#anyways gOD AM I FUCKING HYPED FOR THIS DLC

[dragongirlfangs]

I NEED TO GO HERE, I NEED TO FIGHT SOME KIND OF ABOMINATION OF FLESH AND DARKNESS AND HORROR HERE, PLEASE FROMSOFT I AM FUCKING BEGGING YOU

[styrmwb]

I beat Splatoon 3: Side Order

woomy

I hate Splatoon multiplayer. I'm not great at it, and it gets me very heated, so I essentially avoid it after the first couple months, I make myself a character, all good to go.

I LOVE Splatoon singleplayer. So so so so so so much. Splatoon is essentially a singleplayer experience for me, and I am ok and content with that. I also love roguelikes! So when the DLC is a roguelike (with best idols as the feature), it's peak. Ignore the fact it took me a while to beat it that's how ADHD works. Anyways, I have a format that I think I've made now, so I'm going to do said format

Gameplay

Roguelike :)))))) I love these! I already said this! There's not much to say other than it certainly is a tower where I get more upgrades and create silly broken builds and I love that! Drone and Lucky Combo was my favorite cause I could just make inkstrike and special and bomb spam and nobody could stand a chance against me, it was super fun. Roller was my favorite weapon for this reason too (I also beat the tower with roller first so that might be part of it). The game def takes a few runs to really get going but like, I can't hold that against it?? That's what the genre is. You start to unlock shit and it starts to ramp up and that's the fun. I got frustrated at times on certain levels, and especially the rigorous ones on earlier runs get very very exhausting (I had to take a lot of breathers cause my hands would get sore), but that's not really like... a bad thing. I expect this genre to make me work. When I was going through with all of the different weapons, it was nice that each felt different enough, especially with the color biases, to make each run for 100% fresh (HA) feeling.

Murch was NOT cooking with his loadout though how the fuck does that dude play irl it took me so much fire speed up chips and changing his whole loadout to make that feel ANY good

Characters

Pearl and Marina :)))))))) They're my favorite idols. They're the best ones. I get more of them and even more Marina backstory and I'm not upset about it. Dedf1sh/Acht was a really cool addition and I'm glad they're expanding on characters that were previously just musicians. I found their whole shtick of "Thank god you're here Eight otherwise these two might just start making out in front of me and I can't handle that". It was funny. Order was a very cool force, and even as Smollusk with his stwupid wittle baby voice (DISCLAIMER: I ENJOYED IT) was a neat little character, just a program doing what it's supposed to do.

Story

The best part of this DLC's story is its worldbuilding and continuity from the last DLC expansion from 2. Seeing them acknowledge the Octoling society exodus, AND all of the sanitized people??? That's super cool! Marina showing off more of the skill they talk about constantly with her creating this whole program and working to fight against it is awesome. I appreciate how they tied the gameplay being constant runs into the story, each complete run giving you more and more details on what created Order, why everything is the way it is. Of course, that is also what makes it a little frustrating at the start, because you want to see the story but you have to play the game more to really get it going. It's what happens, so like, whatever, but I do wish for the story's sake alone I could have sped my progress up A LITTLE (the solution is to git gud).

Music

It's fucking Splatoon. Of course the music is peak. I loved the empty sounding songs, the evil printer techno, the super hype club beats while you are dying, it's hype! My favorite song was Parallel Canon :)

Everything Else

Part of the reason I love Splatoon is the ocean theming, I love sea creatures. I thought it was really cool how they made irl dying coral reefs into the theme, combining it with the digital and technology aspect of grayscaling, it's such a cool combination of theming that only Splatoon can do. Speaking of, the attention to detail in this DLC (and really the series as a whole) is INCREDIBLE. The app icons, the programs Marina using being actually recognizable as real programs, the demonstrations showing off character with the silly little anime eyes, there's just so much to look at in every point. The text and writing has also always been a strength of Splatoon, and Side Order just continues to deliver. I loved all the enemy names being musical terms, the puns are always great, the extra dialogue in the menus as you unlock and kill enemies, and even Overlorder's title changing as you do more runs??? It's so cool and it all gives you more motivation to continue to play more. This game is a charming joy with one of the most unique settings I've seen, and the DLC just gives me more of what I love.

10/10. Continued supply of Splatoon and Roguelike goodness with a jelle-ton of charm (I'm funny!)

[silvermuffins]

Okay so. Here we go! God I am. So checking hyped. Oh man. I can barely make myself get started. Little bit nervous since the person whose liveblogs made me want to do the same follows me now (hi!) but eeeeeeeeeeee

Y'all gotta understand p3 made me who I am. It has been personality-defining in several ways for ten years. I have rarely felt quite as loved as the day the announcement leaked and like four different people independently came to me like Letty did you see

In the true spirit of Akihiko Sanada, I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS

Okay let's dive in,,,,,

New theme song! I'm gonna miss the toast but i will give this a chance.

New visuals, stellar ones, really driving in that shit's fucked

Idk how that poll is gonna end so I'll start with just Some Thoughts at a time and then we'll see where we're going

Oh shit difficulty... Let's do normal to start. Fuck no I am not doing merciless. But I want some challenge.

Oh the opening movie is a little different....and they're letting me play already!

They are doing my boy right so far,,,, but yukari may take some getting used to. Also they pronounce iwatodai different and that will DEFINITEly take getting used to. Definitely some iykyk in there.

I am examining EVERYTHING. My guy walks fast tho goddamn. Can no longer run with hands in pockets. RIP hand/pockets.

If y'all could hear the noises I am making,,,,

THERE HE IS! THE BOY!

Shit do I have to enter the name in eastern order or is western fine? /Google/ Reddit says western! Minato Arisato walks again.

They did that contract-with-spooky-child scene pretty well despite it not still being an anime cutscene. I can accept it.

Oh she didn't point the gun at me this time. Which is less dramatic but DOES make more sense overall. I can accept it.

Once again the Noises I am making. Y'all. I am living. Checked in on that poll, so far one big post later on is winning so I'll keep at it for now!

How does this rewind thing work exactly...? Is it for like, if I fuck up a social link?

Menu looks like diving into water. All my water associations for Minato have been justified. Got he's so beautiful I'm gonna cry. "My reflection looks tired" yeah I bet it does you depresso espresso you.

Apparently there is or will be dlc of some sort! I will almost certainly obtain it.

Starting school! Wow they expanded that cutscene. Eeeeeeee. Yes I like this. It feels like home got a fresh coat of paint. It's gonna take me forever to get anything done. God. I'm. Okay give me a little while to just run around doing nonsense.

VOICED SOCIAL LINKS CONFIRMED it already was but I'm thrilled anyway

My boy is already curious about sewing. Don't worry, Minty, we will be spending so much time with a certain someone. Ooh, seems he has a decent sense of smell... Aha, there a certain someone is! So very French...

Okay, game, you win, I'll make progress. Hi, Toriumi, yes I have a tragic backstory.

Minato just `why are people keep talking to me`. Suck it up boy we're gonna meet EVERYBODY.

New VA for Junpei is great so far. I'm so glad. The previous one was a case of how truly unfortunate it is that garbage people can be good at things. But so far, the characters are sounding great!

Yukari you are not subtle. Here I am trying to cover for you and you just give Junpei the wrong idea.

"No one takes rumors seriously, anyway." Stares directly into the camera. Stares in P2 familiarity. Stares. I do not remember if this line was in the original but S T A R E S.

Getting junpei's two cents on everything and. God it makes me so happy every time a familiar song kicks in.

Doodedoo, 'splorin.

Mmkay back to the dorm. We can actually explore the kitchen? Fridge space? Can't use the kitchen yet? DO I GET TO MAKE COOKING MINTY A REALITY?

I don't have tons of commentary right now that isn't best expressed as a bunch of vague satisfied noises and squeals in a higher range than the human ear can detect. Or by wiggling furiously, which doesn't come across well in text. Know that I am wiggling furiously. Everyone looks so good. Everyone sounds so good. I'm so happy.

Okay so it's not fully fully voiced. But still! So happy.

I know it's just Like This but the game just railroading me slightly feels like AGH STOP TAKING AN HOUR TO DO ANYTHING well stop having do much to examine them (please don't stop)

Ikutsuki is here! And oh his voice,,,,,

Weeps in playing as IC as possible demanding skipping a question. Ah well. I know how I interpret my boy and that brings me joy.

Time for stuff to get creepy! Eeeeeeee. Guys I cannot wait for how they're going to show some of the freakier things. ...oh well. This cutscene with the guy going all gloopy and collapsing definitely loses a little something by being in-game rather than fully animated. Damn the way they showed it in the original was so much scarier. Ah well, can't win 'em all, I guess.

Aaaaaa is that Yukino being referenced on TV? Was she on Who's Who before? Yukino <3

It's tiiiiime for the first full moon. Come on, Reload, you can't drop the ball on this one...! Come on, wow me! Blow me away!

Oh hey justification that sleep is probably less effective during the dark hour to go along with the standard stamina drain. Neat! Love getting my head canons confirmed. That said, also enough room for other interpretations. You love to see it.

Really like this just collapsing on the bed thing. Shaking it up! Ftr it's like super creepy that they have a camera and what looks like fucking heart monitor on Minato. But I am here for the creepy. And there goes the attack and Akihiko getting hurt and Yukari sent to escape with me.

Ohhhh please let me swap weapons around. Don't lock me into just swords. I want hammer.

