#anyway postgame content time

[pixxyofice]

okay finished cassette beasts

honestly... yeah meh on the ending, but it was good for what it was. I do like the gameplay loop and also the characters. Cool!

It's no isat, haha, but it's still a fun ride. I got to be a candy witch and blast people with my laser beams

[detectivesplotslies]

Oumota Week 2023: Day 1 - Hospital AU / Hunger Games AU

It's the third in my timezone so here we go! Went with a postgame vr au set in the hospital after. Was really thinking on the wake up, the trepidation of the unknown. Death wasn't the end. And how, just how, does Kokichi wake up a martyr to help him through it again?

[dravidious]

You're more amazing than :O

You're more amazing than an EX Drilltusk Tetsucabra corpse.

Also I had another dream where I was menaced by the passive presence of a giant monster. This time it was Shara Ishvalda rising out of some hole in the ground and staring at me.

For context, this is what Shara Ishvalda looks like:

[gvndhams]

Okay so I feel like I see a lot of training trio content but it's always just kinda kaimaki and saimota, but my favorite pairing between them is actually saimaki

I don't hate saimota or kaimaki but I feel like there's just something about saimaki that hits so different. They're both the moon, they're both black cats. They don't push each other to extremes but instead they guide each other there over time, they can be gentle with each other and slowly find warmth and comfort even if it's something they never expected.

I like it in a lot of contexts, like postgame they can mourn together and find comfort in each other. In something like utdp they can be classmates and friends who slowly fall for each other. I have so many ideas for them and I love them but I just never see them

anyway there's my saimaki tangent guys pls ship this with me

[sierrale8ne]

Have you seen the caitlin interview. She's called out racists not once but twice i really dont know what else yall want from her. Yall love calling someone a bad person.

i would just make it clear that i don’t think she’s a bad person, nor did i ever say she was one. me not liking her or supporting her ≠ thinking she’s a terrible person.

however comma,

when she spoke about this for the first time at the beginning of the season she basically said it wasn’t her issue because she wasn’t seeing it, she then followed that up (quite literally in another question hours later by the same interviewer) that she thinks everyone in the league should be treated with respect.

her statement then did not change my mind about her and neither will what she said in her most recent presser.

after alyssa thomas shoved angel to the ground earlier this year, her fans were in AT’s comments saying things filled with hatred and homophobia, and it took angel all of five minutes to shut it down and call out that bs. she did so in her postgame presser immediately after the game AND on twitter. i don’t understand why we aren’t allowed to hold cc to that same standard.

if the media is going to coin her as the face of the league and give her a wild amount of media attention, it also comes with huge responsibilities. one of which in my opinion is telling her “fans” that this is downright unacceptable and doing her best to shut all of this negativity down before it spirals out of control.

unfortunately it already has.

the w has never ever been subject to this kind of racism and misogynoir until this year and that is not coincidental. it is great that caitlin said something, but giving the politically correct answer at the tail end of her season doesn’t move me i fear.

caitlin is a great player and has done some amazing things this season, but outside of basketball i could honestly care less.

anyways back to your regularly scheduled sierrale8ne content!

[revletter]

In the SMRPG remake, Geno is still around for the postgame fights. Here's a simple and awesome way they could explain that.

(I SO hope they do something even loosely resembling this. I have so many feelings, I made gifs about it.)

Up to this point, we know that there'll be post-game content where you get to fight bosses over again. And look, our blue guy, there he still is!

From this, it's safe to assume that in the remake, after Geno leaves to repair the Star Road, he turns right around and comes back.

Which is KIND OF A BIG DEAL. Because in the original game, it's heavily implied that for all practical purposes, he's certain this goodbye will be forever.

(😭)

For some time, I've had a little theory. I kind of desperately hope for some version of it to be part of the remake. Here it is:

Due to the events of SMRPG, ♡♪!? gets a merit promotion. Maybe, at the beginning of the story, he's not a full-blown Star Spirit (or whatever verbiage). But - as the one little star guardian valiant and capable enough to go down to the world to help save the entire Star Road - now he's become one!

And that comes with more freedom. Just imagine him crashing back down to Earth like "Yo GUESS WHAT PEOPLE, now I'm a STAR SPIRIT (or etc.) and I set my own schedule!" He can go back and see his friends! It's amazing!

And it fits exactly! With not a single caveat I can think of!

IN FACT, you might even say it's supported by a little discrepancy in some 27-year-old pixel art:

Remember the difference between Geno's first appearance and his last? He goes from this tiny lil twinkle guy... to a much bigger 5-pointed star. This is never explained....

