#WE LOVE BEING SILLY CHARACTERS!!!!!! IN OUR PLAYTHROUGHS!!!!!!!

[pennecpox]

All characters we played as from all playthoughs,, Dark Souls I-III to Elden Ring :-))

-mine: Serlo, Ekyl, Lymund, Nylia, Pyox -liam: Zweika, Lacheart -spooky: Paan -tal: Jimb

[goldentigerfestival]

Since I'd been talking a lot about JP Vesperia (primarily Yuri and Flynn and the heavy changes that surround them, and because I'm highly passionate about them in their original context), I wanted to compile some more jarring if not outright glaring mistakes in the localization (or what were likely intentional changes, because I can't look at some of these and just call them "mistakes"). I'm not going to mention every little change throughout the game, so smaller things I'll mostly be leaving out (namely things that don't really affect characters or context). I primarily just wanted to give some insight on some of the bigger parts.

Some of the changes seem to have been mistakes in translation itself (not just localization, but misunderstanding what was being said in general; such as, there's an instance I mention of that between Patty and Don), so I've got some mentions hanging around for clarity purposes as some scenes didn't make much sense, likely because of this.

Vocal tone with Yuri was the most prominent issue that got me making this, and the context that was changed being right after if not equally next to that (most often also with Yuri but also Flynn).

This is something that has been bothering me for a while and I've been wanting to share this stuff with people interested in seeing the game with its original context. Generally speaking, the plot and story themselves are on point. The majority of the differences surround Yuri and Flynn respectively, so there's going to be a lot of mention of them throughout.

I've also posted video clips of my favorite scenes and the heavy changes, so consider those a supplement to this and vice versa.

Part 2.

Part 3.

Part 4.

(Other) GTF Favorites.

I'd like to preface this by mentioning the chief director and producer of the game itself has also spoken about localization inaccuracy issues, so that's something to keep in mind (it's in Japanese, but you should be able to use the offered post translator).

I'd also like to preface this by mentioning that in the original, Yuri is more playful and relaxed/casual (generally but including with Flynn, which the dub pretty much entirely changed until arc 3), but also gentler and softer. He has a very large variety of tonal behaviors/tonal "moods" that were pretty much nuked from the dub.

Basically, to get the full experience for Yuri, I can only really recommend playing the game in JP audio. Obviously you won't get the actual context because all you'll have is the dub context, but that's also partly why I'm making these posts - to cover the contextual changes while the video clips cover some of the tonal changes (because lbh I don't expect anyone to actually go watch the entire game in JP with subtitles unless you're as insanely dedicated as I am, and I'm largely doing it out of my love for the original Yuri and Flynn and my disdain for how the localization treated them).

As a heads up, there won't be many skits in here because I'm going through a specific YT playthrough for these screenshots. Specific skits won't always come up in the playthrough in question, and I can't find a whole list of skits in JP anywhere online. I don't have all skits unlocked in my own save either yet (you can unlock all skits with Grade which I have yet to do in the DE), so I can't use that to compare all skits right now.

There are plenty of small changes here and there that I won't be including in these posts because there are some sentence changes that aren't impactful but do exist. I just don't want to be here for a year covering the random changes that don't matter much. I'm also not going to include details of a lot of honorifics because I'd be here all day, but there is one one major instance that I mention later on.

For reference if anything wants to actually watch the game in JP with the subs (it goes until just after Hypionia), most of the references come from here. Since in some cases the subber just reused localized text even when the context wasn't the same, I did bring some of those up in these posts too. These were subbed before the DE version came out. I used screenshots with subs where possible to make it easier to follow along.

I have a lot of passion for JP Yuri and I hope I can pass on some of that passion to others. 🙏

Apologies in advance if some of these sound cranky. If I sound cranky about some specific changes, it's probably because I am.

---

Since I talked about the whole, Raven being shady and Yuri therefore not being grateful to him incident that the localization for some reason butchered and made Yuri sound like a generally ungrateful or just outright dumb person who doesn't understand gratitude, I'll summarize that one again here:

Yuri has a skit with Estelle originally talking about how he can't find himself being grateful to someone like Raven for showing him how to sneak out of the castle. Basically, Raven is shady and he's not sure he should be grateful to someone like that, and is confused as to why Estelle would be so grateful when she doesn't even know him (because in his mind, he isn't sure he wants to trust a guy with those vibes). The dub just kinda... makes him sound like an ungrateful jerk and not so much because he's not sure he wants to trust Raven. It doesn't really sound like it's an issue of his with Raven specifically but more that he just generally doesn't feel grateful for the aid (and that in general one shouldn't feel grateful for aid like this), which gives off a really wrong impression of him that doesn't hold up throughout the game. Yuri wasn't wholly ungrateful for the gesture itself, but because of who it came from (and I imagine a weird peppy guy in jail is good cause to be skeptical).

We start off we a classic "Yuri, you idiot!" that was changed to "come on already!".

Yuri's response to Estelle mentioning he'd been in the knights doesn't actually give a time frame for how long he'd been there (the dub made up three months, but there was never originally even a time frame given).

Here when Yuri asks Estelle why she can't just leave, her response indicates she actually does know why. The dub made it more ambiguous, which could be easily misinterpreted as she really doesn't know, so I'm dropping this one here.

For some reason the localization seemed to have Estelle responding to Karol directly about the ace always performing their attack last ("I don't think so"). What she was referring to was the tiny monster that walked by, asking for confirmation that that monster was not the eggbear they were looking for (I wasn't gonna fight with the video to get a better screenshot without the annoying YT red bar in the way so the monster is in the corner mid-movement lol). Not sure if that was a genuine mistake, but it was an odd one.

(Also, side note and not putting an image here because it's more general, but Yuri refers to Karol as "Karol-sensei" which was translated in the localization to "Captain Karol". Basically, Yuri calls him "sensei" because that's a teacher/professor, and he's making a play on Karol's knowledge and being their "teacher" about monsters/maps/etc.)

I'd say this is more along the lines of overexaggerating and not overreacting, but this line was literally changed to "haha" in the dub. The whole point wasn't that Yuri just brushed her comment off or found it funny. At this point he still literally thinks she's exaggerating about her lack of knowledge out in the world, her excitement, etc.

Not the only instance you'll find of the dub just changing entire sentences to something meaningless as if they ??? didn't know what it meant (they actually changed Patty saying an entire sentence to "aye"). In some cases they added entire sentences that weren't even there...

Even though I can kind of see where they went with the dub here, the point was supposed to be that Flynn actively thought he would be happy for Yuri to go outside the barrier and see the world.

The dub changed this to Flynn saying that he, in the now, is happy that Yuri is outside the barrier, but then says he got a little less happy when he saw the wanted poster, indicating he was previously happy but got less happy, yet says in that moment that he is happy.

It's a weird case of (past/present) tense usage for the most part, but they also removed the fact that Flynn is literally saying "I thought I would be happy" (thus expressing he'd been wanting Yuri to see the world outside the barrier and would've been happy to find out he did). The reason he's not finding himself happy is because of the wanted poster and the crimes listed on it, following up that his honest happiness for Yuri (ultimately because of the poster) was a lie.

This also means they removed Flynn expressing the honesty of his happiness for a positive concept for Yuri, which, given all the changes toward Flynn in the dub, already now takes away from the fact that he'd been actively hoping for good things for someone and we're left with this more sarcastic take on him being "happy".

Obviously his happiness wasn't really a lie because most of the crimes were falsified (primarily the ones that would make him actually mad, because Flynn has had to have been aware this whole time that Yuri has committed small time crimes for the past few years now), but at the time, the focus on this conversation is that Flynn thought he'd be happy at a time that Yuri left the barrier; meaning he'd been hoping for it prior to it happening.

I'm also mentioning it because it's the very first in a whole line of changes the dub made to their relationship (and it's their first in game interaction ffs) and to Flynn himself as he's perceived as a character. The original is much more expressive of how important they are to each other in a lot of various ways.

Inserting the JP audio version of the following scene with Flynn here.

And... the following one from there.

This was changed to "damn, we if lose our balance...". I know they did it because Yuri had just fallen over, but I'm including this one because the context isn't... really the same thing?

This dub change is a bit odd to me. They had him saying something along the lines of "she is a princess after all" in the dub, regarding the council backing her.

The original context is more like, the council is backing her and he's hearing it directly from Ioder and he probably doubts Ioder would lie like that or about that, cementing that yes, she truly is, like he suspected, a princess, but it's almost still a bit odd to know. It's sort of like, he knew/had suspicions but hearing it directly from Ioder just confirms it for certain.

The dub just made it sound like well yeah, it's obvious they'd want to back her, she's a princess... but Ioder is a prince, so that doesn't explain why they're not backing him. She is a princess after all, so of course they'd back her... but what's stopping them from backing the prince?

Another weird one for me. In the dub Yuri says that "even the Commandant was a little in over his head", when he actually... really wasn't? All he did was step in. Things got bad enough that he had to, but he wasn't in over his head. Not sure how or why the dub ended up with that.

An example of the dub having a habit of just adding in random lines that didn't actually exist (and in this case the one added didn't even contextually make sense. This was no thank you from him, this was literally him making Yuri do something for him because he was going to ask Flynn for a favor and ended up with Yuri in the cell instead).

Another super weird one in the dub. They had Yuri saying Flynn was "too" late, implying he hadn't made it in time, but he did. He made it just before the battle started, but the original context only says he's late, not too late (which makes sense given that they were ready to fight but hadn't started yet).

This was changed to Yuri just mentioning there was one way they could get out of there without actually saying what it was, and Judith saying if he thinks it might work what's the harm in trying it out. Not sure why they changed Yuri literally telling her his plan, so... again, a super weird change that I don't get why they didn't just keep the context the way it was.

Third image was changed to "someone get me away from this psycho", which... I also don't get why they put that there unless they just wanted so much flavor text that they wanted to change the whole "they're in a fight and he's telling her not to come over here because he's pissed at her because they're fighting" part of the fake fight they had going on.

