the game with little-to-no impact on the story

NO HAT TABATHA NO HAT TABATHA

I’ve always really loved this Raven picture

And I am thankful for you <3

#rune factory #rune factory 4 #rune factory 4 special #rf4 #rf4s #rf4srelease #i love these games <3

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pangtasias-atelier · 5 years ago

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This is not ask about kinks (No offence btw i don't which word to replace kink with). in previous ask, you said you didn't like the canon of Tormod and Muarim origins right? so i would to ask what type of canon would you give them if you could? I also like ask, if the Tellius saga ever get a revamp/remake, what would be biggest wish fullfill? for me its Tormod reclassing into a melee class / Laguz Army to availability more...

Oh, it's okay! No worries lol, this is a kink blog after all.

As for Muarim & Tormod, I would honestly just prefer it for Muarim to have literally found Tormod out of nowhere and took him in. Like that's just so much better than the wierd little dynamic of Tormod basically being the son of Muarim's ex master and Muarim taking him Tormod in when the noble house falls.

Honestly, my biggest wish fulfilment would just be getting supports in RD. Like, that alone would be so beautiful. Hell, they could even keep the mini supports and make it so that those are a super small in battle bonuses.

And although a remake with both games would be phenomenal, let's face it, Nintendo is a company and they are as greedy as all hell just as every other company so they'll be their own remakes

Though there's a lot more to help RD. Even though it's already really damn great imo. But if the legitimate fixes, I'd say this:

Fix availability. Tormod, Muarim, and Vika really have no business joining for like 3 chapters before leaving until the last 6 chapters with their stats from part 1 lmao

Also, BALANCE. When people say RD is the second most unbalanced game, they mean it. The difference in usefulness in characters is astounding. Also, Dawn Brigade still in tier 2 classes while Greil Mercenaries are already hitting tier 3 is ridiculous and pretty dumb

Laguz gauge. It's not terrible but I still feel that PoR gauge would work much better, especially with olivi gras and such. Also , Laguz being locked to single range hurts them so much since RD is pretty enemy phase heavy.

Weapon balance. Magic is pretty bad and also had terrible caps. Laura has amazing speed growths but can't take advantage of it since her caps are awful.

Difficulty balance: Part 1 shouldn't be the most difficult part of the game when there's three more parts after it.

Writing: part 3 aside, (I don't know how to fix it without making Pelleas look ever worse than he already did by signing that blood pact lmao) part 4's writing kinda comes across as a generic "series crossover game" it's not bad and it also serves in showing tensions between characters. But it also highlights favoritism, Skrimir praising Micaiah while ready to murder Naesala. And also Pelleas getting off the hook easy from Tibarn.

And as for personal wishes:

I wanna save Zelgius. He's by no means this innocent character people love to paint him as, but it bothers me that you can save Lehran but not Zelgius

Change Pelleas's "death" scene in part 2. The fact that the only difference is suddenly getting the option to have Micaiah jump in the way just feels so cheap. I will say Pelleas' death is kinda just a punch on the first playthrough since the option kinda does give some false hope to sparing him. And it ultimately becomes a complete waste. (though Pelleas does get forgotten afterwards sadly)

Give more screentime to Skrimir and Sanaki. The two are great characters as is, but it would've been fun getting a chapter or 2 with them to help solidify their arcs.

Also, give Pelleas and Elincia some more screentime

Ike. He's great and I love him, but godamn is he just this absolutely perfect child that can do no real wrong and everyone praises him so much. Granted, his growth was already in PoR but still. (Praise Micaiah's lines dissing Ike, it's just such a great fresh view in seeing how the losing country sees the game's hero after that other FE games don't do)

Speaking of Ike, it honestly would've been cool seeing him get a more supporting role instead of just blindsiding everything and taking over. But that never goes well in games. Look at the fandom with Micaiah lmao. (And also Tales of with the Symphonia sequel)

Stop the whole Astrid x Makalov thing. I just hate the ship lmao

And that's just for RD sjdhsjnsksb it's really obvious how much I love Tellius. But admittedly, they're all nitpicks than any actual true flaws.

As for PoR, it's been so long since I played it, but it honestly has like no real narrative flaws that I can find? I just vastly prefer RDs ambitious scale of writing vs PoR's take on the whole basic FE plot.

As for gameplay stuff

Balance magic a bit, lightning is too good. And that not, bring back tier 1 light mages and also bring back dark magic.

Give us Maniac Mode!!

RD's improved UI and models alongside the skills

Make knives way better and let Sothe promote. Unpromotable tier 1 classes is the worst idea ever. Unless you're a dancer, you should be able to promote.

Let Laguz weapons rank up

FIX THE AWFUL WEAPON RATE GAIN

OMG SERIOUSLY THAT WAS SO AWFUL

I DON'T EVER WANT SUCH A SLOW WEAPON RATE EVER AGAIN

Give Elincia more screentime. I love her and like yeah, not every women needs to be this badass warrior, but the Nyna archetype is just so done at that point. (But hey, she still turns it on it's head by the end. And so does Pelleas)

And that's all I can think of really.

Again, I'm such a huge Tellius nerd lmao. Though I currently believe FE6 will get remade first. Tellius is still too recent, and intys probably doesn't wanna touche the incest plot shit in FE4 and FE5 also has to get passed up for a remake due to being in Jugdral.

God this is so fucking long sjdbjsvavsvs

#asks

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commentaryvorg · 5 years ago

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Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Part 6.7

Be aware that this is not a blind playthrough! This will contain spoilers for the entire game, regardless of the part of the game I’m commenting on. A major focus of this commentary is to talk about all of the hints and foreshadowing of events that are going to happen and facts that are going to be revealed in the future of the story. It is emphatically not intended for someone experiencing the game for their first time.

Last time in trial 6, Tsumugi was very clearly just cosplaying Junko despite no-one properly figuring this out for ages, Danganronpa trivia was really not necessary to prove everyone’s memories are fake, Tsumugi kept insisting that Shuichi called this trial because of her backstory when really it has nothing to do with that and everything to do with Kaito, Maki was very distressed to learn even more how she was just being controlled and manipulated like always, Tsumugi was a literal fucking shapeshifter, everyone was more upset than they should have been over Hope’s Peak being fictional for something they’d only known about for two days, but at least that meant that the outside world was…

Well… about that.

Monokuma: “Puhuhu… Forget about the world. It wants nothing to do with you.”

Oh boy. It sure doesn’t, even though it should. Here we fucking go.

…Does anyone have any idea what “kumafarre”, the word plastered all over the trial background from this point on, is meant to mean? Because that’s always stumped me. It has to mean something for them to have put it there. Kuma is bear, obviously, but “farre” can’t be Japanese, so… ???

“first!”

Pfft, of course that’d be the first message to show up. But it also proves that everyone in the audience can see their messages showing up here, so they should know that the characters can see what they’re saying.

“Bring on the spoilers!”

How does this even make sense? You can’t have spoilers for a reality show that’s happening live. The only possible spoiler is who the blackened is during a trial, but we’re way past that now.

“Kyoko is my waifu.”

“Sakura is my muscle waifu.”

“Chiaki #1 waifu”

Ugghh waifu culture. And also, I told you everyone was a bunch of genwunners in this audience! No-one mentions anything like this for any character outside of DR1 or 2. And yeah, obviously seasons past 3 don’t exist in the out-universe, but the out-universe writers could totally have just thrown in some random names we’ve never heard and expect us to assume that they’re talking about unknown characters from other seasons. Fifty other goddamn seasons they could be choosing from! But nope, it’s all gotta be mostly season one with some two, that’s all that counts.

“My husbando Shuichi!!!”

And of course Shuichi gets that shitty treatment too, even though he’s a real goddamn person who never asked to be famous and nobody is entitled to anything from him.

“Wow, Himiko is still alive…”

Seriously, that’s the first thing someone wants to say when their messages are getting displayed in a place where Himiko can see it? Lovely.

“Viewers get to participate now!”

“I feel like I’m participating, too!”

At least these couple of people are currently being fairly reasonable – they’re just excited to be a part of it in some way!

…The first two characters Tsumugi cosplays after this moment are Kyoko and then Sakura, and then Chiaki pretty soon after that. She’s pandering to those people whose messages she saw, isn’t she.

“Sakura”: “Of course, those you see here are only a fraction of our total viewers.”

I. Should. Sincerely. Hope. So. Because that’s the only thing that makes this even remotely believable – the idea that the majority of the fanbase are somewhat more decent human beings than this (you know, aside from the watching real people kill each other thing) and we’re just seeing the vocal asshole minority right now.

…That’s really not what the narrative is going to be going for with this, though. If they actually wanted us to think that this audience we see is just the asshole minority and everyone else is more decent, this topic should get addressed in more than just this one throwaway line, and it is not. So probably the only actual reason this line is here is to establish that the number of viewers is way higher than suggested by just these commenters, and not that the attitude of the rest of them is significantly different.

“I believe in Keebs.”

This is a little early hint to the Keebo deal, since a lot of the audience should be thinking about him the most.

“You can do it, Shuichi!”

I like this person! This person is the most decent and realistic person we’ve heard from so far! Yeah, cheer on Shuichi just like I’ve been doing throughout this commentary! They care about him and want him to succeed! It is of course more twisted in this person’s case because he’s not actually fictional, and becomes even more so now that Shuichi can actually hear them and any pretense that he’s just fictional can’t be maintained, but at least this is otherwise a realistic and relatable response to this.

Shuichi: “W-Wait, why would a peaceful world need a killing game like th—”

“Taka”: “It’s *because* the world is so peaceful that this killing game is necessary!”

“Celeste”: “It is so very peaceful… And so, it is so very boring.”

“Kyoko”: “With so much peace, people have become bored. They need stimulation…”

That’s… kinda bullshit. First Shuichi’s assumption that only a world full of strife could possibly create a reason for a killing game, but then also the idea that peace would make people bored. Humans don’t start wars for entertainment, you know. World peace should be the least boring thing for humanity, because without having to spend so much effort on survival and equality, everyone would have more energy left to make all kinds of technology and art, including entertainment which should not have to involve killing real people to be entertaining!

