#also ADORE the end boss of tp

[beardedhandstoadshark]

What is the most epic boss battle in a video game?

The end bosses that tie everything together. It’s gotta be more cinematic than the usual gameplay to show "this is the grand finale“ obvs, but can’t the only pretty light shows with no real challenge. (Like; the very last boss of botw. Looks incredibly epic, but the gameplay’s just target shooting, so it doesn’t feel epic. Just flashy.)

Multiple phases in some way, a change of attack patterns, a break in the regular gameplay formula- Can’t be a grindy HP chipping fest though, that just gets irritating. Theres gotta be that vibe of "THIS is the end, this is what you trained for this entire game”.

Alternatively, those bosses that were former allies. Not just in the story, but in gameplay. So not only are you on the other side of how it is to fight a protag with all their advantages, which feel wildly different from regular bosses, but ya also get that sweet emotional reaction.

Also the most epic way to do boss music is by putting the games’ theme in, but like, orchestral and with more sounds. If there’s certain important music sounds in the game, then those also gotta be there. It’s gonna sound epic. Bonus points if there’s also small parts with other leitmotifs. (…Kirby end boss soundtracks my beloved)

[ltleflrt]

Hey Carrie! You talked a little the other day about writers' tendency to start a fic too early in the story, and how you see a lot of first scenes that could have been scrapped to improve the story. My question is if you have some tips to recognize while writing that first scene that you are starting too early in the story?

Hello friend!

That's a really good question, and I'll see if I can give an answer that makes sense. I am not a professional, and I'm not educated or trained in this stuff, it's just something that I recognize from years and years and years of voracious reading. And as with all writing advice, I encourage you to take what I'm going to say with a grain of salt and remember that no writing rule is a hard rule, only a guideline.

Also, my advice is going to be pertaining fanfiction, and specifically to AUs. Obviously a published book has an editor with a razor blade going through a manuscript for you, and the problems that bother me in fanfiction crop up in AUs more than Canonverse.

Oh, and every instance of "you" is general, not specific 😜

So I think the main problem that I see is that people are starting with an Info Dump. An Info Dump is not always a bad thing, sometimes it's completely necessary, but it is NOT where you want to start your story. If it absolutely has to be done, it's better to be somewhere in the middle or near the end. When it's something that your characters need to know.

That's an important bit: Do your characters need to know this?

And related to that: Does your audience need to know this for the story to make sense?

And very important follow up: If the answers to the above questions are yes, does the character/audience need to know this RIGHT NOW?

There's a lot of information about your story that YOU need to know. Heck, my notes files are full of sooooooo much stuff that I know about the characters and plot that never reaches the final product.

So when you're reading your first chapter (I say reading, not writing, because sometimes info dumping for your own benefit is good, and then you fix it before you share the story lol), ask yourself those two questions.

So for example:

In an AU where Dean is a tattoo artist, and it's his POV. The story starts with Dean driving to work, and when he gets there he's going to find out that the empty shop next door has been purchased and is going to be a yoga studio. He meets Castiel out front, up on a ladder trying to hang a hand painted sign, and some teens go running buy and knock into the ladder and Dean has to catch Castiel from falling. (Anyone who wants to adopt this idea is welcome to it btw, I would love to read this lol)

The mistake I often see in a first chapter like this is that as Dean is walking to work, there's a whole Info Dump about why he's a tattoo artist instead of a hunter. He'll be ambling along, thinking about his nice little business, and there's info about how his mom died in a fire, and his dad was a jerk, and Dean didn't go to college because he saved his money for Sammy's college fund, and Dean's only passion was art, and Bobby Singer introduced him to a tattoo shop owner who took Dean under his wing, etc.

Question 1, does your character need to know this?: Why is Dean reflecting on his past? Does Castiel need to know this information in order to build a romance with Dean?

Question 2, does your audience need to know this?: Why does this information matter? If Dean's only reflecting on this because you want to make sure your audience knows where the timeline changed and this became an AU, then you're starting too early in your story. Dean doesn't need to know this, and honestly in a lot of cases the reader doesn't need to know this. This is information that should have been left in your notes file.

Question 3, does the character/audience need to know this NOW?: If this information is pertinent to the plot, like maybe there's some trauma there that Castiel might need to know about to develop their relationship, then you don't want to put it HERE, you want to put it in a conversation with Castiel LATER.

If I was writing this AU, I would just start with Dean sipping his coffee, he's kinda tired because reasons, he looks up to see an unusual commotion, and has to drop his coffee and sprint forward to catch Cas. If he's reflecting on anything in this scene, it's going to be whatever made him tired, or how good/bad the coffee is this morning. Since Cas is a new business owner, they can talk about the origins of Dean's business on their first date, because it'll be a relevant response to Castiel talking about the origins of his yoga studio.

And just in general, if Dean's origin story includes a lot of canon elements, like mom dying in a fire, dad being a deadbeat, Sammy being the adorable overachieving Stanford student.... try to hide that info for as long as you can so that the audience is actually curious about it by the time the info might pop up. It's the wild divergences that are more interesting earlier on.

Okay, and then I want to talk about my giant pet peeve for a starting chapter. It's a specific kind of info dump, that often includes the stuff from above, but then goes a step further.

My nemesis, The Daily Grind.

I haven't asked the authors, so I could be wrong about this, but I feel like most of the time when this type of chapter is included in a story it is because the author wants to show the reader that the character's life is boring and meaningless before the plot's inciting incident. I can absolutely see why that might be considered an important detail about the character, but keep in mind if it's boring and meaningless to the character, it's boring and meaningless to your audience.

You know how I said earlier that writing tips should never be hard and fast rules? Well this is in regards to that Show Don't Tell rule, and it's an example of TOO MUCH showing lol

It is possible to do a daily grind in an interesting way, but only if you include a Shake Up right away. And you have to look at the 3 questions a little bit differently.

So for example:

Castiel POV, and he works in an office. His daily routine is to always get up at the same time every day, he goes for his run, he grooms himself, he has his breakfast, he goes to work and talks to Kelly about how Jack's doing in kindergarten for a few minutes before going into his office. Adler comes in to be a prick, Castiel hates him for it, and then he does his reports, has lunch hiding in a corner of the lunch room so that his co-workers will leave him alone, he does more reporting, leaves an hour after his shift technically ends, goes home to a lonely apartment that maybe includes a pet who is the only being that shows him affection, has an unsatisfying dinner of leftover takeout while watching a mindless reality tv show, then he goes to bed.

Ugh.

BORING.

Which, yeah I get it, the point is that his life is boring. But now the story is too, and I've clicked the back button before I can see how exciting it's capable of getting.

Question 1, does your character need to know this?: No. He knows. Poor thing definitely already knows.

Question 2, does your audience need to know this?: Yes, but...

Question 3, does the character/audience need to know this NOW?: Yes, but new question for ya:

Optional Question 4, why does this need to be separate from your plot's inciting incident? The answer to this 4th question is usually that it doesn't.

Chapter 2 of this type of beginning usually shows the shake up of Castiel's day. My advice is to start with the shakeup, and sprinkle in the details of what you would have put into chapter 1 to show the contrast. It's far more interesting to learn how boring Castiel's day is by starting with the shake up.

So, same scenario:

Castiel's alarm doesn't go off for some reason, OH NO HIS ROUTINE IS SHAKEN UP! You're explaining his routine while also stressing him the fuck out because he has to rush, or skip something that he normally needs to do. Action! Interesting! He gets to work late, and has to miss his conversation with Kelly about Jack because she's telling him that Adler's already in his office being a prick because Castiel isn't there waiting for him like he always is. Oh shit, he's pissing off his asshole boss! Conflict! He's so flustered by the shakeups that he misses something on his report, and he gets a call from that new marketing guy Dean Winchester who asks if they can have a meeting about it when Castiel normally takes his lunch. BAM! MEET CUTE OPPORTUNITY! While Castiel is getting all flustered by how pretty Dean is while they talk about TPS reports, he can reflect on how this is both better and worse than hiding from his co-workers in the corner of the lunch room. The rest of the day after that meeting he's thinking about how weird this day is, he still goes home an hour late, he talks to his pet about his weird day when he gets home, and maybe he still eats leftover takeout, but he's not paying attention to the reality tv show because holy shit he wants to count Dean's freckles.

In this example, you're Telling the audience about Castiel's normal routine instead of Showing them. But since it's during a plot heavy chapter, it works!

Lemme see if I can TL:DR this...

As you're reading, ask yourself who needs to know this information, why do they need to know this information, and why is it important for this information to be included early instead of later?

If the answer to any of those questions boils down to "this is backstory" instead of "this kicks off the plot", then you've started too early.

I hope this helps? I'm always nervous about giving writing advice because so much of the time I have no idea what I'm doing, and I'm just feeling around in the dark. And I definitely do not ever want to hurt an author's feelings, because this hobby is so fucking hard, and we're all fragile. Even authors who welcome con-crit with open arms will have a weak point that they're unaware of that might get poked wrong and cause a crack, ya know?

I hope anyone who gets this far who might see their own works reflected in my examples understands that I have a lot of respect for their ability to put their work out into the world, and I want them to keep doing it. We're here to have fun, okay? Okay. I love y'all 💜

[ocarina-of-memes]

7, 30, 37 for the ask thing? 👀✨ (hope you get better soon, Snicks!❤️)

Awww thank you friend!! 💖

7. Favorite dungeons?

Unfortunately I still haven’t played all the games so it’s only going to be from the few I’ve had a chance to play, but this is what I have so far! 

Number one is easily the Forest Temple from OoT! I adore almost everything about this dungeon from the atmospheric music to the puzzles to the Dark Ganon boss fight. The item incorporation is also super great, what a great place to introduce the bow. Only complaint is about the wallmasters, but that’s just because they give me anxiety every time I hear that “whoooosh”.  

Second place goes to Arbiters Grounds from TP because I love being a beyblade and Stallord is such a fun boss fight. They also did a good job using the wolf and human elements. 

30. Favorite title theme from a Zelda game?

Oooooof this is hard, because I love them all for different reasons. I love how sweet and simple Wind Waker’s is, I love the nostalgic feel of Ocarina of Time and the original theme, and Ballad of the Goddess is such a BOP. But I have to give it to Twilight Princess (yeah I’m pretty biased sue me). I love the way it builds, I love that it starts as a reorchestration of the original LoZ theme and then slowly morphs into its own song while adding in Midna’s theme at the end, and when the wolf howl comes in I get chills.

37. Least favorite enemy?

Unfortunately this list is long, so here’s a quick run through of the worst offenders. 

5.

these bitches. god FUCK these bitches. I don’t even know what they’re called. I don’t care what they’re called. I hate these hocky puck bastards.

4. Jellyfish from Jabu Jabu’s Belly. I’m getting angry just thinking about them. They actually made me ragequit the game and I have a save file permanently saved after this temple so that I never have to play it ever again. 

3. Wallmasters. They’re terrifying and best and a huge nuisance at worst. I’m looking at you, Shadow Temple. 

2. Redeads. Specifically the OoT ones. I don’t think I need to elaborate. 

1. Spiders from TP. I won’t link a photo. These trigger my arachnophobia more than anything else in these games. Who decided to make these spiders HUGE and FREAKISHLY REALISTIC and thought that was a good idea??? Nope no thank you. 

Sorry this got kinda long, I have a lot of Feelings (and free time) 

[neutron-stars-collision]

The Art of Inversion

Neil x Reader

Chapter 11 - What If This Is All The Love You’ll Ever Get?

Masterlist; Chapter 10

Summary: The brief peace you experience does not last long. And this time the consquences cannot be ignored.

Warnings: Swearing; it gets quite angsty with some mentions of loss, excessive drinking and such... (I’m sorry)

Author’s Notes: Right so... this is post-Kiev, before Mumbai film-wise. It gets intense for which I’m sorry (trust me this wasn’t fun to write). I hope you enjoy nonetheless and please let me know what you think! Feedback makes my days so much better <3

It turned out that if you and Neil were forced to cooperate (long-distantly yet still), it could work out pretty well. Kiev was a success, to put it simply. Yes, the opera house got partially blown up, and TP’s initial operation became a ‘massive fuck-up’ (as Neil put it), but the boss himself made it. You have been assured about that by some remote Tenet connections you did not even know they had. Now it was their time to step into the game. So you waited patiently for Neil’s return while keeping yourself occupied with other random small tasks for the organization. You went back to texting him rather frequently as well, having decided that friends are allowed to have little chats like that. Also, because you could not deny yourself that guilty pleasure…

He came back just as it was planned, four days after your awkward goodbye (which still haunted you at night). It was late in the evening, and you were finishing a report needed for the morning when you heard a knock on the door.

“Hey you” Neil smiled when you opened the door.

You eyed him quickly, noticing the wrinkles on his clothes, ruffled hair, and tired eyes. It became pretty obvious he came to see you straight after coming back. And that idea made you feel… strange.

“Hey” you smiled back and left the ajar for him “When did you come back?” you watched him sit down on the bed and stretch his arms elegantly.

You could not hide the small smile that showed on your face at the sight. He met your gaze with a little grin of his own before answering:

“Just arrived back from the airport. Left stuff in my room, and here I am” he opened his arms to emphasise the point, and you laughed.

“I can see that. Aren’t you tired though?” once again, you warily searched his face.

But apart from being shocked at how beautiful he was, you got nothing concrete.

“I’d rather talk to you than sleep” he shrugged as though it was obvious. You blushed and looked down at your lap before closing the documents. The report would have to wait.

“How was the mission?” you turned back to him and watched, mesmerised, as he rolled up the sleeves and leaned back on his forearms.

Having Neil chill on your bed was certainly not an image you expected to see this evening.

“Well, you were there in spirit, so you probably know” he grinned “But if you want details…” he trailed off to gather his thoughts, “It was surprisingly easy to enter despite the ongoing siege with two different groups fighting inside. Then all I had to do was wait and try not to draw attention to myself”

“Where did you wait in the end?”

You have discussed the different options he had a day before the attack.

“A lovely storage room backstage” his eyes sparked “Would’ve been more fun if you were there with me” he smirked.

So nothing’s changed then.

“Did you find TP with no problems?” your swift change of topic did not go unnoticed.

But this time, he obeyed.

“Once shit started going off, I went back into the concert hall, and there he was. Trying to save all those civilians from being blown to pieces” Neil looked pensive for a moment “But then just as I thought that I would not be needed there, I saw movement near him. Someone has shot an inverted round there” he met your gaze “So I collected the bullet, making sure it went through whoever that was threatening TP and left just as quickly” he took off the shoes and went back to relaxing on your bed.

“He noticed you?”

“Probably yeah. But to him, I was just a handy help in a rather messy situation” he smiled “Enough about that. How have you been?” this time it was his turn to search your face.

You wondered what he found there.

“Alright, I guess” you smile lightly “When I wasn’t busy helping you, I was mostly working on some boring reports”

“Sounds fascinating” he grinned “Anything fun happened while I was away?” now he was lying on his side with head propped on the elbow.

For a second, you thought about the fact that your pillow might smell like him over night.

“Apart from Anna nearly slamming the door in my face yesterday… not really” you frowned at the memory.

“What?!” Neil’s eyes widened in shock.

“Yeah, well… think she just didn’t see me following her through the door, but I almost ended up with a concussion”

“That doesn’t sound like her but, then…” it was Neil’s turn to frown.

“After everything, I wouldn’t be surprised” you murmured and met his gaze with a weary smile.

You probably had to get used to the rush of butterflies you felt every time your eyes met. He stared at you with an inquisitive look. You were acutely aware that you were both probably recollecting the events from a few days ago. To stop the flood of images from making you do something stupid, you got up:

“Do you want a tea?” you busily stared at the kettle.

“Yeah sure” you could hear the self-satisfaction in his voice.

While you got busy with preparing two cups of tea, you could feel his eyes on you. Then a text alert broke the silence that fell. You turned to see him type an answer. For an absolutely unknown reason, you wanted to know who was messaging him. And why. But instead, you had to try not to pour boiling water all over your hand. At which you failed.

“Fuck” you hissed on reflex and hoped he has not noticed.

But nothing seemed to go past those deep blue eyes.

“Are you alright?” he sat up and watched you from across the room.

“Yeah, just clumsy as fuck” once the tea was brewing, you could assess the damage.

Apart from a little sore skin, you should live. When you turned to give Neil his mug, you were faced with a very smug grin.

