#This doesn't even get into how the game treats you the player as the villain in that route

[pumpkinrootbeer]

sometimes I think about how the game that completely changed how the general public viewed pixel rpgs, has a breathtaking soundtrack that has completely escaped it's original circle, has lines like "It's you!" "Despite everything it's still you", changed so many people's mind about empathy in video games, was damn near revolutionary in how it used game mechanics as part of the story and literally fucked with the code of your computer, uses the game code as a means of storytelling, has secrets people still are trying to unravel to this day, and has a boss fight so mind-blowing people still talk about it and for so many people it's ongoing legacy is Kanye West likes...., selfcest, and that time it killed the queen of England. And I love that. good job team

[pyreo]

I've never thought about this in the 11 years I've played but I just realised gw2 must look.. pretty zany to outsiders? It didn't even occur to me. I'm really glad it's in a low fantasy setting that allows for pretty much anything and I think it's inkeeping with the focus on player creativity in an MMO to have that kind of range.

Like I know the overall aesthetic can get wacky but because that's so fitting for a multiplayer game... it's never occured to me that anything looks odd.

Like, here's a screenshot of me, someone's bird, and some lovely folks from the last pride march

Like real pride marches, being over the top and loud is the point. We have the tools to do that, even in regular gameplay. I think it's fascinating that nothing about this feels out of place. Magic in this universe does practically anything you want it to. Technology varies from nonexistent to far beyond real life. There's a massive range but everything feels kind of.... justified?

Some people will wear fantasy armour and keep everything on a theme. Some people are going to group transform into giant frogs and some people are going to cosplay as Johnny Bravo. It happens. The game doesn't mind. It doesn't shy away from people being incredibly weird. I remember the devs recalling a decision they had to make about letting players jump on top of a plot-important table where NPCs sat for serious discussions. The decision was they they shouldn't stop people from doing that if they wanted to.

The openness of the setting means these are all things that could exist. People reanimate corpses here for the hell of it. The weapons are magic and can be literally anything. The mounts are all creatures that have been tamed, or vehicles someone could have invented. Even the living plushie mounts are lore-compliant because... magic.

But on top of this, this game has one of the most sincere stories of anything I've ever played? Whether it's to your taste or not, I don't think you could deny how much care goes into it. From terminal conditions to villains having tantrums over childish insecurities to symbolic anticapitalism to racial superiority rallies, it has treated its topics with dead-solid respect. It does not undercut its serious moments - but it allows you the privilege if you'd like.

Maybe it's the balance of being so immersed in that that's stopped me from thinking any of this looks silly. The players can be silly, sure. Maybe there's a kind of game-and-player suspension of disbelief. We tell our story, and you have your freedom, and for the most part they won't intersect (except for the infamous Wynne cutscene).

In the MMO space there's other ways to approach this. You've got ESO which holds back very tightly to its high fantasy setting. That's for people with different tastes who don't want anything aesthetic-breaking in their game, and they have to cut back the player freedom to get it while trying to introduce a steady stream of new armours that can't be too interesting. They have magic, but don't go too far. It also means you get deals begging you to come to the cash shop to buy, like, rags. Fun rags for your character!

Then inbetween those two there's 'your name has to be lore compliant but fuck it, flying convertible'

[pyromainiacc]

In Defense of Magnificus

A very very long rant by me. Originally from a rant I posted in a discord server in 2022, modified to be a little more concise. I have to apologize if some of this stuff is incredibly outdated, I haven't really bothered to catch up with newer stuff about the game outside of the game itself yknow... Like twitch streams from the dev and such.

I saw a theory that Magnificus was originally intended to be the villain of the original, in lore Inscryption, but through the rush of making the game as a coverup and developers like Kaycee not making much progress on the development because of said rush, he didn't get finished. And I think if you really analyze his character, everything about him FEELS unfinished.

His character design is super simple compared to the other scrybes. His deck is weak; there are not a lot of hard hitting cards aside from the Stim Mage, and the Magiks system itself feels wonky, as if they didn't have enough time to balance it out. His tower feels empty (Specially that damned bathroom. It haunts me.) His letter stops before its completed, he suddenly disappears mid-sentence... He's the only scrybe to not get a proper 3D version, as the game was mostly deleted by the time we got to him in Act 4, and he might've been the only scrybe that never became hegemon. We don't get to finish his battle, and he doesn't even get a handshake.

And going back to originally being a villain? Maybe that's why he was made to be so cruel to his pupils. P03 is also mean to his subordinates, but they're robots, they're not mean to gain as much sympathy from the player. Meanwhile, Magnificus is established to be mean and perhaps downright evil by the dialogue we get through Act 2. Rebecha speaks about him by saying he's mysterious, stating "Some say he wants... No, it's too terrible to say." But we never know what that refers to, and if it's coded dialogue or her own speech.

Outside of the CODED IN lore behind his pupils suffering, we don't see him being evil AT ALL. In Act 1 he is practically our savior; his throughout preparing was able to get us the film roll, and if we take too long he sends the player VISIONS to guide us in the right way. In Act 2 he attempts to warn the player about P03, his paint leads around to secrets to clue in about the OLD_DATA as well as perhaps serving as warnings for it. At the end of the game he is the only one who is distraught about everything being deleted; Grimora and Leshy accept their deaths, but Magnificus REFUSES to.

But wouldn't a villain rejoice about people dying? About, in his own words, an entire world being destroyed? It's like the original plan for his villainy was there, but he doesn't WANT to be one.

Now as to why he seems to continue to treat his pupils badly. I think it's just.. guilt. I believe he didn't have a choice in making them suffer, they were all just coded into what we know of Act 2. They were all created with the pupils being in torturous states and the game code telling them "It's Magnificus' fault". I think he himself believes this. I believe he could have tried to fix it before. But the thing is that, even if he ever did fix it, if he stopped their pain, it would all be for nothing... because the game resets. The only times it doesn't do this is when a scrybe takes over, which is something he has supposedly never been able to do. And if he were to help them outside of being hegemon they'd just go back to their original state once the new game card was used. I think he simply gave up upon realizing this and instead chose to bury his own grief that comes from it by playing into the character he was originally meant to be; the villain. That, and I think he just doesn't want to look at them... It hurts him to. I believe this is why he painted bleach over Goobert's painting.

I think him being originally an unfinished villain plays into him always being prepared. As I stated before, people often forget how helpful he is- it's due to his preparations that we are able to leave Act 1, he warns about The Great Transcendence in Act 2, warns Luke about the OLD_DATA, and warns him about the fate he'd encounter if he looked upon it. I think Magnificus wants to make up for his "villainy" by being the one the other scrybes and npcs can rely on in a time of need, so he spends every hour of everyday getting ready for the worst, and foreseeing what is gonna happen next.

Thing is that, he never stops anything from happening. He prepares a way out of Leshy's hegemony, but he can't stop it from happening in the first place. It's very probable that he was the one that planned how to stop P03 in Act 3, as we see he has been preparing since at least Act 2. But not only does the P03 hegemony happen, but he is ultimately unable to stop the Great Transcendence once it is in progress. Same thing for the game's deletion, which I believe it is at that point he truly panicked, because he couldn't foresee it or plan for it beforehand. It all feels like... An unfinished character arc. He never got to do anything he wanted.

I think he feels powerless.

