#also yeah I know about the crown you get for doing all the DLCs

[assumptionprime]

Playing Dark Souls 2 again and damn, in spite of its rough edges, I think it’s my favorite.

They’re all good, mind you. Dark Souls 1 is the foundation, and 3 is playing the hits while also saying that it can’t just play the hits forever and has to end.

And Dark Souls 2 is doing its own weird different thing and I love it.

I think it has the best story of the three games, because it really concerns itself with people.

The intro isn’t a list of people and monsters you need to kill, it’s your story. How you came into this land. You are afflicted with the curse of undeath, and it’s destroying your life and your mind. Everything that follows is based around that. You’re not the Chosen Undead, a title put on you in the first game because of a role you’re expected to play in some legend. You’re the Bearer of the Curse, because that’s your concern in all this, your curse.

You see it afflict others throughout the game, too. Most of the characters in Majula can’t remember how they got here, their goals, their lives before Drangleic are fading, same as yours. Lucatiel is by far my favorite NPC in any Souls game, a tragic view of another cursed undead that doesn’t quite make it. You fight alongside her. She confides in you, forms a bond with you. And then, as the last remnants of her mind, her self, leave her, she begs you to remember her name. Vendrick, the mighty king of Drangleic, is a shell of himself. He shuffles around in his own tomb, having long ago succumbed to the curse. He may as well already be dead. In every way that matters, he is.

And if you don’t figure something out, it’s going to happen to you, too.

Some to do has been made about the world layout not making sense. Some say it’s bad design or development troubles leading to compromises. Others say it’s intentional, that time and space are warped, though I think that’s either not true here or done much better in DS3. I subscribe to a third camp I’ve seen a bit less frequently: These nonsensical ways you move between some of these places are because you forgot how you got from one place to the other.

“So you got to the top of the tower, then what?”

“Oh, then I got on an elevator, which took me up— up to… I was on an elevator… then I was in an old keep sinking into a lake of lava.”

You’re losing your mind and your memory, you just can’t remember what happened between Earthen Peak and Old Iron Keep.

So you go slay the old ones, find Vendrick, seek out the ancient dragon, defeat Nashandra and—

It doesn’t work. You don’t cure the curse. You can either take the throne, or keep looking for a cure. We don’t see what kind of monarch you are to your ruined kingdom if you stay. And we don’t see you find a cure to the curse if you leave.

You lose.

It’s left to you to decide, does continuing to fight this fate have meaning? Is the struggle, in and of itself, worthwhile?

Dark Souls 2 is about going Hollow, and I love that it goes in such a different direction with its lore and story to be that.

[directdogman]

Hello Hound!! Since it's Dialtown's 2nd anniversary, I've been planning up a few "general" related questions about your series that I've been meaning to ask, but I decided to save them up for the big day because why not? Anyways, here's what I've got, these were meant to be fun to answer so don't sweat it :]

1: How do you feel about Dialtown's success? Are you proud of how far you've come? 

2: Which character was the MOST fun for you to write, and which was the most PAINFUL?

3: What is something you wish more people would talk about or just know about related to Dialtown in general?

4: If you had the opportunity to write a FULL complete, detailed life story of any of your characters, who would that be?

5: What's a character you wish you could have given more screen-time or just in general content? (Considering iirc you were trying to make sure Dialtown wasn't TOO long, so I was wondering if this ever came to mind)

6: From what I know, you've been doing the job of cosplaying several characters in the game and acting out their sprites, which one was the most fun to act out?

7: Speaking of sprites, do you have a sprite you could consider your favorite, out of ALL your characters?

8: Do you have a specific line of dialogue you could consider your favorite throughout the entire game?

9: Could you ever see Dialtown expanding into perhaps sequels or maybe even prequels? More DLCs mayhaps? Heck, maybe even a Dialtown 2 or a Chapter 4??

10: If you could make any fan-made interpretation (such as headcanons, designs, or ships) canon if given the opportunity, what do you think would be your pick?

11: What was the MOST fun part about developing Dialtown? Coming up with new characters? Writing them? Adding all the bizarre dialogue options?

12: And last but not least — on a scale of 1-10, how fun was developing Dialtown just in general?

That's all I have for now, and I'm really excited to see your answers!!

I normally don't answer this many questions, but... alright, sure, tis the season!

1: How do you feel about Dialtown's success? Are you proud of how far you've come? 

Yeah, of course! I'm a lil proud, admittedly, but I'm aware of how comically little I really have to do with it all, even if I did make the game. Luck does play a LOT into it, of course. Granted, I made my share of predictions that wound up being useful, but it always comes down to lady luck at the end of the day. I've seen good projects fail and bad ones go viral. It's really all just a hodgepodge of probability and whimsy. That being said, I am very pleased with DT's success, and the community that's formed around the game! It caught me by surprise!

2: Which character was the MOST fun for you to write, and which was the most PAINFUL?

Gingi's always fun to write. And Mingus. Most painful is tough to say. Maybe Crown. I got a little weird when I wrote his full backstory, kinda caught up in the emotion Norm talks about. Never been a fan of stories getting cut short. You gotta wonder what would've happened if he'd made different choices, y'know?

3: What is something you wish more people would talk about or just know about related to Dialtown in general?

Honestly? Karen, probably. She's super underrated for sure. The fandom still loves her, but she doesn't get the same kind of attention as Oliver, Gingi, Randy, Norm. She's worth it.

4: If you had the opportunity to write a FULL complete, detailed life story of any of your characters, who would that be?

Oh, I already have. I have this monstruous 30-40 page document detailing Crown's life and entire career. It's quite a read. and quite a mind-fuck if you don't know Dialtown's universe too well.

5: What's a character you wish you could have given more screen-time or just in general content? (Considering iirc you were trying to make sure Dialtown wasn't TOO long, so I was wondering if this ever came to mind)

Oh yeah, a few characters had scenes that were cut. Stabby, Shooty, Mingus, Bunny, even Bigfoot! There's also the game's cut 6th datable, who was an interesting character with ties to other characters in the cast who I wanted to do more with. Ah, maybe one day.

6: From what I know, you've been doing the job of cosplaying several characters in the game and acting out their sprites, which one was the most fun to act out?

Bigfoot. I made the ape noises in the suit. Had to. It felt right.

7: Speaking of sprites, do you have a sprite you could consider your favorite, out of ALL your characters?

I quite like Norm's set, Mingus' too. Karen's poses too are quite good.

8: Do you have a specific line of dialogue you could consider your favorite throughout the entire game?

That answer probably changes every day. I like pretty much any scene where Mingus loses her temper.

9: Could you ever see Dialtown expanding into perhaps sequels or maybe even prequels? More DLCs mayhaps? Heck, maybe even a Dialtown 2 or a Chapter 4??

I'd love to make sequels one day! I've got a lot of ideas for where the characters/story would end up. By the time DT1 wrapped up, I'd conceptualized way too much stuff to put in one game (without it taking another few years to finish), so if I ever wanted to make sequels, I'd 100% know where to start! But, that's a later down the road conversation.

For now, I'm gonna keep working on the Roger DLC and if there's demand for more, I can go from there :)

10: If you could make any fan-made interpretation (such as headcanons, designs, or ships) canon if given the opportunity, what do you think would be your pick?

I guess I COULD do that with, like, anything. Nothing immediately springs to mind, since, y'know, I'm in control of the canon anyway. I will say, I've seen headcanons and theories that ARE scarily accurate to canon, to the point where I've feared people would just think I'm lifting stuff from the fanbase! It's a good thing I talk about these things with collaborators, huh? I've got a PAPER-TRAIL!!!

11: What was the MOST fun part about developing Dialtown? Coming up with new characters? Writing them? Adding all the bizarre dialogue options?

Finishing a new scene and realizing how stupidly long it was (without me realizing it) was always a treat. But yeah, writing the characters had to be it. Specifically any scene where a character the audience knows meets someone the audience doesn't know well (or at all), with the dynamic changing. Those are fun to write.

12: And last but not least — on a scale of 1-10, how fun was developing Dialtown just in general?

Hard question to answer. I do really wanna give a high number, but truthfully, a lot of game dev actually isn't super 'fun'. Some tasks are, granted, but many parts are a slog. Sitting and formatting dialogue, and then adding text pauses and pose changes isn't exactly a super thrilling activity. The engine itself also has some issues which I have to work around that adds to the workplace. Play-testing a scene for the 4th time isn't super fun either, or trying to figure out why the game crashes on some PCs and ONLY very rarely... Those tasks are Sisyphean to some degree.

...But, while most of those parts aren't fun, it's all still rewarding. There's a sense of accomplishment when you finish a scene. You get to look back at your hard work, remember the hours you spent typing dialogue into a text box and formatting mass amounts of pngs, painstakingly + manually getting the game's awful pre-loader to deal with the sprites right, etc... and suddenly, at the end, you've got this lil experience that people can play and enjoy. Somehow, the sum of all of those not so fun activities has created something that's going to make people laugh, feel happy. That's special. and even if some parts of development weren't super fun on their own, that's always what I remember. That in the end, all of those not so fun days mattered.

The route I agonized the most over was Oliver's. I went through a few weeks of writer's block, and now, it's one of the most popular routes in the game! Crazy how that happens. I was SURE for about a week that people would rank the route at the bottom! That's what I mean, all of the stress I went through trying to figure it out amounted to something people connected with! To think I almost CUT the route entirely!!!

And y'know, God knows Dialtown gave me something to throw myself at during a time where I REALLY needed the outlet. I'm very grateful to the project for that. So, I'll give DT an honorary 8 out of 10, even if it wasn't a consistently 8/10 experience making it heh heh! Sure glad I did, though and I'm very glad if any of you reading this had a really good time playing it! :)

Thanks for the questions!

[cyberdragoninfinity]

I would love to hear your thoughts about the fucked-up turtle (Terapagos)

"Now let's talk about the turtle. Can we talk about the turtle please, Mac? I've been dying to talk about the turtle with you all day."

Ok so. Short Answer Re: Thoughts About Terapagos:

WHAT THE FUCK. WHAT THE FUCK. WHAT THE FUCK. WHY DID IT DO THAT. WHY DID THEY [GAMEFREAK] DO THAT.

Long Answer Re: Thoughts About Terapagos [SPOILERS FOR THE SCARVIO DLC naturally. i havent seen Horizons so i dont rly know whats goin on with this little guy in the anime, just what we've got in the games]:

When the last little batch of new Pokemon in Indigo Disk leaked, about 12 hours or so-ish before the DLC dropped, I was at dinner with my bestie and we were looking at our phones like we were reading breaking world news. And I was looking at this tiny ass png of Terapagos's full Tera (Stellar) form.

And I immediately blurted out "holy SHIT it's turtles all the way down."

If you're not familiar with the phrase, check out its wikipedia page; here it's most relevant as a saying thrown around with regards to the philosophical concept of infinite regress, i.e. a series of elements (or questions begging an explanation) that that goes on infinitely with each member producing the next. So let's say the world rests on the back of a giant turtle--well, then, what does that turtle stand on to keep it from falling into the void? Why, another, bigger turtle, of course! But what about that turtle? Well, you're not gonna believe this, but it's turtles all the way down.

And here's the other thing about infinite regress: it's a logical fallacy, it's circular reasoning--honestly it's a little bit of a cousin to the "which came first?" chicken and egg argument. The question in these cases never truly gets answered, it just goes on and on forever. Bigger turtles on top of even bigger turtles.

It's a paradox. :)

So Stellar Terapagos, just look at that thing. Even its dex entries talk about how it looks like a planet, how it resembles "the world as the ancients saw it"--it's very much not only trying to evoke the World Turtle concept, but the symbolism of a classic paradoxical saying. So we've already got that going on with it, that already makes me bonkers. AND THAT'S JUST THE SURFACE LEVEL.