“Don’t tell me you got jealous over a text from TP” he pushed his phone into your hands.

You stared blankly at the recent texts. The last one was his response to The Protagonist. One before that was to you. And nothing more remarkable after that. You felt very stupid. But thankfully, Neil was done with taunting. At least for the moment.

“It’s okay” he took his phone back and then gently cradled your hurt hand “Swear I won’t mention this again”

“If you will, I’ll shoot you” you glared at him, trying to ignore the waves of shame threatening to spill from your system.

“Now that’s quite dramatic, don’t you think?” he looked up at you and grinned.

Then he kissed your knuckles and released his hold on your hand. You were finally free, and you were not going to waste that.

“I’ll… I’ve got to go the bathroom for a sec… sorry” you bolted to the door with newly found energy.

Just before you locked the door, you heard him say:

“I’ve missed you”

Fuck. You pressed your back against the closed door and took a deep breath. The sting of the burn was nearly gone, but the shame burned just as strongly through your body. Now you understood why Jasper called you pathetic. That was probably the best adjective to describe your behaviour. Slowly, you calmed down the racing heart and opted to take off make-up as a relaxing task. It worked, and soon you also decided to change into some nightclothes. It was late, and it was safe to assume that Neil would leave for the night in the not too far future. Finally, you took long fifteen minutes to coach yourself to go back out into the room. It was a rather difficult task as you had enough humiliation for the day. But at the same time, you wanted to spend as much time as you could with him. 

Was addiction to Neil a thing? Because you might have just diagnosed yourself with it, you mused while exiting the bathroom. Outside, you were faced with a surprising yet adorable sight of the man himself curled up on your bed and snoring. His face was relaxed with no frown lines visible, and the abandoned mug of tea steamed on the bedside table. You noticed that he took your blanket and covered himself with it. You could not stop the smile that showed on your face when you took in the image. However, that also left you with a rather difficult decision… He certainly left enough space for you on the bedside facing the wall. But also, that was a bit risky… was it not? You contemplated taking a spare pillow and nodding off on the floor. But as soon as that thought entered your mind, the pathetic side decided to object. Friends are allowed to share a bed right? You sighed, switched off the lights, and carefully stepped over Neil’s form to lie down. You made sure to leave all the space you could before you turned to the wall and let the tiredness take you. As a parting thought, you realised that his presence next to you felt right somehow.

*** Waking up to the sound of your alarm was a harsh experience. Unconsciously, you reached out to turn off the brutal device and sighed with happiness when you succeeded. Only then, your brain began to catch up with reality. And especially with the fact that there was an arm draped over your stomach, with fingers touching the bare skin where your top rode up. The alarm has woken him too as you felt him hug you closer to his chest. You felt a warm breath on the back of your neck.

“I could get used to waking up like this” you shivered at the way his voice reverberated through your chest.

Before you could react, he pressed a kiss to the nape of your neck and followed it with a trail of pecks down your spine, as far as your shirt allowed. You squeezed your eyes shut, trying to level breathing. His fingers softly caressing the strip of skin just above the hemline of your trousers made your brain short-circuit. It was all too much. You had to move, or else you could not be responsible for anything that would happen.

Quickly you turned in the embrace to face him. The closeness made your breath hitch. Neil stared at you with a small smile on his lips. You knew that the innocence was nothing but a façade. You had to distract yourself and him, so you scrambled for anything to say. Glancing down at his shirt collar, you found the words:

“Maybe you should stop falling asleep in suits” you aimed for a neutral tone, but the moment his eyes lit up, you knew it was pointless.

“If you wanted me to undress, all you had to do was ask” he smirked when seeing your mild panic.

Bloody fantastic.

He was still too close. And the way he glanced down at your lips for a split second did not help the situation either.

“Right… I’ve had that alarm set for a reason” you rushed to get up and climb over him.

But naturally, Neil had other ideas. When you leaned over him to push yourself up, he took your hands in his, forcing you to lie partially on top of him. You stared in shock, suddenly overwhelmed by the situation. His blue eyes stared back at you with that unreadable expression you have seen before. You took the time to look at him, his wild bed hair and two-day stubble on the chin.

If you were allowed, you could get used to this…

“Is this one of those moments when I should be the voice of reason?” when you found your voice again, it was weirdly hoarse.

“Maybe…” he grinned and squeezed your hands “How’s your burn?”

Only now you actually remembered about your embarrassing moment from the previous night. At the reminder, you felt your face grow warm. The moment was gone.

“It’s fine” you muttered and moved to get up.

This time he let you go, but you were sure you saw a brief look of disappointment on his face.

“What is your plan for today?” he asked while reaching for yesterday’s tea.

You frowned at that.

“Sure you don’t want a new one?” you gestured towards the mug.

“Nah, don’t want your martyrdom to go wasted” he winked and finished the cold drink.

“You really want to get shot, my dear” you mused while eyeing him sharply.

“My dear?” he sat up and looked at you with one eyebrow arched curiously.

You shrugged, feigning nonchalance. It was so much easier to talk with him like that when you had a little bit of space preserved.

“You don’t have a monopoly on nicknames”

“Of course not” Neil got up and folded the blanket he used “But it’s nice to hear that you consider me ‘yours’ in any way, my dear” he winked and crossed the room “I’ll see you around later” he kissed you on the cheek and was gone before you could process anything.

In the end, you never got to tell him what your plan for the day was.

*** The next three days went in relative peace. You started to build a pleasant routine in the organization, and ever since he was back, you could incorporate time spent with Neil into it. Every morning you would attend a sparring session (with Ives or whoever was handy), then a shooting training to keep yourself in shape. After that, meetings and missions briefings where you would help with the logistical side of the operations. In the evening, you ate dinner with Neil in the dining hall. Undoubtedly that was a highlight of the day for you when you could use the hour and a half window to get to know him better. Apart from that first blunder in your attempts at friendship-like behaviour, it all went rather smoothly. Neil did his best to cooperate. The only times when he was proving to be difficult were the goodbyes during which he made it his goal to make you flustered. The kisses on the cheek became a routine thing. And so did his tendency to gaze into your eyes for extended periods of time. You did not mind either of those things.

The lack of concrete news about the unfolding plan sometimes made you almost forget about it. But you did not dare relax, remembering TPs words about the upcoming events. And so, you waited patiently, preparing in any way you could think of.

The fragile peace got disrupted during one of your evening meals. You were mid-conversation concerning Neil’s past experiences in the Navy when Ives approached your table:

“Evening lovebirds” you grudgingly accepted the nickname he chose for you both.

“What is it?” Neil instantly sensed trouble, judging by the frown that showed on his face.

“TP is calling us to the US. Urgently” Ives looked at you apologetically “Just me and Neil, sorry love”

“That’s okay” you met Neil’s gaze over the table “You two are more crucial to the whole organization than I am” you shrugged.

Neil looked as though he wanted to argue but chose not to. Luckily.

“When do we have to leave?” he asked Ives.

“Ideally in an hour”

“Shit” he took a moment to gather his thoughts “Okay, I’ll meet you in the reception in 45mins”

Ives only nodded and left without a further word. You stared at Neil, who eyed his half-full plate mournfully.

“At least you’ll get some nice food on the plane” you offered upon seeing his internal debate.

“But the company won’t be as good” he looked up and smiled sadly.

“That’s quite harsh on Ives” you joked, trying to ignore the inexplicable sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach.

Neil laughed, but you could tell that he was worried too. Using the only way you knew to assure him, you reached out across the table and squeezed his hand.

“You should pack” you brushed your thumb over his knuckles “I’ll see you when you’re back”.

He entwined his fingers with yours and met your gaze for a moment. You could see that he was hesitant, as though he wanted to say something you would not like. Then he made up his mind because he released his hold over your hand and got up to stand next to you.

“I’ll miss you” he leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of your head.

Before you could answer, he left the hall. You took a deep breath, aware of the strange feeling creeping into your brain. Hopefully, it is nothing but anxiety, you sighed and went back to eating, acutely aware of the loneliness.

*** The peace you got when Neil and Ives left lasted for about twelve hours. A good night text from Neil calmed your nerves slightly as it meant he made it safely to the HQs. You tried to get an early night, but it did not happen. Instead, you spent three hours staring at the ceiling in the dark, trying to convince your stubborn brain that it worried for nothing. After all, urgent missions happened all the time, right? Well, your logic was desperately trying not to fail while faced with an irrational voice that never seemed to shut up. In the end, you resorted to taking a sleeping pill and hoping to catch at least 5 hours long nap.

That plan was cut short by a sharp ringing at 7 am coming from your phone resting on the bedside table. You looked at the display to see Ives as the caller ID. This could not be good. A sudden shock made you sit up and pick up the phone despite being barely able to open your eyes.

“Yes?” you cleared your throat when you heard your raspy voice.

“Y/N…” you have never heard Ives’ use your first name.

Fuck… The world went black for a millisecond. You felt lightheaded. Something was terribly wrong.

“What’s going on?” panic was creeping into your voice.

“Neil… he found TP in his room…” his voice was breaking “He’s gone” you heard him take in a shaky breath “TP is gone”

Your heart skipped a beat. Your vision blurred as you reached out to touch the wall to feel something steady beneath your fingertips. For a short second, you forgot how to breathe. Then as you started to struggle for the oxygen, you took greedy breaths, hoping to calm down. It was not working.

“Are you there?” Ives’ panicked voice broke through the paralysis.

“How did it happen?” you choked out the question, feeling tears well up in your eyes.

“He…” Ives stifled a sob “He took a cyanide pill”

You could not stop the sobs that came then. Only after you could take in a full breath, you spoke again.

“Why?”

“No one knows. He saw Neil and me when we arrived. Then I went to sleep, and Neil woke me up” you could hear the strain in his voice.

“How’s he?” you feared the answer to the question.

Somehow you knew there was a reason why it was not him calling you. But the explanation for that was too terrifying to be admitted aloud.

“Bad” the grave tone made you panic again.

“Fuck” you inhaled sharply.

“You should come via the next plane. He has to be in Mumbai by the twentieth, and I don’t think we can sort him out without you”

You winced at the serious tone.

“Okay, I’ll try to get there as soon as I can” you bolted up from the bed “Please try to look after him” you hated the pleading tone.

“I’ll try though it’s hard to do when he’s locked himself in his room and isn’t letting anyone in”

Shit. The dizziness returned, and you leaned on the wall for support. To say that you were worried would be an understatement. Everyone knew how much Neil cared about TP. The helplessness was frustrating. You wanted to scream and let it out.

“Just do what you can” you sighed “Stay strong, Ives”

“Don’t hang up yet”

“Why, what’s wrong?” his sudden change of tone made you even more concerned.

“Nothing, it’s just that I think you should know about something… about Neil”

“Yes?”

“He should be the one telling you but fuck that” he sounded hesitant.

“Ives” the agitation won over any other emotion “Please”

“Neil lost someone very important to him nearly two years ago during a mission. It was an accident, but Neil blames himself for what happened as he was leading the attack”

“Okay…” you needed a moment to process the information.

“I just wanted you to know in case it mattered”

“Thank you… What was their name?” that was the only question you could think of.

“Alex. He was an agent and joined Tenet at the same time Neil did. They were together”

The only immediate thought was that you wished you knew before. Maybe then you could have been a better friend. However, Ives’ took your silence as something else.

“Is that okay?” he sounded genuinely worried.

“Of course, I don’t care who he was with. Only that he’s hurting right now” you glanced at the watch “I should start packing. I’ll see you soon, I hope” you hung up.

You tried your hardest not to breakdown while throwing random clothing articles into the bag. You tried calling Neil, but he has not picked up. You just sent him a message:

“I’m sorry. I’ll try to get there soon”.

There was not much else you could do. Apart from trying to preserve sanity.

*** The plane journey to Boston was a blurry memory. You spent the 8 hours trying not to cry publicly and ignoring the temptation to get drunk to numb the pain and worry. Once you landed, the anxiety got worse. With shaking hands, you went through the customs and into the arrivals hall. All the while, you tried not to think too much about the last time you visited the airport and about Neil’s steady hand guiding you. He still has not responded to your text, and that made you think about the worst. You calmed down your anxious stomach just enough to get into the car sent by the HQ and relaxed into the leather seat. Just twenty minutes now.

But before you could reach any mental clarity, your phone buzzed. You took it out of the pocket and nearly dropped it onto the car floor upon seeing the text. It was from TP. You gasped and unlocked the device to read it.

“When this reaches you, you most likely know what happened. I’m sorry, but there was no other way. I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t know that you, Neil, and the rest are ready. I trust you, Y/N, and that’s why I have decided to make you responsible for the logistical side of the plan. Once you’re ready, materials are waiting for you in the inbox. Please take care. I know I don’t have to ask you to help Neil but make sure he doesn’t blame himself”

It was clear that he scheduled the messaged to come through after he was gone. And you had a feeling it was only the first one of many. You only had time to wipe the tears from your eyes before the car parked in front of the Tenet building, and you were forced to get out. Once you got through the security booth, you spotted Ives waiting in the reception hall. He had his head bowed, staring at the floor. None of his usual confidence was there. Once you approached, he sensed company and looked up. You were struck by the dark circles underneath his eyes.

“Hey” suddenly you did not know what to say.

“Thank god you’re here” Ives shook off the hesitation and hugged you tightly.

You returned the embrace, feeling tears well up again. You stepped back and sniffed, accepting the offered tissues. Only now you noticed how quiet and empty it was in the building despite the hour.

“How is the situation?” you did not even know how to ask any specific questions.

“Very bad” Ives frowned, and you felt like he was holding back.

“Take me to him, please” you shivered involuntarily.

He did not need more convincing and started leading you through the corridors.

“He hasn’t left the room since midnight when I last saw him” Ives started speaking, “I’m pretty sure he’s drinking” he stopped in front of a regular door in yet another corridor.

“Right… Has he let anyone in?” you strained to hear any potential sounds from within, but there was nothing.

“No” Ives shook his head.

You could tell that he was incredibly tired and worried. You had to be the strong one this time.

“Why do you think I’ll be different?”

You placed one shaky hand on the surface of the door.

“Because it’s you” you could tell he was barely restraining the urge to roll his eyes “You’re probably the only person he cares about”

Despite the gravity of the situation, you felt your face grow warm. You took a deep breath to calm down and raised a fist to rap on the door. At first, there was nothing. The panic kept rising.

“Neil, it’s me” you leaned your head against the door “I’m sorry…” with tears streaming down your cheeks, you tried to find the right words “Please let me in. I just want to see you…” you glanced at Ives who looked almost uncomfortable.

Suddenly you heard faint sounds coming from the room. Rustling, the unmistakable clang of an empty glass bottle hitting the floor and the footsteps stopping just by the door.

“Please go” you mouthed at Ives, who only nodded and rushed down the corridor.

You took a step back and waited, with the heart in your throat. After agonising few seconds, the lock clicked, and the door opened. Nothing prepared you for the sight you saw.

Neil’s hair was sticking out in every direction. His eyes were red-rimmed and paired with dark shadows underneath. He still wore the clothes you saw him in the day before. But probably the worst was how obviously drunk he was, barely able to stay upright by the door. When his unfocused eyes landed on you, he attempted a smile. It ended up looking like a tragic scowl. He opened the door wider for you and went back inside. You took a second to gather your thoughts and followed him, shutting the door behind you.

Once inside, you took the time to scan the room and analyse the situation. Neil sat down on the edge of the bed, which was entirely unmade. The floor was covered in random bits of paper he must have tossed from the table. You counted at least two empty bottles of alcohol lying amidst the mess as well. Taking a deep breath, you faced Neil. He was looking at you, but his eyes lacked their usual spark.

“I’m sorry” he breathed out, and your eyes widened.

“What for?” you were not expecting that.

“They sent you to get me sorted” you did not like the dark look in his eyes “That can’t be an ideal job. Even for you”

“Neil” the stern tone made him focus on your words “I’m not here because they asked me to come. I’m here for you” you took a step closer and knelt to be levelled with him “I was worried” you admitted finally.

“Fuck… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…” his slightly slurred rambling made you even more acutely aware of his state.

“No, don’t apologise” you interrupted him; TP’s text message fresh on your mind “None of this is your fault. And my job here is to make sure you understand that” gently, you reached out to brush the hair away from his eyes.