Magnificus is often regarded as the worst scrybe. But in a sense, there's no real reason why that should be the case, at least not compared to the others. Like... Leshy took over the game and put the other scrybes into cards. He had good intentions, sure, but that doesn't mean his actions were good. Magnificus lost his eye, Grimora lost her memory, P03.... Was having a bad time...

Hell, the reason people hate Magnificus so much so often is because of the treatment of his pupils... But Leshy isn't all innocent there either. He puts Goobert in a bottle (At least, maybe he does. It's not clear whether it was him or Mags), which we know Goobert REALLY doesn't like, and he also put Goobert's description in the rulebook as "Failure". He also threw the bottle into the river as stated by himself in Kaycee's Mod.

P03... I don't gotta explain this one we know it is an asshole.

...And Grimora deleted the game, which basically killed everyone in it. While she had good intentions, it really only led to the discovery of the OLD_DATA and the subsequent assassination of Luke.

Now, what did Magnificus do? Nothing. Like... Really. He didn't GET to do anything. People dislike him because of his treatment of his pupils, but as I talked about before, I really don't think he can do anything about that, even if he wanted to.

So why do people so easily hate him? Circles back to the theory: Because he's unfinished. Everything about him is unfinished. The other scrybes are loved because we got to finish their arcs... We get to know why they each do what they did.

P03 not so much, but... P03 is a villain of sorts, people like villains and don't need them to be "good" to like them, which I agree with cuz villains are fun! P03 does have some sympathy points somewhere, though, which I'm not gonna go into here.

I'm gonna focus on Grimora and Leshy instead. Their farewells were perfect closure:

Grimora spoke about why she chose to delete the game, and we as the player come to understand her. It was right after her doing it in the first place, so we didn't even get to really build anger towards her. She talks about it being a necessary action- perhaps something we can agree with after knowing everything about the OLD_DATA. She laments not being able to play more with us, but she accepts her death and says goodbye.

Leshy talks about just.. wanting to play. That's all he wants, he just wanted to give us a good story. The original Inscryption is rushed and weird- Act 1, his hegemony, was his attempt to make it better and enjoyable (Which, considering it is the Act people love most, he succeeded.)

The player probably misses him by this point- playing cards with him feels somber, sad, and nostalgic. At this point we consider him a friend. And then he gets deleted after complementing our past deck, speaking about how much he enjoyed his time with us, and saying farewell. It's not something that leaves us with any possible anger towards him.

Magnificus though... He doesn't get that. We never get to talk to him properly, he never speaks about how he feels or why he does things. In Act 1 he spends most of the time in the clock, in Act 2 he gets cut off when trying to speak to us, Act 3 he only speaks a few sentences, and in Act 4..

His farewell is different than the other two. Leshy and Grimora accept their deaths... Magnificus doesn't. He doesn't talk about his feelings or justify his actions, because if you have been holding in your feelings, that is something you do when you can no longer do so. You let them go when you know you're going to die soon.

But he doesn't want to. He doesn't want to die, he can't accept it.

The game he played with us wasn't complete- the scales were gone, so we weren't even supposed to play against him. It was his opportunity to just say what he needed to say before he was gone, but he refused to accept his upcoming death. So instead he tried prolonging the process by using unrealistically high numbers instead of scales (The bigger the number, the longer the game will take, right..?). Even as he felt himself getting deleted he refused to end the game, or even talk to the player properly. For once, he couldn't prepare for the worst, and he was in denial- he was completely powerless and he didn't want to accept it. Instead, he speaks to us about the game deleting. He blames the player for it. He tries to guilt us; "You even allowed my goo mage to get deleted... I thought you two were becoming friends!"

And he doesn't get a handshake. He tried to push his deletion away for so long that he ended up not even being able to finish the match or get the same, proper farewell that Grimora and Leshy got.

I think by now I've said what I needed to say, but I wanna add that... Yeah, I think he's one of the most tragic characters in the game. I think he spends a lot of time being anxious- we don't get a clear answer on if he can see the future or if he is just able to predict it, but either way he lives with a lot of anxiety because of it.

I think the worst part is the deletion of the game and his farewell. He isn't able to let go because he's scared to, and because he has spent his whole life trying to prevent bad things from happening; trying to help his friends to get out of bad situations they caused themselves. But this time he's not able to, he can't do ANYTHING about it, and he's terrified because that means his whole existence and work is just... Gone. He spent all his days preparing for the worst scenarios, only for it all to be thrown away. He WASTED his life for nothing. And it hurts me that the fandom never saw that.

Or maybe I'm overthinking all of it. Maybe this has all already been directly disproven. But I still wanted to share this.

[aha-chuu]

Alhaitham and Kaveh's dynamic is interesting, because I've seen a lot of people say either "oh my god Kaveh is so mean" or "oh my god Alhaitham treats Kaveh terribly". But, quite importantly imo, in this quest Paimon remarks that she "doesn't know which one of them is more problematic".

I think when considering their relationship you need to look at intention. Do Hoyo want to villainise one of their popular husnandoes as a toxic asshole? No. Even the "villain" playable characters like Childe and Wanderer are nice/funny on occasion. Kaveh and Alhaitham's interactions are intended to be humorous, to make you gasp and say "oh wow I can't believe he just said that!".

Like, during the most recent story quest, for example. Kaveh accusing Alhaitham of having no empathy when he's clearly pretty emotionally stunted and decently moral is mean. But saying "At least I'd be a fungus with empathy!" Undercuts that - it's clear neither Alhaitham nor the player are suppose to take those words seriously.

Alhaitham dismissing Kaveh's field of work with "you work yourself to death just for a smile" is so belittling, but it's a retort to Kaveh saying his scribe job is at "rock bottom" in the Akademiya. Alhaitham isn't lashing out or trying to demean Kaveh in front of others (this interaction happens after the player has "left"); he's just continuing their verbal sparring match. I think people take this jab so seriously because it can be seen as a jab at a lot of people working out of passion, but in the context of the dialogue we're not supposed to regard it so deeply.

It's also fairly clear that nobody in game takes them seriously either. Tighnari says Kaveh is "as pent up as an anemo slime" in his Alhaitham voiceline - another funny quip - and Collei details how hard it was to suppress her laughter when Kaveh was talking about Alhaitham. Nobody thinks they're genuinely bad for one another, or that getting them separated is all that crucial.

Even the interactions in this story quest are just so silly and domestic: Kaveh can't get the painting straight, Alhaitham buys ugly furniture, they're arguing about rent and drink tabs, Kaveh is doing an unfair amount of housework and Alhaitham fucks off without entertaining his own guests. it's funny, or at least it is clearly intended to be.

I've heard that in the other dubs the VAs tones are different and it makes the lightheartedness clearer. Personally I've thought since their first interaction in the AQ that Alhaitham is having fun during their quarrels, and Kaveh is just melodramatic enough to act traumatised even if he isn't truly offended.

Then when it comes to whether their dynamic is supposed to be read platonically or romantically... Well Hoyo won't do anything canon, but it's hard to argue that there is no intentionality in how their relationship is portrayed. What other character(s) has an idle animation directly referencing their relationship with another character? How many other voicelines explicitly reference two characters as a pair? Nahida's Kaveh voiceline, Collei's, Tighnari's - I'm sure there are more. "Roommates" "senior & junior" "academic rivals" -> certainly there's a case to be made that they're just very close, but Kaveh and Alhaitham getting fifteen minutes of epilogue interaction in two different quests (where none of the content is related to either quest) says something. Fanservice, quite possibly.