Not one I have a huge problem with, but definitely good examples of them going out of their way to change just... perfectly normal stuff that literally has no reason to be changed? Some of it is flavor text and some of it feels over the top for me. Stuff that makes me like... why would you change that when there was no reason to? Could be more of a personal pet peeve of mine, but I just don't like unnecessary changes when there was nothing wrong or odd about the original text and doesn't at all come off odd in English. Unfortunately Vesperia got littered with those.

I didn't feel like getting a whole video for this, but basically Judith gives a little laugh instead of just the more upset/distressed(?) sound she made in the dub. Feels more fitting imo to keep up the "lie" Yuri started for her. The dub makes it seem more like she feels guilty, versus here she's giving a little forced giggle to go along with it. Again, a change I'm not sure why they put in.

Ngl I get completely different vibes from these. The JP comes across more as concern, rather than... treating them like they're some mob on the loose...?

Once again, this gives off negative vibes toward Flynn as a character imo.

Here Judith gives more of a reason for coming with them, which they changed in the dub to "with the circumstances being what they are, this is just how things turned out". Reasonably, she didn't have to stick around after they ran from Dahngrest, but here she gives a quick "reason".

The dub changed this to "I'll bet he is". They were just told he's the current magistrate in Heliord, and all Yuri says here expresses he's letting it sink in and realizing exactly why all this is happening here. It's not a huge story beat or anything that gets changed, but it's an example of changing things that don't need to be changed as if trying to play things up in a way that... doesn't feel necessary to me? In this case the situation is kind of dawning on Yuri as he realizes how bad this situation could be/why it's like it is, but in the dub it comes across as more just unimpressed and "of course he'd do that".

An unfortunate, classic moment of them changing how much Yuri believes in and trusts Flynn. They changed this to "gotta run, Flynn!" and he just... leaves. I'm sorry but in what universe does "leave the rest to you" equal "gotta run"???

This one is one of those cases where the localization text was super awkward and wonky, and worse, they actually voiced it that way (like "we have guild's job to deal with". Yes, they actually voiced it that way too on top of everything else grammatically wonky with the entire conversation that they didn't bother fixing when the DE came out).

Also here, they changed what Yuri says about Cumore and Flynn. "I don't know how I could explain this to Flynn" doesn't, at least to me, carry the same weight as Yuri actually feeling ashamed (in the dub he says "what a shame", but does not express shame, versus him saying "how pathetic" and expressing shame in feeling pathetic) and saying he can't even face Flynn because Cumore got away. The thing is, Yuri does tend to posture, so when he fails at something, it hits him pretty hard.

And let's be honest, this just hits way harder than "he will get what he deserves".

Interestingly, Yuri could also fall into the category of viewing himself as sinful later on, which I talk about in my favorites post and the usage of "crime" and "sin" within the JP context.

Not particularly important, but just another (more mild) case and example of how the dub just randomly changed tone/mood/wording for no reason.

Another case of Yuri being more aggressive in the dub than he actually was. Here, all he says is just a plain statement. In the dub, he has an attitude about it and says it in a tone that's more insulting that Ioder didn't know about Heracles.

This isn't the only case of dub Yuri acting aggressively toward Ioder when he wasn't supposed to be and we'll get to that, but Ioder is another similar case of the dub making Yuri unnecessarily vocally rude (despite that Ioder is very polite toward Yuri).

(I left out the subtitles because all they did was copy the dub's localization, which kinda defeats the point of this post LOL. This will be the case going forward for any same circumstances.)

This one's a more interesting tidbit to me and less of a harmful change (i.e. I find that a lot of if not most changes relative to Flynn do more harm than good when compared with the original context). Basically it's saying "sweet mask and sharp eyes", implying Flynn's sweet face is a mask and saying it contrasts with his sharp eyes. I could get into a whole rant about why I love that in relation to some side material, but even in the game itself, there's the knight Flynn with his sweet, polite side and his real side that only shows when he's around Yuri (basically, who Flynn has to be for his job and who he actually is as a person, which he only gets to be around someone who knows the real him).

I'd guess this got changed in the dub because they weren't sure how to word it, though there's no mention of "heartthrob" here at all and instead actually says "sweet mask" as if, again, to say his sweetness is just a mask. It's actually a very interestingly accurate representation of his character - how he tends to not be himself when he's being "knight Flynn", and how that sweet face is contrasted by the look in his eyes (which they say, you know, eyes are the windows to the soul, so this would imply the sweet face is the mask and the eyes are the real Flynn. And of course, this Flynn is implied to show himself in his sparring with Yuri in Aurnion, where sword fighting is the best way to express himself. This isn't to say Flynn being a nice person in and of itself is a lie, but that his overly polite, respectful, kind knight side is a sweet mask contrasted to the man who loves to fight and has a sharp look in his eyes)

For now, we'll be back at Mantaic in the next post (due to image per post limit).

[pompadourpink]

It's a new beginning!

Hello children,

September is coming, school too for some of you - often a great moment for a bit of decluttering and a few new good resolutions. Here am I, offering myself as one of them!

As you hopefully know, I started this blog in 2016 and have been a private tutor since the beginning of the pandemic. I have room at the moment for several new students, so here is what I offer:

Classes, obviously - the typical schedule is one hour a week, sometimes one and a half, or one every two weeks, or two every two weeks; typically same day same time (I'm always happy to make adjustments if you work shifts)

Homework, if you can make the time for it. I typically prefer it to be finished by the middle of the week so that I have time to take a look and correct it, giving you the opportunity to give it a second try before class!

Depending on your preferences, either just a few activities so we can take our time, especially if you are a beginner, or something a bit more dynamic consisting in five to ten minute long activities to keep you motivated and alert (which seems to be a crowd's favourite as most of my students are neurodivergent).

Talking activities are typically answering series of questions I share from my Notion, talking about your week, summarising a book or a movie, making me guess a word or a person, or a concept I call "alien talk" where you explain something (like a vaccine or insurance) from scratch to a little red man.

Writing activities are often fictional (I have students create a little character on a website and we write an update about their life regularly), they can also be an overview of your month, a letter to quit your horrible job or convince Snoop Dog to marry you because you are a gold digger.

Transcribing activities, especially at the beginning, are either me reading very easy sentences so you can write them down and memorise the way things sound, then it's episodes from young children's shows, extracts from very famous movies, then we hit harder and turn to gameshows or podcasts.

Translating activities, from one language to another, are a written translation of the first page of a novel (I did the Secret History recently), or a newspapers article (we are working on this one at the moment); or an oral translation of songs lyrics, fairytales, children's books, muted captioned playthroughs of your favourite games on Youtube, etc.

Finally, a few games: silly quizzes, crosswords, Wordle and even Quordle, hangman, and sometimes we even sing if you're comfortable with that.

Here is the link of my website where you will find reviews and a list of what to send me to get the process started. A few things to know:

I try to make the activities fit your preferences: get me a list of what you like and that is what we will work on. If your first language is not English, I am happy to include it, I'm always eager to learn (I've been reviewing my Spanish this way!)

I work without cameras. I don't need to see your face, I just need a voice and a good Internet connection. All students are welcome, no matter if you have an accent, a stutter, or disabilities. Do not be afraid of being judged, there is none of that here.

I ask for your contact information to be able to do my billing, no one else sees it and no one will know if you give me the address of a building in your area if you feel more comfortable this way. If you prefer to have a lesson first and decide that you want to continue before sending me your info, that's also an option.

I have a student and a regular rate, depending on what you can afford, and we can make different arrangements if your country's rate makes it too difficult, I've done it before.

Please comment if you have a question!

Much love,

Rose

[infinitebrians]

Favorite Games of 2023 Part 2: Super Mario Wonder

What a weird thing to say but this really is the best Super Mario has been as a 2D platforming game since the Super Nintendo! An overall creatively fresh look on that guy Mario and what he can do when he’s only got two directions to run around in. Just a true delight all the way through, I never had a bad time playing it. The new features like the badges and wonder seeds all gave the game a fun amount of variety and character to the game always keeping a sense of surprise in each area that at their very worst was easily ignored. Also a very lovely game visually that gave character to its characters and a fun new set of weird critters to appreciate.

A unique aspect for my playthrough of Mario Wonder was I insisted on playing through the whole game using my new snackbox leverless controller (arcade stick controller sans the stick). I’ve been wanting to try that controller with a side scrolling game because I kept hearing people play other side scrollers with it and it sounded like a fun perfect test case for that idea. I had a blast playing through the whole game with it. Using it’s button based directions felt entirely natural to play through the entire game with it and I’m absolutely going to be using it for any further similarly structured games in the future. The only time the unique button controls did not feel natural was when I was in situations involving four way direction like the water levels or those surprisingly frequent times where you turn into slime. That controller rules and I always feel bad I don’t like using it too much since I don’t always want to just get absolutely destroyed at fighting games all the time.

The thing though that I will always remember Mario Wonder is surprisingly enough it’s online feature. When this online aspect of the game was announced, a feature while you’ll see and be able to lightly interact with live ghosts of other players who are also playing the same level as you, I joked about Mario Wonder being the second ever strand game. Now having played the game 100%, I am absolutely standing by that statement. I’ve had numerous tiny but memorable experiences with other players with that feature either dancing around, spamming the simple emotes, or even helping each other out through tricky parts of the level. One experience of that in particular, the one this post’s drawing is referencing, happened during the final final challenge level where a Japanese Nabbit player and I were helping (them more to me than me to them) each other through a series of areas in that level. We would emote chirp at each other, cheering us on, and more importantly, wait at the room exits so when we left the room at the same time we’d maintain our online instance together. It happened for a whole checkpoint’s worth of that final level and it would’ve been longer if I didn’t screw up immediately with the infinite sprint badge room LIKE A FOOL. That player was a huge help to me with the few of the toughest rooms of that whole challenge and a very appreciated companion.

These little stories and memories I gathered from such a silly little feature gave me such a warm feeling toward everyone I was playing with in the game, we were all here to help push each other forward. A mechanic that gave people the encouragement to help each other out and feel good in the process of doing it, a fun look at what can be done with online semi anonmyous interaction. I’ll always appreciate that Nabbit player, I hope they’re having a happy new year.

