#Yes they sucked but storywise they were awesome

[arkus-rhapsode]

So This is My Spoiler Free Thoughts on Fire Emblem Engage

This is definitely Awakening 2. And I don't just mean because its an anniversary title. But I mean if Awakening was the greatest hits of FE rolled into one game, Engage is the second volume to that. So much of Engage is a love letter to this franchise creating a story that tries to hit on some of the best plot beats in the entire franchise. Yes even if there are storybeats that are predictable they are executed so well.  The amount of love this game has for this series is admirable. Some of the cutscenes and storybeats use the switch to the best they can in a post 3DS franchise though still limited and clipping because... yknow Switch and not a main nintentedo development team. But still expressive for something that has always seemed to be limited on its hardware. It makes me super excited for the next FE on the switch.

There is also some of the best immersive experiences in the game with a real stand out being chapter 11 which might have earned itself iconic status. 

The characters are generally likeable though its about Awakening level in characterization, though I did notice that this cast honest gets along super well together and it makes sense as this continent hasn't been drenched in conflict till now. Awakening, Fates, Echoes, and 3H all sorta start in a pretty cold conflict worlds. 

Now storywise, Alear was good. Its been so long, but we have a protagonist with not only a personality, but an arc. I knew I like Alear the first moment I saw them be genuinely scared of the corrupted and as the story goes (even if you can predict it at points) Alear genuinely grows as a person and they do seem different from what they are. Yes, I get it they're the super special awesome, but yknow what this starts you off with that and builds the plot around so you can focus more on the characters. Honestly, Alear really doesn’t feel like an insert avatar, instead they feel like their own person that you just pick the gender of. And Honestly, I love it.

The Villains were pretty standard FE, but goddamn the FOur Hounds might be one of the best four-man villain team in FE. Zephia in particular.

The acting is pretty great. Adding a lot of heart to every performance. With the one who absolutely crushed it was Megan Taylor Harvey. 

If I had some criticisms, the emblems themselves really are kinda tools and their rules really are played fast and loose with. Also they leave me a bit confused on how they exist. However I think their paralogues are at least some fun fanservice. That said they are basically just tools. Im glad its not really "their story" like Chrom in Awakening is the real protagonist, but I definetly felt like their existent could be replaced with any old legendary weapon.

The music is also kinda a bit off for me. There are some tracks I really dug, but nothing stuck out like Echoes or 3H. Probably my favorite is the Solm music. The Four Hounds track Im not sure if I like or not.

As a mark against the characters, we do have a fates problem where there's a two royal siblings in each country, but only the older siblings get plot armor. That wouldn't be too bad but they also come with two retainers each so there's some cast bloat. I know its to give you more options.

The difficulty curve also gets insane near the end. Thank god resources and the time rewind are limitless because boy some of these maps are unforgivable. The worst in my opinion being chapter 24s.

Also there's only one paired ending and its who you chose to pair with, which sucks. But hey maybe you'll avod getting a weird ending. Speaking of pairing this game's supports generally felt way grindier. If you are just looking for Alear supports, spam gifts on the Sommniel. But for anyone else, get ready to basically solve a pairing puzzle.

Now I came in with managed expectations before the game had come. I was gonna use Awakening as my meter stick as its the only other anniversary game. So I didn't expect this to be some deep political, game of thrones style story. So I found this expirence very nice for what it was.

Fire Emblem Engage is like a big budget popcorn flick of a game. Its got questionable mechanics or story points, but the real substances is giving you this exciting journey that shows off big impactful moments wrapped up in a pretty package. Basically it is an MCU movie mixed with a Fast and the Furious movie. And yknow what, I will take something that wants to be a fun and passionate romp over something trying to be epic and serious and complex that ends up not capable of pulling off that momentum for the entire run and leaving you unsatisfied wondering what could've been done differently . And

honestly... with the romantic fantasy, the over the top animeness, but still able to make a cast you care about and story you do get invested in even with some cheesey but endearing writing... That's classic FE right there. That is some Kaga-level FE. We just added different fashion

Fire Emblem Engage is a fun game and if you are a fan of the franchise, I think you will enjoy it if you want to get on this wild celebratory rollercoaster.

[randomnameless]

I know it’s a general consensus that CF did Edel dirty when the reason why the Empire was in a stalemate during the 5 years gap was because “Sensei is missing :’( “

But can we also talk about Seteth - who has to wait for Judith (or Rodrigue) to give him the “Rhea was caught by Imperial soldiers maybe you should start looking in the Empire to find her” despite everything in the game pointing at the obvious “the empire caught her”?

