#and i'm having so much fun with my third playthrough

[solarmidnight]

I want to finish my run in Baldur's Gate 3 for the first time, but I also want my first ever Durge run.

Fuck.

[tieflingbi]

Here's a face we haven't seen on this blog in forever!! Ellyn my baby!!! 😭💖

[snapscube]

I HAVE UPDATED THE AUTOPSY REPORT CHARACTER AND CASE RANKINGS

More thoughts below

3-2 WAS OKAY. I don't know if it was maybe down to how broken up my playthrough of it was compared some others, or if maybe it was breaking it up so much BECAUSE it wasn't hitting me as much as I wanted it to, but it really just fell a lot more flat than I had hoped by the end of it. It has a great first third/first half though! I love the DeLites, Luke Atmey has maybe my second favorite name pun so far and was initially a fun character to follow, and I was so happy to see Adrian come back even in a relatively minor role. But as I said in my previous gut reaction post I kinda just didn't vibe with the progression of the mystery. I kinda felt like a lot of the logic threads were very loose and random and Atmey turned out to not be quite as engaging of a character as I had hoped. It had the same effect as I think Glass Onion had on me where the whole point is that a character's motive is shallow and stupid and even it's though that's surprising and funny in its own right for a murder mystery setting it's not nearly as satisfying for me narratively. Also, to be honest, with the introduction setting up all these connection to Kurain Village and the Fey's and ESPECIALLY Ami's Urn I was excited to maybe get some follow-through on more of that plotline which just absolutely did NOT happen.

I have also adjusted a lot of the case rankings to get a better idea of the range of quality across the series. I was ranking a lot of cases pretty high at first but as I get more of an idea of the series' baseline quality/intrigue level they become more accurate and some cases I was being nicer too just cause I didn't know any better will get some more scrutiny.

In terms of the character rankings, I don't feel like explaining them individually. I think one or two major repositionings have happened though. Specifically I bumped up Matt Engarde quite a bit. I always thought he was a fantastic character but I was VERY ANGY at him for getting Maya kidnapped and so I didn't want to see his dumb face again so I put him in "would not spit at you" tier. But I have to admit..... I'm gonna be thinking about that reveal moment in the detention center for a long time. It's too good to not be in "love to hate you" tier.

[hawkinasock]

I ADORE YOU. MORE ABUNDANCE YANQING AND YAOSHI. PLEASE.

So, can you please learn more tell about this theory?

(You draw beautifully.)

GAAAGHHHH this was the first thing I saw in the morning omg tsym <333 dw I've got my mitts on and I'll get to cooking o7 I assume you're asking me to explain the theory? Which I'll gladly do. Very long post incoming.

Essentially, the general idea is that Yanqing is related to abundance in some way, be it simply second-hand association, or he himself being an abomination/denizen of abundance himself - I personally believe in the latter. While I've made art of Yaoshi and Yanqing in a parental dynamic, it's not something I see as a viable theory, so much as it's just a fun little crack theory. Yaoshi is more likely a passive creator than an actual loving parent. There's a bunch of different interpretations for what Yanqing is and how he came to be based on the little pieces of evidence found in canon. One piece of evidence is his blonde hair.

As far as I can tell, the only other blonde Xianzhou characters are Dan Shu and Luocha (Luocha isn't a Xianzhou native himself, but he was a part of the quest so I'm including him anyway), both directly associated with the abundance, as well as Yaoshi themselves.

Interestingly enough, Dan Shu has the same hair part as Yanqing, but that could just be chalked up to design cohesion and framing the face/mask, rather than anything meaningful.

Edit: someone pointed out to me that Dan Shu's hair was initially brown, but after joining the disciples, it turned blonde.

Edit: I somehow forgot to include Phantylia, who has blonde hair in her third phase, and even a hair part. There's also a disciple of Sanctus Medicus in a cell in the shackling prison who also has blonde hair. Every character I've found who has blonde hair is either a disciple, or canonically connected to Yaoshi

(I considered adding Hongling, the fanatic fan in the stands of the Skysplitter, but I think his hair might just be dyed, which isn't too crazy an idea for a stan. Still mentioning him though, since he's a really weird character)

If you look closely at Yanqing's clothes, there's a reoccurring vine-esc pattern on all layers of his hanfu. They can also be seen on his sword. It doesn't necessarily mean much by itself, but it's an interesting detail I and others have noticed.

However, I want to point attention to Yanqing's phone case, because it's actually super interesting, and probably the most convincing piece of evidence imo. Not only does it relay the vine motif, but that to me looks like a leaf detaching from a branch and transforming into a swallow. If the characters' phone cases are meant to reflect their personality/reference lore elements, then this is probably the most blatant in terms of potential lore.

Edit: the little decals on the camera lense are in the image of Yanqing's hair ornament, which happens to look like a pair of leaves, midribs and all.

Speaking of swallows, has anyone noticed that there's flocks of golden swallows inside the roots of the arbor? I only noticed on my second playthrough, but I haven't stopped thinking about them since. How odd is it that out of any other bird, the arbor has swallows specifically. Of course, Swallows aren't Yanqing's motif alone, as the wardance teaser silhouette's have what look like swallows in the background art, but I still think it's important to bring up, considering Yanqing is literally COVERED in them, from his ornaments, to his swallow tail-shaped coat tail, to his entire playstyle.

Low-quality ss of the swallows for reference.

Luocha also has a line about Yanqing that, setting aside any theory-crafting, seems pointless. He has nothing to say, which, if he was truly genuine, what purpose does this line even serve? I can't infer much from the delivery of the other languages, since I have no knowledge on them or their social cues, but in en, the tone is very... discreet? It's just the way he says it is very off, like he's being dishonest. Too quick; too matter-of-fact; It's artificial honesty. I hope you get what I mean lol. I can only assume the va was directed to say it that way for a reason.

A passage from Yanqing's 2nd char story reads: "It's recorded in the military annals of the Cloud Knights how Jing Yuan came to discover the young boy, stood his ground against public opinion, and incorporated him into the armed forces. However, in the family lineage column, Yanqing's lineage was relegated to the category of unknown."

From Yanqing's 4th char story: "Some speculated that he [Jing Yuan] was cultivating an heir, others claimed he only kept him around just to use this kid as a secret weapon. Jing Yuan never offered a response."

Jing Yuan is really suspicious. Like, incredibly suspicious. Even more than Luocha. Yanqing is already known to be an orphan, but the lack of clarity over the details of Jy discovering him, as well as the fact that he has no known relatives in their database is very odd. Speaking to Jing Yuan's npc in-game allows the player to inquire about Yanqing's origin, but Jing Yuan's response is far from helpful. You'd think the man who decks out his Lieutenant in protective charms and locks, and who raised the kid from, at oldest, toddler years, would be a little more eager to spurge on about stories from Yanqing's childhood, but he instead chooses to dance around the topic and make light-hearted remarks about Qingzu's furphies. Obviously, you can't and shouldn't expect to get all of a characters lore in one serving, but revealing so little definitely implies a lot more, as we've seen with Luocha.

