#actually narrative games can be incredible. if you are not trying to make a movie in a videogame.

[explainslowly]

Playing Disco is really making me think about how Games are such a bad vehicle for straightforward effective storytelling and every time a game tries to force itself into that mold (see. Naughty Dog) it sucks shit and I don't respect it. Games, however, are unparalleled vibes delivery devices and great vehicles for tiny bite sized stories that paint a picture of a broader world, time, etc...

[the-bar-sinister]

There's lots of gay subtext in Ace Attorney. 

But when looking specifically at subtext that might be intentionally put in the narrative by the creators with the intention that the character in question is actually gay, I think the main character with the most evidence behind this is actually Apollo Justice.

Our other main characters, Phoenix Wright and Athena Cykes both have obvious subtextually heteronormative romantic partners. To an adult, straight, culturally normative audience, Phoenix Wright and Maya Fey read normatively as an obvious romantic pairing. This is also the case for Athena Cykes and Simon Blackquill. In Great Ace Attorney the same can be said for Ryuunosuke and Susato. 

I repeat– to an adult, straight culturally normative audience, the romantic subtext between these characters is clear. If you showed these games to an American movie going public, that would be the obvious read by the audience.

Yes, each of these characters, Phoenix, Athena, and Ryuunosuke also have strong queer romantic subtext with another character. (Miles, Juniper, and Kazuma respectively).

However, that's not my point. It's not significant that each of the other three characters has homosexual relationship subtext.

It is significant that Apollo Justice does not have a character with whom he has heteronormative romantic subtext.

The closest thing Apollo Justice has to a "heteronormative romantic subtext" is Trucy Wright– whom we, the audience know is his sister.

And yes, you can make the argument that there is deliberate incestuous subtext between them– a kind of Luke/Leia style relationship with which the audience is teased by the narrative. Dhurke brings it up directly in Spirit of Justice.

However, this is still not a heterenormative subtext, because of its taboo nature. More taboo, culturally at this point, than homosexuality.

On top of the lack of heteronormative romantic subtext, Apollo also is on the receiving end some of the strongest and most overt of the homosexual subtext in the series.

There is of course the famous "meet cute" introduction between Apollo and Klavier– 

“I must say, I'm used to being inspected by the ladies... but this is the first time I've felt this way with another man.”

This is without question overt homosexual subtext.

However, there is another, even more subtextually clearly defined moment in Dual Destinies. Honestly, the subtext is all over Dual Destinies in the way Apollo reacts to Clay Terran's death (basically completely losing it) but there's one particular moment that deliberately draws your attention to the relationship in a queer way.

In one of the last cases of the game, everyone is delicately trying to explain to the judge that Aura Blackquill was in love with Metis Cykes (who was murdered) in a queer way. It's a big “they’re lesbians, harold” moment.

And then the conversation immediately turns to Apollo Justice and how he’s just had someone who was “important to him” murdered, too.

The narrative specifically draws you attention to the relationship that Aura and Metis had, and compares it to the relationship between Apollo and Clay.

You are specifically invited to speculate about what kind of important relationship Clay and Apollo had, and why Apollo has been affected so incredibly deeply.

So yeah. Between Clay, Klavier, and the lack of anything resembling a heteronormative romantic relationship for Apollo in the games, I think he has the strongest narrative evidence that he's actually being written deliberately as gay.

[utilitycaster]

What do you mean (from your latest post) that you think that many actual play failures are failures of ambition?

Usually, when an actual play show doesn't click for me, it's because the GM or players aimed very high or tried to push the boundaries (of the medium or system) and it didn't quite land right. It's a pretty new medium, and while I've been very openly disparaging of how much many writers in the AP space focus overmuch on novelty over consistent quality, I do think these failures are important! I think it's good to play with what the medium can be! I just think that sometimes, it does indeed fail.

Examples off the top of my head:

Too much plot for allotted length: EXU Prime was fun to watch but I think this plot really needed to be a 16-20 episode season, not an 8 episode one, which meant that we never really learned Myr'atta's motivation or the deal with Ted until years later in the real world despite that being the core plot. Similar issues have come up with various D20 seasons; I think running a one- or two- session story isn't too hard to do, or running a longform campaign isn't too hard to do, but 8 or 10 or 20 episodes can be really difficult to plan for properly, and a lot of people overfill.

Trying to bend the system too far: I wrote a long-ass post I cannot find about this for a few D20 seasons as well (notably Neverafter) and I've fallen off of WBN for a few reasons but in part because it really increasingly feels like D&D is the wrong system - the classes of D&D support the worldbuilding, but the pace and style and magic system of D&D increasingly feel like they and the narrative are in conflict.

Trying to fit in An Important Message: the infamous Rusty Quill Gaming Everything Changes [now make a monumental decision we have not once explored in 7 real world years of telling this story, in the last half of the last episode] is a big one here. This is not unique to AP (this is why Battlestar Galactica's ending is widely panned) but I think the nature of actual play makes it more likely because to some extent you as the GM must relinquish a good degree of control.

Not realizing what you need to plan for: ultimately, in my opinion, the failure of Campaign 3. I don't think the problem is that Matt wanted to bring everything together across multiple campaigns; I don't think this is a cheap setup with a pre-determined outcome (though I could be proven wrong); I think the problem is that there needed to be a much more stringent character creation process and on-rails early plot to actually get from point A to point B in a way that felt natural within the story.

Trying to break production value records while neglecting story: With the caveat that I hated nearly every second of the hour of Kollok I watched, I have yet to see a review that talks about anything it does other than how good the production values are (*whisper* they're not even that good). Burrow's End had some really good aesthetic/filming choices and some really not good ones on top of having a story I found weak; the season of Candela Obscura I thought had the strongest story had no split-screen film edits. This could just be that my AP introduction was TAZ Balance followed by simultaneous C1 and early C2, but like...I've heard incredible actual play with no music and no fancy lighting and no sound effects and no official character art, and I've watched some heavily produced stuff that had the plot of a fucking Ed Wood movie and was utterly joyless to boot. Story first; accessibility production values (clean and clear sound, transcripts, making all speakers visible if you're a filmed production) second; anything else should ONLY come after that.

[rollforfelicity]

Why Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Didn't Use D&D Combat Rules (And Why They Were Right Not To)

The D&D movie was really fun, and since at this point most of my friends play D&D (or at the very least other TTRPGs), almost everyone I talk to on a regular basis has also seen it and liked it. The consensus is that even though there's no "meta" that the characters are controlled by players sitting around a table, or jokes about the DM, the movie feels like D&D. The jokes feel like jokes people would make while playing. The constant pivoting from Plan A to Plan B to Plan C feels familiar to anyone who has spent an hour at a table deciding what to do, only to have a roll go sideways and screw things up. Before I get too far, I should say this post contains some mild spoilers for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

What didn't feel like D&D were the fight scenes. In one scene, a Paladin quickly dispatches a group of enemies before any of the rest of the party even acts, showcasing that even though he's kind of a square, he's an incredible fighter. In another scene, the Barbarian grabs and wears a helmet in the middle of a fight, using it creatively to get the upper hand. During a fight against a gargoyle, the Bard blinds an enemy by throwing a blanket over their head, but gets pulled along with them when a loose rope wraps around his leg. These are all pretty big moments in the movie, and Rules as Written, would never happen at a D&D table, because D&D combat doesn't work like that.

Here's what I think is interesting. The vast majority of the rules of D&D revolve around combat. It's not all of the rules, but most class abilities, spells, items, and rules have a combat focus. So why does a movie that functions partially as advertisement for the game spend so little effort to replicate the bulk of the content of the base game?

In my opinion, it's because, Rules As Written (or RAW), combat in D&D is not, generally speaking, narratively satisfying. Let's look at a few reasons why.

D&D is a game where, RAW, things either happen, or they don't. If someone misses an attack, nothing happens. If someone misses a skill check, nothing happens. DMs can work with this, but in the base game, there isn't a lot of guidance for what to do when a player fails at something they're trying to do. This may seem trivial, but compare that to something like Powered By The Apocalypse, which is much more narratively focused. In those games, a full miss means the Game Master changes things up. The enemy gets the upper hand. A new danger surfaces. An NPC is put into peril. Not only does the player fail at what they're trying to do, but something else, bad for the Player Character (PC) but good for the story, happens. On a mixed success, the PC might get what they're after, but at a cost, or with a complication they weren't expecting.