I know it's all panic and scary RN but that kind of just makes it hilarious that I can still examine everything. Poor Yukari just dealing with Minato not being freaked at all.

HNNNNNN THEY DID NOT FUMBLE. I didn't think they would because like, out of everything, they've gotta get the Awakening right! But still! Hoodamn!

BABY BABY BABY BABY BABY BABY BABY

Oooh so the tutorial mara DID split off as scraps of the Magician! Huh so this is the battle interface...ngl I kinda miss the revolver menu, that was good shit. And now we go splat.

Igor: STOP BEING A BAG OF SOGGY POTATO CHIPS AND MAKE FRIENDS

One week later,

Backstory storytime with Yukari! I am a protagonist and thus a designated therapist. I am absolutely the person to pay your parental issues on. Never mind that Persona 2 firmly established the existence of actual therapists in this universe.

God. I'm gonna cry. My beautiful boy,,,,, I missed this so much. I'm a goddamn broken record. I said numerous times that I'm completely incapable of being normal about this. Fuck I'm tearing up.

Yes, Junpei. An upset stomach. That's definitely what kept me out of school for a week.

Mr. Ono just wants to talk about his special interest and he is so valid. Please tell me everything about samurai.

Real talk there had to be so many rumors and gossip about Minato. New transfer student - already a hot topic. Walks to school with Yukari on his first day, to stir the pot. After like three days he's suddenly absent for a week. Like, there's no way people didn't talk, right?

??? THAT's new. "Twilight Shard" on my bed making me feel like Legend of Zelda came to visit. Unless that's what we're calling plumes of dusk now.

I think they've given Ikutsuki even more puns. I join the team with very little convincing because supernatural danger isn't something to be leery of at all.

Nor are spooky little boys no one else can see who appear to me in the middle of the night bearing cryptic warnings of impending doom. I give him a good ol' doudemoii and go back to sleep.

Junpei joins the team! We support a guy willing to admit he was crying on the ground.

Trying to remember to report what's actually happening in the game, too. Don't wanna assume everybody is already familiar. I do wanna convince anyone who isn't to become familiar though. Anyway yes Junpei this is a thing we don't talk about. Except when we do, out in public.

Ooooh please don't fumble this bit! Tartar sauce! I am almost through the intro! ...wait I don't think THIS happened before? What's going on? Why are we delayed? ...oh. Oh that's, uh, bad. So for those who don't know, death and suicide are major topics of discussion in this game. You have been warned.

People jumping onto the tracks is not something I recall though... Maybe they're just driving in Apathy Syndrome as a major problem? Or I just plain forgot since, y'know, ten years. But I have reviewed since then... Junpei I would love to secret late night menu with you but we have an intro to get through.

Okay! Tartarus! ...they could have made that weirder. Less euclidean. But I can accept it. Wheeee dungeon crawling time! Oh fuck the menu is so stylish. I love it. Okay, time to kill things. Oooh, Tartarus looks good! Hate-love how it almost looks like it's breathing or something, real uncanny. Love the falling black feathers.

I wonder if they're keeping the condition system... I guess I'll find out! Oh, All Our Attacks are so nice.... We get finishing touches! Done and dusted! ....shuffle time doesn't do any shuffling anymore? Ohhh I guess Twilight Fragments are basically keys...

Doodedoo more tutorials. Someday I'll be free. I am getting kinda tired though...

Drags Junpei all over town to examine everything. Meanwhile the bgm sings "my life will turn out to be so cruel"...yeah because Junpei stops me from going to every restaurant. Hm, based on these police station offerings, I think I might be stuck with just swords, which is a little bit bullshit. Unless versatility is something I unlock later?

Come to think of it, Kurosawa probably has a heck of a story, if he knows shit's fucky but not what's going on... What are these personal connections of his? And how did the kirijo group get in touch with him?

....wait what's this about only the track and field team accepting new members? I know it makes the most sense, but I wanna swim! Are they going to force-track me?

Hm... I thiiiink I'm gonna just study in the library. I have no money to put toward anything else, and if things are the same academics is a bitch to max out.

It is now 3 am and my head hurts, so I'm gonna wrap it up here for tonight!

[0poole]

I LOVE No Straight Roads

Honestly it’s hard to keep me away from a game with great visuals and even greater character design. I knew from the INSTANT I saw these characters that I was going to love it. I just finished it because it’s (unfortunately) pretty short, and even though I cheesed the final boss through it’s very lenient death mechanics (Instant respawn at the cost of a good rank) I actually appreciated that it wasn’t a pure cake walk. I’ve yet to rematch all of the bosses, but since I had genuine trouble with the later ones I’ll hold off on that.

But who cares about gameplay, am I right? I sure as hell don’t. I would’ve bought the game no matter what the hell it was. I wanted the characters (and the music, although I realized that second) and that was it. 

First of all, I love any world that is super fantastical but cheesy in its concept, ala a city powered by music, and battles between artists using music. Ideas like this only spawn from a mind that wants to create a fun atmosphere, if nothing else, and it was sure as hell fun. I genuinely love when someone goes so far into a crazy idea and doesn’t waste your time explaining it with real world logic. Wanna know how a city can be powered by music? Shut up and look at the cute virtual mermaid. Lord knows I did. Every once in a while, it does you good to just let the player/reader/viewer just revel in the idea without having to go out of your way to make things seem realistic. It’s not about “turning your brain off” or whatever, it’s picking your battles.

Also, I can seriously love a world with great background characters to it. Any game with the right situation to insert the random nobodies you find onto the streets into the art in the credits really played into the greatness of the world’s less important characters, and that’s always a good thing. It’s technically world building. But, since I always love to pick favorites, I’d have to say my favorite background character is easily Mia, the NSR infodesk assistant. It’s funny, because you can literally search “nsr characters” into Google and she’s the third image result. I love how jumpy she is when you first interact with her, since NSR probably spread the word about B2J suggesting they’re rock thugs who’d beat up anyone, so for all she knows she could die right then and there with a guitar lodged in her skull. She’s probably just some intern trying to pay for college. She don’t want trouble.

Also, I just realized that 90% of the characters in this game have the same body structure that I always love, that being having arms/legs that sort of fan out in width into relatively large hands/feet. It’s a kind of limb structure I fall into so much because it just really hits me right for some reason. I really can’t explain why.

Anyways, I gotta talk about the big boys individually:

Mayday and Zuke are an amazing duo. I’m always a sucker for a cute and crazy girl, but honestly Zuke hit so many of the right notes too. I will say it’s weird to pair the martian Zuke with the humanly-skinned Mayday, but honestly it doesn’t even matter because he looks so cool on his own. I love his weird blocky blue dreadlocks, and his weirdly shaped shirt which bares his chest in the weirdest way... And, oh my god, Mayday’s weird Spongebob background flower eyes? It’s little tidbits like that that really make me jealous. How could I have ever thought of that? It looks so perfect, and I don’t know why. And her little booty jig she does in her idle animation? Adorable. I played as her as much as was reasonable not only because I’m a filthy button masher with little strategy but also because she’s so damn cute. I can also appreciate how she has a tough-as-nails persona while still keeping a semi-girly attitude, like with her falling for 1010 and Sayu. Characters are so much better when they’re a perfect blend of characteristics, instead of being all one-note, like how Zuke is the quiet one but gets heated against DK West, and all. 

Honestly the voice acting for every character is great, but I love when Mayday’s VA’s accent shows through. It’s a perfect twang to accent (consider this the only acknowledgement of a pun in this post) her snarkiness. 

DJ Subatomic Supernova was going to be an easy favorite since he’s all space-themed. Also, I don’t know why I always end up liking the egotistic characters. Not in the sense that I like their egotistic-ness, but in the sense that I like everything else about them and they just so happen to also be egotistic. The same applied with Empoleon (maybe like my 2nd favorite Pokemon) and Rarity from MLP, probably among others. Either way, I’ll never not love space themes. Not to mention he’s got a funky disco theme, and I’m slowly starting to realize that I am in extreme love with techno-funk styles of music. The instant I heard his music he cemented his place into my playlists. 

As for design, I still have no idea what the fuck he is. Clearly AI is at human levels in this world, but if he’s a robot why does he still have hairy legs? But, if he’s a human, is that weird orb his head? Is it just some sort of puppet which he controls from inside his giant jacket? I know I dissed explaining things realistically but I actually want to know with this guy. Even the wiki doesn’t say. Either way, he’s clearly the logical extreme of “being at the center of your own universe.” Even his jacket depicts a solar system, with his hood being the sun. Didn’t see that until I tried to draw him. I really wish this guy wasn’t so tied to his DJ stand so I could reasonably draw him without it. I don’t want to draw his hairy ass legs. It is a great touch for his design though (although I prefer his beta look with pants and long boots, another design trait I tend to gravitate to) since DJs could reasonably not wear pants, since they’re always behind a table.

Sayu is my favorite. It’s so plainly obvious. It’s weird to say that sometimes, because some characters like Sayu are so clearly engineered to be as adorable as possible, to the point where they’re basically a parody of whatever they’re supposed to be emulating, but then they do that so well that they are still likable for what they’re trying to parody. Also, even though I’ve never looked into any vocaloid superstars myself, the fact that they exist and are loved in real life is absolutely perfect to be used as a character design in a world like this. It’s so weird conceptually, but we all know it’s normal and realistic. But yeah, she’s a giga-cutie whom I’ve already drawn and I’ve listened to her theme on loop on many different occasions. Favorite character, favorite track, favorite weapon of choice (What did I say about Empoleon?), which, and I wouldn’t have noticed this myself, looks like the USB symbol you see above USB ports on computers. How crazy perfect is that?