To be fair, Tsumugi is probably exaggerating somewhat, given that she’s part of Team Danganronpa and is trying to sell the idea that her product is so necessary for the world. But it would seem that we are in a world where one way or another it’s become socially accepted to watch real people kill each other for entertainment… which doesn’t seem like a peaceful utopia at all, really.

“Chiaki”: “Every person in the outside world watching this is a huge Danganronpa fan.”

We get a demonstrative image of people all over the world apparently excitedly watching Danganronpa, most of whom are vague and faceless. If it were just them then it could be possible to imagine that Tsumugi is lying and this is just a hypothetical image of what she’s talking about rather than the truth. But… Makoto’s also there. The kid that we, the out-universe audience, very definitely saw at the beginning of the chapter in a context that had no connection to Tsumugi and no reason to be a lie. Which gives this image a lot of credibility.

(And if this is the truth, again, it really doesn’t look like it’s a shady hidden thing only accessed on the darkest corners of the internet.)

I will say one thing in this world’s favour. I’m not remotely trying to defend the part where they watch real people kill each other, but Danganronpa really must be hugely popular among absolutely everyone for this to have somehow ended up not extremely illegal. Which means, given the fact that the audience are basically telling themselves it’s fiction and treating it as such, this is also a world in which it’s socially accepted, not just in niche geek subcultures but in mainstream culture, to get really excited by and invested in fiction. If you took all the awful murderiness out of it and made sure it was all actual fiction, man I’d love to live in that kind of world. As it is, in our world, only children are really socially expected to get super-excited about fictional stories all the time, like it’s something people are meant to grow out of as adults. Among adults, only very few extremely mainstream fictions get even close to that kind of widely-accepted level of importance in people’s lives. Which is disappointing to me.

“Chiaki”: “This killing game is for everyone… So it’s everyone’s killing school semester.”

That’s the Japanese subtitle of this game, which actually turns out to be very meaningful! The general sense of it she’s talking about here would have applied to every season up until now, but there’s also the more specific sense that this season in particular has audience participation, which is apparently the first time it’s happened, making it even more “everyone’s” than before.

And the localisers just decided to nope on that subtitle and change it to the meaningless “Killing Harmony”, which is honestly a shame. Maybe the Japanese subtitle is a bit too long and too much of a mouthful for western standards, but they could have at least changed it to something which kept that relevance.

“Killing Harmony! I just got it! LOL”

Haha, no, that doooeees not work in the localisation.

“I’ve waited three years for this.”

“I thought the franchise was done.”

Huh, this is some juicy info. It’s taken three years since season 52, long enough that some people thought there wasn’t going to be another one? (And a lot of the rest of the chatter at this point is people applauding, perhaps being happy that they got another season.) That… suggests that Danganronpa might have been already on its last legs even before what happens in this trial comes and puts the lid on it all, which maybe makes things a little more believable. That’d also potentially explain why this is the first time they tried the Keebo gimmick, if they were trying to keep things fresh after worrying people would be getting bored of the same old thing.

Also, even if it’s usually less than three years between games, you’ve still got to imagine it’d be at least one year or so, which means it’s been over half a century since the Danganronpa franchise began. A lot of people who worked on it while it was still pure fiction wouldn’t even be alive anymore at this point.

Plus, geez, how long did they keep Rantaro in limbo between games? Was he allowed to live a relatively normal life for the time being while knowing that if they ever did get around to a season 53, he’d be forced into it, meaning he lived dreading that day and desperately hoping it’d never come? Ouch, poor Rantaro. Or possibly they do in fact have real cold sleep technology in this universe and they just stuffed him in one of those for three years.

“Shuichi, look this way! <3”

That’s… rather entitled but also kind of believable as something someone might do, since it seems like a lot of the audience have forgotten that these characters don’t just exist to perform for them.

“Get to the punishment already!”

Aaaand here’s someone who’s barely a believable person. Do the audience really just watch this to see people be horribly executed, rather than for all the character drama that happens in between those parts?

The opening theme music for this game starts playing… and apparently this is being played in-universe, based on the fact that Maki reacts to it.

Maki: “What is this…?”

“Fuyuhiko”: “Can’t you tell? It’s the title of the current Danganronpa you guys are doing.”

God, that has to be incredibly disturbing and wrong, being told that you’re hearing the theme music for you and your friends’ suffering and death… and it’s just this chill jazz tune, of all things. This probably hammered home more than anything else the awful sense that all of their struggles have just been entertainment.

“Chihiro”: “Danganronpa’s gone on so long because the whole world enjoys and supports it.”

No mention of the fact that apparently some people thought there wouldn’t even be a season 53? Of course not, Tsumugi wouldn’t want to admit that the franchise might be on its last legs.

“Makoto”: “What season do you think we’re on? You should be able to tell from the logo.”

So she claims. But you know what I thought when I first heard her say this? Since I already figured it was probably season 53 from Junko the 53rd, I thought the clue in the logo was the negative space between the V and the 3.

It’s actually kinda shaped like a 5 if you look at it that way! But nope, that’d make way more sense that what it’s actually supposed to be.

(I bet Shuichi figured it out from the Junko hint and not the logo, too.)

“V is the Roman numeral for 5.”

*deep breath*

That is not how Roman numerals work!!! In Arabic numerals, “5” can mean five, or fifty, or five hundred, etc, depending on its position within the number. But Roman numerals do not work like that! “V” only ever means five, and its position in the number does not change that. V3 cannot possibly mean fifty-three. It’s combining two number systems that work completely differently and do not make any sense being combined, but if one were to try and make a number out of it, it’d simply mean “five-three”, separately. Or maybe you’d add them together, so it’d mean eight.

In Roman numerals, fifty is denoted with an “L”. To actually get fifty-three in any vaguely sensible way by combining Roman and Arabic numerals, it’d be L3. Or, heck, why don’t we write the whole thing in Roman numerals? Then it’s LIII. Which just so happens to look and sound very similar to the English word “lie”. If the Japanese writers of this game wanted to do a clever little number/letter trick, why didn’t they go for that? It would have been great! Or they could call it L3 but make the negative space between the L and the 3 look kind of like an I somehow, so that “LI3” almost looks like “lie” as well. Missed freaking opportunity there, guys. Instead it’s just very apparent that nobody in Spike Chunsoft (or Team Danganronpa, for that matter) has any idea how Roman numerals work.

“Danganronpa 25 was the best.”

Shout-outs to this person. They’re the only person we ever see here who mentions any series other than 1, 2 or the one they’re currently watching. Props to them for knowing what their favourite season is and sticking to their guns in a sea of people who disregard every new season that comes along as soon as it’s not current any more in favour of obsessing over the first ones like they’re the only ones that matter. Season 25 probably was genuinely one of the best ones if it has a dedicated fan like this. You go, random person. I feel you.

“This is my first Danganronpa.”

Huh, so despite how much Tsumugi is trying to make us think everyone is obsessed with it, there have to still be at least a few people who don’t get what all the hype is about, if this person only just decided to check it out for this season.

(Clearly there hasn’t been a large enough proportion of these uninterested people who are upset about the whole killing-real-people thing to be able to put a stop to it before now, though. Even if it’s not their thing, if the rest of the world’s okay with it then it must be fine, right???)

“I love Shuichi <3”

Yes, thanks, we’re getting that impression. This is probably the same person from before, who still feels the need to mention this while everyone else is talking about this being season 53.

Monokuma: “The seasons just kept coming, and with it came more killing games… Until it transcended games and anime to become this, the Ultimate Real Fiction…”

They gloss over this quite quickly, but it is important to note that yes, the earlier seasons really were just fiction in this universe like they were in ours. They’re not trying to retcon that the Hope’s Peak killing games were actually only happening for entertainment thanks to Flashback Lights and fabricated backstory. DR1 and 2 were completely fictional in this universe, which means that nothing happening here matters to or compromises that storyline at all.

After all, it does make sense that Danganronpa would need to have worldwide popularity already before society collectively decided that doing this with real people (but definitely not really real people, right) would be totally okay. It’s unclear exactly when the transition to “real fiction” happened, although Shuichi and Maki’s comments on the files in his lab kind of made me assume that there were more real ones than fictional ones. So… I was just shouting out season 25, but that one probably involved real people being killed, too.

“Leon”: “What, did the letter in there throw you off? Well, I guess that happens. But isn’t it just rad how it looks like a letter, but it’s really a number!?”

I am way too amused at how they made it be specifically Leon, mister 11037 himself, who mentions this point. Nice one, guys. Nice.

“Sonia”: “Since this is the 53rd season, one would expect to see a multitude of characters…”

Tsumugi: “But you only have memories from the first two, so you wouldn’t recognize any others.”

They shouldn’t even recognise the ones from season two, like I’ve been saying! But she’s been cosplaying them anyway. So it’s probably a lot less about keeping them recognisable for the students here and more just about pandering to those genwunners and twoers outside.

(Obviously there’s a very good out-universe reason for this, but, you know.)

Tsumugi: “So yes, I’m the mastermind! But the *real* mastermind forcing you to do this is… the people of the outside world!”

Way to deflect your responsibility, Tsumugi! Yes, everyone outside is also partially responsible by demanding this and giving it an audience, but you’re still the one who made it all happen and got everyone killed!

The audience starts chattering about how they’re the mastermind, but it’s in a way that sounds happy about it, like they’re just excited to be part of the story. They don’t seem to register the fact that, hey, maybe being literally actually responsible for the suffering and death of the characters they’ve been watching and caring about isn’t actually a good thing.

“Mmm… Shuichi’s nose <3”

Meanwhile Shuichi’s “fan” here still has a one-track mind and is getting increasingly creepy. I refuse to believe that this is the same person who was cheering Shuichi on earlier, since that person actually cared about him and didn’t only shallowly see him as eye-candy.

“put Maki back on kthx”

Also apparently Maki has “fans” too. But hers probably aren’t the good kind either.

“Mikan”: “The ones managing this killing game aren’t psychos like the Remnants of Despair…”

“Ibuki”: “They’re literal managers! Literally!”

Just because they’re managers, that doesn’t stop them from being shitty, evil people on par with the Remnants of Despair in terms of awfulness. They are quite evidently both.

Tsumugi: “So I want to hear your best guess. What company is running this show?”

…

Shuichi: “…Team Danganronpa?”