You did not know whether it was what you said or what you did, but at that moment, he seemed to break. Before you could react, he slid down onto the floor and started crying with heart-wrenching sobs. It took you a second to change position and put your arms around him. He leaned into the embrace.

“He’s gone” he choked out after a few seconds of silence.

“I know” you run a hand along his back in a soothing motion “But you don’t have to tell me more. It’s alright, I’m here” you whispered, feeling him shake.

At that, he just started sobbing more violently. You could only sit there, holding him and letting your own tears fall silently. You will be okay someday. You hoped.

[doorbloggr]

Friday 1/10/21 - Media Recommendations #20

Contents: Deltarune

I'd been meaning to get to this one for ages, so once again, I think to make it easier on myself, and my readers, today I am only recommending the latest videogame creation of Toby Fox. This ended up being quite an extensive article, so I split it into sections:

MY CONTEXT

OVERVIEW/PREMISE

GAMEPLAY

PRESENTATION

CONCLUSION

Deltarune (Chapter 1+2)

Toby Fox

1. MY CONTEXT

So context for my own gaming experience going into Deltarune, I have never actually played Undertale. Back when Undertale was getting big, it was only a PC game I think, and I just don't play games on PC. I probably should but yeah nah. Soon after it got popular however, I watched a comprehensive Lets Play of Undertale by Rubber Ross and Barry Kramer, and their voices for Sans and Papyrus are still to this day how I imagine those characters. Through that Lets Play, I experienced both the Pacifist and Genocide runs, and got intimately well acquainted with the characters and world Toby Fox had created, and how the actions of the player can shape how we save or ruin that world.

As a general context, I have always been a person who likes the idea of turn-based, random encounter fantasy RPGs, but the deepest I really got was Pokémon. I've been trying to change that recently, and after beating Monster Hunter Stories 2 a while back, I wanted to try more of the genre. Turn based battles are a lot more my speed than pure skill, like fighting games I've become sick of, and RPGs seem to be big on story, so when I heard the Deltarune demo had an update, I thought this is finally the time to jump into that world.

Going forward in this review, I'm gonna try and stay broad and unspecific with my descriptions, so as to not spoil. I may discuss some gameplay themes and characters, but I'm avoiding giving specifics away. I really think you need to experience all parts of the game yourself first.

Minor Spoilers for Undertale and Deltarune Ahead

2. OVERVIEW/PREMISE

Deltarune is a project of love. Pure charm and personality ooze from every aspect of the game. Dialogue is clever and snarky, and that charm even leaks into item and location flavour text. The setting and themes are fun, but with a bloodstained silver lining that is best appreciated by mature audiences. I guess I should just explain the premise?

Deltarune puts you in the shoes of a human named Kris. For unexplained reasons you live in a world of monsters and you are the only human. And by monsters, I mean curious looking critters of a variety of shapes and sizes, since, there is really nothing monstrous about them. One day at school, Kris and classmate Susie end up being transported to a whole different world where dark fountains construct monstrous subworlds, and it is up to the chosen ones, the lightners Susie, Kris and darkner (dark world native) Prince Ralsei, to seal the evils of this dark alternate world.

Deltarune is still a work in progress, and as the subtitle of this article suggests, 2 Chapters of a possible 7(?) have been released, and it is unknown at the time of writing if the rest will come out when the game is done, or as more standalone chapters.

3. GAMEPLAY

Deltarune borrows a lot of theming and game loop premise from its parent game Undertale. The tag line of Undertale was: the RPG where noone has to die. This is because the encounter based battle system is built on two courses of action to take. You may FIGHT enemies and reduce their HP to zero, or you may ACT, and talk the enemy into leaving the battle. Deltarune is built on this same system, but with extra layers. Kris is the stand in for the Undertale MC, who has the options to FIGHT, ACT, ITEM, SPARE, or GUARD. Most of those options were in Undertale too, but Guarding is a new addition where you earn Tension Points, or TP, for not engaging the enemy at all.

This TP is used for extra powerful ACT actions, or for special moves of the other party members. This is the main big difference in gameplay loop. Since the player controls a party now rather than just one person, each party member can specialise in different action types. Kris's ACT can incorporate input from other party members; Susie for toughness and Ralsei for softness, in general. Susie is the powerhouse, and if you chose the violent route, she does more damage. Ralsei is the Mage, and can heal allies, as well as use magic to resolve fights peacefully. Those extra abilities use TP.

In most turn based RPGs, there is a back and forth, where the player chooses actions, and sometimes there is a timing aspect to how well those actions perform, and then there's the enemy's turn, where most of the time you just have to wait and let it happen. Undertale and Deltarune have this truly unique system where the soul of the party members, represented by a heart, is directly controlled on the enemy's turn. It's a mini game unique to every enemy type, where you must move the heart around to dodge their attacks, and how good you dodge will decide whether you take a lot of damage, or even none at all. Deltarune adds an extra layer onto this, where if you make the dodge closer, so that the enemy only JUST misses, you earn TP, and open up more options for your next turn. I found this extra detail really endearing, and I made a lot more riskier moves than if there was no incentive to.

I probably mentioned it above, but just to close out this section, the option to either ACT or FIGHT opens up two types of play. Chapter 1, being a sort of intro part, does not differentiate, but the distinction becomes important later. ACTing to SPARE an enemy earns you money, and in Chapter 2, will lead to befriending monsters. FIGHTing will also earn you EXP in Chapter 2, making your options to hurt enemies more powerful. In Undertale, this difference in playstyle actually changed the ending in real time, and from what we know of Deltarune, it is likely going to be the same case.

4. PRESENTATION

Undertale had this unique visual charm to it that may have been a limitation of its Independent Development, but it was probably also a stylistic choice. Deltarune builds on the same type of artstyle, adorable pixel sprite graphics that bring a lot more colour and depth than its predecessor.

Many, but not all characters have little character portraits in their textboxes, and they change expressions to match the situation, and its so cute.

Character and enemy design are so top-notch. A team of designers have been brought on this time, and every one of them have brought gold to the table. Every random battle encounter is dripping with personality, as you learn how best to sweet talk your way out of battle, or how to best destroy them. Most recurring NPCs are lovable, and those who you hate, you love to hate. Dialogue is witty and hilarious, and the writing is fun.

The chiptune style soundtrack is phenomenal. Although I think Undertale's common enemy battle them was more memorable, that may just be that I have become more familiar with it. All character and boss battle themes are so catchy and energetic. Toby Fox is a master of high energy... fun music. It gets stuck in your head, and your brain bounces around at high velocity.

5. CONCLUSION

Ok so this review is already like 3 times longer than a normal Media Recommendation Article, and like 5 times longer than I planned it to be for this one game, so I should probably wrap it up here. Deltarune is a game experience I put off playing for way too long, and now I can't hold my excitement for when the next part comes out. And important to keep in mind, it is essentially a demo, in that it is just a taste of what's to come, but it is a damn meaty demo that will keep you engaged for many hours.

Chapters 1 and 2 are packaged together as a free game on most game platforms at this point, so there's nothing really stopping you from giving it a try. I don't usually rate my recommendations, but since I wrote this more like a review, I might as well...

Deltarune Chapter 1+2: 9/10

Please play it!

[tortilla-of-courage]

Thoughts from this weekend:

-One of my friends and I spent at least 15 minutes wandering, lost, around the Ancient Cistern, maybe even half an hour, before figuring out the gem lock. She had given me the answer at the beginning of this wandering, but we didn't try it until she said screw it and used data to look up a guide. ...... I thought it was a boss key door, because it looks like the boss room locks in Twilight Princess. I felt very dumb when we realized that.

-We were playing Cards Against Humanity one night and one of the cards was, something along the lines of 'waking up half-naked in a Denny's parking lot', and I don't remember the conversation, but my best friend ended up saying "Tell the tortilla to add that to the Fast Food AU". I think poor McSky was the guy at the result of that thought. On a slightly different but related note, I realized that with the whole Demmy's thing, Sky is the most likely Link to have fought a god in the Denny's parking lot. Maybe this was part of the original conversation, I don't remember.

-I got back to the Sealed Grounds with the Master Sword (side note, I made it through the other two Silent Realms and only failed twice! Once each! And I survived after tipping off the ones in Eldin for way longer than I logically should have. Very proud of myself.) and I said, out loud, "Well THAT'S new," upon seeing the track Groose laid down. My best friend had asked what happened, I told them, and, upon wondering what else Groose had built, they said he'd started a country. Rebuilt society. Etc. I pointed out there were only two people in this country. "They're the two political factions! Groose is a capitalist and Impa is a communist." My best friend, in an attempt to remember this, then wrote in their sketchbook 'USSR Impa'. So that happened.

There might have be more, but I forgot those thoughts.

Also, I'm at the part where Groose is going to fling me in Faron Woods in the catapult, so that'll be fun. Gonna meet the dragons that my best friend despises. (They don't like the human faces. I, kinda have to agree. I don't like the human faces either.) Also, I have a few random thoughts for the LU SU AU that are currently very unrefined, so I'll probably do so thinking and work on that and let you know what I come up with eventually.

Also, I adore your new AU. That looks like a lot of fun. I'm excited to see where it goes.

-Attllhak

THAT ANCIENT CISTERN DOOR MY BELOATHED.... the first time i played i got stuck because i didn't under the puzzle. i think i wandered around trying combinations for like two days until i finally got it. they DO look like the TP ones i can't blame you

THE MCSKY THING DKDNNDKDL im crying... cah gives us so many gems like that, I'll definitely keep it in mind - and he WOULD throw hands with Demise in the parking lot of the Demmy's so it all checks out

woo! good job with the silent realms! god Eldin's can be... difficult sometimes dfnrksns AND COMMUNIST IMPA I..... idk what kills me more communist impa or capitalist groose they're both amazing

the dragons faces creep me out sometimes tbh. i know they're based off some region's dragons that have humanlike faces too but still.

And I'd love to hear the LU SU AU thoughts whenever they're ready to share!! love that AU sm... and the companions AU is a lot of fun so far! im not sure which direction to take it in yet - i'm more of a crack stories author but i feel it could have potential for more, but im not sure if I'll be able to flesh it out

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

athenas or the new ign videos... hmmm

im gonna go for the ign videos (moze gameplay and sanctuary-iii, no guns yet, i have a reason for that) because athenas hasn’t gotten its sweet instagram video yet. once that’s released i’ll do a full post on it. by the time i got around to finishing this post, they had released the video. oh boy... gonna do the gun post then the athenas post, i think. alright, off we go.

tl;dr: we read the entire end user agreement DAHL thrusts upon us for using the ECHO device, talk about some stuff like how (spoilers) it seems like Lilith will be getting her powers back at the end of the game, and a voice line Lily says that sounds like “Tyreen took my powers. it’s like Tannis said: [inaudible] Siren” (altho im not 100% sure on the [inaudible] part because 1) it sounds weird and 2) there’s a drum beat and also the devs are talking over her, the Siren part seems fairly accurate because of the way her mouth moves). so you know. im gonna be agonizing over that until i can hear what she says. ive already spent an hour just repeating it over and over. i nearly fell asleep lol

we’re gonna start with the moze gameplay (the first 14 minutes of bl3) because chronologically it’s first in both timeline and release date

i love the license plates on the right there

also it looks like they added in claptrap’s old welcome sign from windshear waste! time to stand in front of it for 30 minutes to see if any messages pop up like bl2

fast travel station as well, definitely going to see if/where i can teleport and going there immediately. i imagine this is more for DLC stuff and grinding tho.

also! i do believe we saw Covenant Pass previously. good to know this is actually where it is!

Marcus saying “And Welcome to Pandora!” in the beginning confirms that, yes, they’re going to be on a bus!! i wonder if there will be a fight scene before that though. it’s interesting Clappy mentions that “those jerks who tried to murder you are the children of the vault!” so i mean... there’s gotta be... right?

im also convinced this intro is going to be a mirror of Borderlands 1. i stg if it starts out with the first few notes of Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked and then swaps songs I’m going to lose my mind

also also, the order is totally going to mimic the bl1 one. Fl4k = Mordecai, Amara = Lilith, Moze = Roland, Zane = Brick. We even have Lilith taking Angel’s spot as the mysterious voice in our heads, and probably Marcus driving, AND being dropped off at a bus stop.

bet the reason they changed it from ‘Moze as the Bot Jock’ to ‘Moze as the Gunner’ is because it fits under ‘Roland as the Soldier’ better. Also, ‘Zane Flynt as Himselfs’ would be a play off ‘Brick as Himself’. Amara as the Siren is obvious, and ‘Mordecai as the Hunter’ vs ‘Fl4k as the Beastmaster’ is pretty similar as well, given Fl4k has all those Hunter skills.

the 4 basic emotes im guessing. im so glad we have the option to boop our friends in the face with emotes.

also moze’s little bunny skin is adorable

the ECHOnet used to be called “Riftspace”, “the Spline”, and... “MercTel: A Cyber-Dahl Joint” lmfao

specifically calls out Pandora. also, “artificial megastructures”??? THAT’S SO COOL

AND FUCKING

SENTIENT MEGASTRUCTURES???? 

gearbox. please. i have never ever wanted anything more in my life. please. it’s probably my birthday. PLEASE GEARBOX

also interesting that the user agreement specifically notes ‘Respawns’. I assume this is a joke because New-U stations have been confirmed not canon

“Core law”. Core law? Core... daddy? ... ????

core as in like a core government somewhere that’s not the border worlds? that’s interesting...

“The Legion”, okay, acknowledging TPS, that’s dope

“Project Blackrakk” ... im interested

“Thresher Company” lmao

im curious if Axton was apart of any of the mentioned ones. i don’t think it’s been stated, but i could be wrong

“Chieftain Oort”. also ‘Recently Legless Gary’, lmfao poor dude.

oh yeah im sure this is fine. also holy shit did they google the synonyms for ‘change’ and just start listing them? lmfao

“implicit subscription to the Digby Vermouth ‘Dig’s Gigs’ secret concert subscription service” 

sorry, what?

if this doesn’t come up again in the future- if we don’t get a spam letter or 3 in our mailbox about this concert subscription thing i'm gonna be so disappointed

Dahl hates you if you’re not a fan of hyper-jazz, “you snob” lmfao

my brain hurts, they’re good at writing these 

damn phones exist? i thought everything was ECHO. aight, that’s good to know. i guess there just aren’t any phone networks around the border worlds

also “shared dreamspaces” sound really cool

hm. that’s no good lmfao. also i love that the buttons are ‘Agree’ and ‘OK’. there is no escape, once you agree, you can’t even leave because you’re agreeing that you’re trapped with these rules even if you cancel.

that’s fucked up, DAHL. can’t believe you treat your user base the same way you treat your employees. i guess i shouldn’t be surprised.

anyway, shoutout to literally the only TOA I’ve ever fully read in my life.

also, clicking through this TOA too fast WILL end claptrap’s voice line early. so be careful if you want to hear what he has to say!!

oh shit lmao I gotta go edit that Fl4k post

ok im back ~time magic of being able to save things in drafts and post them at a later date~

sliding preserves momentum, so you can actually slide (nearly) the entire way down! i love this.

small, but claptrap bends his antennae when trying to be stealthy. i thought that was a pretty cool detail

“and some guns include an alternate shooting mode~! try it out!”

player: `immediately shoots claptrap in the face`

i died lol

a very nice look at this sign.

good to know that the twins really are tempting people to join with promises of food. i mean it makes sense, i imagine most of the cultists are desperate for stability and a reasonable life on pandora.

also, Shiv calls himself “holy influencer of the children of the vault” lol. i love that. gearbox really is going for the internet’s throat, isn’t it?

i do like that hovering over an NPC will give you their name only and not name/healthbar.

a better look at one of the signs referencing the Mother!!! i was waiting for this, the only real look we got at one was in that one scene with Moze and IB

“Behold the Mother strength surrender to the truth” 

yeah that’s not ominous...

i assume the mother and father are intended to be tyreen and troy? but idk how i feel about that implication...

i like the new little gear/spring effect for the magnet lol

new lilith! i know a lot of people don’t like it, but i do. she looks better than the bl2 vers. altho i think it’s weird they swapped both bl1 and bl2′s ‘AI’ effect to those dots and then didn’t bring it to BL3. the dots effect felt cleaner. curious why they’re not applying it to bl3 when they went thru all that effort in 1 and 2.

