#anyway. yay! i really loved these world quests. definitely one of my favorites

[oceancracker]

girl help why do i feel compelled to like. replay the entire damn game to make sense of the narzissenkreuz world quest. every time i google something abt it and start seeing things i dont recognize i cant even tell if its a spoiler or just something i forgot

[2ofswords]

for your analysis meme: clara

This is going to be so much fun and so very tough, because Clara is such an amazingly complicated character! God, I love her so much but part of that is because she is very ambivalent and hard to describe. She is one of these characters where you can find an opposite trait for every other one she has (which is kind of the point of her). Also: I still haven’t played the Changeling route in Patho1 and I have a stronger understanding of the Patho2 universe… so bear with me. I will try my best to analyse our favorite saint.

their biggest strength

I needed to think a while about this one and the term that stuck with me was attentive cleverness. Because I really couldn’t decide if I wanted to call her attentive or clever and luckily these two can be combined into something, I find pretty precise for what I want to describe. Clara is very clever and has a lot of knowledge that not really anyone else in the patho-universe can gain (or at least the amount of it, people share bits and pieces). She is the healer most aware of the meta-narrative and at least in routes that aren’t hers is telling you either that she knows more than you do or straight out telling you something, you needed to know (and probably didn’t want to). As is obvious by her focus on hands and talking her main skill is also interaction with other people… but I think a lot of it comes from the fact, that Clara is a good listener. Which seems to be counter-intuitive because listening is assigned as Artemy’s domain in the artbook, but I think the other word used – rhythms – is pretty important here. Artemy’s skill is finding connections, intuit solutions as well as similarities and differences (there is a reason he realizes his similarities to Aglaya’s description of the inquisition) and gaining cultural knowledge that he then transforms into practical and usable abilities. Clara’s “listening” is more about singular people’s well-being and personal struggle. (She is like a good therapist. If your therapist wanted to convert you into a sacrificial religion. ^^) She interacts with her surroundings directly and attentively. I mean, she is very well informed very early on without really having a live before that or at least not in town (again, I did not play the changeling route yet and do not know her origins or how ambiguous they are kept at the end. Either way, she arrives in town at the beginning of the game and navigates her way pretty well.) However only calling her attentive sounds like the trait is a passive one which is not something I mean. Both her personas as a saint and a thief use her knowledge that is gained by being attentive in unconventional ways and/or for unconventional means. As noted in the beginning, Clara is very clever and that in combination with her noticing even small discrepancies and listening to people makes her able to peek behind the curtain of the game in the first place. It also helps to get yourself into places people normally wouldn’t want a teenage girl to be and Clara knows and is fully willing to use this ability. It is both the reason why she knows so much more about the greater scope of the disaster and also why she always seems to be able to get into any place she wants to. By the way, just as an afterthought: Of course that ability doesn’t come and is in fact enhanced by empathy. I do not think, Clara is listening to people only to use them and to gain information. You can genuinely be willing to listen to someone and still use the information you get out of these conversations. Listening carefully and actively engaging with other people is a great part of that strength!

their greatest weakness

Does “not being able to hold a knife when the town wants you dead” count as a weakness? Okay seriously, I have a really hard time to put what I consider her weakness into one expressive term. So I will talk about it first at length and then we will see. What caught my mind first was ironically Clara’s problems with communication. That might be the case because, yes, I still haven’t played her route, so I am working mostly on her ways of communication with the other healers. But Clara really has a lot of strong points that she has trouble getting across or acknowledged. Sometimes that is definitely not her fault and one of her problems is, that she is not taken seriously by other people. But trying to persuade someone to their cause and emphasizing the reason with an elaborate monologue how the other healers are demons. Daniil was genuinely asking, why you wrote your letter about your destiny, it’s fine! Same happens in Pathologic 2. Saying someone to stay put when they are in a pretty bad spot already is not a bad idea and Artemy is pretty open to both warnings and clairvoyance in general but saying. “Nope, do literally nothing even if you know you want to, I am a better doctor anyways” is… yeah hurting him in his professional pride isn’t exactly a smart move. Often it feels like she really has a chance to explain and the other healers would probably listen but then there is just a terrible miscommunication. (Which is a thing for all of the healers but Clara I-am-going-to-call-your-father-a-horrible-person-while-we-are-at-his-funeral Saburova… Look, it might be true but it is also hilarious.) But putting communication skills here would still be weird, since… you know… she is pretty good at communicating in different ways! And also all three healers are pretty prone to miscommunication albeit in different ways and for different reasons… So I think we have to dig a bit deeper still… So why is this happening and hindering her? There are multiple reasons to come to this conclusion. One I would call childlike stubbornness. (Which btw. Is also one of her strengths, but… it is Clara, everything is also its opposite. God I love her so much, she is just so hard to describe, it’s amazing!) Even with all of her wisdom and cleverness… Clara is still a child. As she should be, it makes her so much more interesting! But she also has this childlike quality of just… assuming people will completely understand and accept what she is trying to see and getting frustrated the moment it doesn’t happen. This is one of her contradictions. She is so very attentive, and she can touch other people with her hands as well as her words, but she also is inexperienced and doesn’t really know a lot about the world or about how to socially approach people which can be a big problem, if she desperately needs someone to listen. The other argument would be about her role in the plot and the way she regards her own role as well as the other healers. She is the most aware one and she does indeed know a solution to the dilemma of the story (if we do not conclude that this is a three way battle, but I exclude my thoughts about the factions themselves for this. She definitely though knows how to get rid of the town vs. polyhedron conflict) but this also puts her in direct opposition to both healers. Which… you know is completely fair and not a weakness. But, she is very uncompromising about this and while all of them are – at least when they are not the main protagonists – Clara is the most unmoving and also uncompromising of the three, telling everyone always very directly how she things the others are shit. Which again, is very justified but becomes a big problem when she needs help and makes it harder for her to express her own thoughts, even if they are very justified and might even help all parties. Speaking in riddles and of concepts beyond something we would see as our reality surely doesn’t help there either.

a headcanon about their childhood

Oh dear, tbh I am not even sure how metaphorical she just crawled out of the earth at the beginning of the game and if she even has a proper childhood… I think it is pretty literal but there are allusions in Patho2 that she actually has a past? At least she speaks about it and I guess it can be as made up as real. (A classic Clara move ^^) And having no defined past is kind of a big thing for her so… sorry, no childhood headcanon here.  

a headcanon about their future (if they have one)

Again, I am not really sure if she stays in town or leaves with Block and I have read fanfiction with both, so I am not sure if there is a consensus in fandom either… If she stays in town I imagine her still being with the Saburovs but I do not know, if I really like this headcanon, since abandoning your newly found orphan in the middle of a plague is really something that should revoke parent rights… But on the other thing the position among the mistresses seems to still be pretty defined at least in the endings in Patho 2. I like to see her travelling with Block at least for a while. Maybe not at the front, that would be just… bad. But she also seems like the person who would just poke their head around at random intervals and nobody really knows, when she will get back and somehow Clara still knows exactly what is going on in town… Still she also seems pretty bound to the place and she has business there… it’s a tough call. She will definitely fire up the rivalry of the mistresses by a lot though. Probably even if she is just there for a second, she would definitely sow some mischief between Capella and Maria! Another triad of petty politics for her! Yay?