I love how Shuichi’s tone of voice makes it clear that he’s just pulling this name out of thin air. How is he supposed to know? Conveniently, Team Danganronpa were apparently just really uncreative when it came to naming themselves. (I guess this is realistic enough, though – our world does have The Pokémon Company, which makes Pokémon.)

We – and therefore presumably the students and the in-universe audience – get shown the opening movie that was right at the beginning when you start a new file, the one that summarised seasons 1, 2 and 3 and then implied this one would be a continuation of it. Which still doesn’t actually make any in-universe sense, since all the evidence other than this clearly points towards Hope’s Peak having not being part of this game’s backstory until Tsumugi improvised it in chapter 5. Maybe this was a promo video Team Danganronpa then hastily slapped together after that point to try and act like they totally had this planned all along?

The only difference from before (because it would have been a huuuuge spoiler to see this last time) is that we also see the supposed logos of every Danganronpa season up to 53. 4 through 10 are clearly the out-universe writers having a field day referencing other works of fiction, but then 11 through 52 are all exactly the same logo with only the number being different. Yeah, that’s not how it actually was, is it. The out-universe writers just didn’t want to take the time to make that many unique logos for a split-second each of screentime. (And, fair enough.)

We then get shown a collage of what appears to be basically all of the illustrations in this game. Which you’d think shouldn’t actually exist in-universe, because the audience’s camera is supposed to be Keebo’s eyes, and he wasn’t there for half of this stuff! So this strongly suggests that despite what Tsumugi’s going to claim about that later, the audience could also watch the game through the Nanokumas’ footage instead and potentially saw all the same scenes that we saw that way.

…Makoto is on there, though. He definitely should not be. The out-universe writers didn’t catch that, I guess.

Shuichi: “Shut up… Shut up!”

Yeeeaaah, I don’t blame Shuichi for this. Tsumugi and Monokuma and the audience have been blabbering on for quite a while now, barely letting him and his friends get a word in edgeways while treating them like objects for their amusement. That has to be awful.

And even aside from Shuichi’s feelings about it, the way the audience has been suddenly babbling excitedly about Danganronpa in general to the point of almost completely ignoring the characters who are in this actual story they’re supposed to be invested in is pretty shallow of them. That’s already a sign of how unrealistically awful an audience they’re going to keep showing themselves to be.

Shuichi: “No matter how many false memories we’ve been implanted with, *we* aren’t fictional!”

This line is here as a setup for the big reveal, of course, but even so… he’s right. Just because literally all of their memories from before this killing game are fake, it doesn’t change that they’ve been real people from the moment they got all of those memories.

Shuichi: (Who… are we…?) “We… are real! We’re living, breathing human beings!”

“Nekomaru”: “No! You’re just like MEEEEEE!!!”

I made Shuichi answer this incorrectly at first because I really feel like he would want to assert this… and he’s still not wrong! They are very definitely living and breathing right now, nobody can deny that!

“Makoto”: “You’re just fictional characters created solely for this killing game.”

“Teruteru”: “Nothin’ we can do about it, I’m afraid. Danganronpa’s that kinda property.”

I’m sure it’s much less some intellectual property dispute and more the idea that everyone might have slightly more issue with actual real people from the outside world being killed in this. It’s totally fine if they were created solely for the killing game, though, because then they’re not real and only exist to die here, right?

And honestly… that does make all the deaths in this game come across as just slightly less awful and tragic, in that context. Not because they aren’t still extremely real people who very much did not deserve to suffer and die, but, since they were created to die, anyone managing to survive and escape despite that feels like even more of a victory than in the previous games. It’s less Monokuma killing a bunch of people who were never meant to die, and more Shuichi managing to save at least a small handful of people who were never meant to live.

“Gundham”: “Your immaterial existence is a fabrication, independent of your actual flesh and blood.”

To translate the Gundham-ese: their “souls” were created separately from their bodies. Kind of like how they were discussing when going into the Virtual World how odd it is that the two can be separated like that.

Tsumugi: “Yep, you’re all fictional.”

“Ibuki”: “You guys out there beyond the fourth wall already knew that, right!?”

I like how this works as simultaneously talking to the people beyond both fourth walls at once, while not actually breaking the real one. (Though the people beyond the in-universe fourth wall are only telling themselves these guys are fictional and aren’t actually right.)

Tsumugi: “You all didn’t look like this when you first came to the Ultimate Academy… Those were your true selves. Now you’re all just fictional characters. That’s the truth.”

Shuichi: (That’s the truth? Then… our real identities…)

Don’t get caught up in her manipulation, Shuichi! You are not any less “real” just because different people used to inhabit your bodies!

Tsumugi goes on to talk about when they first arrived at the school as their pregame selves before they got their outfits and memories. And again, we saw this. It is quite ridiculous to assume we saw an entire lengthy section in the prologue which just straight-up didn’t happen. The game has lied to us, but only with very small lies of omission (re: Kaede’s inner monologue). If the game was willing to lie to us about entire sections we played through, we couldn’t trust anything. We couldn’t even trust if this trial we’re playing is really happening right now, or if anything we saw really happened, which would render this entire story meaningless.

“Byakuya”: “But boring, everyday characters have no right to be in Danganronpa…”

Honestly, why, though? Sure, the talents are supposed to be a Danganronpa thing, but you could totally do a killing game with ordinary people. It might make for an interesting change, especially after 53 seasons.

“Peko”: “Which means your Ultimate talents are all just fiction.”

They may have come from fake memories, but they have those talents now. Nobody can deny that Shuichi’s been a pretty great detective.

Maki: “Our talents as well…?”

Maki Roll, you never killed anyone, and you’ll never have to! This is great news for you!

…I bet if Kaito were still here, he’d immediately turn to her with a big grin and tell her that. Encouraging and being happy for the sidekick with a bright side to this would be way more important than however he might be feeling about this revelation in respect to his own talent.

Maki doesn’t react here with anything other than shock and disbelief, though, so I don’t know if this quite sinks in for her yet. It’s probably very hard for her to accept that she suddenly doesn’t deserve to feel guilty about anything. After all, this won’t diminish the effect Maki’s memories have on her and that she’s going to have to live with feeling like she’s killed countless people for the rest of her life. But knowing that nobody real actually died because of her has got to help a lot. I’m sure that’ll sink in eventually, once she’s had more time to think about it without the trial getting in the way.

“Chiaki”: “I mean, they suited you to a certain extent, but mostly in a placebo effect sorta way. Kinda like a form of autosuggestion… You know, like if you do it, it’ll all work out.”

We’ve seen Flashback Lights do plenty of things that aren’t just straight-up remembering stuff: brainwashing everyone to be filled with meaningless “hope” and a sense of the completely wrong meanings of the words “hope” and “despair” in chapter 5? Brainwashing Shuichi into suddenly being a creepy pervert for that optional scene in chapter 3? Kaito’s phobia of ghosts leading him to feel anxious and nauseous upon simply thinking about a certain irrational stimulus? So, given that, it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine they can do this kind of thing too. Heck, most of the talents in this game are things that only require knowledge, and perhaps a certain kind of personality, something Flashback Lights can very evidently do. Some also require muscle memory, which is a bit more of a stretch, but it’s still memory.

The hardest one to buy for me is probably Angie’s talent. There’s some muscle memory and some knowledge involved, but a lot of what makes someone good at art is more intangible and hard to define and might be difficult to encapsulate in a Flashback Light. However, Angie was unique in that she explicitly did not remember creating her art, because Atua was supposedly possessing her, and she had to be alone for that to happen. That’s how she made the waxworks. So it’s possible that what was actually happening was some kind of hypnotic trigger making her pass out when she thinks she’s about to create something, and then the gamemakers put pre-created waxworks in her lab. Remember how Angie made four waxworks without having intended to? Almost as if the gamemakers weren’t sure who she’d choose for the ritual and just made all four in advance. …And, okay, admittedly it’s very unclear how anyone could have got inside the school to put the waxworks there, which is the same question as how a hypothetical clone-with-a-Flashback-Light would have got in for the resurrection thing if that was going to be possible. But there’s something there. (Can you tell I hadn’t thought of this idea until after the commentary for chapter 3 had gone up and so I’m awkwardly fitting it in here instead.)

And ultimately, if the characters being “fictional” is the point of this story the out-universe writers decided to tell, then that always had to include fictional talents as well, since Danganronpa insists on having all its characters be Ultimates. So Flashback Lights have to be able to do this, even if it’s a little bit of a stretch to believe, because it’s just necessary for the premise to work.

It’s a lot like how we had to buy that the Exisal randomly had a voice changer that could perfectly mimic any student’s voice, simply because that was vital for the fifth trial’s premise and that story wouldn’t work if it didn’t. We can’t just use the fact that it was somewhat unrealistic of the Exisal to have a voice changer as any kind of evidence to propose that it actually didn’t.

Another example: I once saw a blind LP of the first Danganronpa game where it got to the memory wipe reveal and Junko handwaved how memory-wipe technology worked. And the LPer was all “Um, no, how is memory wiping even possible? I think it’s pretty important to establish this, actually!”, like he was using the fact that he didn’t understand how to question whether it had even happened at all. But that was missing the point; explaining the technology really wasn’t all that important. The existence of memory-wiping technology was just a necessary part of that story that had to be accepted, because if memory wipes weren’t possible then that story couldn’t have happened. This story is the same, except with Flashback Lights and the multitude of things that they need to be able to do to make this story work. At least in this case, Flashback Lights and some of the things they can do are well-established already, which is better setup than the memory-wipe technology had in DR1.

Tsumugi: “Can you really say you’re not fictional now?”

Yes! Yes, they can and should say that!

“Hajime”: “Even if your body is real, your identities, personalities, talents and past are all fiction.”

Past, sure. Identities… maybe? At least if we’re just talking about legal identity? But their talents are quite evidently still talents now, as I’ve just been saying, and their personalities are also something they’re expressing right here and now. Even if they were deliberately crafted and created to be that way, it doesn’t mean those personalities aren’t now real. You can only call a personality “fake” if that person is knowingly putting on a façade and pretending to be someone they’re not. So the only fictional personality we ever saw was Kokichi’s supposed love for this killing game. …Oh, and Tsumugi’s, of course.