... back up please.

i like that there is a changing icon for long pressing now

“time to check out our slay of the day!” sounds like Tyreen but tbh i legit thought this was moze’s reaction to opening the chest at first lol 

you can hear someone start screaming in agony while she’s walking up the stairs, so i know it’s not moze, but im so used to the VHs talking when they see a new piece of loot my brain just assumed.

also THE MUSIC IN THE BACKGROUND IS A REMIX OF BANDIT SLAUGHTER!!! IM SO HAPPY ABOUT THIS I WAS FREAKING OUT THE FIRST TIME I HEARD IT

also, claptrap when dropping health yells “this could save your life! then, you’ll owe me a life debt!” bullshit im pretty sure you already decided we owed you a life debt the moment we stepped off that bus

“i see it... the great vault” - a line from a cultist you kill

i know i mentioned in this post that the Great Vault may be already opened, but it could also just be a Vault they’re planning on opening and using the propaganda to convince the cultists to help them find it. 

“if you help us get this vault open, you’ll be handsomely rewarded! you’ll get superpowers! you’ll get regular meals! you’ll get money and guns and dates!” you know, the usual stuff. 

either way, elevating the Vault to a higher state (god/heaven/whatever) makes sense if you’re running a cult.

btw there is a hidden chest in the scaffolding to the left of the door, if you’re interested in grabbing some better guns before shiv. personally, i’ll be using the toy guns.

also the TVs are actually playing propaganda now!!

this one is asking questions that i cant understand due to the sound effects of the chest and claptrap talking, but it says something about “... the dust? ... join the Children of the Vault!”

“hey shiiiiiv all your dumb friends are dead!!”

shiv be like

“all my friends are dead”

some cool level-up art! I notice these are the same pictures as used on the japanese site. i wonder if they change depending on which VH you’ve picked (If you’re playing Amara/Fl4k, do you get pics of Amara and Fl4k? the player is playing moze, afterall).

also also “it’s a KIA on the knife wielding maniac. suuuper dead.” 

it’s cool that the VHs have specific lines for the deaths of bosses. i hope that continues and it’s not just a ‘15 min of intro gameplay’ thing. you know, where everything is super detailed in the beginning and then slowly gets less and less as the game progresses? anyway, moze’s little chuckle is fuckin adorable lol

ah. the door closes now so you can’t even explore Shiv’s room before Lilith shows up. gearbox plS you know me too well, i was looking for a g l i m p s e

claptrap’s voice line for getting released is SUPER off time, he hits the ground before going “you did it! i’m sa-ahhhhhhhh!” it’s weird, wondering if that’s just a glitch.

also also we get a nice listen to the revive ally sound. i could’ve sworn it wasn’t in the first look at this mission we got, because i heard it for the first time during the coop Zane/Amara gameplay on Promethea. i might be wrong, tho.

im very curious what these symbols are claptrap is beaming up

i mean you know what im gonna say

they look eridian

and they do

so wtf clappy why u beaming up eridian letters to Lilith

i assume maybe Tannis gave clappy some weird upgrade or something so he could communicate with the crimson raiders without the CoV listening in? it could be that Tannis or someone is decoding this message since Tannis does know how to translate Eridian (as shown in her bl1 ECHOs)

... or at the very least she gave Lilith a translator

the darkening makes it so that you can see the crackening. also this COULD just be a beam that lilith can see from wherever she is, but i want to believe there’s more eridian stuff. bc eridian stuff is fun.

this is so fu cking crisp im dying i love it

lilith’s tattoos spreading down her fingers

same symbol as her chest tattoo. maybe the symbol denotes new powers? like how lily has one on her chest for phasewalking, and a new one on her hand for teleportation

i love how her wings look like actual fire. i fucking love this

lilith is looking so fucking good in the new engine

im glad they got rid of her super red eyes, tbh it looked a bit weird

i think they are really pushing her fire affinity, im sure we’ll see Maya has an elemental affinity as well (im calling corrosive) and im sure Tyreen will too (slag). Amara looks to be Shock because that’s her ‘default’, but who knows until (if) bl4 comes out. but corrosive wings on maya would look SOOO fucking cool. please. please please please.

god she looks so good compared to bl2. i love how the tattoos softly glow in the dark, too. i gotta play this mission late in the day...

“you’re... the voice in my head, right?” i love this so much, i really hope my shitpost comes true.

lilith gives you a grenade mod for completing her mission! im really glad they are PUSHING through the tutorial/intro so you can get right into the game. bl2′s ‘intro’ of all these tutorials was brutal. especially waiting to unlock your action skill.

in 3 you get your action skill automatically at level 2!!! which is insane, i love it! they’re jumping right into it, it’s great. and they seem to be pushing for you to get all the stuff you need right away. 

it’s curious to note that in bl3 we get our class mods at the end of the Promethea demo (after Gigamind), since in bl2 you get your first (usually?) after the hunting the firehawk mission and both seem to take place immediately after we get to the ‘base of operations’ of the game (Sanctuary vs Sanctuary-III).

yep that quest is 100% in line with the quest marker. 

i imagine From the Ground Up may be discovering where the Vault Map/Key actually is? maybe bringing people to the Recruitment Center (notably Tannis)

for this scene. i hope this takes place after the HBC, because i seriously... can’t imagine the twins showing up, taking the Vault Map, bringing it to the HBC, and then NOT taking Lilith’s powers/trying to kill Lily and accidentally taking her powers. it just doesn’t make sense, Vault Hunters be damned, we are level 2 they could melt us easy peasy. 

If anything, it feels like we COULD find the Vault Map in the Recruitment Center, Tannis tries to activate it/fix it, we find out it’s mega broke, and then the Sun Smashers show up and take it. but i seriously can’t imagine Lilith nor the new VHs allowing that to happen while they’re still there. maybe if Tannis sends us to do something while Lilith is gathering other CR members? then it could make sense if they attack while Tannis is alone with the Key...

OR

we end up finding something in Shiv’s room that shows/helps us realize the Sun Smashers bringing the Vault Map to the Calypsos. tho this would mean the quest From the Ground Up is SUPER short and I imagine it’s not. Maybe we raid a camp of theirs like the one in front of Sanc-III with the bridge/ramp? We need to be about level 6 before we go and we start From the Ground Up at 2 so there’s obviously something DEEP we’re missing here. maybe this is a mission where we go gather the other Crimson Raiders? HMMMMMMMM...

.... oh.

nevermind lmfao

she opens her ECHO immediately after this LOL i feel kinda dumb now

raiding their camp it is! the Droughts sounds like a fun location. Very much like the dust. you guys think there’s a Shade situation going on there? i’m excited to see it. Still think we’re going to use Shiv’s room to get that lead, though. i just really wanna watch tv lmfao. i hope this means the bandits run from the camp to the HBC, or we find info that the bandit warchief sent a party to the HBC with the Vault Map. either way, i just don’t want the twins showing up until after the HBC or i will have so many questions. “why didn’t you kill lilith?” being the first. “the god queen wants her head!” ur goddamn right she does, so why doesn’t she (try to) kill lilith???

85% already?! hot damn

also

that’s one badass description there, Moze

also also

while having gun slots locked is pretty normal, im surprised they’re locking class mods and relics, too! i wonder when we’ll be able to equip relics. maybe when we first go to eden-6 or smth. or maybe after we meet up with Rhys. shit maybe he’s just handing us an artifact (im gonna interchange these a lot, sorry!) in that Promethea video lmfao

“ready to chuck some boom and frag some maniacs” lol moze i love you

if you’re playing Zane... `equips grenade mod for checkmark` `immediately equips second action skill and never actually uses grenade mod`

“it’s the firehawk! the god queen wants her head!” 

like i alluded to before, i would not be surprised if Tyreen doesn’t know she can absorb Siren powers... when she goes to succ lilith in front of Sanctuary-III, it’s totally possible she actually was trying to kill her. That could explain why she looks so intrigued at her hand like “oh shit okay lets see what this can do”

might be why she was okay with sending her cultists after her instead of showing up herself.

“alright, we got a foothold. maybe things are turning our way. come on killer, you’re with me” we are going to explore the SHIT out of shiv’s room.

alright alright alright

let’s move on to the Sanctuary-III stuff

yessss

i love the quest objective thing, it looks like we will be able to swap through our quests with the push of a button! also im curious why exactly we’re going to promethea right away. i wonder if the twins say something about moving there after getting the vault map/lilith’s powers, or if we hear from rhys. im expecting something about the vault map, since our vh will admit they don’t know rhys at all when talking to lorelei. but for some reason we need to be within the city limits? since lily says ellie got us within the city limits. 

hmmmmmm. okay, okay, maybe the map was trying to lead us to promethea for vault reasons during that short amount of time that we had it and it was working. maybe promethea is what we see when tannis is activating the key during that one cutscene? ohhh shit how dope would it be if we got that fucking easter egg message? omg “Children of the Vault. Come to Promethea. We are not on Pandora anymore. Tannis is not what she seems. Do not open the Vaults.” and everyone is like ‘uh did that thing just mention Tannis by name??’ and now it’s REALLY important to get the map back just so we can figure out wtf it’s trying to tell us. 

i will question how ‘Tannis is not what she seems’ would affect character relationships, especially if it’s said so early in the game. so perhaps we only hear the first part of the message. maybe it’s corrupted because it was recently broken. iunno. just playing around with ideas. the canon of this game is like flarp putty until sept. 13th

anyway moving on because this is literally the first f r a m e of the video

i like that you can see pandora’s eridian scar. if the destroyer is speaking through eridium to people, it’s gonna bust outta the side of this planet like you wouldn’t fucking believe lmao. eridium is a window to the soul and if you stare long enough into its glossy, shining sides, the destroyer stares back

that or it’s just like a beacon, slowly spreading its influence across the universe. but i like the idea that the destroyer can waltz out of a big enough hunk of eridium. so it will bust out of pandora’s eridium scar. F in chat for pandora but also lmfao the amount of tentacles and rage would be unparalleled.

reality is that the twins are probably farming this scar for eridium to turn into slag for multiple purposes. like brainwashing their cultists, giving them powers, and ensuring their guns have their manufacturer’s quirk (im getting to this in my next post bc im just gonna compile all the ign gun videos into one big post)

the floor art is different from the actual sanc-iii demo. i mention this first in my behind closed doors panel analysis, but im gonna mention it again because this is ~official~. the floor list on the first walkthru of sanc-iii we got had the names of all the crimson raiders and lines leading to their shops. so we had the infirmary/tannis, marcus, moxxi, etc listed on the floor. i imagine this new sanc-iii will change as we get more people on board or if we do a sort of re-decoration of the ship.

also also, it’s cool to see that we have 4 rooms on the minimap, likely one for each of the VHs (and your coop buddies). ive seen speculation that the other, non-played VHs will hang out in their rooms when you’re not playing them, and tbh i really hope this is the case.

we also know this version of sanctuary-iii is after pandora, so there are no promethea citizens aboard yet. which makes me double certain the first sanc-iii video we got takes place either after endgame (explaining why Lily has her tattoos back) or right after Athenas (explaining why Maya is there). which... i mean... spoilers, guys. 

that’s one good lookin fast travel station, holy shit

im in tears over here because “Caution: no steppy”. this is so fucking funny to me

no steppy on me

okay moving on because i will cry laugh over this for forever im allowed

moze’s room is so much different than amara’s

also i notice she’s on the left of the two on the top, which makes me hope the other 4 are reserved for the other VHs (or your coop buddy).

compared to the official sanc-iii demo video

and amara’s room

moze’s is so barren oh my god

someone get this girl like... a colorful throw pillow or something

baaank. also doubles as the secret stash. kinda upsetting, because that is infinitely less loot i can store when i make a lot of characters. also if i upgrade the bank once, is it upgraded across all my other characters too? or are the guns i put in storage slot 11 locked up until i buy the upgrade?

either way, i am saddened because no more mule characters. and way less space the more characters you make and more gear you find, because all gear you put in here is there across all characters. i hope this means our backpacks will be a lot bigger this time around!

supamax mfg shows up again

ppm/04-02 matches up with the number behind the fast travel station. i wonder if this will come into play. if the number changes later in-game im going to freak the fuck out bc that means wherever we are isn’t actually sanctuary-iii

ppm/04-02. remember that 👀

also, the wall behind the golden chest changed from red to steel/greenish. can’t tell the actual color. same as the floor

you know. that color.

“golden keys are popular. you can get some in-game and also get them online”

in-game you say??? im interested! i wonder if there will be some sort of arena (like moxxi’s) where if you complete it you get a key as a reward. i saw people speculating about some sort of randomized boss rush, that could definitely be a way to get gold keys, as well.

oooo engine room! im excited to explore here.

original size is 16. so, we have 40 backpack slots! still... you know... only 1 above the max of bl2, but hey. at least that’s an upgrade. as small as it may be

on the bright side: bank upgrades increase capacity by 5. with a base of 10, and 8 upgrades, we have 50 slots to fill. which is a big leap from the original 24. it is still a shame we have to share these across characters, tho

offline cultist stream? makes me think the CoV really was trying to steal/take over sanc-iii from the crimson raiders and we went to go take it (back?) in Taking Flight. either the CoV found/ordered Sanc-III, or the crimson raiders were building it/fixing it up, their stronghold got taken over, and the CoV were prepping it for takeover.

the shooting range. and if you notice that little CoV symbol in the bottom left there? yeah pretty much backs up my previous theory

all those red bits are tied to ellie’s crew challenge. so we’ll be collecting things for her!

an altar for scooter 😢

“we’re gonna get those cultism sumbitches, believe you me”

where you get yeeted out of Sanc-III. im definitely going to try jumping in it to see if it kills me. doesn’t look like the drop pods are available yet

that’s not clappy, pretty sure he’s hanging out on the bridge right now

schematics for veronica

the thing i was most excited about in this video!

loooots of customizations! which excites me because i know eridium used to get useless late game when you’ve grinded all the raid bosses. it looks like eridum is going to be in ultra high demand. but u can bet ur ass im gonna be unlocking all those fucking customizations asap.

veteran rewards is also super super interesting

hgggggg i wanna know what the shields do!!! 

i like the vault symbol at the top of the item card as well, shows you its a special type of weapon/item. im honestly surprised we’re able to buy ‘veteran rewards’ so early in the game? i mean obvi we won’t have enough eridium (look at the costs!) but it’s wild it’s even accessible. im personally a fan of the first bonus ‘anointed: gain life steal on action skill end’

looks like these guns have been chosen

to give them those special bonuses

i do see that just anointed is not class specific, but the ones that say anointed gunner or maybe anointed siren will be (confirmed by the devs in video).

you pay with eridium, so maybe the vending machine has some way to confer the power of eridium to the guns. or some shit. iunno. it’s possible this won’t be available until the end of the game, hence veteran rewards, and is only being shown to us right now since this is a showcasing video.

pandoran civilian. no promethea civilians today folks! i am CONVINCED that the old sanc-iii demo takes place after the end of the game. at least after athenas.

it’s weird seeing moxxi hanging outside her bar.

is also cool to know that the 4 slot machines are actually available. seems like npcs can play them, but we can use all 4 if we want to. which is really nice

the one on the far left is called the ‘loot boxxer’ and it gives mostly guns lol. i see they are taking jabs. good for them

better pic of the leftmost machines

Zer0 seems to have a bounty board? not sure if this is like a physical bounty board or if they will contact you when they want something dead, but it is cool to note. this isn’t shown in video, just the devs speaking about it.

similarly hammerlock has ‘big game hunts’ where you find “rare, challenging creatures” and kill them for him

apparently we’ll be killing something known as a manvark

this book

i fucking recognize this book

HAMMERLOCK NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

in all seriousness tho

hammerlock probably isn’t in his room because we haven’t rescued him from eden-6 yet.

a cool thing about the crew challenges: as you progress through the game and do these challenges, sanc-iii will ‘grow and change to reflect the things you’ve accomplished’. altho another dev says “sometimes these are optional things, like challenges” 

so now im like oh shit we’re gonna change sanc-iii as we play the game. i wonder if that means we’ll be changing the hull, too. because you know. the blue paint job. we gotta go STEALTH. sneaky beaky into the calypsos fleety

tannis doesn’t have the saurian on her table. also, interesting note, she DOES have the eridian log in the corner. meaning she must have had that before eden-6. interesting... maybe we’ll find more on Pandora.

she is still covered in blood tho. idk i don’t have an explanation for that. don’t think i want to think of one, to be quite honest.

oh no. (those are skulls next to all the gurneys)

“tannis plays a much bigger role in bl3 than she has in past games”. bigger than borderlands 1? that is... impressive. she’ll be running the health vending machines (which is weird bc i could’ve sworn in the promethea demo, zed was still running them... hm.)

another angle of sanc-iii

clappy? you good there?

the devs said they’re using him to plug a hole. i assume the calypsos shot at the ship as we’re leaving or smth.

lily with no tattoos, who also looks significantly more pissed than her other sanc-iii demo counterpart

you know. because she got her tattoos.

also

fucking

lilith says something right here. all i can make out is “Tyreen took my powers. it’s like tannis said. ..... [inaudible] Siren.” maybe some weird word i haven’t heard before? i swear she’s saying ‘like tannis said: a ‘m...’ Siren” but i am not 100% sure. if someone could help me out, that’d be rad.

so its sounding like lilith rushed in with explicit warning from tannis about tyreen stealing her powers, and tannis knew tyreen was some sort of Siren and warned lily, but lily didn’t listen. it could also be that lily is saying something like “im not a siren” but i can’t really hear it if she is. it sounds like she saying a word that starts with m to me. if someone could help me with this i’d owe you my life

whew. i am. fucking TIRED.

im gonna sleep for like 3 hours and then wake up and make food before the fl4k streams start.