a small detail/scene that leaves a great impact

Oh dear, every scene she is in is just so impactful! (Also never knowing which Clara is with you right now (if there even is a difference) doesn’t make this easier...) I really like her quest in Artemy’s run, where she is upset about not knowing what exactly she is in the first place… but that is not really a small details or scene. Same goes for the cathedral and her offer to meet the inquisitor together with Dankovsky to stand up for that whole disaster. Which is still a really heroic but also not really a small scene and there is nothing to talk about there aside from “man, is Clara brave and set on doing the right thing!” I also think the letter about her ending is really interesting because it is just so out there and giving all of her bound a demonic nickname is just so over the top, but tbh all of the ending letters are very… passionate. So this might be more the games writing even if they lampshade it and talk to each other like the other one is the only healer in town who wrote a completely insane letter… But I digress. While I love Clara’s Patho1 design, I will say that I love her shaved hair in Patho2 and the commentary the artbook has for it. Seeing it as a sign of sickness or a deliberate mark of sainthood is just so on point for her! It is a really nice visual piece for her characterization and I also think putting the beany on top of it makes it even better. It is contradicting but firstly she deliberately kind of tries to hide her own contradictions (I mean, it is not part of her! It is just the sister, she is wrong!), which is also a nice added detail. Also, she might combine contradicting elements, but god, she is doing it with style!

their philosophy/worldview (or part of it) described in one neat little sentence

I am throwing the towel! How should this even work with Clara??? She has different philosophies and worldviews! Also, I think they differ a bit between the first and second game. The first one aligns a lot with the humble faction from what we hear but in the second game her dialogue alludes more vaguely to touching and changing people and not necessarily to “The right people must die for our world to continue” which is most of what I heard from her. Hm… How about: A saint’s duty is to touch the immoral and diseased, thus one can never rid themselves of all dirt. I am not that happy with this one, but… at least it has the whole touching other people thing in it and it is about good people not being pure, which also is a theme with her. It still sounds a bit judgemental and I don’t really like this emphasis of the “dirtied” but… I mean this is what Clara talks about in her letter, so I still think it fits, even if I would dare to say that she shows a lot more compassion than this sentence shows.

[gascon-en-exil]

A Not Actually Definitive Ranking of Fire Emblem Games

So after a lot of deliberation I’ve decided not to revisit last year’s Zelda ranking project on a full scale for FE, but that doesn’t mean it’s not something I really wanted to do. 2018 is the year we’re going to get alternatively hyped for and disappointed by FE16, after all. With that in mind have an abbreviated list that will end up being one very long post. I’ve got games to gush over and an anon or two (and very likely actual followers…eep) to piss off, so here we go.

The “personal favorites of the series, love revisiting them” Tier - FE10, FE2/15, FE4

I’m never going to argue that Radiant Dawn is a perfect game or even just a perfect FE game, but damned if it doesn’t manage to do so much right all at once. An extremely ambitious story that builds off its mostly conventional predecessor in a variety of interesting ways, deconstructing a bunch of series narrative standards (life in a defeated country kind of sucks and there are people that don’t warm that quickly to young and inexperienced rulers, go figure) and taking an eleventh hour hard right at Nietzchean atheism as read by a Pride parade. Kind of falls on its ass by the end, but every experimental FE story does the same thing so I can’t fault this one. I love the army switching as motivation to try different units almost as much as I love the oh-so-exploitable growth and BEXP mechanics. Its Easy mode also hits a sweet spot for me of being challenging enough to not be a complete snore while also allowing the freedom for all manner of weird self-imposed challenges that don’t even require grinding. By all accounts Hard mode is one lazy design choice after another, but I don’t play at that level so no complaints here.

Never played Gaiden, but to its credit around half of the unique gameplay mechanics I like in Shadows of Valentia were also in the original: the modest army size, the novel approaches to inventory management and magic, the pretty basic class system with just a hint of nuance. The remake threw in some hit-or-miss questing, dungeon exploration, and achievements, but all the rest was either a solid addition or a continuation of NES-era annoyances that I could live with. And the story…SoV makes me dislike the DS games even more just because this game does so much with so little. Even leaving aside the mostly great voice acting there’s a bunch of new content that characterizes almost everybody and makes half of them (the men, anyway, because this is a remake of a Kaga-era game and therefore misogynistic as can be) gay because why the hell not, and then some development that constitutes the only solid attempt at worldbuilding Archanea-Valentia-Ylisse has ever really gotten and also retcons some stuff from Awakening into making sense. It’s even got some solid DLC with lots of character stuff for the Deliverance, the least sucky grinding of the 3DS games, and probably the only context in which I’ll ever be able to comment on anything from Cipher.

No remake needed for Genealogy of the Holy War to make it competitive with the rest of the top tier - just an excellent translation patch and the standard features of an emulator. I’ve never watched Game of Thrones and probably don’t plan on it, but I gather that this game provides the same essential experience with less blood and female nudity and marginally more egalitarianism for all. I can forgive it for being the original Het Baby Fest since you’d be hard-pressed to find a single entirely healthy and well-adjusted individual anywhere on Jugdral and I relate to that just as much. Screwed up family dynamics for everyone! It’s also arguably got a more fun breeding meta than either of the 3DS games, lacking Awakening’s optimization around a single postgame map with very specific parameters or Fates’s high level of balance that ironically stymies analysis. This is another game for interesting inventory management and unit leveling that isn’t too obnoxious, which mostly makes up for the maps taking an eon to play through even with an emulator speeding through those enemy phases. This would be a strange game to remake, but if it got a localized one of the same caliber as SoV I fully acknowledge that this could climb to the #2 spot. SoV would probably have the queer edge though unless they do some strange things to the plot or just make Gen 2 really gay…but then again Gen 2 is the part that’s more in need of fleshing out as it is. (Also, this game has So. Much. Incest. That’s not even really a kink of mine especially as it’s all straight incest, but I just find that hilarious in light of how Tumblr’s purity culture speaks of such things.)

The “good games, but don’t come back to them as much” Tier - FE7, FE9, FE8

Blazing Sword is not here for nostalgia purposes, especially since when I first played the game at 14 years old most of what I like about it didn’t really register. It was just that game with RPG elements that I liked and permadeath that I didn’t, and it took a few games after that for me to become an established fan of the franchise. Massive props for putting such an unconventional spin on a prequel to a textbook FE; this is a game in a series about war in which no war is fought, how crazy is that? We actually get to see the backstory of FE6′s tragic antagonist, even as it’s completely tangential to the plot of this game and so just feels like random Jugdral-esque family drama without context, and on top of that we get the first hints of interdimensional travel and kinky human/shapeshifter sex several years before either of those became controversial talking points about how they were ruining the series. I am so there. Lyn doesn’t matter to the saga, but her character arc is distinct and self-contained and also she picked up a disproportionately large fanbase while being bisexual and biracial so go her. Eliwood is sympathetic and homosocially-inclined even if his growths frequently make me want to cry (at least he gets a horse unlike his similarly-challenged son), and I can live with Hector even if I could have done without his lordly legacy. Throw in some average-for-the-time gameplay with just enough variety across the two routes and even more good character work *waves at Sonia and Renault and Priscilla -> Raven/Lucius and Serra and…* and it’s all in all a solid experience. The ranking system can go die in a fire though, which funnily enough it did after this game. Yay!

Like most early 3D games - except on Gamecube so it’s even more embarrassing - Path of Radiance has aged terribly by every aesthetic measure aside from the soundtrack. It’s also painfully slow, and my computer can’t run Dolphin apparently so an emulator’s not going to fix that for me. Those obvious flaws aside, it’s still an entertaining game, and more importantly it’s the prologue that had the crucial task of setting up all the pins RD knocked over in stellar fashion, whether we’re talking about the basic storyline that actually isn’t or the many het relationship fake-outs (more so in localization…I guess we’ll never know if NoA was actively planning that when they pushed Ike/Elincia like they did). PoR is also a love letter to Jugdral in both gameplay and themes, albeit an occasionally critical one. The jury’s still out on whether Jugdral or Tellius succeeds the most (fails the least?) of the FE settings at developing a complete world with a nuanced and resonant saga narrative, but that Tellius manages to be competitive while being kind of clumsy overall with racism and shifting the series’s overarching motif of dragon-blooded superhumans to one of kinky interracial sex is pretty impressive. The less I say about Ike the better since it’s only his endings in RD that save him for me; suffice it to point out that his worldview and general personality were clearly designed to appeal to a demographic that does not include me.