In SS, when he finds Rhea he’s all :

Seteth: Rhea... I am overjoyed that you are unharmed. I could not stand losing another of our kind.

Well, as overjoyed as static models can be.

Seteth loves his daughter and (loves?) cares about his sister, because he doesn’t want to lose another Nabatean. But the flimsy “i’ve been looking everywhere for 5 years to find her but our church spies couldn’t find her” kind of sucks.

Like, not that complicated but :

Dubious people steal Flayn’s blood knowing she’s part lizard --> Dubious people work with/for the Flame Emperor

Dubious people experiment on humans using crest stones to turn them into monsters --> they work with/for the Flame Emperor

The douchebag who captured Flayn because she has lizard blood and helped Solon’s science project in Remire works for/with the Flame Emperor

Same Douchebag helped zealots to steal Sothis’ bones and/or pillage Rhea’s tomb --> something something Flame Emperor

Flame Emperor is revealed to be Edelgard --> something fishy is happening in the Empire

Edelgard becomes Emperor and declares war on the Church

Edelgard uses Beasts, Emile, and regular Imperial Soldiers in the Battle of Garreg Mach

Rhea turns in her alternate form to fend off invaders and buy time for the church people to escape

Rhea goes missing

Where could she be? Where should we start looking?

She was totally chilling in Dagda?

If only the answer was not “the imperial palace”!

Like, this is the number 1 location anyone would suppose she’d be kept in! Or Enbarr/getting intel from the Empire should be the first priority!

But no, Seteth needs Judith, 5 years later, to know where Rhea is or that “Rhea was dragged off by Imperial soldiers” and maybe it’s time to storm Enbarr?

Wow, dude. So yep, Macuil was the strategist.

If this is not a contrived as fuck reason not to have sent a stealth squad to infiltrate the castle, rescue Rhea before Billy wakes up, I don’t know what it is.

I know Seteth and the remaining Church peeps don’t have the manpower to tackle on Edel and her Army head-on.

But, idk, Leif didn’t have manpower to rescue Nanna and Mareeta in FE5 and yet he still tried. Or how Roy rescued Lilina without the army he has at the end of FE6, before going against Zephiel.

We could had a Billy-less route, or even Gaiden if you still want Billy to be important to the greater plot, where Seteth, Flayn, Catherine, Shamir, Alois, and, idk, Cyril infiltrate the palace, discover a secret lopto temple and after crossing a fow room with craptons of warp tiles find Rhea’s cell, but they can’t force it, they need Sothis’ power to do so so they vow to return with the professor and then the game resumes.

(you could even get a glimpse at the 11 deadlords in the sleeping pods, each one guarding a room, and the Nemesis one is positioned just in front of Rhea’s cell but their sprite is a bit green-ish)

We could even had the Church stealth squad receive help from Manu and her Mittelfrank friends showing that not everyone in the Empire was “make Adrestia Great Again and Down with Religion!” instead of telling us through a NPC. (make Manu have a pass white magic spell, idk, something echoing her “talent and beauty isn’t enough to be a diva” and her alternate Assassin!Manu we see in AM if she wasn’t recruited)

Idk, anything but “well i tried to look for you in Remire, Rhodos and even Zanado but I totally didn’t think the guys who attacked us and know about our secret could have caught you! sry”

“Adrestia also invaded Briggid, you know? I’ve spent 3 years looking for you there”

But of course, if the only source of intel were the local church branches, knowing how Adrestia ejected its own a few centuries earlier wasn’t helping!

[which-star]

So, just finished read Silk (2015). Pretty awesome, let me tell you 👍

But I really didn't understand much about the whole "war with other world" (wtf😕) from the last issue.

One can assume that it's from the events of the Spider-Man comics, but a little resume would be aprecciated...

That's confusing yeah, and caused quite an abrupt ending I wasn't particularly a fan of either :/ (but at least she got her bro!!)

Silk(2015) is set during the Secret Wars event where the world basically ended and reset. Don't worry, they'll all revive and have no memory of the world ending by the next volume. Storywise it was just a matter of bad timing I think since Silk's part of the main continuity and therefore has to keep to the major events, even if it interferes. I do appreciate how we get to see the "lesser known" heroes help out while the big guys fight off the main baddies tho during all this, but it sucks when you don't want to get sucked into the whole universe. In conclusion, the world was ending as the main heroes (yes including Spider-Man how did you know💀) fought another world and people were panicking and Silk was caught in the crossfire. World resets and boom it all works out.

