#and then get S rank on the bosses and then S rank on the harder version of the bosses

[sleepii-moth]

shadow generations is so fucked i thought i got every collectable and S rank in every challenge level in the game and then the game is like, "when you activate doom mode MORE challenge levels will appear!" like please why i have almost 20 hours in this game and im not even halfway through 100%ing it yet :sobs:

[chaoticace2005]

Top Hazbin Hotel Songs so far: (order not super relevant because I jump a lot between my favorites so it’s hard to have a definitive ranking.)

(Note: ALL the songs were bops. There wasn’t a single one I disliked. I’m just going off which ones hit me the hardest and are now living in my head.)

1. Stayed Gone- this song is just so fucking catchy. The quick talking of Vox at the beginning is great- displaying confidence while also clearly overcompensating. The music is pretty repetitive at first but in a comforting way, being simple in terms of number of instruments. And then Al comes in and changes it up. I love the way these two argue- Al just roasting the hell out of Vox was great. The rivalry between these two is great and so entertaining to watch.

2. Loser Baby- so cute. Keith David’s voice was amazing. Loved Angel and Husk’s chemistry. Angel’s shock/annoyance at Husk at first is hilarious. Also songs like that and Crooked (from Helluva Boss) really are saying something’s we really don’t hear often enough: that things are a mess sometimes, but that doesn’t mean you’re alone. Both songs acknowledge the messy parts of the characters and both say “I see that, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care for you.” Plus it being in the same episode as Poison? Their messages complimented each other well and kind of closed the story for it.

3. Poison- Blake Roman is just- wow. No words. When this song came out a couple weeks ago I had it on repeat obsessively. We get to see Angel’s internal thoughts- his self-blaming for all the shit that’s happening, and how hopeless he feels. The emotion poured into this is astounding. It was amazing as a stand-alone song, and then the way the show integrated it in episode 4 made it hit even harder. It’s definitely A LOT- but sometimes that’s what makes such hard hitting songs, being so personal.

4. Hell is Forever- Alex Brightman killed it as always. I listened to this one on repeat dozens of times. It’s so insanely catchy. The rock(?) music that comes in to cut Charlie off? Also this song nails in the fact even more than Adam SUCKS. And while this is happening we are delivered the logic behind the angel’s choices- explicitly saying “yeah we don’t care. Murder is fun :)” AND are given the information about major conflict of season- that the extermination day for moved up.

5. Respectless- got brain worms from this. The way Velvette dropped in and changed the whole genre of the song was A W E S O M E. Her and Carmilla both SLAPPED. Also the line “I’m the backbone of the Vees” was just- I just loved the energy of the song. Major Six vibes. I’d love Lilli Cooper to sing more in the show!

[universeskies]

I wanna talk and appreciate so much... Marina Ida. AND I mean That since beginnings. Not beginning Splatoon 2, But rather back in the First Hero Mode of Splatoon! Back when, Marina designed and built ALL The kinds of weapons and Octoweaponry bosses We Fought. (Note, Im gonna refer as First Hero Mode as "Hero Mode" and Splatoon 2's Hero Mode as "Hero Mode 2")

Something that I LOVE SO MUCH about Hero Mode and Hero Mode 2!! Is that, there's a nod and details in how much like, Marina isn't there with the Octarians anymore per say, and its not only on the Music! Given that the little music motlifs that Marina loves to give are present in Splatoon's Hero Mode, but it couldn't be heard during the Hero Mode 2 (instead You hear Callie's voice and as well the song titles being a callback to Squid Sister songs)

And that is on the machinery that We see in both Hero Mode. Marina Ida is recognized and very much so well known to be a HUGE Genius when it comes to building and Machinery, especially when it comes to Octarians Weapons. Thus earning Her ranking of quite a GREAT Elite Octarian. And We do see that during Hero Mode. We do have that confirmation during Octo Expansion and a hint from the first Sunken Scrolls from Hero Mode 2.

Upon closer look, Octostomp doesn't look That much threatening. If anything this could Even Be seen as The Testing of Power before going to the Big guns!

And it shows! See, one thing that I noticed is that, the Bosses that We fight during Hero Mode, really relies in so many kinds of Machines that of course to a degree uses the Octo's limbs of course. We know these. Like all kinds of weapons and all of these are really intimidating and incredible design to go against the Inkling Menace. I really appreciate how out of what the Octarians have and the little scraps they got from the Underground to build all of these. Marina Ida, Elite Octarian everyone. Really should SO MUCH get such incredible appreciation of Her insane skills, and not only that? But We also know this as well with how MANY Shifty stations She has made. MONTHLY MIND YOU. The second Boss is based on rotating and throwing so much Ink, to shoot Around! THIS to test The aim. Then The Third to test The reflex and agility of The Inklings Menace. It's ALL and they get stronger to it.

Like LOOK AT THIS!!! THIS IS TERRIFYING. THIS BOSS was a STRONG MAWS. AND IT ONLY GOT STRONGER.

MIND Y'ALL. ALL OF THOSE GREAT AND REALLY TERRIFYING AND DANGEROUS WEAPONRY?! MADE WITH ONLY LIMITED RESOURCES AND SCRAPS. All by Marina! She is an AMAZING GREAT Asset and it shows!!

Now then. With that being said, lets look at Hero Mode 2. And already, There's a really great decrease of what can be considered Octoweaponry compared to Hero Mode. One could even say that the Bosses are easier in Hero Mode 2, though that is mostly subjective to how one plays. Could be harder or easier in-gameplay. Both are valid.

But then lets look at the designs and what goes behind them. See, for me, I believe that the Octoweaponry in Hero Mode 2 isn't as impressive or like...really unique compared to like what We saw in Hero Mode.

Thats a GREAT AWESOME Narrative detail in this retrospective! Marina Ida has desserted the Octarian Army. Marina isn't there anymore to like design or build up or built the blueprints for these kinds of Octoweaponry that We see in the first one. If anything, One of the bosses are more so, a Mano-to-Mano combat, which is the Octo Samurai Himself.

See, You could say, what about the Roller he wields? That has to be that, right? Like very heavy machine? Well yes, but also no. I think its kinda like an Octo Version of the Dynamo Roller. Octo Samurai could be one of the many Strongest Octarians all around to wield such Dynamo Roller with ease like it was a Splatana, or even like a Carbon Roller.

Not only that, if You look more, Hero Mode 2 has a RETURNING Boss, which is Octostomp!! But with a New Sick coat XD

That being said, already in Hero Mode 2, We really only have TWO NEW Octoweaponry designed for the Inkling menace. And these two machines....really don't seem that much impressive.

Octo Oven? Feels more like a Bubbler or Shield like weapon to be defensive rather than Offensive.

Octo Shower? Its just a bigger version of an Octo Drizzler...that can fly and not FLY BY ITSELF. With help. Add Stingray to it, but to be honest, the Inkling Menace can also use Stingrays...and Tenta Missile...AND a Charger. There's already limit with these two.

We talk about Octo Samurai and that dude isn't really a machine. Just one Honorable Octarian that wants a fair duel. Splats with Honor after all.

Then We have Octostomp that of course, is a returning one. And to be honest, the new coat just seems a more of a simple thought going "More face, means more difficult right? The more the merrier." HELL!! IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE EASIEST BOSS IN HERO MODE!!! And it came back trying to act like being a Third BOSS! When it's Just... They just simply added few more things to make it more of a nuisance rather than Threatening or DANGEROUS.

I want everyone to ALSO know and be aware That... I won't talk about Both DJ Octavio's fights. Cause I believe That those fights speak already from My point in what I'm speaking ABOUT How Marina is such an incredible skilled Set Elite Octarian.

She built then Octobot King used for Both fights!! The FIRST fight was really challenging and was equipped with SO MANY Special weapons. From a Killer Wail to an ALMOST STINGRAY. A FUCKING STINGRAY.

ANd The Octobot King II simply had an added platform for Callie to dance. And spam Bomb Rush specials. Hero Mode 2 DJ Octavio wasnt at full Power and That Made sense since I lean, there really wasnt much to Work with.

Soooooo, I feel that Marina's skills and mindset is just one INCREDIBLE set of thoughts. If anything, I can feel that the Octarians, dealing with the loss of Marina, decided to so much take inspiration and follow in per say what Marina thought. But thats as best as they could get.

There's nothing much You can do and such with already limited resources and already with Marina gone, they have even more struggles to really seek what could go against an Inkling Menace.

Remember... Marina did ALL OF THAT STUFF WITH LIMITED RESOURCES AND ENERGY.

So I really enjoy how the details of how the struggles of the Octarians are still seen and not only that, but also showcase as well, that Marina is still quite struggling cause I'm pretty sure that She still has to deal with just those kinds of thoughts. She doesn't have to deal with it alone of course, but its simply incredible the kind of attention its given within the narrative of Splatoon's Hero Modes.

Hell, We see inspirations of those Bosses in Side Order. The Ball boss from Side Order is clearly inspired by the same one in Hero Mode from Splatoon. Not only that, but if anything the kind of weapons and the uniform plate armors that Parallel Canon AND Eight uses, are very Octarian-like. Not only that, but also the way that the Pearl Drone functions is really similar to how many Octarians will try to pin point the Inkling Menaces and try to attack with mini Inkstrikes.

All around, MARINA IDA EVERYONE!!! SUCH AN AMAZING SKILL DJ TOO! YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!

[oakdll]

things i desperately want for persona 6

- Femc

I know this is not an unpopular opinion, but I don’t even need a full femc route. It would be nice, but I think it would probably take up too much budget. All I want is a girl model of the protagonist that you can choose and some pronoun changes. It would be so easy to do, I’m begging for this

- Let people be gay

If they are doing a femc route like that, there will probably be romance options for male social links, so just keep that for the boy protagonist route. You literally don’t have to change anything except maybe a few voice lines, but you could also have the VA’s only use gender neutral pronouns. Just let you date every social link (as long as they aren’t like your dad or teacher or something) regardless of their gender.