Also, hi, Hajime. It’s fitting that she’d choose him for this. If we’re supposed to believe that Izuru got shoved full of every single talent imaginable by them doing weird brain stuff to him, it’s perfectly reasonable to also believe Flashback Lights could do something similar on a lesser scale. And Izuru’s entire existence was created from that process, but that didn’t make him any less “real” of a person than Hajime was. If anything, it made him more real at that point, because he’d overwritten Hajime completely (at least until the simulation). It’s honestly a very similar thing. Maybe Hajime’s story partially inspired the idea for this game.

Shuichi: “…”

Unfortunately… this seems to be working on Shuichi.

…You want to know what Tsumugi ought to think of as the real reason she killed Kaito? Not to have his death inspire Shuichi to become even stronger. That would still be happening anyway if Kaito were still by his side encouraging him; all that was needed for that final push was for Kaito to admit that Shuichi’s even more of a hero than him and tell him that. The real reason for his death should have been because Kaito would completely annihilate what Tsumugi is trying to do here.

Because the only thing that matters is what you want to believe! Tsumugi is trying to argue that their pasts being fabricated means that they don’t count as “real” people, but who even cares about that? They believe they’re real, and have always believed that, and still want to believe that, so why should anything else matter? Someone like Kaito who puts such value in belief and has such strong, unbreakable convictions about being true to himself wouldn’t be listening to any of this crap. He’d be shaken to learn his memories are all fake and that his grandparents and fellow astronaut trainees don’t exist, sure, but it wouldn’t even scratch his belief in who he is. He’s Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars! Who cares if he’s only this way because someone else wanted him to be, it’s still who he wants to be, so it’s who he’s going to keep being, dammit! And, of course, upon seeing that his sidekicks are having trouble with this idea and are starting to doubt if they’re really real, he’d give them just the pep talk they’d need to keep believing in themselves and their own existences.

Kaito is exactly the kind of person who would be able to blow this whole trial out of the water, and nerfing him enough to prevent him from doing that required nothing less than him not being alive any more.

(Meanwhile, if Kokichi were still alive at this point, he’d be his usual infuriating self. “Oh, you guys are only just figuring this out now?”)

Also, if Kaito were still alive in this trial and ultimately ended up surviving and escaping while having learned that his memories are fake and he was never actually an astronaut trainee… you know that would not stop him from striding up to JAXA’s front door and being all “Let me take the astronaut exam, sure you already know I’m too young but you’ve also seen I’ve got exactly what it takes”.

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jeremy-ken-anderson · 5 years ago

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FFXV First Impressions

Impressions So Far (something like 2 hours in):

That opening scene of pushing the car was Actually Clever. It was trying to be clever, but if you succeed and ARE clever “trying to be clever” is allowed!

Running across open ground is a little boring. Definite “Open World-itis” there. They tried to mitigate by including fast travel back to your car. It...sort of mitigates it? But if you’re willing to shrink player perception of the space by including fast travel, then you should show less space and have more space implied.

Night is legit scary. One of the characters mentioned you needed to get in by dark because demons come out and I’m like, “Sure, but I’m an adventurer. Isn’t fighting demons my thing?” That night: I’m running around looking for a hunt target and the asphalt on the road in front of me starts boiling and then up pop a pair of red eyes (literally that’s all you can see of this thing if you’re not standing within 10′ of it). It’s an Iron Giant, and it is level thirty. At this point I am level three. I run. I run immediately and two of my friends still nearly die. I love how they handled night.

The conversation engine needed more time. It’s neat, and a lot of it is good, but it’s not good enough and like human face art it’s gotta be really great to fool humans because we’re used to focusing on it. Two hours in I’ve already hit two or three uncanny-valley type moments where people repeated lines - not just barks but whole conversations. When it’s barks it’s a person having a catch phrase. When it’s a conversation you’re suddenly watching Groundhog Day.

There are parts of this that remind me of the hashtags in KH3 - this weird and too-visible desire of the designers to incorporate some aspect of modern society and its relationship with media but it’s fallen apart because the media isn’t old enough (or the designer not prescient/deep enough) for the designer to conceive of how it really plays out, what it really means in a fantasy space. The mix of having digital GPS yet needing to get rumors about where stuff is on your local map from the local diners is...a weird choice.

When i realized you could mix any ol’ piece of junk you found lying around with your magic to make better magic? Yeah, that’s pretty hot. I wish the system had a faster cooldown for spells (As it is, spells are basically grenades you have to construct yourself before battle, using resources you only find in a couple locations - magic mining nodes, basically - plus whatever physical stuff you wanna combine with them. The magic nodes recharge daily, but you can only make 3 spell-grenades per grenade-slot and only get 4 grenade-slots as far as I can tell). Noctis, your main character, has MP, which should be WP because it’s used exclusively for Warping, at least so far in the game. Personally I think having to spend longer crafting a spell and then being able to use MP to cast it would be rockin’. Like, I would sit there farming up every possible combination of items and spell energy to fill out my spellbook. You could have crazy spells that use 3/4 of your mp gauge, and then you have to duck behind a rock to recover like a proper black mage would have to do and just...I don’t know, I had a similar response of “This was almost as awesome as the magic system I came up with just now that I haven’t tested” back when FFVIII came out. Who knows if my idea for a magic system would actually be any good in practice. It certainly feels good in my head, and frankly I appreciate how close this one came to awesome because this feeling of speculating about the one change to fix everything is really fulfilling for me.

I like the fact that there’s treasure points on your map, and food points on the map, and mining points on the map, but then every now and then you find something valuable that isn’t on the map. It makes wandering around feel just a little more rewarding - It’s better than the fast-travel system at making the open world feel like an okay decision.

I like how wide the range of survivability is! I ran from that level thirty Iron Giant, but I did a level ELEVEN hunt while I was still level THREE. Playing the fights well clearly matters.

I also really like the system for wounds! Basically you have a third score. Normal games have Max HP and Current HP. This game adds in “Current Max HP” which can be between the two. If you get knocked to 0 Current HP your character’s seriously injured and you’re literally limping around hoping for one of your buddies to heal you or trying to get out of immediate danger so you can drink a potion (or trying to limp and drink both at once). While this is happening your Current Max is bleeding out. Let’s say you had 100 max hp and you bleed down to 90 while you pull a potion out. A potion heals you by 50% of your actual Max (so, to 50) and if you can catch a breather out of immediate harm’s way you’ll quickly recover to 90, your Current Max HP. But you won’t recover to 100. Outside of combat, your Current Max rises by 1 every 3-4 seconds until it hits your actual Max HP. This makes it possible to get attacked again when you haven’t really recovered from the last fight, which...isn’t a feeling you get in a lot of these games, especially ones that have regenerating health systems as robust as this one. Just two hours in I’ve already had some really tense encounters where things started going really wrong for me and I pulled out of it but it built that sense of being winded, of being really rattled by the fight, in a way that doesn’t tend to happen.

I think Youtube videos about the game have already said this but I really like that you make your own photo album as you play. By the end of the game you’ve literally got the 200 most meaningful moments to you in that album, or at least your favorite pics. It’s just brilliant, in terms of making a retrospective of stuff that made the game great for you, personally, as the person who played this playthrough of their game.

The food looks delicious, and I’m precisely as disturbed by how much I want to eat it as various people are by how sexy they find cat versions of people in the new Cats movie. There’s one part of my brain that is telling me that it is cartoon food and not real (and that some of it, like the mystery lunchmeat “sushi,” would likely be Super Gross if you could smell it) and it is correct but is also incapable of shutting up the part of my brain that finds the same fake food appetizing.

The collector in me is starting by buying all the skills that grant AP. I have doubts as to whether the game is long enough that I’ll recoup the investment. Like, the one that makes it so Big Catches grant AP costs 99 AP. I think it makes them give 2 AP. Am I actually going to fish up 50 Big Catches in the fishing minigame? (It might even only increase the AP gains by 1, so I’d have to fish up a hundred to profit.) Well fuck it, I know I’m gonna buy every damn skill on every grid anyway so I might as well start with the ones that speed up that process, no matter by how small a degree. The camping and food ones, at the least, were no-brainers.

I have trouble telling the main characters’ voices apart. Say what you will about how dumb Donald sounds in Kingdom Hearts 3, but if Sora, Goofy, Donald, Kairi, King Mickey, Yen Sid, Axel, and Riku were all having a conversation there is no point where you’d be confused about who was talking even if your eyes were closed the whole time. The voices and speech patterns are as recognizable as the silhouettes, in the KH series. Not so much, in FFXV.

I love the way Prompto moves in combat. He is literally always tripping and scrambling to get back up. Seriously, if you have the game play the training session so you can see his move cycle in detail. He spends like half of it with at least one hand on the ground, and I just love it. It’s so dynamic, so expressive, so goofy, so immediately endearing. And then you think, “Wait, we armed our derpiest party member with a gun? What is wrong with us?”

#FFXV #review

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ghostmartyr · 5 years ago

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Pokémon SoulSilver Randomized Nuzlocke [Part 2]

Standard Nuzlocke rules apply

Non-standard rule of only being allowed to catch something if it has a Type in common with the most recent thing you caught applies

Randomizer only touches wild pokemon; everything NPCs have remains the same.

So far, we have the first badge, and just caught our first official teammate for our starter. He is Fludd the Whiscash, to accompany Chance the Dewgong. Next pokemon has to be Water or Ground.

May I have the good fortune of finding one.

Fludd is Gentle and alert to sounds. He doesn’t have much in the ways of experience or moves yet, but we will soon see to changing that.

Route 33 has Shuckle! Adorable!

Fludd’s only offensive move being Mud-Slap is proving a trial of patience.

Wild Bastiodon appears. This is the route of tanks.

We’ve talked to Kurt, kicking off the Rocket plot of this section, and I think once Fludd is 10 or 11 we’ll continue down the Slowpoke Well. Where there will be non-Slowpoke things waiting for us.

I really just want Fludd to know something better than Mud-Slap.

..Water Gun is not terrible. Helps that the route I have chosen for training is beset by constant rain. Every single Shuckle having Berry Juice is not on the list of things that help anything except Shuckle delaying the inevitable.

I lied. Fludd is 13 before we start thinking about other things.

My current other thing is going to be Ilex Forest instead of the Rocket plot.