((( Read on for my rationale, more gifs, and even more feelings )))

(the doll being bigger is not explained either, but humor me)

(and yes that IS him lighting things up like the Main Street Electrical Parade. I noticed that almost exactly a year ago and it rocketed this fandom back to the front of my So Cal Disney Kid brain so hard that I can't believe it took me so long to make this blog)

(only fitting that he would also usher in the remake reveal after an end like this. :'''D)

... But to me, it seems plausible that the little star's gotten stronger and grown! 💙

In the remake trailer, because I'm the kind of dweeb who does this, I went frame by frame trying to spot any telling differences -

(^ the scene where he's possessing the doll - this could just be a homage to the little twinkle he looks like in the original. even if that's all, I love the devs for it)

(more five-pointy? maybe? rev, did you just superimpose all the frames where Geno looks most five-pointy just so you could not quite prove anything? ABSOLUTELY)

Make of that what you will; all I can say so far is that we only see him kind of blobby. But what I'm secretly hoping is, maybe that's on purpose, so they can make it clearer in the game for the purpose of some big reveal like this. 😀

Anyway...

Wouldn't this be such a fitting and meaningful thing for Geno's character arc? I know one of the complaints among people who consider Geno overrated is that he doesn't really have an arc. Of course, his fans (myself included) either aren't bothered by that, or straight-up disagree, since he's central to the entire plot and goal of the game, and also literally the Mario universe equivalent of an angel, and maybe he was so reserved because he was trying so hard not to get attached even though we all know he totally did,

and also if he got an arc anywhere near Mallow's he'd be so compelling that he'd basically be the main character and they'd have to call it Super Geno RPG BUT ANYWAY,

I can't fully express, no matter how long I make this post, how much I hope they take a narrative route like this. It would be the actual best. My nerdy little heart would never be the same.

[dirtsoilmulch]

long rambly post abt how i think bede and hop's relationship is because holy shit im the only person correct ever:

(asterisk this is only kind of sort of a ship analysis because i dont ship them in a normal way i ship them in a cool secret 3rd thing way)

during the plot, they dont Like each other. at all. like not even a little bit. even before bede was actively being a dick, hop got bad vibes from him anyway (half because of how he spoke to victor/gloria, half because hop's ego was the size of the sun in earlygame). and on bede's end, hop is a roadblock. just another competitor that he has to face off against. so why would he care? he's got one goal (to please chairman rose) and thats all he plans to do.

when the bede/hop battle plotpoint comes into play, its less of a pokemon battle and more of a fight. somewhere in one of the wild areas, kind of discreet so neither get into serious trouble over it. i always refer to this part of the game "the time when bede tells hop to kill himself" because thats what i feel is implied. bede calls him worthless, he calls him a terrible trainer, a stain on leon's reputation. things that dig deep, that fuck hop up astronomically. but i think its just because bede can see a lot of what he is in hop. they both had a goal. they both had someone who they needed to prove themselves to (leon or chairman rose). they gave it everything and more, sacrificed time and money and years to accomplish the one thing they couldnt ever do. i dont think hop can see the parallels they have yet. hes too in his head at this point

when bede is removed from the gym challenge, hop is a little conflicted. had he not gotten his team wiped prior, he would've been stoked about it. but he's more focused on himself now. he has bigger problems to worry about. bede is basically forgotten by him.

postgame (the playable content postgame) is a little different. i imagine it takes place a few months after the main plot does. bede has matured slightly, but he's still defensive as all hell. hop is more confused than he is upset. especially after seeing bede's success as the next fairy-type gym leader. because why him? why, after all bede has ruined and broken and messed with, did he get the chance and hop didnt? i doubt that hop ever wanted to be a gym leader (especially not fairy-type, he doesnt give that vibe). but if not a champion, he wanted to contribute somehow. its not fair to him that bede gets to and he doesnt (despite hop's lack of trying)

he's angry about it. angry enough that he breaks the radio silence between him and bede and confronts him about it. they dont battle this time (hop knew he wouldnt win anyway). it leads to an argument, though. one that leads bede to ask him why he's given up. why after all that effort, he's decided to just quit everything altogether.

following this is their second not interacting period. i imagine this is over the course of a few years. hop finally talks himself into becoming a pokemon professor. he prefers learning over copying anyway. he actually takes bede's advice, and goddamnit it actually worked.

so when research brings him and sonia to ballonlea, he finds bede again. he does his best to thank him for the wake up call. bede apologizes (though it doesnt Feel like an apology. hes so terrible at sounding genuine, even if he is) for basically psyching hop out of the championship altogether. and he tells him that had he not intervened, had that first "kys" battle never happened, that hop could've fought his own brother. maybe not a win. but he would still make it far.