- Keep the rewind feature from Reload

This is self explanatory, it’s maybe the single best quality of life feature in any Persona game, I NEED it for P6.

- Keep the palace system for the dungeons

The order of Persona games was me playing P5R, then P4G, then P3R. Going from P5’s palaces to the mediocre dungeons in P4 was super jarring. Tartarus in P3R is definitely an improvement, and I might even like it more than Mementos, but palaces are by far the best addition to the Persona series ever. Having unique levels for each arc was a stroke of genius, and if they don’t carry it over to P6 it will almost certainly be underwhelming compared to P5. I do like the randomly generated dungeons, but I think they work best as accompaniment to palaces. Something like Mementos would be great for P6 in accompaniment to Palaces.

- Have a better spawning method for The Reaper

I like to farm The Reaper a lot, and especially in P4, it was TORTURE. Having to open 21 chests and then requiring the 22nd to randomly spawn an enemy just to fight The Reaper was awful. Even the time based ones in P5 and P3 are not perfect. Literally just anything but the tedium of P4. Requiring RNG was awful, you could spend 20 minutes opening chests just to not get an enemy chest on the 22nd and have to restart.

- Have a post game

Sometimes I want to play Persona but I don’t want to have to start a 100 hour new playthrough. Persona genuinely has a great combat system, and I would love to be able to explore Mementos or rematch bosses after beating the game. Maybe bring back the Thieves Den (or something similar) but allow you to re-enter palaces and Mementos after getting the true ending. Something like being able to rematch bosses in the Mushroom Kingdom from Super Mario Odyssey. Maybe also bring the album thing on the couch in Persona 4 back. If you don’t remember, if you went to sit on your reading couch, you could view all of your maxed social links and replay each rank. You could even go to the social links you didn’t romance and see what their romance path was like, or vice versa. It was super cool!

- Keep confidant perks

Having the ranks of non-party member social links grant perks is one of my favorite additions to P5. It can really help incentivize you to prioritize them and go for all max social links. I think the main flaw with Persona 5 was that Atlus underestimates how powerful the perks would be. That’s why the game was so easy, not because of the gameplay, but because Atlus couldn’t balance some players having unlocked broken confidant perks and others having not. It would be difficult, but they need to be able to balance the perks more. Definitely keep them, but don’t let people just blitz through palaces if they have Ryuji’s confidant at rank 7.

- Bring over a rebalanced version of Ryuji’s instakill

Speaking of Ryuji’s rank 7 confidant ability, I want it to come back. It is by far the most broken ability in P5, but it also made grinding SO much more bearable. That said, it needs a rebalance. Make it so it doesn’t work in palaces, only P6’s version of mementos. Make it much harder to get than rank 7, maybe a late game social link’s rank 10 ability. It would still be a broken ability, but it is an ingenious solution to fixing tedious late game grinding. More games should have versions of this ability.

- Keep the completionist difficulty of P5R

I think Persona 5 Royal has the best balance in terms of how difficult it should be to max out all of your social links on a first playthrough. I got all achievements on my first playthrough, but not 100% on social links. I was rank 5 in Strength and rank 9 in Lovers. It was very close, but it had just the right amount of generosity. I think if someone tries hard, they should be able to 100% it on a first playthrough.

- Make it so hanging out with Velvet Room attendants doesn’t take up time

Unless it’s a social link like Marie, I think having it take up time just prevents people from actually doing it. With how valuable time is in Persona, wasting time slots on hanging out with a non-social link character isn’t super viable. In P5R, I almost never hung out with The Twins because it took up a time slot when it didn’t need to. In P3R, I always hang out with Elizabeth because you don’t need to take up a precious time slot to do it. Please keep this!!

- Keep the story based character progression

In P5, most of the character progression happens through confidants. Obviously confidants should have character progression, but it also means that without doing those confidants, the characters are super stagnant. In P3R, almost all of the characters develop over the course of the game without requiring you to do their social link. Junpei develops a bond with Chidori, Yukari has personal drama with Mitsuru, etc. In P5, the only time this happened was Morgana leaving the Phantom Thieves, which is by far the worst part of the game. If they can write the story to be more similar to P3, I think it would be an improvement.

- Battle mechanics

I think Theurgy (or something similar) should be brought over to Persona 6. Theurgy in Reload was very unbalanced, being able to charge Theurgy's before big battles and end it in 1 turn was way too broken. I think Theurgy's should only be able to be charged and used in the span of one battle. You wouldn't be able to pre-charge your Theurgy and Armageddon all the bosses away, as all of your charge would go away after finishing a battle. This way it can only really be used if the battle goes on for a while, making it feel more like an ultimate attack and less like a win condition.

I also want Baton Passes and Technicals to be brought over as well. It can have different names and slightly different functions, but I think they are great mechanics, they just need some balance. Baton Passes and Technicals are also super broken in P5R, especially with merciless difficulty making them do 1.5x damage. Baton Passes were absolutely overpowered. I think this might be a pretty severe nerf, but I think the best solution might be limiting Baton Passes to only work once in a row. Having Baton Pass chains where you hit a weakness, Baton Pass to an ally to hit another weakness, and keep chaining it to shred every battle was unreasonable.

- Have a good challenge difficulty

Persona games (Mostly P5R and P3R) are far too easy. I actually like having the option to make them easy, safe difficulty is a genuinely good addition to the game, however merciless leaves a lot to be desired. I think P4G's option to freely change difficulty settings was pretty perfect, but even then I think having an even more challenging difficulty would be nice for veterans. Give the option to have a TRUELY merciless difficulty, something like Terraria's for the worthy seed, or CHIMPS difficulty in Bloons TD6. I always view those modes as some of the best challenge difficulties in gaming history. They have a perfect amount of challenge for veterans, and having something of similar difficulty in P6 would be amazing. I’m thinking like super boss level difficulty for every boss fight, obviously scaled to the player level though. I want to have to prepare in advance instead of just grinding slightly and shredding every boss.

- STOP ADDING FUCKING PEDOPHILES TO THESE GAMES

KAMOSHIDA WAS GOOD BECAUSE HE WAS ACTUALLY A VILLAIN, YOU DIDN'T NEED TO MAKE KAWAKAMI, UEHARA, AND MS. TORIUMI PEDOPHILES TOO PLEASE STOP LETTING THE MC DATE THEIR TEACHER

[ohandcounting]

Shadow Generations is the most angry I've ever been because of a 10/10 game.

I mean it. The levels? Fun. The Doom Powers? Great. The Playground world between stages? Fantastic. The story? Actually managed to make me cry. Completionist stuff at the very end of the game that basically doubles the length by giving you good reason to replay every level and boss fight? You betcha. Seriously, if they can just keep Samus'ing Shadow so he can keep re-gaining powers in all of his own games and go through them like this it would be a perfect formula.

This may well be genuinely the first 10/10 Sonic Game if it wasn't about half or 2/3's of the length of a full game (not including the length of Sonic Generations)...but I don't like some of the music, like most of the remixes are kind of just slightly worse but the original songs can be picked most of the time so it's not too huge of a deal. I actually really like the remix for the Second Boss MORE than the original theme. Chaos Island is super terrible though, if you couldn't choose the bgm and it didn't remember which song you chose for each stage that alone would be enough to make it 9 instead of a 10 lol. (I did also want S ranks to be harder, but I'm not done with the post game content so that might be enough for me.)

However, and this goes into spoilers, I have a huge problem with the game that makes me angry (this should not stop normal people from playing it):

Why the hell are there NO SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG (2005) LEVELS in SHADOW GENERATIONS???? Seriously. LIKE SERIOUSLY. You're going to bring Black Doom back, and make his STAGE THEME which appears THROUGHOUT THE CAMPAIGN in various levels, RADICAL HIGHWAY.

Like I get it, Sonic Adventure 2! That's the origin game! You need that to be a big part of it! Yeah that's fine. It should be! It should be there! The first Act turning into Radical Highway is so cool! WHERE THE HELL IS WESTOPOLIS. OR THE BLACK COMET??? Black Doom shows up randomly in various levels, do you KNOW how cool it would be to have it be a DIFFERENT level theme each time???? You're in Rail Canyon and then it switches over to falling through Death Ruins and we get a short mini remix of that song for what is already known as a very vertical level. It would of fit right in. You don't even have to change the level layouts at all! I get that asset work it is still hard work but come ON. The Radical Highway humping is SO BAD that the FINAL FIGHT against BLACK DOOM from SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG (2005) that takes place originally above WESTOPOLIS is UNAMBIGUOUSLY taking place there, INSTEAD OF ANYTHING to do with Shadow the Hedgehog (2005)

I get it, I GET IT. I GET WHY. They wanted it to be about his origins for the game, so they went with the game he was introduced in (that he has like 3 levels in). That's FINE. IT's FINE and it DOESN'T ACTUALLY IMPACT THE QUALITY OF THE GAME. The final zone is actually REALLY FREAKING GOOD. I'm so upset though. I'm so unimaginably upset. We get TWO Sonic Adventure 2 ZONES, that's FOUR Acts and TWELVE challenge stages dedicated to his first game. We have Zones for 06 AND Forces, GAMES WHICH NOBODY THINKS ARE GENUINELY GOOD. I don't even know if Shadow is IN Frontiers at all but he gets a zone for that game too!