For reasons of pretty.

We find a Charizard!

That is very much not Water or Ground.

Cyndaquil is not Water or Ground either.

Hey, Fludd learned Mud Bomb. Yay.

Okay, fine. I guess we can save the Slowpokes if we really have to.

I love how as technology advances, video games get to be prettier. It makes me happy in my feelings places.

I also love how Kurt really doesn’t do anything. He tries. Then he falls and can’t get up. Then we go in and do the job he wanted to do.

Mawile is down here. Nothing I can do there.

The Grunts go down like Grunts, and then it’s Proton time!

Proton!

That guy!

He’s got... aquamarine hair! That’s like a personality!

Fludd beats him down, too. Party as it stands is Fludd at 16, Chance at 20, and Sleet and Cloud at 5. With only Fludd and Chance really counting as full party members. That will change slightly when I need something to Cut stuff.

Which will be right after we deal with this Gym.

-many weeks later-

-cough-

Anyway, Gym!

This will mostly be Fludd’s show, since he could use the levels. If anything happens to know Absorb, we’re bailing, but he should mostly be okay.

Upgraded Gym aesthetics are always good.

Almost as good as playing a Pokemon game without feeling compelled to give every single fight full play-by-play detail. Assume if I magically teleport through the plot that I did everything perfectly and expertly. All a result of my personal talent, not overleveling my precious pokemon in hopes of keeping them from dying from my stupidity.

Oh heck, whoops. One of the pre-Leader battles is a double.

Sleet is in the second slot.

Let’s not.

Good news! Sleet is still level 5. She still appears to be a casual passerby of this party, not an official member. This matters.

Bugsy looks so happy. Good for him.

(Unlike some Johto Gym Leaders.)

This will be more entertaining later in the game, but I think Pikasprey has brought up how this region’s Gym Leaders really are the most irresponsible about their job title.

Ultimately, Chance will take out Bugsy’s Scyther. Because it’s level 17. Like Fludd. And U-turn apparently really, really hurts.

No, Chance, you may not learn Rest. You’re a starting party member. That means you have nothing but attacks, and we compensate for our lack of strategy with levels.

Badge get!

But suddenly....!

-zooms through the battle at the speed of sound-

Good job, team!

Now we get to do a Farfetch’d puzzle that I am absolutely not terrible at.

Glory to Cut. Which we will be unceremoniously dumping on Cloud. Hi Cloud. This is your team. This is your role in it. Thank you for your contribution.

Oh.

Huh.

You’re part Water, aren’t you?

tfw I can actually catch something in Ilex Forest. Maybe I even will.

CAUGHT!

New member of the team, your name is now Downpour! Downpour is Quirky and highly curious, and we already love him. Even with the inevitable switch training about to go down.

We’re all just so happy that this place has been given level 6 Charizard to mine.

The truly nice part about being such a disaster in playing this part consistently is that Kurt gives me free balls. What, you forgot to play for a month? Your reward is not knowing what’s going on! Also free catching tools! You Win!

I also think that me being aware of EVs is the worst thing that ever happened to my enjoyment of pokemon playthroughs. I’m just left looking at wild level 6 Charizards with Sp. Atk signs in my eyes. What do those look like? The world may never know, but they are now part of my balanced breakfast.

Also, Nature Power becomes Rock Slide in Ilex Forest.

Downpour is going to be the most overhyped Special Attacker of its kind.

Assuming I ever find a Water Stone.

This is one of those changes from the originals that I’ve never fully understood or cared for. Except at the end of the day, I am a complete sucker for people you’ve helped along your journey all reuniting and recalling what you’ve done for them.

I just really miss the Eeveelution coolness of their dance hall.

And I don’t know why this one needed any help at all. Is that a lore thing? Are all your interactions with them just secret character tests?

Downpour is 19, which feels like good enough for venturing into Goldenrod. I really shouldn’t be living the life of mindlessly murdering wild Charizard for EVs for hours on end. Let’s just try to put a cap on it.

Forbidden Day-Care lore.

Lyra’s grandmother ships us. Awk.

I’m accepting everyone’s number in this. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that before, but unlike in the originals, I don’t think there’s a limit on numbers on your phone, so might as well hoard them up.

Geez I feel old.

Vote now on which NPC pokemon person gets to stay in your phonebook. Maybe if you’re lucky you won’t abandon the one who hands out random evolution stones. :)

Oh, hello. I can catch you.

Do I want to? I’d be back to Water/Ice, and right now I have the option of picking up a Grass thing somewhere along the way... hm.

On the other hand.

Cloyster is cool.

POKE BALL, GO!

Damn it, poke ball.

Heavy Ball?

Damn it, Heavy Ball.

And now I am out of Great Balls.

Poke Ball. How do you feel about a redemption arc.

The Poke Ball declines. I have one Fast Ball, and one Heavy Ball. The odds of me getting a new friend out of this are dwindling. The route’s death appears to be at hand.

One Fast Ball.

Yeah, it breaks out.

Okay, Downpour. Kill the non-friend.

With Chance’s help, because the non-friend knew Supersonic.

Bye, Route 34. You’re dead now, and I need to buy catching tools before I forget and meeting my next friend turns awkward.

Whatever. I have a bike now.

Failing basic trivia is my favorite part of each Pokemon game.

PSYCH I WON.

My prize is a Radio Card, but the real prize is getting Whitney back inside her Gym. Where I can now battle her if I so choose. If I want to progress in the game. Her Miltank is waiting.

So we’re just going to do literally everything else we can, except not literally; these games have too many things, and I’m not getting distracted by Voltorb Flip.

...What does Nature Power actually do? Because Downpour has been spotted using Rock Slide, Earthquake, and now Tri Attack through it. It’s becoming a staple of his kit. I don’t think I’ve ever bothered using it before. I was under the impression is was always Swift?

Or is that Nature’s Gift? That’s a thing, right?

Bleh. Fighting first, looking up vitally helpful information later.

The grass has Hitmontop. Not Grass or Water, so it must die.

Wait what the heck. I was out innocently Headbutting trees, why are you here?

This is intensely awkward. My usual mode with these things is that something only fits the requirement of my Nuzlocke team if it’s been Randomized, and for whatever reason, the randomness doesn’t touch Headbutt encounters. Exeggcute is part Grass, but it is not Randomized. Sleet and Cloud are more proper team candidates.

I’m just going to say that Headbutting doesn’t count for a route’s encounter. This run isn’t intended to be overly difficult (this is not the grindlocke); the aim is fun, and I have more fun not using the standard encounters for the game.

What I’m saying is the Exeggcute dies.

(I’m just never going to be able to get a Psychic Type in this.)

My thing at the moment is beating up pokemon in the wild because I’m not sure how to deal with Whitney. Stress-grinding. Chance can’t fight the Miltank. Rollout against Ice sounds like a nightmare. But Chance is also the only female on the team, and my teams have terrible luck in love, which Whitney like exploiting.

Fludd doesn’t really have moves. Water Pulse is nice, but Mud Slap is his only other attack. Downpour is theoretically a cool option, but I don’t know what Nature Power does in the Gym. These kiddos do not have movesets that play well together. Tickle spam would be ideal, but Fludd doesn’t have a physical attack. Only Chance does, and there we have the Rollout problem.

This team could have some nice synergy (for once I almost think I might want to have someone with Rain Dance), but right now they just don’t know enough, and I do not like heading into Whitney this way.

So let us continue to explore the countryside in hopes that a solution is found.

Yanmega is not Grass or Water. Neither is Pikachu.

RIOLU.

You’re not, either.

Neither is the Zubat in the next route. Bonsly looks like it should be, and yet. Volbeat is a nope.

You, on the other hand.

Okay okay okay. Downpour. Do not ruin this for us. I know you want to kill it. We can feel it in your heart. However, we could use a friend. We could use another link in our chain.

...Actually, Fludd, how about you lend a hand with this.

SHARPEDO GET!

I dub thee Hurricane. Hurricane is Modest (dang it) and alert to sounds.

To use, or not to use. That is the question. Physical attacker? Good. Yet another pokemon with a generic shrug at the difference between physical and special? Hm.

I think Hurricane is a reserve. If we’re leveling you, little guy, it’ll be a bit later. We’re happy to have you, but you don’t fix anything well enough that I think I want to train you up just yet.

On to the park. Where the Dunsparce lurk. More Smoochum. Zubat.

I found a Dig TM. That might go to Fludd. ..Or is Fludd going to learn Dig naturally? Fludd will learn Magnitude in a few. I can wait. I don’t remember if this gen allows multiple uses of TMs or not. I could look that up, but effort.

Er. On that subject, though... internet, where can has Water Stone?

“ Johto: National Park (Come 1st in Bug Catching Contest), Route 42 (PokéGear Phonecall) “

Uh.

Oh no?

Wait!

“ Johto: Pokeathlon Dome“

Hope.

Yikes. I wanted to avoid that, having no touch screen, but Downpour, I’m not abandoning you so easily. We’re a team, man. A team. We’ll get you your usefulness.

Welp, I’ve defeated all the trainers I can.

I guess.

It’s time.

Downpour is level 24, Chance is 25, and Fludd is 23. Fludd’s going to be taking the early parts in the interest of balance. For Whitney herself... I really don’t know. I’ll play it by feel. I do want to make sure Downpour uses Nature Power before that fight, though. I don’t want to go in without knowing what it does.

It does Tri Attack in here.

...Yeah, I’m looking it up. What the heck does Nature Power actually do? Besides use moves that are strongly connected with things occurring in nature?

Finding the gen four version is too much trouble. Let’s just proceed knowing limited amounts. Yay for Tri Attack.

-makes an unhappy face best represented by toddlers-

One Clefairy and one Miltank.

This is not a scary thing.

See? Fludd already massacred the Clefairy.

This is fine. It will be fine.

Fludd stop flinching.

Aaaaaand there’s the Attract. The Miltank’s been using Stomp only, so it should be safe for Chance to go in and get a few hits. Fludd used Tickle a few times to counteract the Stomp being annoying.

Chance. Sweetie.

Stop. fucking. flinching.

FUCK YOU AND YOUR SUPER POTIONS, WHITNEY.

YES. IT’S DEAD.