And finally comes The Sacred Stones, truly my average benchmark FE as I like it but struggle to have any particularly strong feelings on it one way or the other. The story is standard but has a few intriguing quirks, like the light vs. dark magic meta, surprise necrophilia, and how the main antagonist’s sexuality sort of depends on which route you take (except he’s still never getting laid so does it really matter?). It also seems to have been the first game to have made a legitimate effort toward the kind of replayability that’s normal for RPGs, what with the branched promotions, the route split, and the actual postgame. That’s all much more engaging than just filling up a support log. The gameplay is also more polished and (I think?) more balanced than the other GBA games, if one is willing to overlook the minor issue of Seth. Let’s see…something something twincest that’s now an IS running gag, something something guys talking intimately about their lances, something something SoV did the whole dungeon crawling with monsters bit better but I can forgive SS for not taking it that far. Moving on….

The “they have Problems” Tier - FE14, FE13

Probably qualifies as a fandom heresy, but yes I’m putting Fates first of these two. Fates is in every conceivable way for me the “You Tried” game, because I had such high hopes for it from the moment we got the earliest promotional content. I was expecting a World of Warcraft-style conflict between two morally grey factions with myriad convoluted grievances against each other messily resolving themselves one way or the other according to player choice (though note that this is already somewhat damning with faint praise as no one’s going to call WoW a storytelling masterpiece), with Conquest in particular a true villain campaign that I imagined might play out as European Imperialism: The Game. What we actually got was…not that, not at all, but amid all the complaints about plot holes and idiot balls and moral myopia most fans seem to have forgotten just how much there is to this game. It’s three full stories that together average out to be just about passable, with possibly the biggest gameplay variety in the series that fixed most of Awakening’s more broken elements (pair-up, children being unquestionably superior to the first generation) while also adding in new features that undoubtedly appealed to someone or other like Phoenix mode and the castle-building aspect. I can even mostly forgive the obvious growing pains Fates exhibits in terms of queer content, as they were pretty much inevitable once the developers realized that (almost) everyone was picking up on the subtext and that that approach just wasn’t going to cut it anymore. Again, they tried, and if the results included face-touching fanservice and plot contrivances left and right and two-way cultural posturing that inevitably crosses over into real world racism at some point I can still step back for a moment and acknowledge that Fates began as a distinctive, high-concept setting on par with Tellius and Jugdral that was willing to do something different with the narrative norm (for two of its routes at least, and even so I’m not begrudging Birthright its conventionality because that grounding is important overall). And who knows? Maybe a later game will come along and retroactively make this setting coherent.

Fates might have more sexual fanservice, but if there’s any FE that I feel ends up a slave to fanservice in a broader sense it would be Awakening. Yeah, I get that when it was in development everyone thought this would be the final game, so it makes sense that the finished product turned out to be a nostalgia-laden greatest hits piece. It’s still hard to forgive Awakening for feeling so insubstantial, doubly so since it ended up revitalizing the franchise and now it and Fates are everywhere. It’s got a plot that only makes some sense in light of SoV and possibly on a meta level (following my theory that the plot structure is meant to mirror FE1-3 in sequence), the first iteration of an Avatar dating game heavily coloring the characterization and support system, and a queasily feel-good atmosphere that allows almost no character to actually remain dead and centers everything around the self-insert and the power of friendship. So much for the series’s traditionally dim view of human nature and recurring theme of the inevitability of conflict. What’s more, in spite of its theoretically broad scope (including a criminally under-explored time travel plot with a bad future) and numerous call-backs to older games Awakening does surprisingly little for developing the series’s most frequently-visited setting. I think it was in large part how generic this game has always felt to me even before release that I never got very hyped for it and as a consequence was never very disappointed by it. It’s just….there, with its nostalgia and its chronic “no homo” and its host of hilariously broken mechanics. I wonder if we’d have ended up viewing Awakening more favorably if it really had been the last game? Eh, probably not.

The “needs a remake or needs a better remake” Tier - FE5, FE6, FE3/12, FE1/11

I don’t have a specific order for these, except that FE1/11 is almost certainly the bottom since 5 and 6 have remake potential and, lack of localization aside, New Mystery was a better remake than Shadow Dragon.

I still haven’t fully played Thracia 776, but I’ve watched and read through Let’s Plays and have read more than enough analysis and meta on the game to where I can definitively say that I wouldn’t enjoy playing it too much and don’t feel all that emotionally connected to the story except insofar as it relates to the overall Jugdral saga. The concept of a standard FE plot that ends with the playable cast losing is an intriguing one, though they really could have done better than the weird non-ending that is this game’s final boss. I’m also not as invested in Leif the fallen aristocrat as I usually am those types of characters, possibly because it’s a foregone conclusion that he eventually gets his kingship anyway. I would like a remake, hopefully one that smooths over some of the original’s mechanical roughness and also makes a bunch of characters gay because the material’s certainly there in places, but I also admit that I’d rather have a remake of Genealogy first. Or, for that matter….

Binding Blade doesn’t have the potential for an amazing story-driven remake that Thracia does; after all, it’s basically a soft reboot of FE1 with an equally bland lord saved by his Super Smash Bros. fanbase and possibly his weirdly large harem. That said, there’s a fair amount of character potential and worldbuilding opportunities what with the series’s first true support system and the content of its unorthodox prequel. Even by itself I feel like BB does more to sell Elibe as its own distinctive world than any of Marth’s games ever did for Archanea, and that’s even with the reality that like the Archanea games this playable cast is inflated with some really forgettable characters (that seem to have followed a semi-rigid numerical quota by class in this instance. It’s weird.). This game never really stuck in my mind as a good playable experience either, not helped by the fact that it feels simple and antiquated compared not only to the GBA games that followed it but to the Jugdral games that preceded it. Good on them for throwing out some of Thracia’s more unwieldy mechanics, but did they have to throw out skills, hybrid classes, and varied chapter objectives too? The space limitations of the GBA couldn’t have been that severe.

While I’ve been spending much of this post ragging on Archanea, I will say that (New) Mystery of the Emblem has some interesting character beats, like the resolution of the Camus/Nyna/Hardin tragedy, Rickard and the situationally bisexual(?) Julian, and some of the antics of Marth’s retainers. I did like bits of the remake’s new assassin plot even if most of it is cribbed from the Black Fang; Eremiya’s no Sonia, but Clarisse and Katarina have their moments. Also, Kris isn’t that offensive to me since I was never all that engaged in Marth’s inconsistent personality and from what I’ve seen his/her supports don’t all devolve into a dating sim. New Mystery has a broader array of characters than either the original or the previous remake, without requiring the player to kill off characters just to get some of the new ones. That said, the reclassing in the DS games is still broken and allows the player to strip even more character out of their personality-deprived units. I’m getting to the point where I’m having trouble separating the two actually, so I’ll just go ahead and remark that I think everyone can agree that Shadow Dragon is the worst of the three remakes so far, with no supports, the aforementioned killing of units, a prologue that adds to the story but only exists on Normal mode and also requires you to kill someone off (seriously, what is it with this game? Is it commentary on the necessary sacrifices of war that they tried forcing on the player for one game until they realized it was a terrible idea?), the needless removal of features from earlier games like rescuing even as others like weapon ranks and forging were left in, that first clumsy iteration of reclassing, and little to nothing that I can see as elevating the story above the standard fantasy adventure fare of Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light that might have been good in 1990 but didn’t look so hot in 2008. Archanea just feels so lifeless overall compared to every other setting in the franchise, to the point where I don’t even feel that guilty about putting the first game in the series way down at the bottom when over in the Zelda ranking I raised the NES games above ones I found more fun to play solely because of their historical significance. Isn’t FE1 arguably the first tactical RPG? I feel like I should appreciate it more, but I just can’t. *shrugs*

[discomfort-food]

Mass Effect Andromeda review/notes/whatever

So I just finished the main quest of MEA, the latest installment in my number one favorite game series of all time. Whew. There’s a lot being flung around the internet about it, and I know this probably will be little more than a drop in an ocean, but whatevs. My thoughts. 