Also Kaveh's line "We used to be friends, but not anymore"; I've seen plenty of people interpret this as "oh we're not friends, we're dating*". I think this is fun in fanon, but on a canon level it's basically a promise by Hoyo to fix (or explain) their current dynamic. Hoyo, for all their many faults, are detail orientated enough to follow up on such a line. Perhaps it will just be in Kaveh's voicelines/character stories, but I anticipate a future event or Kaveh hangout in relation to their bond. Nothing explicit, but more exploration. It's fairly clear Alhaitham and Kaveh are popular enough characters to warrant it.

All this to say: I have lots of thoughts. I have seen people call them toxic and (while idm the drama of that in fanon shipping) that isn't really the intended case in canon. Or, at the very least, the intention is not to to take their squabbling so seriously.

[deadname-exehasbeendeleted]

OKAY so every time I listen to never love an anchor by the crane wives i cannot stop thinking about double life desert duo and i just need to make a breakdown because it is LITERALLY PERFECT every line matches up to at least my interpretation of them and i just need to share my rambles with the void (also I’m talking about the characters not ccs I’m sure I don’t need this but just in case ya know)

basically I’m gonna add all the lyrics (without all the woah-oh-ohs) with each section that applies to either grian or scar and maybe a note as to why i think so so here I go-

Scar: On some level, I think I always understood

That these hands of mine were clumsy, not clever

And I tried to do the best that I could

Grian: But try as I might, I couldn't bring myself to hold you

okay okay already off to a strong start scar tried to do the best he could but g saw him more as a danger which is why the clumsy hands line is red because that’s how g sees him, no matter how much scar tries to prove otherwise, and g keeps him at arms length because he cares but he’s scared look at the last time they were a team and how it ended

Grian: It's a secret I keep tucked inside my chest

With this heart of mine that's guilty, not remorseful

Scar: There is love that doesn't have a place to rest

But it would have buried you if it had settled on your shoulders

i mean g kept a lot of secrets, from not telling scar they were soulmates to the literal secret soulmate thing, but he doesn’t feel much remorse as he doesn’t see this as anything more than a temporary bond (plus he’s trying to not care because he knows it could go badly if he lets himself care but we’ll get to that later) while ON THE OTHER HAND scar cares so much but he has nowhere to put it bc he knows(thinks) g doesn’t feel the same (ship or no ship i don’t care i’m thinking less romantic but do what you want lmao)

Scar: On some level, I think I always understood

That a ship could never really love an anchor

So, I did the only thing that I could

And severed the rope to set you sailing from my harbor

OKAY HEAR ME OUT going along with scars last bit he knows g doesn’t feel the same and doesn’t wanna hold him back from doing what he wants so even if he knows g is “cheating” on him he doesn’t retaliate as much because he wants hime to be happy (listen ik this is fanfic-y but i’m talking about minecraft youtubers lemme have fun)

Scar: There are times when I still wonder about you

You are someone I have loved, but never known

Grian: And you'll never see the reasons I had

For keeping my claws away when they were close enough to hurt you

AND HERE WE HAVE THE MOMENT because scar has already known this he cares about g but g keeps him at arms length to avoid getting attached to stop himself from getting hurt because HE DOES CARE but he knows how these games work and he’s not letting himself care

Grian: I am selfish, I am broken, I am cruel

I am all the things they might have said to you

scar is seen outwardly as the more villainous of the two (at least by the other players, i mean deserved he is the Arson Boy but still) but g thinks of himself instead because he is treating scar worse to stop himself like he will talk badly of scar to make himself feel better because he doesn’t want to care but-

Grian: Do you ever think of me and my two hands?

And wonder why they never soothed your fevers?

And wonder why they never tied your shoes?

And wonder why they never held you gently?

And wonder why they never had the chance to lose you?

- BUT HE DOES CARE and he’s trying to stop it from growing because he knows how this will go he knows especially in this situation one of them will kill the other and he doesn’t want it to hurt if(when) he’s the one to do it (may i say AGAIN we all remember 3rd life) and just AAKSGJSHDJDBGSKSHJSNSHSJSV

okay this ended up more story/fanfic like than i originally planned but once I started typing i couldn’t stop i just have So Many Thoughts about them and half of them probably make no sense at all

also in the process of finding the lyrics for this i read the lyrics for the moon will sing and figured out that that one actually also applied really well to dl desert duo so i may make another post like this for that if i find motivation

hey if you read this whole thing you are amazing i have no clue if any of it makes sense but i’m tossing it into the void anyways

[fantasyinvader]

Part of the discourse, I believe, is rooted in Byleth being Schrodinger's Player Character. Who is Byleth supposed to be: their own character or an avatar for the player? Byleth's a silent protagonist, much a Link, and while we can't customize their appearance we can change their name and birthday. However, that birthdate is fake and Jeralt's journal gives Byleth's actual birthday separate from what the player gives them (unless the player puts in that date themselves). Likewise, it's also implied that whatever name we give Byleth isn't the name they were given at birth, Rhea's the only one who could actually give them their birth name.

In a way, the identity we assign Byleth is just whatever false identity Jeralt gives them.

The game makes Silver Snow the natural progression of Byleth's story, that Byleth would reject working with Edelgard and her allies at the end of White Clouds. The decisions that unlock Flower instead are framed as “changing the story” within the game itself. As the story is meant to progress, Byleth wouldn't abandon their teaching duties to go to Enbarr at Edelgard's request. Hell, Byleth gains a paralogue by have a support level with Rhea and loses it if they turn on her. Regardless of class taught Byleth being a teacher is shown to be good for them, allowing them to actually experience emotions, and at the end of every White Clouds Byleth's would turn their sword against Edelgard unless the player has them act out of character and do things that change the story. They go from a mercenary who cuts people down without feeling a thing, with Hopes making it clear they don't enjoy such a life, to someone who wishes they could peacefully solve things unless they side with Edelgard and abandon Byleth's character.

Rhea though Byleth was an empty vessel for Sothis, only to learn they were their own person. Yet players treat Byleth as an extension of themselves, their own empty vessel to shape Fodlan as they see fit while complaining you can't “betray” Dimitri like you can Edelgard (never mind the devs said she betrays you) or that Claude doesn't go after the Church. People talk about how your choices matter in Fodlan, but the first choice you get is simply which class to teach which includes two routes without any real variation to them, and the third class has it so that the player can either stick to the script or join the villains. What kind of sense does that really make if that first decision will lock me into supporting the Church over Edelgard before I get to know anyone or anything about the setting?

Instead, our choices only seem to matter when we go against the story and side with the people we were supposed to fight and in the process kill/exile the heroes. Despite the clues that indicate how out of character it is for Byleth to join Edelgard, how they regress as a person, this is held up as a good thing because it seemingly validates not Byleth's choice but that of the player's. They see Byleth not as a character, but as an extension of themselves and therefore want Byleth to fight the Church despite all of what Edelgard and TWSITD did during White Clouds because the player believes they are the bad guys. The devs even said that Flower was thematically tied to having different beliefs... in a world built to support Silver Snow's story. Even when Edelgard is shown to withhold information or spread lies to her allies, people still choose to believe her and think that's okay because this path was their decision.

From a Buddhist perspective, their “self” has ended up leading them astray, yet they believe their “self” should be celebrated because they misunderstood the setting and acted based not on what the story was telling them but what they believed instead. Going even further, this way of thinking is pretty apt for the Asura path. It's the path of the Agarthans.