[tumblunni]

Today's maddiman thought: Hans Full is a great example of environmental storytelling

Like i mean its just an arbitrary new yokai design they made to give him a second boss fight in the second game, but there's so much detail put into its design! The game says in words that this is maddiman's 'ultimate experiment' that he's been working on since he was human, that he was so obsessed with creating that it destroyed his marriage and caused his death and kept him trapped in limbo still working on it even as a corpse. But the design of this thing really hammers in all of that and gives it a subtle additional heartwrenching nature.

Cos, you see, Hans Full SUCKS at being an 'ultimate experiment'!

Even before we go into design details, just the fact that he cant control it and that its capable of being defeated by ordinary non experimental yokai and a random ten year old = maybe not exactly the ultimate weapon. And, yknow, the fact that all it really is is "a frankenstein but huge".

But seriously DAT DESIGN THO! The choice tp have it SO frankenstein that it looks more like a stuffed toy or a patchwork quilt. Really hammers in that its been a work in progress for so long and probably the extent of all these repairs have left it barely hanging together. And the lopsided googley eyes like maddiman just tried to give it a face out of affection but was already too far gone that he wasnt very good at it. And of course the fact that its fuckin ALL ARMS, lol! "Hmm what else does it need... Arms!" x50. Gives you the sense of some barely lucid spectre vainly repeating the last day when he died over and over again for a long time before he was able to even grasp that he was dead. Probably didnt remember adding all the arms and just assumed it was part of the original plan that he barely even remembers now. And totally forgot if legs were ever included in that. And i've mentioned before but the little green corner cut out of Maddiman's heart seems to imply that either it symbolises the heartbreak that killed him in the first place, or it means he cut out part of his own soul to use to animate this frankenbabby. Another really important note is that in japanese the voice for this thing is straight up baby noises! Possibly might have been changed just cos its super depressing, but the dub's 'cliche adorable cartoon simpleton voice' is still equally implying that this poor creature isnt remotely evil and is just out of control so youre forced to fight.

And okay a detail that i ONLY JUST REALIZED

The friggin flasks?? How it fights by swinging flasks and beakers and stuff to smash you, and for some reason its able to pull more of them out of its mouth

Holy shit that implies SO MUCH about the process of creating this thing! Like geez, maddiman just tried to make a goddamn son by stuffing a potato sack full of heart pieces. All the flasks have glowy energy stuff and spooky faces in them, and there seems to be a similar glow leaking out from the seams in the creature's stitching.

Jesus christ everything about this is SO MUCH of a not ultimate yokai, like man he was so far away from even remotely accomplishing his goal. And the mindset necessary to make all these bizarre choices implies a lot about how fuckin depressed and delirious he was. I bet he cant even figure out at what point he started forgetting all his actual plans and theories and just started sticking everything to everything in a desperate frenzy to make something work.

And also if this is how the thing works then theres literally no way he could have made it work as a human. He would have needed his yokai powers to even start bottling hearts in the first place! And it kinda also retroactively gives him a reason for why he seems more evil in the first game and attacks you. Like it was kinda unclear if he was actually working with mckraken or not...? If he'd been stealing hearts to make his ultimate weapon then that gives a reason why he'd be an antagonist there. Also itd kinda make the whole thing moderately more forgiveable cos the battle mechanics of his heart steal treat it as "removing emotions" rather than being fatal, and its something that seems to wear off over time. Still probably traumatized a bunch of people over the years tho, and rightfully caused the scary legends about his hospital if everyobe who ever visited it goes all weird and evil for a few days and then has no memory of what happened. But thats also depressing imagining this poor dude shoving hearts into his frankenson to get it to wake up, not even noticing that they keep fading away a short while after he collects them. Whats the name of that greek guy who pushes boulders up a hill...?

Anyway in summary Hans Full is totally the Graphic Design Is My Passion of yokai, and it says a lot about how tormented Maddiman was for all these years, and how much progress he's managed to make thanks to your friendship. Also a lot about how he's good at heart and very lonely, if he was so genuinely proud of an 'ultimate creation' that was completely terrible, its only success being that it finally came to life. Like.. By this point thats all he really wanted. I mean he says right after its finished that now he will absolutely never release it upon the world to destroy anything at all, and he will sit here forever to stop anyone from pressing the button to do that. He just wanted to be less lonelyyyyy....

Srsly nintendo plz bring back hans full in future game and give the poor babby a happy ending

[guild-guardian]

Spoiler Free review of “All or Nothing”

After a cut because long post, many words, skritt math. 

The Story (No details)

Overall it's probably one of the best executed episodes worth of story that they’ve released in the last couple of Seasons. 

The Final Battle is more akin to the kind of scale you see in the Zorah Magdaros battle in Monster Hunter World than you’d expect to find in GW2, and that was a huge improvement compared to previous Elder Dragon battles. Having an active role in the battle, along with the NPCs not just “swinging their sword Oh look they swung it again” at trash mobs, and actually being useful- firing siege weapons, fighting mobs, picking you up if you get downed

So many call backs to minor named NPCs- some personal early personal story, and others from pact/priory/vigil etc It lead to a feeling of being surrounded by familiar faces as you lead the charge.  The short piece after the battle was also a well designed experience- the lack of UI and the “damage” lines that you felt when Balthazar killed you in PoF, further push the “oh fuck we’re pretty badly wounded”, along with the forced walk/limp and fall to our knees when we try to hop down along the uneven floor. The main character’s animation here was excellent and slow pace allowed Anet to sculpt a tightly designed experience that is as shocking as it is memorable. I won’t forget that last visual.

Brandon Bales and Debi Derryberry probably did the best voice work in this episode (imo- I haven't played it through on a non-sylvari male). It was extremely immersive and I totally bought what was happening as they expressed it.  I appreciated that the Zephyrites’ song/choir got further development, and how its relevant to the story just made it a really nice touch overall. 

I did think it felt very short- only 3 instances. It may be that they pushed the pacing to emphasise the commander rushing headlong and gambling dangerously on the first ideas that come to them, and they do love a cliffhanger at the end.  It ends on a flat note though, you can’t even interact with story NPCs after you finish it- nothing in the shiverpeaks map changes, no dialogue no “I’m just checking in” updates, nothing.  Final Note: WHERE ARE KASMEER AND MARJORY 

The Map

Huge! Ruins! Subterranean structures! Exploring! Absolutely nailed the Guild Wars 1 Shiverpeak atmosphere.but uh...not much to do past that. 

The Thunderhead Keep meta is fun- I love defense events that allow us to set traps, build barricades and ballistae. The Boss is TOO BRIGHT. It is impossible to see even with effects turned down and post processing off. Anet needs to reassess their priorities with visual telegraphing because right now you can’t see a thing, never mind reacting to the thing. 

Minor Quibble. UH WHERE DID THAT CLIFF AND PIT COME FROM? I’m pretty sure that the mountains just...continued north of the keep in GW1, and a little further north you’d come to the Mursaat teleporter to Hell’s Precipice. 

The dredge meta is...hard to get people to defend the 2nd and 3rd drills- I’ve yet to be successful on this one. 

The delay between meta active times feels a bit long, and perhaps its just the layout of this one, but there isn’t much notification if North or south meta is happening/how long until X etc. 

I don’t like that Map Completion can’t be soloed- Both metas are required. Unless you find a friendly mesmer or buy the Light of Deldrimor from the TP. 

Past the Metas, I’ve seen maybe 5 or 6 events tops on this huge environment. That is pretty woeful. I get that this was probably a high budget episode with two cutscenes, unique character animations and PvE environments built to scale with the GW1 counterparts (why did dwarves build so big anyway?), but the overall quiet map is a bit of a let down- considering the variety of content available in Jahai.

I adore the skritt/priory interactions, and an above ground village of Dredge being shown in in a positive light. Even if literally every member of the survivors has had to kill their friends and family with their own hands. 

The Mastery 

Heavily Situational and will take some getting used to. It doesn’t have that immediate “Good Feel” as mounting your griffon midair or while gliding. Being “animation locked” for most of the launch prevents you from gliding or re-mounting, so you just plummet for the most part and lose out on any air you might have hoped to gain from using it. 

At least we can be thankful it wasn’t required to complete the story or meta.

The Fractal

Dreams: Crushed Hopes: Sundered Orr: Ignored.  Instead of picking an interesting pirate/corsair character that could use a bit of story development, they go with the boisterous ghost from the Lion’s Arch Jumping Puzzle. 

This fractal is short (at T1- it’ll likely have more complexity as you go up) and very sparse on story. The music is good, and the environment is good. Dessa continues to be the shining star of most fractals with her responses to the situations she gets to observe.  Probably won't be the new Challenge mode fractal that people were hoping for, but the fight mechanics are fun and different. 

I’d appreciate it if Anet could relinquish their choke grip they’ve had on talk like a pirate day 2012 that seems to permeate all of their pirate related content- it always feels kind of like even the characters themselves don’t take themselves seriously. There's just something pretty wack with them.  (and I’m not talking about all the landlocked core game pirates just living in lakes barely big enough for their bases) That’s Enough. 

The Legendary

Probably one of the nicest they’ve done in a while. Initially I was put off by it- the official preview of it in the reveal trailer didn’t really show it off very well- not the steps, aura or on-draw effect. However on this video from someone who got it before release, they point out a few things about it that really sell it for me.

I love the scorch mark on draw, with the dubstep twangs the most. A little disappointed that Range LB 5 is unaffected- it could have been very pretty (ie spirit bow active visuals).   It's a very refined weapon that will certainly suit a lot more characters than Kudzu, and I’ll probably make it after I finish Ipos. In like a year.

The Music

Knocks itself out of the park in a home run touchdown or however sports works. The choral piece for Aurene is very beautiful, and I especially appreciate the tarir motif used towards to the end of the track.  Re-used GW1 themes in the map give a very nostalgic feel, and the fractal has a unique Shanty theme, along with what was used for this year’s Festival of the Four winds. 

OVERALL SCORE 7.5/10

The story is moving and immersive, the encounters well designed and well executed, however sparse event placement on the map kinda gets :/ from me. 

Fractals continuing a trend of “we can do anything in the history of tyria- but lets focus on the boring parts” is also disappointing. 

PS. The .5 comes from the Skritt writing and voice acting.  So pure and wholesome. 

[xaeneron]

On Path of Fire

I haven’t done one of these in a while (or rather I wrote them and then forgot to post them lel), so maybe I’ll actually post this one for the new GW2 expansion after spending the week running around.

Overall, I found the expansion to be pretty solid; the maps are beautiful, the mounts are hilarious and well-implemented, the story was interesting and decently paced, and I’m still experimenting with the new elite specs.  Massive spoilers below the cut!

Questions on anything I wrote, thoughts of your own?  Feel free to boop me; I know I wrote a lot.  

But really, don’t say I didn’t warn you.  There are a LOT of bullet points beneath that cut.  xD

On the maps

Obligatory: they are huge.  It’s fitting since they were designed against HoT’s verticality and more geared towards the use of mounts, so it’s more of an observation, less of a complaint.  There’s a lot of detail and a lot of little things here and there, and it’s incredibly fun to see what you can get away with using mounts to get around the terrain.

That being said I do miss the verticality of HoT maps.  Maybe a combination of both pls? :3

I kind of wish there were more large obvious meta events, but I haven’t gotten to see all of the sort of meta events that go on in the PoF zones. I do think the large metas add replay value, but again a balance is a good thing.

We spur-of-the-moment yolo’ed the Ruptured Heart meta with 11 people.  It was actually pretty fun.  Also so many cannonades ;-;

Hearts feel like they take just a little bit too long.  Some of them are amusing, but when trekking through zones doing map comp (or redoing hearts to get collection items) they drag on a bit.  Guild chatter about hearts was fantastic though:

“These nobles are useless.  What should I do with the chamber pot, throw it off the side or throw it at one of them?”

“I’m throwing flowers at people and making them happy?”

“Matchmaker heart best heart.”

Bounties are hilariously fun?  Sometimes you get unfortunate bullshit combinations of modifiers (anti-stacking fleas + pls stack in the bubble to actually be able to hit the boss mob, I’m looking at you), but overall they’re quite fun.  We spent a good few hours trekking through all five zones murdering things and getting murdered.

These actually look super promising for replayability; our goal/challenge as a group has always been to optimize and work together, so it should be fun to go track down bounties and see what kind of dumb shenanigans we can get up to.

I actually find these really fun in small groups of 5-10.  Zergs sound...unfun.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The caffeinated skritt is...kind of annoying.  Mostly because it doesn’t operate like the treasure mushroom in HoT and you have to be on the class you want the collection item on, and the maps are so large someone could trigger a chest and no one would be the wiser.

A tip though for people wanting to complete multiple collections: you only need to loot the last bag it drops.  If you’re wandering around with friends and they’re nice enough to chill at the bag, you can reload with other characters and grab the bag again for another collection item (until it despawns).  I have no idea if this was intended, but I burned a few TP to friends on this for the lulz.

I had a lot of GW1 feels running through these maps, especially going down to the Desolation and Vabbi.  I appreciate that these places still exist but have changed with the years, and it’s nice to see what happened.  

Although Vabbi is one weird-ass place now.

BUUUUUUT Zomoros’ lair was hilarious.

I haven’t explored for the sake of exploring in a very long time and it was really, really nice.

CHOYA PINATA.

On the elite specializations

I haven’t actually gotten to try all of them yet, but I’m also not super enthused about all of them (Spellbreaker, I’m looking at you).  Also a gentle reminder that my opinions are mainly based on my background as a PvE player and moreso as a raider.  Also they’re just initial opinions.  Opinions change.  

I started with thief (duh), and proceeded to do the entire story with Daredevil.  I’m not particularly a fan of Deadeye; I appreciate the archetype but I don’t really see rifle having a place with a game designed more around active response in combat.  Also as someone who still can’t shake the seaweed salad dance, rifle just feels really static and dull to me.  But we’ll see.  Maybe I’ll have to make the Predator hue. D/D Deadeye also felt strange, so idk.  But we’ll keep fiddling with it.

Mirage still feels kind of odd but I need to get poor Naois the spec since he’s actually specced for condi, unlike Eet.  It seems like an upgrade to condi mesmer, and the triple blink is hilarious.

I really hope Scourge ends up with some sort of place.  Initial benchmarks look hilarious (but then, so did Soulbeast/Weaver/Firebrand ones), but I took out Richter again for Scourge and I’m actually really happy to play him again.  It’s been so long ;-;

My brother told me, “do yourself a favor and put down a sand shade near some enemies, then press F4.”  I tried it.  I laughed pretty hard.

Weaver is so much button-pressing but it’s really fun?  I’m still getting the hang of it but I do like it a lot.  At least it’s more challenging than condi tempest. *grumbles eternally*

Soulbeast looks promising, although I hope it doesn’t lead to another “let’s use condi ranger/thief on absolutely everything” situation again.  The new pets are also...interesting.  