THEN ZERO ACTS for the Cult Classic and Highly Enjoyable Disaster that is Shadow the Hedgehog (2005). Do you KNOW how Upset I was that when I get to the final zone and finished act 2 and realized that was it??? I was expecting something from what I genuinely believe to be the most fun* Adventure era game to be saved for the finale. It's literally in the name. Instead it's just RADICAL HIGHWAY FOR LIKE THE FIFTH TIME WOOHOOOOOOOO. WHAT THE HELL MAN. AAAAAUUGH. LIKE. They said in interviews "One Zone per game Shadow was in" and you know Colony Ark would be vague if Act 2 DIDN'T HAVE THE GREEN PILLARS EXCLUSIVELY FROM SA2 and NOTHING special from any of the THREE Shadow The Hedgehog Ark levels. THE SONGS ON BOTH ACTS EVEN USE REMIXES OF SONIC'S SONG FROM SA2 FOR THE ARK LEVELS INSTEAD OF SHADOW'S.

Like come on man, you can't make a Shadow the Hedgehog focused game and then BRING IN THE VILLAIN from that game and then NOT PUT A SINGLE LEVEL or BONUS TRANSITION LEVEL that's actually identifiably FROM THE GAME THAT'S LITERALLY HIS NAME. This would be like if they released a Mario Legacy Collection that loudly announced it featured EVERY Mario Game down to including Mario Teaches Typing but then didn't have Sunshine because of the pachinko machine or something stupid like that. DO YOU REALIZE HOW DUMB THAT WOULD BE???? THERE WOULD BE RIOTS IN THE STREETS

Anyways, now that that's out of my system I'm gonna go switch on the Terious Skin and finish this game 100%.

*fun does not mean good. It's like a 5/10 game but it's so fun it feels like a 9/10 when it isn't one of the 2 terrible levels. Like that one review of The Mummy.

[admrlthundrbolt]

Holding Out For A Hero (Mumen Rider x Chubby Reader)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Waking up beaten and in an unfamiliar place. Mumen Rider can't but feel sorry for his captors. Because he's the only one that knows what's coming.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi guys, I'm back at it. I had the idea of a reader that would destroy the world for their partner. I thought sweet little Mumen Rider would fit the roll perfectly. So I hope you enjoy.

Also, we're coming up on the twentieth story and I was wondering if anyone might have a suggestion for it? Feel free to leave a comment.

---------------------------------------------------------

Satoru's head throbbed and there was a lingering taste of blood on his tounge. The tight feeling of rope trapping his body to a chair. Looking up, he winced at the harsh light filling the room. Squinting at his surroundings, he tried to remember what he was doing before he woke up.

Fuzzy images were all that he could manage. The sound of slow footsteps snapped his thoughts away from the past. A trio of men entered the room. In the dim lighting, it was hard to make out any details, but they all wore bright red jackets.

The one in the middle leaned forward, studying him. “So your the so called famous Mumen Rider?” He leaned back and brought a baton under his chin. “You'd think that the class C rank 1 would’a been harder ta take down. But I guess that just proof'a how weak all you heros are.” He then reared the weapon back and brought it hard onto his knee.

Trying to muffle his pained cries, his teeth dug into a trembling lower lip.

The other two exchanged looks, but stayed silent. Leaving the assumed leader to continue. “Ya see. We noticed that you come out on top more oft’n than not. So that leads us ta believe that you have someone on your side. Now we don’t care who it is, s rank or hero association. It don't matter.” He tapped the baton on the top of his head and continued. “What does matter, is what they’re willing ta pay for you.”

Gritting his teeth through the pain, he said. “How long have I been here?”

That earned him a hit against the other knee. This time he couldn't hold back his agonized howl. “We’re the ones asking questions here!” He was practically frothing at the mouth as he yelled. Rearing the weapon back, Mumen Rider tried to prepare for another assault.

One of the men that were standing back shot a hand forward. Stopping the baton just in time from cracking into his skull. “This isn't what the boss wanted.”

Now that the second man stepped in, this seemed to give the third some courage. “Yeah, he said to get a name for the ransom. That’s all.”

This angered the first man more. “Fuck the boss. I’m tired a this weakling being a ‘beacon of hope'. I mean look at how pathetic he is.”

That hurt his pride as much as the injuries ached his body. “How long have I been here? “

This caused the first man to reel towards him. “What the he'll does it matter man. Your not getting out’a here without payment.”

The second man took pity on the bound hero. “A few hours. We grabbed you in J City.”

This caused the first man to sneer at the other two men. Pulling them away, Mumen Rider had a bit to unjumble his thoughts. Why would he be in J City? Was there a crime, none that came to mind. Was he shopping? That could be it, but he couldn't remember making a list. Maybe an appointment?

That triggered a memory. Walking down the street, he looked down at his phone. Texting you that he was on his way to your favorite ramen place. Sending the message he noticed the time, realizing that he would be late if he didn't hurry. That was when he went down an alley, knowing it would get him there faster. Then everything went black and there was a throbbing sensation at the back of his head.

Eyes widening at the realization, he struggled to get the men's attention. “You have to let me go. Please, your safety depends on it.”

A taunting smirk came onto the armed man's face. “Oh really. Does the big brave hero think he can escape now?” He stepped forward, only to be held back by one of his companions.

“What are you talking about?” He said, noticing the shift in the hero's behavior.

“The Wretch is coming.” Satoru was surprised at how steady his voice was.

The timid third man started breathing heavily. “No, they’re gone. They haven't been spotted for month.”

“Yes and if you want to keep it that way, you’ll let me go.” He struggled in the tightening bindings harder.

“Oh, so that's how you do it. You got some sort of guard dog. Is that it?” The violent man started cackling at the thought.

The scared thug was on the verge of hyperventilating . “No, you don’t get it. It’s a Demon level monster that could become any combination of creatures. Some survivors even claim that it should be Dragon level.”

This caused baton guys eyes to widen. “But I thought they were declared dead.” Turning to Mumen Rider he grabbed the shoulder straps of his armor and brought them face to face.

Only to have his next action halted by a roar. The pounding noise of fast footsteps was the only thing filling the room. Everyone seemed to be holding their breath in anticipation. As the door blasted off it’s hinges, the tension stifled the room.

The thing that came through was an amalgamation of monster parts. Tentacles thrashed as sharp teeth nashed together. Standing taller than any man they had ever seen. Patches of fur and scales came into view as you stepped closer to the group.

The hyperventilating man passed out at first glance of The Wretch. Now the other two were trembling. They could only stare wide eyed and frightened at the sight before them.

Reaching your target, you slashed the ropes off of Satoru. A growl left your panting maw when he slumped forward in exhaustion. Supporting him with one of your appendages, you cradled him gently against your chest.

As you took your leave, you noticed only one conscious man was in the room. He was swinging a baton towards you. With a simple flick in his direction, he sailed into a nearby wall. Losing all sense of the situation, as he to fell unconscious.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next thing Mumen Rider knew he was waking up in a hospital room. He was brought to reality by your voice conversating with another familiar one.

You noticed him stirring and smirked. “Look who's awake. You feeling better Sleeping Beauty?”

Your smile never fail to make him flush. Grabbing his hand and lacing your fingers together. Gentle caresses with soft hands brought him to a wonderland of euphoria. All thoughts of your soft full body were paradise in his mind.

Only for the fantasy to be broken by a sharp cough. Saitama didn’t mind public affection, but if you both continued. Well he would definitely feel like he was intruding.

“Oh Saitama, it’s nice to see you again.” Satoru tried to will the redness from his cheeks. It was one thing to be intimate with you in private. But to carry on in front of one of his co-workers, and friends, was another embarrassment all together.

With a nod, he was happy to see that his interruption had reign you both in. Though you still held the other man’s hand tightly. “I’m glad to see that your feeling better than last night.” He glanced over at you and smiled. “She was carrying you and you looked pretty bad.”

This caused the helmet wearing hero to blush all over again. “Wwwell, you see.”

He was cut off by a swift kiss to the cheek. “He had a run in with some bad guys. I happened upon them at the end, but Satoru was exhausted after handling the situation. So I helped him here. Simple as that.” You smiled at the heros, but Saitama could tell there was more to you. While Mumen Rider knew there was more, but that was his secret to keep.

[otakween]

Digimon World 4 - Final Thoughts

Whelp, that was...something. This game is objectively bad, but I still had a good, brain rotting time. It falls into the "game to zone out on the couch to" category. The lack of much story, characters or dialogue means I got in some quality podcast/music time as well. It's pretty similar to Digimon World 2 in its crappiness, but I found DW4's gameplay more satisfying. I think DW2 has the more appealing art style though, so they even out to the same rank basically. Full thoughts below!

Notes:

So this is loosely based on the Digimon X-Evolution CG film I posted about before. I was disappointed to see that the opening credits are just a hodge podge of scenes from said movie. That's pretty boring and lazy if you ask me. I picked Dorumon to control in honor of the film's protag (and since it would be a more novel experience).

I found any weapon aside from the guns to be a colossal pain to use, so I just used guns and guns alone for the entire game lol. At least I was able to get tech points quickly that way!

This game has the most unbalanced difficulty levels ever. It's either stupid hard or stupid easy. Luckily, the stupid easy moments are far more frequent. Every time I fought a boss I braced myself only to just button mash my way to the end in like a few minutes. Most of them were jokes. On the other end of the spectrum, the beginning of the game was weirdly hard because I would get mobbed by enemies and massacred in like two seconds (this is when I realized I should be using the guns lol). It's hard to have much strategy because most battle moves you can do (spin attack, charged attack, block) suck control-wise. My strat for most of the game was either the ole "shoot and run" or just to get up on a high ground where I was invincible. The latter move kinda felt broken and was part of what made the game stupid easy.

Thank God I emulated this game. Although it's mostly easy, there are definitely moments where it's easy to die. Some dungeons will lock you into the tightest corners and then just spawn like a jillion enemies out of nowhere (the Otamamon and Infermon were the WORST). Some of the harder bosses had some pretty cheap moves too. Save states were the VIP, as usual.