Cuz when we look at how Terapagos behaves, things start to go from "well isnt this guy a little weird" to "oh. oh this thing is kind of fucked up and terrifying, hello, what the hell is wrong with it" REAL FAST. Its two most stressed features we see in Indigo Disk are A.) its crystalline nature and how its the progenitor of Terastalization, but also B.) it is ferociously powerful and borderline uncontrollable. It's violent. It bursts out of a Master Ball and almost kills Kieran for daring to try and control it. Heath's illustration of its Stellar form in the Scarlet/Violet Book looks so otherworldly and almost cosmically horrifying. It has Weird Fucking Powers the game does NOT elaborate on (but I will; see more below.)

And also, hey, yeah, its Stellar Form looks like a stack of world turtles, but why the FUCK does its Terastal form also look like a goddamn dream catcher.

Personally I've been a big fan of the 'imagination theory' re: the Professors and the Paradox Pokemon and Area Zero, and folks have been arguing that Indigo Disk debunks that, but honestly I feel like we're loitering around some untold explanation that's even more bizarre. Terapagos is at least on some level tied to dreams and existentialism, and I really feel like there's more to Tera Crystals and Terapagos's relationship with them than what we've been told. Hell, its cry is even the noise we hear all game when we Terastalize our Pokemon, which produces its own myriad of questions (Are the Crystals some degree of alive? The Tera Crowns all do have Terapago's little turtle head at their base, too--does Terapagos physically or spiritually connect with a Terastalizing Pokemon? And what about that weird crystalizing the AI Professor does during its big boss fight? MUCH TO THINK ABOUT.)

Oh, speaking of Crystals--yeah. I can't NOT talk about the Indigo Disk Crystal Pool Postgame Secret when talking about Terapagos. ONE MORE SPOILER WARNING FOR THAT--SERIOUSLY GO TO THE CRYSTAL POOL AFTER GETTING THE DLC CREDITS. IT WILL BLAST YOU TO BITS. anyway.

Yeah so that's what I mean with Why Did It [Terapagos] Do That. The fact that you dont even need to have it in your party for the postgame Crystal Pool cutscene to trigger and for Terapagos to just pop out of the PC boxes on its own accord and warp space and time (and maybe even reality itself) to irreversible consequence, implying once again some great and uncontrollable power within this beast. Crazy Ass Moments in Pokemon History for CERTAIN.

And the thing that makes me most insane, thinking about Terapagos twisting time to allow you to meet the Professor, the Real Live Professor, to swap notes with them so to speak, the way it facilitates all of that, is the position it now puts the player and Scarvio itself in. If the Professor's research rests on the back of a white book given to them by a child, then what does the research of that white book rest upon? Ah, well, the expedition of Area Zero spurred forth by the fallout of the Professor's research. And what did THAT research rest upon, again...?

Turtles. The whole way down. Chickens and eggs and a paradox you're now responsible for. At the hands of a Normal Type Pokemon that tried to kill a 14 year old.

Terapagos scares the shit out of me. I love it so much. Why Did They Make It Like That <3

[wfagamerants]

A bit late because lol, rl, but as a blog about my Mario opinions, I can’t resist rambling a bit about my opinions of stuff in a direct full of Mario stuff.

Ordering them in how excited I am for each of them, though in the end I am happy about all of these, it’s just a way to decide how to order them.

Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon Switch

I genuinely like Dark Moon and honestly don’t think it's rep as the lesser of the three games in some circles is earned, so seeing a Switch version is welcome in my book.

That said, I do have some concerns with how choppy the game looks in places. The original had a few moments like this too, but in a HD re-release…yeah you gotta clean that up. Odds are that may even happen, given the game isn’t due until next year.

Besides that, yeah, Dark Moon on Switch. I like the game and will gladly get this and use it as an excuse to replay it, but odds are there isn’t gonna be much new here. Not a bad thing, just makes me struggle to put this higher up here.

Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope DLC

It looks good, I’ll play it and that is honestly it.

This may be worth a discussion of its own, but while I like Sparks of Hope and even prefer some aspects of it over the original, it didn’t stick with me in the long run like the first game and it seems many feel the same way.

Hard to say what it is, but I am sure I will enjoy this, it’s just that at this point, I am really mostly interested in Rayman when it comes to this game,

The mechanical King Bob-omb’s pretty sick though.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass Wave 5

Fun idea for a new racetrack and a very solid selection of new characters. Good first impressions.

We still don’t know the other 7 tracks, but I do genuinely think every new wave so far has been better than the last, so I am in good spirits about it and Mario Kart 8 is something I can keep coming back to for another round very easily.

New Peach Game

This is easily the most surprising one in its mere existence.

With how little has been shown so far, it’s hard to really have a strong opinion on things, but the stage play theme does make one wonder what could be and little details like Peach not having her crown really are curious.

Above all else though, I am just excited this is a thing. Spin-offs focusing on other characters are always among the most interesting new releases. They allow for experimentation with ideas that may be seen as not fitting Mario himself and after the 2000s, the well of new ones dried up really substantially.

Peach is also still a very unexplored character for this, even her first game is still heavily grounded in regular Mario stuff, while this is looking to be more of a Luigi’s Mansion kind of spin-off, so I am very intrigued.

Super Mario Wonder

Quite frankly, this game, in everything we have seen, feels like an outright apology for how static and safe 2D Marios have been in the NSMB era.

With this is one, it really feels like there was a desire to just get weird and I can vibe with that. The sections for collecting Wonder Seeds seem really creative and out there, with a lot of variety at that and the trippy nature of the first one in particular is a stand-out.

Besides that we got a surprising roster of characters, with the most out there choice being Daisy. Nintendo actually using their characters? Crazy talk.

In all seriousness, I appreciate them expanding beyond Mario and Luigi on a more regular basis now and what helps charm me even more is how expressive and alive the characters are.

Everyone around on social media has likely seen these comparison shots already:

But even beyond that you have little things like the characters reacting to the spiked boulder about to chase them:

I just adore stuff like this and hope the game is full of that.

Beyond that there are still a lot of little things, like the not-Toad NPC, the elephant power-up, that wild looking Bowser Jr, etc. Loads to see and I can’t wait for more info.

My only gripe is that they are still passing up Toad in favor of colorful generics. It’s not gonna make me less excited for the game, even though I feel cheated out of one of my favs, but I wish Nintendo would finally stop doing that.

Super Mario RPG Remake

I won’t lie, when leakers mentioned this one, I wasn’t all that thrilled.

Not because I don’t like RPG or the idea of a remake, but because I expected it to be butchered. Part of its charm is that it is a time capsule to an era where Mario’s now known visual identity and several concepts didn’t exist yet. I fully expected that to be done away with, for the sake of brand consistency, on top of some of the more undesirable changes from the Mario & Luigi remakes.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Genuinely, I was so caught off-guard by everything shown here. Mario, Peach and Bowser are updated to their modern looks, which is perfectly fine, but beyond that, it is genuinely amazing how much they retained the original.

All the original characters are still present which, granted, wasn't unlikely, but still lovely to see.

They retained a more chibi proportioned look, in-line with the original’s renders and sprites.

The environments still look as they did back then, no NSMB colorful hills in the grassland area or anything. They even resisted the temptation to update Peach’s castle to its standard look.

Most shocking of all, the old Toad NPC designs, my favorites in all Mario games, are left intact:

And as an extra bone as a Toad fan, after Wonder disappointed, they even gave him dibs on the blue vest, to further distinguish him from the rest of his species.

Everything just looks so nice. The models and environments, the music, the cutscenes, it’s a charmer across the board.

Much like with Luigi’s Mansion, it’s up in the air how much new there will be content-wise, but honestly, I am fine regardless what direction it takes.

I’m just happy to have a reminder of what Mario RPGs used to be and I will gladly support it to show I miss that kinda stuff, on top of my adoration for the original.

WarioWare Move It!

The Wario fan is most excited for the Wario game, say what?

In all seriousness of course this makes me incredibly happy. Smooth Moves was my favorite WarioWare before the big revival with Gold and GiT and a follow-up with the joycon as the main focus always made sense.

This is very much a traditional WarioWare to its core and frankly, that is amazing, it even embraces the low quality, cursed 3D models from Smooth Moves that I love with all my heart. I would have also liked a GiT follow-up, but this always made the most sense for a second Switch entry and I am happy they aren’t sleeping on it.

The extra stuff like the board game mode also adds some intrigue, not enough to see what this will be like yet, but I am always glad to get some extra offerings beyond the regular stages.

That aside you got the fun vacation theme, 13-Amp possibly being a host now, some lovely Smooth Moves callbacks like the return of forms and so on. I am nothing but excited.

And this is yet another one I am happy just exists. This is the first time since the Wii that Wario has gotten more than one new game on a system and so soon after GiT no less. WarioWare is in a healthy state again and that is huge.

So yeah, banger after banger and a nice uptick after the 2022 Mario output was on the lacking side. I’ll always defend Battle League in many aspects, but it still sucks content-wise and Sparks of Hope, while good, is pretty lacking in the Mario aspect.

Between the 2023 releases out of these and the movie though, we truly have a banger year for anything Mario.

[venkidu]

Master Detective Archives: Revival Code

Summary: You awaken in an unknown location with a splitting headache, no memories, and a fuzzy blue ghost who calls himself "Yakou Furio”. What the actual hell is going on?

Rated M for language and canon-typical violence

Cross-posted on Ao3

*CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR ALL OF "MASTER DETECTIVE ARCHIVES: RAIN CODE" AND ITS ACCOMPANYING DLC*

Chapter 0, Part A

It hurts.

Everything hurts.

Your stomach. Your limbs. Your back. Your head.

Pain.

You don’t even want to open your eyes, but you hear a voice, a male voice, coming from above you.

“When the contractee awakens, they may be physically and mentally disoriented. This may cause them to feel overwhelming panic, sadness, or in some cases, anger…yeah, I’d be feeling all of that too…”

You crack one eye open, as slowly and as slightly as possible. You can’t locate who the voice belongs to, but it appears you’re indoors somewhere, judging by the presence of a lighting fixture directly above you.

“Be sure to re-introduce yourself and explain your position as soon as your contractee is awake. Be patient, as their memories may be extremely foggy, even those that they were meant to keep. For tips on aiding your contractee in identifying themselves, turn to page 356…geez, this manual is bigger than I expected.”

You sigh inwardly. All this talk of memories and manuals and contracts has admittedly has you curious, so you sit up and open your eyes.

You regret it immediately.

Standing (floating?!) in front of you is a blue…ghost?!

At least you think it’s a ghost. Whatever it is, you can see right through it.

You had originally wanted to give yourself time to evaluate the situation before whoever possessed the voice you had been hearing noticed you were awake, but you’re way too freaked out by the presence of A GHOST, AN ACTUAL FUCKING GHOST, to maintain any semblance of calm.

You let out a surprised yell and sit up, immediately trying to scramble backwards and away from the figure in front of you.

“Oh, hey, Master! You’re awake! My name is- whoa!”

The ghost floats toward you until you whip the book laying next to you at it.

It passes right through it.

“Stop screaming, I’m really not gonna-ACK!”

The bag you found passes right through the ghost as well.

“Okay, I have an idea!” the blue blob zooms over to the corner furthest from you. “I’ll stay right over here where you can see me, and we can start again! Sound good?”

You pause. Being stuck in a location that you don’t know, with potentially limited memories, and a ghost doesn’t “sound good” but, it doesn’t seem like you have any other options.

You take a deep breath in and slowly exhale, trying to get the tension to leave your shoulders. “Okay,” you nod.

“Great! Well, Master, my name is Yakou Furio!” the ghost announces, pointing to himself.

“Yakou…Furio…” you repeat back.

“Yep! Former detective, current Death God!”