[csphire]

So... Frazer the voice actor to Dammon doesn't want Tav or the Dark Urge to romance his character? Well, shit.

It's late, I'm tired and should be in bed, just saw the letter from Dammon from patch 5, and yeah I'm a little weepy now. So excuse any typos.

Fair warning: Just some venting below but no major spoilers.

Update: I've got a better understanding of where Frazer is coming from and a better solution suggestion is 👉here.

But feel free to read this slightly saltier 🧂post. lol

So wait... Frazer doesn't want more work? Why? I mean true, I don't really see Dammon getting along well with a Dark Urge or a Tav Murder Hobo type, but a majority of Dammon's fandom we genuinely adore him and Karlach. And, I'd like to think, most of us just love options. We want to romance him with Karlach and a player character of our own design too.

Would I romance him on every playthrough? Maybe or maybe not. But I do know it will be at least once as Karlach. (I'm on two immunosuppressants. I don't-can't get out much. I can sooo relate to her being touched-starved stuff. I cuss just as much as her too-if not more.) I've got no problem playing as her but again most of us want more options. So what's the problem?

For her, the devs could even put in a few special lines that are unique to their romance. Hells, I would romance them both all the way through the game with Tav if I could so nobody was feeling left out.

Respectfully, I don't understand what Frazer's hang-up is at all. But it feels like a slap in the face when Dammon has become a comfort character to so many of us. We're cheering him on and we're trying to drum up interest to get Frazer a bigger part.

We do this because some of us have a lot of shitty real-life stuff going on, and BG3 has become our escape. And, unlike every romance option we have so far, Dammon doesn't bring us big drama or a lot of demands to the table. Even as just a merchant, he somehow feels... just there for us... supportive. He's not just a pretty face to us, we seriously want to get to know Dammon just a little more! We want him to evolve and grow. We want to know what's his baggage. At this point many of us would settle for him to be just NPC we can romance-not a fling mind you. A full romance like what we see in Dragon Age Inquisition with Cullen or Josephine.

But wouldn't it be cool if we could get him as a full companion? One that could perhaps be an Artificer in a DLC that would introduce that class to the player too?

Even now, when my Tav visits him each day to sell their things, I forget for a little while all the crushing pressure on my play character's shoulders for a few minutes.

In early access, overhearing him grumble about wanting better tools had me roleplaying to collect every tool I could find. A little silly minnie quest. Giving him hammers, and other blacksmith-related stuff, for free taught me how to raise my relationship with a merchant and get a better discount.

Perhaps his simplicity or just his kindness is his appeal. Perhaps don't give him too much baggage if you flesh him out more please.

But how do we get around this Larian, if Frazer won't budge?

Hate to suggest this but consider, Dammon has a twin brother, a nearly identical one. Maybe he has more scars, a different hairstyle, have fun with his design. Oh, maybe he never takes his enchanted armor off, and we have to go into the relationship a bit blind with no idea what he looks like under it all at first. He finally takes his helmet off and seeing Dammon's face we're a little confused. Trust me, we will suspend our disbelief given magic and dragons, for starters, exist in this world. Dammon having a long-lost twin won't be a huge stretch.

So have the twin, instead of Dammon, drop as one of the stars in a DLC. Have him join our party as a fully fleshed-out, perhaps mysterious, companion featuring the Artificer class and fully romanceable. Finally, the fandom gets what we want, a male tiefling we can romance. Dammon can hammer away at his forge and pine for Karlach all he wants. Frazer can stand by whatever principles that are making him hesitant to take on a larger role, more acclaim, another paycheck, possibly more work, and maybe even a gaming voice acting award.

By all means Larian, please throw all that money and acclaim you would have thrown at him at another voice actor. Let the new guy have it all. Sure we'll still pine a bit over Dammon now and then. But if Frazer doesn't want a larger role, guess we'll have to try and respect that.

If you've got this far, thank you for reading, and feel free to share your thoughts.

[xviistrings]

if you had to punt exactly one playable persona character into the sun, who would it be and why?

i have to pick just one? aww...

well, i classify my urge to punt someone as how much i hate and despise and fucking loathe them. but my reasoning behind hating a character is based on multiple factors;

do they have/learn good skills/abilities?

are they well written in the story?

are they well written in their social link?

writing aside, do i like them as a person?

now, the only games i have played out of the persona series are 4 & 5(NOT ROYAL). i read the p1 manga and am only watching playthroughs of the game, so i am not at all in any place to cast judgement on those guys, nor do one of those factors even apply to them... so that already narrows it down a whole bunch. i would never punt a single p1 character. they're all great (except maybe kei just for the 4th one) (but he's great. i love him. i think about him and get sad)

and i'm also eliminating the protagonists for obvious reasons, so we've already disqualified 11 characters. and with that out of the way, we can officially begin...

PERSONA'S PERILOUS PLAY OF PUNTING POTENTIAL!!!! (contains spoilers)

every character will be able to score out of 3 in each factor, and the one with the least amount of points wins the game as the Most Puntable. it's kind of like golf, which is funny, because i also want to punt golf players into the sun.

our first contestant is YOSUKE HANAMURAAAA

now, i was going to grab a fun little image of him to provide this post with visuals but i always forget that 90% of his search results on google are. uh. hm.

well, this is our situation. can i give him a pity point for that?

for number one, i can say...... 3/3. he was ALWAYS on my team during the whole game and i built him up well. like i was raising a son... sniffle... they grow up so fast...

i have to admit, it was a little annoying when he kept missing crits on the golden hand but is that his fault? no-hohohoooooo, it's merely a turn of fate... (and his fault. fuckyouyosukefuckyoufuckyougaaaah)

for number 2, i rate it 2. he's an ooooookay character in the main story, a lot of his harassment of the girls and kanji really tick me off and there's literally no good explanation as for why he does that other than just being an asshole, but. i guess being an asshole is just part of his personality.........?

EXCEPT FOR THE FACT THAT THERE SHOULD BE GREATER CONSEQUENCES FOR HIS ACTIONS BECAUSE COMMUNICATING THE IDEA THAT BAD PEOPLE GET OFF SCOT-FREE IS TERRIBLE FOR A NUMBER OF REASONS. i don't give 2 shits about fanservice as a whole (in regards to harassing the girls, not the homophobia, that's just annoying) but can we stop making the grounds for it being sexual harassment

number 3 gets a 3! his social link is AMAZING and i CRIED and hes GAY and LOVES HIS FRIENDS!!!!!! if i wanted to do a character analysis on him then i would write a different post, but this is me trying to figure out who i would punt into the sun. so. moving on

number 4......... 1/3. for the previous points in number 2, he is an absolute dickhead and no amount of people-pleasing habits and homoerotic chemistry will make me like him. every person who is mean to him is right.

oh boy, just yosuke's section was reaaaaaaaaaally long... i'll try and shorten it for you, okay?

up next is chie satonaka, my personal favourite persona 4 girl if that sets the baseline for anything.

look at her :] she's so silly :]

for number one, i'm sadly going to have to rate her below 3... like. 1.5? is that allowed? i'll say it is.

she's the party member equivalent of a burner phone. unlike yosuke who's by my side forever and ever, chie is only good until teddie gets a persona and then she's so publicly humiliated that she accidentally misses every single hit. galactic punt YOURSELF MOTHERFUUUUUUUUUCK

number 2, 3/3. no explanation needed, literally just her shadow boss fight and the beauty pageant and her friendship with yukiko and her everything.

number 3... also 3/3. a lot of people give her flack for deciding she wants to be a cop, which i get because acab fuck yeah, but where adachi is a cop just to get attention and a gun, she actually intends to protect people. chie learns to help herself so she can help others... augh... AUGH CHIE I LOVE YOUUUUUU

ahem. number 4, 2/3. she's definitely a sweetheart and she seems fun to be around but i have to admit she's definitely a little annoying sometimes.

and now it's time for chie's bestest friend ever, yukiko amagi!!

she gets a pity point for being a lesbian... not just a lesbian but one having a crush on a straight girl. we've all been there hunny bun. let's watch romcoms and eat ice cream together while crying ok?

number 1..... 3/3 fuck yeah my main healer always coming in clutch!!! after a certain point she stops being the main fire user and the player is supposed to take that role but then she has KICKASS HEALING ABILITIES!! support characters are always my favourites (which might foreshadow my rating for haru.......)

1/3 for number 2. that might sound harsh, but! but but but!

they kind of sucked the life out of her after her dungeon. the only real defining personality traits she has are in her social link, which is unfortunate because so many people hate it!

i don't hate yukiko. never

3 gets a 3. it's a good story actually, and like i said it helps me see yukiko as. like. a person. and a lot of people say it's bad writing that her story ends with her deciding she wants to manage the inn, but let me put a lot of emphasis on 'deciding'. she chose that path for herself after being told she was allowed to do what she likes, and y'know what? i don't think that's bad!

nobody likes being forced to do something. i know i struggled a lot with doing homework because i always felt trapped in those deadlines and expectations, but i didn't just give up on school. improving my grades was my own choice, and i realized that i had potential to change myself despite my situation and succeed! that's what yukiko's social link is about. not giving in to other people's expectations, but thriving in the environment you're given...

i just said i wanted to shorten everything and now i'm ranting. always number 4 is a 3/3 she's literally just a girl and her laughing thing is cute idgaf.

KANJI TATSUMIIIIIIIII

subtracting a point for those shoes. get out.

number 1 is a 2/3. he was cool, but nobody ever compares to yosuke. i mainly used him for his physical skills rather than magic because yu took that role very easily, and when paired with teddie or yukiko he's just a boss. but he's not my favourite party member in the world

number 2, i'll be blunt, 1/3. WHAT THE FUCK DID THEY DO TO YOU MAN. we all saw how yosuke and everyone else and the whole damn story treated him. we all saw the line where he asked naoto to be femme so they could "make him a man". shut the fuck upppppp

number 3 is his saving grace. i know some people don't like that they never elaborated on the sexuality thing (or the... sexism..??) and i get that, having a character who's canonically mspec but only vaguely mentions it once and never again is really annoying and a half-assed attempt at representation. though i interpret his reconciliation with his sewing hobby, an aspect of him that everyone thinks is unmanly and should be shamed, as a metaphor for his own sexuality. similar to daisuke and soccer being a stand-in for his anxiety around romance and girls. in that case, it's a 3/3.