Although when it comes to ranger I’m a druid at heart, so we’ll see.  Not that I’m usually conscripted for DPS roles anyway

Firebrand looks silly.  And broken.  I’m all for alternative sources of quickness (and alacrity in the case of other specs), but I don’t really want to see raid meta go to 2x PS 2x druid 2x chrono 2x firebrand (or something like that) with only 2 flex spots.  That doesn’t sound fun at all.

Also I’m guessing Firebrand will be the first to get the nerfbat.  The damage numbers people are getting are bonkers.

And hey look, they got the nerfbat.  Down to 33-35k.  At least that’s better than 50k? Ugh.

Renegade feels pretty decent.  Revenant has always been in a weird “built around elite specs” class, and that hasn’t changed.  I’m not sure how I feel about condi rev being more of a thing and less of a meme, but ayyy

Holosmith seems like it would be a lot more relevant if the transform wasn’t currently borked.  Scaling damage to a level 76 fine weapon is...sad.  If it’s fixed power Holosmith could be something legit?  Maybe?  Overall though I like the theme and look of it.  Also lol lightsaber.

Spellbreaker I...idk.  Thematically I like it a lot; I was a big fan of mesmer and shut down mechanics in GW1 and I like the idea of Spellbreaker, but from a mostly PvE perspective, it’s just kind of...eh? WvW and PvP I see it being incredibly useful but with limited boons to nom in PvE it doesn’t really look particularly great (especially with condi berserker getting tuned through the roof).

On mounts

I keep dyeing them funny colors.  Yes Quill’s are all some shade of yellow.

I honestly think they were well done.  I was never a supporter of adding them to the game (not against, but not for them either), but now that they’re here, I’m pretty okay with them.  

I like that each mount is useful in some specific capacity - raptor for flat open stretches, springer for verticality, skimmer for no touchy floor, jackal for portals and evasion through high mob density areas, and griffon for the absolute lulz of flying.  

I keep getting the “mount doesn’t render so your character model is riding away sunk in the ground while your camera remains in place” bug (I think it’s attached to trying to mount up before things are completely loaded), and while it’s funny, it’s kind of frustrating.

Mount swapping is a bit awkward, although binding each mount to its own key helps a lot.

I appreciate that the starting mount (the raptor) is still relevant even when you pick up the other three (four), as it’s definitely the fastest mount on flat ground and it’s improved leap is hilariously long.

Also it’s a giant scaly puppy so I have no problems with this.

The springer is hilarious.  And super terrain-breaking.  High cliff?  No problem, bunny hop.  Core and HoT map comp probably just got much, much simpler.  Also JPs that don’t have mount restrictions.

The skimmer is adorable, and riding it around is strangely...calming?  idk.  Also as one of my guildies put it: “maybe this is Anet’s answer to underwater combat: glide right over it.”  rip.

Of the four core mounts I think the jackal (blink doge) is my favorite.  It has a gorgeous design and the blink/portals are super cool.  Although the blink can get a bit titchy if you’re trigger happy with the jump button.

Of course I have the griffon.

IT’S SO FLUFFY.

I think it handles a little strangely (esp when you can’t dismount quickly, although you can divebomb), but it’s pretty solid.  And adorable.

250g was entirely worth it.

Also that Tahlkora cameo hit me right in the feels.

On the story

I’d get here eventually!  Eventually...;-;

All salad-shaped biases aside, the male sylvari VO is still my favorite and no one can convince me otherwise.  There was a good amount of sass, seriousness, and everything inbetween.  Ive is one to take everything with a “hahahaha you’re kidding what am I doing here help,” so overall the voice acting and dialogue fit him fairly well.

I’m a little disappointed by the lack of race-specific dialogue.  Humans don’t seem to have any special dialogue with or concerning Balthazar, and everyone else doesn’t really have a chance to comment as an outsider.  I know it’s more work and I still enjoyed the story as is, but it would have been a nice touch.

Like Ive would literally not give a shit about half of the things brought up.  Not because he doesn’t care about others, but because he has no clue what anyone is talking about.

This was particularly funny with Joko in the Domain of the Lost, because his whole tirade about the PC not knowing who he is could quickly be shut down with “I’m a salad, I have no idea who the fuck you are.”

The “decisions” were interesting, although unsurprisingly they had very little impact on the game as a whole (maybe in the future?  Doubt it).  I did appreciate that depending on the order the “decide on Amnoon’s independence” steps are done in, the dialogue changes.

I admit that I’ve gotten a little less partial to Taimi as she’s edged closer to Deus Ex Machina territory, but her dialogue and conversations (both with the PC and with others like Phlunt later on) are quite funny.

I wish there were more Vlast/Gleam before he died.  It’s sad that he showed up and just...died, but I can understand why they chose that path as well.  

Although some of that was my own fault; the chapter with the Exalted and Vlast’s upbringing I got supremely distracted by the jumping puzzle and spinning around on my new skimmer.

Still.  More Vlast!

RYTLOCK.  RYTLOCK WHY.  Nice job breaking it hero.  Surely you would know better than to accept help in the Mists from a random shackled man who CONVENIENTLY knows how to relight your magic sword.  Sigh.

I thought a lot about the Herald of Balthazar after finding the notes in Night of Fires.  I went back to it after talking to my brother and came to a very similar conclusion as a theorizer on the GW2 subreddit.  If that theory is true, that makes me very sad.

Pls say it’s true I like gut-punch feels.

Speaking of gut-punch feels, The Departing was amazing.  It was super disorienting not having access to the inventory or the minimap, but it was a very well-done instance and I enjoyed it immensely.  I appreciated that they stuck to the “you lost your name and purpose” thing to the point of replacing your character name (including in the hero panel) with Lost Spirit.

Balthazar murdering the PC was pretty neat. 

Also Aurene showing up exactly on time was both cliche and NO BALTHAZAR BAD STAY AWAY FROM BABY DRAGON. 

This, like a few other story missions later on, is super awkward to do as a group.  It’s supposed to be rather personal, and so the not-instance owners are reduced to buffing wisps (like later on in the thrall party instance, not-instance owners are just awakened thralls), and idk I was lucky I was instance owner but that seems rather :|

Ive had a lot of feels hearing everyone’s voices again.  Also the feels of him not exactly remembering everything and having to follow his purpose through his own memories and not quite remembering everything.  Including Trahearne.  

Also tfw the story mission is essentially Full Circle (as a sub-section of Closure) with a bit of bonus Balthazar.

Joko is being very obviously set up as a “you left me in a cage I swear vengeance rahhhhhh” villain.  Or Anet is going to pull a fast one and he will never show up again, which would be hilarious.

Bonus feels for everyone else surviving and Ive being the only one dead (think Eet).

Backtracking slightly, I’ve never liked Kormir.  I still don’t like Kormir.  And the human gods are miserably terrible people.  At this point there’s not much questioning as to whether or not they exist, but with the extent of their influence, their decision to just kind of peace is...rather appropriately god-like, for better or for worse.

Seriously though, gods pls.  I can see some of the logic of “world will be destroyed anyway if god attempts to fight god,” but surely there are other things that need be maintained.  

Also I like how Kormir notes that Balthazar had been stripped of his powers, and yet he still curbstomps the PC (unless it was entirely the imprisonment in the Mists that just locked his powers away, but Kormir’s dialogue suggests otherwise).

I would kill for a library like that.  Seriously.  So jelly.

The “let’s disguise ourselves as the Archon and go and convince Palawa Joko’s army to fight for us” part was so incredibly stupid that of course it worked.  We spent the entire time laughing at how incredulous it was.

The battle at Kodash Bazaar was actually kind of awesome?  There was stuff everywhere and my only inclination for the first part of the instance was “go hit things.”  

It was incredibly weird to just have Sohothin for the entire instance.  Yes I’m aware I could have dropped it.  But it was hilarious in a Caladbolg sort of way.  With less idiotic knockback, and more 300s cooldown skills.  

AURENE.  Balthazar stop hurting my dragon >:(

Also because he just yolo killed her other brother before she had a chance to meet him in person?  rip.

Although now that I think about it, how would that meeting even go?  Talking to the Exalted indicates that Vlast was isolated and not well-acclimated to the world around him, so by the time they realized he should be interacting with other races it was too late for him to form any empathy for anyone.  His dialogue seems to imply that his motivation was simply the fulfillment of a goal; he seemed far more interested in fulfilling his legacy as Glint’s son than the reason why she needed him and Aurene to do anything in particular.  He doesn’t really have a reason for what he’s doing, he just does.

Aurene is implied to have an empathic link with Vlast similar to her connection to the PC, but idk, it just seems like any actual meeting between the two of them would just be incredibly awkward.

I very much enjoyed both the penultimate and ultimate fight against Balthazar.  Also because if you turned around, you could see Kralkatorrik’s massive face just chilling in the sky because oh shit angry elder dragon.  It was...quite something.

I understand the PC’s current caution about killing elder dragons because of magic imbalance, and I also understand the need to stop Balthazar from being a total moron.  I also understand that there’s not much you can do to stop a mad god besides killing him (since those with the means to imprison him decided to float on).  But uh.  I’m not sure what anyone expected would happen if you kill the god who absorbed two dragons’ worth of magic with another dragon just chilling nearby.  Surely Kralkatorrik absorbing everything and flying off into the sunset while extending the Brand wasn’t a surprise.  

Seriously though what did you think was going to happen.

Baby dragon absorb magik and is not quite so baby anymore.  Aurene come back I miss you already ;-;

I commend you if you actually read all of that.  xD

Overall, a solid expansion with quite a bit of content.  We’ll see how replayable it ends up being as time goes on, but I am still quite amused by it and have plenty to do as it stands.  The story was fairly solid (although sometimes strange with questionable logic, as always), and I’m looking forward to where they take it with LWS4.  

[cookie-waffle]

what are your headcanon personalities for the 3d links?

OOOOOAAAAAAAHHH I LOVE TALKING ABOUT THIS!!!!!

I did post some of my headcanons in detail a long time ago but since I love talking about them it wouldn’t hurt to talk about them again. Fair warning though, this reply gets LONG.

SS: Basically a big cuddly bunny. Very sweet and affectionate. He’s always daydreaming and losing focus in class (mostly due to his ADHD). He’s also slept in every possible surface you can sleep on in Skyloft. And when he was younger Groose and the gang™ would even have a contests to see how many random objects they can place on and around him before he notices and wakes up (the highest record was 3 books, 10 sky stags, 30 small loftwing feathers, 7 eggs, 2 pot lids, 20 rupees, and a remlit). But there little contests eventually stopped when Zelda chewed Groose out for it. Speaking of Zelda, Link actually kinda enjoys how much she fusses over him. He likes having someone who looks after him, which could be partially because his parents died when he was very young so the only one who was every there to encourage him and make sure he didn’t get into any trouble was Zelda. Does Link have a crush on Zelda? Oh yes, ABSOLUTELY. But the kid has a tendency to be super oblivious to things sometimes and he can’t seem to figure out that Zelda likes him too. Almost all the other kids and even professors at the academy can see it (hence why Groose feels so threatened by him) but Link just seems completely oblivious to it all. He doesn’t even fully realize the full extent of his feelings for her until he has to save her from Gihrahim and The Imprisoned. Now as for his relationship with Groose, Groose was never the kind of bully who was brutal and beat Link up and try to torture him constantly. He and the gang™ would just throw some bad insults and pull mean pranks on Link from time to time. Even if he did want to be brutal he’d never have the guts to do it out of fear of Zelda getting upset at him. However there was ONE pretty bad incident where Link and Groose got in a big fight and Groose ended up giving him a bloody nose. (Groose did get suspended for a while after that.) However despite all this Link never really hated Groose, at most he just found him really annoying and irritating. But after the events the events that took place in Skyward Sword, Link and Groose actually became pretty good friends.Before Link went on his quest he didn’t think too highly of himself or think he was that special. All he felt like was some kid with barely passing grades trying to become a knight. He wanted to become partially to honor his parens who ere both knights and even met at the academy, and also because his grades at his old normal school were horrific and Knight Academy has easier academic classes (so like math, history, and english) but is seen as an acceptable alternative to normal school since being a knight is considered an honor. During his quest he began to mature a lot more. No matter how scared or exhausted he got he refused to give up because he knew Zelda needed him and the only way to ever see her again was to keep pushing on. His journey did get emotionally taxing at times but he did manage to pull through without losing himself. And he didn’t do it just because someone told him to, he did it to save the girl he loved. After Zelda was crowned as the first queen if Hyrule she did marry Link who then became the first king. When they were in their early to mid 20s they had some kiddos who Link absolutely spoiled rotten.

WW/PH: Weird awkward gremlin child. Doesn’t sleep quite as much as Sky did but he still sleeps quite a bit. Not the most socially inept Link and certainly was not the most confident Link when he started out his adventure. But his little sister Aryll looks up to him nonetheless. Although he was not anywhere near prepared for what he ended up getting thrown into on his 12th birthday he did always have some sense of adventure. He would often explore and play the forrest with his little sister. Growing up as the oldest child on the island, Link is used to playing and communicating with younger children. But unfortunately he also has a bit of a hard time socializing with children around his own age. All the other kids on outset island were like 4-8 years old, the only time he saw kids his age or older than him was on the rare occasion that a ship would stop by to restock IF it just so happened to have a family with children on board. The first kid his age he actually befriended was Tetra who is FAR from a normal child. At first Link was even quite intimidated by her until when eventually he got used to her shenanigans. Tetra did not like him AT ALL at first. Like Link, she never had much interaction with children her own age, but unlike Link, rather than growing up with nothing but younger kids, she grew up around nothing but adults and learned how to boss them around pretty well too. Link saw her as bossy and mean at first and Tetra saw him as kind of a pest who was just there to get in her way. But they did eventually warm up to each other and became close friends. They were an odd couple but somehow it worked out. Link never gave leaving Outset much thought until his sister was kidnapped. His original plan was to get her back as fast as possible and head back home. Buuut as we all know that didn’t work out as planned. Throughout his journey Link gained much more self confidence and wasn’t as easily intimidated by challenges. After the events of WW and after Tetra and the crew™ went out to find new land, Link wrote letters to home every day. He tried to keep his family updated on his adventures as much as he could. And years after the events of PH Link and Tetra did get married and became the rulers of New Hyrule. They had like… way too many kids…. Like… 10…. TEN CHILDREN. (4 of which they had before they were even married) The little gremlins could be absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to control at times but Link still adored them anyways. Link’s family came to the wedding. Grandma was still alive but very old and weak. If there was one last things she wanted to do it was to see her grandson as a full grown man with a family. Aryll was a grown woman and had a family of her own. And Linebeck was there too! And Grandma recognized him… and Linebeck recognizes her… she does not remember him fondly and starts threatening him… apparently he dated her daughter years ago and broke her heart, came back 4 years later, promised to marry her, and then fucked off again never to return…. Oh wait then this must mean…. oh shit… THE WEDDING RECEPTION HAS SUDDENLY BECOME VERY AWKWARD.

OoT/MM: Oh this one…. this one ain’t happy… Link was the only child in Kokiri Forrest who often dreamt of the outside world. When he set off on his quest he was cheerful excitable and ready to see new sights and meet new friends! He was a but scared of adults at first because up until then he had never seen an adult before (other than the Great Deku Tree that is). This carried into the part of his journey where he aged up 7 years. He still only had the mind of a young child so he still felt like he was on a fun adventure. But that did not last… he eventually became extremely traumatized, basically ripped away from his childhood and forced to grow up when he wasn’t ready. He had lost who he was before. When he was sent back to his childhood came back mature beyond his years but also traumatized. He could never be the same again. This only got worse in MM. He started to get angry more often, felt much older than other children his age. He could however, handle a lot more hardships than he could have in the past. He was not afraid to get up in people’s faces, he was not easy to intimidate, some monsters would even cower away in fear when they saw him. Despite how shockingly young he was he was able to give off an intimidating presence if he wanted to. After the events of MM he never really was able to find Navi, and it took him many years to find his way back to Hyrule. Along the way he ended up losing Epona in a battle. He was all alone. He NEEDED to make it back to Hyrule. During the events of OoT he did indeed end up falling in love with Zelda/Sheik and was hoping to ask her hand in marriage when he finally made it back to Hyrule. But when he finally did it was too late and Zelda was already married to someone else. He ended up marrying Malon instead and had children with her. He did love her very much, but there was always something deep inside that mad him yearn for his soulmate. Malon did notice this but decided never to bring it up. But even though Link never became the prince of Hyrule he was able to get a position as a high ranking Knight. One night before Link set off to battle, he felt in his gut something bad was going to happen. So did Zelda. They tried to convince themselves it was just nervousness but deep down they knew something was going to happen. So for that one night, the two let themselves give in to their feelings and they kissed. Just once before he left.Link never returned from the battle.