Either way, I'm so glad you enjoyed it!! It is pretty awesome 👌 Hope this very simple explanation made sense ❤ I only learned the basics bc of Silk and didn't pay attention to the full event

[primal-slayer]

Katie gets VERY candid (kudos to tv echo over at previouslytv arrow forum for transcribing majority of the video)

On working on Arrow and the Arrowverse, KC: "It's been pretty amazing, ever since the pilot. our writers, producers, they've been pretty awesome. They, um - for me, specifically, you know, they've written my character very well. Then they have - by the way, spoiler alert - uh, not written my character very well. Season 4. Episode 19? Is it 419? (Pauses) Nobody knows. Okay, good, we'll keep it like that. And then they bring the character back. (Laughs) And they start writing for you again. So it's awesome."

On whether Sara and Earth-2 Laurel will ever meet, KC: "Interesting. I've actually brought this up to our showrunner, Marc Guggenheim, because when I was doing research and back story for Black Siren, I specifically asked, 'Is there a world on which Black Siren will meet Sara and/or Laurel Earth-1? And if so, what does that look like?' And he just said, 'Interesting.' Dot, dot, dot. So, I feel like that's more like, stay tuned, and we'll see how that turns out. (Laughs) So I definitely think there's a world in which they play that out, and we'll see what happens. It'd be pretty crazy."

On how the BC/BS Canary Cry is shot, KC: "In silence, atually. I'm not kidding. When I first started doing the Canary Cry and they had me bring it to screen, I was really stressed out about the fact that I would be screaming a - like, probably quite loud. And also in the middle of the night in downtown Vancouver, shooting outside. People, I don't know, they may not realize we're shooting a TV show and I'm playing the character whose scream could kill someone. Or at least damage their ear drums. So I just literally did it without a sound. So imagine just a 'haah' sound. And that's been sort of the way whoever's come after me has sort of handled the whole situation. Because we would also really love to continue having a voice to be able to work days after. Uh, and if you're screaming at the top of your lungs, chances are - yeah, I would not have been able to speak or shoot other scenes. So - it's kinda in silence. It's fun, though. It's awesome. She's amazing."

On whether she prefers to play BC or BS, KC: "I like my job. (Laughs) I can't answer that... I love playing both characters. They've been really fun. Very challenging, very different, although obviously similar. So it's been tricky, but I'm having a blast and I'm very grateful."

On how she felt when she found out about Laurel's death, KC: "Well, I cried, to be honest with you. I was, you know, obviously sad... It's so funny, we start the season, Season 4, and I'd been roommates with Danielle Panabaker and Caity Lotz - not at the same time, different times - Danielle, then Caity, and now Danielle again - and at the time, I was roommates with Danielle. And it was the beginning of Season 4 and I remember her asking me - and I think I mentioned this yesterday - and she had said, 'ooh, what if you're in the grave?' I remember looking at her and being like, 'I don't even know if anybody's in the grave. This is television. Maybe there's no one in the grave. Who knows?' No. And then yes, cut to February and getting a phone call that Marc and Wendy wanted to have lunch to discuss things. And I'm like, 'oh crap, I'm in the grave.' ... It sucked, but it happens. I understood from a writing perspective, you know, producer's perspective, because it's a platform for all the other main characters, the storyline, driving them in different directions. And I'm really glad they brought me back. I'm having fun."

On what she would change about E1 Laurel's death, if she could change one thing, KC: "Well, it was (makes frustrated noise) too simple! In my opinion, at least. She just got - out of nowhere, just like got stabbed and then what. And I also - she was alive and then all of a sudden had a seizure and wasn't.... Just that it would make a little bit more sense, I think. Or have a little bit more merit to it. Um, however, having said that, I still - I think they've done a good job so far and hopefully they continue to do so."

When asked in what way she relates most to Laurel, KC: "Laurel is very dedicated, and she's a fighter. I think that also comes along with being stubborn. I think those are some qualities that I definitely can relate to."