(plus there's the line "it's so cute it'll give you diabetes" and... kanji... *facepalm*)

number 4. he's cutie. a little weird, but cutie. 2/3

and now, a girl who needs no introduction.

god my feelings for her are as mixed as my auntie's desert lasagna. ("let's mix it up," she says...)

i don't have anything against the navigators. they're pretty good. i say 3/3.

however i hate rise's writing. -4/3. negative numbers are cheating? I DON'T CARE!!

her dungeon is a STRONG start to her character, like with everyone else. i love rise reconciling with the fact that there is no "real me" and everyone has different sides of themselves that they need to make it through life... and the fact that it ties in with teddie's conflict of feeling hollow, like an alien or an impostor only pretending to be alive........ oh my god! hiiiiii!!!!! love it!

and then rise's main bit in the story is crushing on the protagonist.......... sigh.

i really really REALLY hate that about her actually. i really hate forced romances. and before you go calling me a hypocrite for liking souyo and not yurise even though souyo has the exact same amount of flirty moments between them, that's because those two are really subtle with each other and have a really good initial friendship to back it up and also ties in with their actual personalities.......???? (we can debate forever and ever if yu has a personality but i say he does. he's consistently portrayed in other adaptations and spinoffs. he's got so much in common with yosuke)

but rise just kind of sees yu and goes "hey handsome. killing shadows all by yourself?" and it's like eeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhh.... 90% of the time she's on screen it's to flirt with yu and the other 10% is serious moments or when she's with anyone but yu. there's no moments where she gets to be casual and friendly with HIM, where we get to see DEPTH to their relationship, it's just purely flirting. and i hate that. so much. is this a one-night stand? no? then give me some actual fucking chemistry

and i feel like all of that smushing-dolls-together time takes away from a lot of genuine scenes with rise where she....... yk.... shows off her personality?

the hot springs and the trip to tatsumi port island are held dearly in my heart because rise DOES SHIT. she's silly and goofy and playful and maybe she says some stuff that's a little perverted but it's not to the yosuke degree. i like the idea that rise flirts with ALL of her friends, not just yu; it makes her feel like she's really part of the friend group, which is the investigation team's strongest suit.

rise and yukiko both have any personality ripped from them in favour of dumb bits that aren't even funny and that post of mine analyzing their dynamic during the school field trip is so everything guys they're so great as a duo i need to see more of them pleapelpslepalpelspes.......

...whoops. i ranted.

number 3 gets a 2/3. it's kind of just a rehash of what she learned in the main story, which is fine, but not ideal.

rise as a person is 3/3. absolute silliness all around. love her

KUMA KUMA KUMAAAAA

look at this fucking guy. ridiculous. i hate him. he's so annoying and dumb and he sucks

3/3 on party member he's totally goated

3/3 on main story he makes me feel the whole spectrum of emotions and then some

his social link is automated so technically thats a 3/3 too

3/3 person he might be an annoying little shit but i have 2 younger cousins. i understand yosuke. it's endearing to me

teddie is peak. i would never punt him.

now............to.

entirely honest, i'm on my second persona 4 playthrough to complete the social links i never finished and... naoto is one of those. so i will be unable to determine the rating for one of the factors. but luckily i'm not shit at math so it'll work out in the end

for 1...... honestly they're a good party member as well, but because i didn't get very far in their social link, i didn't unlock that ability where she's able to withstand a deadly blow meaning he would just be constantly dying. like. constantly.

but that's kind of the only thing i like about naoto. i have to rate their main storyline a 1/3. it's absolutely shit and the gender plottwist (ughh) is so badly done. i'm personally thinking up a rewrite for his character because i think they were onto something with the message about misogyny in the workplace but she's so SHITTILY executed that it's just muddied

naoto as a person is..... ok. 2/3. i don't find many things about her that exceptional or fun. i don't think about them often. if this were my rewrite of him it'd be waaaay deep down in the negatives because they are an ASSHOLE but i love them way more :3

and next is ryu.............uh........ actually, this is way too long. much too long than you probably anticipated... um... maybe i'll cut it short, make a part 2 later.

until next time........ on PERSONA'S PERILOUS PLAY OF PUNTING POTENTIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!

[erika111111]

I really didn't want to have to post about this again, but because I feel like some people are lowkey attacking me, I just wanna say that I was initially beyond excited for the Until Dawn Remake to the point where I cried. I've been praying for a remaster/PC port for years and I was so happy when it was announced. I loved the graphics, the lighting, the design changes, the idea of the extended prologue, and the new hunger totems. I was literally typing in all caps in excitement on my Facebook counting down the days before its release.

And then the leaks/playthroughs actually came out and that's when I was disappointed. I hated the new ending for Josh, I didn't understand the point in the new ending with Sam, I hated that they got rid of a lot of the characters' negative traits, the prologue wasn't really extended like they said it would be, I don't like how they changed Jess's breasts because I feel like it's offensive to the real actress, and most of all, I'm upset they lied in the original advertising. If I had known they would change so much stuff, I wouldn't have been as excited, I would have given it some time, and then when I saw what the changes were, I would've been like whatever.

Forgive me for being lied to and getting my hopes up just to be disappointed. I saw so many hate comments in the beginning and I honestly felt like I was the only one defending it. Just look at my older posts where I defend the lighting, Emily and Matt's designs, the new logo, the remake existing at all, etc. It's all there. I didn't hate it from the beginning, I reckon I was one of the people most excited for it because Until Dawn has such a special place in my heart and it really helped me through a difficult time. I'm sorry if my posts recently offended any remake fans, please enjoy the game. I'm venting personally and you don't have to take my opinions as facts or start attacking me for it. We're all entitled to our own opinions here. There are aspects, mostly the insanely gorgeous graphics, about the remake that I do love, and I even said maybe one day it would grow on me and I would give it shot. But I think the wound is just too fresh right now, and being attacked for having an opinion is definitely not helping. They just changed a lot of things that affect me specifically and a lot of things that made me love Until Dawn in the first place, so I'm in a bit of a tough spot right now. It might sound silly or stupid that this is all over some remake of a 9 year old cliché horror video game, but hey, it's important to me so here we are.

[moddeydhoo]

bow i wanna hear your thoughts on narrator chara lol

:D That's sweet of you! I was honestly expecting my previous UT post to be either ignored or flamed into pieces, haha, but a few people seem to have liked it.

Well, won't bury the lede here: my thoughts on NarraChara are basically "it's a nice idea, but it's wrong".

(Full warning that I don't have the spoons to drag up lots of screengrabs just now. In this post I just ramble a little bit without posting pics.)

Vibes-based NarraTobism

I call my take on the narrator's identity NarraToby, though just for brevity and not to suggest Toby inserted himself as a character into the game (would that be called dogegesis? A DPC?) to narrate.

Toby's brain is lovely and subtle and silly, and he'd be capable of making the narrator their own person, Slay the Princess style (or Homestuck style, more fittingly, considering his pomerorigin story), but I just don't agree he crafted Undertale's text in that way. Vibes no check out. I've written, read and watched things that play around with narration, and you really kinda have to have a concept like that in mind from the beginning. It's a huge amount of work to keep it in character, and frankly, I think Toby would have done it better if that's what he intended.

(There'd also be more about it in Legends of Localisation, I feel like. Every character's dialogue was carefully fitted to their personality upon translation. IS THE NARRATOR ORE OR WATASHI TOBY WE NEED TO KNOW. YES THEY USE A PRONOUN IN "I COULDN'T STOP LAUGHING")

I warned that this is mostly vibes-based ramble, so... to me, it doesn't feel like every instance of Undertale's non-dialogue text is from the same POV. Sometimes it's omniscient-seeming, peeking at an opponent's thoughts or going into detail about what brand of cosmetic they're dabbing behind where, and sometimes the narration describes the world from Frisk's more limited point of view (lol height joke short nerd). Sometimes it's outright holding your hand and giving you hints (no, really really, talking will do no more good here, try something else). In a game, the text has a lot of tasks to do, some semi-contradictory even.

In In Stars and Time, the tutorial is spoken to you by the characters in your party and other hints are also spoken to you by a named character. That's an example of it being done deliberately. And Slay the Princess, of course.

A lot of Undertale's narration isn't stuff the First Fallen Then Rezzed Human could reasonably know. Was Papyrus born when Chara was around? They have been dead, and/or a bit of them has been stuck inside a goat inside a flower, all this time. Our determination was what raised them from death, they tell us; ours in particular and not the other children's. It doesn't seem like they were doing much of anything before we landed on their oft-squished grave. At this point they need to be a ghost and psychic, and have the game's design documents on hand, and be able to read Toby's spaghetti code to tell you the monsters' stats, and...

(also when tf did Chara read Kitchen)

Dare I say it's not that serious...? aka Unnrtall Funni

Discussing NarraChara is made harder by UT's general goofiness. Fourth-wall breaks and commentary on game mechanics leak more than once into character dialogue (Paps, I'm looking at you, mister "hold up to jump higher" dating HUD guy). This happens for spoops as well as goofs, such as when you accidentally kill goat mom and panic and feel horrible and load the game and she says something that suggests she remembers what happened and then you TOTALLY get got by Flowey afterwards and no that didn't happen on my first playthrough why do you ask (it did).

Goofiness is also why I feel things like Blooky responding directly to narration text ("oh, i'm real funny") shouldn't be taken as serious. It is really cute to imagine a ghost exchanging banter with the other ghost over your shoulder—like I said, I do see the appeal. I just don't think it works overall.

SIDE NOTE! If you want a fangame that uses this concept (ghost Chara, not NarraChara), download PS!Outertale and make sure you explore Toriel's home very thoroughly (hint: 1 is too high).

Trying to assemble a coherent personality for the narration text, when the entire game occasionally messes with you just for fun, feels like a doomed project.