The plot of the game is really basic and the writing is just as wonky as DW2. Basically all you need to know is that there's a virus that's bad and you need to get rid of it. It doesn't get any deeper than that and there are no twists or turns. Ophanimon, Seraphimon, and Leomon are the only characters with significant dialogue (none of the bosses talk) and they really don't have anything interesting to say (I did like Ophanimon and Seraphimon's models tho)

The dungeons were definitely better than DW2 in terms of visuals/layout, but the enemies felt super repetitive. You get maybe 3 types of enemies per dungeon and then you just fight those same 3 again and again and again.

The dungeons are unreasonably long slogs with no way to save in the middle of them. I had save states so I was okay, but sometimes a dungeon would take me over two hours?? Like wtf. I know kids have a lot of free time but some of them aren't even allowed to game for 2 hours straight!

Of course, I played this single player. I actually think it'd be really fun as a multiplayer game? Like, that's probably what it was actually built for. There are actually some moments where you can't go to certain parts of dungeons without a buddy :'(

The bosses were mostly big bads from the series/movies which was fun. Made it awkward when I defeated them so easily though lol

All of the walkthroughs for this game suck lol. The one I used for the majority of the game the guy literally kept writing "I don't remember what happens in this dungeon. Just go through it." LOL thanks for nothing, bud. He said "I don't remember" sooo many times it was comical.

I poked around on the internet looking for info for this game and it seems the general consensus in the fandom is that it's pretty abysmal. Still, there are people like me that got enjoyment out of it regardless.

The little noises Dorumon made when attacked were very cute

I never bothered with digivolution. You don't get digivolution until late in the game and if you digivolve it reverts you to levl 1. Nuts to that!

I also didn't bother with any side quests because they sounded extremely not worth it (some of them don't even have a reward?)

I was pretty under-leveled at the end of the game (barely scraping level 30) but I felt like I had infinite healing basically because I had so much MP. That's another aspect of the game that felt broken.

The ending of this game was SO anti-climactic. I defeated the boss, returned to the hub world expecting a cutscene, and then it went straight to credits. No dialogue, no thank you, nothing. I had to go around and talk to people to get some thank yous but they didn't sound that appreciative really lol. Where are my flowers!? 😭 This took me over a month of tedium!

One part of the game that I did find pretty hard was the Storm Train where you have to get to the end of a train track while hitting the right levers while simultaneously fighting of a ton of enemies. If I had to do that without save states, I probably would have given up lol

I never really regret beating a video game, even if it kinda sucked. It's especially nice to check off another game in a series (even though the World series isn't really connected). I give Digimon World 4 a 5 out of 10.

[rimeiii]

I'm just gonna go ahead and say it despite my fear of getring backlash:

I am not a fan with how WHB handles the usage of Solomon's Tears.

(Rant post, feel free to skip over, rest under the cut. I just needed to get this out of my chest.)

Thank god they've made a statement about the availability of Tears, but in my opinion, their way of handling this is the equivalent of slapping a bandaid on a gaping wound - it fails to address the root of the issue that's making Tears such a necessary material in the first place, it being several aspects of the game design.

There have been several design choices that confuse me when it comes to WHB, which I would chalk up to WHB being PB's very first game that purely isn't otome. But these design choices often involve game balancing issues, which for me personally directly impacts my enjoyment of the game. And it is these design choices that immediately impact the need for Tears, and why the initial update changing the availability of these Tears sparked so much controversy.

But before that, I have some menial complaints that can be chalked up to me being spoiled by other games. First of all, the large amounts of filler stages, while normal for a gacha, still doesn't make it a fun experience to play through - especially when there are barely any changes to the stage layouts. The only reason why Plants vs Zombies were able to do this is because of the way their stages are set up:

Stages 1, 3, 6, and 8 introduce a new mechanic/zombie

Stages 2, 4, 7, and 9 are harder stages that test what you knew from the previous stage

Stage 5 is a minigame stage

Stage 10 is a conveyor belt boss stage

Every stage gives you a new plant, oftentimes one that is relevant to the new mechanic/zombie at play/about to be introduced (for example, Puff Shrooms upon ending 1-10, a 0 Sun plant with shorter range that helps in earlygame because the next world is nighttime, which means no Sun from the sky)

As for the other TD games in the market? Arknights has different maps for each story stage. So does Path to Nowhere, from what I recall. If there are filler stages, they're very few and far in between. It's why Granblue Fantasy changed their story chapters to no longer have a solo battle at each segment - it hinders the storytelling.

One of the most baffling things in my opinion is the fact that the game has the same upgrade requirements for all units regardless of rarity. This is such a weird design choice for me because in most games, lower rarities are cheaper when it comes to upgrade costs.

For comparison's sake, some screenshots I took for promoting S and A+ ranks.

Belial, an S-rank Marksman, requires 22k Gold, 22k Books, 10 Tears, and 22 Fire Jellybeans.

It's the same for the A+ Healer Morax, save for the elemental jelly beans which is changed to his element, Light. And this is the same amount needed for upgrading L characters as well.

This design choice isn't particularly good, in my opinion. It bottlenecks players and puts them in a mindset position of "upgrading anything apart from Ls and some choice S/A+ ranks is a resource sink". It makes people think that building anything except the strongest of units isn't worth it, which in turn renders the existence of lower rarity/weaker units moot, especially considering the scarcity of the Tears in the first place. Because why would you raise them if you're going to gain more of an advantage from building these high-rarity units? You're going to get a more immediate and significant power boost by upgrading Ls in the first place.

This is even more pronounced in WHB specifically because in most gachas, lower rarity units tend to require less to upgrade. Take a look at the E2 requirements of three Tactician Vanguards in Arknights, in which Elite upgrades are the closest approximation to promotion in WHB.

Beanstalk is the lowest rarity of the archetype at 4*, and her E2 material requirements consist of two types of tier 3 materials (Coagulating Gel and Manganese Ore, both with blue borders), Vanguard Chip Packs, and LMD.

Then you have the 5* Blacknight, whose material requirements now include a tier 4 material (Incandescent Alloy Block, with a pink border) in addition to a tier 3 material (Loxic Kohl), Vanguard Dualchips (crafted from Vanguard Chip Packs and Chip Catalysts, both of which are farmable regardless), and more LMD.

And finally, the 6* Vigil, whose material requirements are now a tier 5 material (Crystalline Electronic Unit, with a yellow border) and a tier 4 material (Optimized Device), more Vanguard Dualchips (4 to Blacknight's 3), and even more LMD.

Yet in other games, I don't mind raising lower rarity units - for several reasons, depending on the game. In Granblue Fantasy (despite my complaints about how quickly the meta evolves and how lim-centric it is), SR units serve as the stopgap for party comps until you can fill out your roster with SSR characters, and some of these SR characters still see use like Lyria. In other games like Fire Emblem Heroes, Memento Mori, and Princess Connect: ReDive, all units gain the potential to hit the highest rarity - I have a Yukari (originally a 1* unit) ready to hit 6* in PriConne, while I have a +9 merged 5* Fallen Takumi (farmable unit at 3*/4* base) in FEH. Arknights' case is more nuanced, where it's partly the same case as GBF, but also the fact that lower rarity units can fit into niches that high rarity units don't fill.

With these other games, I never feel like raising a lower rarity unit is a waste of resources. The costs of uncapping characters in general is negligible in GBF, except for the Eternals and the Evokers - those of which are reasonably time-gated because of their sheer meta impact and how strong they are compared to all other characters. Except for particularly egregious cases like Tsukinogi, every single Arknights Operator has their uses, and they often see use in Integrated Strategies.

And let's not get into the debacle that are skill levels, because of course you need more materials for that. I don't mind having high costs for optimizing skills - Masteries in Arknights works like that, after all. Pictured below is the cost of M3-ing Bagpipe's third skill.

That's right - a tier 5 (Bipolar Nanoflake) and tier 4 (Oriron Block) material. And luckily, you can farm for all of these skill upgrade materials outside of events, crafting the higher tiers as necessary. There is less opportunity cost for me to E2 my 4* and 5* units because I can just farm the materials again anyways - and even then I some Masteries on these units are amazing. S1M3 Myrtle (4*) is probably the best DP generator in the game, while S2M3 Lappland (5*) also helps with her skill uptime.

Then you go back to WHB's skill upgrades, which mind you is also the same cost between rarities, and guess what else you need?

Yep. Tears. A ludicrous amount of it, considering its availability. And let's not even get into the Tears required for the Unholy Board, if that matters to you (and it does, because it also gives buffs for your L units).

This skews the game balance towards the L units even more. Ideally you'd be raising skill levels once your units reach high levels, because everything is percentage based and the lower your base stats, the lower effect these skill levels have on your skills. But that just means you'll still need Tears because, well, you still need to promote. And remember the opportunity cost again, because all rarities have the same skill upgrade cost, further incentivizing you building Ls and ignoring everything else.

It's ridiculous.

And the added nail in the coffin: the reduced rewards that basically halved the amount of Tears you get.

I seriously, genuinely hope they take the availability of Solomon's Tears as well as game balancing into consideration when performing the next balance patch. Because otherwise, I can't see this game being an enjoyable experience for me moving forward.

Unless, this was the intended way the game was designed, in which I just...I have no more words to say.

[aotopmha]

I beat Sonic Generations.

This game has some absolutely fantastic level design.

There were completely distinct routes I found in these stages I didn't ever remember seeing despite having played the game to bits around the time of its initial release.

I'm super impressed with the lower routes in particular. Some of them are incredibly elaborate.

I think Modern Sonic's Sky Sanctuary, Seaside Hill and City Escape stood out to me/impressed me the most.