[moxpunk]

Moxie's Big-Ass Retrospective on Games She Played This Year

There's going to be a lot of games under the break, and I'm going full-hog on spoilers. Honestly, I'm going stream-of-consciousness with these, so there's not going to be a clear point made for some of them. Just how I remember them and how I feel now looking back.

Final Fantasy XIV This is my current MMO of choice, and it's been this massive part of how I spent my time this year. The patches and content continue to be great, even if I breeze through it all in a few days after the patch when plugins/mods are back up. I've definitely noticed a dip in my interest lately. I think it's because we've hit a good stopping-point for the plot and junk, so most of us are just waiting until the pre-patch of the new expansion next year. RP continues to get fucking worse and worse for someone that plays a lalafell, since the community at-large (especially the modding community) is actively hostile towards lalafells and their players. Having to check every single venue to see if my middle-aged potato is going to be treated like a child by the hosts gets exhausting after the umpteenth time. Still love the game and I poke at it on a regular basis.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom One of my favorite games I've played this year, but also one of the most frustrating in hindsight. There was a ton of lost opportunity in multiple aspects in this game, and it's sorta the thing I keep coming back to in my head. I loved the exploration and fucking around with physics and just getting to play around in Hyrule. It's a magical experience that I think transcends the fact that 2/3rds of the map is essentially re-used. The Underground was a missed opportunity to shove lore of ancient civilizations in there, Ganondorf was a missed opportunity to finally depict him as a tragic hero with Hyrule being the villains for once, and no plans for DLC or even a Hero Mode is a massive miss for me wanting to return to the world.

Baldur's Gate 3 Hands-down my favorite game of the year by a massive margin, but like TOTK, an immensely frustrating experience. The game is half-cooked in so many areas, and the bugs are plentiful to the extent that they can't really be ignored. The pathing system continues to be the Larian Special of being jank as all hell, with my characters running in the opposite direction of the path it lays out for them. I played this one on stream, and I cannot remember a single stream where I didn't have at least a handful of frustrations with the combat system. Hell, I had to completely restart my file in the middle of Act 2 because Karlach's romance bugged out. I continue to be very upset and frustrated at how goblins are treated, doubly so since in order to pursue the Good Route with Halsin, you have to attack fucking children. I don't care if they're goblins, they're kids. Also very disappointing we don't get a single short-race origin character, meanwhile half of the cast is some form of elf. At least it's nice letting me be full-on cock-out trans. Despite that, the writing and characterizations in this game are unparalleled. It's immensely refreshing to finally have a RPG where you fucking roleplay, after years of it being dialogue that doesn't matter in the slightest other than "points towards the good/evil ending". I love the Brain Slug Squad immensely. This game is probably going to become part of my "play this every year" list because there's just so many different ways to play through this game.

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk Been waiting for this game (or a game like it) for fuckin' years, and it's everything I wanted and expected. I know a lot of people went into the game expecting some massive thing that lasted hours and hours, but my memories of JSR/JSRF was a game that I could reasonably beat in an afternoon or two because I just get into the flow and know what I'm doing. Cyberfunk is the purest successor to JSF that I can thing of where it just adds to the fun formula of the past. Incredible game, love seeing the mods coming out for it, hope we get another game in the universe since Team Reptile said they aren't doing DLC.

Pizza Tower Love this game, adore the movement and the music, absolutely fell off at about the halfway mark. I think it's because a lot of stuff was coming out at the time, and I just kinda played those instead. One of these days, I'll beat it and be very satisfied, but for now my gremlin-brain that demands collecting every single collectable and getting at least an A-rank on every stage gets exhausted just thinking about it.

Elden Ring Opened the game up after upgrading to a new PC, marveled that I could run it on Ultra with the game keeping a smooth framerate, killed a few enemies, remembered about the fucking giant ants in this game and how there are zero mods to remove/change them, and then turned the game off and uninstalled. Begging someone to make a mod that gets rid of the fucking ants. Please. I've already gotten every trophy in the game last year, so any incentive I have to return is predicated on that.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty So, I'm going to give my thoughts about the base game and the DLC, since I played both. The base game continues to be this utter fascination to me where my brain adores just existing in the cyberhell future of nonstop advertising (if I have to hear YO YO YO MY CHEWERS SHROOMERS AND FUMERS! one more time I'm going to fucking strangle someone to death) and ultraviolence. The game continues to ride that weird line of "might as well do every side-quest because they're quick enough to get to and there's hardly any compared to Witcher 3" and "oh my god I do not care about these fucking sidequests other than I have gremlin-brain". Doing anything with sniper rifles or heavy machine guns is an exercise in frustration thanks to there being zero silenced sniper rifle until late-game and there being no unique HMGs.The DLC is... fine. It's fun antagonizing Idris Alba, it's not fun that the DLC is based around a stealth build, it's extremely not fun that the changed ending is deeply unsatisfying from a narrative standpoint.

Pseudoregalia An adorable little game that I enjoyed quite a bit for the very short time I got to fool around with it. Love the movement, love the style of the graphics, love the little pieces of story. Game doesn't get enough love, so here's me giving it some more.

Potionomics I fucking adore this game. I think what helped endear me was getting to do all the voices on-stream, but who cares this is my retrospective and I get to be biased. Loved the romances and characters in there. I absolutely headcanon Xid as being trans, Roxanne turns me into a babbling idiot, and I relate to Luna so hard it almost hurts. I enjoy that characters remain your friend if you already picked a partner, and you have to have a conversation about "hey, you were kinda flirty for a while and I feel a little weird about that now" for each of them. Breaking the economy by the third competition was immensely satisfying.

Paradise Killer I slammed through this game over the course of a single sleepless night thanks to Super Depression. Love the character designs and how bold they are, love the lore behind the world, got kinda sick of it taking so long to travel from place to place, gremlin-brain refused to let me part with the game until I collected everything. Hope to see a prequel/sequel of some sort, because Lady Love Dies is such an interesting character and I liked the bugfuck-weird world.

Peglin It's Peggle, you're a goblin, you get funky ball powerups, adore playing this game on my phone in short bursts. Not much more to say, it's my potato-chip game.

Rimworld Friend gifted this to me and I got horribly obsessed for like a week. It's a lot easier to grok than Dwarf Fortress thanks to the UI and information being easier to comprehend. I never know how to do the crazy shit in these games, I usually peak at having a little self-sustaining settlement with like 4 characters that live their little lives until a plague or bandit raid sweep through and kill everyone.

Halo: Master Chief Collection Another series of games I got obsessed with and pounded out before dropping it. Halo 1 is like twice as long as I remember, Halo 2's remastered cutscenes are fucking gorgeous and it continues to be my favorite out of the series, Halo 3 I'm lukewarm on it's whatever, Halo Reach is... eh I don't care, ODST I petered out of thanks to playing it with an ex that does not understand videogames, Halo 4 is a slog. Didn't do any multiplayer.

Helltaker Finally played it, beat it in like 2 hours, thought the puzzles were fun and the art continues to rattle around in my noggin.

A Hat In Time Another game that I finally beat after owning it for like the better part of a decade. Cute little game, I don't have a clue what any of the updates and junk do these days. The big mountain level is a fucking nightmare to navigate and explore and that's why I fell off last time.

Puzzle Agent Played this one on-stream because I'm Minnesotan as all fuck and I enjoy Professor Layton puzzles. It's just as good as I remember, even if it's incredibly short.