hop cries over that. and with time, they're able to talk like normal people again. reminisce on the gym challenge, talk about what happened and why it happened. hop asks bede about the pokemon native to the glimwood tangle, bede asks hop about dynamaxing (and also tells the little knowledge he'd gotten from the chairman back in the day).

so do they date? no. not in a regular kind of way. my mind says it as a very casual, not set in stone or talked about qpr. they're around each other a lot, they end up caring about each other a lot. theres still that underlying pain from hop, he's learning to get over it. and there are some nights bede gets sentimental enough to apologize again.

nothing super romantical happens. they kiss like once, they hold hands occasionally. i dont think either of them are very physically affectionate. both are also asexual because i said so.

slightly more than friends. a bit less than lovers. just 2 people learning to work with the cards they were delt. 2 people who failed and support each other as they pick up the pieces.

huzzah.

[hamofjustice]

Hey it's the guy from that other rant about how Nemona, Arven, and Penny are getting ignored for no reason by DLC advertising in a game that's supposed to be about forming treasured unbreakable bonds with well-written sad kids who desperately needed friends and are presented as sort of Strength, Courage and Wisdom Trio by the ending, back with a new post now that one of the DLCs is out and haha I bet you know what I have to say don't you

What was the point of excluding Nemona, Arven, and Penny from The Teal Mask if there are three unnamed and generic-modeled but consistently written student NPCs present anyway, and the content is level 60-75, so you're clearly not intended to do it without finishing the game*? Not only do they not see you off or gain any new dialogue when you get home, they aren't mentioned or alluded to in any way shape or form. They're still statues standing in their rooms with one line of dialogue, the one thing I wanted DLC and updates to change the most. They never notice you left the country for a week.

* UPDATE: Apparently the DLC has level scaling even though the base game didn't, and it is accessible with 0 badges, and that is why there are no references to the preexisting story - it might not have happened yet. Fascinating. I guess that part holds less weight then and this whole post is a little less necessary. I'll leave the rest of the post unedited but it really did seem like this was designed as postgame content only regardless of when it becomes available. Guess not! So I guess, instead, the story got shot in the foot a little bit by the decision to make it available to new players instead of for no reason. I think they should have let it be postgame content, but, I'm a little less worried now. This makes sense within those rules. I guess.

Fanart like this is now coming out and getting tons of likes asking why this happened after six months of countless pieces of cute fanart like this all turned out to be for nothing.

As people are already realizing, it would have been really fun and logical for two of the three who don't really get along with each other yet (which is any combination of them, really, that's part of the fun, and part of why their stories should continue) to be forced to team up into an odd couple, while the third gets to know Carmine and perhaps build a rivalry with her. Wouldn't it be fun to see them talking about their own adventures they were going on, and how they were starting to get along, even if it was happening offscreen? (Because this DLC is focused on introducing new characters to set up for later and that's fine) Wouldn't it be smart to set up the group dynamic for Indigo Disc in advance as preparation for a return to Area Zero and that whole professor-haunted main plotline with a larger cast?

It's just giving me even more apparently-not-unfounded paranoia that yeah, we've never been shown the friend trio in new footage in a DLC trailer because not just Penny but somehow even Arven and Nemona are going to be completely irrelevant to a DLC about finding closure on Area Zero's story and going to a school all about top-level battling. Why else would they go this far out of their way to avoid including them as characters? This is like... active sabotage of their own story at this point.

... Could they really just not be bothered to model three characters in jinbei, and repeatedly shot in the foot their best story yet and all the setup they did for continuing it... over that? That'd be stupid, right? Unfortunately, I don't have the confidence in the company to put anything past them right now.

I just don't know how The Indigo Disc is going to carry the weight of everything they've set up expectations for it to do, unless it's like three times bigger than this little teaser of a DLC in terms of actual story and postgame battles, and most importantly to me, the postgame hanging-out that they very suspiciously also won't show the original friend trio for that we were promised by the story almost a year ago as a happy ending, that we haven't actually gotten to participate in on-screen at all, outside of the Ace Academy Tournament (whose music is perfect for that happy victory lap feeling by the way).

I'm afraid now more than ever that all of my happy thoughts about how this generation and these precious characters should be wrapped up and what should be in The Indigo Disc aren't going to happen, and... it'll just go unceremoniously into the trash can with the other generations after a few more months of trailers probably making it clear that despite all the sappy memories with your original group and the girl who calls the player character her treasure and her rival for life, the game is about Carmine and Kieran now instead of them joining the group, and it will be remembered as the half assed cash grab game and not the one with a big heart and deep character writing hidden in it, if they care THIS aggressively, out-of-their-way little about the reason the game has heart. Not that I don't like these new newcomers too, but. There was a different way to go about this.