“A Death God?!” Oh, this is worse, this is SO MUCH WORSE than you imagined.

“Actually…Death-God-in-training,” he chuckles nervously, rubbing the back of his…head? Body?

His form is oval-shaped and blue, with a wispy, fluttery tail; small horns protrude from the top of his head, where a small, black crown is also perched. They’re faint, but it looks like Yakou’s wearing some type of round, blue eye-wear. His outline has a vaguely fuzzy look to it. A ghostly cigarette sticks out from his mouth.

“Do all Death Gods look this…?” you ask, scooting slightly closer to take a better look despite your anxiety.

He appears to shrug. “Probably. I’ve only ever met one other Death God. I have another form too, but I’m not sure you’ll get to see it, which is a shame, I’m quite handsome,” he chuckles with a wink.

You laugh weakly.

“Enough about me though, Master, tell me about you!”

He starts to float around you, but maintains a respectable distance.

“Uhm, well, my name is…uh…”

“Aw geez,” he sighs, rubbing the back of his head. “You don’t remember your name? I’m really sorry, it was my first time performing a pact on my own, I probably screwed it up.”

“I-it’s okay!” you say, waving your hands in front of you. “I heard you reading a manual and the manual said this might happen!”

“True, it did say that was a possibility. Boy, you sure are awfully calm right now,” he observes.

“Well, what good would freaking out do? Plus, you…don’t seem so scary for a Death God.”

“In training,” Yakou adds.

“Right.”

“So, your name? You don’t remember it?”

You shake your head.

Yakou holds a hand up to where you assume his chin would be. His tail begins to twitch, almost like a foot tapping.

“Oh! That bag you threw at me! Maybe that’s yours!” he zooms over to where the satchel was chucked in the corner and moves to pick it up.

“Oh, right,” he mumbles, staring at his translucent hands.

You can’t help but giggle. “I appreciate the effort. Is it hard, being a Death God?” you ask, shakily pushing yourself up and shuffling over to the bag.

“In training! But I’m not really sure yet. I haven’t done any godly things so far. I still struggle with the whole ‘ghost’ aspect of it though.”

He takes a swing at a nearby shelf, as if to showcase his arm passing through the structure.

“Understandable, that’d probably freak me out too,” you mutter as you dig through the bag.

You pull out a wallet and find some sort of identification card sitting in the front pocket.

“Does this look like me?” you ask, holding the card out for Yakou to inspect once you’ve studied it.

Yakou leans in and takes a drag from his ethereal cigarette.

“I think so? Looks like you’ve grown your hair out a bit since this photo was taken, but nothing else really stands out to me.”

“So that’s my name, this is me,” you mutter, staring at the card again.

“Is there anything else you remember?”

You scrunch up your face in concentration.

Think.

THINK.

…

“Nope, not a thing,” you sigh.

You stretch the bag open even further and peer into it. Chapstick, some granola bars, a half-drunk bottle of water. Nothing that is remotely helpful to figuring out your identity, but potentially helpful in your current physical situation.

You sit back on your heels and sigh.

“Nothing?” Yakou asks.

“Nothing,” you confirm.

You take a look at the room around you. Metal shelves line the walls, crammed with all sorts of things - crates of cleaning supplies, boxes piled high with garments, luggage, you think you even see an actual robot.

But nothing that hints at your identity or where you are or how you ended up here in the first place.

“Damn, I didn’t think the effects of the contract would hit you this hard,” Yakou mumbles, rubbing the back of his head.

“You keep mentioning a contract,” you inquire. “What did I sign exactly?”

Yakou sighs and turns away from you. “I wish I could tell you, Master, but, that would be a major rule violation.”

“Death gods have rules?”

“Yeah, especially when they’re going through training - and I’m gonna be upfront with you, Master: my boss terrifies me to my very core. I’d hate to have you deal with her, especially if I did something stupid that caused her to feel the need to appear.” He appears to shudder.

“Well, is there anything you can tell me?”

Yakou takes another drag from his cigarette.

“All I can say is that in order to gain access to my powers, you had to give up something of value. And as I’m sure you can tell by the state of that bag you’re holding, you don’t have a lot of physical possessions, if you catch my drift.”

You glance at the bag and something clicks inside your mind. You slowly raise your unoccupied hand up to the side of your head.

“Yakou…did…did I trade my memories for your power?”

He nods. He looks like he feels sorry for you.

You feel your eyes begin to water as you stare down at the floor.

Breathe. Breathe. Why can’t you breathe?! You feel your whole body shaking as you sink down onto your knees and dig your nails into your thighs in an attempt to ground yourself.

Yakou looks down at you sadly.

You remind him of someone…someone he thinks he maybe knew a long time ago…you have the same eyes as them, eyes full of fear.

He gently reaches out. He knows what he is. And he knows he can’t touch you.

But he’s going to try anyways.

His spectral hand reaches up and pets your head.

You flinch at feeling…something…brush against your hair.

You look up.

Yakou gives you a cheerful grin as he strokes your hair.

“I know this all seems really scary, but you have a detective-turned-Death God on your side, Master! Who better to keep you safe and help you figure all of this out?!”

You take a deep breath.

In.

And out.

And despite the lack of memories and full situational awareness, there’s something about Yakou that makes you believe in what he’s telling you.

You manage to return Yakou’s smile.

“Okay, Yakou. I trust you.”

His spectral smile grows even bigger, and you can’t help but laugh as he does a little mid-air loop-de-loop as well.

“Well, I guess we should figure out where we are right now,” you suggest.

You slowly push yourself up and off the floor and head towards the door.

“Oh, wait! Grab the book!” Yakou calls out to you. He’s pointing to a corner of the room where the book you chucked at him now lays.

You walk over to where he’s pointing and pick up the thick tome - the cover is made of a well-worn purple leather with gold embellishments. A large pink gem is embedded in the center of the cover and a leather strap with a tarnished yellow clasp holds the book shut.

“Is this mine?” you ask, turning the book over in your hands.

“Sort of. That book is where my boss and I reside until someone calls on us. And since you and I have entered a service pact, you could argue that the book is now technically yours for the time being.”

“Fascinating,” you reply. You go to tuck the book into your bag when a piece of white paper flutters out from in between the pages.

“What’s this?” you ask, bending down to grab it.

Yakou hovers over your shoulder as you study the piece of paper.

A logo of some kind is printed in red in the top left-hand corner. Stretching across the top of the page is a banner that reads “AMATERASU EXPRESS”.

Underneath the banner, in plain black text, are the words “Amaterasu Express Ticket - One Way - Express Service - Kanai Ward”.

“What does any of this mean?” you mutter. “What is Kanai Ward?”

You turn to look at Yakou. His mouth is slightly open, and his white, pupil-less are wide.

“Yakou?” you ask. “Are you okay?”

“I…I think I know Kanai Ward,” he gasps. “I think I’m from Kanai Ward.”

“Oh, it’s a place? Wait, hold on, you think you’re from there? Did our pact take your memories too?!”

Yakou shakes his head (body). “No, our pact has nothing to do with my memories, just yours.”

You gently chew on your thumb nail as you ponder this revelation. “You mentioned that you used to be a detective. And you confidently recited what I’m assuming is a first and a last name. I wonder if that all comes from a past life, from before you became a Death God! Do you remember anything else?!”

Yakou once again lifts his hand to his chin and twitches his tail rhythmically.

After a moment, he shrugs sadly. “Not a thing. I don’t even remember dying. I just remember meeting Boss-Lady.”

You resume your study of the ticket. “Well, if this ticket to Kanai Ward came from a book that I had in my possession when we made our pact, and you think you lived in Kanai Ward, maybe we’ll both recover our memories if we go there!” you suggest.

“That’s not a bad idea!” Yakou replies.

“Then let’s go!” you finally push the door open and glance behind you as you pass through the doorway.

“Oh, it’s a lost-and-found,” you observe, noticing the plaque on the wall. “That explains all of the random junk in there. Not sure how I ended up in there, though. I don’t suppose you could fill in that blank for me?” you ask Yakou hopefully.

“No can do, sorry,” the blue blob replies, exhaling a small cloud of smoke.

“Attention passengers departing this station direct to Kanai Ward aboard the Amaterasu Express,” a robotic voice rings out from above. “Please board immediately. The train will depart soon.”

You glance at Yakou in alarm.

“Run!” he yells.

And you do.

[zaptap]

oh yeah pokemon tomorrow

i think sv dlc announcement (and home compatibility) is pretty obvious. who knows what form it would take though. hoping it’s kalos related because kalos is like. right there (also all the kalos starters are in the game already... though it’s not like we went to alola in ss dlc so that’s not an indicator of anything on its own)

the dlc could also fix 2 of my biggest problems with the game, which are the following

missing pokemon (probably not getting fixed since this is the 5th game in a row with this issue) (subset of this is missing national dex, which hasn’t been seen since oras and is therefore more unlikely to return)

specifically missing zubat line (crown tundra fixed this for ss, they could do it again) (i always have a crobat on my team you can’t do this to me).

you always have to wear the stupid school uniform. if we go to kalos we can get stuff from their boutiques and (maybe because we beat the game) they let us change out of that shit (if not then they aren’t doing kalos right)

other pokemon stuff i’d like to see (or might be there)

new detective pikachu game (WHERE is the evil blue pikachu they teased in 2013 that didn’t show up in the game or the movie i need it to be there it’s been almost a decade since we first heard about it

it would be nice if they finally released soundtracks for the past 4 games but after skipping so many i think maybe they’re done. shame

id like pokemon sleep to come out so joe serebii can get some. maybe me too idk

now that i think about it it’s been 3 years since the pmd remake came out? what the fuck? i feel like i just started playing it the other day. im not even that far. what the hell? how??? anyway that means i guess maybe it’s not too early for them to be working on a pmd2 one. im so overwhelmed though. they seriously need to stop making video games for like 10 years so i can just catch up. except splatoon that can stay

idk if im watching this live because i didn’t get much sleep last night and it’s absolutely going to screw up my sleep for the night if i do that. depends on when i go to sleep i guess, idk (my sleep schedule has been so fucked up that staying up until it starts would be easier but then i have to get up for work 3 hours after it ends)

come to think of it i didnt watch last year’s live either. hard to get  as excited about new pokemon stuff as i used to and im also sick of these 6am presentations. if it was splatoon id do it though.

[kieuecaprie]

KieueCaprie's 2022 Games Complete List #4 (16-20)

#16: Bugsnax (+ DLC)

Started 🚩: 28/4/22 Finished 🏁: 30/4/22

(Got no progress image so here's a Bunger instead.)

I did not get Bugsnax when it first came out because it released on the Epic Games Store and, uh, well, I'm still a bit sore about Unreal Tournament essentially being left to rot so...

ANYWAY, after a whole year, it finally dropped on Steam, even though I could've played it on PS4 this whole time, I waited for it to be on Steam so I can grab it on there and boy am I glad that I did because, at the time of release, I got a Steam Deck! And it was perfect for that little handheld powerhouse, albeit a little battery hungry.

Despite being spoiled on the whole thing already (I was moderating for Limealicious, a little unknown Twitch streamer, you probably never heard of her), I was blessed with the power of brain fog as I've forgotten pretty much everything about the game's story, except for Bunger, Bunger is love, Bunger is life.

It's a great story with a great cast of characters who have flaws that you help them come to terms with while catching cute critters and solving the mystery of Bugsnax Island.

The DLC was pretty great too, although it just left me wishing there was more to it than just one new area... But, you know what? The whole package is worth it, and is still worth it!

#17: Plok (SNES)

Started 🚩: 17/5/22 Finished 🏁: 17/5/22

This is a game that people call "mid" that I love to this very day because I played it a lot when I was a kid, even though it was hard (as SNES games are wont to be) and there were no saves back then, you either beat the game or you didn't.