This calls to mind the example of the Bard throwing a tarp over the gargoyle in the final fight of the D&D movie. That's a classic example of a mixed success. He succeeds at temporarily blinding the creature, but in the process, he gets caught up in the gargoyle's rope and is dragged along for a ride. This is a dynamic thing to happen in combat, but wouldn't happen in actual D&D. Instead, a PC would either succeed at what they're doing, and blind the creature, or fail and not blind them. You could argue that the Bard's action was the result of a Natural 1, but that also doesn't fit RAW, because the Bard does succeed as what he's trying to do, and with a Natural 1, he would have failed and been pulled along.

D&D doesn't really reward player creativity. Something like throwing a tarp over a creature wouldn't be likely to happen in a session at all, because in the actual game, it would take a full action to do that, and depending on the Difficulty Challenge (DC) the DM sets, there's a good chance of a wasted turn. Creative actions end up a huge gamble, and when you're playing a game where it could be 20+ minutes before you get to take another turn (more like an hour if you're playing with a Wizard, amirite), you're disincentivized from "wasting" your turn to do something less than optimal. You can describe what you're doing to add to the narrative, whether you succeed or fail, but that brings me to my next point.

I haven't been able to stop thinking about this question from Rise Up Comus since I read it a month ago. In D&D, a player can describe all kinds of flavor to what they're doing, and there's no change to the mechanics of the game. You could read this as saying "Oh, well that means you have the freedom to do what you want!" but if you look at game design through the lens of "what kind of play does this game encourage or discourage" the takeaway I have is that description just...doesn't matter to D&D. In my experience, that can lead to a few different unsatisfactory outcomes.

Both players and DM treat combat as purely rolling, and describing only what is required. A DM announces, "The enemy wizard casts fireball, roll dexterity save, take 25 damage. Turn passes to the Rogue." Sometimes players who describe what they're doing are seen as showboating or taking up too much time. Worst case scenario, the DM penalizes descriptive players.

Some players like describing what they do, others don't. This has no mechanical effect on the game. Players who aren't descriptive might be frustrated that an already slow process is slowed down even more. Descriptive players may become frustrated because there's no mechanical benefit to what they're describing, and spend time fruitlessly arguing with the DM that focusing on a weak point of the enemy should give them advantage. I think most tables fall into this category. It's not a bad game by any means, but not everyone is there for the same reason when it comes to combat.

Rule of Cool Table! Everyone describes whatever they want, the dice rolls don't really matter! Combat is generally pretty easy because fuck the rules, if it's cool for the dragon to die based on how the fighter described the attack, even if it's only the first round of combat, hell yeah let's do it! For players who like being more strategic and enjoy the confines of the rule structure because it makes things challenging, these tables can be frustrating. (If you're familiar with Dungeons & Daddies, this is essentially how they play D&D).

Because there's no guideline in the rules, people come to the table with different expectations. Some people want combat to feel like a strategy game, where following the rules in the most optimal way (or combining rules elements in an unexpected way) is mechanically rewarding (usually measured by damage output). Some people want to describe themselves doing cool stuff! Some people don't care about their characters looking cool, but want the story to be compelling. If everyone isn't on the same page, this can lead to players ending combat feeling unfulfilled, and when combat is the bulk of a rules set, it feels strange to me that there's no guidance for DMs or players as to how to incentivize the kind of combat your table is interested in.

This leads to a situation where combat in D&D is the part of D&D that takes the longest, that the majority of spells and abilities are focused on, but it is, narratively, the least satisfying part of the game, unless the table alters the base rules significantly.

If you're not familiar with other TTRPGs, you might be thinking "Okay, but that's why the DM is allowed to do whatever they want and make up new rules! My DM gives inspiration when we describe something cool, that solves this problem!" My critique isn't necessarily of individual tables. DMs and players come up with all kinds of mechanics that aren't in the rules. My critique is that D&D is a role-playing game that essentially has no incentives, and many disincentives, for role-playing during combat. For example, RAW, characters don't really have time to communicate during their turns, as each round takes about 6 seconds. There's no time for banter or negotiation between PCs and enemies. You can see this disconnect by the way people talk about D&D. How many times have you heard people say "I love D&D but I don't like combat?" How could this rift be rectified? Let's take a look at some other TTRPGs.

In 7th Sea, if you take the time to describe how your character is doing something, you get a bonus to your dice pool. In Thirsty Sword Lesbians, when you get a mixed success on a Fight roll, you and your opponent are given narrative prompts to build tension (like flirt with or provoke your opponent). In Kids on Bikes, you can fail or succeed rolls by different number ranks, which determines how significant the successes or failures are. In Wanderhome, you get a token when you "take a moment to bask in the grandeur of the world, and describe it to the table." In Good Society, each player gets a "monologue token" which they can spend to prompt another player to deliver their Main Character's internal monologue. I just played a bad-action-movie-themed game called Action 12 Cinema, where players can boost a roll if they call out the song that would be playing during this scene of the movie, and get an even FURTHER boost if anyone at the table sings it.

Each of those game mechanics gives you an instant understanding into the mood of the game, and the kind of stories its built for you to tell. Even if you've never heard of any of those games, I bet, based on the title and the move, that you could hazard a guess as to what playing the game is like. Dungeons & Dragons certainly has rules that add to the lore of the game, and prompt you to create characters that act a certain way. But when it comes to combat, players and DMs are left to their own devices. Some may see that as a strength of the game, but I see it as a source for a lot of disappointing play experiences.

And it seems as though, at the very least, the writers of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves thought the combat rules were narratively unsatisfying enough that they eschewed using any of them.

[mmikmmik]

One underrated aspect of Mouthwashing is that it's really good as a video game.

I thought the player feedback was super strong. There's so many little gimmicky nightmare worlds and "minigames" and the game really helps you understand them very quickly and keep up the momentum. There were only a couple times I got stuck for long enough that I felt like it was breaking me out of the narrative, and I was able to resolve them pretty quickly. And one of them was my own fault - I was trying to use an item somewhere the devs had already indicated it was impossible, because I forgot about the little framing that pops up to indicate you can go into "interaction mode". That's a great little UI mechanism for making it super obvious what is and isn't interactive while still being unobtrusive and letting you feel immersed in the ship environment. Oh, and using the birthday cake scene to introduce the sawing mechanic? So when the player saws at Curly's leg, it's an incredibly powerful callback and the player already knows what they're supposed to do, defending the emotional punch from a "wait... which buttons am I supposed to press for this...?" moment? Brilliant.

Mouthwashing also has beautiful interplay between its gameplay elements and its storytelling. I think of Mouthwashing as "movie-like", because I feel like the pacing + tone + themes remind me very much of horror movies, but this story is meant to be a game. Think of the scene where Jimmy is basically telling Curly that he intends to destroy the ship. It starts with the player controlling Curly in first person POV. But right as Jimmy is talking about how Curly doesn't have agency in his own life ("You're standing at the top. Feet in cement. I get it now.") the camera escapes Curly's perspective and moves into a third person perspective, giving us our first look at pre-crash Captain Curly.

That was the last moment Curly had to avert the tragedy. He knew Jimmy had attacked Anya. Anya told Curly that Jimmy must be physically prevented from accessing the means to hurt the rest of the crew. Jimmy said it would be best if they all just died and then walked away saying "I'll take care of it" and Curly stood there watching him and did nothing. In chronological order, the next scene is the first time the player controls Jimmy. The agency and control, the status of "player character", has left Curly. He let himself become a character in Jimmy's story. And by the time he gets control again, it's already too late.

(Not that I think the game is actually presenting "player character" status as something that's true or real. Look how much Anya's internal life and deliberate choices shape the story, before and after the crash, even as Jimmy casts her as an annoying quest-giver NPC.)

I also really like how much playing through the little nightmare vignettes have the player recreate Curly and Jimmy's decisions. Like when Jimmy is forced to stare directly at the post-it note that's telling him to take responsibility (or whatever the exact words are), but he simply backs away from it. It's all about the way he finds mental and emotional loopholes to get away from what he's done, no matter how directly he's forced to confront it. What other medium could so intimately guide you through that metaphor, to express its internal logic so clearly without words? God, I love video games.

[toh-aus-coven]

Philip's Story is an Adoption Story... Here's Why That Matters

A few disclaimers before we dive in...

Binary thinking is discouraged here; adoption and its themes are complicated and nuanced. Multiple truths can exist.

This is one perspective and this analysis comes from being in community with adopted/orphan people, research, and misc experience

"Adoption adjacent" includes adoptees/orphans/foster kids (these three groups often overlap in various ways that will be elaborated on)

Please engage with this post in good faith. I know non-adoptees can experience things listed in this post however, there is a different context that underlies the experience of those adopted/adjacent. And of course, I'm not trying to make generalizations either... It's just that the narrative is more complicated than a lot of people want to admit.