Pokemon Masters and Pokemon Special and stuff will try their best to compensate and do the characters justice, but they're just fanfic writers like us except with a budget. The anime writers are forced to make the story about other characters, as if Nemona, Arven, and Penny's stories were something shameful or inappropriate they need to paint over, and not the saving grace for what was otherwise an embarrassing corporate product with good people stuck working on it.

It would have been so easy to integrate the three of them into this DLC, and it would've made the next DLC better to have done so. Literally just replace some character models and rewrite some dialogue. The Paldea students don't have festival outfits anyway afaik. We're talking romhack-level difficulty of implementation here. Come the hell on.

Between the contents of this first part of the DLC and how they've been advertising it so far, I cannot make myself believe Nemona, Arven, and Penny will be in the rest of generation 9. I don't want to get hurt by my expectations. I feel like they've been purposefully excluded, like TPC thinks there's something wrong with them.

... Anyone else feeling this?

[blackblooms]

November Progress Devlog

Closing on about a year of development and I`m almost done with the main game.

Completed this month: -most of the last world -3 mid-boss rematches -3 new enemy types (including 1 variant of an existing enemy) -Side paths of World 4 and 5 -Started reworking the upgrade system -2 arena brawls -rewrote the Grimwood breach dialogues to give its story more of a clear theme and arc -wrote a few more cutscenes

-Lies of P, pretty good game

Goals for the coming month: -World 6 boss (probably gonna be the main game, final boss) -Endgame events -world 4-5-6 cutscenes and dialogues -hub cutscenes and dialogues

I also solidified the plans for the postgame and opted to consolidate most of the planned content into one large chapter (the foundations) The area will connect to the other levels and be available from mid-game progression but feature many progress locks that will prevent its full exploration until the player has finished the main game and its side paths.

Anyway, that's it for this month. Thanks for anyone following this. Making games takes a long time and it helps a lot to see people being invested in the project.

[kirbybaker-the-alch]

man ive wanted to talk about this for a while and have a whole script in my head- unfortunately I don't know how to make videos so hey! text post! WHY TERRARIA'S DUNGEON ITEMS SUCK, AND MY TAKES ON IMPROVING THEM So I wanna start at the core of this issue- and that is the underworld.

Re-logic when designing Terraria 1.0 made the dungeon supposedly the final area (Skeletron was the last boss at the time), and as such, the underworld was left earlier in progression- hellstone is able to be mined with a Nightmare Pickaxe. (Deathbringer for all the crimson fans but that didn't exits in 1.0) Despite this, Shadow Chests require a Shadow Key to open, found in the dungeon. Post-Postgame content???

This leaves a few issues with Terraria being unable to decide progression- First off, Blue Moon and Magic Missile. They are ok weapons, except for the fact they are instantly outclassed by the Sunfury and Flamelash from Shadow Chests- weapons that function identically with better stats. It makes them viable for about 5 minutes- when you are exploring the dungeon and when you are looking for Shadow Chests.

But worse off is the Muramasa, Valor, and Handgun. These items usually see NO use. Why is that? They can all be upgraded BEFORE OR THE MOMENT THEY ARE OBTAINED. While Muramasa's upgrade, the Night's Edge, is pretty costly, it's such a significant upgrade with all other materials required being obtainable before, that Muramasa doesn't see use ever besides being carried to the nearest Demon Altar. Handgun is more sad, only requiring hellstone- the resource you can get much earlier with only a post-evil boss pick- into the Phoenix Blaster, literally just a Handgun with better stats. Valor is the saddest of the 3- Cascade is obtainable any time in hell, and hell enemies aren't too tough right before the dungeon, you may as well go for it, or the equally strong Hive Five over Valor. Valor is genuinely as used as the Pearlwood Bow by even yoyo only players.

Quick shoutouts to Aqua Scepter- its not only unique, it's designed well for the WoF fight and isn't directly upgradable or outclassed by a functionally identical statistically better weapon. So how would I go about fixing this? Well, when @aurora--spirit was discussing her weapon revamps mod with me (also cause I later had the idea for an alternate dungeon mod I work on and off on), we discussed a few ideas that she wrote down. One such idea is to make the counterpart weapons to their dungeon variations, giving them their own unique functions that make them an optional counterpart, allowing players to pick either or, depending on preference. Another idea is to shift progression of some weapons- make upgrades require slightly later materials as to allow their un-upgraded counterparts a chance to shine, or make some dungeon weapons weaker but earlier game outside the dungeon.