YOU ARE NOT THE ONE WHO SHOULD BE CRYING HERE. MY SOUL IS IN DESPAIR, WHITNEY. YOU AND YOUR STUPID MILTANK. EVEN WHEN IT ISN’T USING ROLLOUT.

I sort of ship the flunky that tells you not to worry, Whitney will give you your badge after she stops crying--with Whitney. Just because. I spend a great deal of time in my Pokemon playing shipping random NPCs.

Pokeathlon opened, time to. grind for the Water Stone.

If my memory of this is correct, before you beat the Elite Four, there’s a different evolution stone available for purchase each day. Today’s is a Moon Stone.

Oh, this is going to be hell!

tfw you remember the Jump course being the kindest so pick it but none of your team is actually good at jumping so you’ve got to bring in the reserves.

Hurricane, Cloud, Sleet? Your time is now.

...

These games are not meant to be played on a touchpad.

Yikes.

Oh my fucking gosh this is hell do not want.

Well.

I lost.

Yay for 325 points.

LET’S KEEP GOING, SHALL WE????

Where’s my mouse...

Let’s try Power on for size. Chance, Downpour, Fludd, go for it.

Oh look I lost.

Downpour, you better appreciate how much I love you.

LOOK WE WON THE STAMINA ONE.

I’m not documenting this further. Know that I am miserable, and this is not meant, in any way, to be played with a mouse. The levels of unfortunate are everlasting and I am sad.

-the next day-

I have to wait another day for a Water Stone, but I have enough for it, so now we can move on to fun things. Like the game. The game. Which is fun.

tfw Jirachi is secretly an odd tree.

Route 37, have ye any Water or Dark?

Chimchar, you are found lacking.

Ah crud.

Totodile is not lacking, but I really don’t think catching it is a good idea. Pure Water locks me into Water. We might end up there anyway, but I’m not in such a hurry to commit just yet. I can kill a route to keep some variety alive.

Sorry, Totodile. :(

Ecruteak means Bill, which means I could go back to Goldenrod and find out what his Eevee has become. Let’s do that before we think about anything fancy like plot progression.

Sleet, into the box with you. Maybe you’ll come back if I don’t like whatever Bill’s offering.

Carnivine. Interesting. Uh. How about... Drizzle? Drizzle. Cool. And. Uh. Sleet. You’re staying in the box. Sorry, but level 5 things that are filling out party count are really just going to end up as very sad sacrifices. We’re avoiding that for now.

-another day passes-

(without me getting balls from Kurt, whoops)

WE DID IT.

Now to find out that Downpour’s spending another twenty levels not needing it because moves matter more than stats. To the internet.

...Oh.

Oh, Downpour.

Oh, no.

You, uh.

Kiddo, you’re going to be needing some help as we move forward.

But the good news is that means we’re evolving you now! Yay! Power boost! You go, you funky little duck frog thing.

Maximum cuteness achieved.

That’s a good stopping point for this round, I think.

#Pokemon #Nuzlocke #Nuzlocke Challenge #playthrough

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shiredwarf · 6 years ago

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Some thoughts on the horse accident simulator and sad outlaws :(

okay, so this is the big old game impressions post I promised. don’t know how organized it’ll be since I’m still in a state of grief but here we go. First part is spoiler free, whenever there’s a number after a comment you can scroll down to the end to find a more in-depth comment containing spoilers. There’s a clear separation between the spoiler-free part and the rest with a lot of empty lines so you can stop ready before it gets dangerous^^

General comments:

in case you somehow managed to miss this despite me screaming about this game for 3+ weeks: I loved it. So freaking much! I don’t want to rank it cause it’s all still fresh and it wouldn’t be a fair competition atm but it’s definitely in my top 3. there are so many things this games just gets right. Granted, others might disagree but to me, it was the perfect mix of main missions, side missions, RPG elements, perfect map size, dramatic dialogue without overdoing it, etc.

I actually wasn’t planning on buying this game, I was saving money for the new Fallout game (that was before that whole mess) and then more or less bought it on a whim because a) it looked amazing, b) I’d had a rough week and I wanted to shoot virtual things and c) my favourite online news website trashed it and whenever they trash an open world RPG I just know I’m gonna love it cause they have the absolute worst taste in games^^

I bought rdr1 a couple of years ago but never got around to actually playing it. I still know almost nothing about it apart from who the main character is and where it’s set. I’d like to keep it that way so I can enjoy that at some point as well :)

If you haven’t finished yet, I really recommend getting a good horse early on and sticking with it. The final scene with your horse will be even more emotional if you’ve had it for most of the game :))))))))))))))))))))

I suspected this game would wreck me and it did :)))))))) I think the only game that affected me more was ME3. But yeah, I cry easily when I watch stuff and I was gone from the moment Arthur put on his head in Chapter six to the end (which is quite a while and it involves fight scenes and everything! Try shooting people when you’re busy crying!) and then again through the credits after the epilogues.

This game is HUGE! Not because the map is big or because the plot takes so long, it’s just so full and alive. Very hard to describe but it’s just so big!

Stuff I liked:

THE HORSES! Absolutely amazing! That (and landscapes) are probably what people talked the most about when it was released and it’s understandable. The animations and the handling is just unbelievable. I can’t even imagine how much work went into this and that’s probably not even the most impressive thing about the game!

The landscape is stunning but honestly, HZD was just as stunning, had the same kind of diversity regarding climate zones and yet RDR2 does something I haven’t seen to that extent in any other game so far: It makes the land around you feel alive! That’s down to tiny things like being able to see the individual rain droplets in the fog when you hold up a lantern, the way a bush moves around you when you walk through it (the first time I saw that I literally gasped!), rockslides and avalanches, wheel tracks in the mud, localised dirt on Arthur or the horse when you fall down. And then, of course, there are the bigger, scripted additions like railroads being built, houses burning down or being erected as the game progresses, trees being taken down or burning after a thunderstorm, animals around you interacting with other animals, animal carcasses decaying if you leave them, predators hunting prey (like have you seen this stuff? It’s insane!). Then you have NPCs that remember you and make references to your last meeting, NPCs are repulsed when you still have some blood on you, people you beat up sporting a bandage the next time you see them, having to remember to cut your hair and beard and take a bath, someone you captures freaking out when you place them too close to water because they might drown, a farmer fixing their fence after you accidentally rode through it a couple of days ago, Arthur quietly singing when you ride for too long without doing anything, your fellow outlaws having interactions that don’t involve you at all! There is so much detail in this game and it’s not like other games haven’t done a similar thing but not to this extent. It generates an immersion that I think is currently unparalleled. Absolutely incredible and you can tell that (despite the frankly unacceptable working conditions that were reported) people put their heart and soul into it.

I loved the fact that there weren’t too many side quests as there often are in RPGs (and most of the times they are somewhat repetitive). I felt there were just the right amount of additional quest markers on my map at any given time and apart from like “Hey mister race me!” quests every single one of them was unique! And most of the time you met well-developed NPCs you could later meet again! (Mickey and Hamish and the widow whose name I can’t remember right now stand out here <3)

The lighting in this game is out of this world! I think there was only one scene in which it didn’t quite work but apart from that every in-game scene might as well have been a cutscene for its beauty

It’s utterly heartbreaking and since I apparently love being sad this is perfect for me ;)

I loved the fact that they took accidental dialogue interruptions into account with the whole “right, where were we” thing

The motion capture and voice acting is brilliant! And as far as I can tell many of the actors haven’t even really done anything big but everyone was so stellar and Arthur’s actor really delivered!

Love my outlaw gang so much :’) especially the relationships between Arthur and John, Dutch, Sadie, Hosea, and Charles

and I LOVE Arthur! What an incredible main character and what a fantastic character journey! [1]

(connected to the point above) probably my absolute favourite thing about the entire game: The game objective changes drastically 3/4 of the way through and suddenly things that used to be a disadvantage are the opposite and the other way around. It’s brilliant! [2]

The music is so stunning! Both the background ambient music during free play but most importantly the songs they recorded and worked in so seamlessly. I still get goosebumps thinking about “Might I (Stand unbroken)”

Stuff I didn’t like:

I don’t think I’ve had any bugs (which is really surprising for a game of this size) except two instances of the dialogue disappearing for like a minute or so. It didn’t bother me that much, just turned on the subtitles for a bit and it was fine but yep, I did find some bugs

I feel like a horse that is able to bolt if it sees a snake or a predator should be able to not hit a solitary tree that I obviously did not want to ride into ;) like I get the collisions in dense forest areas but in open planes I feel like the horse should be smart enough to take a step to the side without me prompting it ;)

it’s really easy to accidentally murder someone :( and I feel like the bounty system needs an update. If I accidentally walk into someone who gets offended and then starts shooting at me even though I’m apologizing then I shouldn’t get a bounty for knocking him out so he won’t kill me :/

I really did not like the “supernatural” stuff... I know they were just easter eggs and not relevant in any way but they just threw me off completely

There was one character I think I was supposed to connect to and I just didn’t which was a bit of a shame [3]

I wish there was a mission to the west (think Arizona, Utah landscape) I would have loved to ride through there with Arthur

I’m sure I missed quite a bit and I haven’t done everything in the game by far (only like 80% completion). I didn’t hunt much apart from the first two chapters, I didn’t craft much, I didn’t explore as much as I wanted to and I waited until like Chapter five before spending money. So there’s lots of stuff I still want to do and even more, I want to do again and really take my time now that I don’t have to be worried about accidentally reading a spoiler^^

So yep, second playthrough (albeit a much slower one) is about to start :)

SPOILERS WILL START BELOW! STOP READING HERE IF YOU HAVEN’T FINISHED!

SPOILERS APPROACHING!

THERE BE SPOILERS BELOW!

[1] Arthur’s Character:

Arthur Morgan is definitely one of my all-time fictional characters now. It was an amazing journey from someone who clearly has a moral code but doesn’t (want to) use it for various reasons to someone who (probably for the first time in his life) takes charge of it and stands up to the people who want to make into something he’s just not. I’m an absolute sucker for character growth and rough characters becoming protective and selfless and trying to make the world a better place before they go. For me, that’s what separates a good movie/tv show/game from an excellent one and RDR2 delivered!