Sound good? Let's proceed. THIS POST IS GOING TO BE A BIT LONG!

At the core of Belos/Philip's story is an 'adoption' story. And it's all because of this particular line:

I know what you're thinking "But isn't being an orphan different from being adopted?" Yes, and within the media in particular, adoptee and orphan stories overlap heavily-- in fact, it's almost a circle (although due to his background and his time-period, he'd probably be taken in by someone given the boys' age of their arrival). It’s about the experience of parental separation which is what connects adoptee and adjacent people. So while Philip is not adopted, he is adoptee adjacent and that still matters. Concerning media and the way adopted/orphaned characters are portrayed, it's often presented in a very binary manner. Most people's knowledge of the subject comes from other people's perception of it rather than adopted/orphaned people themselves. And to a degree that makes sense... These stories are often ABOUT [adoptees/adjacent people ] without INCLUDING them. Adoption themes are incredibly pervasive throughout literature, TV/movies, video games, and other media. It's not inherently wrong to have an adoption-related storyline, plot, or character but most people don't do it in a way that is humanizing and avoids common pitfalls within the storytelling.

There's a quick impulse to call Philip 'evil' and 'irredeemable' without actually understanding his character... and when you view him through an 'adoptee-centered' lens his behavior makes a lot of sense. The fact the show treats this specific fact about the character as a plot device rather than something that could be explored is a tiny bit insulting. They only mention it in the exposition which kind of implies that this detail is meant to explain Philip's deep attachment to his brother. Which yes, it does and TOH leaves us hanging -- or actually they just tell us that this man is evil and call it a day.

Which leads me into one of the biggest pitfalls that the show uses for Philip-- he's framed as just evil. The trope of good/bad adoptee/adjacent character is a pretty common see -- even within the same piece of media. If we're going to use TOH we can look at King's character -- King, a young main protagonist who is the last living son of a god. King is young, cute, 'exceptional', has special abilities, etc (there are issues with King's portrayal as well but this post isn't about him). This is an issue because adoptees/adjacent people are more than a reductive good/bad label. Same with concepts such as 'gratitude' -- being grateful or not grateful when the real answer can be a lot more complex than that. It's a binary question that can be a complicated answer. We're the picture-perfect heroes or the irredeemable villains-- nothing in-between.

Taking this into consideration, when we look at Philip you start to see someone who's not 'evil'; you begin to see a man who is coping with separation trauma and abandonment issues. This is unfortunate to hear but research tells us that adoptees are 4x more at risk to 'self-exit', 2x at risk to have substance abuse issues, and generally more likely to be diagnosed with mental health disorders (obviously every individual is different but when talking about adoption many people tend to ignore these types of statistics in favor of more 'positive' ones). 'Negative' aspects that many adoptees/adjacent people experience or try to talk about are often dismissed or worse, they are gaslighted. When you look at Philip and his characterization you see these behaviors in a different light such as:

His attachment/abandonment issues (Caleb, this one doesn't need any elaboration; EDIT- gonna elaborate anyways lol). To be honest Philip shows a lot of symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder. The hallmark of the disorder is a fear of abandonment — and BPD often stems from childhood trauma. Interestingly enough it’s not uncommon for adoptees (in particular women; there is a misogynistic component to this but i digress) to get a BPD diagnosis. And given that the show portrays Philip in a very stigmatizing way… you can see why this isn’t great…

Difficulty regulating his emotions ('the curse' seems to come out when he's emotionally escalated)

'Substance' use (the palismen; he seems physically reliant on them and they don't benefit him in any way besides sustaining his life. also, he looks like he's huffing something when he consumes one Side note: Some people think that Philip deserved to 'be cursed' (which is a side effect[?] of the consumption) since he “cursed himself”... super not great for adoptees/adjacent people we’re already a misunderstood group of people and it's not uncommon to get insulted or blamed when trying to have a nuanced discussion or share experiences.

His sense of self seems unstable... Most of his identity hinges on his brother, not himself (ex. being a witch hunter, the use of the gravesfield coat of arms for the emperor's sigil, the coat he wears, his name-- Philip Wittebane, etc)

There's a bunch of emotional stuff I would have to guess would be true but they'd more fall under theory or headcanon

It's not that he is 'evil' he is in pain and he is blamed for that. Obviously, he doesn't make productive choices and he does bear responsibility for the harm he caused and he is a creation of his environment. He had to hate to survive. This is where 'this and' can come into play... For many adoptees, we have feelings of not belonging -- even more so for transracial adoptees (those adopted/fostered into homes of a different race than their own). Many transracial adoptees are raised in environments that are racially / ethnically homogeneous (from their own race) so it can be harder to 'fit in' and it can also cause someone to have a complex relationship with their racial/ethnic background when one is essentially assimilated into a community that they stick out of.

edit: In mainstream society being adopted or 'orphans' is deemed to be a shameful thing, used as a comedy device, or through very rosed colored glasses... and there's a problem to highlight here: because adoptee/adjacent are often seen as source material for STORIES we often view their experiences through the lens of A STORY rather than someone's lived experience. It is easier to view a particular thing as a story for entertainment when for someone else it is reality. While Philip is a fictional character many aspects of his behavior are very real and deserve understanding and empathy for real adoptees/adjacent people. We deserve to be more than stories with black-and-white roles and deserve to be seen in color. As full complex people.

Here are some resources if you're interested in learning more about adoptee-centered adoption perspectives:

https://adoptionmosaic.com/resources

https://sidebysideproject.com/11-short-films

http://adopteereading.com/overview/

https://harlows-monkey.com/

https://adopteeconsciousness.com/

this tedtalk is good too: https://youtu.be/jL4lnvQ1wVU?si=HpYASjvvOXnY2faX

Edit: https://youtu.be/Rz3ME8K_zW4?si=CpEQarRbe8VAUqAR (this documentary just came out and you may hear a certain basilisk/gem featured!)

[batcrooks]

THE BATCROOKS AWARDS 2024

After keeping meticulous notes on every Media Property™ I consumed in 2024, here is my roundup of the BESTS!! It should probably be one thing per category but I couldn't decide so it's lots actually. And I broke down video games into so many categories because I play a lot of video games!!!

Best Movie I Watched for the First Time in 2024 (Live Action and Animated Categories)

What I wrote about them: Parasite - sooo good so tense and dark and funny? Isle of Dogs - what a DELIGHT. it was so fun to watch this film, i didn't want it to end. the animation was so good. the logistics behind the making of this movie are simply unbelievable. i can't believe this isn't a more beloved film.

Best TV Show I Watched in 2024 (Broadcast and Internet Categories)

What I wrote about them: Severance - SOO GOOD what a FUN SHOW. it has all the good tenseness of a thriller but it's also so funny in its absurdity. i must know more!! the work is mysterious and important Game Changer (season 6) - this season is very high concept. there have been some very funny ones and a couple eh. Sam Says 3 and the one where they had to find the buzzers were both top 5 episodes

Best Video Game (Multiplayer)

What I wrote about them: V Rising - VAMPIRES!! i loved this game for its tight and unwavering focus on being about vampires. you could build a house but it was always, always a vampire house. you can have a horse but it is a vampire horse. incredible. pretty cool combat and magical spells, some questionable level-up mechanics. mostly fun boss fights almost completely ruined by the final Dracula fight being so so overpowered. really enjoyed this one thanks Abiotic Factor - this has been a very cool survival crafting game, maybe one of the best. it reminds me of a lot of different games. mechanically it feels a bit like Raft, in that it has very unique setting and base building and a narrative thread and handcrafted things to explore. of course it has all the half life vibes but also way more SCP stuff than i would have expected and that's great because it is always fun. as of writing we are doing the reservoir section, which has been a lot more stressful than previous sections, but i think we'll probably get through it alright. with only a few exceptions (how long it took to unlock food recipes for example), the progression of craftables has been good. for the mostpart, resources haven't been very annoying to obtain (other than silver and carbon). the vibes are just so good throughout and so many things have been delightful. since it is early access, i'm not going to knock a star off for the Issues. it is an optimistic five stars. about 52 hours and we have completed all the early access. genuinely sad to stop playing it so i guess it was good!! the last chapter was a bit stressful but it was fun how many new gadgets we got to play with for a little while there. anyway it is now tied with v rising for best multiplayering of 2024

(have a lot to say about video games)

Best Video Game (Cat Plays) (Games I Played With an Audience) (Of Sourdeer)