There are spoilers, so don’t read this if you don’t want to be spoiled (duh).

First off, I played it on a PS4, so I can’t comment on performance on other systems. It ran fine, only had one crash/freeze, and that was right after I started playing and it was still installing stuff. There was some frame stuttering in heavy combat zones and in some areas, but I’m not picky about that stuff on consoles, plus it will likely get patched.

Also note, I am a huge BioWare fan, so my review will definitely be biased towards those who have played the Mass Effect and/or Dragon Age series. I have greatly enjoyed all the entries in these series, although I am aware of the many flaws in all of them. Also I’ll let you in on a probably unpopular opinion: my least favorite ME game is 2. Despite having my absolute favorite opening to a game, the rest of the plot just didn’t make much sense within the trilogy. Take that info and do what you want with it. I like 1 for the story, 2 for the character quests (that’s all the game is though) and 3 for the combat.

Okay! Finally to my thoughts on Andromeda. I broke them up into good stuff, bad stuff, and other stuff/random observations.

The Good!

- The scale and sense of exploration! I love space. I love the sense of exploration into the unknown. When I heard they were planning on taking the planet exploration concept from 1 and make it good, I was ecstatic. There aren’t nearly as many planets to explore as in 1, but they’re all interesting worlds with quests and things to explore, not just empty husks (ha). I do wish there were some more worlds that I was actually the first to discover and not have to worry about raiders or abandoned prefabs over the next hill.

- The characters! Characters are BioWare’s bread and butter, and Andromeda is no exception. All of my squad and crew are interesting and believable, and although I have my favorites, there wasn’t one of them that I found myself never wanting to take into combat. I’ll get into my thoughts on each of them later. I see people complaining about how there’s “only” six companions and compare it to 2′s hundred million. Well, sorry, but at least a third of 2′s companions were boring or unnecessary. Ryder’s squad all had excellent chemistry together, and constantly surprised me with their banter dialogue or conversations around the ship. Which brings me to my next point:

- The ship! The Tempest is beautiful, inside and out. There’s lots of nooks and crannies to explore and appreciate. Although it’s not as big as the Normandy SR-2, it doesn’t have any annoying, impossibly long elevators to take between decks. Your crew actually move around the ship and have conversations with each other from other rooms or over the comms. I do love that your quarters are absolutely bonkers compared to the five beds and a couch shared between the rest of your squad.

- Ryder, Ryder, Ryder.Ryder is a solid protagonist. The dialogue mechanic is much more natural than Shepard's paragon/renegade business, and I felt like I could put more of myself into her. Also, you don't have to worry about putting enough points into certain types of dialogue to get access to certain objects. Lexi keeps tabs on your general conversational tone, and other characters will react differently to you depending on how you have talked to them in the past. Plus, Ryder swears a lot more than Shepard, so that's pretty fucking cool.

- The combat! I’ll be honest; I play most video games for the story. I don’t mind combat in most games, but I rarely if ever bump the difficulty up past normal. The combat in Andromeda was quick and responsive. The last game I played was Witcher 3. Fucking amazing game, but I swear Geralt was drunk half the game due to how many times he got stuck in the landscape or stumbled or didn’t move in the way I expected. I’m not going to get much into it, pretty much the only universal positive point most reviews have about the game is its combat, go read one of those.

- Peebee. just. heart eyes. my beautiful blue gf. everything about her. swoon. Her and my smartass Ryder better tear up the galaxy in the sequel or I’ll riot.

- The actual cutscene animations. I’m talking about the full body motion capture shots, not the facial animations, I’ll get to those in a minute. They’re nicely done, and I didn’t really notice anything that stuck out or was reused like a lot of shots in the OT. There weren’t things like awkward hand waving during dialogue or the ol’ BioWare Turn And Walk Out of Frame.

- The armor design/clothing options. I really liked the way most of the armor looked on Ryder, definite improvement over the OT (no boob cups, yay!) Being able to choose the color was pretty neat too. Here’s my soft butch Ryder rocking NASA-levels of orange.

- my bro! I love him. It’s always neat when you have family members in an rpg and you aren’t conveniently an orphan. I freaked out when I got to play as him in that scene near the end! I hope our sibling will be on our ship with us in the sequel.

- post-ending content - you can do most of the stuff after the main quest is over without worrying about being locked out. Plus, your squad actually acknowledges that the main quest is over and don’t give you the silent treatment.

- Remnant design. Love it. It’s got that huge, unfathomable-ness to it. The first vault you unlock on Eos, wow. That’s the sci-fi I like.

The Bad

- The facial animations. Let’s just get this over with. They’re bad. Well, the upper half is bad. The bottom half of the faces are usually passable, and the teeth detail is actually pretty good. But the eyes. The eyes are the windows to the soul, and I just don’t understand why they are so lifeless. It’s not even like BioWare doesn’t know how to make eyes, they were fine in Inquisition. I don’t see why they couldn’t just port over those eye textures/shader? Everyone’s whites are blindingly bright, and their irises don’t reflect any light, making them look unnatural as fuck. The eyes are the first thing humans instinctively look at, and I don’t see why they didn’t prioritize that over other things. 

- The character creation. Yup, another one everyone knows about. So bad. I honestly don’t know what the fuck they were thinking. Inquisition’s CC was solid. Guys, nobody would have complained if you had just copied and pasted it. At least, not as many as there are now. Also, DON’T USE SARA’S DEFAULT FACE. Holy shit. Like, anatomically, her face is fine, but for whatever reason, they baked a small smile into her “resting face,” so she just looks fucking stupid in a serious scene. You all know that one. And what’s the point of having a default face anyhow if all the other faces are facescans anyway? Literally the only good thing I can say about the CC is if you want to play as a non-white Ryder, you actually have realistic-looking options this time.

- The kett. Boring. Cliche. Absolutely predictable. I figured the main grunt soldiers were Angaran pretty early on, their face shape and eyes are the same. I’m down with despicably evil characters, as long as they have some sort of motivation or charisma. Not the kett or the Archon. Just pure “I will eradicate your species because we are better” Typical antagonist who’s unhealthily obsessed with the protagonist to the point of his underlings pointing it out to him. I guess the only ok factor about the kett is their physical design? I hate their technology design though, it looks like something from a 90′s scifi show.

- Attack of the Asari Clones. Whyyyyyy do all of the asari, sans Peebee, have the same face??? It’s infuriating because you would think it’s such a simple thing. They have a fucking human face, they didn’t seem to have a problem making different human faces??? I also take issue with the other species not being different enough, (although this was a problem in the OT too, I guess Saren had a facial deformity for turians). They did brag about being able to have a higher variation in alien species in one of those boring “previews” of the devs sitting at their computers, so what happened??? All the Krogan have three facial models: female, wrex, or wrex with chin spikes (I guess Grunt had a facial deformity too).

- The rest of the romances? I enjoyed Peebee’s romance but from what I read about the rest of them, unfortunately I think she got the “default sex appeal romance” treatment that Liara had in the OT; an unequal amount of scenes/effort into her romance because that’s who straight men will go for.

- dialogue constantly cutting out/ending because of another dialogue line.  Oh sweet, I’m getting some good party bant-HEY PATHFINDER IT’S A LITTLE BIT WARM OUTSIDE ON THIS DESERT PLANET, THOUGHT YOU SHOULD KNOW. hopefully this gets patched.

- the inventory. There’s no sorting of anything, just alphabetically. It would be awesome if my crafting materials were in one section and my weapons, armor, mods, etc, were in their own. nope. also there’s no storage locker anywhere so have fun carrying all of that.