This game is still hard, even though I've cleared it, like, four times now and each time, I keep using rewinds and save states because I'm a filthy casual. One day I'll have the skill and fortitude to play through it Ironman-style and I will finally sit atop my green cushy throne in a pit of fleas and finally claim my crown as Royalty of Akrillic Island!

Also the music is still a banger to this very day, highly recommend you seek out the OST, it's probably floating around on Youtube still or whatever video site is up if you're somehow reading this from the future.

#18: Dread X Collection 5

Started 🚩: 20/5/22 Finished 🏁: 21/5/22

May I propose a question? If a glorified game launcher has a story in it, of which that progresses based on the games you launch and play, has fail states, and has an ending, is it actually a game that you've completed?

To that, I say, yeah, yeah it is.

I absolutely loved all the Dread X Collections up to this point and 5 is no exception, although it's kind of like 6 now because The Hunt exists but I digress!

The hub world this time is a mish-mash of an amusement center slash restaurant that is hiding a killer clown monster, yes, you heard me. The games themselves a fairly well done, as they do, fitting the theme of having a party but something horror themed happens.

Highly recommend checking out the Dread X Collections if you haven't already, they're pretty cool and good!

#19: Hardspace Shipbreaker (PC, Steam)

Started 🚩: 25/5/22 Finished 🏁: 31/5/22

I really liked the gameplay loop in this one. You picked a ship, inspect it for parts to tear off, and then you tear it apart piece by piece over a number of shifts until you're done and then you get to do it all over again. It's more fun and involved than it sounds, trust me.

You've got compression to worry about, you got things that could explode at the slightest touch of your cutting laser, and you got the general hazards of working in zero-gravity.

The story, as a whole, that dresses up the game is... pretty decent, I liked it and enjoyed the eventual catharsis (You'll see if you play through this game all the way tto the end, trust me).

Definitely worth a look if you like meticulously taking things apart. At the time of writing this, it's probably still on Xbox Game Pass for PC, so now would be a good time to do so if this post somehow piques your interest.

#20: Cuphead (PC, Steam, Base + DLC)

Started 🚩: 11/6/22 Finished 🏁: 1/7/22

I actually played Cuphead before! It was via Twitch. No, not through a stream, but through their game store that they used to have before they eventually stopped doing that. I actually still have the Twitch badge to prove it!

The game is hard and still is (but not the tutorial hurr hurr), and I admit I still got frustrated at some parts while I replayed it on Steam. But after powering through, I think I can say, I liked this game.

On top of that, the DLC was indeed the Delicious Last Course, I liked the new characters and bosses that you could fight, Ms. Chalice was pretty fun to play as, even though she feels a bit OP in some respects, especially if you take her into the base game. And the final boss of the DLC is quite... well, you gotta find out for yourself!

Charge/Spread with Invincible Dash is still a busted combination, although there were times I actually had to change my loadout away from the complacent playstyle that got me through the base game.

---- [Return to Top of List] ----

[teecupangel]

That’s why I consider him a bad touch option. I feel like bad touch options should make me go “… what the fuck?” and will be more on the side of ‘the main character never had a real choice in the first place because the other person has all the power’. Anything less than that fall under the whole ‘love corrupts’ and ‘love makes you do crazy dumb shit’ for me.

(Sidenote: For me, the safe routes to take for a villain love interest if this was Desmond would be Daniel Cross and Lucy Stillman. Cross would have a more half-corruption/half-third-party separation arc while Lucy will have a redemption arc. Vidic is bad end. Just. Bad end.)

Oh, absolutely. It’s hard to find a dating sim that’s actually more on the side of ‘oh, the story is so good’. I pretty much play it because of ‘hot voices’ and sometimes you just gotta play games built standing on a throne of tropes to have a better appreciate of the games that do try to subvert them even if it falls flat sometimes. Oh, yeah, Aelfred will definitely have a corruption arc.

Yeeesss. And the final upgrade has the additional crown as well which is just purely cosmetic but would definitely drive the point that the player has definitely gone to the Templar route.

Now, let’s play with history! (All of these ideas have Eivor as the first Grand Master of the Templar Order as well)

From a quick googling I did, it seems not much is known about Ealhswith Mucel so… some details could have been mistaken, or perhaps it was deliberate BUT we can make Eivor take on the name Ealhswith Mucel after she’s baptized since it’s pretty common to have a Christian name after being baptized. She can even be adopted by a Mercian lord as well to legitimize their marriage even more and any discrepancy between the real events and what’s written would be a way to erase her Viking past. (Here, Eivor’s body is in Vinland as that’s where she went after Aelfred’s death to spend the rest of her life grieving in peace)

Keeping her a mistress could count as a punishment for her too. She did leave her entire past behind and betrayed all her people to be with Aelfred and all she gets is the title of mistress for everything she did. This is a tragic way to end it but there’s a more tragic ending… (Uuuhhh… the real wife learned of her existence and Aelfred is forced to exile her to keep their relationship a secret. Any children she had with Aelfred stayed with their father and, depending on the age of the children, might even be raised to think that Ealhswith is their real mother, never knowing who Eivor was)

Eivor becomes Grand Master of the new Templar Order BUT does not have a romantic/sexual relationship with Aelfred at all. They still love one another but Aelfred cannot be with her because of the scandal and all Eivor is will be his most trusted confidant and ‘underling’. This would be a tragic ending that would hammer in the point that the Templar Ending was meant to tell players “What the fuck, dude?!” (Similar to the Eivor is Ealhswith idea, she goes to Vinland after Aelfred’s death to grieve in peace)

ngl, the only thing that kept me playing till the end of Valhalla is my desire to finish all AC games. The game was too long for me and I was already burned out by Odyssey and all its dlcs by that point. That’s why I never bothered to play the Ragnarok dlc of Valhalla (also I needed to buy it separately even though I bought the season pass and I was like “naaahhh, I’m good”)

It would be funny if we were to compile all of these and passed them on as an actual walkthrough with maybe screenshots and stuff. XD

I’m 35% into Valhalla and I need to vent a bit I have such a… Love/hate thing for this game???  I mean. From the “Mythology set” it would be my second-favorite, after Origins

(Which is an undisputed leader for the perfect mix of lovely world, lovely protagonists, and heart wrenching story which - most importantly - ties in to the Assassin lore)

Valhalla gets #2 after Origins for a very simple reason: while I may have issues with Eivor (not the writing; I find them pretty fleshed out, but for the moments when story decides to sod your dialogue choices and defaults to prideful hothead), I did not click with Kassandra, whom I decided to start Odyssey with. A little over 15% in, and I switched to Valhalla. I fully intend to see if Alexious would click better, after I’m done with Valhalla

(and just to clarify: I’m playing the “Let the Animus decide” option for Valhalla, co Eivor is female in main parts of game)

Now. One thing I have to mention: I’m a completionist and I’m easily sidetracked by non-mainline quests. Which means that, while I’m doing main plot quests in power level order and I’m only on Oxenefordscire Arc right now, I have a lever 5 settlement and 200 power for Eivor. Which means, I am at this point invested in the role playing aspect of game

And had a lot of time to tinker Eivor to my preferences Now, the thing I am having issues with: I have, as I mentioned, a love/hate situation for Eivor. I*like* how I got them acting at this point, and am managing to rock, more or less, the Hidden One aesthetic and behaviors now. Which yeah, comes with its own issues since you can’t really join the Brotherhood Point is, my Eivor isn’t going in guns blazing. They also aren’t going to get into your face and will consider other options if it’s beneficial for the situation. Even if it doesn’t exactly go with the “Dane” attitude to the problem Which makes the moments where the game goes more linear a problem Case in point, the start of Oxenefordscire. And the dialogue with Sigurd and Basim hit me right into the face. Because my Eivor isn’t going to toss accusations straight at Basim after seeing them act so odd. Not after having spent time running errands with Haytham and exploring old bureaus. The more likely option they’d entertain would be that someone got to both of them But instead, you have Eivor going all “Odin and Loki” in this situation - without any obvious reason?? I mean it would make sense if you play Eivor as the more aggressive type, but I did not. This kind of defeats the purpose for giving us the option to tune Eivor’s behavior - and in a scenario where, subjectively, Sigurd is the one acting more sus than Basim!  (Subjectively because, at this point, one can either see Sigurd as being influenced by sus Basim who has Agenda OR, as Sigurd being unreasonable and Basim appeasing him to avoid confrontation) Anyway. I’m hoping there will be some shifts further on because this has been frustrating me something awful Moreso than Dag being forced as a critic on Eivor while I’m busy running Eivor around and securing us alliances, and making exactly zero claims at being a Jarl (And I did get a bit spoiled beforehand, so with how the entire Dag situation is supposed to play out? I feel like I’ll be feeling all “sod it, I quit, peace out” by the end but without actual ability to do it. Would have been lovely if there was an option to at least have a talk where you seriously consider joining Hidden Ones but alas) …This is going to get frustrating won’t it. RPG but not quite. I’d say they should have kept RPG elements at Origins level - at least when it comes to dialogue / personality. Call me spoiled but my basis for good RPG dialogue-pick comes from Bioware’s Star Wars games / Dragon Age series. And those won’t fit into Assassin’s Creed, unless we are talking Alternate Universe / Modern Time line game

[adobe-outdesign]

What’s ur opinion on calyrex? Personally I didn’t love his design at first but he really grew on me during his dlc quest. His personality is lovely he does a dance and he has little peets w pawbeans.

I will say that I do like Calyrex's personality a lot. I've mentioned this before, but a lot of legendaries (especially in the games) don't really have strong characters if any at all. Some might prefer them to be more mysterious and cool, but it's nice to get one that's also just supposed to be regal but is actually a massive nerd. It's a nice change of pace basically.

Design-wise... well, let me put it this way: I really like the concept behind the design and how weird it is, but I think it could've been executed a lot better visually.

Because frankly, I kind of love the idea of this weird rabbit-ungulate that controls crops and has a giant bulb to serve as a crown/big psychic head that has a body so diminative that it just floats everywhere. Seriously, that's freaking great. Plus the king theme fits the region, for better or for worse.

However, the design itself is awfully messy. And I do mean that literally--is it just me, or is the artwork really failing on this one? Look at the way the white clips over the outside lines here, or the pointless green inside of the lines that's barely noticeable:

Calyrex also confuses me up every time I look at it because every time my brain goes "oh yeah that's a quadruped seen from the front" but no it only has two legs.

I think this is because there's a weird disconnect between the head and the body. The head is fairly detailed and realistic minus how long the eye is, but the body is like an MS paint doodle with no definition, and it makes for a weird juxtaposition. Either the head needed to be more cartoonish and flat, or the legs needed more definition instead of just being sticks.

And then there's just a lot of things visually that detract from the design aside from that. The random triforces in the neck orbs aren't needed, and the orbs are too big as well. The cape doesn't really read as a cape in the slightest, looking more like a weird pair of wings, and there's too much green in the arms (they should be brown instead, so they don't blend into the neck orbs).

Also, looking at the rider forms, I really wish the bulb on the head was glowing in the official artwork or had something else going on with it. I can't place it, but something about the colors just needed more "pop" there.

So basically, great personality, great concept for the design, but not executed well visually speaking. I still kind of like this weird rabbit dandelion, but it could've been much better.

Speaking of things that could've been better, the rider forms Exist. These are just really clunky to me--it's literally just Calyrex but on Glastrier/Spectrier. That's it. It's not even really a different form for the most part, it's just Calyrex but on a horse that he tamed.

I don't think I'd mind so much except the designs don't do together visually in the slightest. Ice rider is a little better because the colors are a closer match, but it looks like someone Photoshopped Calyrex onto a horse despite this artwork being made from scratch. Even the reins look tacked on--what are those connected to, exactly? And no saddle??