What I wrote about them: The Roottrees are Dead - so good, better than Hand With Many Fingers. hope more games like this keep existing. the amount of info you got to trawl through was so fun. honestly considering replaying it when the steam remake comes out someday, which seems crazy for a mystery game but there was so much i doubt i'll remember everything. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes - a little heavy on the kind of arbitrary spookiness? I dunno how to explain it but it just often feels like games are spooky Just Because sometimes. The same as feeling like this and other games try to tackle high brow stuff Just Because. and the control scheme is WHACK lol. if it just had a "back out" button it would be fine tho. but this is another game that has made me feel so clever very often. it helps to play with multiple people contributing to the tricksy puzzles. It does seem to be a very meta video game which would be fine but it actually doesn't seem relevant to anything? The instruction booklet, the gameboy game of the maze, the ps1 games, the implication that the video game we are playing right now is also licensed in universe. It's INTERESTING but what does it have to do with the auteur filmmaker and the death of materialism and whatever they go on about all the time. But I'm really liking it so far. A good variety of puzzlers and lots to look into, have only felt stuck a few times. Comically long to-do list though. Could have maybe used more elegant level design? Only deal with one floor at a time maybe? Or at least less. But maybe having so many floating mysteries is part of the vibe actually. in the end i think it is firmly in the second tier of plays game, Very Good with a few flaws. most appreciated for being a rather long puzzle game. more of those please

Best Video Game (Sour Plays) (Games Sourdeer Played With an Audience) (Of me)

What I wrote about them: Hypnospace Outlaw - watched sour play. what a WEIRD THING!!! it was so finely crafted which is funny to say about something so absurd, but they really didn't skimp on anything in this. it really rewards exploring everything, and while i feel like it was maybe a little too loose i think there was just enough guidance with the cases to get you through the story that was happening. very chaotic The Rise of the Golden Idol - while i think overall it is not as good as the first one, i think that is mostly just because the first one was a brand new thing that shocked and awed us. the art style was a bit of a downgrade but still had the expected Vibes and the mysteries were just as satisfying to put together (if not as Cool thematically). i'm very glad to have future installments to look forward to. i can't even rate it a star lower because the gameplay is so good. i love golden idol. I.D.O.L.

Best Video Game (Singleplayer)

What I wrote about them: Dredge - really good!! addictive. 100%'d it Arco - i really liked it!! it was like a combo of West of Loathing and Chroma Squad gameplay-wise. it was really good stories and characters i liked them a lot. the pixels were so cute. i accidentally devoured the whole thing (about 13 hours) so fast but i think theres some replayability there sometime. make a few different choices and see what happens. Animal Well - a DELIGHT!! this game had moments where you felt soooo clever but it did also have some times that were a little hard or fiddly. i loved how it had no (very little) music but so much atmosphere. it was very pretty to look at. the backtracking could be annoying sometimes. but i like that it explained nothing and you could still figure out so much. i've gotten to the credits now as of writing (7.5 hours) but i know there's probably a lot hidden around i will try to find some. i see you smiley faces. i just have to remember how to get back to you. 10 hours later: i have gotten all the achievements which is 100%. to me. sourdeer had to help me get the last ten eggs but i think that overall it was a good difficulty throughout. if you dont try to do the rabbits and all the stuff sour is telling me about that is after even the second credits. so a Nice Game, Brent (Billy Basso)

Best Book I Read for the First Time in 2024

What I wrote about them: Children of Time - considering making this a top ten book. i really liked this one. (editor's note: there are diminishing returns on the sequels. The first one is so fun and innovative, but I don't recommend them past that. The second one is OK) Return of the Thief - yaay a satisfying ending :) it was really bold to introduce an entirely new character to be the POV for the last book in a series but it worked out really well i thought. a good character. everything all tied up in the end :) sad to finish, these were a lot of fun. it is sad that not a single one of these had a female POV. Eddis and Attolia were great but compared to the towering amount of male characters it doesn't seem great. but it is forgiveable. finally someone was gay in this one. so that's nice lol. (editor's note: i read this entire series for the first time this year and have chosen the final as the representative.) Assassin's Quest - Oh ok we are serious now!!! Actually fundamentally a bit less serious because there are dragons now but it made it work. Ended really bittersweet and if I didn't know the characters will return someday I would have been pretty thoroughly bummed out about it. Excellent fun book really elevated the other two. Fantasy books really get you drinking the divine right of kings koolaid. Will start on the next trilogy now, have no idea what to expect from it except that it isn't about any of these characters afaik but same world. It has been a real treat to stumble on to long completed series this year. (editors note: final book to a trilogy)

And that's it!! If you want to see every media I consumed this year and my star ratings and comments about them, here's a link to them! (It's a spreadsheet)

[safeworksrender]

The Tears I Shed for You - A 7 Month-Long Labor of Love

I know I haven't posted any of my recent works on here for a long time, but I think I'm happy with just using this platform as a way to just dump my thoughts.

After 235 renders and ~7 months of chipping away at this thing, I've finally wrapped up work on my digital novel centered around Makoto and Mitsuru's romance path from P3R: "The Tears I Shed for You"

I'm kind of shocked that I was able to get this done without giving up or burning myself out throughout the process, considering that I didn't make a dime out of it. I didn't do this for money, or to get my foot in the door at getting some kind of gig as an artist. More than anything, I just wanted to make something that I could look back on one day and be proud of. And along the way, I was fortunate enough to have a following of people who genuinely enjoyed and looked forward to what I was making.

It's a bit crazy when I look back at how this whole thing came to be, because it initially started as just 3 separate renders (the ones attached to this post) that I had made for fun. But when I looked at them, all I could think about was how I could tie them together and tell some kind of story with it. And so what I ended up coming with was a story that has Mitsuru reminisce on the events of her social link, and how her relationship with Makoto has left an impact on her for the rest of her life.

From start to finish, all I ever wanted this to be was basically a love letter to Persona 3 and what I took away from the game. The most beautiful thing about art, or entertainment as a whole, is that everyone is going to perceive things differently - take something different out of it. And for me, what I took away from this game is reflected throughout the narrative I was trying to tell with these renders that I made. I historically never cared for romance angles in games, but this one with Makoto and Mitsuru really touched me for reasons I had such a hard time putting into words for a while. It wasn't just because "they are cute together", or because of the Romeo/Juliet-style of vibe they exude. It was because of how well Mitsuru's social link and her dynamic with Makoto encapsulates what P3 is all about for me, which are the little moments and things that are worth cherishing in life. It's very ironic in some ways that P3 is the only Atlus game (or video game in general) with romance paths that had this kind of impact on me, considering it has an incredibly low amount of romance events compared to other entries. It goes to show more than anything that romance angles can still work incredibly well if they actually complement the overarching narrative and themes of a game/movie/book.

I'll have a post sometime next week with a link to the PDF for the digital novel/comic, along with links to some HQ renders and other things that people may enjoy. After that though, I'm not sure what I'll be working on. I definitely won't be working on something of this scale again, but I may have some one-off stuff that I'll post whenever I feel inclined to do so. Besides, I still have a handful of cut renders and finished renders that I never ended up posting.

Anyways I'm not sure how I want to end what ended up being a pretty long ramble, but I'll be back on here next week to share the links for "The Tears I Shed for You". Cheers!

[polycraftory]

A Whisper of Solace by Milena McKay

Reviewed by Meghan 💜

⭐⭐⭐ 3.5/5 | 🌶️🌶️🌶️ 3/5

This edition is from the Thawing the Ice Rainbow After Dark book box from @rainbowcrate. As always, you can find more of my reviews @ edgybutfemme on Storygraph.

This book was an insightful exploration of healing from PTSD and trauma as well as a high drama contemporary sapphic romance set in Hollywood. Even though this book fell slightly lower on my rating scale because it wasn't necessarily the type of narrative I look for, I think it is an incredible book that achieves what it sets out to do. The vibes are very what if Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada ran a movie studio instead of a fashion magazine, with the addition that instead of trying to carve her plucky young employee into a version of herself, the two of them instead fell deeply in love and she instantly tries to push her employee away with cruelty to protect herself.

Full Review, Content Warnings, & Spice Level Info Under the Cut

What I Liked

They said they were delivering an ice queen with a slow burn and by god they delivered. Also, despite being an absolute witch and downright cruel at times, I appreciated that Neve Blackthorne did have good standards. She is actually passionate about making good movies, she cares about delivering good representation, and she champions union work and making movies the right way. 

I like that she actually gets to be cruel, but redeemable. Plus, scary competent older woman who will destroy you if you cross her is so many people's exact type.

That being said, my favorite character was Helena Moore, Neve's therapist. I thought the framing every chapter of starting with a therapy session was clever and well used. Helena is compassionate, funny, relatable, and, most importantly, doesn't take any of Neve's shit. Truly I don't know if I would have made through the whole book without these scenes slowly making Neve change and grow.  