Red text is them, though, right?

Yeah, I feel like that's very much intentional. As far as red text goes on the murder route, we're all correct that this is meant to be understood as PlayerName/Chara's dialogue.

Butttttt I don't necessarily think it represents their unaltered personality. By the time any red rext shows up, you've cleared out the Ruins to "nobody came" levels, so plenty of murder has already happened.

The murder route is the process of fully overriding Frisk's personality, forcing them into a true player analogue in an intentional mirror of the true pacifist route, as much as it is the process of teaching Chara the true meaning of this world. Chara outright tells you this at the end: at first they were confused, but now they see that the point of life is Number Go Up. You showed them that.

(All this is why I think it's good to keep in mind that the expected Undertale experience is playing with your own name for the human. [child pops up] "Greetings. I am PlayerName. Aaaaaand it's time to grab your knives and get ready for the wall dance because today we're 100%ing Undertale!")

In other words, Pacifist teaches one sibling that the world is better than he thinks. Murdercide teaches the other that humanity is exactly what they think. "Don't kill and don't be killed" vs. "Actually, kill". ("Be killed" is just rage-quitting because you can't figure out the Mettaton fight because you forgot the yellow soul could shoot and you thought the idea was to get the ratings to zero so he'd go off air and no I didn't have to look up help with that fight on my first playthrough why do you ask (I did).)

Headcanony murder route stuff rambling from previous

If this even still counts as a NarraChara post, it's sort of wandered onto the murder route ending monologue now, so you're welcome to peace out here. ♥

This part'll get headcanony, but to me, Chara was a troubled child who hated humanity, in a childlike way, and did not hate monsters. I don't credit the fanon about them intentionally poisoning their dad; they just reacted with apparently low empathy to his illness, while filing the consequences of their mistake away for later.

The one person Chara ever directly killed was not a monster and it wasn't murder.

Their desire to see monsters go free feels genuine to me. In the planning stage, whether or not they intended to murder any humans for their souls (it's not super clear; maybe they thought they could sneak into a hospital and kill-steal their way to victory), in any case, they weren't out to kill more than six. Chara's goal was a focused one: free monsters. Any dabbing on humanity, such as placing their body back in their village as a giant "frick you", seemed to be secondary (and something explainable as them being, y'know, a child who felt the need to climb that mountain).

My take on the murder route is that it's a process of retraumatising the child by making them watch their family and subjects die. Starting with their mother! Chara loved Toriel, if their speech patterns are anything to go by. (Ever noticed Asriel says "Howdy" and Chara says "Greetings"?)

Anyway, Chara is intelligent, pragmatic and self-determining, and so they intellectualise the horror that's happening to them in such a way as to assign themself agency. I am the one in control. Yes. I must be doing these things. I... am the demon.

Right?

This end screen could use more nines. ♥

he literally pUT THEIR DIALOGUE IN RED TEXT TO EMPHASISE THE DIFFERENCE and I know we're a fandom starved for content but seriously how badly is it possible to overcomplicate tHE BIG RED TEXT

also Chara was a good kid and I will mercy u all

[skuntank]

Hey!! Felt like saying I'm really glad just how outspoken you are about loving XY and Diantha especially :) Despite its many shortcomings, which especially sting with the recent leak, I loved XY as a wee lad (painful reminder I'm a fetus). I spent an ungodly amount of hours on it for a kid, something like 600 hours or more if I recall my first save lost to time. Some of XY's characters have especially stuck with me and despite my most recent playthrough not being near as magical as my first two, it's just a game that I love.

Btw local Frenchman's HC of Diantha's Halloween opinion : Considering just how big she is in the film industry I think she'd actually care more than the average Kalosian about Halloween. Trick or treating isn't particularly common even in major French cities, you'll hardly see any Halloween decorations on anyone's property either, but the Americanisation of our culture means lots of people do ready candy and cash for the occasional kids, and we especially love the movies. Diantha probably doesn't have time for horror movie marathons but I feel she'd especially love them (especially since she's someone who's familiar with Unovan industry's history and such, being a big actress). 'Would probably consider dressing up for the day based off a preexisting horror movie character (maybe a previous role of hers?). Scary Diantha says boo :)

AAALKJFSKJD I CANT TELL YOU HOW THIS TICKLES ME. THANK YOU FOR THIS VALUABLE INFORMATION!!!! and lmao youre still valid, even if youre just a wee tot. i really really need to replay xy at some point, just for the sake of it.

yeah tbh i kinda just got the sense that halloween isnt like. a Big Thing in france but i couldnt know for sure. based on what youve said, it sounds to me that she would more just be interested in the pop culture aspect of it, which absolutely makes sense to me, as i def see her being someone who is fascinated by pop culture in general lmao. and like ive rattled on about a million times before, i just see her being a horror fan in general lmao.

this makes me think like. i highly, highly doubt she would have the time for this, but if she COULD, she would definitely want to dress up as a role she had in a horror movie and make an appearance in character somewhere lmaooo. like as an unofficial thing probably. gets a lot of compliments on how close her costume is to the actual character, and maybe even scares some less wise individuals silly into thinking she is the actually horror character come to life lmaoooooo god i am living for this thank you so so much again for the input!!!!!!

[kourabiedes]

I would love to hear more about Robin, specifically :3 Gimme deets, please!

Oh yeah I guess I should do that

In an out of universe sense, Robin is my particular brand of Juliana. I designed her to fit the experience I had with Scarlet... which basically involved me poking my nose into every. single. corner. of Paldea. She's a hiker, backpacker, and budding photographer, because all those things are what I spent the entirety of my playthrough doing. I think I got like forty hours in before I finally was convinced to stop fucking around and go for the non-Path of Legends badges. A lot of the DLC I did as wing-sister to @the-starkindler, who was playing Violet, and we developed a lengthy headcanon winding the two versions together using our respective characters -- you know, like an Emerald version. This bit is key because it means there are two bike-dragons running around Paldea and the Academy, instead of being represented by one fruit, is more of a basket of them. (Insert jokes here.)

I'm going to put a cut here, because I have a lot to say about my silly girl. Beware all who enter here, for there are OC headcanons afoot.

In-universe, Robin is an established student at the Naruva academy, in her second year, arriving sometime after the Team Star dust-up. She is Kalosian, from somewhere in the vague area of Anistar City (if you don't remember your Kalos locations, that's the place with the big red sundial). She's an introvert who grew up in a family of extroverts, and, as you can imagine, that need for a moment of peace fueled her early interest in backpacking. This got markedly worse when the little sisters started arriving. She has five younger sisters, all between the ages of eight and four at the time of her second year. For context, she's going on sixteen at that point.

(I love my little sister dearly, but she alone was almost enough to send me howling into the wilderness. Five of those? Yeah, Robin's a backpacking pro for a reason.)

At ten (because that's such a sane age to do this), Robin's mom nudged her out the door to do the traditional Kalos Gym circuit. Robin came home from that with a level 100 Espurr, several memory cards' worth of pictures of Kalos, and like, two badges. Her mom wasn't overly surprised.

This is kinda how Robin is. She doesn't want to be a powerful Trainer for the sake of being powerful. She makes herself strong so that she can easily do whatever it is she actually wants to do, which is See All The Things. She's not real worried about whether those Things are supposed to be Off-Limits or not, either. So, as you can imagine, she's fascinated by the stories of the mysterious and/or off-limits places of the world. Cerulean Cave. Mount Silver. Mirage Island. The Great Crater of Paldea.

So when her mom suggests Naruva Academy for her, well, she leaps at the chance. Mom figures hey, her kid may be a little odd, but she clearly has a way with Pokemon, and she's sharp, so send the kid to a good school and see what develops. Robin, on the other hand, is plotting her first Great Crater expedition within seconds of the conversation.

Does this mean she's in and out of the Great Crater a lot? Well, not really, though it's not for lack of trying. The Great Crater really is hard to get into without a flying Pokemon at the very least, and the strength of the wild Pokemon there is considerable. She never gets very far in before having to turn back for simple survival. Nevertheless, she's determined to see the bottom of it someday. (Also she does have to attend classes, which cuts into her exploring time severely. Gotta keep dem grades up or mom might pull her home! The grades net her a Tera Orb though, so hell yeah.)

One question that could be asked is, did she know the Paldea Pals before, since she's an established student? Well, yes and no. She knows of Arven, because the poor guy is utterly overshadowed at this point by his shitlord parents. She knows of Nemona -- there probably isn't anyone in the school who doesn't, to be utterly fair. She doesn't really have any opinion on either. They run in different circles, and the most she's interacted with either is whenever Nemona pounced on her looking for a battle. (Yes, she accepted. No, she never won!)

So how does she get pulled into the Scarlet story? Well, one weekend, while she was out chilling with her Pokemon in the wilds of Paldea, there was a really loud sonicboom overhead, and a few minutes later, a tired-looking red lizard Pokemon walked into her campsite. Like most people, she assumed he was a rare breed of Cyclizar at first, because who expects an ancient legendary Pokemon to just waltz into your life and ask for a sandwich? He's injured, but not badly, and she has the brilliant idea to take him back to the Academy with her and see if the teachers can help. She cuts her picnic short and does just that. No problem, right? Nothing life changing about that.

As you have no doubt guessed, the sonicboom was Miraidon fleeing the crater after being attacked by his nasty counterpart. Koraidon, in this melded universe, was brought over as well before <redacted>, and he and the Miraidon actually bonded and are buddies. When Mirai ran for his life, Kori tried to follow, but he's not as fast and had to land. (Miraidon has that jet butt, after all.)

From here, she gets enmeshed in the Scarlet and Violet storylines -- or, well, some of them anyway. The storylines are divided between her and Mirai's rider Alanna. They sort of swap between player one and player two frequently. Robin was involved the most with the DLC stories and Starfall Street. She was the one Ogerpon chose as a partner (maybe it was all that little sister experience!), and she ended up with Chien-Pao out of the four Treasures. (This is not quite as cool as it sounds. Pao just wants to PLAY. All the fuckin time.)