These details are the reason why, if Yanqing does turn out to be related to the abundance, be it a spawn of the arbor, or a creation of Yaoshi themselves, I believe that at least Jing Yuan knows and is keeping it all under wraps. Maybe the whole reason Jing Yuan assigned him as his aide in the first place was to keep a close eye on him. Rather ironic a general of the hunt would risk everything to protect the thing he's sworn to destroy.

But that's just my two cents. Thank you anon for giving me a reason to spurge about this theory finally, as it's become so dear to my heart.

More art will be posted as I go along, so don't touch that dial.

[pinkyjulien]

WIP Saturday 🙋‍♂️

Been slowly gettin' back into CP77 modding and wanted to do some comfy hoodie :3

First attempt was a port from Marvelous Designer

Everything was going fine, weight was decent, but trying to get the materials right was fucking my groove up

Wasn't satisfied with how it looked, the shadows were unpleasant, and couldn't find any materials that I liked - so I ended up tossing it aside (didn't delete it! Might rework in the future when I feel better about it 👀)

Instead, I decided to work from a Vanilla garment!

Pics from Khagan's Clothing Catalog

I love this hoodie and used it a lot during my PL playthrough - tho it's way too crowded for what I had in mind, a simple, comfy hoodie

Even if I was able to delete some of the additional bits, a big part of it is actually baked into the main submesh (like a lot of vanilla meshes)

After my unbuckled Aldecaldos jacket I feel more confident tackling heavy editing projects tho, so this wasn't TOO spooky 👌

First thing first, I deleted a big chunk from the left top side and kept the bottom part (to keep the assymetry and natural flow of the fabric) then I mirrored the right side and connected everything to the remaining left side

Fixing a mesh up means I also need to unwrap its UVs again - AND that means duplicating, moving and flipping the normal map to follow the new unwrapped uvs

Same with the mlmask layers, but that comes later 🧍‍♂️

The original Hoodie has a bunch of additional meshes; the sleeves and hoods variants are on a separate mesh that gets called by the OG entity

I decided to merge everything into a single mesh, easier to handle for me in the AXL structure later 🔎

Regardless, still needed to move the sleeves and hoods to match the new fixed left side (since its a mirror of the right side!)

Now that the meshes are fixed both model and UV wise, need to re-weight it from the OG garment 🤚 That concludes the 3D part

AXL side, I went with 4 different garment ent and apps to handle the 4 variants; default (hood down, long sleeves), hooded, rolled sleeves, and hooded + rolled!

A fun lil detail with this mesh is that the hood doesn't have any garment support - with this in mind I decided to use the T1 - inner torso - slots to allow us to wear vest on top of the hoodie

😫👌 Idk idk it scratch my stinky brain really good HGHFH I love it

With everything ready, t'was time to tackle the FUN part; the appearaaaaanceeeees 🤠

I first had 4 designs with 5 colors each - but it quickly turned into 6 colors each; first design being the "basic" / default one, that I named "edgewear"

Gotta keep in mind that each color has 4 mesh variants, so that's already 24 items

I then used the beloved "orange leather" vanilla hoodie with the white barghest face on it (the one I used through my PL playthrough! probably my favorite tbh) as a base for my next design, "quilted"

It has a cute skunk ass hood 🦨

And I'm currently still working on a third design inspired by Varsity Jackets, the... well gfhhg "varsity" design

All of the appearances are still Wips and might change 🧍‍♂️

and I'd like to maybe add one more BUT... that's already 74 items, I don't like having too much options hgfh but dynamic AXL makes it really easy to just go apeshit with variations

ANYWAY I felt like doing another Behind The Mod TM post :3 some of y'all like them and I like sharing my modding stuff!

[rookinthecrownest]

Discussion about romances + expectations under the cut (I'd put it as like..mildly critical, but also coming from a place of understanding?). As usual, will tag as such so you don't have to engage/read on if you don't wish to. I always invite open discussion, just keep it respectful (as I will endeavour to do so myself).

This is going to be a bit of a ramble, so I apologize if my thoughts are not clearly laid out like they should be.

I think I've found the reason why I (and maybe others), feel that the romances in Veilguard feel a bit... idk, hollow, at times (not BAD!!! just feeling like there could be MORE). And that's because of the trap of expectations. I may also be speaking completely for myself here.

Anyway, let's rewind to 2014.

Be me, 10 years ago. You're not really a gamer, but indulge in action RPG's casually.

See a commercial for this hot new game coming out called Dragon Age: Inquisition. Be intrigued by the character designs, but know nothing about the world. Come to find out it's part of a trilogy. So naturally, you buy the first two games and play through them before playing the third.

Be amazed, and completely hooked on the characters, the lore, the world, the darker elements and themes. It becomes your favourite game series of all time.

But you had no idea that you could romance any of the companions going into the experience. And man, does it fundamentally rewire your brain chemistry to fall in love with cRPG and get ridiculously attached to your Warden/Hawke/Inquisitor.

So, you romance Alistair first because he's funny as hell, and has a really interesting story/character arc. Then you romance Zevran, and love that too - he's charming and suave and awkward and funny. Then you go onto DA2 and romance Fenris and Anders, and each of those romances pack their own emotional gut punches. Then it's finally time for DAI, and predictably, you go for Solas (a veritable slow burn that spans TWO games), Cullen, and partially (I never finished those playthroughs lol) Blackwall and Dorian.

I had no idea you could romance companions going into these games. It was a pleasant surprise! It always felt like an important part of the story, while not overshadowing the main plot. There was enough material in the codexes, the cutscenes, and party banter to make each romance feel complete and whole and awesome and nuanced.

And then, like some of you I suspect, I read an article that touted Veilguard as "The Most Romantic Bioware Game Yet", and I thought - "Wow, if they're saying this then the romances must be something else", given the quality of the previous romances you've experienced in these games!

But you get to the game - and while you're having fun, it definitely leans more into the ARPG style where romances feel a bit more pushed to the side in order to tell a certain story than the traditional Bioware/Larian RPG experience you've come to love.

Which is fine! Again, once I stopped thinking of Veilguard as a classic Bioware CRPG, and more like GOW/The Witcher, I found I was able to appreciate it a lot more for what it is. Things have to Happen A Certain Way for the narrative to work, and that's not a bad thing. DA2 was similar - it was a harrowing, personal tragedy about the Hawke family and their struggle to survive in Kirkwall.