Anyways thanks for reading my huge tangent, I just love discussing this so feel free to ask me about stuff on this game or even specifically dungeon stuff

[cerastes]

Did you stop playing FF14 for any particular reason? Did something make you not like it anymore?

Nope, I still highly recommend the game, with the caveat that the game aspect of it begins in the Stormblood postgame (Tsukoyomi specifically), and before that, it's not at all a video game because there's no gameplay beyond having a functioning brain and being able to press buttons, and the other caveat that the storyline really starts in Heavensward, because the writing before then is a powerful anesthetic. This may sound like I'm backhanding the game something fierce but this is my honest, good faith opinion of a game I legitimately enjoyed and do not at all regret spending both time and money on. If you go in with those warnings in mind (in my opinion) it's an amazing experience overall.

I stopped playing simply because I accomplished all I set out to do on it. I am not an MMO guy. I started FF14 with these objectives:

Find out if the narrative was as good as people claimed it was -> It was!

Play through current Savage content through Party Finder -> I did that! It was fun.

Join a static and play Savage content with them -> I did that! I loved my static, the voice chat was always fun.

Then, I found my favorite content in the game: Bozja. That gave me an extra objective:

Beat all 6 of the superboss duels in Bozja, collect all Pages, become Emblazoned (10/10/10) and basically, clear Bozja 100%.

And I did all of it! Technically, I'm at 99% because I am only missing the Delubrum Reginae Savage clear, but I need 47 other players willing to play that if I want to be able to attempt it. It's already old content, so not a lot of people try it anymore. Hell, even getting a queue for regular DR is an ordeal. But otherwise? I busted my ass learning all 6 duels, beat them, and got all Pages.

And when I finally beat the final duel, Lyon's 2nd duel, and finished all that Bozja had for me... I sort of didn't want to play anymore. I would log in for a few more days but I would just sort of meander around Coerthas, decorate my house, or play the market, but... I wasn't really playing anymore. I would just yawn a lot and find myself with nothing to do. After around a week of that, I realized I was done with the game. I 'beat' FF14. I accomplished all I set out to do. I had fun.

So I cancelled my subscription and uninstalled. The game did its job, and it did it amazingly well. I had fun. I did not want to play it anymore, because I was satisfied and had nothing left to do in it.

It also helps it happened around the time Elden Ring was about to release, haha. A friend of mine said "well, it makes sense you love Bozja so much, it's practically solo content with other people instead of multiplayer content" and, it made a lot of sense: I prefer doing my thing, by myself, instead of necessarily needing people for content, and having to go along (forgive how this will sound) with their fuck ups holding me back, when I'm doing perfectly well by myself. That was the appeal of the Bozja duels, really: It's super difficult content, but it's 1 on 1, if you lose in a duel, it's because YOU fucked up, not because one of the other seven people fucked up and took you all down with them. Every time I lost a duel, it was a learning experience, and the solution was simple: I need to get better. I simply need to play better and learn the fight better, that's it. I can't get better for one or more other people in a group of eight. I can get better for myself. Ergo, I like solo content. I mean, I pretty much played through FF14 as a single player game, anyways (I'm so sorry, everyone that made a Coeurl character or transferred to Coeurl because I was there, I'm a hermit in essence, at the end of the day).

But, again, I loved my time with the game and I seriously think it's a wonderful game. I didn't stop playing because I dislike it. I love FF14, it's just, it did its job, and smashingly well at that.

[kafus]

good morning the colosseum hyperfocus continues. i’m gonna grab some light breakfast and then it’s time for mt battle’s battle mode for ho-oh (this is my first time ever doing it)

this is the team! i did the entire shadow purification grind without connecting to my GBA and i want to see if it’s possible to do mt battle without it too, so these are all my story pokemon from playing colosseum normally. i’m happy i kept the starter espeon and umbreon on the team lol. i chose not to use the legendary beasts because eh i’ve used those in playthroughs before and i just didn’t want to this time. i’m going to be playing doubles because this team was built for doubles for obvious reasons

by the time i finished catching and purifying every shadow pokemon, my flygon was level 66 but the rest of my team was between 60-63, so i had some grinding to do bc all my pokemon need to be the same level for this. i got all their levels equal last night by battling in all the various colosseums for completion’s sake - i don’t think i missed any? and this is how i got shadow ball on metagross for example, bc of the TM rewards

to be honest i’ve grown attached to this team in a way i haven’t with any colosseum team before despite playing this game multiple times. i’ve never really done the postgame for colosseum fully and as a result i’ve never put this much effort into movesets and generally thinking about my team because i haven’t had to - but unless i wanted to make my grind even more miserable, i needed to to take out overleveled opponents. and that’s been a blast for me! the slow incrementation of my team has led to really rewarding battles where i feel massive brain bc everything is always stronger than you 😭

i don’t think the novelty would still be there if i did this again, at least not anytime soon, because colo’s teambuilding options are limited due to the lack of viable pokemon to choose from, and also that shadow purification grind is a nightmare straight from hell (i had fun with it bc i like video game grinding but doing it twice in a row might destroy even me lol) but this time it was really fun!!