Let's see, what else. Oh, she has a massive crush on Perrin (unrequited), and though she starts out wanting to shove Carmine into the river, they bond over time and Robin kiiiinda thinks she's cute. (Does this count as Carmine x Juliana shipping? Probably not lmao)

Tl;dr, my Scarlet character is pretty fun.

[tinyjordan]

so I actually finally finished my first playthrough of bg3 last night (except it was actually this morning because I beat the final boss at like 3 am) and I just wanted to share my experience. obviously there will be spoilers

so yes. it did take me like 2 months to finish the game, a lot longer than the average player. this was mostly because I was just really busy with school and shit and I've been playing on my parents tv, so I obviously didn't get too much time to myself to binge the game. but honestly, when I did get time to play through the game, I was honestly so overjoyed to just explore the world and do quests with my silly little guys.

imo my favorite act in the game is the first act, which from what I read, many people agree with me on this sentiment. that doesn't mean that I think that the other two acts weren't great, but I just think that act 1 had something special going on there. i loved how huge the first act was and just how much I could do in this act. i thought I finished this act having completed every quest (except those in the mountain pass because I didn't know that I could just go through both paths, which I don't know how I came to that conclusion in hindsight) but when reading and watching videos about bg3, I learned that there was a ton of stuff that I missed. I can't wait for my second playthrough (which will probably be my durge run) to experience more that I missed.

i don't know where to put this point in this essay thing, but the party after defeating the goblin camp. love it! this is where fanfictions are born. although you don't really get much when romancing gale in this party except the fact that he proclaims that he likes your stank in the most socially awkward but well meaning way. i thought this was funny.

oh yeah! also Lae'zel tried to have sex with me. we didn't, but I thought I might as well share that.

speaking of Lae'zel: the most underrated character in the game. i don't care. she is extremely wholesome despite our first introduction to her. in my playthrough, she was the one that got kidnapped by orin in act three. when I rescued her from orin, she was extremely sweet and thankful about it. she said something about the githyanki language not having a word for "thank you", and she tells the player the closest thing to it in her language. but even then she thought that wasn't a good enough way to express gratitude, so she said "thank you, sincerely." she's not my favorite companion, but my heart did swell in this moment

speaking of favorite companions-

astarion

ASTARION

yes I know that everyone reading this probably heard this a million times, but Astarion is such an amazing and well written character. this man is blorbo himself. i want to be his best friend. during my playthrough, my tav and Astarion had a sort of sibling like relationship: being on near opposite sides of the character archetype spectrum and disagreeing on a lot of things, but also being super protective over each other (we dislike Araj in this house). his whole story arc made me want to cry several times. i wish this game had a hug option for every companion so that I could hug everyone, ESPECIALLY Astarion. omg. OMG. when we defeated Cazador and Astarion stabbed him repeatedly, i cheered. i got him to not ascend and I cheered. like Karlach (who i also love and got me the closest to actually crying), i was so fucking proud of Astarion. i could talk about him all day but I think I would just stop there and resort to reblogging post about him for my own sanity.

when thinking of my opinion on Shadowheart, I remember that I didn't like her at all at first. it didn't help that she was racist against the githyanki. but after act 2 and pretty much always having her in my party as the main healer, she REALLY grew on me as a character. imo, I think she has one of the best character arcs and she really meshes well with the other companions. she's not a comic relief character at all, but every joke and sarcastic comment she makes is always a banger. she's my Tav's official best friend. also her act three glow up. that is all

oh also during Shadowheart's quest in act three, I met Viconia DeVir (who i killed) and I laughed my ass off because I ended up naming my Tav Viconia who when playing as her, she was like the EXACT opposite of the evil cult leader. there was definitely a "there can only be one" moment when killing her

I also feel that Wyll is pretty underrated character, which is disappointing since he is actually super interesting as a character. I mean he made a deal with a devil. like. c'mon. now I did sometimes get annoyed with his whole being a hero schtick, but also he's like the most sane character companion imo. i felt bad about him sulking alone at the after goblin killing party and I was tempted to ask him to dance to maybe cheer him up, but I also knew that this would probably lead to a romance with him, which I didn't really want. so I just let him be. i remember the impossible choice we had to make in act three (save Wyll's dad and sacrifice his freedom, or break the contract Wyll made with Mizora and let his dad die). This was actually a really difficult decision to make because like. it's either your dad or your freedom. it's literally an impossible choice to make. i decided to have Wyll be free of his contract with Mizora because I had hope that we could maybe find a loophole to this whole deal. WHICH THERE WAS. I had to undo a 5 whole hours of progress because of a bug with Duke Ravengard not spawning in the iron throne if you progress too much in the lower city before watching Gortash's coronation (which is entirely my fault for being awful at directions and not understanding very obvious instructions), BUT I DID IT. I saved Wyll's dad and had him free from Mizora's servitude! his friendship with Karlach is also extremely sweet. I love just how nice Wyll is. I think he's neat.

KARLACH! My favorite female companion! I was so excited when I was finally able to give her a hug. she's just so sweet and fun and as i said before she got me the closest to crying while playing the game. she almost made me cry not once, not twice, but THREE whole times. first time was of course when she was finally able to touch people. second was when we killed Gortash and she had a crisis about dying soon. third was when I thought she was actually going to die before Wyll offered that she come with him back avernus to kill all the devils (bless Wyll). she's also the number one funniest character in the game which juxtaposes the fact that she almost made ms cry the most amount of times.

speaking of crying, this game made me want to cry three separate times in one day. i made the mistake of playing through Shadowheart's and Astarion's quest on the same day then proceeding to kill Gortash, which you already know what happens after that.

After playing through the game, I agree that camp dad(dy) is the official term to describe Halsin. I'm not attracted to him in any since, so to me he is just dad, but I do agree with this sentiment. also goddamn he tall

Jaheira is the fun aunt of the group and I love her for that. she's a queen.

Minsc is himbo. I also realized that he always has something to say about everything we do, and I didn't realize that until when I talked to him one time and he was speaking of something we did like three quests ago and I had to keep talking to him until he was finally caught up with the current events. it was super hilarious

Also I love Boo! when Minsc introduced me to this space hamster I immediately feel in love with his tiny wittle paw awnd hwis wittle whiskews- also Boo had so much personality and I love him for that.

now. it is time to be down bad. Gale. my beloved. if you have seen the amount of posts and art that I reblog about him, you could probably tell that I am absolutely down bad for this man. I don't know when it started, but holy shit. this man got me kicking my legs and squealing like a little school girl. every romance scene with him got me down bad. he says just the sweetest things and I am on the floor dead from a heart attack. he proposed to me at the end of the game. i was happy :)

other points about Gale: he is super funny. every joke with him is hilarious. Mystra is a bitch. he gives dedicated history professor vibes. his camp outfit looks so comfy. he hates sneaking because his knees hate sneaking. he is best friends with his tressym named Tara, who he summoned NOT because of tressyms being known for being a great familiar, but because he wanted a friend. pleasure domes lol

i guess this is all to say that I love every companion in bg3

i believe I got the best ending (in terms of good or bad endings) in the game, and my hot take is that I actually love the ending of the game! i don't know what other people were talking about when they said it wasn't satisfying. the only critique I can give about the ending is that if you don't romance either Shadowheart or Astarion, you don't really know what happens to them after the events of the game other than they probably have a happy ending. other than that, great ending!

i will say that I do agree with most other people when they say that act 3 is maybe the weakest act in the game. not that it isn't a bad act. i just think it's unnecessary difficult even in explorer difficulty, which I did had to set it to because balanced wasn't cutting it for my smooth brain. i also had difficulty with trying to figure out what to do or where to go for a huge chunk of the act. and if it wasn't for a few helpful guides, I might have accidentally skipped a huge chunk of the quests and gotten a worse ending for a lot of my companions. also yeah. act 3 is extremely buggy. not unplayable buggy, but it did cause a lot of problems with my playthrough including me having to redo 5 hours of progress because of a bug

also fighting the githyanki at any point in the game starting from the end of act 2 is an absolute nightmare. how are a group of githyanki monks a more difficult fight than the literal god of death?

speaking of death, i love the dead three. i think they are amazing antagonists. my favorite with being Thorm. he is just so intimidating and he gave an amazing first impression. it helps that he is voiced by J.K. Simmons.

OH AND RAPHAEL! he is so theatre kid evil and that is amazing! best fight theme in the game. i saved the song on my Spotify before I even got to his fight because I heard it for the first time when I was kind of watching my brother play and I fell in love with the song.

i wish there was more to do in act 2, but in terms of story, it is extremely strong and the act is extremely spooky, which I love. i got scarred for life in the house of healing. though I think the biggest strength with act 2 is Shadowheart. she stole the show in act 2.

also Gale's act 2 romance scene hehe <3

Scratch best boy

Owl bear cub so adorable

oh! also when exploring the szarr palace, I found an owl bear plush and I immediately wanted it to be real. i immediately stole it because it is the best thing ever

i love this game so much! there is so much more I want to speak about, but then this would turn into a novel if I mentioned everything. I might make a post about my Tav later on, but that's for later. i already made a google doc about her profile, but there is so much more that I want to discuss about her outside that doc, so...maybe I can share the doc whenever and maybe let people send asks about the character and I can discuss more in detail stuff that wasn't mentioned

I'm probably gonna take a short break from playing bg3 since I still just want to think about the finale and I spent maybe 80 hours of gameplay on this one run (i say this one run because I have been playing a bit with my brother and friend)

afterwards I want to do a redeemed dark urge run. i might romance Astarion not because I see him in a romantic light, but because I really ship him with the durge thanks to all of the art I have seen

tldr; bg3 is amazing

[lucius-the-sinful]

been kinda chewing on some of my problems with baldur's gate 3 recently as im wrapping up my durge playthrough. i took a bit of hiatus from the game for about a month but ah, there's still just some things that kinda bum me out. and i know i just usually reblog silly goofy things and draw my edgy d&d characters but i think i need to post about this. it is my blog and i decide when its time for some serious discussion (we will return to your regularly scheduled silly goose hours later) (yes this post will contain spoilers throughout the entire game. i think)

Its time for proper capitalization and punctuation because I am wanting to get a bit serious for a minute. I want to start with my biggest issue, the thing that turns me off from the game from time to time. What I truly desire in a video game with significant characters and story is for those characters and story to feel like they co-exist with one another, instead of within their own vacuums. I think Baldur's Gate 3 is decent at this, but it leaves so much to be desired. One thing that really bugs me is it feels less like this is a group that was haphazardly thrown together with similar goals to which they are very desperate to complete (removing the tadpole, stopping the spread of the Absolute), and more like each character is an outside observer to the other's struggles. Even when the struggles of these characters intercept, such as Karlach and Wyll, we get mere morsels. Karlach says she is Wyll's friend, but outside of the few times they speak to one another in the overworld, and the few cutscenes we have in camp... how can that constitute friendship? Seriously, its great Wyll can be convinced to stick his neck out for Karlach, but that alone doesn't build a friendship. Am I supposed to believe there are conversations between characters happening off screen? Perhaps. However: there are ways to sprinkle in characters directly interacting with each other without involving the player character. The conversations in the overworld, for one, are great. I just wish there was more. I deeply desire banter, I desire for these characters to develop relationships on the same level with one another as Tav/Durge does with them.