Even apart from my unbridled love for cute monster robot(?) girls, her boss fight is probably the 2nd greatest of them all, at least conceptually. She’s just a hologram, so you can’t touch her, but you CAN disconnect the artists which control her in order to defeat her. It’s the kind of concept for a boss fight that could only work for this type of character. I’m a sucker for the cute girl that provides her voice, but I love how the animator (video editor? the yellow one) actually attacks you with a mouse and lowers the brightness of the setting once he appears. Also, the mocap guy being the deeply-voiced type but still providing the adorable movements of her body. It’s such a great combo of characters, and their little extra art in the credits makes me like them even more. I just wish we could interact with them individually.

DK West was probably one of the most interesting characters visually, especially since I knew of every other NSR member long before the game came out, but I only just heard of him closer to the release. I wasn’t sure where he was placed, but I definitely assumed his gig was the weird shadow demon we saw in the trailers. When I finally saw him in game, I was shocked to hear him speak an entirely different language most of the time, which was really cool. Also, finding out he was tied to Zuke and wasn’t strictly an NSR artist really made him more interesting. You know, if his fucking shadow clone magic didn’t make him crazy cool enough. Even though I suck at his game and am not especially fond of his raps, the visual of him rapping with this giant monster behind him and dozens of weird shadow wingmen by his side hyping him up was probably one of the coolest in the entire game. The dark way they were hyping him up too gave such a bizarre atmosphere, especially since it parallels his seemingly chill and smiley demeanor. 

I definitely hope they’ll introduce new bosses as DLC in the future, and make them sort of in the same vein as DK West, where they aren’t the biggest artists ever, but they want to pick a fight with B2J. I’d kill for any extra content this game can provide.

Yinu is obviously special since she was the subject of the demo they put out for the game. Even though I knew all her bells and whistles, she and her mom still beat me a few times in the full game. Considering she’s semi-tied to story-ish spoilers I kinda want to go more into her in a separate section. It is worth considering playing the game first since it’s not hard (with the easy going deaths) and it’s short length.

1010 seriously grew on me as I learned more about them and interacted with them. I got their shtick when I first looked at them, but after seeing that animation of them touring the city on Youtube I was kinda falling for them. Then, I learned that they’re apparently repurposed navy war robots? I mean, maybe not them specifically, but it seems to heavily point in that direction, with the warship cars and “attention!”s and all. It took me a bit to get into their music too, but once I actually fought them and put their actions to the music I fell in love with it. I swear, Neon J’s weird dancing can has some of the smoothest moves in all of gaming. I don’t know whether they mocapped out those movements or got one of the greatest animators ever, but it looks so impossibly clean his part of the song gets me like 30x more hype than it would normally. 

Also, their little art piece of them looking at fan mail in the credits is probably one of the most adorable things ever. Even if they’re just Neon J’s puppets, that piece of art really makes it seem like they love every one of their fans. I’m not gonna lie, I might swoon a bit too if they picked me out and gave me some special attention.

Oh yeah, and the fact that Mayday was super sad in her showstopper against them was adorable and hilarious at the same time. The little tweaks they made to the showstopper for each fight were great.

Eve just has to be Lady Gaga, right? Like, an even crazier Lady Gaga. DJSS is Daft Punk (or any artist with a helmet persona, you know what I’m talking about), Sayu is Hatsune Miku, DK West is Kanye West, Yinu is a generic child protege, 1010 is a KPop boyband (just pick one) and Eve is Lady Gaga. That’s just how things are. But, again, this is the kind of boss fight that only this type of character could provide. It’s not just surreal imagery, it’s ARTISTIC surreal imagery. The fight is so mesmerizing in every way, especially by how it starts off so slow and calm and progresses to insanity, as well as the increased emotional investment in the fight making you feel so much more into it than just “That’s the boy band. Let’s fight.” Not only does it get you more invested, but it makes her artistic persona go deeper than just “she looks weird.” She is genuinely conflicted about her relationship with Zuke, and naturally that leads her to literally split him and Mayday apart. That mechanic specifically was the coolest, although I do wish they made it more obvious when you needed to switch over to a different side. I was getting pulverized by her fight too, since there were so many things to pay attention to. Her fight was definitely the best one. 

Tatiana and Spoilers:

Let’s be real with ourselves, the twist was so obvious. I do also think, though, that obvious twists aren’t bad if they’re just good reveals. At some point, a person just has experienced so many stories that “only pretty good” twists are easy to spot. It doesn’t mean that the twists are bad, it just means you yourself experienced.

I feel like her transition from rock to EDM was pretty understandable, even as a non-musician. She was so caught up in what she assumed was popular that it basically consumed her. It’s easy as an artist to want to forgo what you truly want to make in favor of what makes you popular, and clearly since her transition to EDM made her the CEO of the biggest company in the city (world?) that probably made her think she truly needed to change her outlook. Then, when she saw B2J try to bring it back, she sort of coined them as being as misguided as she was and knocked them down a peg. Plus, they were kinda being jerks about it.

It’s kinda like the Trolls sequel, where everyone pegs rock music fanatics as being too stuck up in their own heads to appreciate other types of music, which honestly seems more like the case than the alternative. When I first heard of the story of the game, I was seriously hoping they did put an asterisk on B2J’s ambitions because they were a bit sketchy from the start. 

That’s kinda where I want to talk about Yinu, because she was the true turning point in what they were doing. She’s literally 9 and yet she’s getting dragged into all this BS. When she said “I hate you all” at the end of her fight, and played a somber tune on her broken piano after the fight destroyed it, you kinda got a kick in the face to realize you’re kinda being an asshole to some of them. Sure, they fight back, but they wouldn’t fight in the first place if they didn’t have to. They are just people who play music under a joint name that B2J just so happened to get in hot water with. 

Then, of course, there’s Kliff, who also reeked of surprise villain, and who’s basically the embodiment of the bad side of B2J, where he just wanted to destroy for his own sake and not for the actual greater good. Once B2J realized their mistake, they backed off, but Kliff was so hard pressed to do what he planned on in the first place he wouldn’t stop. I kinda wish he got a bigger fight to his own since he’s clearly a big enough tech genius to divert a whole satellite into one specific building. Maybe the Elliecopter chase bit was his thing, but I do kind of wish he was there to fight against them too.

Even though Tatiana did kind of reform a bit quick, It’s still not too crazy to assume she could see that B2J was just misguided and the fact that they worked to revert their wrongdoings for her sake would make a pretty strong impressions. They clearly can hold their own, so it’s not like she wouldn’t want them to join NSR too. 

Oh yeah, and her boss fight was clock/time themed. If there’s a theme under space that I love, it’s clocks/time. 

And If I am to be respected by the internet, I must provide a negative opinion to balance out my positive one. I will say that the character model physics (like Mayday’s braids, DK West’s vest thing, Neon J’s fluffy neck thing, etc) got kinda funky at times. Especially DK West’s vest, which was completely messed up for every scene he was in... Also, even though the voices are mostly great, some lines felt a bit off. Just a bit. That good enough? Good.

But yeah anyway that’s another favorite game to add to the pile. Eventually I’m gonna have to compile a true list of my all-time favorite games/movies because I do kind of want to have a solid idea of what my all-time favorites are.

[benisasoftboi]

Unorganised thoughts on Trails of Cold Steel II:

they still haven’t told me why it’s Class VII

So I liked this WAY more than CS1, thumbs up

I am annoyed that the only new location was Ymir (WHAT A COINCIDENCE that all the important places in the war were specifically ones Rean had been to already)

I just really wanna go to Parm idk

Bless Anton for showing up right at the end and giving me just enough AP to make A0

(fav Anton and Ricky subplot yet, god I love those guys)

I LOVED how tactile all the reunions were! I love it when fictional characters hug it makes me happy

I found it extremely funny that the final boss straight up tells the characters ‘hey, there’s literally no point to fighting me, you’ll gain nothing except closure I guess’ like that’s VERY on the nose and meta for a final boss

The game does have some real ending fatigue though, I don’t think we needed the epilogue

I did like the final boss though - up until that point, I had become so good at using my Dream Team of Rean, Elliot, Machias and Jusis (or Nuke-sis, as I call him, for his insane levels of arts damage output) that everything had got kinda dull for me. But final boss was actually a challenge, I had to think rather than just using the strategy that had worked on everything else

Which was Rean delays, Elliot heals/deals arts damage, Jusis drops arts nukes, and Machias does miscellaneous support/uses his link ability to keep Jusis’s EP topped up

Oh yeah I had them linked through pretty much the whole game and they hated it and it was super funny

So OH MAN, in their linked victory battle ending screen thing, Jusis goes ‘not bad, you actually held your own for once’

And it’s a little muffled, so the first time I heard it I swear I thought Machias responded with ‘you know what you can hold? Your damn top!’ and I dropped my controller. Had to go out of my way to win another battle with a link attack because no, no way-

He

Um

He said ‘tongue’

Anyway, characters!