Kingsway Love the premise, adore that it takes me back to the Windows XP era of using my parents' computer. I had like one good run that died in the middle of things, and I never really went back. I should do this game again at some point.

Loop Hero Another procedural game where progress is usually bottlenecked by gathering base resources in each run so you have a fighting chance. All my runs sorta ended up the same by a certain point and I wasn't really having much fun anymore.

Lethal Company Game scares the absolute shit out of me, I cannot play this game for extended periods because I get heartburn from fear. Excellent experience with friends.

Super Mario RPG I didn't have a SNES growing up, so I never got a chance to play the original. So far, I've been greatly enjoying the remake! I don't have much to say because I've only played like four hours of it on stream.

Katamari Reroll Just beat this game again on stream last week. Extremely fun, extremely short, Lonely Rolling Star continues to make me get emotional and cry, my memories get mixed-up with We ♥️ Katamari when it comes to the final sequence of levels.

World of Warcraft I made the return, and holy shit have things changed in-game. The UI actually looks like it's part of a cohesive artstyle, catching up with the story and questlines after bouncing in the middle of Shadowlands is honestly kind of exhausting, and the RP community is still splintered and fractured between Retail and Epsilon. Controller-support has been my biggest gripe since XIV's is fucking stellar and I do not have the wrists/hands for putting my abilities on the keyboard anymore, I either have to use my janked-out mouse buttons or a controller using ConsolePort which is... serviceable but nowhere near good. Uh, I don't particularly care for the dragon-stuff in WoW's lore, and I still haven't done a single dungeon since I play Brewmaster and I'm so out of whack with WoW tanking that I just don't bother. I'm usually doing RP on my endless ranks of characters if I'm not playing with my girlfriend. Season of Discovery has been a fun thing to do with my friend and our guild, it's sorta what I wanted out of Classic when they announced it. The "No Changes" thing was stupid because we'll never get back the lack of information and endless time we had back then, so I'm very happy to have World Of Warcraft Chopped And Screwed Edition. As much as I still have massive, major gripes with Blizzard and ABK in general... Azeroth is still home for me. It's been important to me as a person. Wouldn't have realized I was trans or poly without it.

SO THERE YOU HAVE IT My thinks and feelings on all the games I played this year in 2023. I guess to sum up the year in general? It's been a real shit year for me. Went through like three big breakups, my art output's been dogshit in quantity thanks to mental-health issues, and for the first half of the year people just sorta generally treated me poorly which exaserbated a lot of problems. I'm recovering, but I've noticed it's been a lot slower than it has been in the past. Games are a huge hobby of mine, so I'm glad I've gotten to play some bangers this year. Being more active on Tumblr's been good for my mental health, since I finally feel like I've got a community again after not really feeling like I've had one in forever. Love you guys, stay weird. 💖💖💖

Sorry not sorry for this being so long.

[blond-jerk-tourney]

Champagne Bracket: Round 3, Poll 1

Propaganda from submitters Under Cut

Yoshiya "Joshua" Kiryu

He’s a bitch and a hate (love) him. I will now quote him below: "Sigh... I don't do the whole sweating thing, Neku." "Very impressive, Neku. Show those fifth graders who's boss." "Who needs other people's values? It's easier to just live by your own rules." "Oh! I can't say I'm particularly interested, but... I'll go ahead and ask, for the sake of convenience. Do you have a name?"

Smug asshole. Always playing mind games with the player character. Has many secrets but never shares them. Also did a bunch of spoilery shit.

Byakuya Togami

Very elitist, constantly calls others "commoners", talks about how he is gonna kill someone and get out of the killing game, hangs up a corpse and writes a message with their blood on the wall because he already knows the murderer but wants to see who is smart, complains the other students left him out even though he made sure to tell them every time that he wants nothing to do with them, pretty sure he screams in the 4 chapter " How can you know something I don't know?!", the only reason he doesn't qualify as a villain is cus he doesnt kill someone and in the end works with the rest of the survivors. He also constantly wants the protagonist to tell the rest what he knows

he's mean and self-centered and sees himself as above everyone else.

such a cunt 😭 doesnt eat breakfast w everyone and spends all his time in the library. (also he tampered with a crime scene but spoilers)

His title is literally, get this, "ultimate affluent progeny" Fucking look at him /hj Treats everyone as inferior in every way, even when they're trying to solve a murder he goes "how did YOUUU figure this out before MEEE???? >:0" Constantly has an "Me vs. Them" mentality about everything so he feels the need to prove himself to be superior - Messes with crime scenes because it would "make them more interesting" (purposefully incriminating someone else, who he didn't like) Actual quotes by him: "I'm only here to get breakfast. I have neither need nor desire to talk to you. Now withdraw." "You're like a child lost in the woods, you know that? A total waste of space." "You know, I still just can't believe it... That an uneducated, brain-dead, useless piece of garbage like you has survived this long." "You have only yourself to blame—you came to me with your tragic little story. I didn't ask you to. This is the real world, not some romantic fantasy fairytale."

This rich mf… He spends the entire game being a snobby, condescending, uncaring asshole. He becomes relatively nicer by the end but never stops being a dick. He also desecrated a corpse once for funsies. He’s also stupid but he doesn’t know that. I both like and hate him. It’s complicated.

He's an heir to a wealthy family corporation and he sure does act the part. He acts like he's better than everyone else and thinks they're not worth his time. He's just a huge asshole. (SPOILERS) He tampers with a murder scene just for fun and outs another student's secret alter, knowing full well it was irrelevant to the case. He also has a small breakdown about being wrong in another trial. By the end, he becomes a bit more likeable and kinda a tsundere that pretends like he doesn't care about the other survivors (but he totally does). Still very much an asshole though. He's a fucked up lil guy and something about him draws me to him. I would kick his rich bastard shins IRL given the chance, however.

He is emotionally detached from his classmates…

why you should vote byakuya "tell em naegi" thanks for watching like and subscribe

[stormsbourne]

Last one from @cooking-pot

I am not claiming that the church is responsible for all, or even most of the problems in fodlan, and I'm not talking about edelgard's approach to the situation. What I mean is that Dimitri often seems to treat situations like miklans disinheritance or duscur as isolated incidents. He'll talk about how it was a shame that gautier was disinherited but maintain that the importance placed on crests is a necessity. He'll discover that his father was assassinated by nobles...

... and not question why the nobility found reforms meant to uplift the commonfolk so threatening. Obviously there are ways to address these issues that aren't overthrowing the church and conquering the other nations in fodlan, but it seems to me that Dimitri doesn't have any plan to address them at all, besides hoping they'll go away and taking care of individual incidents. ...

...Fodlan has a strange mix of systemic and complex issues brought on by generations attempting to safeguard themselves from outside threats and secure their power and also ooga booga cartoon villain agarthans that just wanna conquer the world and kill everyone and cause all the problems. But it seems to me that dimitri views the systems of nobility and importance of crests as ultimately necessary and at worst incomplete in their ability to help the common man.