Basically, I feel like these would've been better if they blended the designs more visually. Like, maybe Glastrier/Spectrier gain some armor or riding gear that resembles Calyrex, or their palettes changed to match its. I don't know, just something.

I also feel like these don't work conceptually because Calyrex has such a diminutive body--part of its charm is how it just floats everywhere like a weird dandelion. Look at those legs. They'll break in half if you look at him wrong, yet you're telling me he can ride a horse?

The one thing I can say however is that the arms and cape look much better here, and I really wish they looked like that in the regular design. Aside from that though, these forms aren't doing anything for me.

[theseerasures]

Which part specifically? I mean, yeah, the whole game is a disaster, but I'd love to hear specific points. There was so much I didn't like about Fates that it just collectively merges as 'bad' in my mind.

it's not really anything specific tbh!! because the way Fates is misogynistic is not different from the way the other Fire Emblems (that i’ve. played. it’s possible all the ones pre-Sacred Stones were actually Forbidden Feminist Utopias) also carry that unmistakable whiff of misogyny. it's not done out of malice, it's just...a franchise that loves to play high fantasy tropes straight, particularly the bit about Restoring the Good Monarch. i never got the sense that they thought hard about the fact that the dude protags (Ephraim, Ike, Chrom) get intricate coming of age stories about tempering their talents for murder with wisdom, while all the lady "protags" (Eirika, Elincia, Micaiah) mostly don't change at all and just kinda swan around doing the "we are ethereal maidens too good for this sinful earth" thing, and when they do wibble it's always about how they wish they could be as "strong" as their dude counterparts except they inevitably can't and don't want to be, because war is bad!!! there's too much war in this war game franchise, buy our next DLC for how to solve war with war

(Lucina's a weird case, but that's why i love her, and...i suspect the only reason Lucina got to be the way she is was because she was doing DRAG, which is a rabbit hole that we don't have time for.)

Fates (sidebar: i played Revelations but i know what happens in Birthright and Conquest. i ended up doing all the Paralogues, because i was morbidly curious about how many different ways you could tell a "no dad!!! it's your dream" story, and the answer was "around four, so spreading them across TWENTY ONE versions basically creates the story equivalent of ultra skim milk.") doesn't do anything functionally different from its predecessors, it's just...more egregious this time, because so much of the story feels exclusively catered to drawing attention to it. i get the sense that the devs were trying to aim for bigger, more sophisticated storytelling than what they did with Awakening, which is why we got Fire Emblem: More Royals Than Ever and the requisite chin-stroking about families of blood vs. families of choice, but that they were trying to be Deep (tm) just made the parts that have always been shallow in the franchise look uglier.

i'm just gonna talk about the Royals, because the story privileges the Royals to a truly mind-bending degree (see above: high fantasy, monarchism). with the Royals we have:

the Hoshido/Nohr sibling matchy-matchy that is eerie from the outset (did Sumeragi and Garon set TIMERS so they'd impregnate women at roughly the same time and murder the babies who didn't come out the right gender?), even before you get to the part where they are "foils" for each other in p much aesthetic only, since their personalities are not actually that different when you get down to it. you have the Dutiful Big Bro (Xander and Ryoma), the Closeted Lesbian Big Sis (Camilla and Hinoka, representing opposite ends of the gender presentation spectrum), the Insecure Lil Bro (Takumi and Leo), and the Incorruptibly Pure Lil Sis (Sakura and Elise, the latter of whom for her crime of being outgoing was punished with death in Birthright, which...yikes)

so like. extremely paint by numbers right from conception (heh). why couldn't Xander have been the one who was Naive and Not Ready for This World? because he is Boy, which means he can only be flawed in the Boy Ways, so he must be Too Worldly instead. why couldn't Camilla be the oldest? she's already jaded and weird, so why not make her the heir just to shake things up? because she is Girl and Too Weird and Wearing BLACK, and weird girls in black can't be queen--even if Xander dies, she can't be queen.

Azura is clearly supposed to The Chrom Surrogate of this game insofar as she's your blue haired pal with whom you share a destiny, but she is The Chrom Surrogate but MAXIMUM GIRL, so she's the quintessential non-combatant class, she has a special song that soothes the hearts of warriors, she LITERALLY DIES FOR THE PEACE (TM) IN BIRTHRIGHT AND CONQUEST. (and obviously her hair can't be the Fire Emblem Classic shade of blue--that's too masculine.)

wrt the second gen, lineage is passed through the dad in the eugenics factory this time, which is on paper a fine shakeup from in Awakening, but...ALL the definitely-royal second gens are boys? don't get me wrong: i actually adore what they did with Forrest--like, fucking superb u gender-nonconforming fashion-loving Prince of Peace--but Forrest being an actually interesting inversion of what we expect (that isn't played for laughs!!!) makes all the other boys come off as much blander than they could be. why can't Kiragi be a dirt and hunting loving GIRL? i love Shiro's supports with Kana, but his whole "boisterous laid back but also inferiority complex" deal would be much less tired if he were the Crown Princess instead of Prince. i suppose if Siegbert were Girl with Anxiety and Kingship he'd just...be Lucina, but that's not necessarily a bad thing!!! bitches love Lucina!! (i'm bitches)

the thing is all of this would be...well. not FINE, but more acceptable if they did some things to flesh out those cookie-cutter personalities. Fates didn't deliver for any of the Royals to the extent i wanted it to, but even for what we had the girls got markedly less than the boys did. the moment that made me go "hoo boy maybe i will make poast about this" was in the climax when all the Five Whatevers lit up to form the Fire Emblem and we got some nice concept art of Takumi Leo Ryoma and Xander making :O faces, while the girls...were also there! in Revelation i'm pretty sure you can cut out Camilla Hinoka Elise and Sakura and leave the plot basically unchanged. you could say they fare better in Birthright and Conquest, but you could just as easily say they fare WORSE, because what they get to do if they're NPCs in those routes are: be sad and die, be sad and be spared from dying, be sad and get even weirder before being spared from dying, or be sad.

Camilla and Hinoka feel like the most wasted potential, because we haven't had as many "female royal who is actually pretty down with murder" characters before. but the devs clearly had no idea with what to DO with that, so (outside of her daddy and mommy issues, the details of which we learn about via supports with Niles the resident sex pest and hoo boy the "queer rep" in this game is whole other can of worms) Camilla became your momsistergirlfriend with built-in innovative airbag technology, whose creepiness is played for laughs, and Hinoka was...wait which one was Hinoka again

i am partly just being glib for comic effect, but like--the underlying problems are there, no matter how seriously or generously you want to read it. Fates doesn't go out of its way to mistreat its women; it just doesn't expend any effort thinking about them, so the misogyny breaks loose and stands out anyway.

[dantelionwishes]

I WANNA HEAR D'S THOUGHTS ON JEN'S QUESTION Spill the beans! You've even got me curious now!

“Do you think Rose is a good person?”

I’ll answer not just Jen’s question, but generally thoughts surrounding D and Rose’s relationship!! It’s gonna be long because I think about this a WHOOOOOOLE lot, and I seriously mean a whole lot,,, so read ahead!

btw, if you think Rose is a bad person and D hates him, that’s where you’re mistaken! IT’S MY STORY MY HEADCANONS SO IF U DONT WANNA READ THIS THEN DONT BRO HJASGJHASHJ

PRE-ETERNATUS, CHALLENGER ARC

Ive mentioned before, but D and the chairman had a fairly good relationship!!

In-game, rose is very interested in the player and talks to you a lot, so honestly not much changes here

D, in his challenger phase, is forcibly very loud and flamboyant. being overly animated and confident, he’s able to keep up with rose who likes to chat and banter with him 

When d talks to people, he KNOWS he’s being over-the-top, which is why he feels very awkward doing it (when people point it out, it makes it painfully awkward and embarrassing for them. Point in case: bede and Marnie!)

Rose finds him a very interesting trainer and observes D a lot. Its not hard to notice how hard he’s trying, but rose doesn’t point this out and genuinely moves along with what D’s vibes are as to not make him feel any more humiliated 

D is aware that Rose is playing along with his act, and thanks to this it really builds up trust like!! Oh the chairman isn’t making fun of me and genuinely finds me interesting and strong!!!! the chairman!! What a morale boost!!!!!! 

Again, its genuinely (funny and) awkward when D is being his over-the-top animated self, and its easy to point this out (which most people do, from his rivals to other trainers, to even gym leaders) but the only people who dont actively point it out AND act along would be his mom, hop, Leon, and rose! 

in addition, D has a pretty high-pitched voice so its easy to tell he’s trans?? He was worried he was going to be misgendered by such an all-important person like the chairman, but was surprised when rose immediately was just comfortable with calling him a “young man”

Another cute trivia thing during this stage was that they both are wearing shades for their “incognito mode” and D even gives the chairman some fashion tips for the next time he goes out!

It actually pisses off bede with how much rose and d talk;;;;;;  def one of the reasons why d and bede fight hhhh

The part of the plot where they head to rose tower, D was actually very against it in the beginning, saying that he could actually just try and call up the chairman if he wanted to! He tries and tries, but then starts to panic once he does in fact realise that something isnt right 

Even after storming thru rose tower and defeating oleana, d eVEN TRIES TO INVITE ROSE TO THEIR DINNER (MY BOY IS THINKIN: A DINNER WITH HIS FAV PPL!! HOP, LEON, AND ROSE!! the only one missing would be his mom) ……….but r-rose dismisses it with a smile, saying maybe next time…………..

D is a meek, insecure person who is easily broken down, so he really needs a lot of support to keep moving sO JUST IMAGINE this baby boy who puts trust in someone suddenly goes batshit and you have to defeat them with ur own hands????? Wowza. 

POST-ETERNATUS, NEWLY APPOINTED CHAMPION

OH BOY EVERYONE KNOWS HOW THIS FUCKIN GOES IF THEY REMEMBER MY FIRST POSTS JHASGJHHJAS

Ive already shown this via an illustration + a short Drabble, but its only after the eternatus battle that their father-son relationship is revealed

The game really doesnt show how serious the eternatus battle was, but for me: Leon was hospitalised for quite some time and wasn’t allowed to battle D until he healed up. At the same time, this gave D a lot of time to think about wHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED

I dont mention it, but this is where his gym leader au starts off from the canon timeline!! At this point, D is calling his mom or talking to hop or just locking himself up and is just generally in a panicked state where he feels like dropping out of the challenge, feeling overwhelmed with what just happened

ANYWAY IM HERE TO TALK ABT ROSE AND D but lets just say his Pokemon convince him to continue!!   

at the same time of his win, gossip went around quick and not only is D now very popular for suddenly defeating the unbeatable champion Leon, but is actually the “villainous” chairman rose’s son!??!?!?!??!! 

POOR SON BOY IS OVERWHELMED ONCE MORE, HELP HIM.

He actually escapes to the isle of armour + crown tundra as a way to give him time to think about this more (isle of armour: personal time for himself to think alone, crown tundra: chance to spend time with relatives he didn’t know he had) 

OK GENUINE RELATIONSHIP ANALYZATION TIME:

After becoming champion, he really didnt go see rose at all, feeling a plenty mix of frustration, sadness, anger, betrayal, but!! his feelings dont simply surround the “oh the adult I trusted was actually bad and lied to me“ or “wtf hes the dad who wasn’t there for me and is the reason why mom is alone how dare he” IT REALLY WAS A MIX OF BOTH HGHHGHH

But its BECAUSE he was close to him in the first place that he knows rose wasn’t just….straight up a bad person or a villain

The important part here was that rose and D were close during the challenger part, and our lad had a lot of time to think about how he was simply a good, misguided man

rose is very passionate about the things he cares about, to the point of doing anything and everything for them (ex. Awakening eternatus for Galar’s sake to the point of accidentally getting darkest day, or even working hard for Miriam’s sake to the point of accidentally never being there for her anymore) 

Yeah, d talked to a whole lot of people to think this over. He learned what happened between rose and his mom while talking to her, and D also learned what happened between peony and rose to further understand what’s up!!