Rean: Immediately upon starting up the game I found Ride Along Estelle in my DLC inventory and equipped it in the hopes that it would inspire Rean to be a better protagonist. It... kinda worked? I don’t hate him anymore, and I was pretty hyped to learn he was Osbourne’s son

And then Lloyd showed up immediately afterwards and I was like ‘oh wait here’s a protagonist I actually LOVE, nvm bye Rean lol’

Alisa: I literally never use Alisa unless the game makes me lol she was there and I don’t hate her but also I cannot remember a single interesting thing she did. Even during her one bit of plot relevance she was overshadowed by Angelica it’s hilarious that the marketing makes her out to be the deteuragonist 

Elliot: A GOOD BOY who served me incredibly well with his off the charts healing crafts, I can’t believe I started CS1 not liking him much and thinking him useless. I love the little dance he does in his idle animation

Laura: I still like Laura, I wish she was more plot relevant. I don’t feel strongly about her, but she’s always a welcome addition to any scene

Machias: Unpopular opinion probably but I really like him, even if his outfit in this game was awful. So are his alt outfits. Fashion disaster. I bought him contact lenses from a shady highway business man because he looks better without glasses. I made him ludicrously bulky, if he’d just had some kind of taunt craft to protect Jusis (squishy mage) with he’d be a perfect tank

I’m a fan of him in a ‘this is my trash son’ kind of way lol

Emma: Uhhh kinda boring which is impressive since she’s actually important and pseudo-related to Vita and all. Btw I guessed she was a witch in chapter goddamn three of CS1 after reading the folklore book, and I find it extremely wild that it’s either a dragged out, foregone conclusion if you have read the book, OR witches even existing is completely out of nowhere if you haven’t

Jusis: My favourite, because I’m basic. But like, he’s seriously the most interesting of the guys, and I made him Rean’s best friend (only one I got to rank 7 with lol). And his bonding event in Bareahard was so gooood!

I find it incredibly funny that he insists he and Machias aren’t friends because 1. Yes you are and 2. Do you even have any other non-Rean friends, guy? You literally never hang out with anyone else unless it’s plot related

Still low key ship it. Enjoy that Rean does too, apparently. Still reeling over their Trial Chest’s quote

His second S-Craft is ridiculous looking

Fie: Most interesting girl, love how she just doesn’t get flustered ever, funniest character, best girl in the game, what the HELL was that outfit

Gaius: I keep forgetting Gaius exists lol. I don’t dislike him, but he’s not very interesting to me. He’s Zin, or Noel

Millium: Man do I want to know more about Millium. Her whole thing about learning to cry... so sad and SO fascinating. What is the deal with her and Altina?!?

Sara: I hated Sara at the start of CS1. Now I adore her. God she’s just the best. Please let her interact with Schera please please please Falcom

Towa: Cutest! She’s so cute and I still love her and I did her final event even though she is TOO GOOD for Rean! She got to be a captain! I love her!

As for more minor characters - still think Angie’s great, just wish she wasn’t kinda creepy about her love of girls, deeply dislike that the game ship teases her and GEORGE, who I still otherwise find inoffensive but also, you know, male, Alfin is great, Toval is great too and I still can’t get over him being Toby, stop teasing Claire with Rean let there be one woman who isn’t into him please, oh good Sharon’s here and they don’t do that with her and she’s awesome also can’t believe I used to not like her, more Olivier always please, same with Mueller, Celine is Morgana from P5 except better in every conceivable way, Crow :(, all the Ouroboros lot are great as always, and Elise is easily my least favourite character in this franchise and can get in the sun for all I care 

I read a transcript of the drama CD and hey Rean’s dad can also get in the sun for saying that his adopted son isn’t good enough to marry his biological daughter like where do you even start-

I love that I’ve gone from reacting to Ouroboros appearances like ‘oh shit oh no’ to going ‘oh shit it’s these fucking clowns (affectionate) again’

Still love Beryl. Also love Lambert

When they mentioned ‘Mueller’s friend’ I thought it would be Julia and I was so excited and then so disappointed that it was Neithardt who I still don’t like

Elliot’s dad looks ridiculous riding on top of that tank

I loved riding the bike around SO MUCH, even if it took me a while to get a hang of the controls  

Aurelia Le Guin is just Edelgard Fire Emblem, right? And Bardias is Claude? Except I guess this game came first, so like, other way around

Man I loved flying around on the Courageous. Also I FINALLY got a map, all I wanted in CS1 was to see a map of the country 

However, Act 1 was definitely my favourite part - the sequence where the kids have to sneak through the railway lines under the bridge to get to Garrelia is one of my favourite parts of this entire series. I kind of wanted the whole game to just be this group of teenagers trying to lay low and survive a civil war while also travelling and helping out from place to place

I uh... I want JRPG Life is Strange 2

Why is there a snowboarding minigame. I mean, I loved it, but... why is it there?

I still really miss the old battle orbment designs from Sky. The ARCUSs just aren’t as cool :(

I watched the secret Black Records scene on YouTube and I am so happy to finally have an explanation for Rosine, it was really bothering me that she seemed so out of place at a military academy

I’m very very hype to play CS3 based on the spoilers I have for who will be making appearances...

:D

Seriously why is everything in these games azure though just say blue-

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

Debuff Zane Build

i am tired of not seeing this build in all the zane build videos i watch so im sharing it here because its stupid fun bc u run fast and kill faster. it’s not meta, but its fun as fuck and u have a lot of damage and survivability with it. I’ve completed M4 Slaughter Shaft with it- haven’t tried on M10 yet but i have faith. p.s its 4 am pls have mercy if there’s spelling mistakes.

what ur gonna need is a band of sitorak, zheitseiv’s eruption, a seein’ dead, and the piss grenade. everything else is fair game, whatever u want. try to get it to have the sntl cryo anoint bc good. but u must have the 4 main items for this to work perfectly (it also somewhat works with a low level Frozen Heart bc best shield in the game but you will die a lot more)

also i need a fucking name for this build help

oh god oh fuck i forgot i was playing through the handsome jackpot dlc again

oki im ready to party

this is my current loadout

sometimes i switch the reg Q-System for a kaoson or a nighthawkin if i need ammo (OP QSystem is... OP but not as fun as a tracking grenade QSystem so i don’t care for it) and maybe the brainstormer for a reflux if many shielded enemies (i prefer the brainstormer over the reflux atm. so try for a brainstormer!!)

3rd slot, that’s a monarch which used to be a dictator b4 it got a straight upgrade. I actually don’t use the bipod unless im in a boss fight and don’t need to move fast. usually violent momentum and violent violence cover the dps loss

ur first 3 gun slots honestly don’t matter much. I have my reasons for using them, but you can use whatever u want i think, so long as its a strong weapon (bc unfortunately a lot of weapons are not scaled for m10). u dont HAVE to use the monarch or the Q system or the brainstormer. I recommend them, cuz theyre fun, but u don’t gotta if u wanna swap em out for a a kaoson or a yellowcake or a sandhawk or smth

the last gun is my zheitsev’s eruption. This bad boy, when u reload, shoots out homing balls of debuffery. So every enemy that gets hit with these gets a debuff. I have tried this with the needler but I prefer Zheitsev’s bc it can hit more enemies and once and takes less time. this gun only goes to Blane (ur clone). 

for the skill trees we have no points in under cover even tho brainfreeze is the best skill in the gaaaaame

explanations: 

really the hitman tree is p self explanatory, u wanna go fast as fuck boiii. My band of sitorak does not have the +15 movespeed while zoomer is active anoint (it has the break shield amp anoint, which is p okay. want movespeed, but a nice human from the reddit gave me this sitorak so i didn’t have to farm). u want drone delivery bc Blane will NOT be throwing grenades. If you try to make him throw grenades with the seein’ dead he will ONLY throw grenades and never fire his gun, meaning he’ll never reload. it’s a nightmare. anyway. u want the piss grenade (ideally with the +25% damage on thrown anoint). im not looking forward to regrinding this when they finally mayhem buff grenades.

we put one point into playing dirty because we want those extra shots and honestly with the amount of times seein’ dead can proc ur kill skills you’ll have it more often than not

we also have points in good misfortune for that sweet sweet uptime (which btw can be infinite using the brainstormer/reflux bc it is essentially a redistributor without the need for ur barrier) the monarch/dictator also does it justice

for Blane u DON’T WANT praemuntis. we want blane reloading as often as gotdamn possible. now unfortunately my seein’ dead gave me a +weapon mag size roll (im actually not sure if this affects blane, but im assuming it does) but it does have the amazing +5 donnybrook so I’m taking it anyway. I am so not looking forward to regrinding a good class mod when they finally release action skill buffs for them. i cri. i actually hear 3 points in donnybrook and 2 in violent violence is p good (or 1 in violent violence 1 in playin dirty) so maybe grinding won’t be so bad. maybe i’ll finally get a +weapon damage roll

u can grab 1 point in ducttape mod and put 4 points into borrowed time if you want. it doesn’t really matter. i current have 5 in borrowed time and 3 in pocket full of grenades (for some reason??? usually i only put 2 in.). U can do that and use those extra points for either ducttape mod or more points in playing dirty. 

u NEED quick breather. This skill has a STUPID interaction with the band of sitorak shield because of how quickly it recharges. I’m talking, the instant you swap with Blane, you have full shields and so does he. It’s dumb, I love it. Use it to get out of trouble.

so im probably gonna need to explain why i have 3 points in trick of the light: im a cryo slut. That’s it. put those wherever you want, just make sure you can get Double Barrel. i’ve seen builds where people actually go for brainfreeze, i might try that next time i respec.