I always find myself comparing BG3 to the Mass Effect trilogy. One thing I love about Mass Effect 3 specifically, is that Shepard can walk around the Normandy and run into the crew in the middle of their own conversations. One of my favorites is if you have Kaidan and you're able to recruit him, he can be found in a poker match with James and they reference playing with Joker. I love it! I wish that sort of thing was in BG3. You wander about camp and find some of your party members playing a game (I'm imagining Wyll and Karlach trying to teach Lae'zel a game of Faerun, and she compares it to "games" of her cresh... it would be an interesting look into Lae'zel's culture and what the gith would consider "games" plus we get to see how the others would introduce their culture to her). I just kinda hate going to camp, exhausting dialogue with each other the companions and then there's really nothing else to see or do beyond that.

I also wish there was more reaction to the romance from the others. I mean, maybe I'm just silly and haven't gotten the proper triggers but in each of my playthroughs no one has anything to say about it. I absolutely do want to sit there and give Shadowheart the details of my night with Halsin. I don't know just, give me a little something.

Speaking of the wild-shaped elephant in the room. The poly relationships. Look, I am personally monogamous, I am in a monogamous relationship and my partner and I will likely remain monogamous until our deaths. That being said... ugh? And I mean ugh in the sense these don't feel like they could be real relationships. If Halsin is truly the best we can do then I think we're doing pretty mediocre. I think its a step in the right direction, we get our other partner's consent, Halsin is respectful of you and your partner's boundaries and from what I have seen, your other partner respects your identity and boundaries (no, I do not buy that Astarion specifically is "coerced" into the relationship, this is not what this is about but I have seen that particular line of thought. Also, if you want to read a pretty good post that sums up the Astarion-Halsin polymance debate, I recommend this one by veilkeeper, I don't agree with every point but it's pretty well written). There's just something odd about how all of it is written, again pointing to how some of these events and characters feel like they exist within a vacuum and I think that is why the "poly" relationships feel very... ugh. I'm a little on the fence about this particular post, but if you want to read how a non-monogamous goober (like myself) views the poly non-relationships, I recommend this one by hungerofhadarr.

Okay so, last little thing. This bothers me in a much more obvious fashion, but, hi, I play D&D 3.5 homebrew. I am actually not super familiar with Faerun before I played Baldur's Gate 3, as my group mainly plays in original settings created by my partner/our DM. I have been a part of the same group for about four years now, and we have actually managed to complete a campaign this year. So I understand that the way me and my group play D&D is very different from how most people play in 2023. That being said: what the fuck is with the fantasy racism? Why do fantasy worlds keep relying on it so heavily to propel how cultures interact with one another? Has anyone else played a drow, or even a half-drow? Oh my god. I don't really feel like I should comment too much on this other than, um, yikes? And, I'm not going to act like I don't know about D&D's history with fantasy racism. I am a little familiar, but I just feel like Wizards, and now by extension Larian, cannot disconnect themselves from this.

this is about as articulate as im going to get on all this but uhhh yeah. screaming into the void and hope it doesn't breach containment lmao

[fakeosirian]

Zevistair and Alistair/Anora for the ship bingo! (Also hi!!!!)

OOOOH VERY INTERESTING ONES

zevistair:

this one is a Very Recent consideration/revelation for me and honestly. kinda obsessed and i wish i had been into it when i was first playing origins a couple years ago/makes me want to start a new file to Observe them more

bulleted thoughts:

i love the idea that their character arcs are sort of going in...opposite directions? if that makes sense? like despite the fact they have similar brands of tragic backstory, the actual circumstances of the tragic backstory diverge such that zev is recruited into an order that makes him distrust people and alistair is recruited into an order that, in his mind, is the only people he CAN trust, but in the game itself zev is "softening"/opening up and alistair (in more interesting characterization directions lol) is hardening/losing his naivete its So Cool

attempted murder is ? because that's more the warden than alistair but it's close enough that i think it'd be a bit for them LMAO

the specific combo of zev being super forward sexually/a bit harder to reach romantically (iirc i need to replay origins Stat) and alistair being very forward romantically but inexperienced sexually is...Very Good for ship dynamic/conflict purposes...

besides that tho they're just silly. like they both make jokes and do the hahas. what more could you want

alistair/anora:

so full disclosure i've never done a playthrough of origins (or at least not gotten to the landsmeet with a warden that had this as the plan of action) with alistair and anora co-ruling which may be coloring my opinions A Lot but i'm glad you asked about it because i've been meaning to think up a scenario that i'd want to use it for (ive kept alistair as a warden, married him myself, and had him rule alone hardened fwiw)

my ideal scenario/conception of this is absolutely a like. starts literally Zero romantic interest. probably some degree of contempt, even. but through a comical series of events they end up doing pretty much everything couples do besides really "having feelings" in such a way that they're like. ticking off boxes on the Businesslike Relationship List and Getting a Good Grade in Marriage. like ok honey great work out there today. we had a functional discussion about what dishware we want to purchase, planned our next ten years of children, and practiced a polite amount of public affection while negotiating with a diplomat. here's what's on the docket for tomorrow. and through that practicality they become fond for each other? sort of? idk i still think lingering contempt is a Hallmark of their vibes and what makes it work for me as a concept

i can...sort of see them developing proper romantic feelings for each other on like Year Fifteen of Marriage maybe but tbh its more a hard-earned-despite-the-circumstances-respect flavor of romance like. you are a Stable Feature in my life. and not so much "storybook" romance which tbh would be really interesting for a character like alistair to have to work through considering How He Is in his warden romance (and iirc you Have to harden him to even do this so itd be...neat to dovetail that with that element of his development specifically re: i have to call up the desire for romance i had before i Lost My Innocence as a mask for the public to idealize re: our marriage/rule and its legitimacy but also i do not believe in it anymore. we love a lil cognitive dissonance)

probably obvious from how i talk about it but tbh not something i "ship" LOL not even in a "they're so toxic it's fun" type of ship way...idk they are a narrative device to me. the most fun they can have is a divorce arc

tysm this was very fun!! i think i'm going to go find the mahariel save file i started a bit ago and hope i remember what i was doing bc that warden would 100% shove alistair and anora together LMFAO

[asoulofatlantis]

That is one hell of a sudden timejump ^^' Like the game just started, but we have done NOTHING and yet, two freaking months have past.

In case you don't know that yet or you have forgotten it, this very girl is Yun-Ka-Fais very own granddaughter.

I love how games like these ALWAYS find a way to force some weird logic on you that makes you understand that you have no choice but to have a fresh start XD

Oh... do we not have to walk there ourselfs? Nice!

Oh! I totally forgot that stuff like this already existed in this game. That will be fun!

This Prolouge is annoying me for some reason I can not fully explain. The dungeon sucked because of all the levers and now we get thrown into whatever fight awaits us outside, just after one full day of dungeon exploring. But I am probably just salty because that is exactly how the pacing will be for the most part of the game ^^'

They put on quite the show to make it look real, didn't they? ^^' And even tho those two girls have noticed already that they have been training for this, they still didn't realize how awfully convenient all this is.

I totally get that this was training and preparing them for what its to come. You know, real-life situations and all that... but I still think they've overdone it a bit here.

Also... damn was that boring. Even if I had to fight the monsters on the way, it would not have been really entertaining at all. This dungeon sucked even more than the last one, because it pretended to be hard, but it actually wasn't. Once again, the monster in a non-plus-game might have told a different story but the overall dungeon wasn't great at all and this did nothing to the plot even if you didn't find out or knew you were tricked from the start.

Campanelle came with a small airplane. Whats wrong? No teleportation-skills just yet, Campi? XD

Ouroboros is always so overstaffed XD Seriously. Four people plus the two currently talking. Six members of Ourobors. Anguises among them too. Geez!

Oh! I forgot to add the Faceless. Make it 7 members. Seriously Ourobors, that scared of us, or what? XD

I forgot that we've been here before Cold Steel. And it remains a sad place with sad music.

It must have been hard for Joshua to come back here and face his past.

I am pretty sure NO ONE saw this coming. I can not remember much from my first playthrough to be absolutely honest with you, but I can remember that Joshua working with the Capuas WAS quite a surprise. They seemed to be useless silly side characters in the first game. And now here they are... protecting Joshua and being his allies while he would be otherwise all alone.

And then later on you meet Josette back in Erebonia and you like: "W-Wait a minute!" XD

I am kinda glad that this is over. But if Falcom never was good at something, that its been Prolouges ^^'

After all those years and all those games I am kind of confused were the archaism really come from. Obviously, at this point Ouroboros is mass-producing them. But it didn't start out like that, didn't it? Wasn't it rather that they found them somewhere and just reproduced them, like they did with thing like the Auraleole?

But were did they find them first? Cavard, as Kevin words suggest?