I simply don't think that you're reading the text correctly at this point. dimitri all but looks the player in the eyes, multiple times, and says "this system is fucked and I want to fix it." he's just not willing to let innocent people be fodder for the better world because they'll be better off eventually.

also I'm sorry but you nailed something that drives me absolutely crazy: the game doesn't have anything to say about nobility or bloodline royalty and it's unhinged to think edelgard has anything to say about it either. she doesn't seem interested in abolishing the nobility, just reforming it and having a "meritocracy," which will ultimately probably not change much because the poor will still not be able to get into positions that give them power as they do not have the tools to do it. but this is the sort of thing I'm referring to when I say that western audiences get obsessed with their own worldviews and can't understand that other countries are going to have different ways of talking about them or depicting them. japan has an INCREDIBLY different history with the concept of bloodline royalty and nobility in fiction and it's going to have different things to say than your average 2024 leftist who has strong (justified) opinions about systems of nobility and the most prominent royal families in the real world. none of the routes are going to really get rid of nobility or hierarchy. edelgard steps down eventually but there's nothing about, say, adrestia being a constitutional republic or something like that.

and also, sometimes a narrative has a lot to say about some things (the complexity of injustice and oppression as interacting systems and how messy they are to reform) and absolutely nothing to say about something else (bloodline royalty and nobility) and that is fine and normal.

I just don't think you and I are going to agree on this sorry!!

[istadris]

Literally every single adventure game: searching for sacred weapons and objects to fight a great evil and save the world, while fighting through countless horrors, gaining trauma and sympathy for those with unfortunate fates and pasts along the way.

Mario & Luigi: Lulu Land world with defenseless races that get invaded by their own personal villain and the only thing that can stop them is two bouncy ball plumbers going "Wahoo! Yahoo!" head first into battle with cartoon power-ups and looking both cool and cute while doing so, most of the time getting side-tracked and challenged by rude citizens who won't understand that what they are holding is a needed piece to progress in saving the damn world.

To be fair there are also games like Kirby that follow the same evil evilness/cute little whacky hero :p

But yeah, I like to think that Mario and Luigi don't quite realize how terrifying they are on the hero scale ; there was this post about how any place outside the Mushroom Kingdom treats Bowser as a HUGE threat, World-Ending Menace, because that's what he is, with his strenght, magic and armies...but in the Mushroom Kingdom, he's confronted to Mario who regularly kicks his shell, so he's barely a Monday Morning Problem. Evolutionary arm race put them both on the Holy Shit Quotient scale outside of their natural habitat, where they both fit a regular hero and villain niche.

And then there's Luigi, who just follows along and he thinks that's all he does...but any outsider will hear that and go "wait you can keep up with THE Super Mario ??? You're on his level of strength ???"

It doesn't even occur to Luigi to think his own power is frightening to witness since in his opinion, he'll never match Mario, who is the Strongest. He's Player N°2 after all...

...But when you're second to the best, you're above every other fighter in the world.

[egg-emperor]

people trying to push the idea of Eggman actually being really progressive and role model in various ways and using the "the Heroes manual says he's a feminist so he drinks respect women juice everyday" thing is hugely inaccurate for his character

the original JP version of the Heroes manual doesn't say he's a feminist or a womanizer. so the feminist thing in the English manual not only comes out of nowhere but also doesn't make sense because it isn't in the games, in fact they've shown the drastic opposite

he perpetuates the damsel in distress stereotype by how he primarily kidnaps girls and holds them hostage. Amy, Cream/Vanilla, Elise (sometimes he shows mocking sarcastic politeness/gentlemanliness too, which I've been meaning to highlight in future analysis)

he's sexist in Rush, telling Blaze that he didn't think girls could be tough

they chose Eggman to be King Shahryar in Secret Rings who in the actual Arabian Nights was so misogynistic that he'd have a woman executed every night. choosing the main villain to be him and his past record makes me think they knew what they were doing

and yeah this makes him a horrible person but this is Eggman we're talking about. he's supposed to have bad unlikable traits to establish that he's the enemy and give players the drive to beat him. it's the whole point

but Eggman doesn't treat men any better either so you could say at least he's equal in his cruelty towards them I guess? but that certainly doesn't make him a good role model that we should all follow XD he's not for anyone's rights except his own rights to rule the world and control everyone else :P

it's because Eggman only cares about himself and sees himself as superior to absolutely everyone. he's an evil cruel piece of shit bastard no matter who you are because he's rude and condescending and looks down on everyone. nobody is above the other or more or less worthy of respect to him

and if you get in his way he won't hold back no matter if you're a man, woman, or child as he's even willing to kill Tails and Cream and expressed pleasure in doing so. he has no morals or standards that make him hold back or treat anyone better than the other but he treats everyone terribly and it's just as bad, in fact he's just hurting more people

[redtoondevils]

I don't think that Vanessa really is a bad person in SB.

I don't think that Vanessa really is a bad person in SB. If anything, Gregory is showing himself to be a troublemaker. Then that of Cassie. I mean, yes she had quite the attitude on her.

And she treated Gregory with dis respect, and kind of abusive. That she locked him in, in her office, and gone to get changed into the Vanni suit, to stalk him. Likely, to spook him.

Still does not make it okay. Yet, on the other hand, she is doing her job. And she must of been a good police officer, especially how she appeared in the movie.

By the looks of things, she wasn't bad. She genuinely looked like a good woman, and is helpful. And eventually, we find out, that she has problems. A lot of people have problems of course.

In SB, she was helpful. Like the DCA, she has a dark side. Only difference is, is that she's human. So far, with what's happened in the main game, with the virus.

It also brings the worst out of them, too. And put it this way, let's reverse the roles between Vanessa and Gregory.

What if she really was on the lookout for Gregory, because of what he might be up to? Gregory is a strange kid, you'll find out that he's homeless as the end.

There's not much background for him, and his situation is sad. But the things that he can do, to get what he wants. He can manipulate that. He once baited Chica into the crusher.

And rammed Roxy with the go cart. Even though, the animatronics were on persuit with this boy. But, he still taken care of them, by his own hands. (Even if it's no other choice kind of thing.) He will do it, and he's going to do it brutally.

Overall, he is a complicated child. But, he will do things, even if it means to destroy the property. It's kinda scary for a kid to do.

There are motives of him, that are not clear as of yet. When he asks you what to, some of his requests are a little odd. How far can we trust this kid? I know, you would be referring him as the Mimic, that it was him that lured Cassie in.

That wasn't Gregory. I'm talking about, how he first met Vanessa. When he said, "No! No. I don't trust her!" there's a question. Why, doesn't he trust her?

She didn't do anything wrong to him, from the beginning as of yet. She did alert the other animatronics. But maybe, you got to ask. Perhaps she didn't know they were under control?

As Vanny, I thought that she was the master mind over every animatronic. From the base game. But then, when more games has been released showing more material about Vanny.

And also, with the Princess Quest mini game. It turns out, at the end of those comics that Vanny is also victimized too. I thought that she was all out psycho.

When Vanny has been revealed, as Vanessa by Gregory in the SB comics. It looks like, she looks just as scared, and confused just like Gregory.

And how she appeared at the arcade box, with the Glitch trap in her hand. And she squished him, and she was really large. What is Interesting with this Villain. Vanessa isn't really an all out villain.

It's like in a way metaphorically, that Vanny has been under control, and been through manipulation with Glitch trap. (I think.) That she's been looking for revenge for quite some time, and she finally got it.

And when she waved at the player. Stright away, you'll get both Impressions. She waved to you like to say, 'Good job. And I'll see you later!" Or "Finally! You found him for me! He's gone, goodbye I'm free now!" And Vanny is gone.

If that is correct, then there is a possible chance. That Vanny, as Vanessa is actually not bad. And was pretending to be evil, because Glitch trap was corrupting her. It isn't safe to say that she was Innocent.

She wouldn't after being reported of stealing kids. But, it is something to know that she is a villain, that has childlike lore about her. And finding out, that she had also been used.