The Other

- There are a lot of unsolved/open-ended plot lines. The origin/rest of the Kett, the Remnant/Jardann and the Angara, Ryder’s mom, the Benefactor and Jien Garson’s murder. The Quarian ark mentioned in the epilogue will probably be DLC. I’m hoping this means a sequel is definite, but we’ll have to see how the negative press affects sales.

- I’m kind of neutral on the angara. Jaal is awesome, but the rest of the angara are just kind of boring. I like their whole family dynamic thing, but meh. I also don’t really dig the female designs, I think it’s the eyebrow ridge thing? They’re too different from the males.

- I wish there was more “first contact” stuff. During the marketing of the game, they emphasized how much the Milky Way species were the aliens. It didn’t feel much that way to me. The first meeting between Ryder and the Angara was cool, with them all crowding around to see. It sounded like this was the first time they had known about us? But immediately after Aya suddenly there are angara everywhere and integrating with our society?

- They tried going straight for the Citadel DLC tone without having three full games to back it up. I like joking around and lightheartedness, and I can definitely understand going for a lighter tone than the original trilogy, but I really feel like they saw the positive reception of Citadel, and just tried to force the mood to be the same way. We had the whole trilogy to build up relationships with the crew before we could unwind in Citadel, and they missed that. It’s like eating dessert first.

- Whyyy did they ruin Allegra Clarke’s awesome voice on Kesh? 

- Gay turians are pretty cool

- Why did I have to specify Shepard’s gender? All the Shepard references I found (do the SAM memories questline) didn’t mention Shepard’s gender. Unless I missed something?

- Can I wear my under-armor(?) around non-combat zones outside the Tempest?

Seriously, nobody would walk around Kadara in a hoodie and sweats or a fashionable scarf. As far as I know I only get to wear this during the final mission.

The Squad (most to least favorite)

Peebee. My love. Write off anyone who says she’s just Sera from Inquisition. I don’t think they played either game. And her dad’s an Elcor??? I need to know more. I liked how they didn’t even try to make her a Liara clone.

Vetra Oh my god. First time in a Bioware game I actually had trouble deciding who to romance. She’s just so… competent. I will climb that tree next playthrough for sure. She’s the team’s Cool Mom.

Jaal I honestly thought he would be way different. Angsty like Thane or arrogant like Javik, but nah, he was such a bro. His voice and dry humor quickly took him off my shit list. I guess he gets together with Peebee if you don’t romance either of them, and I’m ok with that.

Kallo pure cinnamon roll, too good, too pure.

Lexi even though she broke my Ryder’s heart, I still love her. Mostly because I love Natalie Dormer. I hope she comes back if there’s a sequel.

Suvi Her banter with Kallo was good. And the first time you can flirt with her as Sara was absolute gold. As soon as she brought up religion though, I peaced out.

Drack Guys, he’s old. And he’s a krogan. Did we mention that he’s really old? He’s funny, because he’s a krogan. Krogan just like to shoot stuff. Drack does too, but he’s old so he’s really good at it. I didn’t not like Drack, and he honestly has some of the funniest dialogue, but he’s basically Wrex if people constantly mentioned how old he was. Also I guess I was supposed to know he has a bunch of prosthetics? He’s literally cocooned in armor 24/7 so that plot point didn’t have as much impact as I think they were going for. I hope if they ever make another Krogan squadmate in the future they’ll try to make a new character.

Cora oh my god girl shut up about the Asari. She’s the team’s Awkward Mom. Basically Cassandra. Totally reads Fifty Shades of Grey.

Liam His loyalty mission was actually one of my favorites, but I just didn’t like his character. For a crisis specialist, he wasn’t very good in a crisis. Probably my favorite Generic Starter Male Human squadmate though.

Gil I’m sorry that he’s the only option gay male players get.

The End

Shit, that went on way longer than I’d intended. In conclusion, I would rate Andromeda a 7.5 out of 10. It needed a lot more polish before release, and I don’t understand the reasoning behind giving your most popular franchise to a team that has yet to make a full game. Still, it’s got good bones, and it was a nice clean break from the baggage of the OT. Hopefully they release some good patches and quality DLC, then I could see me bumping my score up to an 8. I hope the game will be looked back on like DA2 is now, people have realized it’s a decent game despite it’s serious flaws.

[redscullyrevival]

Fool’s Fate: The Tawny Man Rundown

@sonnetscrewdriver I’ve moved on to Dragon Keeper!

Plot/Setting/Narrative

Jesus

Okay

Holy shit???

I need a moment

Alright, so lets start easy

Being the Age of Sail nerdo I am this book’s voage bits were amusing and then a bit dissapointing; an apprecaition of sailing and living the sailor LifeStyle isn’t really a Six Duchies thing it seems, huh?

I was SO excited with getting a glimpse of my precious Bingtown babies in the last book that I was stoked for a high sea adventure in this book but wah waah mostly it was sea sickness and brooding 

Honestly I let myself down because this is a Fitz story and, well, how else would the sea be depicted?! LOL 

Poor Thick

Poor everyone for the most part, yikes

Farseer had a lot of mystery to it, a lot of slow burn world building/concept reveal with answers eventually given; Liveship Traders showed it’s cards on the table for the most part but thrived of the suspense of all the threads coming together or possibly unraveling; Tawny Man is the first series where I understood events before the characters did, the results of which made the series much more subdude than the last two. 

Not in a bad way, just, ya know, different. 

“Life Is Change” is very obviously the big overarching connecting theme between the Realm of the Elderling series and I only have praise for the fact each series has it’s own distinct tone and approach to the same (and shared) characters - it’d be a hallow utterance if the book narratives themselves did not change and grow series to series. 

The change in Tawny Man is big; it’s big for the narrative space and it’s big for Fitz and it’s big for the reader.

And you can accept the change or reject it, that’s a option we as the reader has.

I choose to embrace it.

But oh man, oh my god, I will miss The Fool. I’ll miss “Fitz and The Fool” as a unit. I know there is a new series and I’ll get to it eventually but I’ve got four Rain Wild books (YAY!) before I come back to Fitz and his part of the map so this is a solid goodbye for a while and it feels odd to part with them in the place we do.

Odd, but new. 

I’m talkin’ out my butt - I’m a little sad okay?! But I’m happy too. 

And I think that’s what this book was going for; a kind of reaffirmation that life and change is hurt and happiness and a lot of effort went into guiding readers through feeling that message as well as understanding it on an informative level.  

Ultimately I enjoyed Tawny Man more than Farseer, it’s just much more my-type-of-story. 

I never really agreed with/bought into Fitz’s choices within much of the Farseer Trilogy. I understood Fitz’s logic of course, so his choosing to let expel his pain and hide away (and all the other choices along the way) were not make or break issues for me; there is much to enjoy simply being along for the ride.

But with Tawny Man it was very satisfying for me to see Fitz come back again and again to his past decisions and not cast them off as impervious to change or impossible to face. 

That’s a beautiful message.  

I embrace that message very much in my mind and I will try to embrace it within my own life as well. 

And this isn’t relevant to anything but a little thing I’d like to preserve for my own amusement: This was the first book I’ve ever read on a Kindle! Lee got me one for my birthday for my “Year of Book” project. It took a little time get use to but once I adjusted I really enjoyed it - particularly the fact that if you are reading a borrowed book from an online library it shows you what others have highlighted as they read! I found that very interesting and I enjoyed highlighting my own favorite bits (which, not shockingly, coincided with many other people’s favorite bits).

For Rain Wild Chronicles I may start a new section for these write ups where I relay some of my highlighted sections, ‘cause why not? These are already long and useless, might as well really own them. 

Fitz

I know there is a lot we could talk about when it comes to Fitz in this book 

But I kinda already covered him in the setting/plot/narrative section above

And I really just want to let anyone bothering to read this know that I’ve never liked Fitz more then when he cleaned up and donned fancy Jamaillian digs and walked into Molly’s family chaos to tell a grieving family he is FitzChivalry Farseer and he’s gonna look after them.