Just like DA2, there are aspects of Veilguard that make me glad things happened the way they did. I'm not mad that Rook has so much dialogue without a ton of player input and you can't 'be evil' - because the game doesn't make sense if you can. At its core, Veilguard's narrative is centered around Regret, after all - you can't have an evil protagonist running around because Solas' Regret prison would never work (evil people don't generally tend to regret their actions...)!

Now, if you're expecting a long-winded, fully researched academic breakdown of every romance I'm sorry but that ain't happening tonight lol. This is not based in any fact, this is all opinion.

I can't quite put my finger on it, but sometimes it feels like the romances in this game (and I say this with the biggest grain of salt as I've only done Emmrich and Lucanis' - and am going through Neve's now), are just missing....something, to take them from good to great.

I loved Emmrich's romance. I thought it was very well done. I think a lot of people would agree it's one of the stronger ones in the game - doubly so if you play as a Mourn Watch Rook (you get a TON of MW specific lines going this route, it's great). His side romance with Strife if you don't get together is very cute, I enjoyed it. But as superbly well done as it was, somehow, I wouldn't even put it in my top 4 Bioware romances.

With Lucanis' romance - whatever my hangups may be about how it was handled, certain parts of his romance were done excellently (even better than some of the previous Bioware romances, I'd say). You can read more about my thoughts on his romance here which is why I'm not going into detail about it. Unlike Emmrich's, I would put it in my top 4 because I fell in love with the character that much (both in the game but really, I've loved him since Tevinter Nights), and I've grown very attached to my first Rook and him as a pairing. I've seen others share a similar sentiment on here (and I hate to say it but I agree) - sometimes it feels like I fell in love with Rookanis despite the way it was handled, not because of it. I can't say that for many other romances. While it's been fun to think up a lot of HC/write fics/make art about those abandoned concept sketches and parts where I felt the game could have showed us more of their dynamic, I can't help but feel like his (and other) romances would have immensely benefited from even 1 or 2 extra small scenes to flesh it out a bit more if they weren't going to let us freely talk to our companions.

The issue with the romances might also have something to do with the pacing of the game itself. I think Act 2 is where the pacing goes a bit awry, before picking back up in Act 3 (which is great, I love it).

Sometimes I also felt that there was a little too much reliance on codex entries and party banter to tell the story of the romance rather than showing it explicitly through cutscenes. I think that's what makes the romances feel a bit truncated at times, compared to the previous entries? Some of the romance-specific party banter was so good, it probably deserved its own cutscene. But it's also highly dependent on the party you have, and it's easy to miss/not trigger. I remember absolutely living for the cutscenes in the first three entries and I can't explain why I feel like, subjectively speaking, Veilguard just has less romance content (this may not be objective reality - I haven't compared the amount of romance specific content head to head with other games).

I also couldn't tell you why I feel DA2 doesn't suffer the same problems as DATV in terms of romance interaction - because you can't freely talk to your companions in that game either. Yet somehow, it always felt like I was getting enough of them to not notice that. I do miss being able to chat my LI's ear off and ask them questions about their life/their views/etc. like I could in DAO and DAI. I think it's a shame we can't because the companions in DATV are SO interesting. I want to ask them all a billion questions about their lives/stories/etc even if they're not my love interest. The party banter in this game is immaculate but being able to talk to them individually about this stuff would've been SO nice. I feel that I've missed out on SO MUCH of these characters just because I didn't have two of them in my party at the same time!

Anyway, I need to wrap this up.

In closing, perhaps, if I hadn't read that article about how it was going to be Bioware's most romantic game ... maybe I wouldn't feel this way? I think it sent my expectations through the stratosphere, and that's no one's fault but my own. Not Bioware, not EA, mine.

I know that this game's development cycle was a unique sort of hell that the other games didn't suffer. To go from Joplin -> Morrison -> Veilguard. To have so many of the original staff leave the team when Joplin got scrapped. To have to pivot from Live Service and then back to single person RPG. More lay-offs. It's a miracle this game got made. I'm happy I can sit around thinking about it. And I hope its successful enough that we get DA5 so we can all sit around dissecting that in 5-10 yrs time.

Don't get me wrong - I enjoy the Veilguard romances for what they are. I'm enjoying them more I play and discover additional banter/codex/etc that I missed the first time around. Like any Bioware romance, there are spots where they hit their stride, and spots where they falter a bit. When they hit their stride they knock it out of the fucking park. But when they falter, you can really feel it. Romance is hard to write! And you'll never fully please everyone.

But a small part of me wishes I'd gone in blind, and checked my own expectations a bit.

Maybe you agree, maybe you don't. Tell me about it. What was your experience with the romances? Did you also read that article and get your expectations up?

I hope this makes sense.

Kind regards good fandom folks,

Keep the discussion respectful. And please don't use this post as an excuse to just blatantly hate on the game.

-Rookie

[apostaterevolutionary]

So I touched on this a little in my veilguard review, but this is one of the topics I wanted to talk about separately. And it’s that I think I've figured out what really makes an rpg great vs just not bad for me. This is really a preference thing, cause I know there's people who are the exact opposite on this. But for me, it's about the amount of personal involvement the player character has

Like why are you, as the main character, here? Why do we care about the plot that's unfolding? Is it just cause 'well, world needs saving and I'm here', that's not very interesting to me. It's too replaceable - any sufficiently valiant person could do this (even in a chosen one narrative, this is typically true). 'Wrong place, wrong time' can be fun if done right, but it's still eh to me. I like it best when the player character has some tie to the overarching plot. I want it to be personal because that opens up so many more interesting emotions

Dragon age has examples of both of these. Origins, despite the Warden canonically being replaceable, as we know all the origins happened, it's just only one actually survived, does have this personal element imo because it has Ostagar. Different Wardens might see this differently, of course, but you arrive after just barely being saved by Duncan. Everything seems fine until the big moment and then everything goes wrong - you're betrayed, from your pov, Duncan is killed, and you wouldn't survive this third near-death experience in a row were it not for Flemeth's interference. This, in the moment, feels pretty damn personal. No matter who your warden is, Loghain acts as a personal antagonist right up until right before the end, whereas while the blight situation is mostly a 'wrong place, wrong time' situation, that personal element plus the little moments you get that reference the origin events really make it work for me. It could have more, but it has just enough to make it really good imo