Double barrel will make it so blane can use the zheitsev’s eruption and debuff your enemies for you. it’s worth it.

so the augments u want are these:

SCHADENFREUDE. because band of sitorak has such a tiny capacity, ur shield is constantly up. If its not, it’s constantly breaking from full capacity. this does have a fun effect with the amp shield break anoint, but mainly i like it for the 25% damage buff whenever it breaks. its a tradeoff for damage, ur constantly swapping between max shields and more damage, so its actually p constant survivability and damage over the long run.

i grab doppelbanger bc blane sometimes gets stuck in the floor and/or i don’t feel like running all the way back. i wouldn’t recommend getting which one’s real or digital distribution only bc u want him alive as much as possible. u can also get binary system instead of doppelbanger, its up to you

for Zoomer u want bad dose for the movement speed and (sometimes) static field (only if the enemies have shields). this is so if blane goes down or he isn’t taking damage, zoomer can refill ur shields. if the enemies won’t have shields usually i grab winter’s drone or boomsday depending on how i feel.

im actually gonna try to see if i can’t grab brain freeze. hang on. i know trick of the light is frowned upon for most people so lemme just respec. (im sorry i just love the vibes it gives me it’s like HAHA you thought that was me? no!!! boop. and then they’re ice sculptures and man i love h2o i wish emma had frozen more people the only people she really freezes are Greg and Miriam and honestly she doesn’t even kill Greg smh. (Greg is dr denman’s assistant. greg is highkey god.) I do like what she did to Mirami, the fucking implications that YES these teenage girls ARE powerful enough to instakill people, they just don’t out of the kindness of their hearts. Rikki was badass that episode too. actually i love the episode where rikki almost boils a dude alive for making a fool of her with ILLEGAL F I S H and burns people using steam from a pipe. rikki is my favorite mermaid- she knew what was u p. I wish mako mermaids was as badass as h2o was. and the cartoon. god imagine the cartoon violence. sigh. let them use their op superpowers to be SUPERHEROES. like in h2o au i have baron flynt puppeteer people to their deaths from Thor bc he has cleo’s powers like why couldn’t she do that to someone. Like dr denman “lmao bye bitch” or even charlotte (who imho wasn’t bad until cleo started being rude to her. cleo was 100% at fault that season). it wouldn’t have killed her!!! ... instantly. probably. ive never seen avatar in full but i did watch the blood bending episode as a child and as i understand it that’s frowned upon but hey. CAN BELLA TURN PEOPLE INTO JELLY?? harry potter 🅱oneless arms... my god.)

anyway, respeccing. 

there goes all my money. rip.

so i think im gonna have to live with the slower reload speed (sob) but yes u can in fact get brain freeze with this build. lemme show...

so ye in the event u just can’t live without freezing people (i know the feeling) feel free to do this. imma play with this for a bit and see if i can live with slower reload. I actually depend on the 100% cryo with zoomer active for all my cryo damage. i also use an ice breaker so they freeze fairly easy (but only on mobs. on bosses u want the snowdrift or something else)

this build isn’t really meta and u might have trouble doing a solo run of true takedown on m10... bc its true takedown on m10, but honestly it’s fun as F U C K. you CAN do it, but it’s not no thoughts head empty like barrier-redistrubutor/yellowcake zane can be so u gotta be on TOP of ur SHIT. i love it. running around killing stuff. it’s fun. i also love teleporting. it’s my FAVORITE THING. I STILL GET GIDDY OVER IT BECAUSE IT’S SO FUN. ask my friends, they will tell you, sometimes i’ll just start gushing over how much fun it is to teleport even though i’ve played zane since release. just. GFDGHKJGDFK so much fun. i just... b o o p. god i love this game. i took a break to play assassin’s creed odyssey (fun sneaky beaky game, pretty awful dialogue) so DAMN i missed this. 

here’s a link to a video I took on athenas (my favorite area to run. it’s this game’s bloodshot stronghold!) this is the playlist i listen to while playing Zane. i keep swapping songs during play bc sometimes they don’t fit my vibe or i get tired of them lol (spotify control is hooked to my 4th and 5th mouse buttons so i don’t have to stop playing) i forgot where my shock sandhawk was in my inventory, is what i use to demolish traunt. i was so scared i threw it in my bank earlier on sanc-iii lol (also yes i still slap blane’s ass. it’s to encourage him to kill)

and here’s a link to the save + everything I had on me at the moment (including the stuff i picked up in the vid in case u want it lol) cuz im lazy and don’t feel like clearing out my inventory. some of these are only m4-9. which ones? it is a mystery. you’ll know when the new update releases ;) (no but actually im so hype for mayhem level on the item cards. finally. FINALLY!!!)

why is this video taking so long to upload. hynnnggggg

oh god is that the sun

[futuresmashmemes]

In complete curiosity, can you tell me what your favorite Smash reveal trailer of all time was?

Like, actually, real shit, stuff that’s already happened in this timeline?

Nothing will ever top Smash 4’s reveal for me. I was really into Brawl as a kid, and after Brawl came out a lot of people spread the idea online that it would be the last smash game (hilarious in hindsight, I know). Me, being the dumb kid I was, took that at face value. I also wasn’t really into following leaks at the time. I was also 12, almost 13 when 4 was revealed, keep in mind. I just sort of accepted that smash was done.

I vividly remember when I first saw that reveal trailer. We were in the middle of bumfuck nowhere for my sister’s soccer game. I was sweaty, hungry, and my phone was running out of battery. I managed to convince my mom to let me stay in the car for the rest of the game, where I promptly began charging my phone and went onto YouTube to pull up some music to listen to (knowing me at the time, it probably would’ve been an Evanescence song). And there, at the top of my recommended feed, was that trailer.

It almost didn’t feel real. I was so convinced that Smash was over, I almost thought that the video would’ve been a fake. Some shitty mod or whatever. But I clicked on it anyways, because, y’know, Smash Bros! Boy am I glad I did. Instantly, I was enthralled by the idea of Smash on the go. I didn’t have a 3DS at the time, but I played on my DS like I was getting paid for every second the screen was on. Having a portable smash game was a dream come true! And when they got to the Wii U part of the trailer, I was drawn in by the visual upgrade compared to Brawl. I was a dumb kid who didn’t know anything about graphics watching this trailer in 480p on a shitty Windows phone, and even I could tell how much of a graphics upgrade it was compared to Brawl. I didn’t have a Wii U at the time either, but I was still excited.

The new characters announced were just the icing on the cake. I love Animal Crossing, but I never expected an Animal Crossing rep in smash because I read that Sakurai had previously said that Animal Crossing characters were unsuited for battle. So when that trailer opened up on a shot of the Villager opening the now iconic envelope, my hype levels instantly shot through the roof of the car. Really, I should consider myself lucky that I was watching this trailer in the middle of an empty parking lot in the middle of nowhere and not, say, on the bus ride home from school, because after that point, I was visibly freaking out throughout. I would’ve been perfectly satisfied with just Villager, but then the trailer continued. The videos online right now show these two as separate videos, but I definitely remember watching them as one big trailer.

NEW CHALLENGER APPROACHING!

Oh boy, who could it be? The gang looked up at a cliff to see a boy with distinct spiky hair.

“No. There’s no way it could be him. There’s just no way! I read online that he couldn’t get in, so it’s not him.”

Blip!

“OH MY GOD IT IS HIM HOLY SHIT IT’S MEGA MAN FUCKING MEGA MAN HOLY S H I T!”

It didn’t feel real. It felt like a dream. But I was loving every second of it. And even better, the next video in my recommended feed was the trailer for Wii Fit Trainer. What? Why? Who asked for this? I was dumbfounded, but all for it.

I think that those three characters made for the perfect holy trinity of character reveals. The anticipated first party/character Sakurai previously said no to, the third party, and the character that nobody saw coming. Smash 4’s initial reveal had it all. I probably rewatched that trailer for the rest of the soccer game. I texted all my friends about it, and they were all nearly as excited as I was. I would’ve told my mom and sister all about it when they got back in the car, but I wasn’t supposed to be using data at the time, so if they knew that I had used it to watch a silly reveal trailer over and over again, mom probably would’ve had a heart attack (this was before unlimited data was more standard). But you better believe that I exploded on about it as soon as I figured it was safe to.

Even after all these years (and all of the timelines I’ve looked into), no Smash trailer...no, more like no trailer period has ever gotten close to capturing the pure excitement that I felt when I first saw the Smash 4 trailer, and I doubt that there ever will be one. I’m a jaded adult now, and everything is more exciting through the rose-tinted glass of adolescence. The “Everyone is Here!” trailer for Ultimate came close, though. Smash 4’s development was also something of a turning point for me when I became more active in following the development of new games online. I think it was for a lot of people, I think that a lot of that can be attributed to Brawl’s success (and the Wii as a whole) at capturing a wider demographic of gamers compared to Melee and 64. Smash 4 feels almost laughable to go back and play now, but I can’t deny the impact it had on me.

As far as other individual reveal trailers go, here are my favorites:

Little Mac and Palutena-both for the same reason: THAT ART STYLE. Their trailers also convinced me to play their respective games. Uprising was one of my first 3DS games and Punch Out is the last game I remember renting from Blockbuster.