And then there’s the’s the huge TB bombshell in chapter 5 which changes everything and accelerates what’s been coming for a while. I’m such a big fan of this, honestly. Normally you get that kind of stuff at the beginning (e.g. Breaking Bad, Deadpool, etc.) to motivate some kind of change but in RDR2 you get all this time see Arthur not be who he clearly should be but getting closer and closer and then the dam just breaks. I mean I hate it with all my heart because up until then I thought he might get out alive but damn what a wonderful character arc!

[2] Game Objective:

So this is the big one, very subtle I think but again something I don’t think I’ve ever seen a video game do and I’m just stunned!

I started writing a list for this post when I was in Chapter 2 and I had “Honour system” on my “stuff I don’t like list”. The reason for that was, I thought it was pointless and not well thought through. Sure it’s a nice idea (and not a new one) to give the player the option of being a very nice or a very bad guy and then depending on that some interactions might change. That’s the whole nature of RPGs. But the thing is, it should be equally easy to play as totally good or totally bad. And it wasn’t! For most of the game, you were at a severe disadvantage if you were trying to get high honour. You can’t rob people to get some money, you can’t rob carriages or trains to train for the larger missions and gain experience, you can’t refuse to collect a debt instead you have to beat people! Sure, now and then you can help someone and they give you some money or some supplies but that doesn't compare to what you’d get by looting corpses. And even if you somehow do something really good and your honour improves, you will still have to take part in Dutch’s raid so you fall back down to some area in the middle. I thought that was frustrating and I thought I was missing out on a big part of the game experience because my objective to be nice got in the way.

But then Arthur got sick and from that moment the rewards for being nice were insane! And I realized that the game objective was directly tied to Arthur’s internal struggle. He wanted to be a good man but life made it seemingly impossible so he kept stealing, he kept killing, he kept turning back to bad habits. But once he broke free of that, once he started to see the good in the world it was suddenly so easy to get high honour because for once the game (aka Dutch’s influence on Arthur) didn’t force you into dishonourable situations anymore. It’s so neat! Turning something that used to be a disadvantage (wanting to be good) into an advantage more than halfway through the game. I’m honestly so impressed by the total gear change that achieved!

[3] Mary:

Here’s the thing: I really want to like her and it’s not even that I dislike her, I’m just really indifferent. It’s obvious Arthur loves her a lot and it’s obvious she loves Arthur quite a bit as well but all I saw in the game are two people who might like each other but who are clearly not compatible. And I was wondering if the game wants me to root for them, to hope that they’ll make it and basically have the life John and Abigail have at the end of the epilogue but I kept thinking: “That will never work”. I think it’s mainly because we see so little of her and like 40% of what she says is “Oh, Arthur” (which gets old real quick the same way “I have a plan, Arthur!” gets old after 20 times). I feel like if she’d been around for more missions I might feel very differently. Or some flashbacks might have been nice. But with about 60+ hours of gameplay and about 30 minutes of Mary I just couldn’t connect. It seemed like a relationship that was way past it’s prime just like their outlaw lifestyle and just like the outlaw lifestyle Arthur just didn’t want to believe it.

That being said, I don’t think Mary shouldn’t be in the game! I think she has a purpose and I did her first mission very early one, so that was the first time that I saw Arthur display complex emotions which was great! But as the story went on I just cared so much more about the other outlaws and I honestly think Arthur would have been happier being Jack’s weird uncle who drops in from time to time than Mary’s proper, upstanding husband. So in the end, some outlaws standing next to Arthur’s grave would have made more sense to me than Mary :/

#text posts by thea #thea plays rdr2 #ok here it is #it's a long one ;)#i have many emotional opinions ;)

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monasatlantis · 3 years ago

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My first review of „Hajimari no Kiseki“ (played with spreadsheet)

Ever since I know that Hajimari no Kiseki (or Trails of Reverie) will not be released in English until (what probably will be late autumn of) 2023 I am very frustrated about the fact that there is no way in hell that I will be able to stay away from Kuro no Kiseki spoilers until this game will be released in English (what will probably be not earlier then the end of 2025 if not later). You see, after I spoiled most of CS3, CS4 and also a large part of Hajimari for me, because I just couldn’t wait that long for its English release, I decided I wanted to play a Trails-game “blind” for once and Kuro is perfect as it starts with new characters and a new place and so on. BUT I am a spoiler-junkie, so waiting freaking 4 years to get my hands on this game and not feeling the urgent need to collect any spoilers until then is almost impossible for me. Plus, until 2025 its very likely that Kuro no Kiseki 2 & maybe even 3 are out at this point already and you know how it goes. The deeper we go into the story, the more characters of the previous games will have cameos in the Kuro-Saga. And the more characters I love show up there, the harder it will get for me to not fish for Spoilers. Okay let’s face it, as soon as one of my favorites will show up in on of the sequels, there will be no force in hell that will be able to stop me from getting all the freaking spoiler XD

So… how does one solve this problem? There was only on way to do it: Thank the people who made the freaking spreadsheet, buy Hajimari no Kiseki on Amazon.jp and get your Computer and Playstation ready to play on remote-play. So that – hoping that someone would do a spreadsheet for Kuro as well – I would be able to get through the next Saga within a year of its release (or so) without having to drown myself in spoiler again to survive the wait until the English release. In other words: I wanted to play Hajimari, so that I could go into Kuro with a clear conscience, since I finished the previous game and thus rounded up the other free previous Sagas just nicely.

And here now is my review of Hajimari no Kiseki and my description of how I was able to handle the spreadsheet…

Let me tell you that handling the spreadsheet is very easy, especially if your PC and Playstation are already ready for remote play (as it so happens, I prefer to play on my computer and thus I’ve been playing with remote play before) and there is nothing much left to do aside from opening the spreadsheet, after changing a few control-buttons in the game-menu.

I say it took me roughly 3 to 5 hours to get the hang of how the spreadsheet works and how and when to best operate it. And after that, it mostly guided me through the game without many issues. (excluding jumping 2000 lines or so, that was a shore, but maybe it was just me being to stupid to push the right button to jump from line 1000 to 2400 without problems. Once again, that aside, the spreadsheet worked amazingly for me and it tells you all of the things you need to know to get the plot and don’t miss any development on either characters or story.

The most annoying thing was that you couldn’t decide who you want to talk to. It not critique on the spreadsheet because it was definitely already hard enough to make it, as it is. Its just something that was bothering me a bit while I was playing. Sometimes there were people I didn’t wanted to talk to that I had to if I wanted to follow the spreadsheet and there were people I wanted to talk to, that the spreadsheet did not tell you to talk to. It takes a bit getting used to. Once again tho, its no big issue. P

The only other thing that MIGHT be a bit troublesome is that there are some choices in the game were you have to follow the spreadsheet, even if you don’t want to OR you do it like me and don’t follow the spreadsheet and will be sad because what does it bring you that you bring Elie along for this fight (it was a mechanic decision, because I ALWAYS chose Elie with Lloyd, its how I always chose Alisa with Rean, I didn’t even realize I picked her until it was too late ^^’) if you don’t understand what she is saying. Once again, it is really no big issue, it just takes some getting used to or the will to accept slightly different dialogs.

PLUS when the game comes out in English and I play it again, I can do whatever I want and its normal that you just have to make some compromises when you play a game in a language you don’t understand. Playing this game with the spreadsheet is to get through the plot, so you are capable of witnessing the plot of the next game. Everything else, you can and will have when you buy the English localization.

Alright, lets finally talk about the game itself.

I’ve watched someone playing it before, not all of it, but certain parts. There were still a few surprises here and there tho and there were moments in the game that I saw in a completely different light, after actually playing it myself.

But where to start?

First of all, Hajimari no Kiseki was a good game. I really enjoyed playing it, even with the extra difficulty do to not being able to read the names (and descriptions) of quartzes and crafts and so on. (There IS something in the spreadsheet were you can search for stuff like that and translates it, but it was too time consuming for me to really use it. I play on very easy and am not a strategic fighter – hence the easy difficulty – so it wasn’t a big issue for me. Not to mention that do to the battlesystem being mostly just a copy of the one from CS4, it wasn’t too hard to know what to do when and the muscle-memory worked just fine for me too, when I needed to push certain buttons. Like, I wanted to switch characters and my hand seemed to automatically go to the right button – it will honestly be really hard to readjust in Kuro.

Anyway, something that I first thought was annoying but actually added something good to the game was the switching between the characters. Even tho I though the force-switch between Reans-Team and “C”s-Team in chapter 2 was a bit annoying, all in all it was nice to have 3 different storys play out at the same time. Because even if you found Lloyds story currently a bit boring, switching to Reans-Team might just give you the action that you needed and then going over to (SPOILER! I AM NOT HIDING THE IDENTITY OF “C” HERE!) Rufus – Team were the pacing was a bit faster was just making it feel good. Also, handling the different MCs with their different teams was also very refreshing. Especially as the chemistry was different and thus the feeling when you played the different teams. Not to mention that Reans-Team was changing with every chapter, which once again gave it a great variation of dynamics, depending who was currently on your team. It is almost sad to think about going back to playing the same MC with mostly the same team all the time in Kuro. Because this “3 MCs with different Teams” – thing was really refreshing and enjoyable.

When I was watching the guy play the game a lot of people complained that at the end of the day, we were going through the same old patterns that we were already used too and that that is boring. And even tho it is true, that we have a lot of things that… you know… happened again or at least look like we’ve been through them before, it never felt boring to me. Not when I was watching it and not when I was playing it myself. Because it fit well into the plot. As an example, Lloyd once again has to go around to gather his friends – who are currently facing their own problems – and yes, we’ve done almost the same in the Crossbell-Saga, but it fit very well with the situation, because the SSS had lost themselves and they were finding themselves again and that figuratively and literally. Also, the fact that Lloyd was finding and reuniting them shows him at the center of the SSS, just like it was with Rean in CS2, when he too had to find and reunite his friends again. Plus, I really liked how we took the time with the individual characters and deal with their problems without too much other characters intervening. Especially with the Crossbell-Saga, were we never got I satisfying ending for, it was important to put the characters into a position were you as a player would feel like they are fine. Just like we have reached it with most of the people from the Erebonia-Saga, so that saying goodbye in CS4 felt really whole.