Among several Sonic games I've played recently, I've also played a lot of Sonic Adventure 2 and as much as I adore the speed stages in that game, the "alternate routes" in those stages are often just really satisfying shortcuts to take (which Generations also has); the lower and higher routes in Sky Sanctuary Act 2 for example, however, are straight-up distinct sections of the level.

The lower route is a moderately difficult platforming challenge and the higher route is a reaction-based shortcut, which is a pretty common reward for the mastery of Generations' controls.

It's in these latter instances where you feel the flaws of the 3D controls the most, though.

Eventhough I felt they were better than I remembered, they still were not quite there when it came to precision.

Now that I have both fresh in mind, I think SA2 and Sonic Gens really do sort of have opposite issues when it comes to controls.

SA2 has an incredibly messy moveset. The homing attack often doesn't target accurately and the moveset mapping itself caused many of my deaths, as some moves are assigned to the same button, yet trigger at the wrong time.

Wanted to Lightspeed Dash? Bounce to your death instead!

While in comparison, I think Sonic Gens doesn't have as responsive base movement. Jumping and boosting have a very specific delay added to inputs at high speeds especially; precise movements at higher speeds are much harder to make because of the slippery nature of higher speed controls, as well.

It "makes sense" for higher speed to be harder to control, but the lower and higher speed controls do not mesh as well as I think they should, either. You're either pretty slow or immediately moving on ice skates.

Despite these flaws, unlike many truly bad games with truly broken controls, these two have a certain consistency and a strong foundation to them that I think is satisfying to learn/master and this is where a massive part of the fun of Sonic games comes in: mastering/perfecting the stages.

My initial goal going into the game was to get S-ranks in all main stages, rival battles and bosses. I managed it with all except two: Planet Wisp Modern and the Silver rival battle.

Planet Wisp Act 2 is just tedious and I didn't feel like replaying it to get the S-rank as of now.

The Silver battle, however, has a very particular issue to me: I can't seem to be able to close in on him during his 2D car attack no matter what I do, which means I have to wait for a very long time to get a hit in, which in turn cost me ranks.

I don't know if it's a bug, but I've seen literally no footage of Silver not being able to be attacked in the 2D section. Boosting and homing attacking should work, but it just doesn't seem to for me.

Other than these two, the S-ranks in Generations are incredibly easy. 90% of the time just not dying will get you the S-rank and I'm kind of underwhelmed they're earned so easily.

I've spent hours upon hours trying to A rank the stages in SA2 and when you finally get one in that game, it really feels like an achievement, something you've truly earned; I really hope they'll go back to that philosophy of a really difficult top rank because of it feeling so earned because as said above, that kind of struggle to perfect stages is a big part of the fun in these games.

Since I've recently also played the Sonic Advance series, I want to bring up Classic Sonic, as well, although, this is very much also related to my above point about Modern Sonic level design in that I'm really grateful most of the time failure leads to tougher gameplay sections rather than bottomless pits.

Bottomless pits and cheap enemy and hazard placement took a lot of enjoyment out of Sonic Advance 2 and 3 for me because it simply really undermined the satisfaction of mastery. With bad level design you do poorly for reasons not in your control.

And the Classic Sonic stages in this game are a great example of 2D Sonic level design because of this.

They are much more linear/set and a lot less sprawling than most actual Classic Sonic stages, but the 2D platforming within that linearity is still really fun to do and varying paths still exist within that linearity.

It also helps the stages have some really cool/fun set pieces.

The clock tower with the actual clock in Rooftop Run? The goalpost taken away by the torando in Crisis City? The truck in City Escape?

Classic Sonic is also pretty far from classic game control, but is still really fun in its own right with its super-power spindash and its own version of badnik bouncing.

Next, I want to bring up the bosses.

I'm torn between Egg Dragoon and Perfect Chaos being my favourite boss fights in Generations. The former is just a great Eggman fight, with very little downtime and satisfying hits and the latter is just a great reimagining of an iconic fight which originally basically had no substance; Generations turns a basically glorified cutscene into a full-fledged, substantial platforming stage and it's really cool.

Just like the (popularly) obvious Planet Wisp stages are the worst stages in the game, Time Eater is the obvious worst boss in the game; in fact I think probably worst level because at least you did something in all of the other stages while you mostly just sit around doing nothing for most of the Time Eater fight.

I'm so happy I S-ranked it on my first go, since I now have very little reason, if any, to revisit it.

In general, I really did enjoy all of the bosses outside of Time Eater, the rival battles especially were much more substantive than the usual homing attack spam fights you tend to have in the earlier 3D games, even if they still were fairly straight-forward.

To sum it up, Sonic Generations is still as great as I remember it being; I might even like it better now because the level design is just that good; this extends to all of the boss fights.

The controls are imperfect, but not to the point they start ruining the fun.

As I got deeper into the game I did encounter a few bugs here and there (like a possible strange one with the Silver fight), but in a bigger picture sense, Sonic Generations is also a fairly polished game.

I left out music, graphics and story above because I feel like I don't have much substantive to say about them. I think the environments look great, most of the remixes/music pieces are wonderful (except Planet Wisp Classic, that one doesn't sound that great to me) and I'm fairly indifferent to any story changes outside of a couple of lines coming across as strange.

Do I recommend it?

Yes! And I think I would recommend it to anyone who likes platformers (or even doesn't and just generally likes games). I think it's a great way to see if you'd like the series.

Now, looking forward to the Shadow part of Sonic X Shadow Generations (really awkward naming, as many have also pointed out). It plain just looks really good in terms of gameplay from the footage.

[brandongamesall]

Okay, I hope I can rank the rest, because I feel like the rest are in deserving of their placements! Here we go!

6. King Dice - The man himself. He is just too easy. After all the Mini Bosses (some of them BS), It's like you get to him and it's so easy... OH WAIT! But you probably only ended up with 2 lives left like I did! And then you missed one parry and dashed the wrong way and died... 20 times reaching to this point. Yeah, not a big fan of this "patience game" then make it here just to die more and more. But, over time, I started to love this phase because parrying the cards became so much easier (if you're not Ms. Chalice). Overall, now knowing how to do the maneuvers, I actually love this fight and think it's a break from the BS.

5. The Devil - Kind of ironic to put him next, but he is the best final boss in the game. This is the longest lasting boss, his first phase and third phase will ALWAYS SUCK A**. But, you can get good RNG with the first phase... The hand claps can get to you if you don't have double jump or aren't careful enough. I have always died most on the first phase or resented because of the bubbles, the spinning fire, or the hand claps. The second phase is my favorite because the parries are easy, but if you miss, run the heck away. And the last phase... you mainly need round about or chaser IMO. Though, without a doubt, the most challenging and a good one to end on.

4. Cala Maria - um... never can get mad at this one because I love the attacks all around! First phase is the most annoying, but I love dodging mechanics, the parrying, and it's easy to get a super in the first phase in like 30 seconds. Second phase has to be my favorite and the third phase is a piece of cake. Talking about cake 🫣💗 jkjk Cala Maria, she can call me at anytime though... she herself probably brought her to be up here.

3. Werner Werman - it's like taking a break from the hard bosses to go into an easy boss. After dying 500 times into the game, you finally get a boss that helps you relax and experience new attacks. I love every phase and every aspect of this boss. The only two annoying things about this is, it's hard to get supers until the end of the fight though AND the second phases bottle caps can be very bad RNG. Other than that, I enjoy this boss almost to a tee!

2. Phantom Express - BEST BOSS LAYOUT THIS WHOLE GAME! 🤚✋��� No lie, I love going from the first phase with the roundabouts, to the second phase with lobber and roundabout switch ups on each head, the maneuvers for the third phase, and make it to the front of the train to unlock the heart in the cage. Overall, it's a nice experience. Sure you die a lot, but this one is always fun to always come back to! It's not like you're panicking every single second like so many others.

1. Beppi the Clown - Only recently I've had so many issues with this boss. Without Invisible Dash, first phase is hard. Second stage can suck so much with the yellow horse and roller coaster. But nothing compares to the last phase. OH MY GOD, RIP THOSE PENGUINS TO SHREDS! But... he's the easiest of the first three on isle two. I guess I love the aesthetic of the boss and the theme, not much the later phases. Plus, it's fun to die on that level because you can scream "Beppi the B**ch". LOL!

0. Cagney Carnation - I truly love and respect this boss! The reason why this is second to last is because his fight is just... in your control. Not once in any phase (non-S Rank) did I feel it was his fault I lost any lives. Do I think it gets overwhelming? YES! But, I know it's my own mistakes that make this boss harder. Especially the last phase when you get greedy for the pink flowers... made that mistake too many times. And this was the first boss I fought that made me feel like I earned my win. Not like airplane lady who had UFOs and was being a pansy about it. Or like the frog dudes who would spawn three tiger platforms in a row. No. I earned this win through plain strategy and mechanics. This is my ultimate favorite boss gameplay wise.

-1. Which brings me to my last boss, Chef Saltbaker - I ranked this boss the ultimate boss of Cuphead for one reason... Story. This boss literally tells you a story through each phase. And the fact you can tell he's just pure evil making the strawberries cry, makes me hate him more. But, towards the end, he breaks down showing he only cares for himself in the second to last phase. And as a soul floating around towars the end of the fight, his last resort was to give a weak attack, making us realize he's giving up, and this was our moment to set everyone and everything free. It is truly one of the best masterpieces of a boss. Not to include it takes a lot of skill and precision to go through each phase. But notice how each phase kind of gets easier? That's what I think makes it more beautiful in the end. Because it wasn't until the third phase that it actually got pretty easy. Though, many people, including myself just kept dying on the first phase, rage quitting a lot just because we couldn't handle the pain of the first phase or the beginning of the second phase. But perseverance and hope kept us fighting, and realizing the third and final stage was that easy made it the most challenging, relaxing, and rewarding boss of the whole game. The End.