colosseum is really like if the indigo disc DLC was an entire video game (high compliment bc i loved ID) and you also didn’t have access to easy grinding/resources in general so you really have to think about the choices you make and how you spend your time. i was thinking so far ahead while using TMs and there’s no move reminder in this game so i had to think carefully about levelup moves as well. you have no idea how long i lingered on whether or not i should delete confuse ray on umbreon, etc 😭 this game reminds me how much i love double battles and i wish there was more singleplayer double battle content in pokemon a lot

anyway i’m just rambling at this point but i’m excited to take this team to the finish line :)

[sea-of-souls1100]

Returning the favor - tell me something about your interest(s), you seem fun :)

Oh- thank you! Um. Sorry LOL

The guys in my brain are alllll pokemon (except for Ethoslab, who lives here year-round and rent-free), so we're gonna talk about Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver >:)

First off all, I love these games. Love em to pieces. I've had HeartGold since I was like 7, although I kept taking long breaks, forgot the story, and had to start the game over several times >:'D I finally stuck with a save file I started last year, and made it through the whole thing in about 80 hours. I do play a little slower than most, but we'll talk more about the reason for the stupid amount of time it took me now.

First of all, it's very important to understand that I play on a console, not an emulator. No hacks for me. Second of all, grinding in HG/SS is SHIT. It's so bad. It takes SO LONG to level your mons, especially in the postgame. The highest level wild pokemon you can find are ~lvl 50, and they are found only on Mt. Silver. For context: Red's team, who are supposed to be your final-final big battle of the game and located on top of Mt. Silver, are upwards of lvl 80.

This game's actual content, on the other hand, is my second favorite only to the original Unova storyline. These games have a relatively basic storyline, but a LOT of postgame content. You get two whole regions, a callback to the previous protagonists, and quick references to the Hoenn and Sinnoh games, which came out between the original Gold/Silver/Crystal and the HG/SS games. I also adore this game's rival, Silver. (Different from the mountain.) He's mean at first, but only because he's hurting, and he gets a very nice bettering-himself arc (adoptive after figure included)! Said father figure is Lance, the champion of the Indigo League, who I also adore. Back then, dragon types only had one weakness—ice types—and there were only a select few you could get. Unfortunately for him, I caught a Lapras pretty early on and swept his team with her, twice, but still. Dragon types are my favorites, next to dark, ghost, and grass types. (I'm very indecisive.

One last fun fact about me: I love the Chikorita line. The Chikorita line is objectively the worst Johto starter. I kick ass with my Meganium anyways <3

[yakdeculture]

Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker Review

The 4th expansion to A Realm Reborn and a culmination to the story up to that point. Y’all ff14 don’t play about spoilers so I’m not even gonna say what’s goin on in there but some crazy shit is going down and its up to you to solve it.

Do you like my character? That;s Spice World on Famfrit you can add me if you want I mostly play Dancer but I also like astrologian dragoon and pictomancer I’m gonna level samurai and reaper too though. Anyways so I first started playing ff14 like right after high school so like probably right after Stromblood came out maybe what would that be like 4.1? Something like that? Anyways that’s when I started played and I played pretty consistently up through the patch before Endwalker I think by then I was already pretty burnt out and wasn’t logging in that much but like I hadn’t even finished the last like few quests in post Shadowbringers when I quit. I had logged in like a few times when there was like free time or whatever since then and now but literally the only thing I did was visit my friends little animal crossing island. But with Dawntrail coming out a lot of people on the TL were getting back into it so I said fuck it why not. A lot of the things I don’t like about this game/don’t really appeal to me is still true I’m not a fan of the postgame content structure in the sense that like I frankly just don’t care about raiding and like unlocking extreme trials I just don’t care. I don’t see the appeal of doing just a Fight You Already Did But Watch Out Because Some of These AOEs are Crazier. And I think it can take up too much time of like your social life this is true of all MMOS but this is like the only one most sane people would even think to care about. But like its a similar deal to gatcha games but if instead there being like 15 minutes worth of dailies there are like up to 4 hours worth of dailies depending on how invested you are in the game and thats just insane to me and I’m the kind of person who would do MSQ roulette back when that shit took like 30 to 40 minutes every time before the ARR update.