TP: He looks stern at first glance but he’s really quite gentile and kindhearted. He has a great love for animals, is very good with kids, and probably unironically uses the word “ya’ll'id’ve”.Teenage girls go absolutely crazy over him but he’s not too interested in dating or girls. He’s kind of a chill dude actually. Unlike Sky Link, he can focus on things easily and is very good at completing the task on hand quickly. He’s also nice to talk to because he’s a very good listener and never interrupts or speaks over people. He has very good manners for a boy his age. As for where Link came from, no one really knows…. Hanch and Jaggle just sorta found him wandering around aimlessly in the forest as a toddler and all the villagers in Ordon made it a group effort to raise him. There were some blod stains on his clothing when he was found that did not come from him, suggesting that his original caretakers were killed by monsters (who were most likely really after Link because of his triforce birthmark). He was never really around other Hylians growing up, so Zelda was the first Hylian he ever met, or at leasts remembers meeting. Link found Midna a bit irritating at first because of all the teasing but after a while he would start to playfully smart mouth her back and the two started to make it into this sort of game of who could come up with the best sassy comebacks. Before his journey Link never felt like he had a big purpose or anything like that. He didn’t even know that the triforce birthmark he had meant anything. He was raised by humans with human culture and legends, not Hylian culture. So he sure had a lot to learn. When he discovered that he was the hero of legend it was all a bit overwhelming. But he did it anyways. He wanted to make sure his friends were okay more than anything. After the events of TP Link stayed in Hyrule and became a knight. When he got older he started to fancy the (now queen) Zelda who he had become good friends with over the years. Unfortunately… he didn’t live long enough to propose to her. He died at the age of 20 of a serious infection from a poison arrow that went unnoticed. When he was still ill but knew he wouldn’t make it he requested to be brought back to Ordon so he could pass away at home, and he stayed in his wolf form the entire time so his friends would not be able to see how much he was really suffering. Zelda insisted to be at his side. She had a great respect for him and he was a good friend. She never fully knew how he felt about her, but the final look Link had given her when he looked into her eyes for the last time was a look of pure love. There is a legend that says each time the hero or princess dies they can see all of their past live’s memories in their final moments…

BOTW: Can be shy, very quiet, but incredibly sweet. Like Sky Link, this Link has ADHD. Except instead of not being able to focus, he has the type of ADHD that makes him VERY VERY HYPER. As a young child it was hard to keep him from climbing over and running over everything. And on top of all that he has incredibly high energy levels. He very reckless as a little kid but he saw it all as just fun and games. He would laugh, giggle a lot, and even speak loudly. But it all changed when his father started to train him as a knight… Most would assume Link chose this path. People think he did it because he wanted to be like his father. But truth be told, his relationship with his father was actually cold, controlling, and emotionally draining. Link’s father made him dedicate all his time to training. He was no longer allowed to play with the other children because his father wanted to discourage childish things like playing. He was deprived most of his childhood. He did however, become an exceptional knight. And he learned how to control his hyperactive tendencies. But he also developed high levels of anxiety. He was used to being severely punished if he slipped up so he made sure to try his best to never show what he was feeling or thinking when on the job. And when he found out he was the hero of legend his anxiety got all the worse. He couldn’t even speak anymore he was so terrified of making a mistake. He became selectively mute and only spoke around close friends like Mipha, or when someone who has a higher level of authority asked him a question, speaking in a very soft, quiet, and sometimes even difficult to hear voice. (this didn’t stop him from muttering smartass remarks @ Revali under his breath from time to time though)When he was assigned to be Zelda’s knight it changed his world. He was surprised how much he could relate to her, he LOVED listening to her ramble on and on about her interests, and every time she smiled it made him briefly forget all of his anxieties. However, fearing that he may say something he regrets, he rarely spoke to her. So all he could do was be there next to her, silently falling more and more in love. Eventually Zelda did get him to open up more and although he was shy at first he did greatly enjoy speaking with her. They related to each other a lot and felt an instant connection.After Link awoke from the shrine of resurrection, he did not remember anything of his past, including his father. So he no longer felt too much of a pressure to hide his emotions so much. He did however, carry on some habbits he had from back then. Things like rarely speaking unless spoken too and some of his anxiety issues stayed. When he regained all his memories of Zelda he remembered how in love he was. The emotions would hit him hard. And gave him more the reason to want to save her. On his quest he showed a lot of his old personality traits that he used to show when he was younger. Being a lot more cheerful, very friendly, and just wanting to run around and go on adventures. He also eats. A LOT. And this kid will literally eat anything (except live frogs). He’s literally cooked a pile of rocks before and he STILL ate it. He’s trained himself to be quite the chef even though not all the dishes always end up great (hence the rocks). Link also likes animals similar to Twilight Link. He is especially fond of horses. He’s one of those people who has this strange ability to calm down horses a lot more quickly than most people. Even though Link can hide his emotions there is one thing he can’t hide. And thats blushing. When he blushes his face and ears get very red and it is noticeable. And he blushed so much around Zelda that she just assumed that’s what he normally looked like. After the events of BOTW Link did eventually reagin the rest of his memories piece by piece. Some memories he was happy to remember, and others would sometimes make him an emotional sobbing mess and Zelda would have to stay up all night comforting him. When Link and Zelda finally revealed their true feelings for each other Zelda almost immediately wanted to ask for Link’s hand in marriage but she stopped herself out of fear of overwhelming him. So she waited to ask him a year later. They decided to start a family soon and to have many children because the Yiga clan was still out there and would not hesitate to kill Zelda given the chance, ending the Goddess’s bloodline. Having many children would be kind of like insurance. If one of them gets slain there will still be others left to continue the bloodline. A morbid thought that Link and Zelda did not like to think about but it was true. They ended up parenting 11 of their own children and 2 that Link adopted on impulse because he has a huge soft spot for kids and Zelda of course could not refuse. (yes know that’s more kids than Wind Link had but at least these ones were PLANNED).Link and Zelda made sure to give them the childhoods that they never had. Link made damn sure that he did NOT raise them like his father raised him. He did teach them how to climb, shoot arrows, and basic sword combat for survival reasons but he did his best to never force anything onto them. And surprisingly, the kids were usually well behaved (much unlike Wind Link’s kids). This could be because Link has a very calming presence around people. People no matter what age seem to be much more at ease when he’s around, especially Zelda.

[letspleasuretogether]

~Lucky~

Decided to fill this relationship meme out for Tyki x Lavi pairing. ;3c

Disagreements:

Who is more likely to raise their voice? They are actually pretty even in this respect. Neither are afraid to raise their voice. Who threatens to leave but never actually does? Lavi threatens to leave, but he never follows through. He can't stand not having the last word, so he ends up sticking it out. XD Who actually keeps their word and leaves? Tyki. Though, he'll usually only leave to end an argument when he knows it's getting too severe. Who trashes the house? They work together on that one. Do either of them get physical? No. How often do they argue/disagree? They don't argue that much. But when they do fight, it's always big and explosive. Who is the first to apologize? Usually Tyki because Lavi is a stubborn ass. XD

Sex:

Who is on top? Usually Tyki, but they do switch it up on occasion. Who is on the bottom? Lavi, but as stated above, they will switch it up. Who has the strangest desires? They're pretty even in this department. Though, Tyki's more likely to vocalize it, whereas Lavi will be too embarrassed to say anything. Any kinks? They both like it pretty rough, and Lavi has a thing for doing it in public places. Tyki appreciates his redhead in lacy lingerie. ;3 Who’s dominant in bed? Tyki usually is more dominant. Is head ever in the equation? Yes, when they actually decide to take their time. Usually, they get worked up so quickly that foreplay is over pretty quick. If so, who is better at performing it? They argue over who’s better, and have timed each other to see who can make the other one cum faster. They’ve never come to an agreement. Ever had sex in public? Oh, my. Yes. XD Who moans the most? Lavi. He’s so damn loud. Who leaves the most marks? Tyki leaves Lavi covered in marks every time. Lavi’s lucky he likes wearing scarves so much. Who screams the loudest? Definitely Lavi. Who is the more experienced of the two? Tyki, by far. Do they ‘fuck’ or ‘make love’? Fuck, for certain. But under the right circumstances, they’ll “make love.” Rough or soft? Almost always rough. How long do they usually last? They‘re relatively quick (5-20 minutes), but they go for multiple rounds. Is protection used? Almost never. Does it ever get boring? No way.

Family:

Do your muses plan on having children/or have children? Nope. Never. Tyki doesn’t want kids and Lavi thinks he would be a terrible father (he wouldn’t be, but he’s very insecure about it). Who is the favorite parent? Lavi-- he would be the most fun. Who is the authoritative parent? Tyki, for sure. Who is more likely to allow the children to have a day off school? Lavi would. Who lets the children indulge in sweets and junk food when the other isn’t around? Lavi and Tyki are both as guilty on this one. Who turns up to extra curricular activities to support their children? They both go. Who goes to parent teacher interviews? Both. Who changes the diapers? Lavi. Who gets up in the middle of the night to feed the baby? Both. Who spends the most time with the children? Lavi does. Who packs their lunch boxes? Lavi. Who gives their children ‘the talk’? Tyki would have to because Lavi is useless with this stuff. XD Who cleans up after the kids? They both do. Who worries the most? Tyki, surprisingly. Who are the children more likely to learn their first swear word from? Lavi, for sure. XD

Affection:

Who likes to cuddle? Tyki, surprisingly. Who is the little spoon? Lavi loves being the little spoon, but they do switch it up. Who gets naughty in the most inappropriate of places? Both, they're both terrible. XD Who struggles to keep their hands to themself?   Both have wandering hands. XD How long can they cuddle until one becomes uncomfortable? Lavi usually wiggles around a lot, but Tyki could lay there for hours and not move. Who gives the most kisses? It's pretty even. What is their favourite non-sexual activity? Sleeping together. Where is their favourite place to cuddle? In bed. Who is more likely to playfully grope the other?  Tyki, definitely. How often do they get time to themselves? Fairly often.

Sleeping:

Who snores? Lavi, OMG. He's the worst. Do they share a bed or sleep separately? They totally share. If they sleep together, do they cozy up together or lay far apart? They start cozy and close, but end up apart during the night. Lavi takes up a lot of the bed and moves around too much in his sleep. Who talks in their sleep? Neither. What do they wear to bed? Lavi usually just wears his boxers. Tyki wears the same, but often likes to sleep totally naked. Are either of your muses insomniacs? Lavi is. Can sleeping pills be found by the bedside? Sometimes Lavi will use them to correct his terrible sleep schedule. Do they wrap their limbs around each other or just lay side by side? Wrapped up like a burrito. XD Who wakes up with bed hair? Lavi, always. Who wakes up first? Tyki. Lavi is a notorious night owl and hates mornings. Who prepares breakfast in bed for the other? Sometimes Tyki will make it, since he's always up first. What is their favourite sleeping position? Spooning, while Lavi is the little spoon. :3c Who hogs the sheets? Neither. Do they set an alarm each night? Yes, but Lavi has to set almost 10 of them just to get himself up in the morning. Can a television be found in their bedroom? Nope. Who has nightmares? Lavi does, mostly due to his memory. Who has ridiculous dreams? Lavi, also. Who sprawls out and takes up most of the bed?  Lavi, of course. XD Who makes the bed?  Neither. Messy bed forever. What time is bed time?  Whenever. They don't really care. Any routines/rituals before bed? Lavi always reads before bed. Who’s the grumpiest when they wake up?  Lavi, of course. XD

Work:

Who is the busiest? They are both seriously busy with work, but Tyki likes to slack off more. Who rakes in the highest income? Tyki. Are any of your muses unemployed? Nope. Who takes the most sick days? Tyki, but not because he's sick. He just likes to skip work. XD Who is more likely to turn up late to work? Lavi is always running late. Who sucks up to their boss? Tyki's really good at sweet-talking his bosses. Who stresses the most? Lavi, definitely. Do your muses enjoy or despise their careers/occupations? Lavi enjoys his career, even if it's stressful. Tyki couldn't give a shit, as long as he gets money. XD Are your muses financially stable?  Yes.

Home:

Who does the washing? Both. Who takes out the trash? Both. Who does the ironing? Tyki. Lavi couldn't use an iron to save his life. Who does the cooking? Tyki, mostly. But Lavi helps out. Who is more likely to burn the house down just trying? Probably Lavi. XD Who is messier?  L A V I Who leaves the toilet roll empty? Lavi. But when he does it too much, Tyki will just take the TP out of the bathroom every time for retaliation. XD Who leaves their dirty clothes on the floor? Lavi. Who forgets to flush the toilet? Pfft, Lavi. Who is the prankster around the house? Lavi will start the pranks, but Tyki wins the prank war. Who loses the car keys when it comes time to go somewhere? Tyki. Who mows the lawn? Both. Who answers the telephone? Both. Who does the vacuuming? Both. Who does the groceries? Both. Who takes the longest to shower? Tyki. Who spends the most time in the bathroom? Tyki.

Miscellaneous:

Is money a problem? Nope. How many cars do they own? Two. Do they own their home or do they rent? Rent. Do they live near the coast or deep in the countryside? Coast. Do they live in the city or in the country?  City. Do they enjoy their surroundings? Yes, they do. What’s their song? You Are the One -- HIM What do they do when they’re away from each other? If they're apart for more than a few days, Lavi will text more than usual, but he doesn't like to admit that he's sad. Tyki will pretend like he doesn't really care, but he'll spend his free time looking at pictures of Lavi he's saved on his phone. Who spends the most money when out shopping? Tyki, every time. Who’s more likely to flash their assets? Tyki. Who finds it amusing when the other trips over? Both, OMG. Any mental issues? Lavi has some serious self-esteem issues, and he likes to bottle his emotions and pretend things are okay when they're not. Who’s terrified of bugs? Neither. Who kills the spiders around the house? They both do. Their favourite place? There's a bar near their apartment that they love to frequent. Who pays the bills? Both. Do they have any fears for their future? Lavi constantly worries that Tyki might leave him for someone else (though, that'll never happen because Tyki adores him). Who’s more likely to surprise the other with a fancy dinner? Tyki, for sure. Who uses up all of the hot water?  Tyki. Sometimes he'll do it on purpose. XD Who’s the tallest? Tyki, and he loves to remind Lavi of this fact. Who’s more likely to just randomly hop into the shower with the other? Tyki, definitely. Who wanders around in their underwear? Lavi, is that even a question? (Honestly, Tyki would just go around naked. XD) Who sings the loudest when singing along to the radio? Lavi, OMG, and he is so off-key. What do they tease each other about? Everything, OMG. Who is more likely to cringe at the other’s fashion sense at times? Tyki cringes at Lavi's fashion choices. We all do. XD Do they have mutual friends? Allen. XD Who crushed first?  Tyki, for sure. Any alcohol or substance related problems? Nope. Who is more likely to stumble home, drunk, at 3am? Honestly, they both would. Who swears the most? Lavi XD

[astriline]

rate the Zelda games!!