Of course, DA2 is so strong on the personal motive front that arguably the personal story is actually the overarching plot and it's just occasionally a wider-impact event creeps into it lmao but that's why it's my favourite game. Inquisition, on the other hand, while yes, you have the mark and are the only one who can close the breaches, that is the only tie you have to events. The inquisitor has no motive beyond 'well, world needs saving'. If the anchor had somehow been transferable, Cassandra quite frankly would've made a more compelling protagonist because of her devotion to the Divine. She had a reason to be there beyond just 'gotta save the world'. The inquisitor doesn't, they’re really just there because they have to be (and that’s also why I think their appearance in veilguard is pretty weak imo, but people with different views of their inquisitor will disagree there)

And I'm not comparing, rather just using an example, but bg3 I think has both options. For me, durge is much more interesting than tav cause, once again, tav is just some guy (gender neutral) who happened to stumble by at the wrong time and oops, brain worm. Even the emperor would've happily discarded them for another if it served his purpose. They're just there because they're convenient. That's not as fun to me as durge, who has an actual personal reason to be involved in this, even if they don't know it at first. It starts out as the same, generic motivation of 'get rid of the brain worm, try to save world if we can' (assuming a relatively "good" playthrough lmao, but for comparison's sake) but it later becomes something that is personal. You have a VERY direct involvement in the plot and it really adds something to it for me. That's the kind of flavour I seek 🤌 🤌 🤌

And veilguard is definitely more on the inquisition side where literally any heroic person could fill in for the protagonist (and tbf, I liked it more than inquisition), when I think what really would’ve brought it over the top for me would’ve been some act 2 Personalized Horror event to happen. Easiest option would be something related to the faction, like maybe one of the recurring NPCs ends up dying in some really hardcore way. It wouldn’t be that hard to implement imo because it could be roughly the same quest, just with tweaks to fit the chosen faction. Giving Rook a personal motivation would’ve really spice things up and give the factions more depth too. If you play as a warden, I think weisshaupt may have that affect (which is why my second run will be a warden lmao), but it would be nice to have something really devastating for the character regardless of faction

(And to be perfectly honest, if we were going to lose a companion anyway, having that happen in the middle of the game might have actually been spicier and really cemented Rook’s conviction while still having the regret prison concept work imo. It would mean missing out on a companion arc, but it’s another option at least)

This would also give an opportunity to really boost the companion relationships. Like the Bad Thing happens and then you get maybe a little scene with the current love interest, or even just some dialogue with each of the companions. Something with them being the ones to comfort Rook for a change. Cause all that remains is devastating, and the bg3 act 2 redemptive durge scene is wonderful, but it’s also the aftermath that’s really tasty. And having some sort of Personalized Horror for Rook would’ve given us an opportunity to have that moment of them being vulnerable, and the companions stepping up to help them. That really would’ve made the team feel good and cemented, like they really were a strong team

And again, I know this is a personal preference thing. I have a friend who struggles whenever a game has any kind of established background at all and thinks that bg3’s tav is the absolute perfect kind of rpg protagonist and I’m sure there’s plenty of people who agree and prefer the fully blank slate. Some people do prefer to just headcanon all of this rather than have it directly in the game. And that’s fine. But for me, that personal involvement and motive is the real special sauce for rpgs and I think that’s why DA2 specifically is the one that made me insane lmao. And I think if veilguard had’ve had that bit of personalized angst, I would’ve put it an entire bracket higher than I did. It would’ve fit really well imo and idk if it was something bioware ever planned for the game, but I, for one, really would’ve loved it

[chrysanthemumgames]

Hi! I'm having so much fun; I'm on my third playthrough since the full game dropped. When I was escorting Makaria around the garden though, I was wondering: are there pollinators in the Underworld, or does the PC's (and that of the others who work with the orchard and so on) magic skip the need for pollinators? Because I'm just thinking of the PC heading up to the mortal realm and gently coaxing some bees down to their garden and it's a very cute picture.

Magic bypasses the need for pollinators, and to some extent soil nutrition/microbiomes, even. Of course, having those things will help, so by all means for those of you interested in the gardening portion, feel free to headcanon the gradual introduction of those sorts of factors.

It's a challenge to keep things alive in the Underworld, but it can be done. Some of this may or may not be covered in some scenes in the sequel; I'm not really sure yet.

[marvelhead17]

Baldur's Gate 3 Dribble

Do any of my mutuals play? This game is absolutely addictive, especially when trying to get certain outcomes. If Marvel had come out with anything similar I would have sold my soul for it probably.

In the last week and a half I've played another 70+ hours so I have 389+ hours and do you know how many playthroughs I've completed? Just the one. Only have 36/54 achievements. Some people have played 1500 hours and said they've discovered new things along the way (whether exaggerating or because they've played since it's earlier phases, it's constantly getting patch updates and new content).

I've got another campaign going that is nearly there, but I've been into character creation again and UGH it's just so fun to do the stuff for the Emerald Grove in Act 1.

But also, there so many companions whether you romance them or not, just to do their quests sometimes. And then you can still get good and bad endings for EACH?

Lae'zel, Shadowheart, Astarion, Gale, Wyll (these first ones are the main ones that you can even play yourself and get g/b endings for), and then Halsin, Jaheira, and Minsc can join you later. I don't know if the last 2 on the list are romanceable, but there are still bad characters you can have that I haven't explored yet.

Gushing about my Tavs below, and possibly spoilers for anyone who hasn't gone beyond Act 1 if you are playing, so just be aware.

In my first playthrough it was Karlach that I romanced, gods what a beautiful Devil. My character is a wood half-elf barbarian named Narriel. And she joined Karlach in Avernus when she had to return, so they look so badass in leather and everything!

Second playthrough, the beefcake and 'my heart' Halsin (no I did not do him in bear form, as tempting as it was, maybe on another run). I stuck with Narriel, (it's my fave name for a fantasy character okay?) as a wood half-elf cleric. This campaign is nearly there and I hate to see it go.

Third playthrough (I tried Astarian with another Tav but lord is that man difficult to please unless you are playing a bad guy) is with Gale. They are a non-binary wizard wood half-elf named Phoenix and they are stunning. I've just arrived in Baldur's Gate and so the final quests begin.

Fourth, I've started a Durge (Dark Urge) Playthrough, a White Dragonborn named Minerva, and it's going good so far for her (I'm not accepting The Urge, because I'm a simp for these characters and they don't like you doing bad shit). I've only completed the Grove so there is much more to go. I'm not quite sure who to romance yet, but I like that idea of Halsin saving her.

Possibly restarting Morgan's story (again, which sucks cause I played nearly 70 hours, realised Astarion was never gonna make a move based on a missing cutscene in Act 1, and now dedicated another 8 hours just to be frustrated) to go for Shadowheart instead, as being a tiefling makes it impossibly difficult for Act 1 to please Astarian without going against your own race, like damn. But also she's not that dark and Shadowheart is so easy to please, in most of my playthroughs she's tried to come on to me in the beginning, so I see how she was the most romanced.