This book is an excellent exploration of a person finally being forced to deal with their trauma and PTSD so they stop hurting themselves and everyone around them.

Audrey Avens is great! I love that she gets to go and make her own career after Neve pushes her away. I love that she goes and dates other people and still lives her life. 

What I Struggled With

Okay, so first and foremost this just turned out to not be as much my speed. If the above appeals to you, this book really achieves exactly what it set out to do. That being said, here's what didn't work as well for me in particular:

Listen, this is a midlife crisis novel. I think it's important for these books to exist, and historically this sort of book has been written only about heterosexual cisgendered white men. So, I think this is an important book that should exist, especially because it deals really well with mental health and trauma. That being said, I don't like coming of age novels, and a midlife crisis novel is the same sort of narrative but for adults.

I can tolerate a lot of mistreatment between love interests. I love enemies to lovers. However, this is very one sided cruelty with no extenuating circumstances. It's hard to watch how aggressively Neve drives Audrey away with needless cruelty. It's an important part of their arc, but I struggled with it.

This is a very messy and high drama sort of romance, which can be fun! However, I just wanted any sort of communication between them any amount earlier in the book. They finally get together very late in the game.

Anyway, if these things won't bother you, please go support this sapphic romance! The payoff at the end is absolutely worth it, and I did enjoy this book despite it being outside my normal taste! I think, for me, the best thing about getting book boxes is it helping me stretch outside my comfort zone and try new things.

The Spice Level

🌶️🌶️🌶️/ 5 - The smut in this novel uses explicit language and lots of detail. We have a good balance of plot and romance. There are several sex scenes throughout the book, at least 2 or 3 but likely more. (In this case, more. This book was right on that 3-4 spice border, but the book leans more plot heavy and isn't kinky so I left it at 3)

Audrey and Neve get to be SO HORNY and so messy and so passionate. So many sapphic romances are only allowed to be so chaste and sweet and I love getting to see a high smut passionate sapphic romance.

Content Warnings From Storygraph

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Infidelity, and Abandonment

Content Warnings Directly From the Book

Child emotional abuse and neglect

Domestic violence (mentioned, off page)

Internalized homophobia

Cheating

Please feel free to ask me if you have any questions! I'm always happy to provide more context <3

[willemdafinky]

I have completed Spider-Man 2 twice now and I have very conflicting feelings on the game’s story, mostly towards its Venom/Symbiote storyline. On my first playthrough my problem was how little screen time and characterization Venom had in the story despite all the build up and prioritizing him over anything else and while I still have a problem with that aspect of the story, upon my second playthrough I realized that my real biggest issue with the narrative is Peter’s time in the black suit and being corrupted by the Symbiote. I felt it was rushed and forced but I didn’t have any deeper and meaningful critiques of it…that is until I looked back on other adaptations of the Black Suit storyline and a review of Spider-Man 2 by Youtuber Dorito God which I recommend watching that made it click as to why Peter and the Black Suit doesn’t work.

Insomniac's Peter Parker is the nicest version of the character.

An aspect of Peter Parker that I feel has been downplayed in many adaptations is that he was, at many points, a jerk. He had an incredibly short temper, tends to be cocky for the worst, and outright selfish at points. This does not inherently mean he was unlikable, I actually believe this makes him more interesting and even sympathetic. His negative traits aren’t there just because but are present of numerous factors, most of them because of his double life as Spider-Man. The sheer responsibility that is required of being Spider-Man would naturally cause high level of stress which as we all know can easily lead into losing your cool: not to mention other elements such as J Jonah Jameson’s constant slander of his name which influenced his public perception amongst New York, the grief and guilt of losing loved ones such as Uncle Ben, his struggles of keeping good relationships due to wanting to keep his identity a secret out of fear of his loved ones getting hurt, and how this all started when he was 16 it is completely understandable that Peter can be frankly a jerk.

I don’t think Peter Parker’s defining characteristic is a jerkass who underneath is a good person but I feel that his jerkiness is an important factor of the character that doesn’t get much attention in adaptations outside of Peter B Parker in the Spider-Verse movies. That being said, I would be arguing in bad faith if I said this has been completely left out of Spider-Man adaptations: Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, The Amazing Spider-Man duology, and even the MCU have this aspect of Peter’s personality intact. In the Raimi Trilogy Peter is shown to be a very flawed boyfriend to Mary Jane with Spider-Man 3 being the most prominent example where he just doesn’t understand Mary Jane’s own struggles and subconsciously brushes them off not just because of his own struggles but also from the outright celebration he is getting from New York as Spider-Man. The Amazing Spider-Man duology gave Peter a new motivation for becoming Spider-Man as originally purely being revenge only to later take up the role of hero, not to mention also breaking a dying man’s promise of staying away from Gwen. The MCU had Peter initially refuse to help Norman and the other inter dimensional visitors despite the fact that it was his fault they were brought to the MCU and it’s only because of Aunt May that he does try to help.

Now, I have to ask a question: can you honestly name a scene with Insomniac’s Peter where he has any of these traits? I genuinely can’t think of one. Spider-Man 2 tries with the boss fight against Scream where while under the Symbiote, Mary Jane tells Peter how much he made her feel like she was nothing more than emotional support for his struggles while not doing anything for her and I don’t think that lines up with how Peter was written in the game. Peter is very supportive of Mary Jane throughout the story for her job and does listen to her when she vents about it so this interaction where the story suggests otherwise in the Scream boss fight doesn’t work for me. Peter in these games is just a really nice guy, does this mean he doesn’t have moments where he crosses his limit? No of course not, the climax against Otto disproves but that’s more of an example of the “pissing off the good guy is a bad move” trope than Peter’s more abrasive side. I don’t think this inherently means that Insomniac Peter is a bad character, I very much liked him in the first game and Miles Morales after and one of my other favorite versions of the character is the one from the 90s cartoon who is also a kinder interpretation of Peter Parker. So what is my problem?

I don’t think this overly nice version of Peter Parker works with the Black Suit story. Ever since the 90s cartoon, every version of the Black Suit story has the Symbiote amplifies Peter’s more negatives traits (most notably his temper) and we’ve established that Peter doesn’t have of any these traits so seeing him lash out at other characters and being more aggressive feels extremely out of character and not in the way that I think the writers intended.

Okay so, the amplification of negative emotions doesn’t work but maybe they went through a different approach. Maybe in this version the Symbiote instead brings out the host’s intrusive thoughts and inner frustrations, like they did with Mary Jane. The story suggests this: first in the Spider-Men fight where Peter hints that he has a sense of insecurity in his role as Spider-Man because of how good Miles is in the role, that he might not be needed anymore and how the Symbiote is the only way he could keep and be greater. Second when Miles and Martin Li go into Peter’s subconscious it is outward stated that Peter supposedly may secretly want to kill his foes just so he could end the cycle, which the Symbiote feeds on. This all sounds great, what’s the problem?

Neither of these are even hinted at beforehand. Peter never shows any resentment towards Miles, not helped by how little screen presence Miles has in the story but that’s its own can of worms, and there is nothing to suggest that Peter even entertained the idea of defeating his rogues gallery permanently. So there is nothing in this story that gives any reason as to why Peter acts the way he does while under the Symbiote. Now this might sound weird for me to say since “isn’t that what the Symbiote does” but hear me out:

Harry does not act anywhere similar to Peter when he is using the Symbiote. His personality is the same which gives the idea that perhaps in this continuity the Symbiote might not have the same negative energy it does in most adaptations and is more like in the original comics where its only negative thing is that it takes control over the host while they’re asleep. But I don’t think that was ever the intention, it always felt like that the Symbiote is supposed to be what it usually is in most adaptations. So why was Peter affected by it but Harry wasn't?

There’s also the problem that Peter himself never has the big moment of realizing what the Symbiote is doing to him, he doesn’t have his own self reflection. Compare to other adaptations:

•The 90s cartoon: He almost kills Shocker after the latter had already given up and even after he stops, the Symbiote still tries to kill Shocker.

•Spider-Man 3: Him slapping Mary Jane is the moment where Peter finally sees that he had changed for the worst.

•The Spectacular Spider-Man: Getting called out by Flash Thompson for how he’s been treating his friend is what plants the doubts in Peter’s head that something might be wrong with the Symbiote which only gets confirmed when it tries to convince him that they don’t need anyone.