There's my ranking of all characters. I hope you all enjoyed my explanations for them all 💜🙂

[fictional-love-is-my-life]

Hi, would you do how bay hotrod, Optimus, hotrod and Dino would react to seeing their s/o being flirted with by a member of the elite guard or a high ranking soldier? ( p.s, anyone getting close to optimus's s/o would probably crap themselves after knowing that they are taken and Optimus prime is their s/o) 😂

Optimus:

He has no worries or insecurities if his S/O gets flirted with. He trusts them completely and knows they have chosen him to be with.

He will not act aggressively or possessively, because he doesn't need to be. He knows his S/O can care for themselves, and trusts that they will say no to the other bot. He may only feel awkward if it was one of his leading soldiers. Just because he doesn't want any awkward feelings on the battlefield or if they have to work together.

If he sees someone flirting with his S/O, he will walk over to them and act friendly. He will let his S/O introduce him as their love. He does feel a little sorry for the other mech. He can see the shock on their face. But he harbors no ill feelings toward them, especially if the other bot didn't know.

Dino:

He hates it when others try to flirt with his S/O. He doesn't care what their rank is, no one goes near HIS darling.

He'll saunter over to them and wrap his arms around his S/O. Depending on how annoyed or possessive he's feeling, he may even kiss his S/O in front of the other bot. He doesn't care if it's his superior, they have to learn that his S/O is his and he doesn't share.

Afterward, he will make sure to love bomb and shower his S/O with affection. He knows they are amazing and could find love anywhere. He knows for a fact that many other bots have a crush on his S/O. So, he spends time doting on his S/O, making sure they know he can give them what they need and want.

Hot Rod:

He gets annoyed any time he sees his S/O getting flirted with. He trusts them completely, but he still dislikes seeing it happen.

Most of the time, when it is a random bot, he will tell them to leave in a stern tone of voice. Or he will simply just whisk his S/O away and out of the situation. But when it comes to a superior, he finds it harder to be mean about it. He doesn't want to mess up his reputation or make his high-ranking boss angry. Instead, he'll walk over to his S/O and stand by their side while making pleasant small talk with the high-ranking mech. He'll let his S/O say that they are dating, and he'll enjoy seeing the disappointment on the other bots' faces.

But when they are back home, he'll voice his distaste at seeing his S/O getting flirted with. Then he'll make sure to cuddle up with his S/O and get all their attention, so happy that they chose him out of everyone else.

[biggrump]

Video Games I played in 2023 (and maybe even enjoyed)

A completely unorganized list of games I played this year that I wanted to talk about because they were great.

1. Ultrakill - My biggest time sink of the year. Found out about this game about a year ago due to FUNKe talking about it a lot. Was hooked from the first level, and after beating it I replayed several levels until I mastered the mechanics, then looked for all the secret levels, then P-ranked all of Act 1 and then the P-1 boss fight several times over (Act 2 is hard to P-rank). However enjoyment did kinda dry up for a bit after I actually got good at the game but then Hakita dropped the first part of act 3 a while ago and it started all over again. Here's hoping the last 2 chapters stick the landing and keep scratching that itch (which they probably will let's be honest)

2. Metal Gear Solid series - Played all of the games aside from 4 which couldn't run on my PC (had to watch a long play for it) and Peace Walker just cause I got distracted by other stuff. The first game didn't really resonate with me on a deeper level but its storytelling, gameplay mechanics, and 4th wall breaks are amazing, especially for the time. 2 and 3 hit far harder and are some of the best games I've ever played. I could talk for hours about every facet of 2's creativity with its meta narrative and constant questioning of reality but then I wouldn't have time to talk about other games here. Just know that it is now my favorite game ever made. 3, while not quite as crazy and predictive with its plot, is just a really good story about a small group of characters that is incredibly written and told. I also really enjoyed 5's gameplay and a lot of the more subtle storytelling, and while 4 has an utterly incomprehensible plot with tons of holes, the character writing, voice acting, and graphics are phenomenal. I want whatever Kojima smokes when he comes up with these.

3. Red Dead Online - I played this with my brother and encountered a modder on my first day. Think that really informed my take on this game because he gave me a shit ton of money and I was able to use it to get a bounty license which took up most of my time in that game. We'd just queue up a bounty mission and play some Oingo Boingo and Talking Heads while we ride, do the bounty, then watch random videos while we waited till the last minute to drop off the bounty bc of how Rockstar decided to set up the system. We also met a couple people online and overall just had a great experience bein a rootin tootin shootin cowboy. Also my guy looks doofy as fuck.

4. The Artful Escape - Impulse bought this game after I watched a vid by Jexonite where he played every game published by Annapurna because the premise seemed fun and I thought it looked cool. Turns out the game does look cool, incredible even. But the art style is kind of all this game has going for it, aside from some solid voice actors (Jason Schwartzman and Lena Headey were cool and Mark Strong was completely unrecognizable). Gameplay is basically just a walking sim that occasionally tells you to press buttons to play notes on your guitar and the story took a pretty generic turn. Has absolutely zero replay value but I did enjoy playing it.

5. BPM - The first roguelike I've ever gotten into, probably because it has a guns in it. I got all the way up to the last level then died to a low level enemy and have not gotten that far in the game since. The OST goes insanely hard though and is part of the reason why I keep coming back to it. It's also insanely addicting so be warned.

6. Hotline Miami - Probably holds the record for the game that pissed me off the most this year. An insanely fun and fast paced shooter game where your reaction timing is everything and that every nerd with a YouTube channel has already picked apart. Even though some of the AI is complete jank it is so satisfying clearing rooms in this game. The art style is also quite good and the soundtrack introduced me to a ton of new artists. Also is a strong case for environmental storytelling needing to be more prevalent in games. I can figure out what's going on I'm a smart guy.

7. Katana Zero - A very Hotline Miami inspired game aka a game with a pixelated art style and a synthwave soundtrack where the goal is to clear rooms and you die in one hit. I feel a bit more mixed about this game compared to Hotline honestly. I really liked the time slowing mechanic, the mobility, and the way you can reflect bullets with your sword. I also like how the enemy AI actually stays consistent through each run of the level, whereas with Hotline there were some enemies who could move erratically and fuck everything up even if you plan a solid route. However, I think because of how the story was told I don't think it had as much of an impact on me. I can't really remember a lot of the important details but I can remember that a lot of plot threads were left unresolved. Also, while I do like the combat a lot, I feel like it's missing the sandbox approach that Hotline had. Honestly not a game I would necessarily come back to, but if the dev made a sequel I would buy it (especially if we get to play as Dragon more he was cool as fuck). I'll also give the game props for actually having an OST unlike Hotline.

8. Undertale - What could I say about this game that hasn't already been said by the entire population of South Dakota? It is very fun and I am glad I finally took the plunge and played it. Now I just have to finish the other routes at some point lol

9. Lethal Company - I played this game with multiple friend groups and it was incredibly fun but also terrifying. If you haven't played yet, the best advice I can give is to just go in completely blind and figure shit out on your own. Also, try to actually go into the buildings instead of staying in the ship like a goo goo ga ga dingus.

Other stuff I played worth mentioning (Smaller stuff or games I revisited/haven't finished a full playthrough of):

1. A Hat in Time DLC - Played the original game late last year and loved it, but didn't get the DLC so I didn't play it for some time. Played it this year and had a blast. The Nyakuza Metro level is so detailed, you can really tell the devs poured their heart and soul into making this game look as great as it does. Made me rediscover my love for the base game.

2. Titanfall 2 - Not my first time playing it but replayed the single player on PC for the first time (played on Xbox before) and realized the characters and level design were way better than I remembered. I then started pestering everyone I knew to play it and the ones who did seem to like it too. I also popped off multiple times in the multiplayer so it was nice to have a multiplayer game that I'm good at.

3. The Magic Circle - Played for a few hours and then stopped, but the premise is quite fun and I am eager to revisit at some point in the future.

4. The Looker - This one was just funny idrk what else to say. (I have not played The Witness)

[randomisedgaming]

Happy New Year and welcome to 2025!

Hello everyone, Random Gamer Riven editor of this blog here, hello and welcome to 2025 here at Randomised Gaming hope you all had a good Christmas. So posts are going to be a little slow to start with this year as I work on a novel, I've been writing on and off for the past two years and I intend to finish it this year, it is gaming related, but I won't say more until it finished.

So how about I give you a run down of the games I've been playing over the Christmas period and some of the best titles I played last year. I spend the early part of the year playing Armored Core VI, Cyberpunk 2077 and Elden Ring the latter two I'm still playing through as they've been on and off games due to their size.

Three playthroughs later and I had finished every mission and S Ranked it all in Armored Core VI. Really great single player game, however the multiplayer was rubbish compared to the world map battle system of Armored Core V and its follow up Armored Core Verdict Day. So far there has been no word on if Armored Core VI will get a follow up titles like all the other numbered releases in the series.

I finished 2024 playing the excellent Unicorn Overlord the latest title from the excellent Vanillaware. This strategy RPG really is quite unique blending elements of most of the main tactical and strategy titles in the genre, but still creating it's own special gameplay. It remains me of bits from titles like Ogre Battle, Dragon Force, Shining Force, Langrisseer, Fire Emblem and more, all rolled into one.

I would say, it might just be my game of the year for 2024 and 30 hours in I'm still enjoying the story and battles. It will get a bit repetitive towards the end I can see, but it just looks and plays so well.

Another surprised and a game I picked up near Christmas was the new video game version of the 2003 Manga, Sand Land from the late Akira Toriyama who sadly passed away last year. It's an action adventure title that sees you driving around a desert in a tank in the search for water. There's a great cast of characters and the story along with the voice acting are very well done.