In the process, I like to think both Miriam and peony dont hate rose! D was also an important factor in helping the both of them realise and clear up a few things, and at least, in their minds, stay on good terms with rose 

During both DLC arcs, D is silent at first but slowly n surely starts sending small letters to Rose :’))

YAY ACTUAL INTERACTION????

After a lot of thought on his self-journey, its safe to say that D had felt a lot more comfortable, finally talking to rose after the galarian star tournament arc !!

Ive mentioned before, but its not like D has to start from scratch since they had a good relationship as challenger and chairman beforehand anyway

D wants a dad! He does want to meet his dad, and at the same time rose regrets not making time for his lover and future family, so I’d say after pushing away the initial negative awkwardness they do both have the same, genuine goal in mind to talk to each other and build a good relationship with each other!!!!!!

Ive also said before but like ONE OF D’S FEARS IS…..”WHAT IF I MEET MY DAD AND HES TRANSPHOBIC” YKNO???? So knowing that rose already thinks hes already perfect in his eyes, IT REALLY DOES WONDERS TO A YOUNG BOY YKN O ?? ? ? ? ?? 

Uhhhhh honestly I really dont know how jail works and shit sO LETS JUST SAY D VISITS REGULARLY IF HES NOT BUSY WITH CHAMPION DUTIES!!!

Also I have nO idea what oleana means by “WHERE IS CHAIRMAN ROSE” cos like….iSNT HE JUST VIBIN IN JAIL??????? Lets just say he is sdghjjhsdhj

TL;DR

D had a lot, and I mean A LOT, of time to think about Rose. He does not have any ill intentions or feelings towards him, and the two have a hopeful, slowly budding father-and-son relationship. 

[fatesdeepdive]

Entry 33: Dawn Breaks

No Supports or castle stuff today. It’s time to end things.

Birthright Chapter 27: King Garon

Corrin enters the throne room to fight Garon, who stands up from his throne wielding a massive axe. Garon compliments us for making it so far. When Corrin mentions the deaths of Xander and Elise, Garon calls Xander a pawn, showing no remorse. You know, I like Xander as a villian, but goddamn did he get the short end of the stick in terms of parents to die fighting for.

Corrin attacks Garon, doing no damage. Azura begins singing and Garon grabs her by the throat. What are you doing, stepdad? Garon orders Corrin to stand down, using Azura as a hostage.

Ryoma attempts to negotiate an end to the war and Garon asks Ryoma to hand over all of Hoshido. And also kill himself. Then Garon attacks Ryoma with a fireball. I don’t think Garon’s good at negotiations.

Ranjito, Ryoma’s sword, begins glowing for some reason. Like Fujin Yumi before, it upgrades Yato, this time into a cool curved sword with a white glow. Wielding the new Blazing Yato, which is really OP, Corrin manages to hurt Garon.

This chapter sees us charging through the throne room, taking on an army of tough enemies who my high leveled units cut through like butter. Wait a minute, didn’t we fight Iago in the throne room? Does Garon have two throne rooms? Yeah, that tracks.

Garon has powerful stats, as well as skills that stop criticals and reduce the stats of units who attack him. But also Corrin and Ryoma are really strong and killed him easily.

Then Garon gets back up and trunks into an ugly dragon that demolishes Corrin and shatters Yato. Ryoma and Takumi run in to protect Corrin and also get taken out. Garon attempts to breath fire on the princes and Corrin jumps in front of them, T-Posing to block the attack. Corrin falls over, presumably dead.

Birthright Endgame: Dawn Breaks

The final chapter of Birthright, which has a name that is far too close to that of the fourth Twilight book for my liking, begins with Corrin floating in a black void. She wakes up back at the start of the game, in her bedroom, with Flora and Lilith standing over her, telling her to wake up. Either we’re in hell, or the entire game was a flashforward.

Corrin doesn’t remember anything and acts like everything is fine. Xander and Elise walk in and tell Corrin to wake up. Corrin says she’s happy, as long as everyone is with her. Then she remembers everything bad that happened to her. Xander tells her she can either remain in the afterlife, or go back and fight. Corrin hears echoes of Ryoma and Azura being attacked by Garon and Corrin decides to keep fighting.

All of the units we brought into the final battle shout cheers of encouragement; all of them are nice, but kinda generic, with two exceptions. Yukimura begs for Mikoto to lead Corrin back to the world of the living, which is really nice. And Azama says that Corrin isn’t destined to die for another 72 years and 19 days, which implies he knows exactly when each of my units will die. Which explains a lot.

Overall, this scene is great. It’s blatantly reused from Awakening with less narrative connection, but it’s still good.

Corrin says goodbye to her fallen friends, with scene shifting between the Frost Village, Training Grounds, and Dueling Grounds. Also, now that I think about it, where the fuck is Gunter? Did he have something more important going on? I know that Conquest and Revelations reveal he’s still alive, but I’m pretty sure he’s dead in this story path. Dick.

Corrin awakens, wielding a repaired Blazing Yato. Somehow. The repaired version of Yato, despite having the same stats, can now block Dragon Garon’s attacks. Neat.

We aren’t given an opportunity to head back to Fort Kenshi between chapters, but that’s fine. This battle has us charging through the ruins of the throne room to take out Garon. Again.

At the start of the battle, Azura begins singing her magic song, weakening Garon. LITWAA leads into the final battle theme, which is great. I don’t praise this game’s music enough; all of it is good and this battle theme in particular is amazing. As Garon begins to weaken, he begs for Anankos to give him strength. I wonder if that’ll end up being important.

Garon hits hard enough to one-shot most of our units and has fantastic defensive stats. Unlike the last round, he doesn’t wield an axe, meaning we can’t take him out by abusing the weapon triangle. This battle would genuinely be very hard...on hard mode. On normal I can just bum rush him and end the battle in two turns. Fittingly, Corrin ended up with the final blow.

Garon transforms back into a human and tells us he should have killed us as a child. As he dies, he says that perhaps this is what he wanted all along, the sweet release of death. He mumbles about how he lost his mind and became something, then dissolves into bubbles. Corrin wonders about what Garon’s deal was. Unfortunately, we need to buy some DLC to find out.

Azura faints, having pushed herself too far to stop Garon. Azura says that she can die in peace, knowing that everyone else will be safe. As Azura fades away, she asks Corrin to smile for her, one last time.

I know I compare this game negatively to Awakening a lot, which it definitely deserves, but I’d like to praise it for using its anime cutscenes in the final chapters, something Awakening didn’t. It really helps the dramatic moments hit hard.

Ryoma is crowned king of Hoshido, promising to bring the world into a new age of peace. Ryoma upholds his promise and helps rebuild Nohr with Hoshido’s resources. Everyone cries tears of joy.

Corrin meets with Leo and Camilla, who mourn the deaths of their siblings, and finds out that Leo is now king. Afterwards, she heads to the lake where she met Azura. Azura’s ghost tells Corrin to look into the lake, to find something hidden deep, before disappearing. The final cutscene shows the Hoshidan royals, happy together, meeting at a statue of Mikoto.

The credits roll, giving epilogues for all of our units and showing their battles/kills. I’ll be going through all the epilogues in bulk at the end of Revelations, but I would like to note my top units: Kaze, Silas, Mozu, Ryoma, and surprisingly, Azama. Who had close to 2000 battles because I sent him and Azura alone into a battle to build Support and unlock a Paralogue and just let enemies beat the shit out of him for a while.

As well as my least used units: Selkie, Caeldori, and Rhajat. Which isn’t surprising, considering I used them so rarely that I haven’t even mentioned recruiting them yet. My worst non Paralogue unit was Yukimura, followed by Shura and Izana. My least used actual units were...Sakura and Jakob. Sigh.

Saizo. The unit with the least real battles was Saizo. That’s what I was getting at. Followed by Kaden and Takumi. That’s not to say any of them were bad, Takumi in particular is insanely overpowered; I just didn’t need to feed him kills to keep him useful.

After the credits, the game gave me the option to select a few units to keep and recruit in later playthroughs. I only chose one, my max strength, eight movement Blacksmith: Kenshi. We’ll be seeing him again, eventually.

Closing Thoughts

Replaying Birthright has given me a new appreciation for Fire Emblem Fates. It’s a very flawed game, but to be honest, I had a great time. I’ve focussed on the writing, primarily, but the gameplay in Fates is fantastic. It’s a solid Fire Emblem game and I like Fire Emblem. Hell, things like personal skills, the rebuilt weapon triangle, and fixing pair-up make it a fantastic Fire Emblem game. My only complaint is that it’s a bit easy at times. Part of this stems from me playing Normal/Casual for this blog; I started a Hard/Classic playthrough in my spare time and it fixes most of the issues. The maps, although not as phenomenal as Conquest, are still varied and creative.

And then we have the writing, which is very hit or miss. I’ve explained my problems with this game before (black and white morality, incest, half of the Supports are forgettable), but to be honest, I do enjoy a lot of Birthright’s writing. It’s rarely anything special, but it gets the job done and occasionally has these fantastic moments of drama.

Birthright is a solid game that deserves a spot in the Fire Emblem series. If you haven’t played Fates before, I would recommend playing it.

Now comes Conquest, which has even better gameplay and also...even worse writing. Yay. But first, I’m going to be going through some of the DLC and Paralogues for Birthright.

[your-lady-star]

Ok. Now that I've sufficiently calmed the f*ck down after the last post, I want to discuss a bit of the things I expect/would like to see from Danganronpa S.

And I will be talking spoilers, so read only if your familiar with the games.

Now the big question everyone is asking is if this game is going to be as straightforward as the trailer makes it seem, or if the game will be something entirely different. It wouldn't be the first time a Danganronpa game pulled a 180 on the player base; hell, Worlds End Club, another game Kodaka worked on, did the same. And while I'm certain there will be more to this game than we think, I doubt it's going to go full-on killing game.

My theory is that it will initially start as just a simple summer camp trip (that seems like it's holding some competition based on the advertisement) with the students pairing off to win, only to be revealed that the island is more dangerous than they thought and now they all have to work together to fight back. Think Total Drama but with a slightly more stable host.

And speaking of the host, I believe that Monokuma is likely the cause of the danger of the islands, but he's not outright malicious. With the Monokubs being overseers and that one CG of Ryoma handing out a Monokuma balloon doll, they can't have him act like his usual self. I can see him acting more like how he did in the Talent Development Plan, where he does get on the student's nerves and causes problems but isn't trying to get them killed. I can even see the various monsters being his creations initially meant for small challenges that ended up going berserk and need to be stopped.

And with her being on the game's main title screen, I'm like 99.9% sure this ain't going to be another "Junko's the mastermind!" reveal again. Especially after V3 already mocked its overuse. You don't make self-referential jokes about doing the same schtick over and over only to continue doing the same schtick over and over. That does bring up the question of why Mukuro is still disgusting herself as Junko. The only answer I have is that since Danganronpa coming to the Switch will bring in new fans, they don't want to give away one of the biggest twists of the franchise in this game's advertisement (which I can also see them doing with Twogami). But I can imagine that in-game, Mukuro will eventually drop the disguise. Trust me, I want canon sprites of her as much as you do.

Onto another topic, let's talk real quick about how Ultra Despair Girls will be represented, particularly about a specific group of characters. We clearly see Hiroko and that basically guarantees that Taichi and Yuta will appear, but that begs the question: what about the other hit list characters that don't appear? Kanon is likely to get a mention since she has her own graphic novel, but I'd really like to see the others get their time to shine. Like, I know we likely not gonna get much from Celeste's cat or Toko's stink bug, but there's still a lot of potential here. I need to see at least one interaction between Takaaki and Mondo! I don't care how short it is, just please make it happen!