Greninja-As laughable as this sounds now, getting a new Pokémon rep was really hype for me back then. I was beginning to get into competitive, so seeing the ninja frog that had taken over the competitive scene at the time get into smash was cool, even if I was Team Fennekin. Confirmation that at least Charizard had survived the cut was also really cool.

Robin and Lucina-I didn’t know anything about Fire Emblem at the time, but Robin looked cool and I was digging the 3D anime artstyle from Awakening that the trailer was rendered in. Another trailer that convinced me to buy the game that they were from, and good god now I’m an insufferable Fire Emblem fan good lord I was so innocent back then. “Girl Marth” jokes were rampant amongst my friends. Also, CAPTAIN FALCON!!!

Lucas-Funny story, my sister absolutely despises video games with a burning, visceral passion now, but back when we played Brawl together, her mains were Lucas and Snake. You can imagine the pain and agony she felt when Smash 4 initially came out. Lucas’ DLC came out around my birthday, so her gift to me that year was a $10 eShop card. She just told me: “you know what to spend it on.”

Cloud-“Hey guys, you know what would’ve been awesome? In Brawl, if, like, they put in Cloud from Final Fantasy 7?”

Corrin-At this point I was a big Fire Emblem fan riding hot on the hype train for Fates, so I was very excited for Corrin. The dragon-inspired moveset also seemed really cool. Funny how times have changed, and when Byleth was added in I was very lukewarm compared to when my reaction to Corrin.

Inkling-Similar story to the Smash 4 reveal trailer, I was absolutely not expecting a Smash announcement that day and I saw the video was in my YouTube recommended feed while I was at my internship of all places. Unfortunately, none of the other people there were gamers (let alone Smash fans), so they couldn’t share in my hype.

Everyone is Here/Ridley-I can’t properly give this one the justice it deserves in a short amount of words and this post is already getting really long, so I’ll save this one for a later day if you guys are interested. To keep it short, let’s just say that I was very much a part of the Ridley gang and I was very happy to see him in.

Belmonts and K. Rool-I got up at 7 in the morning to watch that trailer and loved every second of it. Keep in mind that I am not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination. The only thing that sort of spoiled it for me was that the Smash teams themselves leaked it the night before by releasing a track titled Bloody Tears/Monster Dance

Ken and Incineroar-Nothing against these two, but at the time I was crushed when I realized the Grinch leak was fake. Now I can look back on it and laugh at Little Mac getting yeeted through the billboard and Villager’s stance at the end of the trailer.

Sans Mii Costume-Pretty sure I’ve already mentioned this, but when I first saw that trailer I legit fell out of my chair laughing. I’m not even an Undertale fan, but seeing funny skeleton man on my screen just broke me. The fact that Toby went to Sakurai’s house and beat him in Smash made it even better.

Banjo-I’ve never actually played a Banjo Kazooie game before, but I’ve seen enough videos about them over the years that I almost feel like I have. They’re ingrained in my childhood due to that in a weird way. Plus, it felt so good to have a victory over the Steve fans. I felt the weight of that Jiggy that bounced on the floor.

And that’s about it! If you guys want to hear my thoughts on the Everyone is Here trailer, please let me know and I’ll do another post like this.

...Upon rereading this post for spelling errors, I realized that you probably were more asking about my favorite reveal trailers throughout multiple timelines. Oops. Let me know if that’s what you wanted and I’ll answer with my thoughts on my favorite future reveal trailers.

[darkvolley]

I finished ReMind and started the Limit Cut episode but tbh fuck the databosses. I am weak babey noob gaymer and I've never beat a secret/extra boss in a KH game in my life and that's not about to change anytime soon. So whatever plot stuff may be past the bosses I'll just look up in a bit.

But anyway! Uh, to sum up my thoughts on ReMind, please have this not well put together list!

[[MORE]]

-The cutscenes look so much better than the ones for the base game and it finally looks like Square figured out how to make the lightning not look like absolute shit in Unreal Engine

-DEMYX SAID THE THING AGAIN!!! HE SAID IT TWICE!!! IT'S NOW HIS CATCHPHRASE AND NO ONE CAN TELL ME OTHERWISE!!

-He still can't get Ienzo's name right on the first try and I love it I'm cry over it

-Playing as Roxas was the most amazing feeling I've had in a while and it was hype as FUCK

-Kairi is... actually kinda difficult to play as and I almost died so many times but her Limit Break with Sora was fuckin BEAUTIFUL and I love how there were different pictures that showed up each time on the feather

-Michael Mouse you goddamn fucking hero I've never respected you until now and you definitely deserve it now

-I couldn't catch all the dialogue the other guardians had with each other in the big team up fight but the fact that Roxas and Ven actually say something to each other is. Glorious.

-Did... did it get confirmed Vanitas is Darkness from KHUX??? And why was Dark Inferno x fought after that?? What is Dark Inferno x anyway??? Is it Vanitas in like a pure form or... something???

-There was no confirmation or hint towards who Luxord might be or what connections he has but HE MENTIONED GOATS AND XIGBAR'S BIO IN THE BOOK COMING OUT TALKS ABOUT GOATS AND IT'S MAKING ME FREAK OUT!!!!

-Why did I get the secret ending when I played on Easy and fulfilled none of the requirements?

-I must now return to asking. WHERE IS DEMYX??? Is that answered in whatever other info is in the Limit episode that I'm too lazy to do myself???

-Precious wonderful babey boy Junior made the greatest expression I'd ever seen during his talk with MoM and I need a screenshot of it it's really truly the cutest thing I've ever seen and I would die for him

-Now that I think about it, thank fucking GOD I didn't have to replay the entire fucking game just for the DLC

-Scala is beautiful and I don't think I have the right words to ever describe how just. Great it is.

-Xehanort confirmed for at least 85 or so years old considering '75 years later-'

-Also..... *Spongebob narrator voice* 1 year later-

-ALSO ALSO! I'm a little insulted that after the greater Kairi focus in ReMind, Nomura suddenly turns around and makes her be asleep for a fucking year. Like, I get it's so they can study her heart, but it feels like him just tossing her aside again after he gave us what we wanted and then not knowing what to do with her anymore.

-I'm gonna go find the stuff I'm missing on Limit Cut cuz I wanna know when that Yozora scene comes into play and if he's actually the super duper extremely hard and painful and torturous secret boss I've heard about

[bastardrobocop]

on fallout 76

so, because im a fool i pre ordered fallout 76. frankly, i was going to buy it on release anyway because im starved for anything fallout and new california was a complete bust. 

anyway, this means i have had access to the “B.E.T.A.”, which isn’t really a beta. it’s just server stress tests. i’ve done every pc round so far and i feel like i can say pretty conclusively that it’s just not very good.

sorry, this is going to be a long meandering post

i dont know if its something they can fix in the like, week before they launch the game, but the delay/latency/feel is so fucking whack it’s unbelievable. the multiplayer fallout new vegas mod feels like it has better netcode. in addition, it is dreadfully optimized. i play on a laptop, so maybe take my perspective with a grain of salt, but i’m not the only one who has pointed this out. i use an nvidia 970m, which runs fallout 4 at around 50/60 frames per second. fallout 76 tops out at around 10-30 on average. just wandering the world, the framerate is atrocious. performance is best in small interior cells and in wide open spaces with nothing in it. in more dense and enemy populated areas, the game stutters hard. more than once ive had the game freeze for several seconds during a firefight. its honestly inexcusably bad most of the time. with poor latency and framerate chugging, the gameplay experience is trying. it makes literally everything painful, including just inventory management and crafting. 

the gameplay itself isnt too awful in that its just fallout 4 again but without the pretense of minimal rpg elements. performance problems can make some engagements suck, but most common enemies aren’t too hard. however, the real nasty ones that are higher level than you can be nigh on impossible to take down solo, which sucks because my friends arent always available and dealing with online randos is always bad. but it’s also the only way to get like, good weapons. but anyway, the core gameplay loop is almost the same. i say almost because the ‘workshop’ storage is your only storage. and it has a 400lb limit. which takes into account anything you put in it. this should seem like an obvious issue; you basically cant afford to store things if you gather valuable resources. im currently stuck carrying this big fucking rocket launcher which is useless right now because i dont have any inventory space for missiles, which weigh a ton. also, ammo has weight now. and you can’t scrap ammo for ammo parts like gunpowder or lead. and you can’t sell ammo either. so instead you just have to like, dump hundreds of rounds just on the ground since you can’t store them in the workshop because you need space for steel and adhesive and that M2 Browning that you can’t use yet but want to hold onto because it looks bitchin. however, you can bulk scrap with plastic, which reduces weight by about half. however, therein lies another problem; plastic becomes a precious resource because you can’t make a bulk pile of wood without it for some reason. plastic is currently more precious than literal gold. still, you get stuck holding a bunch of valuable scrap in your inventory which you can’t put into your stash because it’s full and you can’t go out and find more plastic because then you’ll be over-encumbered and you cant afford to drop this circuit board and you can’t build any more things in your camp because the budget is painfully low and even when you DO get enough plastic to bulk things the bulked stuff goes into your inventory and wont necessarily fit back into the stash and i’m still carrying this fucking missile launcher please god let me put down this missile launcher please oh please god

the ui is a disaster. it’s like they turned 4′s console/gamepad control scheme and doubled down on it; on pc, random keys are bound to multiple things and then also bound to a separate key, and you can’t re-bind things individually. so that means middle mouse is both ‘open favorite item wheel’ and ‘enter third person’ and ‘enter build mode’ when there’s also V which is also ‘enter third person’. you cannot change this. there will always be one button for this. there is still no separate binding for bash and grenade throw, of course. if you press escape, it opens the map. if you press m, it opens the map. to open the pause menu with things like ‘options’ and ‘microtransaction store’ and ‘quit the game’, you have to open the map with either escape or M and then press Z. there is no direct button to take you to the pause menu, as far as i can tell. when you go up to a workbench, there are three options; E to craft, R to scrap, Space to repair and modify. from this menu, if you want to scrap an item, you must mouse over it, and then select it. however, DO NOT MOVE THE MOUSE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. even if the prompt is open and asking if you want to scrap, say, a pump action shotgun, if you mouse over and the highlight moves over to your only power armor chest piece, it will scrap the power armor chest piece. even though it was asking if you wanted to scrap the shotgun. its potentially one of the most hostile interfaces ive ever seen. the bindings for ‘scrap mode’ and ‘scrap item’ in different menus also change. if i’m in the repair menu, G scraps an item. if i’m in scrap mode, spacebar does. the only good thing ive seen so far is the favorite wheel and also you can set it so you can see through your pip boy background while browsing it. 