It's fun to drive around in the various vehicles, battle monsters on foot or in a tank and just explore the world and towns. Really is well done.

Last year I played through the excellent Blast Brigade vs. the Evil Legion of Dr. Cread over the Christmas and new year windows. The game is what I call an open world platformer. To most people that what people call a Metroidvania, but I dislike that name as it snub earlier games in the genre like the C64 title Below the Root. Blast Brigade really was great and some some excellent 2D style visuals, which I think were in part 3D.

One of the best modern looking game in the open world platform genre I've seen in recent years and a game few people have played.

So this year first off for less than £2 I got Imp of the Sun on PlayStation and the game is now often on sale at a low price. It's not a big game took under ten hours, but it was said to fall into the open world genre and it does to some degree, but all the stages follow the same path route of Mini-boss > Upgrade > Map > Boss.

Not a perfect game, there were a few bugs and the hit collision could have been better, but I collected everything and beat the game's normal mode and got the hidden ending. Didn't beat the harder mode but for the price it was good stuff. I don't think it was worth the full price of £16, but for £5 or less I'd say it's well worth it.

Having also finished Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night this year, unlocking everything. I can say that was a good not great open world platformer. In Bloodstained case the end of the game is just unfinished and rushed and don't get me started on the awful food quest.

Still it turned out to be better than the Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown which I'm over 65% of the way through right now.

The first major boss battle looks nice in the screenshot, but the game draws to much from the worse elements of Hollow Knight.

Lots of empty rooms with nothing to fight, not many power ups, lots of jumping sections that require perfect timing, large map areas with not much in them and big doesn't always mean better. It has a terrible story with some truly flat voice acting and plot holes left, right and centre. I'm near the end now now, but I have zero interest in what happens to the main character. I'd heard good things about it, but all the open world platformers I mentioned in this piece are far better games. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown really isn't that much fun, combat is decent, but flawed and for a big budget team I expected better.

On the indie front I have been enjoying the Hammerwatch series, I got sent a coverage copy of the original game some years back. It seems like a nice enough game at the time, but I picked up the sequel and remake recently. Turns out the original is a really great Gauntlet clone when I played through it on PlayStation 4 in December. The sequel is more like Diablo in gameplay, but still a very good game in its own right. I liked the pixel style artwork to the first game which reminds me of Cannon Fodder.

Really enjoyed it finished the main game and the temple of the sun quest, still not done the survival quest due to it being insanely hard. The music bug was really annoying in the original game, first time players would be better with the remake of the first game now which uses the second game engine and looks great.

While I'm been playing my fair share of retro games this year and remakes like Myst as always. I did picked up a few Japanese SEGA Saturn games for Hz testing.

One sequel I enjoyed playing in 2024 was SteamWorld Heist 2 a rather long over due follow up, but worth the wait. Sadly it's not clear if we will see any more Steamworld games as Thunderful let go of most of their development staff in 2024 and there hasn't been any word on DLC for the game.

Last game from 2024 I'll mention is Outcast: A New Beginning, always enjoyed the original PC game and it's remake, sequel likely didn't do that well, but looks great.

All the best to everyone for 2025 and thank you all for your support!

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[prophetparadox]

DMC OC Week 2023 Day 7: Boss Fight (Free Day)

I have no image for this day either, my apologies.

Welp, we're here at the end of @dmc-oc-week-specialedition, and I figured for this last prompt I'd do something a little interesting~ So here we have a hypothetical boss fight for the bastard! You see, since he is an antagonist, there's no doubt that if he were in a DMC game he'd be fought at some point, right? So I whipped this up. You can also consider this an extension of Day 5's prompt since it goes into his weapons and abilities somewhat, but it's more about the potential boss fight than anything.

Once again, I have enjoyed doing this week, and I might already have plans for next year's prompt as well! I certainly know which character I'll be using for it, hehehe. I hope you've enjoyed learning about this terrible bastard man!

Avalon would likely be a boss that’d be fought multiple times throughout the game, like Griffon in 1, Vergil in 3, and Agnus in 4. Since I haven’t worked out how the story itself goes, this will be detailing what the first out of these boss fights would be.

Avalon would probably function similarly to Arius in 2, with both of them being humans who don’t have demonic powers but can use magic instead. Though unlike Arius, Avalon isn’t seeking demonic power in any regard. That doesn’t mean he’d be a pushover to his hybrid opponent though.

At close range, Avalon will primarily attack using Severance, his dagger. He’ll attack with a combo of slashes, attempting to lock the player in the combo to deal significant damage, at least one section of the health bar. Being hit by one of these attacks wouldn’t lock you into the combo if you manage to dodge out of it in time, but the longer you stay in the combo the harder it is to break free of it. He may also try to use punches and kicks as well, though they’d likely be less frequent.

At long range, he’ll use his pistol. Being hit with a shot will stun the player for a brief moment, which he’ll follow up with other attacks in order to keep you locked in a combo. These attacks would also be infrequent, serving only to keep you locked in a combo.

More frequent would be his magic attacks. He makes use of a variety of spells, using elemental abilities such as fire and lightning, along with shadow-like spikes that can pierce you from any distance. Along with his normal skills, he also has an invisible magic bar that functions like a Devil Trigger bar. If he hits the player enough times, and gets hit a decent amount, he can unleash a powerful attack that’ll deal massive damage and would be difficult to dodge if you don’t know what you’re doing. There is a cue to him using these attacks though, giving the player a few seconds to get out of the way.

He also uses magic defensively. After being hit by a full combo by the player, he may use his magic to teleport to another area of the arena. He may also use it to try stunning you in order to leave you open for an attack.

Some strategy would need to be applied when fighting Avalon, as he will take note of the moves the player uses. If playing a character with multiple weapons like Dante, switching between them would be crucial as he’d pick up on the moves you have and adapt to them. If playing a character with only one main weapon like Nero, relying on the same few moves and combos would have the same effect. If you spend too much time staying on the sidelines and relying on long range attacks, he’ll attempt to get up close to keep you on your toes. Essentially, if you try to do things that’ll keep your style rank up, you should be fine.

[furryprovocateur]

my cup cumeth over

what is there to say about kinship's bond, one of my favorite defend chapters in the series? it was absolute agony to do this chapter because while you don't HAVE to kill eubans, you absolutely want to because a. he drops a knight crest b. boss kill experience c. the chapter ends the second he dies d. the chapter turn requirement is the max amount of turns spent defending, so basically as long as you kill him before turn 10 enemy phase, you'll be saving at least one turn, if not multiple. the problem is that he's basically in the asshole of the chapter, being surrounded by forest squares and being in the very corner of the map whereas you start near nearly the opposite side. still, getting to him isn't hard if you overextend with marcus/any other non-isadora paladin you might have by this point and just haul ass with a javelin, hand axe, and iron axe equipped at various points. if anything, the hardest part is surviving with everyone up to that point.

LMAO JK did you think i was serious? the hardest part is the dicerolling for killing eubans because i cannot tell you how many times i got to the end only to see "sain is attacking eubans. he has a 70%-80% hit rate and he only has to hit once and is doubling. OOPS he missed both hits" or even better the classic "both hits missed on the enemy phase and now you can't kill him because the forest square he attacked you from is preventing a 1RKO LOL haha". i swear to god it's not even HHM or the ranked run that's making my blood fucking boil, it's the fucking probability always swinging against me in the most fucking improbable circumstances. i had like 2 80%s miss then a 30% to kill hit me. i just. i know it gets exhausting to see me complain about RNG in this game but holy fucking CUNT FUCK does it incense me. like i cannot overstate how mad it makes me because i'm literally not making any mistakes and still losing because of it. i'm trying so so so hard not to mald harder but whatever.

heath got a level and change and got good stats. the plan is to use the shit out of him next chapter by prepping him with a barrier and letting him go to town on as many of the magic units that he can. iirc he's not gonna be doubling but if i give him the short spear, he might be 1HKOing until he either can 1HKO with the javelin or double. isadora meanwhile did 2 things for me this chapter: she used a nearly broken iron sword to kill an annoying mage and then she hauled ass to the secret shop to buy a bunch of shit with the silver card (another physic, two torch staves, two barriers, and a 5 use chest key (i'm going to need this for BBD and NOF i imagine)). the best part about buying a bunch of shit with the silver card is that it doesn't cost any money due to how the game calculates funds, so even if i am overbuying, i'm just making my liquid gold solid.

last thing to note: we're in red alert territory because my collective lord levels are only at 46 right now and FFO is right around the corner. i need to average getting 2 level in living legend and genesis. i THINK this is fairly doable considering there's two berserker bosses next turn and i think i can at least get lyn to kill one of them, ideally eliwood would be able to tank out the other one. the biggest problem is living legend has a short turn count so i have to be quick, but i also need to make sure i'm hitting the experience benchmark. i'll burn turns if i HAVE to, but i want to avoid that at all costs. at the same time, i absolutely refuse to do lloyd's FFO, so the conflicting desires there are gonna come to a head soon.

[nagichi-boop]

So I finished Sonic Frontiers...

For me, it took about 30 hours to complete the game, which is above average I believe, but I'm also not the best at video games. I completed every aspect of the game - everything from catching all the fish to completing all the missions on every level - and played the entire game on Hard Mode without switching once.

I've never really written a video game 'review' before, but I have a lot of thoughts about this game, so I figured I'd write them all down while I have things fresh in my mind.

Please note that there will be spoilers under some of these headings, but I have marked where in the post I begin talking about them, so if you're just looking for a non-spoiler review (perhaps because you wish to purchase the game), don't scroll passed that point.

Overview

I know generally these are put at the end of reviews, but I'm putting mine here in case people are reading this to decide whether to buy the game so they don't have to scroll through the spoiler sections.