I was shocked and horrified and thrilled and laughing

Fitz truly changed! It wasn’t just description of his inner change (although that was lovely, good for The Fool, thank you Fool) but the end of the book drags a bit as it does so as to allow Fitz to act on this inner change - which is something I’ll never hold against Hobb. 

So many books end quickly after their narrative climax but Hobb likes a good post cuddle and god bless her for it. 

Cutting a story off after the final movements have played is dramatic and can help events stand out as an experience in an audiences mind; but there is unique pleasure in seeing the individuals of an orchestra pack up their belongings and shuffle out isn’t there? There is a true affection for humanity’s relentless plodding along in those final chapters. Fine by me. 

The Fool

): 

So I freaked out towards the end there, ya know? 

And much like with when it happened to Fitz, a part of me thought it a cruel thing to do, to bring someone that far gone and that brutalized back.

I understood the thematic ouroboros of The Fool’s return and as a fan it was a relief of sorts but there is still that small part of me that found it cruel all the same.

I’m floored with how moved I was by the aftermath of the Fool’s death. Fitz’s quest to find the body and then to restore dignity to his friend - that was some rough stuff. 

It wasn’t “true grief” like with Nighteyes (for me anyways) but rather a form of anticipatory mourning, but in reverse? Hard to explain.

The point is yes, I cried.  

Oh oh oh how I hope The Fool can learn to manage in a world they can’t see into or shape. I hope to see the Fool again after visiting the Rain Wilds. 

Hap

lol

fuckin’ Hap

I love this idiot 

I love how all around Hap epic and fantastical things happen and his story is just him coming of age and figuring his shit out

Good for him

Does he know who Fitz really is though?! This was never addressed?! 

Prince Dutiful

Dutiful cracks me up

I love how he’ll go into PRINCE MODE and be near perfect Sacrifice and royal and awe inspiring 

then he laughs at boogers

Dutiful is hilarious to me, how I see him switch back and forth between mature young prince to out-of-his-depth-survivor brought me much joy

I love his friendship with Thick; I love how he falls for Elliania’s transparent baiting; I love how he’d be cool outwardly but skill “WTF is happening?!?”

What a joy! 

Chad

In the last book Chad really slipped through my fingers but now we’re back to our normal rocky relationship.

I like Chad

but then I don’t

And I think, finally, I’m okay with that duality 

Thick

My sweet little man

Everything about Thick is my favorite thing

I especially love how he is often described as being bored

Discussing intrigue and espionage and dragons? BORED 

Hahaha!

No wonder he and Nettle get along so well

I especially loved how he decided, for himself, to stay with Fitz on  Aslevjal

I’m excited to come back and hear more, learn more, about Thick

Nettle

I wouldn’t wanna be on Nettle’s shit list, would you?

What a storm of a person!

Nettle isn’t very defined still, she is a bit reactionary and never quite gets totally fleshed out by the end of the book. 

Which is a bit of a shame.

But! Nettle of the Dream World is a different story. 

She feels much more defined there and I dunno, maybe that’s intentional?

I like her but I’d have to spend a lot more time with her in the solid narrative space rather than the abstract dream/skill narrative space to really have opinions or emotions over her as her own character rather than her as a character and how she relates/involves/moves Fitz, Burrich, Molly, or Thick.  

Elliania

Elliania has a similar disadvantage as Nettle does but at the same time she still has more definition (to me) then Nettle; her motivation and actions are followable and her personality is filled in with Outisland society.

And she ain’t afraid to smack a bitch up with her titties out.

So she gets some mad bonus points right there.

I really felt for Elliania’s struggle and she totally won me over in the scene where she comes up from inside the Pale Woman’s domain dragging her forged sister and mother with her.

One of those scenes where the grandure, emotion, and awe of it all was very powerful

loved it, love her

Web

YEAH

Don’t need permission to do what’s right - fuck yeah

Web’s the friggin’ best guys

I want a spin-off of him teaching Old Blood children and Fitz

Swift

This little shit

I love him, I love all of Molly and Burrich’s wild children, but Swift gave me anxiety lol

I’m actually really intrigued by Swift but he’s too brief and wild at the moment, I hope he mellows out a bit but still keeps that confrontational fire and uses it for good

Burrich

NO. 

God

Damn

It

When my man showed up on Aslevjal I was shocked

I was so mad 

I was also very happy of course but ughgughgu

I WAS CONFLICTED and had good right to be

Oh this man, I really adore Burrich even though he is a flawed person - that’s what is so compelling about him though.

We kept learning things about and from Burrich up until the very end. 

I’ll miss you, Heart of the Pack.

Molly

I’m devastated for Molly

I’m Happy for Molly 

I’m very pro-Molly in general even though she is a bit vague

Like, she is more than just a plot device but not by a whole lot, ya know? 

What I wanna do though is sit her down and have a real heart to heart; ask her if she really thinks Fitz will ever be truly free himself of his duty, from his duty to the Farseers or from his own idea of honor.

That man is going to leave off on some quest or some shit you know it, I know it, she must know it! 

Be safe Molly, but happy, but alert

[emthinks]

The Trials of Apollo #1: The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan

Now, I’d like to preface this review by stating that the reading of this series without prior knowledge of previous books in this universe, while possible, would be difficult. So while I recommend everyone to read Rick Riordan’s mythology books (they’re gold and they teach you a lot of shit about the ancient civilizations), for ToA, you really need to read Percy Jackson & The Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus first. And then get around to this. Because this book is good.

Here, we get to read first person POV (which I really do think is Rick’s strong suit) about Apollo (yes, the Greek God) being turned into this skinny ass mortal with flab and acne and - the coup de grace really - stuck with the name Lester Papadopoulos. Which. Honestly. How could you pass up on that? And Apollo, while I do admit was kind of an ass sometimes and really annoying (are all Greek gods that egotistical? Wait. Don’t answer that question) was really entertaining the rest of the time. 

Rating: 8.8/10

An Overview:

That whole bit in the beginning, where Apollo met Meg the Dumpster Girl and then had to traipse through the city to find Percy was my least favorite part. Probably why I actually paused and put the book down. I know right? Shocker. 

But then we got to Camp Half-Blood and things picked up a lot. Apollo trying to greet his kids (his cabinmates? His friends? What does he call them?!) was priceless. Hearing about Meg’s exploits in the meantime was a nice touch (good job, Crotchkicker).

But then we learn about Rachel. And the Oracle. (Well, I guess I learn, because I’d apparently forgotten that Apollo had been punished back in HoO? Well, nevermind.) We learn campers are disappearing. We learn shit is bad. Apollo has these weird-ass dreams (which, uh, usually I have a decent background on Greek mythology, but these two were just weird). 

It was a little odd for me for them to not be thrown into a quest and leave camp so early on. I was always waiting for a quest...and then forgot that the Oracle (aka. Rachel) wasn’t exactly working. So no quest. The Catch-88 or whatever Apollo called it.

And then there’s the three-legged race. That was...interesting. Mostly because it was kind of adorable how everyone just wanted to please this little Hephaestus kid. Apollo and Meg were, naturally, bound together. And then thrown into the labyrinth. Which. Whoa. Did not see that coming. Who knew Daedalus’s labyrinth would be such a throwback? So we traipse around a bit in a really dark maze. And then, of course, we end up in Delphi. Where we meet the Beast and the Python. And then we learn shit is about to go down.

So we travel into the woods. We meet the geyser dude (ah, there’s Rick’s nice weirdly-modernized touch). And then Meg gets captured. By....giant ants? Apollo is saved by Rhea. Which. Did not see that coming. 