the world feels desolate and boring. the lack of human npc interaction has been replaced with finding some dead persons holotape. there are robots. there is at least one AI. but all the questgivers are pieces of paper, holotapes, or voices on a radio. sometimes it’s a robot. you don’t actually interact though. there’s no interaction beyond listening and being told what to do. while im bitching about how the world feels, lets talk about factions. bethesda has kind of casually hyped up factions as being some kind of meaningful, cool choice. they’re literally nothing. there is no indication to other players what faction you are in. you can join every faction and reach top rank in every faction. you cant see if anyone is a member of your faction unless theyre in your faction specific base. there is no inter-faction conflict, there are very few faction quests aside from random events, and once you’re done with the main faction quest, you’re basically done for good except for repeatable ones. i honestly expected factions to be a meaningful choice, which was probably my mistake. i was hoping it would force you to commit to your current faction once you joined it, or would prompt you to abandon another faction in order to join a new one. but there’s just nothing. i was expecting something like, i dunno, destinys faction thing. like joining new monarchy. and maybe butting heads with members of other factions, like i figured the Brotherhood faction would be my enemy if i joined the enclave. but it’s just nothing. the world is nothing, the quests are nothing, everything just feels pointless. 

this is also a personal gripe, but there are like no energy weapon alternatives to small guns aside from the errant laser pistol, but ammo is extremely rare. the only new energy weapon i’ve seen so far is the plasma gatling, which is a big gun. otherwise, it���s just the crappy pistol/rifle converting laser and plasma rifle. no plasma pistol, just a pistol conversion. no laser pistol, just a pistol conversion. i’ve always loved energy weapons and just like. not getting any variety while guns and melee weapons get tons of variety is grating. there are many new ballistic weapons that look neat. the 10mm smg is back, and i am admittedly fond of it. however, 10mm ammo is painfully rare. i spend basically all my lead making more ammo for it. i can kind of get by with my laser pistol and my shotgun always makes up however much ammo i lose because a lot of enemies use shotguns, but my 10mm just goes up in smoke and there’s none to be found elsewhere. there’s a shocking amount of .308 because almost every early/mid enemy uses a hunting rifle, but i guess it makes sense because the big MG-32 thing takes .308 so they want you to be able to use it when the time comes. still, i’d rather be using an energy weapon. i want like. a recharger pistol. or the plasma rifle with all the tubes. or a pulse gun. just like. anything other than the ugly aer9 pistol conversion. i think the folks down at bethesda just dont like energy weapons very much; theyre leaps and bounds less viable than small guns. 

the enemies look okay. instead of raiders, you have the Scorched. they’re Marked Men, but weaker and also a cult formed by radioactive bats. there are super mutants, because bethesda cant be bothered to go outside of the comfort zone of Things People Recognize and also they hate lore i guess. the wild animals are kind of fun. theres a big toad that looks cute, and frogs that have MASSIVE arms that they run on, which looks funny. theyre small though. things like the mothman and snallygaster look neat. the flatwoods monster is okay. the grafton bastard is big and kind of easy to cheese out. there is a monster named after a flawed and racist interpretation of indigenous beliefs. theres a big sloth, who i love. the mole men (called mole miners) are intimidating and ANNOYINGLY precise with shotguns. they’re later game enemies and very aggressive. they drop a neat looking unarmed weapon that ive been using, called a mole miner gauntlet. it’s like a power fist with big claws. there’s a big bee called a honeybeast. ive basically covered all of the new monsters, though. everything else is from fallout 4 and dlcs. this includes things like anglers, which had obviously evolved on far harbor along with the lure plant so it doesnt make sense for them to be there, and gulpers which are big salamanders so i guess that’s more okay. there are swarms of bees that are just he same repeated png of a bee, spinning around. oh yeah, there are a couple new insect types; ticks and fireflies. both use the animations of the radroach and bloatfly, respectively.

solo play can be kind of boring and difficult. most randos you meet will either ignore you or call you a slur and run away. ive only had one guy break into my house and i murdered him. however, even though he had a bounty on his head, he was still allowed to get ‘revenge’ on me which meant he could spawn right next to me and this time he had a power armor suit, so he killed me a couple times before logging out to avoid my wrath. coward. if you’re out there dude, i’ll kick your ass. also, quick note about the bounty system; its kinda rough around the edges. i tried to save someones garden by shooting a ghoul that was stomping their flowers in the back. however, my shot somehow curved around him at point blank and broke a blackberry bush. from then on, i had a 20 cap bounty on my head. i had to hide from people in my secret enclave bunker and get my friend to kill me so i could perceive other people on the map again and also not live in fear of every tom dick and larry with a power armor frame and a bad attitude. 

i feel like i should wrap up. fallout 76 is not very good, but if they can work out performance and latency it wouldnt be too bad for just dicking around with friends. in terms of being like, a fallout game, it’s worse than 4. i haven’t gotten into story spoilers, but its not great. and it feels remarkably desolate for a game thats advertised as being a cool time with your buds. maybe itll be better when there are more people playing. i dunno. its just not very good. i dont recommend it.

[inqua]

Sooo I beat Echoes and it is my favourite 3DS FE game by far.

Extended thoughts under the cut! (no spoilers)

Uhhh I should note that I have never played Gaiden, so this game was completely new to me. And what was also extremely helpful is that aside from what we saw in trailers and character portraits, nothing had been leaked to me like with Fates, which I got spoiled on pretty hard due to it releasing way earlier in JP and US than in PAL regions. Hope western releases will remain like this in the future. I’m no pro or anything, this is just me praising this game, lol.

So the story I’m gonna glance over since the game has only been out for like a week. All I’ll say is that I enjoyed it a lot. It was a classic hero story, which is exactly what I expected given its source material. Slightly predictable? Yes, but executed extremely well. This is showing the perspective of two protagonists with different ideologies done right, unlike in another certain FE game.

The characters are extremely loveable in this one. I love that it wasn’t just about Alm or Celica- the story always managed to involve their closest friends as well, which is great because I usually feel like FE tends to alienate a large amount of its cast. I really do think the voice acting is to thank for bringing the characters to life so well. Gray and Tobin are a perfect example of this: they always comment on Alm’s choices, mention what their stance is on the matter, and bringing up actual good points on why we should choose to take certain actions or not. Of course, they also joke around and bicker a lot and the VA’s seem to have a lot of fun with that, making the characters all the more lovable. So the character interaction is great, but I do have to say I was disappointed by the lack of support conversations? I surely thought Alm would be able to support with all his childhood friends from Ram village at least, or Celica with other important units from her original crew, like Boey, Genny and Saber. Instead, most characters only have the option to support with one or two other units. In the end I don’t mind too much though, because the quality of the voice acting was surprisingly good for the most part and somewhat makes up for it, imo. The main cast usually nailed the dialogue with the right intonation. The voice performance that left me most impressed was actually Berkut’s though; this dude got so into it, it terrified the shit out of me at times, lmao.

Gameplay-wise this game also killed it. I have to admit I played on Normal Classic like the fucking casual filth I am, but I swear, it was only because I didn’t know how much the format would differ from what I’m used to. Also I figured since there are only two difficulty options for this one, I would have a good reason to replay it on Hard soon. Anyway, first of all: thank fucking god, the world map is back. I really like having the option to switch between armies whenever you please and doing things in your own pace, it’s refreshing and motivates you to keep playing. Having Alm and Celica as two lords is fun enough and I’m glad they didn’t force in an avatar character and a marriage system, it really doesn’t need it. Battles are just your classic FE combat, well, Gaiden style of course, but familiar enough nonetheless. I don’t mind the absence of the weapon triangle, as the game still offers enough strategic options with characters only being able to carry one weapon/item at a time and them possessing over several skills depending on the unit/class/weapon. I also like how magic/healing/skills occur in exchange for HP. It forces the player to choose carefully and prevents magic users from becoming too OP. At first I had to suppress the urge to max units’ levels before promoting, but I got used to it fairly quickly, lol. The dungeons are also pretty fun, if not a bit clunky. Idk, to me it was very apparent that this was their first try on this format. I felt like the empty spaces weren’t filled up very well, and moving your character around didn’t always go too smoothly either. I do like the talking/examining à la Ace Attorney thing they added, it allows you to take a break after a long battle.