On what it's like to work alongside Caity Lotz, KC: "She is awesome. She's awesome. We were actually - we're so lucky. You know, I started with the pilot and then learning that they were bringing my sister back was great. But, you know, as an actor, you never really know, you know, where, who you're going to end up having to spend 90% of your time with. But we were really, really fortunate. Our cast - not only are they really good actors, but they are incredibly good people. And Caity Lotz is a huge testament to that. So is Danielle Panabaker. Everyone has been - you know, especially for the females - like I said, Shethority, that's where it all comes from. We support one another and stand up for one another, and I think that's really important. And she's a badass chick... and I'm proud of her, honestly."

(Fan question was not in video) KC: "I wish that I had had a little more of that, um, Million Dollar Baby moment. Of transitioning from, you know, Laurel into - she hits rock bottom - into the superhero... I just remember that I was just very much looking forward to that whole transition, and I put so much effort in it, time and dedication to it, physically. I do wish they would've played that out a little more.  But I'm still very fortunate and very happy with the way they went with everything."

On whether it was difficult to switch to evil E2 Laurel, KC: "I'm going to be very clear, very upfront about this question. Actually, no. It wasn't hard to. I was kinda mad. They killed my character off. So it was like, 'Okay, you want me to come back? And you want me to be mean? [Unintelligible words], you guys? Okay. That's no problem.' ... It was easy for me to channel that, you know, frustration. As I'm sure, we all can relate. You know, it's a job, a job, a job happens and sometimes - whether it be they decide to let go of the character or position or whatever it might be, it kinda sucks to be on the other end. But it's reality and you just have to rise above it... By the way, thank you to everyone who supported me throughout this whole getting killed off, being brought back - cause I actually do, I think it's been - I think you guys have a huge influence... Uh, I certainly owe a lot - most of it to you. The support was pretty unbelievable and you guys have been pretty unbelievable. So thank you. And thank you for continuing to support me."

On whether Black Siren will join Team Arrow, KC: "Ooh, I hope so. I feel like that would sort of - you know, she's a bit of a loose cannon. It would sort of mix things up a bit. But who knows? You gotta keep watching."

On what she thinks is the best part of playing BC, KC: "I think the journey that she's been through... Well, obviously Laurel. But whether it be Caity, myself, Juliana, I think we all have a certain interpretation. For me, it was - she's a fighter. And she rises above. Uh, she shall overcome is sort of what innately comes to me. And that's strength and female empowerment, uh, equality, you know, all these things come to my mind when I - as my interpretation of Black Canary. And I'm sure Caity Lotz and Juliana - they probably have other things that, you know, what it means to them. For each of us, it's probably different. But - a hero, you know."

On whether she'd ever want to travel with the Legends, KC: "Yeah! That sounds awesome... I want to travel the world. In all times."

On whether she read about BC in the comics, KC: "I did start reading 'em when my character, from Season 2 to Season 3, uh, was transitioning, but I didn't read - a lot of people asked me if I read them ahead of time. But it's actually very difficult for me as an individual to even do that when it comes to our episodes and our scripts. I wait until we finish shooting the episode we're currently on. Um, just for me, storywise, and a person, it's better to live in the moment and not take on too much, before I'm ready. So it wasn't until my character actually transitioned that I started doing research on the actual comic books and the actual comic book character in depth."

When asked about her favorite things about E1 Laurel and E2 Laurel, KC: "I like Earth-1 Laurel - well, I think all of it, all in all, I feel like, the fighting aspect. I think she's a fighter. Heart of gold. And I find that to be the similarity between Earth-1 and Earth-2... I think they are both fighters. In different ways. They've had different lives. On different Earths... They're survivors. And they've both been through a lot. And again it's that the same aspect of she shall - we shall overcome."

[vermiliondrug]

Review: Mass Effect Andromeda (spoilers ahoy!)

This review is based on my personal experience with the game, I am open to discuss the game and its content as well as my opinions stated in the review, but please respect this is my opinions and my experience with the game.

This review contains spoilers! Read at your own risk!

I spent over 80 hours playing this game and I spent a lot of time doing side quests for everyone and their mother, didn’t bother doing the traditional “fetch” quests or those that require me to drive around like an idiot to find the objectives. Needless to say, the game is fucking huge and there are so much more depth to it than people think/know.

I thought that it was a good idea to spend so much time on the side quests before doing more of the story quests, that I ended up with 100% viability on ALL the planets and suddenly had a cutscene where Habitat-7 was named after my Ryder and they even mentioned “Meridian” as one of the channels they would hook me up to to tell of my accomplishments, when I hadn’t even heard or known of Meridian until at that point. A bug, I guess? Oh well.