In Spider-Man 2, we don’t get that. I don’t consider Miles telling Peter that the Symbiote is changing him to be a moment of self realization, it doesn’t work for me. I never got the idea that in this game Peter did something so awful, an action that he wouldn’t act out doing, that would break him free from the hold the Symbiote hivemind has on him and to be better. I don’t get that.

Combine all that and you have what has ended up being one of my least favorite versions of the Black Suit storyline, even more than Spider-Man 3. Note that I hate Spider-Man 3, it’s my least favorite of the Spider-Man movies not counting the Sonyverse movies, but with that I can see how it could work with that version of Peter. Spider-Man 2’s version of the story doesn’t work fundamentally to me because of their Peter unless you change Peter’s characterization, the narrative or how the Symbiote works.

[sweettjrose]

I really really like your writing and style of narrative (I am still reading your detective Mickey one, I am interested!), I have always wanted to write my stories and OC stuff like that , but it never turns out good.

Anyway, my question is if you any inspirations or reference when it comes to writing, and if so, what are them?

Thank you so much!!! 💕💕💕

It warms my heart so much to see so many people like my story and get invested. I always wanted to get into fanfic writing, but could never imagine seeing so many positive reactions. I worked really hard and I can't wait to share more of what I have planned for this series.

As for your question, it is a simple question, but I actually have a complicated answer lol. Because even though I am writing fanfiction, I feel like a lot of my inspiration comes from things outside of just writing such as tv shows, games, comics, movies, etc. There are so many stories that had such an impact on me like Undertale, Deltarune, Mob Psycho 100, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Gravity Falls, Pokémon Black/White, Steven Universe, Gurren Lagann, Kung Fu Panda, Bojack Horseman, The Great Mouse Detective, Beauty and the Beast (Tbh Disney movies in general), and so much more. I've always wanted to write something just as emotionally impactful and compelling as they were to me. I feel like I daydream of cool moments as well as fun story ideas but never really put them on paper. But one day, while hyper-fixated on Mickey Mouse, I couldn't take only thinking anymore and I decided to just start writing them down and that is how I got my start.

What has also helped is following other creators that have been making their own wonderful stories also based on characters in the whole "Mickey and Friends"-verse. I've been following "Everything is Blue", an incredible story that tackles the relationships that Bud Flud had before he became the Liquidator by @trishabeakens . I also love the amazing duckverse comics by @modmad that do such a brilliant job giving Magica De Spell and Gladstone Gander so much depth with beautiful illustrations. Also, my friend @skullsemi makes many terrific comics about her "The Backup Detectives" AU that explores Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Oswald, Clarabelle, and everyone in such a fun role, and even other people started to add their own take to their AU. That isn't even everyone. Just seeing so many people share their own fantastic work and take on these characters or any other characters are really big inspiration when it comes to getting the push to make my own stuff.

However, I can't talk about inspiration and references and not bring up all of the "Mickey and Friends" media that is the root of my story. The animated shorts, "The Three Musketeers", "The Three Caballeros", "The Goofy Movie", Ducktales 2017, "The Prince and the Pauper", "The Christmas Carol", the comics (Gottfredson, Barks, Rosa, Nucci, Topolino, etc.), Darkwing Duck, and just so much more have all been key references when writing my fanfiction series. Some of the inspiration is obvious such as "Mickey Mouse Outwits the Phantom Blot" for the Pilot. But it is more than that. It is also the feel that all of these stories give. What I like about all of these stories is how well they can balance a fun cartoony comedic vibe, but also have strong emotional moments. In "The Goofy Movie" you can have a musical number where people dance on cars in the same movie where two adults have a serious conversation about trust and the best way to parent a child. That is what I am trying to catch in my story. And now that I think about it a lot of the previous stuff I mentioned in the paragraph above also have a pretty similar balance. I think there is something about being able to be goofy but also sincere that speaks to me. The idea of exploring the tough parts of life, but still holding onto hope and having fun along the way. It is genuine. I want to be genuine.

I know you mentioned earlier about how you don't think you're writing is good. I haven't seen it (mostly because I don't know who you are lol), but I think you are being a bit hard on yourself. The fact that you are writing is better than doing nothing and I would say just write what you want to. Write what you enjoy and find fun. Write what gets you to actually write. Because if I could be honest, I am really writing mostly for me. This is something I've been wanting to do forever and I am having so much fun.

[everygame]

Hi-Fi Rush

Developed/Published by: Tango Gameworks / Bethesda Released: 25/01/2023 Completed: 09/12/2023 Completion: Finished it!

I loved this.

I’m not quite sure why, but saying so feels very exposing. Maybe it’s because before playing Hi-Fi Rush I had no idea what it actually was, and the game’s bright anime-adjacent stylings somewhat had me discounting it out of hand, so I assume the extremely cool people who read this would be doing the same.

Maybe it’s also just that Hi-Fi Rush is… pretty straightforward? It’s not particularly trying to move the medium forward (although I think it does some clever stuff) it’s just trying to be very, very good at what it’s doing. And what it’s doing, actually, isn’t so much “anime” as “full on Sega blue skies” while being an incredible competent 3D action platformer/brawler with a likable (dare I say loveable) cast of heroic misfits telling a simple but effectively structured narrative with some very savvy music choices.

The thing is that… succeeding at something that hits that many beats isn’t actually… easy? Something I’m most struck by is actually those characters. By now we’ve all seen the nadir of Marvel-inspired quip-a-thons thanks to the likes of that Forsaken trailer, but even looking at something like, say, Guardians of the Galaxy, where they have something that (at least previously) had worked, it’s remarkable how flat it falls. Here, you have a goofy, act-first-think-later hero, Chai, the cleverer-than-him female leader, Peppermint, the funny robot, CNMN, etc. in a very simple “baddies are doing bad things, let’s get the different things we need to defeat them” story, but it completely pops because there’s been care to keep the story rolling naturally so you flow through it and grow into caring about them. I’m so insanely curmugeonly that I can’t believed to ride that line for me. But they did!

Now you could say, “ah, but the secret weapon here is that the game uses actual songs that you actually like! That always works!” But it doesn’t work if all the pieces don’t fit together. There’s no better example than one of the game’s latter levels that uses The Prodigy’s Invaders Must Die. It plays at a moment where narratively all hell is breaking loose. It feels like you’re in a climax of an action movie, not just because the music is playing, but because the story has taken you there. That the level design is clever enough to cool down, let the music pull back a little, and then kick it back in for a climax? Absolute chef kiss.

(It only really gets better from there, too. Ending strong is rarely something I think video games aspire to, but Hi Fi Rush is sensibly around the 10 hour mark and the last three levels or so rip. Did the appearance of The Joy Formidable on the soundtrack literally make me emotional? Yes. Yes it did.)

Now interestingly, I haven’t actually played any other Tango Gameworks titles so I don’t really know if I should have expected rock-solid play, but either way I was surprised by how well it does. What makes Hi Fi Rush genius, I think, is that it takes a type of game I am incapable of not button-mashing through and adds a rhythm action component that doesn’t expect but rather, uh… politely asks you to hit your combos on rhythm. And it works!

I can criticise it, somewhat, however They quickly add quite a lot of subtleties to the combat and don’t tutoralise them heavily enough–I didn’t understand how to use Chai’s “partner combos” until well over half-way through the game, and I don’t know if I ever got comfortable with parries because standing around waiting for enemies to attack seemed the antithesis of everything else I was doing. There end up being a lot of buttons and you have to internalise the order of your partners and switching between them rapidly in situations where there are like 3 different kinds of enemies at once meaning at times combat is just a total stramash. But even then, there’s always the beat to follow. It’s very clever.

Anyway. I loved this. It’s one of my favourite things I’ve played in years. Your mileage may vary!

Will I ever play it again? When it finished I wanted to play it more. That literally never happens. I sort of hope there’s a sequel, but the story of this is so pleasantly complete that I’m not sure if there should be one.

Final Thought: I may also be a bit of a sucker for this game because you’re always accompanied by a black cat. Inspired by the game director’s!

Support Every Game I’ve Finished on ko-fi! You can pick up a digital copy of exp. 2600, a zine featuring all-exclusive writing at my shop, or join as a supporter at just $1 a month and get articles like this a week early.

[talenlee]

Decemberween 2024 — D&D Campaigns

Fox and I talked about Dropout yesterday, and you obviously watched that technical tour de force. Still, that’s the conversation around Dropout’s whole catalogue of campaigns, which is something that I normally don’t consider as Decemberween material unless you can somehow watch it for free.

And you can watch it for free.

Or rather you can watch some of it for free.

Specifically, you can watch four whole campaigns on Youtube, for free, and those campaigns are really good ones.