Made a bard named Callon, he is (surprise) a wood half-elf who is starting off with the Lute. Going for Wyll the Blade of Frontiers because I watched Neil Newbon (Astarian's actor) play BG3 and invited the actor to speak about him, and it made me want to try! It's been adorable so far and I'm barely in it yet.

Made a character for fun named Nixie (based off of the All for One DnD YouTube series by Deerstalker Pictures), who is a pink tiefling sorcerer that loves casting firespells and is mischievous. We'll see where she takes us, but without that in mind I've decided to ignore her playthrough so far haha.

That leaves us with Lae'zel who I haven't decided a character for just yet, and Astarion who I need to reconsider for. As well as Minthara? I'm not sure what other companions can be romanced that aren't in the initial party, all I know is Minthara is easy for a Durge playthrough. I also think there was a possibility with Mizora? I don't know.

Send help.

[kohakurin8]

~ A Devouring Obsession ~

Dissecting the message behind the bistro horror game, Dead Plate

‼️ WARNING ‼️

This post contains spoilers for the entire game and all 4 endings. If you would like to play the game before reading, you can download it at the link below.

Being a French Waiter Sounds Fun, Right?

First of all, I'd like to start by saying I absolutely LOVE this game by @racheldrawsthis and the amazing people at Studio Investigrave. The story will permanently occupy a part of my brain, which is exactly why I'm taking the time to share my thoughts on it.

In this game, we play as a happy-go-lucky waiter named Rody, who's just started his new job at a famous 1960s French bistro, La Gueule De Saturne.

His boss is a prolific chef named Vincent Charbonneau, who's equally odd as he is talented. He stands in the back of the bistro kitchen and watches his cooks meticulously prepare his day-by-day cuisine, meanwhile Rody is mysteriously the only waiter.

It's worth noting that the "diner style" gameplay is incredibly fun and really impactful to the overall experience of the story. Even though it seems to only be particularly relevant in the first playthrough or so (however long it takes you to buy the Matches), I still absolutely love the feature.

The Difference Between Love and Obsession

Sadly enough, I've seen a lot of debate going around in the fandom and Rach's ask-box about shipping connected to the game. While I support headcanons and unique interpretations of the source material (and don't hate the ship), just as any creator should, I also cannot stress enough that this is NOT a story about Love!

The story of Dead Plate is incredibly immersive and very well written, meaning that just as in life there is very much a possibility for the events between Rody and Vince to have ended better. But the point of the story is to actually illustrate the tragedy of Obsession and how it can ruin a person.

To preface, if neither Rody nor Vince had indulged in their obsessions, things could have ended a lot better for everyone involved. But sometimes in life, tragedy strikes, and there's nothing you can do but learn to accept it. The best outcome, the happy ending, isn't always the reality.

So if any of you out there still believe that the game of Dead Plate was "shipbaiting" somehow, or if you struggle to see the differences between Love and Obsession portrayed in the story, well...

Allow me to elaborate!

The Manon Hangup

We all know Rody and Vince, whether you've played the game or just got a bit curious about it on the Internet. But, the third major character who holds the stories of these two boys together like glue is our dearly departed Manon.

Although her identity is mostly hidden until after the first ending, Manon is soon revealed to be Rody's ex-girlfriend and Vince's current girlfriend. She serves as both the object of Rody's obsession and the catalyst of Vince's obsessions — although, despite her being the story's primary victim, I can't help but feel she's also a bit guilty of Crime of Inactivity for the events which transpire.

Rody and Manon had been dating for a while, I think since even before Rody dropped out of university. He would spend all of his time and money trying to make sure she was always happy, neglecting himself to the point that Manon finally broke up with him.

And then went after a rich, famous chef almost immediately... Ya know... As normal people do...

Needless to say, Rody believes he's madly in love with Manon. He's constantly talking about how absolutely in love with her he is — about songs he wants to write for her, and things he wants to do to make her happy. And all of this definitely gives the illusion of love, but if you actually pay attention to what he says and how he acts, it's pretty obvious that Rody isn't in love at all.

Rody is obsessed with the idea of being in love...

See, when you're in love with someone, you talk about them — who they are, what they enjoy, how they make you feel, etc. But Rody never says anything like this about Manon; if he did, then we would have understood who she was better before Ending 3. Instead, everything he says about her is an "I" statement.

"I bought her gifts!"

"I want to take her to dinner!"

Yet, even when asked questions about Manon, Rody can barely answer them. The best detail we can get out of him is that she might be a little materialistic.

Rody's obsession was never about Manon, it was instead about how having a girlfriend made him feel. That's why he held onto her so hard, why you have the option to try calling her every single night, and why he simply can't even accept the fact that she broke up with him.

This likely has something to do with trauma in Rody's past, although we'll never really know. What we DO know is that Rody's behavior could have possibly been corrected if Manon had simply acted sooner in the relationship.

Why did she wait until he was so far gone to finally take action?

Why did she start dating a richer guy almost immediately?

We don't know enough about Manon to say for sure, but I suspect she may have been passively taking advantage of Rody until the guilt was too much to bear. Which in itself didn't exactly lead to her death and the ruining of three lives, but Manon still had the opportunity to stop this entire debacle before it even had a prayer of happening.

The Torment of a Chef

So now we slide over to Vincent's obsession, which is admittedly more detailed and complex than Rody's. After all, he's a trained chef in France, the capital of culinary arts! It's no doubt his job is way more high stress than you could possibly imagine.

But there's so much more to his psyche than that...

Rach has given us a lot of details about Vince, and I'm going to be referencing them quite a bit in order to properly explain the nature of his complex obsession.

Let's start with the fact that, although it isn't directly confirmed, it's been mentioned quite a lot that Vince's parents don't show him any love — this of course would be the reason why he has no idea what love actually is or what it feels like. The only thing he's probably ever loved in his life is food, which makes it all the more devastating that he lost his sense of taste when he was a small child.

Vincent spent his entire life learning how to cook perfect food, yet he despises eating and can't taste ANY of the masterpieces he cooks. That alone would be maddening.

Yet, it gets worse for him. Because Vincent doesn't understand love, that also means he doesn't understand how to put love into his dishes — the one ingredient every chef will tell you is most important in cuisine. (I should note I actually have a little bit of a background in professional food services) It's a huge insecurity for Vince, and rightfully so! Despite all of the people who praise his skill, there's always a handful that will call it "bitter" or "soulless" despite that.

But that's fine, he's fine. He's managing that insecurity. So what if he can't cook with love? Who even knows what love is anyway? He's still famous, and talented, and well renowned. He doesn't need those heartless critics.

Until he met Rody...