Speaking of which. While in the other routes, the plot focuses not just on the MC but also the characters surrounding him, in Reans-Route, it mostly felt like he was the main-focus of everything and it does make perfect sense, because the reason the prologue of CS4 felt so whole and satisfying was, because everyone’s story was finished. Everyone had found their place and purpose and happiness… everyone but Rean. Now, back then we focused on the fact that Rean was still alive and realizes of some of his burdens and thus seemed to be happy too. But was his arc really fully finished? No. And the latest moment in Hajimari you realize this, is when he FINALLY says that he understood that to make others happy, he has to be happy himself. So what we are doing in Hajimari is going to face his problems and see him learn to solve or deal with them. He has the help of his friends and comrades as always and of course the plot itself is not just “Rean learning to not constantly sacrifice himself” but all in all this is the true background of his route and I found that they did that really well.

Now… lets talk about Rufus-Route… I just freshly finished my second playthrough of CS4 and it was really fresh for me what that bastard did their and I was sure as heck that I would never forgive this guy for what he did. And… I mean… it’s not like I’ve really forgiven him or that I absolutely get why most of the fandom loves him now. BUT I have to admit that they made his redemption-arc really good. For ONCE in one of our many side-switching former enemies life’s, it felt like this character really worked hard for his redemption and earned it. Rufus team was by far the most enjoyable do to the weird misfitting mix of people that had just such an amazingly enjoyable chemistry that it never got boring to play their part of the game. It was also nice to – while we had already well established teams on Llyods and Reans side – see how the characters grew to know and like each other and become a team. Adding Duvalie, Renne and Arios too the mix later on was just making it even better – as ridiculous as this sounds.

So… let me be myself for a bit and let me talk to you about the shipping-aspect of the game for a moments – and let me add some frustration about how they handled Reans situation too, while I am at it.

Here is the thing. Most of us, likely have chosen Rean to be with one of his 12 or so possible girls. The game makes it possible for you to chose one of the among them regardless of who you picked in the previous game. So… in case you suddenly realizes that Alfin is much better for Rean than Towa, you can go for it. Now the question just is, what does this choice add to the game? Basically nothing. Let me tell you, that the Spreadsheet choses Fie as Reans final partner (which was a surprise for me, as all the lets players on YouTube always seemed to choose Laura – which gets annoying after a while if she is not on your top 5 list, if you know what I mean – so I am certainly not complaining here) and I wouldn’t chose anyone but Alisa as Reans final partner even if you torture me XD So I went with it and accepted that I would get addition text for Fie and probably would miss some translated text for Alisa. But I was fine with it. It didn’t happen that way tho. BECAUSE you can also chose the people you had a strong bond with in CS4 which also added additional text. The spreadsheet chose all of them – I didn’t. So EVERYONE got some additional lines. ALL of the girls did. And something I’ve realized was, that they all had an romantic context, which was slightly irritating, given that Rean has a girlfriend now – but I mean, its Rean right? Were talking about the girl sitting in the hotspring together with Claire, flirting with her without even noticing it. So whatever XD

Thing is… when I’ve reached Alisas reunion scene (which happens freaking late in the game, let me tell you all about the torture I went through…) there was no additional line. She says the same things if you chose her as your partner, like she does if you just chose her as one of your strong bonds. And that goes for ALL the girls, which is why their lines sound romantic, because they are made to also be used in case she is your girlfriend. Meaning that Falcom doesn’t make a damn difference between who Rean dated and who Rean just had a strong bond with. Imagine my disappointment!

Lets stay with our glory hunt for a little bit longer. Rean, as he is Rean, has a few canon moments with certain girls that are flirty or… slightly considered romantic. Regardless of any choices, I may add. And no, Alisa is not among them, to probably most peoples surprise. Seriously, we don’t even get a reunion-hug. That is the first time since CS2 that we didn’t get a Rean x Alisa hug. It was HORRIBLE! XD The link event was also reduced back to the “high five” that is common ground for Rean and Alisa since CS1 (we just skipped CS4 for a special hand holding and akward moment link event – but I am sure not complaining ;P) which is fine for me, as even Estelle and Joshua just get a “High five” (a very cute one tho!) and other almost canon-shippings aren’t going much further then that either. So… no biggie. Anway… as you know by now, Alisa will not be in Reans team until the freaking final chapter. She joins Lloyds Team in chapter 3 (or so…) a she (as well as Towa) was in Crossbell when things went down the drain there. Now you might be wondering if I too agree that Alisa had no leg up whatsoever in Hajimari, as many people proudly say. I DO NOT! Look, yes, we’ve got deprived of many special moments that we usually have, but lets face it, as a Rean x Alisa fan I am spoiled rotten. We got hugs and kisses as early as freaking CS2! We have gotten one of the most amazing Reunion-Hugs ever in CS3 (only slightly rivaled by Elie and Lloyd – and we get to their special status quo in a minute) and NO ONE had a special link event in CS4 but Rean and Alisa and to top it off, even if you do not do Alisas Bonding-Events, even if you do not date her at all, you WILL get the hand-holding-link-event in CS4, like it or not. So… lets face it, yes, we are used to far too much special treatment to our ship, especially considering that its not officially canon (yet, I may add ;P) and yes, that caused some disappointment on my side at certain points in the game.

BUT all in all I can not complain. Alisas name is often the only one on his lips. Towa, Machias and Sharon are currently stuck in Crossbell and Alisas name is almost always the only one he mentions. When he tries to reach Crow on the phone, but doesn’t seemed to be able to do that, he actually slightly panics and adds that he just can not reach Alisa. Alisa. Not Towa, his Coworker. Not Machias, his Friend. Also not Sharon everyone favorite maid, who he sure as hell has the number of as well. No, he was only trying to reach Alisa and he was only frustrated about not being able to reach her. AND despite the fact that he is obviously just hiding how worried he is, this little moments, is the only one were he allows himself to show that. That little moments when he can’t reach Alisa. The reunion-scene really isn’t special, but after that we can find Alisa almost always exactly were she belongs, which is right next to Rean. We also have some wonderful small moments in the final chapter. Starting with the in-synch-reaction after hearing Ishmelga-Reans awful story and ending with Alisa being so close to Rean on that Rooftop in Crossbell that there is only on camera-angle which even allows you to see that she is in fact right next to him. So yes… as an Rean x Alisa fan, I might got a bit disappointed because we didn’t get the usual super special treatment, but believe me, we did not run out of the normal special treatment. Alias leg is still up.

Achem…

Lets get to Crossbell now. Falcom had the guts to reveal in an interview that Elie and Lloyd are a thing but didn’t have the backbone to make it canon in Hajimari. They even dared to give Lloyd a special scene with almost every of his available girls. BUT if we are talking about legs up… I would say the reunion hug and the “I want to support you with my heart” – moment, were still giving Elie a leg up. Not to mention that there were multiple small hints here and there at them being an item, so there is no need to worry. I say this ship has sailed. FINALLY another ship has sailed in Crossbell. We’ve all been waiting for this since the Crossbell-Sagas relatively early days. Yes, Mirelle and Randy FINALLY got from “former Co-Workers” (my ass!) to “a married couple” and that in the short span between the beginning and the end of this game. I wish all our ships would be that efficient and fast XD

Did I hear some rumors about Wazy and Noel? Who knows!

Lets move to Rufus-Team, shall we? I am not talking about him and the Lolie… because… not sure what this even is about ^^’ But lets talk about 3 and 9. I mean, Swin and Nadia. (I love them talking about the book, by the way XD) and how Falcom uses the “Sibling” – Zone on us yet again. Seriously, Swin and Nadia are really cute together and its sure that they will become a couple eventually. I mean, there is a scene in the reverie-part of the game were Nadia is complaining about being sister-zoned. And who is the one answering her with the words “its just a phase, Jusis did that with me too”? Guessed it right, Millium. The one with the freaking cutest Link-Events you have EVER seen. Seriously, I loved my Rean and Alisa Hand holding and I absolutely adore the way Estelle and Joshua are looking at each other in their event after their hands stayed connected for a little longer then necessary and yes I jumped out of joy about Tita getting a freaking Trails-Trademark-Headpat from Agate and all. BUT look at Millius and Jusis Link-Event and tell me it is not the cutest thing you have EVER seen? I love how she leans against him like this. Its just… *chef kiss* perfect! ANYWAY… my point is, that Millium hit the nail on the head. The Sibling-Zone is a running-gag in Trails games ever since Joshua and Estelle. Now think guys, Joshua and Estelle are THE canon-couple of the whole Trails-Saga so far. And even here we had the freaking sibling-zone. This is nothing but a freaking joke. I dare to assume that ALL the sibling-zoners are eventually turn out to be couples in the end. Including Cedric and Shirley – Angie proofed to us that queerbaiting is a thing, right George?

So… honestly? All seems to be going very well shipping-wise in our games as far as I can tell. Who knows, maybe Renne will bring us good news about the two remaining ships of the Liberl-Saga in Kuro at some point. I mean, Joshua and Estelle need to get married already and Tita is 18 at the point of Kuro and with Agathe reaching his thirties, it is about time he stops sibling-zoning the girl and date her already. Geez.

I totally digress XD

So back to Hajimari. We had some really great szenes, some amazing chapters. The pacing was mostly good (a bit of a few stupid moves when Rean was in Nord aside), the character-development well done and the plot really interesting. I loved what they did with the normal-ending Reans story and how it helped our Rean to finally see the light. I was totally and absolutely amazed by Lloyds character-development as well. And once again, Rufus earned himself his redemption and I enjoyed watching it. The Riverie-Corridor too was FINALLY well done. It is not too hard, it is actually helpful and you aren’t forced to do much in there, but if you do you gain plenty of benefits from it. As someone who was like: “Oh no, not again!” after hating Phantasma in Sky3 and the Riverie Corridor at the end of CS2, I think it says a lot that I am not complaining about this thing this time, but rather praise it. Music was good. Falcom-Music. Soundtrack of CS3 is still better, but all in all it was very good as per usual. There was really barely anything to complain about.

Looking back at it, I would give it a solid 8,5 out of 10 points – and if you think that I haven’t played the real English localization yet, that has to say a lot.

#Mona plays Hajimari No Kiseki #Monas review #I really enjoyed this game

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