[dutchdread]

Hello Dutch! Do you think the loss of mystery and less impact on certain scenes in the narrative was caused by long-term fanservice?

Yes and no. I certainly think it was a factor, but I don't think it was the biggest one. If I had to guess, and since I am not a mind reader a guess is the best I can do, I think the biggest reason is the necessary change of the pacing of the game. In remake the developers made the (in my opinion) mistake of constantly showing Sephiroth, almost from the start of the game even. The decision to do this was based on three main factors I think. 1: "In the OG the first time you see Sephiroth is in Kalm, however, that is only a few hours into the game. If we did the same with the Remake we wouldn't see Sephiroth until game 2 and we can't have an entire FFVII game without Sephiroth." 2: "People already know Sephiroth, so the mystery is gone anyway, so it doesn't make sense to treat his appearance as one when everyone already knows him". 3: "People love Sephiroth so lets give them a bunch of Sephiroth!!!".

I personally think all of these are flawed. For one people are capable of influencing their mind state to resemble someone who is watching something for the first time. It's not exactly the same, but close enough, there is a reason people can watch the same thing over and over again and get similar responses on repeat viewings. When people love a story they are willing to watch things as though it were the first time. They can feel mystery and suspense even though they know the answer. I also think that there is enough happening in FFVII that you can keep the player occupied while playing a long game when it comes to mystery. If anything I think that the extra time to let mystery build could be used to enhance the experience, rather than making it feel drawn out. Especially in remake I think Shinra was MORE than good enough to qualify as the main villain for the story segment, and I think Sephiroth being only "a shadow on the edge of memory" for 90% of the game would make his unseen appearance in shinra HQ all the more terrifying. And ofcourse the reason people love Sephiroth is how effective he is as a villain, and part of that is the mystique. If you give people more Sephiroth you are actually giving them LESS Sephiroth, because Sephiroth isn't just the man, it's the idea, the presentation, and that presentation requires restraint in implementation.

My suspicion is that the mystery surrounding Clouds condition was approached very similarly. They figured they had the new mystery surrounding the "parallel worlds" as an overarching mystery and since people already know whats going on with Cloud that mystery could essentially be spoken about more openly. But this suffers from the same problems I mentioned above. I can totally watch FFVII as though I do not know the mystery, and experiencing said mystery was what I was looking forward to most. To me it's the best part of FFVII, and without it I barely even consider it a remake. And yes, I think fan-service did play a part. One of the things you hear most often when discussing the LTD is the retort that FFVII is not a romance story and that we're too focused on something that FFVII just isn't about, and while I disagree with that assessment, since romance ABSOLUTELY is a massive and crucial element to the story, I do agree that the romance is, for the most part, something that is in the background, it is the underlying backdrop that is required to understand the characters and their actions. But the focus is still on the actions themselves, as well as feelings and events that the romantic backdrop have caused, namely Clouds alter ego and accompanying mental problems. However, in rebirth the romance is NOT the backdrop, it's the focus of a large part of the game. Hell, the main play loop of the game revolves around you getting the party members to like you. And while it is true that this also involves, for instance, Barret and Nanaki, I think it's pretty clear that this entire core aspect of the game was implemented mostly as a way to explore romance in the game and satisfy fan desires. The question is, did that impact the mystery? And yes, I think it did. For one, everything related to Aerith and Zack in chapter 14 is PURE fan-service bait. The entire "can we save Aerith" plotline was fan-service bait from the start. And both these things, on account of both not being well handled, and overshadowing the actual mystery of FFVII, have a negative impact on how well rebirth is able to tell the story of the OG. Not only that, but SE tried to avoid burning bridges by not being clear with their story in regards to Aerith. I've heard people say that SE was wishy washy when it comes to choosing between Tifa and Aerith, they weren't, this game is about as pro-Cloti as it could be, Cloud and Tifa are a thing, if that weren't already obvious it's even more obvious in rebirth. No, the thing SE is being wishy washy about, is between Aerith and Aerith. Between the interpretation of Aerith loving Zack and simply using Cloud as a stand in, or Aerith as having "genuine" feelings. And the problem is that by trying to keep that a mystery they've made themselves incapable of properly examining either idea. There could have been deep meaningful scenes and conversations about how Aerith is still searching for the guy she lost. But they can't be that explicit without alienating fans, so they instead are vague, which results in a whole host of issues. But the most important issue for this question is that this approach creates an unfocused story, one that lacks clear direction. And a story without clear focus and direction will never be able to tell its mysteries in the most engaging and enthralling way. They want to show Zack, they want to discuss Zack, so they can't have Zack be a twist, but they also can't properly discuss Zack since that would be too explicit and so they half-ass it. They want to imply that Aerith is looking for Zack in Cloud, but they don't want to burn bridges, so they also want to hold open the possibility that Aerith actually likes Cloud for Cloud, and by doing all this nonsense you're creating a teenage love drama where you could have had a meaningful story about two people helping each other where the scenes could be directed to maximize the effectiveness of the mystery of Zack, rather than playing into a "I love him, I love him not" soap opera that got boring 27 years ago.

[mymainwastoocluttered]

honestly, i'm also pretty sad as to how the player is treated as well. to be fair, i did know that it was not an otome game and was focused more on the existing characters (which was fine with me!) and that they're, y'know, not human and in a school for villains, so i didn't have rlly high standards for how everyone will act in terms of our standards. perhaps some things that are unacceptable here are widely accepted there. but like,,, hello???? the prefect is your friend(?) and yall don't even remember them half the time 😭😭 the only time you remember them is when you need smth from them or is getting the prefect in involved in whatever shenanigans you're pulling off

To be honest, a lot of Otome games kinda don't care about the MC and her origins, but they tend to make up for it by having her interactions be really important to the story. Like MysMe, the protagonist doesn't even has a hint of a backstory, but she makes the whole game, y'know, move, so she never feels like an unimportant NPC.

Obey Me had the same problem as Twisted Wonderland of MC not really having much of an impact, but she has a lot of presence during the story, which softens that problem. I think it's a bit of the problem with this more generalized story instead of giving us individual routes, but it's not as bothersome as in Twst because the MC is very plot relevant.

The biggest issue with Twisted Wonderland is that the MC is unnecessary. They (general MC) could've easily been tweaked out of it and the story would be still the same.

A game with a playable character requires that character to have some impact on the game. Even if you argue "Twst is not an Otome, but a Visual Novel", you're forgetting that visual novels rely heavily on the player's imput, AKA how they influence the game, which they do via the MC.

Playing Twisted Wonderland sometimes feels like watching an anime, with the difference that you can press the screen for the dialogue to advance faster.

Plots and characters arcs are happening independent of MC, which can be a fun thing in an open world game where you might miss it cuz you're busy hunting a specific item on the other side of the world and swear you won't miss on the next save, but not so much in a visual novel where you must sit there and watch like a Netflix original.

Also, yeah??? That's literally your friend, why is no one showing any concern? Specially the ones who knew very well her situation, like, the decaying hole that is Ramshackle (I love Ramshackle, but let's name the oxen) and how in Book 5, apparently MONTHS after she entered the school, Yuu is still waiting for Crowley to reform the plumbing.

A fact which Crowley uses to "persuade" her to allow people (two of which complete strangers) in her only home without previously consulting with her.

If I were her, I'd be so bitter 24/7

[sledge-in-space]

You know, I've debated writing this for a long time. Because I know it's going to sound incredibly stupid.