If you're a fan of Sonic, I'd definitely recommend this game. You could watch the cutscenes on YouTube if that's more accessible to you, but personally I'd suggest playing it yourself to make the most of being able to experience the open world aspect of the game. If you're unsure, you can always do what I did and wait for it to go on sale.

The game plays smoothly for the most part, has wonderful visuals and beautiful music. The character voices are hit and miss to me, which I'll explain in more depth briefly. The combat and navigation can be off, but I'll also elaborate on that later.

The story is a lot more sombre than other Sonic games, but I personally enjoy this sort of story. By the end of the game, I genuinely wanted to cry. Personally I found the story to be quite confusing at times, but I'm not sure if that's just me. There are some weak points to the story, but I personally found they didn't damper my overall enjoyment of the game. I'm very curious to see if/how the story will be elaborated on in the updates.

Gameplay

Most of the gameplay to me makes sense. I do feel that the game isn't always the best at explaining the controls, even despite the constant training simulation pop ups. In stage 1-2. there's a section towards the end of the level where you have to swap between rails, but from memory the game doesn't explain how exactly to do this, at least not at that point in the game. I know I'm not the only one who got confused by this - Arin from the Game Grumps struggled with this part of the level when he played this level in the first episode of his gameplay. Rail swapping is a lot easier once you understand that you need to use the dodge buttons to switch, but it was definitely confusing at first without that direction.

I also found that they didn't really explain how to defeat the bosses. It took me forever to beat the first boss, which was in part my fault for not going in with enough rings. Even despite that, I found it frustrating that I kept getting blasted back without making much of a dent in the boss's health., It was only until I watched a video on YouTube that I realised I was supposed to parry the attacks and the boss was much easier once I understood that.

The levels themselves also baffled me. I understand if later levels become harder, but I found that wasn't the case at all, and based on Google searching, I'm not the other one who struggled with certain levels. In particular, 1-2 and 3-6 come to mind. To an extent, I can excuse 3-6 being difficult (though it was so difficult for me personally as someone wishing to 100% the game that I ended up looking up a speedrun, which led me to discovering the air dash exploit and using it in order to achieve S rank). But the fact that the second level of the game is so difficult confuses me. If you are not concerned with 100% completing the game, this may be less of an issue, but I spent around 45 minutes replaying the level over and over in order to try and achieve S rank because the time constraint was so unforgiving. It made me very nervous about the rest of the game, but was thankfully relieved to find that the rest of the levels (excluding 3-6) were a walk in the park comparatively.

The open world aspect of the game worked well in my opinion for the most part. I enjoyed dashing around, completing the challenges and being jump scared every time a guardian appeared out of nowhere. One thing that did frustrate me is that because the maps are littered with rails and dash pads, you frequently end up in a platforming sequence you didn't want to be in, and some of these sent you far in a direction away from where you perhaps intended to go. The most frustrating of these were the '2D' platforming sequences because unlike the others, you couldn't really cancel out of these and were stuck following a path you didn't want to.

The momentum for the most part was fine too. I did find that on the final island I was struggling with some of the platforming sequences as my speed was quite high by that point, but it wasn't so intense that the sequences became impossible.

The rest of the this post will contain spoilers - please stop reading if you wish to avoid them

As I mentioned before, I played the game on hard mode, so I had to do both final boss fights. The boss battle against Supreme was honestly underwhelming to me, but I'm not sure how much of that was to do with the fact I was fully upgraded (I had max strength, defence, speed and ring capacity, so I entered the battle with 999 rings). Comparatively, the following battle with The End was hell for me. I was remarkably disappointed to discover that the final boss was just a bullet hell space invaders fight, especially because this format had only been used in the game for the mystery challenges. For games like Undertale, this makes more sense because that is the entire game, but it felt very out of place for a Sonic game final boss. I also just found this boss hard because I had a really hard time following everything that was happening on the screen, especially towards the end of the fight. Thankfully the hit boxes for the bullets are very forgiving, but overall I wouldn't say it was a particularly enjoyable final boss.

Audio

This won't be a very big section, but I wanted to talk quickly about the music and voice acting.

I think that the music on the islands is absolutely gorgeous. Perhaps not what you'd expect from a Sonic game, but I really like the calm but melancholy feel to the music, especially given the context of the game. The boss battle music was also amazing, though I found the music for the final boss(es) underwhelming in comparison.

I think the biggest complaint I see about the voice acting is Sonic's now deeper voice. I personally think that Sonic's normal voice is better, but I did find that I got used to Sonic's deeper voice and it wasn't too bizarre after hearing it for a while. Amy's voice, however, seemed very flat to me. Usually Amy's voice is very full of life, but in this game it just felt too dry. I'm not sure if I am the only one who feels this way, but I expected her to be a lot more animated, especially given how enthusiastic she was supposed to be about helping the Koco.

My biggest complaint with the music would probably be in the end game. The music for the final boss fights felt very subdued despite it being such a high-stakes fight, especially the music for The End. The other boss battle songs were very high energy, so it felt odd that the final boss battle tracks weren't. I also found that it was very difficult to pay attention to the dialogue for The End boss fight. Not only was there a lot happening on screen, but the music was pretty loud and so I found I didn't really pay attention to what the voice was saying.

Story

I found the story very good. I really liked the darker tone of the game - it was dark enough to give a sense of urgency to fix things, but not so dark that it wore you out. This is likely due to Sonic's optimism throughout the game, which did sometimes come off as a bit inappropriate for the situation, but I only really found this to be the case in one specific instance, which I will touch on shortly.

I found it nice that every island gave each character a one to one exploration of their feelings and goals. I do wonder what they plan to do with this though - whether we will be able to play as these characters in an update or a new game. It was also nice to see Sonic be supportive of his friends. He struck a nice balance between playful teasing and sincere pride in his friends.

I feel like a have a decent grasp on the story, but I'll admit that some of it got confusing, especially towards the end. I didn't fully grasp what the voice was meant to be. I understand it was a threat that the Ancients locked in Cyber Space to protect themselves. But what is the Supreme? It attacked the Ancients in a flashback, but Sage used it in the final fight and Sonic spoke to it like it was the Ancients, telling them to fight back against the voice. Did the voice hijack the Evangelion- sorry, the titan in that flashback fight? Anyways, enough of my stupidity.

I really liked the story with Sage. I will admit I found it comedic that she kept telling Sonic to leave the island, that terrible things would happen, but equally she refused to elaborate on any of it. At times it felt vague for the sake of being vague, but I definitely found it more funny than annoying. Her and Eggman's relationship is honestly the most wholesome thing ever and I want to see more of them. I almost cried at the end, especially because the credits gut punched me with a song from her perspective. To me, the relationship somewhat parallels that of Shadow and Maria. One gave their life to save the other.

I know Eggman won't ever become a good guy, but the Shadow stan in me desperately hopes that at some point, there is some acknowledgement between Eggman and Shadow about losing someone they considered family, though given that the post credit suggests Sage is alive, I doubt this. On the topic of Eggman and Shadow, I am also kind of desperate for Shadow to discover Eggman's feelings on Maria, either by finding the Egg Memo or by Eggman speaking it aloud, but I recognise that the Egg Memos are likely just easter egg collectibles. Still, I somewhat hope that the idea of Eggman's jealousy over Maria is explored some day.

Anyways, enough of my rambles on Shadow.

I feel like the weakest point of the story is the part just before the end. The whole game builds on this tension over Sonic taking on too much cyber energy, to the point he becomes immobile. In the actual game, this conflict is resolved quickly and in a way that didn't fully make sense to me. Sonic's friends - Amy, Knuckles and Tails - simply form a ring of friendship around him, seemingly absorb into his body somehow, and he regains consciousness, completely freed of the influence of the cyber corruption. It takes less than five minutes for this huge point of drama to be resolved, and then Sonic immediately returns to his chipper self. It just feels very weirdly paced to me, especially since after this, you spend time exploring the island and having casual conversations with Sage about the Ancients. It feels remarkably relaxed.

I think this could've been resolved in a more creative and impactful way, Perhaps you have a sequence where you play as the other characters, doing puzzles or levels where you collect items to save Sonic (maybe his own memory tokens?), maybe even in replacement of Sage's. Or you could have an internal battle within Sonic where he fights the cyber corruption, perhaps having points in the fight where you feel the presence of your friends like they're fighting by your side. If this happened just before the final fight, it would also help to continue this feeling of urgency that makes sense given the scenario as opposed to having such an intense moment just to immediately run around an island finding collectibles again. I think it also sucks because after hearing some of the unused audio clips, I feel like this moment could have had a lot more drama and impact than it actually did (e.g. Sonic forgetting who he is).

One small, final point that isn't directly story related, but I find the little comments Sonic makes when exploring the environments nice. I didn't get to hear most of them in my gameplay, but it's nice that Sonic thinks about his friends so much. Personally I liked how many references to team dark there were. It's nice knowing that Sonic views them in such a positive light (apart from maybe Shadow), though it does make me a little sad knowing that they've not been a proper team in the games for ages (especially since making Shadow the way he is). And it's especially cool to hear references to characters like Tangle, who aren't in any of the main series games.

Summary

I know it probably sounds like I hate this game given all my critiques of it, but I actually really enjoyed this game and it's one of the more fun games I've played in a long time. It's important to remember that you're allowed to have some issues with the things you enjoy. (For example, I find some of the canon portrayals of Shadow to be terrible, but he is still my favourite character.) I think Sonic Frontiers overall is amazing and I am glad I took the time to complete it fully. My issues with the game are far outweighed by my enjoyment of it.

I think if anyone ever asked me if they should play it, I'd recommend they do. It's an incredible step up for Sonic games and I am curious and excited to see what's next in store for Sonic and his friends.

Thanks for reading!