And for the last topic of discussion, we have another question fans have been wondering: will we see the Danganronpa 3 anime characters? They did appear in the TDP, if only as pixel sprites in the event spaces, but will we see them again, maybe even as full-on interactive characters? It would definitely take a lot of work since they'd have to make complete sprites for nearly a dozen characters, and the new sprites and CG's for the other 4 games worth of characters likely has their hands full, but it would be pretty sick. They don't even need to be in the game at launch, I'd be perfectly content with them being DLC. And yeah, they obviously can't have them be Future Foundation members, since I can't see why that would exist in the world of A, but that's an easy solution. Just keep those that work at Hopes Peak as staff members and the others as graduates who volunteered to help. Even if the DR3 characters don't show up, they should at least include Jin, since he would likely be in charge of this event.

Well, I think that's about everything I wanted to talk about. And at the end of the day, I honestly don't care if all, some, or none of the things I just talked about are in Danganronpa S. Just give me more wholesome interactions between my children and I'll crown this game as a masterpiece. All I need to know is when's the release date so I know if I have to request it as a birthday or Christmas gift.

[bluethealpha]

My Favorite things in Isle of Armor DLC

Oh my word, they had revived so much from HG/SS that it made me cry. HeartGold was one of my most beloved Pokemon games, I’ll save the long sappy story but really- THAT GAME MEANT SO MUCH TO ME AS A CHILD. 

Pokemon Following You!

The fact our Pokemon can follow us again really made me happy, and I spent an hour going through all my Pokemon and just observing them following me around. One factor I do miss from HG/SS that occurred when they’d follow you is when you interact with them, the game would say; “-insert Pokemon- seems interested in the flowers nearby” or something like that. And it’s not like we don’t have something similar when we camp with our Pokemon. Cause we get to know how they feel about their comrades or what they’re actually feeling in general. If we can’t pet our Pokemon like in S/M then dammit give us back the interactions we had in HG/SS with the following! Ha ha! Really though, I hope our Pokemon can also follow us in Crown Tundra when that comes out, which I’m pretty certain it will. I wish when the gym leaders visit, they’d make comments about you with your Pokemon too. That would’ve been neat.

Gym Leaders visit the island!

THAT was a huge surprise to me! I was just working on finding the diglett’s when one of my buddies (shoutout to @cadetspades) blew up my phone going; “YO PIERS IS IN THE DESERT!” And never had I dropped everything I was doing so quickly to get to work finding out who was visiting me at the time. Of course, my first gym leader visit was Bea. I couldn’t wait much longer and (temporarily!) did a few timeskips offline to see who else would show up. Nessa, Marnie, Bea again, Bede, Raihan, Kabu, Hop, and GORDIE have shown up in various places around the Isle. I was overjoyed to see Raihan and Gordie there. I was surprised to hear Raihan mention the Darkest Day when it was cloudy out, and Bede mentioned Rose being the one to have given him his Hatterene. And Bea talks quite a bit about Nessa (Nessa doesn’t say a peep about Bea in return). I’m working on sharing their dialogue here in the near future because lots of what they say is very interesting and REALLY helps you get to know them as characters so much better. And you especially see just how much Bede has grown as a character since the main story. He explicitly mentions destroying the mural and very clearly REGRETS it. Gosh, and I still have Milo to find (maybe Opal?). It’d be really cool if Leon shows up but I doubt he will. He’s the busiest of all our beloved characters, after all! It’d be neat to see Rose or Oleana there too but y’know...uh...they have their reasons at this time. 

Apricorns!

I love that they brought back apricorns and the use of making them into pokeballs. I had fun collecting those and making my own pokeballs as a child, and it’s a huge dose of nostalgia for me to be able to do so again with the help of a cute little robot built by a Sophocles wannabe. Don’t get me wrong, the kid is cute but he reminds me so much of Sophocles and it’s funny. But kinda adorable to have another nerdy child like Sophocles in a Pokemon game. 

So yeah! 10 out of fucking 10 for real, the Isle of Armor had so many awesome surprises for us and I am SUPER stoked to see what surprises the Crown Tundra DLC has in store for us! I can’t wait to meet Peony and his daughter (to find out if our theory is correct that he is in fact Rose’s brother. I want him to be so bad) as a top priority there until we find out what these surprises are, ha ha. 

Enough of my rambling now- hope to post the gym leader dialogue’s soon!

[reflectionsofacreator]

Shaun has some interesting things to say this time around, and I actually didn’t want to hit him even once! First conversation goes something like this, and you can watch here to listen to the voiced, if you like. 

Shaun: Oh, Desmond, there you are! Can I ask a favor?  Desmond (wary): Maybe... Shaun: When this is all over, I’d like to try turning the dial back on the Animus. Like ALL the way back. To the time of the first civilization.  Desmond: You think it would work?  Shaun: There was no real loss of fidelity when you visited Altair. Then again that was about a thousand years ago and I’m looking at going back at least seventy thousand more.  Desmond: Sure. I’d be up for it. Would be interesting to see what things were like back then.  Shaun: Excellent! I think it would prove most enlightening 

God, what I wouldn’t give to do the same, Shaun. Ever since we learned about Eve and stealing the Apple, the rebellion of humanity, and watched Ezio with the Apple in Brotherhood, I’ve always been so goddamn curious about how it went down. We know that digging back that far is possible, given how Clay went back that far and learned The Truth. It just... probably comes with a lot of issues, namely the Bleeding Effect. 

Aaaaand we’re probably never going to get a game like this, given how Ubisoft has firmly entrenched itself in “historical tourism” with barely any thought to their metaplot. Sighs. 

Second conversation has the Resident British Historian dig at the whole situation surrounding the Revolution, and I found it fascinating. 

Shaun: So this is how it started...  Desmond: What are you up to?  Shaun: Just brushing up on my American history, I ... I say history. They certainly teach you strange things in the states.  Desmond (small chuckle): Like what?  Shaun: Well - for all the talk of this being a “revolutionary” war. It was a civil one. Well, not that kind of civil. I mean there was no America versus Britain. It was Brit on Brit action. And you can clearly see how the whole thing got started: one war gave birth to the other.  Desmond: You mean the Seven Years War?  Shaun: Exactly. Seems the crown overspent in its attempts to keep the French out. Wound up with a great deal of debt. Believing that their colonists should help to shoulder the burden, new taxes were created. It was a reasonable request - even if parliament was rather well, undiplomatic about it.  Desmond: It’s not really fair to tax people for a war they didn’t want any part of... Shaun: What?! Didn’t want any part of? Did you not notice George Washington with Edward Braddock? He was right there in the middle of it! So here you have the Crown spending who knows how much money to secure a place for the colonists to thrive - and then when they ask for a little bit of help...  Shaun: Right, look, think of it this way. King George and the colonists, they all go out to dinner, right. And when the bill comes, George asks for them to kick in and pay their share. Fair enough! But keep in mind he’s been taking them out to dinner gratis for DECADES now. But the colonists, oh no, they insist they only had a glass of water and a side salad. Nevermind the table is FULL of half-eaten food and empty bottles of wine. And then when the King points this out, what do the colonists do? Oh! They flip the table over and storm out of the restaurant - probably intending to return later and burn it down.  Desmond: You left out the part where the king pointed a GUN at the colonists and asked them to cover dinner for EVERYONE at the restaurant.  Shaun: Riiiight. Right, yeah. Interesting take. IF he pulled out a gun - and I’m not sure he did - it would only have been after the hundredth failed attempt at getting them to pay their fair share.  Desmond (incredulous): But how do you define someone’s fair share?  Shaun: Well, with a war, apparently. 

Legit I can’t tell if this is nationalism on Shaun’s part or not. It’s certainly an really interesting view of history, and he’s right about “odd things being taught in the states”. It’s important to note that Ubisoft Montreal is a Canadian based company, and while I’m sure that a lot of Americans worked on this game, it’s distinctly lacking in a ... patriotic fervor. 

I was talking to a friend of mine (who is British) and making an observation that I don’t think this game could have been made by Americans, given the willingness to show different parts of the story. American nationalism probably wouldn’t have allowed for this sort of nuanced view. I’m absolutely not saying it’s perfect, but it’s a lot more than I was ever expecting -- I remember the marketing around ac3 being about how you were a patriot defending the colonies from the Evil Brits, but like... That isn’t really the game at all. It’s fascinating, really. 

It’s also worth noting that Shaun’s potshot at the American education system continues into the Database too -- of which all entries are written by him. That isn’t just a one off comment, but a consistent view that he holds. I don’t think he goes so far as to posit that the British education system is better, but he certainly challenges a lot of what Desmond (and by extension you, a theoretical American player) know about their own history. 

Shaun: I wonder how many other places like this exist... Desmond: There are dozens of them. All over the world.  Shaun: And somehow no one’s ever found one before us?  Desmond: I don’t think that’s true.  Shaun: Oh?  Desmond: When I was at Abstergo, Vidic talked about silencing discoveries made by non-Templars. And I’m sure Abstergo has dug up plenty.  Shaun (slightly wistful): The things they must know...  Desmond: Regretting throwing in with us?  Shaun: Ha. No. Just looking forward to when we can finally trounce those bastards so I can dive into their archives. 

Desmond, dangling Information in front of Shaun: I know what you likeeeeeeeee....

I do wonder what other places exist, and I know some of the DLC for AC Odyssey touches a little bit on that. I’m just. [shakes the games] give me LORE

[veinereastath]

Far Cry: New Dawn was a disaster, and here’s why.

Okay, just to be clear - this is my personal opinion, not pure, cold facts that I’m trying to push down people’s throats. I just felt the sudden urge to break down piece by piece my utter hatred towards this game. So, let’s go. What exactly went wrong with it, and why Far Cry 5 was way better? I will try to present my ramblings and point of view by putting both of these games side by side. So, when reading every sentence in this... thing, add in your head a “it’s vei’s opinion” bit to avoid misunderstandings. Thanks in advance! First thing, to make everything clear - Far Cry 5 was not a perfect game. No, actually, it was far from so; there are many games much better plot-wise, with more entertaining gameplay, bigger world, more interesting side quests and so on. But, one thing for sure, this game has a spirit, an unique aura that makes many people want to come back to it and replay it over and over. The way Ubisoft portrayed Hope County is absolutely fantastic - the music, the landscapes, the characters. It was something new, something fresh, and despite quite a lot sceptical voices when the first trailers came out, it turned out really well, and in general, people really liked this game, or loved it even. Yeah, some people hate the endings, the fact that every single one of them is bad one way or the other and that you can’t basically win (I always thought this was fantastic, because, hey, you can’t be a perfect hero every time - even so, I love how this game, Seeds especially, mock the “hero attitude” that protagonist tries to have). But even so, Far Cry 5 was mostly a success, right? And the canon ending when the nukes get dropped seemed to leave a perfect opportunity for a sequel. So, what could go wrong? Well, about that...

1. How long is this game? New Dawn is short. It’s fucking short, because I installed it right after it became available (fun fact, this was the first and the last game I ever pre-ordered, so imagine how excited I must’ve been), and started playing it as soon as I could. In my case, it was around 2-3 am. I had a break then, woke up at 7 am and continued playing. I was playing it slowly - completing the side quests, because I wanted to know what has changed in Hope County, and, of course, I was looking for some easter eggs regarding the Seeds (surprised pikachu - there weren’t any, Old Compound, John’s bunker and Ranch are too obvious).  Took me around 5 hours to move on and actually start playing the main story. I was pretty sure that it will take me at least 10-15 hours to complete it (why was I thinking so, don’t ask me, I guess I still have way too high expectations after what Witcher 3 expansions have shown me). Again, surprised pikachu! I finished the whole game in 16 hours. Sixteen. Including liberating all the outposts (1 star in each, didn’t bother to get 3) and finish all side-missions + driving around the County just to look around. The hell? And it wasn’t a DLC? Just for a little comparison, because, yes, FC5 can also be completed pretty damn fast if you rush it, but my 1st playthrough of it, with all the quests and admiring the landscapes took me 33 hours. Which leads us to the next point on this god forsaken list, and that is... 2. The map.