Anyways let me actually talk about the Endwalker MSQ this review only covers up to the actual end of the MSQ I haven’t started the real postgame yet. THERE ARE SPOILERS OF ENDWALKER AFTER THIS POINT if you are like me and stopped playing or are newer to the game or something. So personally honestly up until like level 83 and you go to the moon and do the trial and shit the story really just feels like more postgame patch stuff where its like sure you are progressing the story and you even visit new places but you don’t really do anything there and you leave before anything interesting can happen and garlemald is basically empty (fine I guess kind of funny though) but like I think around 65 after the dungeon it starts picking up again and then you go to Elpis and then after that its basically all peak I think Shadowbringers story is more consistent but Endwalker peaks higher. Also I should say I like Heavensward significantly less than most people I just do not fuck with most of the characters (Harchefant) and I think its annoying how like most of the story is everyone telling Ysayle hows shes a fucking idiot stupid loser and shes wrong and bad and then it turns out she was was more right then everybody else and then she kills herself so a guy who hasn’t taken a shower in his entire life can join the main cast. And then when Vrtra comes out to people at Radz at Han they have the fucking gall to be like [flashback of Ysyals] we did it buddy! Y’ALL WERE NOT HER FRIEND Y’ALL TREATED HER LIKE SHIT. But I have to give them serious credit because in Shadowbringers I thought the Armout shit and like Emet’s whole deal was fucking stupid granted this is because I already did not like the Ascains up to that point so it just kind of felt like they were like were just pivoting and making them something they weren’t but ultimately they really fleshed it out in Endwalker and like it really did tie it all together I do have to give them credit for that. It’s funny bc I forgot Hydoleathaeus (not checking how to spell his name) was a character you met multiple times so the time in the section I was is it gonna be like some twist like this fucking twink was actually somebody else the whole time but no he was just the friendly guy you met a couple of times. Zenos is also really funny in this expac its hilarious they brought him back and then it was like barely for any reason at all other than to have a few epics moments and then kill him again in a way thats like okay try bringing this mf back again I dare you to find a way. The ending was very Marcoss 7 so I appreciated that. Honestly I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the story especially because of how it started out. Not to be thing Japan but I played every other expac on English voices but I just can’t listen to the british shit again so I switched to JP and it was so good.

postpatch review

If this was any other set of post game patches I wouldn’t do a review for them because usually frankly pretty much all the post expansion story before this point goes like this

X.1: Filler

X.2: Filler but then something happens in the last quest

X.3 actual story

X.4: Filler but you notice they keep bringing up some location name constantly

X.5: Somee boss fight that makes the scions decide they gotta go take a trip to the next expac location

This time they decided to actually have a real story that actually had time to develop. I enjoyed this one a lot but also part of that is because Zero was so hot that I could ignore the fact that they had like 50 different scenes where someone explained like the concept of trust or friendship or hanging out or whatever to her and she did her stupid fucking fedora thing and went … like look I get it and I like it but its like obnoxious at this point. We all get we get what you are doing you don’t have to do this same thing over and over again. I understand most ff14 players struggle to interpret information beyond going in and then out to dodge aoes and are not equipped to handle actual character writing but they will never grow or improve their literacy rates if you don’t give them the chance.

But genuinely this was like the first time I enjoyed reading or doing post game stuff since like. The Yotsuyu stuff in Stormblood. Probably won’t start Dawntrail for a while (my sub ran out and down feel like renewing) but it seems cool from the little story preview I like that Wuk Lamat’s introducing is like patting Graha’s back and since he’s a weak little beta chud he almost breaks all his bones in his body recoiling from her powerful aura and then he immediately annnounces he will not be going on the adventure with us like thank fucking god get this catboy FREAK out of my sight.

[riddlerosehearts]

more baldur's gate 3 playthrough thoughts--this time, i've completed both shadowheart and astarion's companion quests and also stumbled upon more sidequests! maybe someday i will finally manage to finish my first playthrough of the game!

so i randomly stumbled across the house of grief because i keep freaking getting lost LMAO--but before going in, i talked to shadowheart so i could get her back in the party, and she had dialogue talking about the grafitti she drew? interesting, i knew there was grafitti of hers somewhere around the city but i don't remember encountering it while having her in my party. i suppose i must have, and simply didn't hear her comment on it. anyway, since i'm at the house of grief now i figured i might as well go ahead and go there.

i ultimately had shadowheart do the mapping of the heart because she said she wanted to and it seemed like the obvious best choice for the story (she even disapproves if you don't let her), but first i let my tav do it just to see what would happen and wow it was actually really interesting to think over the answers to those questions! here's how i had him answer them, along with viconia's shockingly accurate assessment of his flaws:

for the last question, "i would be restless" would've also been a good answer, but i just picked based on what my first instinct was at the time. these are neat character building questions tbh.