FANTASY HIGH: D&D Meets High School [Official Trailer]

Watch this video on YouTube

As I understand it, Dimension 20: Fantasy High which got later epithetted as (Freshman Year) is the place the Dimension 20 landscape of TTRPG campaigns started. It’s also supposedly meant to evoke a very relatable experience of high school, which is to say, American high school, which is to say, American high school as represented in 80s teen media, which is to say, something completely goddamn alien to me. But don’t worry, I know it’s also alien to Brennan, the showrunner because he was very homeschooled.

Wild.

Anyway, this is a campaign that draws on the tropes of 80s high school narratives and uses Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition as its underpinning structure. It then uses the idea of ‘class’ as part of the world setting, the idea that when you have a class structure, such as in a economy and in a social control mechanism, and a tool for game development and also in the context of a school. It also has a strong undercurrent of pointing out the way that characters in such a setting only maintain it through the largesse of people who find it aesthetically interesting because the conventional narrative structure is obviously nonsense otherwise.

This is a campaign that pushed me to try and be a better DM, to make sure I had redundant plans, and to put in work when I wasn’t focusing on the things, which I think has paid off in the campaigns I’ve run.

Dimension 20 is Back in ESCAPE FROM THE BLOODKEEP

Watch this video on YouTube

Then there’s this other, shorter campaign, Escape From The Bloodkeep, which is a great high concept kind of story, where the player characters are the forces of an ersatz Sauron responding to the death of Sauron at the end of the Lord of the Rings (I’m sure there’s an existing narrative explanation for what happened there, please do not bother me with it, I find everything Tolkein fantastically dull).

There’s backstabbing and politicking and also, hilariously, an ending that Brennan was trying to set up that does not happen and players instead find a new route and he makes it work, which is one of those things I like about seeing these campaigns as campaigns. There’s a very broad sense of what the story is going to do and where it’s going to go, but especially for the shorter ones, they’re more suited as a series of exciting setpiece combats wrapped together with an action-movie style narrative.

I'm Questin' Here (Trailer) | The Unsleeping City

Watch this video on YouTube

Third, and probably the most alienating conceptually and therefore the hardest lift, is a D&D campaign set in a modern urban fantasy story city of New York. It is a campaign that is New Yorking over here, and if you know me at all, you know I don’t actually find New York actually a very interesting piece of media context at all. It is a city of global significance worth regard only in the comical way in which it is so incredibly stuck up its own arse.

Anyway, this campaign kicks ass.

The characters in Unsleeping City are delightful, from the first NPC onwards, and yes, okay, Ally Beardsley’s love of taking a joke further than I want is a little tiresome but Pete gets better and that makes it actually nice to contrast with the ways that Pete is deeply irritating at first. Villain? Top notch. Final conflict? Exceptionally well executed, with at least one player actually doing a Meaningful Speech that massively impacted the enemy. Characters are yes, a little similar to the familiar tropes the players have gone with in other games (ie, the one major previous game thus far), but they’re recontextualised and explicitly looking to take their problems in different directions.

It’s a really enjoyable campaign and between these three you can check them out and see what you think of long form TTRPG play experiences.

When I drafted this article earlier in the year I did it with the hope that I would have a variety of well-produced online-media RPG campaigns to share. Once I realised I enjoyed the form, and that Dimension 20 was, as good as it was, was not going to be constantly producing media for me, I decided to investigate other forms of the same media, including Critical Role. Why then, one might imagine, did I not investigate that, and if I have, what did I think of it?

I don’t intend to yuck anyone’s yum, and I say this having only watched a few episodes of Critical Role’s first campaign, which was then turned into an animated TV series, The Legend of Vox Machina, but I think that Critical Role’s earliest episodes and perhaps the entire campaign rooted around those characters, is unpleasant to watch. Some of it is that the technology of the time was really rudimentary; the audio in the first few episodes is dreadful, for example. Some of it is other forms of social technology — can you believe that Critical Role includes twitch chat as part of the videos? Don’t do that and don’t read it, these people are awful. There’s also a player who dropped out of the game early on, and about whom there’s a sort of veiled ‘we don’t talk about them’ (and that’s a legit attitude towards the situation). Even taking all that into account though, the TV series tells me that I don’t want to watch this campaign anyway.

It’s not Matthew Mercer, I know for a fact, from Dropout, that I like him as a player and a storyteller. It’s not the system and it’s not failures or flubs of that ilk. It’s that there are two characters in the Vox Machina campaign (Scanlan and Grog) who I find actively irritating, and both of them are characters the story thinks are very funny and worth centering. Bonus, the characters I like the most (Pyke, Vex and Vax) are by necessity interwoven around those characters. It’s some peas in the porridge, I have no doubt these characters are beloved and charming and so on.

(It’s also funny that I complain about them when I’ve been similarly soured on Fantasy High: Junior Year because of Fig and Kristen, but y’know.)

I look at this way: I know I like Matt Mercer, and I know I like most of the people in that space, so I am absolutely confident that there’s going to be something to like in a story that doesn’t have those characters and those technical problems, which means there’s a wealth of stuff out there for me to enjoy, when I get around to it.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[mdhwrites]

You are so right when you say that TOH always tries to separate itself as being different or better than other fantasy shows or kids' shows while not actually doing anything particularly special. Your blog is what made me realize that this aspect of TOH more than anything else is what frustrates me about it. Because honestly I don't need kids' cartoons to be amazing and groundbreaking. It's great when they are, I love Steven Universe which I think took way more risks than TOH did and was way more unique. But I also had a lot of fun with MLP which in the balance was a pretty generic kids' cartoon. I found it entertaining and comforting and I liked the characters, but it was a pretty simple show. But MLP also never really asked you to think it was anything else. It knew what it was, it was good at what it was, and you could take it or leave it. Meanwhile TOH simultaneously refuses to accept that it's fundamentally a pretty basic kids' fantasy narrative, while also refusing to take any real risks with its storytelling that would push it beyond being a basic kids' fantasy show. So there's a disconnect between what the show wants me to believe and what I'm actually seeing on screen. And that disconnect is the source of my frustration with the show. I do still think it's fun. But it frustrates me. And I like reading your blog because I feel like you've helped me put into words some of the reasons why. 🦎

So this strikes a cord with me that makes me want to ask a question back: When did a good story stop being enough for people? I'm going to go WAY left field for my example here. Like... Maybe ruin my credibility left field for this one but it's the one I always think of with this. Why were we all too good for the Emoji movie? I saw it WAY after it came out because my parents have On Demand and told me they liked it. So I was like "I mean, worse case scenario it's probably laughably bad. May as well try it while I'm living with them." And it's not a bad movie. Like at all. Is it better than TOH? Probably not but I don't know how much worse I'd consider it either in hindsight. It does a LOT with its gimmick, is pretty fun throughout the whole thing and actually has a good theme for the concept of emojis with the idea that... Yeah, one emoji is really hard to express complex feelings with and what succeeds at the end of the day is someone breaking their singular emotion into something grander than that. Their self expression mattered and their want for expression played into the grand problem that was going to get them all killed. Is it groundbreaking? God no. This concept isn't anything new, it's not done in a particularly special way, none of its twists are novel, even when done well, and its humor is nothing to write home about. It's got some good jokes, it's got some bad jokes. Overall though... It's just a solid, basic story told well. This is actually like 90% of the success of Hi-Fi Rush's story. That game has about as basic of a plot as you can get without devolving into "Save the princess" with only two real twists, neither of which are that huge, even if they're fun. However, that story takes its gimmicks and runs like hell with them and does a really good job of telling a story about a group of rebels coming together, growing and beating the bad guy. I would say the only 'brave' thing about is that the first two characters in the band of rebels are kind of assholes but lovable ones and that's hardly a risk when one of Marvel's most beloved series right now is Guardians of the Galaxy. But it works. It uses its tropes well, it's incredibly charming and the cast is incredibly likable. It also knows when to stop being funny for a moment of humanity, unlike Marvel movies, and gut punches you a couple times with the subtle but definitely there growth of the characters. Both of these, in the elements that work for them, because there are parts of the Emoji movie that are not good, have a common trait. It's actually the trait that most makes me think that I, as a writer, couldn't ever make something that truly feels like TOH. Sincerity. A lot of basic stories when told well shine through with their sincerity. It's part of why a remake of something can feel so much more lifeless going through the same plot beats because those small changes made to 'modernize' or have 'meta commentary' etc. like that (think the majority of Disney Live Action remakes) aren't sincere. They're calculated, smug and obnoxious oftentimes and not nearly as heartfelt as the original pieces' choices. Another example but not animated: John Wick. On paper, it's a bog standard revenge story. In practice, that movie is going so hard, committing so full force to EVERY creative decision it has and not blinking at anything that could even be considered silly, while recognizing when it's going for a silly tone, that it is my FAVORITE action movie. Period. And again, above anything else, sincerity to the tropes of John being this mythical figure, the fun of all the fights it can show, etc. like that is what sells that movie. God I wish I liked 2 or 3. What a fucking waste 3 was. In my opinion. So yeah, I agree. I don't know why TOH decided it had to be so smug and egotistical and what not about its tropes when sincerity is enough. ... ..............