The next reason why I am shocked this game wasn’t a DLC - the heckitty hecck they did with the map in New Dawn. Radiation zones? Sign me the hell up, they make sense, are cool and stuff, but adding them just so you could bite off half of the original map is stupid, and extremely lazy thing to do. Okay, you can take off some parts, but if you’re doing so, add something new - some new paths, caves, mountain routes, something. And no, expeditions don’t count. To make it worse, the parts that were deleted were one of the best parts of the FC5 storyline. Faith’s Gate, Drubman’s Marina, Jacob’s Armory, Wolf’s Den, and the fucking Veteran’s Center. The opportunity to make this a haunted location with an entertaining quest in it was HUGE and it was absolutely wasted. It’s not like they couldn’t done it, we’ve got the mission in old Joseph’s statue, and the crocodile pikachu in Inquisitor’s Grave (which, by the way, shouldn’t actually exist - this bunker was blown up to pieces, but it seemed pretty decent in New Dawn, there are barely any sings of explosions, not to mention that “The Confession” room is untouched!). You bought this game with an intention to actually go back in time and find out about something that FC5 didn’t tell you? Kekus maximus, you don’t. Have some photographs instead (which are a nice addition, but seem lazy). To give this post even more personal hatred - I really don’t like the Henbane River region, so you could literally hear my heart breaking when I saw that we got 50% of the River, 80% of the Valley and 10% of the Whitetails, which were my absolute favorite. So fun!

3. The Villains. I must admit, in the trailers, back when the hype for this game was insane, Mickey and Lou seemed to be quite interesting. Even though back then it was obvious that Highwaymen won’t have that kind of depth that Eden’s Gate had, it was still something I was looking forward to, even though those vibes aren’t really my cup of tea; but most of my excitement was born from my love for Far Cry 5, so if course I had to try out the sequel. So yes, the trailers were quite nice (just not the live action one - that was a fucking disaster, and killed my hype for a few days afterwards).

Mickey and Lou were quite fun, but to little extent, sadly. I liked their sister-sister dynamics, they really seemed close, and it was nice that shey were so different from each other - Mickey was more calculating, while Lou was living for the action and brutality in itself. The Highwaymen as a faction in itself wasn’t really that great for me, because their only purpose was to cause mayhem, and I simply don’t like something like this. But the sisters were something different, right? No, they weren’t, and that’s the point. I felt like there was little to no depth in their actions - it was all for fun, and I find this just boring and pointless (pr maybe I’m the boring one). I know that this is often how the world works - people take and destroy simply because they can and because it’s considered cool. We suck as a species, that’s official and well known, but I expected something more entertaining from a videogame. Maybe I shouldn’t, but I did. And Mickey and Lou were literally Highwaymen members with a VIP crown above their heads and nothing more. They left their mother? Okay, that is something that could lead to other interesting things. They killed their father for power? Huh, alright, I can work with that. The point is, it didn’t give them that much depth, their main purpose was to plunder everything. Which would be all good and nice if they were some kind of a side-faction. But this was The Villains™, and I wanted to feel something more towards them. And to be honest? I didn’t even hate them. I felt absolutely nothing, they just existed and I didn’t care, because they didn’t make this game interesting. What I will say now may sound brutal, but I will say it: I don’t consider two young people (they were around 19/20) just wanting to blow everything up “for lulz” a good villains. I fucking don’t. It was a huge downfall after what FC5 has given to us. I was just so bored when fighting the Highwaymen, because they were shallow, and their personalities were only focused on one thing. 

Of course, there is also Ethan. Yes, I hate him (he even has a very punchable face, what a coincidence!), but I admit he was somehow a nice touch in this game. Yes, he was a prideful, irritating kid, but while I was just utterly bored by the Twins, Ethan actually managed to make me hate him. The only thing that I’m quite bothered by is that I don’t believe that he’s actual, biological son of Joseph. To put it shortly, and say it louder for the people in the back - The Twins were just meh. Boring. How was the situation in FC5 better? Oh boy.

Putting their obvious... Attractive physical appearance aside, and focusing purely on their personalities, because that’s what I’m trying to explain - they were something else, and something new. Ubisoft took a risk with creating four villains for a single game, because it’s extremely hard to give each one of them the screentime they deserve, and make them interesting and unique. Did FC5 succeed? In a way, yes. I’m not saying that Seeds are absolutely perfect villains (they aren’t), but they can eat Twins for breakfast and still stay hungry. To show you what I mean, have some short descriptions: JOSEPH: Cult Leader, “The Father”, a person who claims to hear the voice of God himself. Someone from a broken family and difficult life, who was in prison (according to song dedicated to him), lost one job after another, lost his wife, killed his daughter, and then formed a religious cult. JACOB: military veteran suffering from PTSD, with a massive knowledge about history and psychology, someone who literally brainwashed nearly half, if not more of the County, and manages to combine religion (something he clearly isn’t really fond of) and personal, darwinistic look on life. JOHN: former lawyer, a person skilled in adapting to any environment, charismatic manipulator abused as a kid, forced to spend most of his life pretending to be someone he hated to be, battled with addictions, emotionally unstable and with sadistic outburts. FAITH: young woman devoid of purpose in life, also battling with addictions in the past, probably on the verge of suicide at some point, who was manipulated (and quite possibly drugged) in order to comply; a broken girl hiding her pain behind lovely smiles. Sounds pretty diverse, right? And I bet that at least one member of this family was somehow entertaining for everyone. Now, here’s what New Dawn has given to us: MICKEY: the more calculating sister; young girl who followed her father and chose brutal life, creating entertainment for herself by making others suffer. Shows some kind of regret when you defeat her by the end of the game. LOU: the more brutal sister; young girl who followed her father and chose brutal life, creating entertainment for herself by making others suffer. Doesn’t show any regrets towards her actions.

And honestly, that’s it. I really tried to write something more for the Twins, but I couldn’t put my finger on anything. That’s all we know. And yes, I know that there is a major difference between them and the Seeds, which is the age gap - FC5 villains are simply older and have more life experience, but honestly, this doesn’t make it better. Mickey and Lou could have much more depth and be far more interesting despite them being young. Age is not a problem in such a case. I suggest to compare Mickey and Lou’s descriptions with the Faith one, since she’s just few years older. There is a difference, isn’t it? And even when playing both of these games, the Seeds just seem to be better developed than the Twins. Ubisoft did something weird, because they managed to focus on four villains and make each one of them interesting in their own way, but made just two main villains flat, and nearly identical. 4. Radio calls. This is a continuation of the point above, because it’s also something I wanted to point out and is connected to the villains of both games. The things you can hear directly from The Twins can be mostly described as “hey rabbit, you’re pissing us off a bit”. Same with the things they say at outposts and direct them to the Highwaymen - it’s always about the same thing, and there isn’t a single line that I found interesting or worth remembering (okay, my bad, the fact that Mickey and Lou seemed to be dissapointed after Nana chose to stick with the Captain rather than them was a nice touch). Meanwhile, I can recite most of the dialogue lines from the Seeds from my memory, and it’s something I could do after 2 playthroughs. They seem to be on a whole different level - and yes, it is true that to some point, the “rabbits” thing is similar to “the weak” theme of Jacob, or “the sinners” in case of John, but it didn’t seem to be that much tiring to hear about. Faith’s radio calls were interesting, because with each one of them you could hear her demeanor towards the Deputy changing - in the beginning, she was friendly, but after you destroyed Joseph’s statue, she was scared, and at the final confrontation - maliciously hostile. Jacob started his radio calls history with a threat towards you, and kind off keeps that all the time, but the closer you get to the final meeting with him, the more... Okay, how the fuck do I describe it in a non-thot way amused (I guess we can call it this way?) he sounded. He was still far from friendly, you still didn’t have any doubts he’s your enemy, but there was something in those radio calls, something that suggested he actually sees the Deputy as something more than just enemy, as a tool he crafted all by himself and he was proud of it. John welcomes you with this cheesy ad at the beginning of the game, and as time goes on, he goes even more obsessed with making you atone and confess; not to mention his absolutely fantastic reactions to stealing his house and destroying his sign. His calls are something unpredictable, because once he’s all official and charismatic, but suddenly he switches to this ominous mode that actually makes you want stop for a bit and look around you, as if he was lurking somewhere. To sum it up, this game made you feel like if you were actually developing some kind of a relationship with each one of the family member. But the radio calls from the Twins seem to be always the same, it’s all about “rabbits” and “problem solving”. Yes, it might've been better if only one sister was all about it, and the other one had something else on her mind, but making them nearly identical was a lazy move.  5. Landscapes.

Far Cry 5 was amazing, because every region was different and had something else to offer. Henbane River was full of Bliss, which created weird hallucinations, Faith dancing around you was also pretty interesting addition, and The Pilgrimage was also a nice touch (I recommend going with it, it’s a really nice experience, actually). Holland Valley was the pure definition of Montana countryside, and it felt fantastic to walk around and see those little farms, cows, windmills and so on. Whitetail Mountains were also something unique, with less open spaces, a huge amount of wildlife, combining massive mountains with deep forests. And even though the colors of this game could be simply described as beige-green, I didn’t really feel bored when wandering around. New Dawn had a cool concept, actually - makind the post-apocalyptic world colorful, instead of making it a grey wasteland was something new and I was excited. And, honestly, I really liked how it all looked like during the first 2 hours of playthrough. After that... I was just so done. The pink colour in itself wasn’t bad, really, but the way they added it everywhere made me feel sick. Those flowers were nearly everywhere and they were always the same. And while I love screenshoting landscapes in games, New Dawn didn’t really felt like something I wanted to spend time on. I like to admire the views of FC5, but not in ND. Combining the small as hell map with nearly the same flowers on your every step was a bad solution. 6. Other. To mention other things - well, I guess we could mention the music, but I feel it isn’t fair, actually. Both games did this well in some way, FC5 songs are certainly something unforgettable, and I mean both the cult ones as well as the OST. New Dawn did what it could - gave Highwaymen music that fits them. The OST, however, isn’t that good. Maybe because it just doesn’t feel unique to me, while the different type of music in each region in FC5 is, for me, unforgettable in many ways.  I won’t really talk about The Deputy >> The Judge metamorphosis, because everyone sees it in a different way. I personally don’t consider it as a bad thing, it’s quite a nice plot twist, and I like it (even though I went with a totally different path with my deputy OC).

Okay, I think it’s time to get to the main point. Why I consider New Dawn as a disaster? The Villains were devoid of any depth and felt exactly the same, the map was small as hell, the story was way too short (and these two things should be enough to make this game a DLC, not an actual installment of the franchise), the landscapes were repetitive, 90% of what was left from FC5 (locations, for example) didn’t get a chance to shine. Just imagine how much more entertaining this game could be if we would find some old recording of the Eden’s Gate songs somewhere. If there were mentions of some terryfingly huge wolves roaming around, if the members of Prosperity actually mentioned something about John Seed (which house they are living in!), if we could visit the remnants of the Faith’s Gate, hear the ominous “Only You” when approaching the Veteran’s Center and read some old notes about experiments that were happening in there, and so on. Basically, the main opportunity that got wasted was focusing on continuating FC5 legacy in a more respectful way. The things I mentioned above seem like small details, but they really could make the experience something else entirely. So, yeah. I hate New Dawn, in case someone didn’t notice. :)