Well I mean we ARE running straight into "the end of the world" and I am not sure yet what Cassiuse did to try to prevent it XD

(I am very much aware that I am a bit unfair here. Thanks to our most beloved idiot police Detective Lloyd, most people do not even know the end of the world is coming, so its not like he COULD have done anything about it, given that he didn't have the necessary knowledge... Oh fun! I've just realized, if we fuck this up in Kai we can blame it on Lloyd. The guy who decided to not even be there, as it seems... *achem* moving on... uh... back to the past I mean ^^')

Ouroboros is quite the... colorful bunch in every way possible. Some of them are really good at blending in too. So... uh... how exactly do you want to find someone "resembling" a secret society, Agate? ^^'

I should not pick Agate again this time, as I picked him last time already. But I did have my reasons for choosing him and the reasons still apply. So... sorry Schera. But its the hothead again XD

Yeah... I've got that wrong too ^^' I guess we have to get our heads out of the gutter.

I am two hours into the game and as expected, NOTHING worth of note actually happened. So I am glad to announce that I am taking a break now.

[galaxymagick]

bg3 playthrough🗡️

I passed 100 hours on baldur’s gate 3 and I’m now level 7 🥳..

my current, and dare I say, my favourite of favourite companions, I have ‘very good’ approval with karlach, and shadowheart, and good with astarion with whom ofc I’m trying to romance🫠 it can be difficult as everyone knows esp when he disapproves of stuff like me having a moment silence for the fallen gnomes. like I knoooow he’s bitter, good for him but, please these poor gnomes, everyone else is eh. look myself and my character are very... indifferent but hate seeing shit like that, like i gave him the gur lol (tho we knocked him out only shh don't tell him) i gave him the book of thay, and he approves and is inspired when we’re being very very good at persuading ppl.. but I support his bitterness, also hes silly, he's not all bad loll

I knoooww I fell hard! even before I started playing.

I did get to enjoy the weave with our good friend gale. Yes, I went the imagined a nice meal with him option. We have very nice chats, he does talk a lot but I like hearing about his backstory and i love magic

We’re currently at the grymforge, I didn’t get to see philomeena because I killed nere first I didn’t know she’d disappear if that happened. There’s just little bits I’ve “messed up” I guess lol. I should have looked round more than I did. I have a save where I can go back and just see astarion do his ‘ don’t do anything hilarious’ line which I’ve seen a million times but it’s with lobelia there 🥺 But next play through, 🫥 I’ll be extra thorough during the forge.

oh astarion gave the final stabby, thus defeating the “stupid clunking… whatever” cause I didn’t see the point in getting the thing to go back under the hammer just for 4 hit points, and thankfully it worked we defeated him first try! we didn’t die!!!

I’m getting ahead of myself I haven’t made the post about the crèche adventures.. but yes. I am very much having fun.

And we have soooo much food, and a good amount of gold.😌 I mean I have spent some, but I tend to pickpocket if I can, but I have bought too.

a lot know this but … Loot, ppl loot! Loot, well ppl, and check every vase and storage container, EVERYTHING!! LOOT!

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers (March 3rd, 2021)

Here’s our latest batch of anon ask answers! Thanks for waiting for them.

Will there be a 'Our Life' game for each season? Please say we're getting a winter one! 

As of right now we’re only planning on making two, summer and fall. They take quite a while to finish and we’re not sure where we’ll be when the second OL is truly wrapped up. But it’s not impossible we can do a third. Though, four Our Life games is probably not super likely, honestly, aha. Maybe the third game, if we make one, could be switch between winter and spring or something.

What engine/engines do you use to make your games? 

We use Renpy for all our projects!

For version 1.2 of OL, did you make any changes to the DLC? If so, could you post a changelog detailing what exactly (or at least a general overview)? If it's not too much trouble, could you also elaborate on the bugs/errors you fixed in the base game? 

There aren’t really any changes to the DLCs, except for the voiced name DLC getting an expansion. We fixed very few small typos and added a couple extra lines. Unfortunately, we don’t have a list of exactly what all the little fixes were.

I've been playing OL and I love the characters! As soon as Baxter showed up, I knew I wanted to learn more about him! Would you consider adding him as a prospective LI in the future? 

Yep, Baxter (and Derek) will be getting his own romance story as an optional DLC late in 2021! Glad you like him.

Hellooo! First off I'm a huge fan of the game and can't stop playing it. However, I was wondering about how much domestic life with Cove we'll get to see in step 4. Meaning the time before the wedding and the time after. In my game Cove and I talked about having children and I was hoping that would be an option in step 4. Either way, I cannot wait for the release and I send my best to everyone working on the production :) thanks! 

I’m sorry, there’s no children or scenes after the two are married. There’s sort of endless possibilities for what that future could be like, so we unfortunately can’t depict it. You only get scenes before they’re married and, if you get the wedding DLC, you can see the day they get married. It ends there, though. But thank you for the well-wishes!

Hello! I was just wondering, so step 4 is going to be similiar to the prologue/epilogue scenes of the game. Is the Wedding DLC going to be one long scene too or will that have moments? (I love the game by the way, its ruined all other visual novels for me in the most wonderful way <3 ) 

Yeah, Step 4 and the wedding DLC will be like the prologues/summer ended parts of the game. There won’t be separate Moments you can play in any order. I’m really happy you like the game so much!

You said that the OL MC's birthday can't be in summer, but what if you headcanoned it to be? 

You can headcanon it as being in summer! There just aren’t birthday events in the game even if you do know your MC was born in summer. We had to leave those out, since some people might not want their MC to be born in summer and then they’d miss out on extra birthday scenes because of it. It wouldn’t have been fair.

Hello!😺 I absolutely love your game!😻 I can't wait for DLS with Derek and Baxter. And I wonder if Baxter could have seen Cove and MC at the party during their first failed dance? Or is Baxter only paying attention to who he's dancing with, or is he not dancing with anyone at the soiree at all then? 

Baxter isn’t really paying attention to the couples on the floor. He’s just cruising the outskirts for someone available to dance with him. So he doesn’t get any memories of the MC or Cove at that party if the two just dance with each other. It’s great to hear you like the game!

time-wise/step-wise when does the nsfw dlc take place? 

It’s not super strict in terms of an exact of weeks/months, but generally it’s sometime not long after the end of Step 3.

Heya! I'm currently obsessed with Our Life (I played through the entire game on Valentine's Day, hahaha– ha... hah), and I have one silly question: if I start playing Step 3 with the less... "romantically inclined" interest levels (Fond & Disinterest), is there still a chance of getting a romantic ending with Cove? Can Cove and the MC realize "they're the one for me" in just one summer? Or... are confessions off the table completely unless at least at Crush level? Thank you in advance! 

So happy you’re having fun with it! In OL1 deciding that Cove is your friend means he’s truly only a friend. You can’t decide you have a crush partway through. But we are considering doing things differently in future games.

hey i have some questions about our life

a) is there a way to be friends with that mean bowlcut kid or is he always... like tha

b. what is coves ethnicity?

A. He is always like that, haha. At least as a kid, he does grow up to be different~

B. Cove’s mom Kyra is white, but Cliff’s race doesn’t come up and players are able to headcanon it. So Cove is half white and half whatever you prefer Cliff to be. 

how do you get to the two mc cut-in scenes from the new update?

&

Hiii! I'm doing another playthrough (it's only like my 100th time playing through the entire game) after the 1.2 update, and I was wondering how to get the new art? I also really love all the new stuff, thank you for working so hard and creating such a wonderful game :)

You can check our our CG guide on Steam for that! Thank you for the kind words.

Sorry to bother you, but I have a question about the Patreon moment. Will there be initiative settings there too? And if there aren't, will the MC lead the whole thing or will Cove lead at certain points too? Thank you~ 

There will still be flexibly in what you’re comfortable with and whether you want Cove to automatically do things or for choices to always be involved :]. And you don’t need to apologize!

Hello!! I wanted to ask a couple of questions about Our Life:

1. Will we able to buy all the DLC via Steam or will there be some of them only available in Patreon? Just to know if I should create a Patreon user XD

2. Will Our Life: Now and Forever be about the current MC, Cove and the other characters or will it be a game with a New MC, new romantic options and new characters?

1. There will be a Patreon-only NSFW bonus Moment. But all the normal planned DLCs will release on Steam.

2. Our Life: Now & Forever is about new characters- new MC, new family, new LI, etc.

just some small bug I noticed: even if you didn't ask Cove to dance, if he asks you at the Soiree in Step 2 later and you say yes to dancing, the MC acts like they got to dance with Cove again even if it was the first time. 

Thank you for the report on that! We thought it was fixed, but I guess it didn’t work.

I was messing around with the new update and I noticed that all the hands in the firefly CGs have the same skin tone regardless of what you put in, (with the exception of the really dark skin color) is this a glitch or something? 

The skin tones aren’t the same. It’s just because they’re out at night with only fireflies for light that it makes each image look dark and therefore similar. But if you line them up together it’s clear how there are changes in every option.

How long did it take to plan out and write the story for OL? Not including the programming, art stuff, or the DLC chapters, I mean just planning and writing the base game story alone. The base game story seems hefty as is, and then on top of that there's the changes to scenes depending on MC's and Cove's personalities and relationship, I'm curious how long that took 

It took basically the full development time, aha. I’m someone who doesn’t fully outline a project before start and instead continues to come up with stuff as a project progresses. There were new parts to the story being created right up to near the launch. So, starting in 2016 or so to later 2020, with some breaks/hold-ups throughout that time.

Hello! I'm really, really enjoying Our Life: Beginning and Always, it was the kind of sweet, wholesome content I needed during these past months. I had a quick question, will you be making any female characters for the MC to romance? In this game or any others like it? I'm a lesbian and I'd love to have a female love interest with such well written romance as yours! Thank you so much. 

Thank you for the nice comment! Our Life: Beginnings & Always won’t have a female LI since we didn’t want to treat other gender options as second fiddle to the male lead. But we have just started full production on Our Life: Now & Forever, which will have a starring female LI! There’s a silhouette glimpse of her Step 1 self here~

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Thanks everyone for sending the questions :D

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