Anyway, the game is really huge and the explorative part of the game is pretty satisfying. You can searach for minerals, craft weapons and armors and shite and you can upgrade the Nomad so it has the awesomeness level of the MAKO from ME1.

And speaking of ME1, the game is very much a better predecessor to ME1 than ME2 and ME3 were, because the game resembles it so much in style, gameplay and in overall feel than the proper sequels. The story itself is also kind of alike, with the exception that there are no reapers, but just… A tonne of kett and other dickbags making everyones life miserable.

 I really enjoyed the companions a lot. Both those you could bring on missions and those that you just had as crewmemebers on the Tempest. They felt much more part of the whole mission than before, they were part of the things you did and they were involved in some of the quests, both minor and major. The loyalty missions were somewhat okay, could have been… well, a lot more personal? But I loved the development the characters had afterwards when they finally trusted and felt comfortable with Ryder. PeeBee was probably the one that surprised me the most as I hadn’t thought that she was that much caring and the scene with her telling the rest of the crew that she saw them as family, warmed my heart so much. Vetra grew on me too, as well as Dreck, however, Cora was probably the one I felt was the most lacking? She was very … stiff and not very interesting, I liked her background story, but I felt like I was missing out on something with her due to the fact that I wasn’t BroRyder who romanced her, or maybe I just missed out on something?

Speaking of Romance, I chose to romance Jaal and I just… I must say that his romance was so sweet and nice. It was very romantic and he was such a nerd. :’) Just perfect for my Ryder and the sex scene was also pretty sweet and perfect. Totally get what people meant when they said that it was like softcore porn, but I guess it depends on who you romanced? Either way, they did a pretty damned good job and I loved it. Definitely going to try and romance someone else in another playthrough someday.

Storywise, the game is … okay. It is pretty much the same as ME1, with some exceptions and more twists and turns, but its nothing ground breaking. The game is probably meant to mostly introduce you to the new setting and characters and I can imagine that it would be way more fleshed out in a coming sequel. Most o the cutscenes looked really good, but the thing that probably have made most people hate the game before they even tried it, is the damned animation. Yes, it sucks, it isn’t really that good, but I honestly felt it was rather okay on my play through. Not sure if it is due to the fact that I used a custom SisRyder and used the default BroRyder, but most of the time it was pretty okay. The only thing I would say that bothered me A LOT were the eyes looking so distant and flat and not really creating a connection with you? Like, when you speak to some random NPC, it looks like they avoid looking at you while you talk to them and it looks a bit wrong too when Ryder is like “OMGOGMOGMO WHAT HAPPENED HERE” and their eyes are all over the damned place. If they just had a bit more life to their eyes, it would make the scenes so much better, to be fair.

With that said, I really don’t understand why people hate THAT much on the animation. I call it BioWare Quality because they aren’t exactly known for making groundbreaking amazing animation. Just look at the old games, why would you even think that they would make something “perfect” in any way? The original ME trilogy wasn’t perfect either, but it didn’t have the same type of open world feeling, except ME1, as ME:A has.

 So, all in all I would say the game is pretty damned good! It has it flaws and problems, yes, but I think we need to remember that we’re comparing ME:A with a trilogy that obviously had much more time to develop itself and it is also the “original” series, rather than the “new” game on the block like ME:A.

The animation is not that good, but is animation the ONLY thing in a game like this? No, there is so much more to it than that. The fact that I spent 80 hours playing this game and doing A LOT of side quests and yet have some left still to do, says how vast this game is and how much it can offer. People hating on the game before playing it or hating it for trivial things is just… stupid IMO.

The game IS good and if you’re on the edge whether you should buy it or not I would say BUY IT FFS. You don’t have to have played the original trilogy to understand what is going on, but you do get a brief explanation of what happened in the trilogy at some point so you got the general idea. However, when you collect all of the memory nodes, you will unlock sound clips that gives insight to your Dad’s work and how everything started with the Andromeda Initiative… It leaves me with SO many questions, but it also gives you a proper idea of the ties between ME:A and the original trilogy and why it all happened in the first place.

Considering how things ended in the game, it is fairly obvious that there will be more story related DLCs AND hopefully a sequel to the game. There are so many things that they have mentioned but not properly answered through the main story nor side quests, so I really want to see if they would take it up and actually come with an answer to everything like… Who are the Benefactors? What is the true purpose of the Andromeda Initiative? What is truly the story behind the Scourge? AAHH!H!!!! I need to know all of this!!