oh yeah, i should also say that my whole party hit level 12 a few battles ago! and i feel like i've seen a lot of complaints about how you'll most likely hit max level by mid-act 3, because people dislike gaining exp and having it essentially go into the void + being unable to keep improving your characters. but tbh i like knowing that i'm already as powerful as i can possibly be and if i'm having trouble, all i have to worry about now is my equipment and build! in most games where the max level is 100, i either never manage to reach that at all or only hit it while doing postgame content after the main story is over. so i actually like this change of pace. and maybe it's just me being bad at games, but even at max level i still find the combat challenging and fun.

the choice with shadowheart's parents... i was really annoyed at having to make that choice for wyll, and i could see things going either way with shadowheart, so even though elenion would absolutely save her parents if it were up to him, he told her to decide for herself what's right. she chose to save them and i am so proud of her. seeing her cry and say she feels like she doesn't deserve to be anyone's daughter almost made me cry, but now her parents are in camp and everyone is happy! what a beautiful resolution to her quest. i imagine elenion, who hasn't actually visited his mother in a long time, would go to visit her in the city as soon as possible after this.

i wasn't sure what i should do next so i just, went ahead and grabbed astarion and took him to confront cazador because why not! i had to google how to get to the palace and i'm not sure how i was supposed to naturally figure it out tbh but maybe that's just me. anyway, meeting sebastian and the gur children was really interesting and unsettling. and so was hearing astarion talk like he'd be totally fine with having to sacrifice 7,000 souls in order to ascend, even though i actually knew about that part already.

anyway, i did manage to defeat cazador and first of all act 3 is really making it clear that i am absolutely horrendous at this game 😭 i think i was so excited to get through the story that i just didn't take the time to properly learn the mechanics as much as i should have, but oh well, i'm still having fun even if i have to retry the battles a lot sometimes! and wow uh. i've barely even used astarion on my team in this playthrough but holy shit i love him. seeing him get covered in blood from stabbing cazador to death like that was kind of hot. i did not expect him to break down crying after killing cazador!?!?! i wish you could walk over there and give him a hug. i used the hugging mod i have downloaded to do that right after the next conversation with him at camp. just really felt like he needed it. i'm also really proud of him for, when you say you think the spawn should be released, admitting that they're innocent and shouldn't have to suffer for his mistakes, and then coming up with a plan for them to live in the underdark. act 1 astarion would definitely never have done that.

karlach is so sweet and wholesome it makes me wanna cry sometimes.

i love that minsc has something to say about pretty much all of the companions. i love how he has so much respect for both karlach and wyll, especially with how much karlach looks up to him. also fucking love that he's all jealous of halsin for beating him at arm wrestling and that he needs boo to tell him that rather than being scared of blood, astarion might just possibly be a vampire. and he doesn't like gale because he uses big words like "posterior" and because boo is scared of tara adkgjdh 😭

he wouldn't tell me anything about shadowheart though?? he said it would unwise to talk about her behind her back. idk why that is, but i really hope i'll be able to ask him about lae'zel after i get her back.

i found volo?! he stayed in our camp all the way until the end of act 2 since i never let him do eye surgery on anyone, and then he just unceremoniously disappeared, so i was wondering where he'd gone off to. elenion didn't really care because they can't stand his ass, but oh well, they saved him anyway because unfortunately they don't see "being extremely annoying" as an acceptable reason to leave someone to die, and now he's back at camp again! i also started the "avenge the drowned" quest, and then found the society of brilliance lodge and--oh god no this made me remember that one society lady in act 1 who wanted the githyanki egg, which then made me remember lae'zel is carrying that egg around everywhere and nurturing it, and she got kidnapped. we have put the egg in danger. blurg tasked us with saving omeluum but i really want to get lae'zel back, actually.

going to end this post here, but yeah, i think i probably will just go ahead and try to kill orin next. i miss lae'zel a lot, and i think it would feel wrong to go to the house of hope without her.

[moonlight-at-dawn]

Struggling to remember everything that happens in Berseria, I think I'm at roughly 50-60% through (earthpulse round 2)? Anyway, when i finish i think I'll go back to Arise for a day or 2 to finish all the postgame content for the 4th? time and get all my screenshots. I don't remember how many I'm at now, like 20k? Lmao my computer is so mad at me. My secondary ssd is all Arise screenshots.

Then... then I'll give Zestiria one more try. Will I finish this time? Who fucking knows!