The two of them went to the same university, although it's pretty evident they didn't interact much back then. It's possible that Vincent's obsession with Rody started in university, watching him from afar, but that's uncertain.

What is certain is that Vince became obsessed with Rody after the ginger became a waiter at the bistro. Vincent heard Rody talk constantly about how much he loved Manon, that it started to make Vincent think... What if that was his key to cooking with love..?

Remember how Vince doesn't understand love? Well, it's important to consider that although one might not understand what love is or how to show it, that doesn't mean that they don't feel love.

Vincent is canonically gay, and also canonically obsessed with Rody. But why did he become obsessed with Rody in the first place? Usually when you latch into a person like that it isn't for some random, niche reason. So it seems highly possible that Vincent was in love with Rody.

He even did his best to show his love to Rody in the only way he knew how — by cooking.

Each night, Vince sends Rody home with "leftovers" — except, they aren't actually leftovers; they're dishes which Vince specially cooked himself specifically for Rody. He desires more than anything for Rody to enjoy his cooking, because he has no other way to show his love.

The issue with that is Rody is one of the people who expressly believes that Vince's food is soulless. Granted, he's the sort of person who would praise Burger King so honestly his opinion should be taken with a grain of salt, buuuutttt... That's not how this works.

Vince loves Rody, therefore Rody's opinion is important.

Rody "loves" Manon, therefore Vince is jealous of Manon.

I suspect this is why Vince was willing to agree to a relationship with Manon in the hopes of killing her. See, he's so obsessed with cooking "love" for Rody that if you choose to give cheese to the rat in the kitchen on Day 4, Vince cooks the rat as one of the meals for Rody.

Why? Because Rody showed it love.

It's the exact same reason that he decided to murder and cook Manon into the Grilled Hanger Steak.

I know you're going to say "But, wait! He wanted to eat Rody too!" and yeah, he does eat Rody in Ending 4. But let me impart some wisdom onto you all as to why his meticulous plan took these tragic events.

I know it's tempting to buy into the idea that Vincent intended to eat Rody all along, but consider his dialogue in Day 7 for a moment.

As he's talking to Rody, Vincent reveals his true nature — all he wanted was for Rody to eat the steak he made and taste the love he felt for Manon. He never once mentions a desire to eat people himself. Not until Rody tries to escape and Vince snaps, declaring:

"But... Maybe you ..."

It's only then that Vincent actually starts attempting to kill Rody. After all, if he really wanted to kill Rody, he wouldn't be so willing to have a conversation with him (or get mad when he couldn't escape the freezer in Ending 2)

The issue in Vincent snapped when Rody found Manon's locket in the freezer. His plan was completely ruined, and with no plan B, he lashed out. It's also worth noting that Rach confirmed Vincent is a lightweight when it comes to alcohol.

Funny how he attacks Rody with a corkscrew and you find a broken wine bottle in his office, huh?

It isn't confirmed, but I consider it highly likely that Vince was drunk on the night of Day 7.

If Vince was inebriated when Rody made him snap, it would explain his impulsive and irrational behavior. Drunken minds lead one to do all sorts of things, and it's likely that it played a role in Vince's plan shifting from making Rody taste love...

...to eating Rody in the hopes of tasting anything love for himself.

Because it isn't Rody's love of Manon that Vince thinks he'll taste. That was never how the theory worked.

It would be Vince tasting his love of Rody.

Who's the Real Villain?

Vincent might be the antagonist of our story, but that doesn't necessarily make him the villain. After all, his actions were entirely circumstantial to Rody's behavior. Which means that—

You guessed it

Our true villain is Rody.

This is something I really love that I've noticed in the 3/5 Studio Investigrave games I've played so far — the protagonist tends to be an unconventional villain.

In Rody's case, I'm sure it comes as a shock considering his himbo-puppy demeanor, but if you take a step back and look at him it's pretty obvious. Everything in the story happened because of Rody's self-sacrificing behavior.

Rody's obsession with Manon fueled Vince's obsession with him. His unwillingness to see the consequences of how he treated himself allowed it to hurt everyone around him.

If Rody could have accepted his break-up with Manon, she might not have ended up dead. If he could have reigned in his obsessions then neither of them may have ended up dead.

In a better timeline, Rody and Vince may have even been able to find love in each other.

But this isn't that story.

This is a tragedy.

A timeline where everything goes to the worst possible outcome. Where obsession devoured three lives...

Thank you all for taking the time to read all of this!

If you'd like to discuss the theories or have any questions, feel free to ask or send me a message ~

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

WIBTA if I played the last game by myself? to find it-> 🎮👾🕹️

So I [26NB] and three of my friends have been playing this game series for a while now it’s been probably a little under a year at this point that we’ve been chugging through these games (there’s, I believe, five games in total with a spin off and each game has multiple parts/chapters). We’ve been setting aside a day every week depending on our work and life availability to play through it. Normally getting a chapter a night or half a chapter depending on the length. Of course not every week we can do it cause of life and that's totally fine.

A little extra info on the games because I find it relevant. So the first game I actually played by myself cause the other three started without me (this was their thing they planned and invited me into later when I showed interest in the game) and I spent that time working to catch up to where they were in the game so I could join them. I did have a lot of fun playing the game as the game play is just as fun as the story to me and even when I get stuck the walk throughs are really easy to read and helpful. I'm not known for my gaming and actually watch playthroughs for stuff instead of plaything them myself cause I just all around suck at video games but this is one of the few games I like playing personally.

Once I played through the first game I hopped onboard the group plays with the other three to hang out and play together. Two of the friends have already played the whole series (lets call ‘em Lucy and Zeref) and know all the story where me and the third friend (let's call them Gray) didn't know anything at all about the series before we started playing. Part of the joy of these games for the both of us is getting to experience the exciting story in real time. As these games actually have a fairly large following and are pretty popular but some how both of us have gone most our lives with little to no spoilers for the series. This game is also full of crazy twists and turns that are VERY exciting to experience live.

Because of this fact I've also spent so much effort and time staying away from spoilers but still trying to interact with the fandom which is where not impossible just kinda frustrating cause there's a lot of art and fics and convos I'm missing out of because of it. I've even made another friend outside of this small group who ALSO likes these games but we don't talk about them much cause they're afraid of spoiling things for me by accident. Which, while very kind of them, is also in it's own way kinda frustrating.

We are currently on the fourth game and, honestly I've been thinking about just playing the last game and the spin off by myself at this point. There's two reasons for this. The first is that the games are just dragging on far too much to be fun anymore for me. I think it’s a mix of the fact that this fourth game is apparently one of, if not the, longest in the series and also that because of scheduling changes our weekly get togethers are much shorter now. Both of these factors causing us to take much longer to get through the chapters and this game. It’s really making it much harder to enjoy and even my roommate last week said I looked really tired and seemed burnt out during the session. It also doesn’t help that these meetups are online so I also don’t get to physically play the game myself and I can’t just ask to have the controller for a bit cause all of us are states away. 