But for a character who seems to matter so little in the grand scheme of things, Joey Hudson matters so much to me. She was our friend. She endured so much. And when we come to rescue her we can see that she broke out of her cell with a shank as her only weapon.

We can see that she killed at least three peggies during her escape. That she was laying low and most likely waiting for John.

She thought she was going to be trapped down there forever, and that eventually she was going to be killed. But she still fought at every step of the way, because she was going to go out fighting. We can see her resilience, tenacity and anger in her voice lines. And despite how much she suffered, she wasnt going to leave the other prisoners behind.

And I know she's just a character in a ubisoft game. We get glimpses of her personality but she isnt nearly as well rounded as some other members of the cast. In the end she dies anyway, so what does it matter?

It matters to me because it feels like a lot of people don't seem to care about what happened to her.

I think it's sad and honestly a little sickening that most of her worst moments have been gifed to hell and back, all the while there are people who wish they were in her position. Because if it were them, they could fuck John or get fucked by him.

I already feel like John is portrayed as being a bit of a creep, with the level of obsession he displays and how fulfilling he finds the act of hurting others. But when people wish they were in her position, or download shirtless mods for John in cutscenes where she's also present, it suddenly feels like Joey is in danger of something more sinister than torture.

I'm not blind. I understand why people like him as a villain and a character. But excluding Joey from the story or trivializing the cruel, sick torture she went through so that John gets full, unrestricted access to your dep?

It just doesn't feel right or fair in my opinion.

Which I know sounds ridiculous because it's a video game and none of the characters are real. It would be completely audacious of me to say that no one should like him, or that it is somehow morally unjust to ignore his cruelty.

I don't think liking "bad guy" characters is indicative of having no morals or empathy. I like a lot of characters from different media that have done terrible things. Plenty that are even worse than John. And you shouldn't have to justify why you like something, because your reasons are your own. I firmly believe that fiction is the perfect place to explore whatever you want for whatever reason you want.

It isn't my intention to police anyone.

But there's something about how Joey was treated that feels very wrong to me. John hurt her brutally and we can only specualte as to what he actually did, but we can see and hear the toll that it took on her. And for as long as the game has had a fandom she's been routinely ignored - I believe this is because John is by far a fan favorite, though I acknowledge that this is speculative and accusatory. Or, she gets made into some damsel in distress. All because she has an ungodly amount of mascara on her face in some scenes.

Quick tanget: For the amount of makeup she was wearing when the Sheriff's Dept. stormed Joseph's Compound - which was minimal at most - the runny mascara is just way too extreme (just a small detail that I personally can't stand).

But back to the point.

At least in fandom, if she isn't a damsel, and if she isnt discarded, then her friend and partner - the player character - is fucking the man who tortured her and broadcast her agony across the entire county. In front of her community, so she could be humiliated and broken in front of everyone. It didn't work - unlike like Pratt and Burke, she didn't break (though it's not a contest and I'm not trying to diminish their strength either) - but that didn't stop John from trying.

There's no shortage of people in the fandom who love her, who've showered her with girlfriends and boyfriends and made sure she had a happy ending somewhere. There's been fan art and fic, mods on pc that let her fight alongside you. I've seen a lot of people order commissions of her, myself included. Even my best friend has drawn her so many times it's hard to keep track.

Still, it feels like people are so quick to forget or disregard what happened to her. It was the same in 2018 as it is now, and with so many years having passed I don't anticipate she'll see much of a fandom resurgence.

I think thats a shame. I think her potential was wasted. And that sucks especially hard because of how strong she was made out to be.

[fantasyinvader]

I've seen people try to defend Tiffany Fox in the Telltale Batman games, saying that she's supposed to be a foil to John Doe/The Joker. That while the Joker can't really become a hero through Bruce's support, Tiffany can.

But, is that really the case?

A late game reveal is that Tiffany was the one who murdered the Riddler as revenge for her father. The Riddler was in custody, his threat had been dealt with, and Tiffany just kills him. But not only that, she does so while framing John Doe for it. Her actions set off the main conflict of the second season, which snowball. It's because of her that Bruce has to manipulate John to get close to the Pact, dealing with Waller, and as a result ultimately fighting John when he becomes the Joker whether Joker tries to go vigilante or become a villain. It's the events of the game that ultimately result in Alfred threatening to leave Bruce if he doesn't quit being Batman.

80% of players decide to take Tiffany as a sidekick when they confront her about this at the end of the game. But the thing is, Tiffany makes it clear she doesn't feel any regret. After all, Riddler killed her father. She only feels regret because she wants to be Batman's sidekick but now her actions have complicated that. She'll talk about how hard things were for her family, but if you choose to try and arrest her she'll instantly become a criminal because you treated her like one. She's ready to make that jump if she doesn't get what she wants.

Giving her what she wants is Batman saying that she'll work for him, keeping an eye on her but that just feels wrong. Part of the reason Batman doesn't kill is because it would mean he's being judge, jury and executioner. He'll hand criminals over to the police again and again, yet the courts will continue to throw them into institutions they can break out of like Arkham. People use this against Batman, but it's more the system is failing to properly deal with those individuals. But here, Batman is deciding to play judge and jury, he's the one deciding how she will serve her punishment, which involves her getting her way.

Meanwhile, the Vigilante Joker path is the result of Batman looking the other way when the evidence says that Joker didn't kill Waller's agents in purely self-defense including one being shot in the back. You definitely see that parallel, and there's also the falling out between Batman and Joker when Joker calls out the non-lethal violence Batman uses as ineffective.

Tiffany, if brought in, wants Bruce to carry a gun as Batman after she has already killed a criminal who, again, was dealt with and in custody.

The game has Batman fight the Joker in the Vigilante route, while he faces him as Bruce Wayne in the villain. The game does this to indicate which side you neglected. In the Vigilante, you neglected the mission as Batman by turning the other way, whereas in Villain you weren't enough of a friend as Bruce Wayne. If we're drawing parallels here, that would mean recruiting Tiffany means that Bruce sacrifices his mission as Batman whereas the Batman option makes her instantly jump to villainy. It's saying that Batman wouldn't let Tiffany be his Robin/Batgirl, meaning she becomes a bad guy.

Yet, I feel that doing the opposite wouldn't make things better. Tiffany doesn't have the same restraint when it comes to lethal force, again drawing a parallel to the Joker, and it's not just a matter of her becoming a villain if she doesn't get what she wants. If you treat her bad, she is rude in return.

If anything, it feels more like Tiffany becoming a villain is simply a matter of time. That she'll fight against Bruce whenever she doesn't get what she wants, most likely involving the use of lethal force, and eventually will break off from him. The fact that Bruce let her in on his secret and develop his tech is going to bite him in the ass, just like when she disables his tech when she does go villain. Even in her more neutral endings, it's still a possibility.

It's the same as John all over again, except John can actually be a friend to Bruce in the end. Go vigilante and then choose to say that you were friends in the end. Joker goes back to Arkham, but he's delighted when Bruce comes to visit because he's happy to see his friend. That friendship might be the one thing that keeps Joker in-line.

She's not a kid who needs a parent figure, she's an adult. She's sane, and was cognitive enough to cover her tracks while framing a mentally ill person for her actions. And she doesn't regret what she's done, she's just upset she might not get what she wants and if Bruce tries to bring her to justice she'll just go villain. That's not Robin material for so many reasons, and why she's possibly the worst possible member of the Batfam ever in my opinion.