He goes back to camp. Heals. Decides, oh fuck it, and takes the bow and arrows. He already broke half of his promise on the Styx anyways (which, idiot, why would you swear that?) and delves right back into the woods. The ant hive. Those couple minutes of him shooting every ant was great. He rescues Meg (eventually, after some trouble). Apollo naming the queen ant-thing Mama was just a nice touch. (Which, thank God he did, because we needed her help later on.) And then they were out into the clearing. The entrance to Dodona. And we meet the first of three Triumvirates.

Nero. Now, I have no idea who Nero is. But. He kind of sounds like an ass. And he’s Meg’s stepfather? Now, I can’t say I didn’t see it coming, because I did have this half-suspicion formed in the back of my mind, but really, Meg? That’s just a bit ridiculous. But thankfully, Meg comes around, eventually, although she totally still leaves. (Which. Apollo is bound to her still. So how’s that gonna work?) We get some prophecies from Dodona. Yay. Then we go back to camp and all is well, right?

Nope. There’s Giant Naked Apollo strolling up the beach. Ah. There’s that potential problem Nero mentioned. They’re all a mess. It’s kind of bad. (But kinda cute when Apollo’s kids still were so eager to help, even after the mess they just went through. I guess it just goes to show. Demigods are sturdy af.) 

Still, was I glad to see Percy at the end. That was nice. “The weekend had arrived.” The cavalry, more like it. Thank God. Oh, and good job causing hay fever in Giant You, Apollo. And then we get that lovely fluff bit at the end with Leo and Calypso? Adorable. The line that was formed so everyone could punch Leo was great, and Apollo realizing Calypso had willingly left her island and given up her immortality for this elfish boy was pure gold. 

The Characters:

Can we talk about Nico and Will for a second? (Do they have a ship name? Solangelo? Lol. God their names are hard to combine.) To be honest, I totally forgot they existed. No, not that they as characters existed, but like, they existed. So when Apollo first saw them together, I was like “whaaaaa?” Because I totally remember in House of Hades where Jason (the fucking idiot, really) thought Nico was in love with Annabeth and we had to jump through those hoops, but it obviously never registered to me that Will and Nico were together-together until, well, now. And boy, must I say they are great. They’re so entertaining. Like, the bickering is adorable. And how Nico is all “I have to sit with my boyfriend because I have a doctor’s note given to me by my boyfriend...who is also my doctor”. Like, they are cute af. 

Now. The heart of the problem: Meg. Meg was....well. Meg was ratty and dumpster girl and rebellious (and obviously Demeter’s daughter as soon as we saw her throw fruit and summon a grain spirit, but hey, some people can be dumb) and she was fun. She was Crotchkicker and Eyebruiser on Day One and she was great. She was also, for all her hemming and hawing, obviously a spy. Well, she was obviously the spy as soon as we overheard the Beast mentioning there was a spy. She skirted around talks of her stepfather and obviously froze up with the mentioning of the Beast (at the sound of his voice?). But she’s Meg. She’s resilient. And, well, she’s still tied to Apollo, so they’ve gotta figure something out there. Maybe they’ll have to go find her (save her?) in one of their quests? Or they just run into her again? Idk. 

And what about Apollo, our lovely protagonist. A god. Who knew? Reading first person POV from Apollo was weird. Enlightening, but weird. Yes, I was annoyed - especially in the beginning - with how he ranted about how great and awesome he was and how everyone should bow at his feet and how if he only had his godly powers, he could totally smite them all. It definitely took me a while to accept the fact that he couldn’t accept he was mortal. Not completely. Eventually, he improved his outlook on humans, but in the beginning, God I was pissed. However, the fact that it was never really forgotten that he was mortal - that he couldn’t do all this magic that he was used to with the snap of a finger - was nice. He wasn’t omnipotent. He had to rely on others. And I do think he became a better person-god from it. He learned from his kids. These kids, whom he barely acknowledged when he was a god, still risked their lives to help him. Wasn’t that admirable? The one thing I really hope is that, in the end of his whole journey (trials, whatever) he doesn’t forget them and, after he’s a god again, he actually still spends time with them and cares a little more. That would be a nice bit of character development.

Questions:

Do you think the Labyrinth will come into play again?

Eventually, yes. I think, in general, a lot of the things we’ve encountered in the past two series will come into play, because there are only so many Greek/Roman myths we can poke around in. It’s not like Riordan can conjure up more. Also, the Labyrinth has, supposedly, spread throughout the world, so it can basically bring anyone anywhere. And isn’t that terrifying.

What do you think will happen next?

Well, the bit we got from the Dedona trees mentioned Indiana, right? And they sit the Triumvirate had split up North America into thirds...Indiana is in the middle of America, right? (Yes, great job Emilie. Much thought it took to come up with that idea.) I just hope Festus can be helpful the whole journey this time, instead of breaking down halfway. I loved that dragon in HoO. 

So that’s that really. When does the second book come out? What’s it called? The Dark Prophecy. Huh. Well, that bodes well. 

[ddrkirbyisq]