The other part to this is that, honestly, me and these friends have not been talking as much. Something happened around the time we started the fourth game where I had a bunch of huge life changing events happen to me and I was severely depressed and grieving because of it. Due to some mixed up emotions on all sides and miscommunication, we had a hiccup in our friendship. There was a moment where I was genuinely scared of losing them but we talked it out like adults and things were better. However, ever since then it really does feel like the three of them talk a lot less to me now. I, at first, believed it was just my imagination. I do have some issues with my perception of reality due to mental heath but I always keep a very strong foot on the ground and go to people when I really feel like I can’t tell if I’m being crazy or not. So I chalked it up to me having a Moment(™) and just kept on like nothing was wrong. I even threw myself into DMs and out a lot more to try and make up for it. Instead of hiding away and being sad I tried to get them to interact with me more by really engaging in our friendships and chats. Unfortunately this hasn’t really helped the feeling of growing separation and light (possibly even unconscious) ignoring on their parts and I’m really feeling weighed down by it these days. It’s making these sessions even harder for me because no matter how much fun I have with them it makes the silence outside of the calls even more hollow and gut wrenching. 

A while back I did actually go to Gray and talk about my feelings mostly towards the way us playing the game is taking so long and causing burn out, and even suggested that instead of leaving the game nights completely, just playing the rest of them on my own and still hopping in with them when they do it. Gray was really sad with this cause they really enjoyed how both of us were going in blind together and they didn’t wanna be the only one who didn’t know anything while everyone else did. I understand that and felt really bad so I kept playing with them as a group. But the above feelings just got worse and worse. 

To top it off, Lucy has stopped coming to the game nights all together and I don’t really know why. As far as I’m aware they haven’t said anything at least not publicly in our chat about it and I didn’t feel it my place to pry. They also just haven’t been talking in the chat at all which feels extra bad cause I’ve always felt closest to Lucy and Gray at the end of the day. I’ve been chatting with Lucy in DMs here and there and they never seem disinterested in our conversation or like they no longer wanna be friends or anything. But it’s still really saddening as I am not really the DM type of person and am better at interacting in group chats and the like. So I feel like our already dying friendship is just going down hill faster. 

I just really wanna play the games and get it over with. I miss being able to play them physically and these game nights are starting to just worsen my mood as we go. I’m really not sure what to do cause I know Gray (and probably Zeref a little too) will be real upset if I drop out completely or if I play ahead of them. A part of me almost thought about playing the games in secret and pretending like I didn’t to spare their feelings and still make it fun for them and relieve all this stress off myself which I don’t know if that would be better or worse

What are these acronyms?

[elysianstars]

Persona 5 Playthrough Commentary, Third Edition.

That Moon confidant guy is in my bad books, for trying to sneak me into a double date with girls. If I was playing a female character that'd be fine, but if I'm playing a male character you can 100% miss me with that. Zero tolerance for heterosexual bullshit. Get out.

For some reason, the idea of a cat turning into a bus is a popular idea to people! This game is shameless in its parodies/references, isn't it.

Wait. Wait a second. Did this artist guy just threaten the heroes with either a) he reports them to the police for causing a fuss at his master's house, or b) he gets to paint a teenage girl naked? Seriously? I don't care if he has different motivations than Kamoshida and 'doesn't have interest in her as a member of the opposite sex', it's still not much better from HER perspective.

I know that guy's recruitable, too. Is this going to be a pattern, where each time a new Palace crops up, the next Phantom Thief is one of the owner's victims, being given a role in stopping them? Because that's cool.

He really needs to apologise to Ann though. And Morgana's attitude to Ann is bothering me too, getting dramatically jealous every time she gets compliments from 'other men' (including Jose, who looks like some kind of homunculus/robot kid). Just let her exist in peace.

Museum of Vanity is gorgeous, I love it. Especially the Labyrinth-esque section.

Oh, so if you hang around in Mementos too long then some horrifying unkillable enemy starts chasing you down. Amazing. It's so fun and relaxing when games do something like that (I hate it I hate it).

Side quest to rescue the local cats, followed by a side quest to remind someone that if she's not keeping it SSC she needs to stop. Now I'm back in my element, albeit not in ways I expected to be.

School trip to the TV show! Another creep starts hitting on Ann who's wearing her school uniform! I am going to buy her a taser!

Problem Guy has showed up and started causing Problems. Talking about sending Phantom Thieves to court is ridiculous, though. I may not be an expert on Japanese law, but I'm sure there's nothing which covers, y'know, supernatural heists in a magic parallel world. What real crime are you accusing them of. Do you give out your number to every guy who disagrees with you. I don't know what sort of introduction I was even expecting, but I suppose this is weird enough to be satisfactory??

And...did I get confused, or did he understand what Morgana said about the 'delicious pancakes'?

[megaderping]

Saw a rather mean post last night, and genuinely, I do not understand how people can play Persona 5 (particularly Royal), and come out thinking Akechi genuinely hates Joker when Morgana outright states for the audience, "You don't really hate Joker, do you?" Akechi laments how they didn't meet a few years earlier and how they could've been "great rivals, perhaps even friends." o_O Like... is this a vanilla thing? I genuinely don't get it. The interrogation room wasn't even his idea (SIU director mentions as much). It's not even about the ship- the game spells out that their bond is more complex, and it just so happens that a lot of people like to explore it as one. Even as platonic, tho, there's a shit ton of depth. Idk, any time I see discourse (especially people making fun of Shuake fans and stuff), I just question how many people actually paid attention to the dialogue. Even the "I hate you speech" reads as him being extremely emotionally constipated and conflicted. Plus, y'know...

Very hateful. Sure. :p Idk, maybe certain playthroughs of the game remove all those moments where the game spells out that they have a special bond (Maruki even states it isn't based on hatred, but that's only if you get his third awakening). Just wish people would get off their high horses, if anything. Sometimes I see people get really condescending about liking Akechi or liking Shuake, and like... just block the tags if you don't like these things instead of posting untagged ship/character bashing and making fun of fans? At least have the decency to tag it as something that Shuake fans can filter because some of those posts are really mean-spirited. :/ You think we haven't heard it all before? I may be new to the fandom, but I have heard that this BS has been going on for years.