Sure why not?? I'll be rating the ones I've played in order of their release dates, not in the order I played just to be more organized. The Legend of Zelda: I like the aesthetic and exploration, but if you don't have the manual you're kind of screwed. Also a lot of puzzles use moon logic (basically you have no hint on how to solve it, such as lack of cracks in walls to show which to bomb) bombable walls are in a lot of places and they have no indication that they are bombable. I haven't played in a while so I don't remember much. Overall I'd give it a 4/10 A Link to the Past: my personal second favorite. It's aged really well and I love the visuals! The map is really pretty imo so it's fun to look at. Also there are so many unique items and fun dungeons and you overall it's just wonderful. 10/10Link's Awakening: another game I don't remember quite as well. It's pretty charming tbh but otherwise I just don't remember enough to give it a real rating. 7/10 to be safe. Ocarina of Time: it's fun. A lot of people love it and I understand why, it was revolutionary in its time. However I played it after I'd been exposed to other video games and it just didn't have that same charm. I have some problems with it, such as Hyrule Field. There's nothing to do and it's annoying to travel across in the beginning before you can teleport places and everytime you save and quit you wake up in Link's treehouse and you have to travel all the way from the forest to wherever your quest is! It is pretty fun later when you have Epona though. It's fun, but not quite as amazing to me as it is to other people. 7/10Majora's Mask: my absolute favorite! It took a lot of what Ocarine of Time had and imrpoved upon it. Termina Field has a lot of stuff to explore and it doesn't feel tedious when you're running through. It also helps that you get teleportation early on because it saves time. Speaking of time, where a lot of people hate the threw day mechanic, I honestly think it's a cool feature and I mastered it pretty quickly. It adds a whole new sense of danger to the game, which is the point. The side quests are just amazing as well the people are cool and when you have to turn back time it hurts that you can't help them again. But going forward and saving Termina in the end makes it all worth it, as you witness everyone finally getting their happy ending. Also the final boss is fun if you don't use the fierce deity mask. 10/10Oracle Games: I've never finished them so I don't really have a solid opinion. I won't rate them just to go easy on a game I haven't finished but they were pretty cute. Twilight Princess: hugrhehrgsghshd,, I really really dislike it. It's really popular and I got pretty excited when I bought it over the summer because I thought it would be fun, but pretty quickly I grew bored. The beginning is slow and boring and you don't get a sword for a while which just makes it worse. Also the fact that you're forced to fish really sucks because I couldn't get the hang of it! I spent 11 minutes trying until my sister did it for me, and she took 6 minutes. Oh yeah and the motion controls are awful sword fighting and wolf fighting is annoying and it feels really jerky and awful. Oh yeah they're even worse with weapons like the bow and boomerang cause you have to point them at the screen and it's pretty slow going and tedious. Also the dungeons suck. 3/10. Spirit Tracks: adorable and underrated! It is really easy but hey it is aimed at a younger audience and I was 10 when I first played and I had a lot of fun. Zelda is adorable and I love travelling with her. The train rides do get a little tedious but at least I can shoot things. 7/10.Skyward Sword: third favorite, I love it. I complained about the motion controls in tp but because of the wii motion plus everything is smoother and allows a wider range of movement. Unfortunately my hands do shake a lot so it is difficult to hold my hands straight when I hold the sword upright to do a skyward strike but it doesn't bother me. Also you don't have to actually point the wiimote at the screen to use items you can have it hanging in your limp hand and the motion plus just makes everything more convenient. Overall it's very good at immersing the player. Also the story is just so fun? Zelda is amazing and my personal favorite Zelda. The story is beautiful and heartbreaking and I love the characters. I know a lot of complaints are around the backtracking but honestly I love the areas so much it doesn't bother me, seeing as how with new items you can do more exploring than before. Man I freaking love this game fight me. 10/10 A Link Between Worlds: super cute! It's fun and really relaxing tbh. The rental system is pretty annoying tbh bc I die a lot but it kind of makes grinding for rupees better because you actually have a purpose for them. Also I love Ravio he's so relatable. 8/10 Yep that's about all. I'm saving up money from my job to buy botw and a switch and I can't wait! Hoping to add botw to my list of top favorites. Sorry for getting long omg

[vohskyfire]

Countdown to Breath of the Wild: Twilight Princess HD

And thus, another 3D Zelda game conquered. Time to write a small lil review on it.

I remember when Twilight Princess was first announced. Probably one of the most look forward to video games ever made. Based on that trailer from E3 2006 alone, where they not only showed that trailer, but revealled that it would end up being a launch title for the then new Nintendo Wii system. I think to this day it’s one of those moments in E3 history that will forever be remembered.

Why do I say that? Well last time I talked about how some people were turned away from Wind Waker because of the cartoony graphics, and not being the ‘realistic Zelda title’ people wanted since OoT broke that mold. (In actuality they wanted Adult Link back)

Regardless though, I was excited when I first saw Twilight Princess. I thought to myself “This could very well be one of the most epic Zelda games ever made.” It was the very reason why I wanted the Wii at first (Besides the new Smash Bros) and I knew that it would be one of my all time favorite Zelda titles.

After replaying the HD port on the Wii U, what do I think of the game eleven years after it’s original release?

Well...it’s still one of my absolute favorite Zelda titles.

No seriously, I mean that. In terms of rankings when it comes to the 3D Zelda titles? It ranks high up there dude. Probably above Wind Waker, but JUST shy of Skyward Sword/Majora’s Mask for my favorite title. (I’ll get to Skyward Sword soon)

Now then, back to Twilight Princess.

The game is without a doubt one of the more darker and mature Zelda titles out there. The opening, while admittedly can be somewhat of a drag to go through, does the job that it’s mean to do. Set things up that things are supposedly peaceful in Hyrule this time around. But as we know, that peace can’t last. If it did, we wouldn’t have a game to talk about here would we?

Twilight Princess’ slow start, to me, pays off. The game teaches you how to play it in the opening with both human, and wolf, forms of Link. With Human Link he plays pretty much the same as he did before from OoT,MM, and WW. Wolf Link to me was a bold move for Nintendo to do given the fact that most people aren’t exactly fond of gimmicks in a Zelda game. Though if you ask me? The Wolf form of Link is useful. Very useful, in fact without it you wouldn’t be able to find any of the secrets in the game.

Plus, we also have Midna, probably one of the best companion characters ever, riding on your back and helping you out through the dungeons so that’s a plus.

Now it’s no secret, Twilight Princess dungeons can be hard. Very hard, the first time around. Course when you eventually do get the hang of it, you are able to find your way through the dungeons without much of a complaint. (Though I swear, The Ice Mansion can go fuck right off at times.)

As per most Zelda games, TP is full of puzzles. Some pretty easy to figure out, some annoyingly frustrating to figure out. Especially in the third dungeon that is, of course, a fucking water temple. (What is it with Zelda titles having crappy ass water temples?)

Besides puzzles though, what separates this title from the others?

Well, while Wind Waker DID give us some forms of cutscenes, Twilight Princess was the first of the main Zelda titles that actually took advantage of them to help tell the story. And some of them are just bloody fucking epic.

Case in point, when Link returns to Kakariko Village after it was attacked by King Bublin and his cronies. You chase them out of town, then to the field, and then proceed to have a horse back riding duel with the guy not only in the field, but on a fucking bridge.

That. Is still one of the coolest fucking things in any Zelda title, ever.

Oh I should probably mention, TP is full of great boss fights. Not one of them felt like they were badly designed. And by that, I mean none of them had some cheap gimmicks to them.

Now is the game PERFECT?

No. Far from it in fact.

Don’t get me wrong, I adore TP. but some things about it can drag. Especially in the early parts of the game when you’re seeking the Tears of Light during the Wolf Link sections. The worst offender of course being the ones by Lake Hylia. (Again, WATER themes)

There’s also some weird glitches that can kinda throw off the game’s more epic moments. Such as the final fight you have with Ganondorf in a one on one fight with swords to the death. Buuuut you can easily take your fishing rod out, cast it, and distract him long enough to do some damage.

Regardless of some of its flaws, of which there are very few of, Twilight Princess is a fantastic fantastic video game. It plays well, has a team member that you think at first will be an annoying companion but turns out to be one of the best characters in the series, and has some of the most epic moments in the entire series.

11 years later, and it’s still one of my favorite Zelda titles.

9.7/10

Onward to the finale! Skyward Sword, HOO!

[rnainframe]

every borderlands question?

was gonna sleep but hey why notHow did you get into Borderlands?I first heard of it years ago when 2 was about to come out but then I truly got into it around late 2015 when @undeaddarude got me 2 on Steam for Christmas in return for me impulse buying them L4D2, then this past Christmas @aceiou got me Tales and I bought the restWhich is your favorite game in the franchise?Pre-SequelFavorite character? I have a bunch. Tim, Gladstone, Pickle, Zed, Jack, Athena, Rhys, Vaughn, Fiona, Zer0, r Hyperion voice over lady... a lot If you could meet your favorite character, what would you tell them?tim you deserve so much betterA character you consider underrated?Pickle and Gladstone An OTP?Rhysothy! Least favorite character?I HATE THE DAHL NEW US SO MUCH, If you could meet your least favorite I accidentally deleted part of this questionA character you consider overrated?most of my faves are the overrated onesA NOTP?R / hack Favorite gun brand?HyperionFavorite shield brand?PangolinWeapon of choice?Sniper rifles and shotgunsA gun or skill you can never seem to get along with?SMGsFavorite mission?face mcshooty.... also the one in pre sequel where the guy opens a window and you get a ton of exp from it, aaand the voice over lady one from tpsA mission you found extremely easy?I wasn't expecting most of the high exp TPS side missions to be so easy, especially the flag raising oneA mission you found extremely hard?WHY IS COLLECTING GUNS SO DIFFICULT FOR MEWich game has the best ending and why?TPS, it's the only game besides Tales I really remember the end of due to me recently beating it and the Tales one frustrates me because WHERE ARE THEYFavorite boss fight?Boom Bewm! It made the series really stick for meCharacter of choice in Borderlands (Mordecai, Roland, Lilith, Brick)?Mordecai! Your prefered skill tree for said character?I think I picked the sniping oriented oneCharacter of choice in Borderlands 2 (Maya, Salvador, Axton, Zer0, Gaige, Krieg)?Zer0! Your prefered skill tree for said character?Sniping oneCharacter of choice in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (Athena, Wilhelm, Claptrap, Nisha, Jack, Aurelia)?Jack! Your prefered skill tree for said character?Hero of the Story + Greater GoodFavorite character in Tales from the Borderlands?Gortys and LoaderLeast favorite character in Tales from the Borderlands?OH HIS NAME IS SHADE ISN'T ITFavorite villain?JackWorst villain?bosun please shut upFavorite quote from your favorite character?pretty much anything Tim says what a dorkFunniest quote you can think of?The Hyperion Corporation would like to remind you that spawn campers will be permanently banned from this plane of existence. Creepiest moment in the games?it doesn't really faze meBest easter eggs?They're not really easter eggs but all the little nods to 2 and Tales in TPS are great like helping Nakayama make the first AI Jack or building the first Constructor with Gladstone Favorite location?Hyperion Hub of Heroism and Bloodshot RampartsPandora or Elpis?Pandora If you could spend a day on Pandora or Elpis, what would you do?dieA character you have a crush on?TIM IS ADORABLE OKAY, A character you wish you could play as?What if there was a Borderlands game where you play as the main vendors and the TPS ones are dlcHardest achievement to unlock?I SPENT TOO LONG ON 360 NOSCOPE FOR IT TO BE BRONZEFavorite wild animal species?Kraggons! And SkagsLeast favorite wild animal species?shugguraths can eat my assSomething you’re looking forward to in the next game/s?WHERE IS LIKE EVERY LIVING MAIN CHARACTER THAT HASN'T HAD A CONFIRMATION OF HOW THEY'RE DOING... HOW IS TIMSomething you wish you could change in the franchise?can we maybe have a different name for the psychos A character you wish had died but didn’t?no ideaA character you wish had lived but died?don't wanna spoil the couple friends of mine currently playing tpsFavorite skins and heads?And Jill plus the Rhys loyalty skin on Tim, Ech0location and Like Cl0ckw0rk on Zer0What’s the rarest weapon you’ve ever found?LongnailSomething you do in EVERY playthrough, no matter what?i tend to pick only the same characters in each gameLasers or EXPLOOOOSIOOOONS??Lasers! A scene in the games that is always stuck in your head no matter what?a lotBiggest amount of money you’ve ever had in a single playthrough?I think I have over 100k cash and 200 moonstone in tps rn How many times have you played each of the games?1 - still in my first run2 - 3TPS - 2Tales - 1Who is your favorite voice actor/actress in the franchise?Dameon ClarkeFavorite AI?ALLFavorite song in the OST?Dam Top, Glacial Would you like a movie based on Borderlands?why notIf so, who would you like to see in the cast?shrugsDo you usually play on your own or with friends?on my ownHow many gameplay hours have you reached in total so far?hundreds, probablyOn which platform do you own/play them?PC / PS4

[tumblunni]

Supes was my FAVE part of STC honestly!! He's such a cool plotline and its awesome that they even added a plotline at all to something that has barely anything to it in every other continuity. In STC super modes werent just a thing anyone can do when collecting all the chaos emeralds, it was some sort of fluke curse that hit sonic in particular the first time he collected them and he didnt even need them to transform again after that. But the side effect of unlimited access to super sonic is that it also comes with its own sort of sentience? Sonic couldnt transform at will, Super would just sorta come out whenever he wants, usually when sonic experiences extreme anger or trauma and it like..weakens his containment, i guess? The writers took the name chaos emeralds very seriously, in this universe theyre very dangerous as well as just powerful. Super Sonic was sort of the personification of this energy in living form, not necessarily literally evil but functionally so? Like he was just a completely wild lawless beast who did everything for the fun of chaos, with no concept of right or wrong. The only connection he had to those concepts was the darkness that existed in the heart of the person he was created from. so for example there was one time when they wrote Supes manifesting in a tough fight and indeed defeating the boss badnik, but then he doubled back and tried to attack the innocent animal he just freed from its power core, simply because all he knew was that sonic always worried about not hurting them when he fought, and he was tempted to see what it was like. (In this continuity 'roboticization' wasnt magically transforming flesh into metal but just cyborg stuff.) They did some VERY dark stuff with the concept of an empty hearted chaos creature whose only motivation was "fun" at any cost. And it worked so good as a contrast because regular sonic in these comics was a giant asshole who secretly had a good heart and was just grumpy AF. Contrasting him against this figure who was hyperacrive and funloving IN AN EVIL WAY SOMEHOW. What an amazing idea!!! And the whole concept of having a super move that has the side effect of potentially hurting the ones you love or even murdering innocent bystanders...WOW that had some good tension to it! And was a way better explanation for why sonic cant just use super sonic all the time, instead of just losing the chaos emeralds at the end of every game and having to collect them again.

Oh and they also did something EVEN COOLER with Supes later on!

THEY ACTUALLY TURNED HIM INTO A GOOD GUY

There was a point where some sort of magic mcguffin cured sonic of the chaos curse, but it was by literally removing it instead of destroying it. Super started off as a disassociative identity that would appear in times of stress, developed into more of his own person, and now he actually got his own separate body and a chance at living his own life. And the most interesting fact is that Super-without-sonic was like..inherantly good. He didnt even get redeemed he just...wasnt evil at all. This is when we got the nuance that he was never really an evil person but just this morally neutral chaos figure. And now he was removed from the chaos he had his first chance to be himself and he was just this innocent amnesiac good boy who goddamn deserved better than what he got! He was still as hyper and fun but now more mellowed out and able to fully understand what was happening around him and form his own opinions on stuff. And he ended up sorta adopted by a duo of kind older sibling animal folk who worked at a random jazz cafe, and they helped raise him witj more of a sense of morals and generally it was just THE MOST AMAZING TURNAROUND EVER! And it was so cool because he still kept the same more scary appearance they gave Super Sonic in these comics. Wild pupilless spiral eyes and fangs! But now looking adorably confused and the most unscary scary boy ever! And he struggled with doing the right thing and controlling his powers. If he used them too much he'd get caught up in the twisted 'fun' of chaos and start forgetting all the individuality he'd developed. The call of his chaotic energy was hard to resist even though now he understood that what he'd been doing was wrong and he just wanted to stay far away from all the fighting and live with his new family. There was a really depressing chapter where he was forced to use his powers to protect the cafe and for a second it gave you a hope spot that he'd finally learned to control them. He ran up adorably to his family, babbling mile a minute about how "hey hey did you see i did it i did it i was so scared but i didnt hurt anyone im so happy im....so....happy..." And he finally cracked mid sentence of celebrating that everything was okay. And cos the problem had already been solved, out of control Supes didnt have anything else left tp destroy except his own home and everyone he loved. And he just woke up hours later with all their neighbours terrified of him and chasing his family out of town. And they were still protecting him even though he'd horribly injured them! This led to him eventually feeling like he was too dangerous to stay with them and he had no hope of living a happy life. So he ran away and started wandering the wasteland far away from everyone, vanishing from the plot for years. And then depressingly his last appearance was him revealibg that he was dying from some never before mentioned chaos disease, like if he didnt use his powers he'd just decay away and vanish so there really was no hope at all. And then the series got cancelled and he never got any sort of resolution :(

So yeah! Two different flavours of intriguing plot with this guy! Its such a shame the series didnt last long and he faced some of the worst of the side characters falling out of focus as they ran out of budget