I guess I've been neglecting this for a while, huh? Christmas came and went, and my Santa duties were a success, minus some minor things like international shipments taking forever, etc.  Work still continues (lol) on Colors of Your World -- I'm 2/3rds of the way done with the "Challenge Mode" levels, which is pretty much the last thing I want to add to the game, and then I also need to write up a short post-mortem.  Hopefully people will bother playing the new version and reading the post-mortem.  =X  I guess I kind of do these things for myself sometimes, but it would feel a bit pointless if no one really even cared.  Anyways, the results for LD came out as well -- we got 27th place, yay! I feel like I had other things to write about but I seem to have mostly forgotten about them, oops.  Certain things in my life are going a lot better than before, which is really nice.  I posted my psychosomatic pain writeup, which I'm glad people actually took the time to read (sorry it was so long).  I've been continuing experiments in sichuan cooking, this time with some more authentic ingredients, and peppercorns that are not way past their prime (lol).  I made some mapo tofu which was pretty alright!  It wasn't super fiery but I also wasn't really trying to make it so (didn't add any extra spice).  More recently I had another go at shui zhu niu rou, which went quite alright, with a nice flavor profile. Helped friends with their table at Sacanime this past weekend, which was fun, and tiring.  Since then I've mostly just been winding down; feels like I don't have a bunch of deadlines and things due, so I'm actually taking it easy for once (!). I think I'm done with Hollow Knight.  I didn't 100% the game...well, actually I'm at 109% completion lol.  I completed the 4th Godmaster boss rush, which concludes with the Pure Vessel fight, so I've unlocked the last Pantheon of the Hallownest boss rush, which...I really don't think I'll do, as it's just a whole ton of fights.  I also didn't do the delicate flower quest, and didn't beat all the bosses in godhome, but...yeah, I'm done with the game.  Overall it was a fun experience, with a neat sense of exploration, especially at the point where the game really opens up and branches out.  I would agree with some other people's comments that the pacing of the game feels a little off.  I think it's partly because of the amount of backtracking involved, but also because the game world is so vast yet there are not that many "key" upgrades that really open things up...or at least that's what it felt like. I guess in Super Metroid you get so many new key upgrades: Morph Ball, High Jump, Space Jump, Screw Attack, Grapple Beam, Speed Booster, Gravity Suit, all the beam upgrades, (Super) Missiles, (Power) Bombs, and for the most part all of these upgrades are "cool new toys", some of which really change the way you can progress around through different spaces.  In Hollow Knight you get: Dash, Double Jump, a dive spell, an attack spell, a Shinespark ability, wallcling/walljump, and some other minor abilities.  I think in the end it seems like you aren't really doing a lot different than what you were doing in the beginning -- your weapon still looks and handles the same (though it does more damage), and a lot of the abilities are a little underwhelming in terms of "wow" factor.  For example there's an upgrade which lets you swim in acidic pools (instead of having them act as spikes), which is cool except it doesn't really provide anything =new= per se -- it allows access to some new areas, for sure, but there was already (non-acidic) water you could swim in before, so it's a very minor-feeling thing.  The dive spell too -- after you collect it, there's one area where you need to use it a bunch to smash through the floor, and some other crumbly floors scattered around the world, but for the most part after I got it it was one of those abilities that you only ever used to get through the associated barriers.  The "shade cloak" is another perfect example of this -- it makes your dash invincible, which is a neat upgrade, but doesn't really feel different.  It lets you traverse a new sort of obstacle, but outside of that obstacle it doesn't really feel different at all. So I think the grand scope of the game ended up feeling really drawn out when considering how little change is involved in the normal experience of walking around and exploring and fighting enemies.  I think the gameplay in the different areas was not vastly different either, which adds to the problem.  Aesthetically I think each area has a very nice and distinctive feel, and the graphics and art really work together to provide a different ambience for each area, however in terms of the actual gameplay I feel like it overall ended up felt too same-y and a bit laborious.  Especially trying to explore every corner of some of the areas (Deepnest), it felt like it just went on forever without providing any real variety. So if anything perhaps there was =too much= exploration, too many collectibles and too many areas and rooms when considering how few real upgrades you got, and I think that is part of what made it tedious.  Hollow Knight really gives you rewards all over the place, but the problem is that those rewards are really small, like a bunch of new charms which you end up not using.  At the end of the game, the way you handle bosses is still exactly the same as before, you slash at them and you dodge by jumping and moving around. All that said, the game had some really nice parts, including the Colloseum of Fools, which I think had really nice pacing and was one of the highlights of the combat system for me.  I wasn't the biggest fan of the combat system, including the "focus" mechanic -- scoring hits accumulates "soul", which you can use to heal yourself, but doing so leaves you vulnerable.  I think it's novel and a nice way of tying health to attacking, and it offers a new strategic challenge in terms of "when is a good opening to restore my health", but I actually didn't like that strategic challenge at all.  In normal exploration it's trivial to find a place to heal, so all it did was slow me down every time after I got hit since I'd have to spend a couple of seconds every time healing (this probably adds to the pacing problem).  In the boss fights, instead of focusing completely on avoiding the boss attacks, I would be trying to fit in heals whenever I could, so sometimes the battles became a really sloppy mess of "try to heal here....oops I got hit!  ok, try to heal again...ok I got it this time..." instead of being this clean fight where you are just dodging and attacking.  In other words, I felt really felt like it was a distraction. Some of the enemies were really nice to learn to fight against, for example the big knights in the City of the Tears have a very precise window of vulnerability and learning how to fight them involves keying into a nice sort of rhythm which is very satisfying to pull off.  I think if more of the combat would feel like that it would have been nice.  I think my approach to boss battle design is that enemy attacks should be consistent and heavily telegraphed, yet hard to avoid until you have practiced to the point where you have a plan for each attack.  I enjoyed the fights against nightmare Grimm and Pure Vessel for this reason (though their attacks could be a bit more telegraphed), whereas bosses such as the White Defender, Hornet, and Broken Vessel give you very little time to react to which attack they are using, which can be frustrating. I think probably my favorite 2D platform adventure boss in quite a long time has been the fight against Spectre Knight in Shovel Knight.  I think it's incredibly well-designed and I really loved everything about it.  There is one platform on either side of the battlefield and Spectre Knight floats left and right near the top of the screen, meaning you can't spam attacks against him (you need to jump on one of the platforms and attack, and he flies faster than you move), which means there's no easy way to just face-tank him and win a brawl -- you need to actually whittle his life down bit by bit and successfully avoid his attacks.  He has several distinct attacks involving his scythe which he throws in slow arcs, which are very difficult to avoid on first attempt, but if you learn to recognize them, you can definitely dodge all of them by utilizing the platforms.  Midway through the battle he raises his hand and the lights go out, which partially obscures him and his scythe, meaning it really tests your knowledge of his attack patterns even more.  It's quite a difficult fight but everything feels really fair in a very dark souls-esque way.  I love it. I got Flinthook for xmas, so I've been playing a bit of that!  I'm still getting the hang of the controls (went back to keyboard+mouse after a brief trial of doing it with gamepad), and it's definitely not a walk in the park, but so far it's a nice thing to play every so often. I finally got around to unlocking all of the characters in Smash Ultimate and am just now trying to give each and every one of them a test run so I can vaguely understand all of them and figure out which ones I'm interested in taking further.  I'm also trying to figure out my control scheme, especially since I'm heavily considering picking up Peach, and some of the float stuff is a bit easier using claw grip or a shoulder button as jump.  So far I'm trying to do a partial claw grip but we'll see how it works out.  I think if I play any character other than Peach, then the normal handhold will probably be fine, but for Peach I think it's more comfortable to do float bairs with claw. A few notes so far: Mario - He seems relatively unexciting, though standard.  I couldn't really seem to get much mileage out of him. DK - Seems actually quite good!  His normals all seem pretty great, his bair still has a bunch of range and upair is great as ever, his tilts have good range too I think, and then cargo throw them off the side or into the stage edge is actually a thing. Link - Is Link, he seems fine I guess, maybe even good, if not my style. Samus/Dark Samus - Feels really weird without a sex kick, and no missile cancelling either, so I don't really know what you're supposed to do with her now. Yoshi - Feels really great, his aerials are all amazing and they work well with the new more-floating double-jump mechanics. Kirby - Is better than in melee but still seems pretty unexciting. Fox - Feels really weird, I guess all he does now is uptilts and upairs and stuff??  The new physics mean he can't just shffl nairs in your face anymore. Pikachu - Has been my de-facto main until now, he has multihit nair fair and bair which means it's super easy to just throw out long-lasting aerial hitboxes.  He has been relatively fun to play, and a strong character too. Luigi - I don't think is for me, he apparently has some pretty broken combos, but meh. Ness - Dunno. Falcon - Falcon is hard enough to play in Melee, it's going to be even harder for me to get used to landing his aerials in this engine.  No thanks. Jigglypuff - Feels fine, but bair is no longer broken, so it kind of feels like she just has less range in general so it feels harder to get in. Peach/Daisy - I'm really interested in them, I think the way that they play neutral with floating feels a bit more natural to me in terms of movement, even though there is a lot of technical stuff to learn with them. Bowser - Feels fine I think.  I didn't play him too much. ICs - I don't really know.  Desyncs are different so I dunno. Sheik - Is weird now because she lost her old fair, so she feels really weird and it's not obvious how you are supposed to kill. Zelda - Using her lighting kicks feels a bit awkward for some reason, maybe the sweet spot is a bit tricky to get.  Her new downB is interesting. Doc - His downB is super strong for some reason??  He seems just like a better mario overall. Pichu - Like pikachu but faster, I'm starting to get why people like Pichu.  He is really fast, he can run in and aerial you, and he has these interesting combos with drag down bair. Falco - His SHL is gone and a bunch of his moves are different so I have no idea what you are supposed to do with him anymore. Marth/Lucina - Feel pretty much as you would expect, with some different physics, but dude, one thing I have to point out, it's like impossible to tell the difference between marth's sweetspot and sourspot hits now.  In melee the different sound cues were really obvious, but I really couldn't hear or tell a difference besides the % being different...I feel like this is another case of bad aesthetic design =( Young Link - I can see why people said he feels like a melee character, he actually feels super natural for some reason, besides his dair feeling a little weird.  Could be fun to play. Ganondorf - Wow he feels really sluggish in terms of fall speed and moving around.  He hits hard though. Mewtwo - WOW his tail became HUGE and now has the range of a sword.  His new fair I'm guessing is a quite potent tool.  I'm not sure how I feel about him, if I was going to play a floaty doublejump character I would probably play yoshi instead. Roy - Seems a lot better now? (again with the whole sweetspot/sourspot issue ugh).  Neutral B seems to take longer to come out which is lame. Overall I'm interested in pichu/pikachu, yoshi, young link, and of course peach.  Though DK seems quite strong lol.