I don't think it really matters if there are "healthier" ship options because some of us prefer the messiness, the depth, and complexity. It's not for everyone, and I respect favoring more straightforwardly sweet and wholesome dynamics or wishing your favorite pair got more spotlight. I'm a Riku and Kairi shipper in Kingdom Hearts, for crying out loud. :P I get it, but you're not gonna win anyone over to your side by telling them that [insert ship here] is better. In my case, it makes me more averse because of how deeply their relationship in the confidant, engine room, and third sem touched me and seeing people go "yeah, but you are wrong for feeling that way, THIS is better" is just... yeah. :/ (Also, people gotta learn the difference between hitmen and serial killers. Akechi is the former, which I've ranted about before, but yeah.)

So many fandom problems could be solved if people didn't take the piss out of others for shipping something they don't personally like. x_x; By all means, feel the way you feel, it's okay to not like things.

[powdermelonkeg]

Alright so ive been thinking about it (probably far too much) and want a second opinion.

Tears of the Kingdom and Baldurs Gate 3 were the same price.

TotK gave me a total of like. I think it was 160 hours to 100% completion (koroks ignored) in my case. And then i set it down and have had no urge to touch it again.

I'm about 120 hours into BG3 now. I have not completed my first playthrough, and I expect Ive still got some 30 hours left of it. I DO intend to play through it again, and I know that there are countless things left for me to do in it still.

And like. I ENJOYED TotK. It was a blast. But looking at BG3 now, complete with its 3 stage city map, like five other maps too, full voice acting, complex storyline, multiple endings, replayability, etc.

It has me realizing that TotK reused its old map. The only major addition was a procedurally generated single-biome underworld and a couple of floating islands (several of which were copy pasted around the map). Most of its gameplay was already built on the previous game.

So the thought I keep coming back to then is that TotK was fine. It was fun. But if BG3 is a 70 dollar game, then TotK has no good reason to be any more than $40.

But I think youre more into both games than I have been, so I wanna know your thoughts.

Sat on this for a little bit and...yeah. $40 is a good price for it.

Like, I'm not too mad about the map thing. BG3 was in production since BotW came out, while TotK started in 2019 and has to deal with a physics environment. I know what I'm getting into with a Nintendo game when I buy one, I know the level of writing and effort (and railroading) to expect. But the price thing has been a thorn in my side that I've ignored for...awhile.

I do think BG3 deserved another year to cook. Maybe two. I'm extremely GLAD it came out when it did, because I found it when I did, but the third act, for all its complexity, has a lot of loose ends that need tying together. Which, I also am not mad about. When you've had Pokemon-level writing for most of your life, and you connect dots in Zelda, literally any snippet of BG3 writing feels incredible. Even the worst bits of Baldur's Gate are so rich in comparison to the Nintendo games I play. But I DO think that they rushed themselves, and they definitely did it so as to not compete with Starfield.

Which is like...I've spent a decade evaluating whole wheat bread, and you've put a massive chocolate cake in front of me. I'm not going to care that the icing on the third tier isn't as fancy as the first two. I am kind of going to lament that the baker had to rush it out the door, though.

Also BG3 replayability >>>>>>>>> TotK replayability. Like, it's past Skyrim levels. I love games where my choices matter and aren't retconned.

[xaphii]

I've been super negative on here re: Veilguard so I just want to clarify, I've got 200 hrs + I'm about to start my third playthrough and I am legitimately having fun with it. But there are critisims and they boil down to, someone at EA or Bioware decided that the original idea for Joplin wasn't going to make them enough money and so they moved to go with an online destiny-like idea and THEN someone (idk who) convinced someone that they shouldn't do that and by that stage so much time and money had been wasted that they just needed to make something, and that something is what we got. I'm looking forward to when we, as a community, can have good faith discussions about what went wrong without the bigots getting involved. Until then I post my thoughts as an outlet for my sadness, not just for us as the community but for David Gaider, Trick Weeks, Matt Rhodes and all the writing and art staff whose creativity and genius was crushed by the ever present capitalist machine and the meat grinder that is the games industry. I hope we can find a way to improve the industry both as players and as those directly employed in it.

Until then, enjoy the games you love, don't let anyone take that from you, and also critise the games you love, you won't love them any less for recognising their faults.

[robogart]

I'm playing Dark Souls 3 right now and I have some thoughts/wonder if other people have experienced something similar?

So I've played through DS1, Bloodborne (favorite) and Elden Ring - really enjoyed all of those (except for the Lost Izalith area in DS1, woof) but I find myself really struggling with the enemies - specifically the Toughest Guys In The Area - so much? And it's sort of like "yeah, doy, that's what it's supposed to be?" but hear me out!

It just feels like that they not only have a lot of HP, but also punishing hits, SEVERELY long combos, and they also just don't stun or their parry windows feel SO small? Even trying to side-dodge or move around them is usually punished by the combo because they'll have back-reach that hits you anyways.

And the fact that they'll maybe introduce one of these Big Lads and you're like "okay cool, got it" but then from then on there are like 2-3 of them all together in your path (not like, guarding a good item in a little corner, they're in your progression route) and it's like?? What is going on? Granted I'm a dex build but that's what I play most my first/second playthroughs as, but I feel like the other games always felt more fair/surmountable in their encounters? I felt like I usually had a chance and the layout seemed balanced? But in DS3 I feel just SWAMPED by the amount of heavy-hitters there will be all together, and I find myself just having to run past them.

And it's not for lack of trying! I just feel like ONE misstep and I get caught in a Stupidly Fast combo! It's so much! ;; w ;;

And I'm ALMOST done with the game! Currently doing the Ringed City DLC right now before I get to the final game boss. And the boss fights have really been spectacular! I just did the Ariandel big boss and they were GREAT - had to summon help because I was getting spanked in the third phase, but it was SO FUN!! It's also so much fun to help other people! Jolly cooperation let's go!

But I don't know - I feel like this game is just less balanced feeling than the other titles? I love the weapons system, the boss fights, the areas and enemy design - but I feel like the enemy layout is just unreasonable at times - more times than I feel it should be? I feel like I've read that they used the same enemy ai as they had in bloodborne, so maybe that's where the misalignment sits for me? That game had a great fighting system that awarded aggression from aggression, your character is always meant to move fast and doesn't roll heavy or anything because armor isn't AS important as it is in Dark Souls, and the parry system was SET to be used in tandem with all enemies. And I feel like you could argue that Elden Ring is similar with DS3 with its enemies, but I feel like that game gives you SO much space, ease of movement (torrent) and the ashes system, so you're able to get some heat off you (especially if you're playing lighter builds). It just feels more balanced to me!

Ahh anyways - trying to gear up to maybe continue a bit more tonight! I'm so close... = __ =;; But I just wanted to rant and was curious is other people felt the same or not? I'll concede when something is a skill-issue in games - especially these games, where a lot of it IS learning the patterns and/or parrying - but somehow DS3 just feels weirdly stacked. Is it just me? Jesus?