Okay, I have to bring up the other side of this coin, partially because I'm writing this while building up to Crises Girlfriends' original release.

Sincerity is great. What the fuck is the marketing pitch for sincerity? I've been pushing the fact that Crises Girlfriends is from someone who actually has these issues, that it tries to handle depression and the like better than most media because it's kind of the marketing point. I'd MUCH rather just tell you "I think I did a great job with the characters, their development and their relationship" and just sell you on it being a good romance but... What makes it special versus any other romance title out there? I'm not actually even going to use TOH as my flip example for this. Yes, a LOT of people use TOH's subversive element to sell it, just like Warrior Nun's community only ever let me know it was gay, but I've got an even older example: Gravity Falls. It took me FOREVER to hear someone say literally anything about the characters in that show. Before then, all I heard about was the mystery. How amazing its little Easter Eggs were. And why not? I've seen a couple episodes. It's a pretty damn good, but not special, modern fantasy show that's taking after stuff like the Spiderwick Chronicles. So if a fan wants to tell me why I should watch it over, say, Randy Cunningham, why not go with the genre blend that is actually pretty different for a kid's cartoon. I feel like that's probably at least half the reason people kept calling TOH horror at one point and I'm happy that stopped.

With all of that said, there's still a difference. Gravity Falls' mystery doesn't actively mock the tropes it itself is using. It is genuinely enjoyable, even if you don't care about the mystery and the mystery is more than just a marketing gimmick. For Crises Girlfriends, I literally have chapters dedicated to teaching some of the lessons I've learned in therapy that have helped me and make sense for the characters in question to get better. You can call these gimmicks but it's more that the concept is being properly used. That's where TOH, and the Disney Live Action remakes frankly, fail. The marketing gimmick IS the substance. They want you to post on Twitter about how bold it is for Disney to be doing X. That it's not like other shows. That it's not like the old Disney movies or fantasy movies in general that you know. Which is frankly hilarious when people try to say TOH was shortened because it doesn't fit in with the Disney brand. Laughing at itself while actually being as corporate and bland as it's trying to claim it's not is an entire branch of Disney. People have been eating up since Frozen though.

This actually led to me commenting on Twitter a while back that if the 90s were the age of irony as I've been told, the 2010s, from Disney to Game of Thrones, etc. like that might be the age of subversion. Where the story be damned, so long as we can claim to be more clever than we actually are, that's what's important. So long as we do something the audience isn't expecting. And it started in earnest with Frozen because... I'm sorry that movie is good, perfectly fine popcorn, but not the god damned masterpiece that it was heralded as when it first came out and I feel like a lot of the narrative praise for it was specifically because it was mocking Disney narrative tropes. It did so well though that it sent ripples out though. Some are doing it smart, some are not. I bet Rise of the TMNT is the way it is because the team being actually good warriors that feel trained by a proper master is what's expected so leaning on the teenage side and them not being the best, but not bad, is subversive theoretically. Subversive in a way that is actually useful for new stories and ideas to be told though. It's a smart way of doing it. Meanwhile, TOH asks the bold question of "What if the pointless romantic subplot in most fantasy stories was gay?" And then puts it in a world where a gay romance will be treated the same way as a straight romance. The point is it's not clever. But it sure is good for making posts on Twitter, isn't it? Frankly, there are a lot of elements to TOH that I think are chosen partially for social media bait and a LOOOOOT of them have to do with Hexide. That is a different blog. And hey... If you want someone who's sincere... Well, here are my normal links because it's still my job. I just wish I could tell you a better pitch than my goal is to just make a good story. Before anything else, that's all I want to do.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[andmaybegayer]

Last Monday of the Week 2023-11-20

Sci Fi Week

Listening: Put on various soundtracks while working on Computer Shit over the weekend. Detective Arriving On The Scene from Disco Elysium:

Reading: Ted Chiang's The Story of Your Life, which I finally read. It really is as good as people say. This is probably a little bit of the deeper insight you get from reading something twice but it genuinely is fantastic. The book spends much more time on the rest of her life after the heptapods, whereas the movie is actually pretty light on that.

There's some interesting changes that were made for the movie. Most obviously just how much detail is given to everything, the movie gives the scenes from her daughter's life much more of a dreamy ethereal quality whereas here it's given almost as much weight as the present. The other thing is of course that the daughter dies at like 25 from a rock climbing accident. I guess they figured child disease death is more obviously tragic. This one is much more subtle but gives the flash-forwards a much more varied tone that I like.

Watching: I finally checked out Hbomberguy, after a friend mentioned him. Watched the Roblox OOF video and also the Deus Ex one. So this is why everyone goes apeshit over this guy, I see. I think I did watch one of his earlier videos.

Playing: Finished In Other Waters. Incredible bit of sci-fi. Does a really good job of making use of a very limited game design that was clearly optimized so that one guy could make 80% of the game.

Great writing, both from a narrative side and a worldbuilding side. Fun xenobiology adventures with you and your human, because you are a mostly-mute AI that runs a research base and submersible exploration suit on behalf of Ellery Vas, research biologist whose job was until this point to verify that planets had no life on them so mining companies could get permission to mine there. Ellery is following the trail of an old research associate and has landed up on the only other planet known that has life, and that somehow is still a secret from Earth.

Manages to create some astounding tension with its very simple UI and excellent sound design. You can see your fuel reserves ticking down as you cross a brine pool at speed and the crackling of the brine corroding your suit urges you on. Or you'll be trying to balance collecting new samples of alien species while also retaining enough material to convert into oxygen while you operate in an anoxic deadzone, and all the while it looks like this:

Also, impeccable score

Making: Working through rustlings, the rust exercises. Very useful as a way to quickly encounter a lot of design patterns, which I needed after I got frustrated with my lack of familiarity while trying to write a rust IRC bot.

Tools and Equipment: Interchangeable bit screwdrivers are good to have, but a robust set of long-shafted screwdrivers will always be necessary because some designer will put a tiny screw way down at the bottom of a deep shaft in some product.

[joshfmpyeartwo]

Narrative structure

Our game is a branching narrative game. To keep things fresh and exciting within the limited developmental time, there will be a lot of choices for dialogue but most will lead back to the same place.

Branching narrative games all pass a portion of the stories progression to the player. Essentially, games where the actions of the player directly influence the story.

The quarry was a game built entirely off of it's story. It's closer to an interactive movie than a video game, using mocap and facial expression capture to put actual actors straight into the game and orchestrate an intriguing were wolf survival narrative. Not only do your actions directly affect the other characters lives, but can also lead to their deaths, only mad worse by the incredible character design and personality development.

Life is strange is one of the earlier and more popular examples of branching narrative, following a girl called max given the ability to rewind time, eventually leading to her saving her childhood friend Chloe. One choice in this game can lead to a complete butterfly effect that changes the gameplay till the end. The thing that this game does really well is it's time reversal mechanic, which works extremely well for a branching narrative game for obvious reasons.

Detroit become human is one of the most popular branching narrative games of all time. It follows the story of 3 different androids and their journey through life. Your decision directly affect the progression of the story and can even lead to the death of any of the characters you play as. The way you interact with other characters can also change the outcome of a situation and the outcome of that characters personality. The focus on playing as androids also feeds into the need for someone else to make the decisions.

Disco Elysium is a top down story game following an amnesiac detective tasked with solving a murder while recovering secrets about his past. Instead of the traditional RPG combat and interaction, this games outcomes are decided through dice roles and dialogue trees. The branching narrative aspect comes from the type of detective you'll be as you make decisions that effect you and you're interactions with others.

Minecraft story mode was a collaboration between the leading branching narrative game developers, Telltale, and the creators of Minecraft. It follows Jesse, trying to win a building competition with their friends and getting hauled into an action packed adventure trying to find the order. The way this game uses branching narrative usually follows the relationships you build with your friends.

The benefits of branching narrative are that they are incredibly immersive. Anyone who enjoys a good story in a video game is going to enjoy a branching narrative game because it puts them into the story.

For people less inclined to play a game for the story alone, branching narrative games can be just boring, sharing more similarities with a movie when they want to play video games to escape reality.