Y’all have seen the art for this game, it’s fucking gorgeous. I definitely prefer Hidari’s character designs over Kozaki’s for FE, though they’re both great artists. Hidari’s soft and dreamy style seems to really fit Valentia for some reason. The in-game visuals were fantastic too, with the accurate zoom-ins on specific parts of the map returning. But I personally loved the villages especially- they were just really nice and peaceful safe havens showing the beautiful types of environment in Valentia, as well as the differences between Zofia and Rigel. It really helped with the world building of Valentia for me.

Guys, the soundtrack made this game for me. The OST on this game is just so fucking phenomenal, I can’t even describe it. I’m constantly listening to it, even as I write this. The violin game in Celica’s path is so sick; Radiant Ark and With Mila’s Divine Protection never fail to hype me the fuck up to go on an adventure. In Alm’s route it also perfectly nails those triumphant fanfare type tracks you expect in an FE game. Just fires you up to mow down an entire army of big armour clad dudes. But then there’s also these tranquil and nostalgic themes to accompany the villages and touching moments. Also very notable: great usage of vocals in the tracks. I could go on forever, but honestly it has a great variety of tracks just very well done and fitting for whatever their setting is. I had listened to the Gaiden soundtrack (which is also fantastic in its own right) before too, so it was fun hearing all those tunes revitalised. Once again, I feel like FE music just keeps improving consistently. With every instalment I think it can’t get any better, but then I’m proven wrong every time and I love it. God. I just have so much love for this soundtrack. Fuck.

Idk, overall Echoes just feels like one huge comeback to me. Like IntSys proving our elitist asses that yes, they are still capable of making “real” FE games, now shut up and spend the entire game’s worth on DLC, you nerds. No but honestly, I sincerely hope they will continue the trend of remaking older games in this fashion. I’m really liking where we’re heading with this.

On a final note… A moment of silence for my boy Boey… He took one for the team and died in the final battle. Now I have a save slot with all characters alive and well except for him, and it goes against my perfectionist urges, cri. :(

[robotslenderman]

Non-spoilery pre-release thoughts.

OK so I haven’t finished my 10 hours of Andromeda yet, but I’ve gotten as far as the trial allows me for the main story and I’ve got like one hour left of pre-release play anyway.

For those on the tag/those who missed my earlier post, I ended up getting Origin access just for the trial because the “OMG ANDROMEDA IS GOING TO BE AWFUL AND BIOWARE IS RUINED FOREVER” talk was really starting to get to me after I saw the bad face animations. Didn’t want to wait a week because I’ve been excited for Andromeda ever since before ME3′s DLC came out. While I was super hyped and had high hopes, at the same time, I thought I had fairly realistic expectations (”Yeah Bioware’s not perfect this isn’t a bad thing” instead of the “OH GOD I’M NOT GONNA BUY THIS GAME BECAUSE BIOWARE KICKS PUPPIES” bullshit I was seeing around) but… yeah.

It was really getting to me.

So here’s some dot points, no spoilers, under the cut. This covers character creator, face animations, world exploration, and narrative, without any spoilers. Any possible spoilers are referred to so vaguely you’ll have no chance of putting anything together, so don’t worry.

I also have a bit at the bottom covering things I really like about this game.

TL;DR – Guys. It’s fine, it’s okay, it really is. Chill. These issues exist, but they’re tiny ass things you’ll barely notice, like in every other game ever. You’ll love Andromeda, you really will. Yeah, it is DA:I in Space, but it’s also not – it’s DA:I in space, but better.

Honestly, these issues are fucking terrifying when you’re hyped up and can’t see the game for yourself yet and everyone’s nitpicking about these dumbass tiny things like they’re Huge Fucking Issues, but when you do play you won’t run into them nearly as often as people made you think, and when you do see them you’ll shrug and move on and forget about them ten seconds later, like you do about 99% of glitches you run into in other games. 

You’re not gonna hate the game just because Jallo’s legs clip into his seat or Addison stared at you way more blankly than any other character or something, for fuck’s sake.

Character Creator – I had a heart attack with the character creator at first because I thought that all I could do was select premade Sheps Ryders and had heard as such, but it turns out the option to customise those premade Ryders was up the top and not easily spottable. Whew! People are right that it’d be great if we could choose separate eyebrows/etc like in DA:I instead of having to choose a custom Ryder and then fiddle with proportions and so on – you can’t just choose “eye shape 1, eye shape 2″, etc. 

But really? It’s actually no big deal. I was super afraid of this as well, but when actually faced with it in-game I was like “oh, okay, that sucks” and then forgot about it thirty seconds later. It’s okay, guys, really!

Bad face animations – Honestly, I totally forgot the animations were supposed to be bad. Yeah, they’re not great, but nine times out of ten I didn’t notice them until I went, “oh, hang on, aren’t the face animations supposed to be bad?” and actually paid better attention. 

Then it was like, “Oh, yeah, they do seem to have a bit of a vacant stare.”

Then I forgot about them three seconds later and kept playing. No big deal.

The other one time out of ten the bad face animation really shows and… it’s not a big deal either. Like, yeah, it’d be great if they didn’t exist and Bioware please fix them, but when I did run into them, I didn’t become a huge angry beast foaming at the mouth because the whole game was ruined. Actually, I thought they were fucking hilarious. 

And then after the conversation I forgot about it again. No big deal. Seriously. Chill.

There’s a clip I saw of default Sara having a HUGELY blank face but when I ran into that bit in-game Sara didn’t have that expression at all?? It may be because I made a custom Sara, or maybe Bioware sneakily fixed it before I played, I don’t know, but Sara didn’t have that :^) expression I had seen in that exact scene on youtube.

World exploration – “ME:A is DA:I in space!” shrieks the masses, their faces melting from the neurochemical implosion happening inside their skulls. “THIS IS A BAD THING.”

Uh

No it’s not

ME1 had exploration. ME:A’s is way more interesting.

(But I also thought exploration in ME1 was interesting except for the sidequest bits, because I’m the kind of person who loved to drive around on the mako doing nothing but finding spooky shit and then got growly when I wound up in yet another premade husk-infested mine. But I loved just being on Luna and stopping the Mako as I fiddled with something on my desk, and then suddenly hearing those whale-like sounds in space, googling it, finding out those calls were rachni, and running into them again by accident on other planets… I love that. I’m addicted to that. Running into tiny little things like that.)

Yeah the worlds are huge but uh you’re in a Nomad which goes up to 120KMH, it better be fucking huge. You won’t give a shit how big the world is because you’re zooming past it thinking about how cool the Nomad is and laughing your ass off when Ryder goes “~oops~” every time you run over a space desert bug.

(The Nomad is really, really cool.)

Like seriously though, one thing I didn’t like about ME2 and ME3 was that sidequests got narrowed down more and more until you were basically a rat following a preset path in a maze. ME:A breaks away from this. You get to choose what to do next, you don’t go into a special area for one quest and get stuck there until you’ve played it out.

Granted, if you genuinely didn’t exploration in DA:I then I don’t have good news, it is a lot like DA:I so far. It’s too early in-game to be able to tell if it had the same issues DA:I exploration had 

(”everyone put all the sidequests in the Hinterlands!!“ 

“uh. bossman. bosslady. bossperson.”

“yes?”

“other zones exist?”

“they do?? FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK.”) 

but I’m gonna trust Bioware and while I might end up being wrong, until I see otherwise, I’m just gonna have faith that they evened out sidequests a bit between worlds. I mean, people were Yelling about it non-stop and Bioware’s actually really good at listening to people. stop giving them shit for this, they do listen.

(But honestly reason #1 and #2 I loved DA:I exploration stuff, is #1, exploration always came with lore even when there weren’t sidequests attached such as at landmarks [sadly, ME:A doesn’t seem to have that with it so far, but I’m hoping that changes later in the game], and #2 I loved stimming by just running around looking at pretty shit and also knocking down collection quests. That’s just me, though, I never got bored doing that and found it soothing just being in the world.)

Narrative – OK, so every review site I’ve seen so far says there’s not enough story and I’m genuinely ???? over this because there is way more narrative/squadmate banter in this than any ME or DA game so far, wtf?? Yes, way more than DA:I! 

Like right up to the first planet exploration, it was almost non-stop story, and the bits in between cutscenes were filled to the brim with Liam chatting in my ear and reacting to the world, reacting to Ryder’s actions, making suggestions or adding his thoughts. Radio silence didn’t dominate like in the previous ME games.

IDK why one of the review sites was complaining about people making big deal out of the floating rocks in one world, that was actually hilarious in context and only got funnier??? I guess that writer didn’t have a sense of humour.

On Eos, the first planet that opens up after the prologue/first chapter of story finishes, cutscenes and so on definitely wind down as the game opens up player freedom more. But that’s a good thing so why are people complaining??? every game has a cutscene-intensive beginning, then that winds down as players stop being funnelled through a preset path and get to do what the hell they want. There’s drama, then there’s a breather, and then the drama ramps up again, it’s a cycle that’s common to every good story and game.  And like I said before, you hear way more from squadmates if you decide to wander around after sidequests instead of the main story.

One thing that’s brilliant about this is in most Bioware games, squadmates and companions almost completely ignore sidequests. There’d be token comments and Solas (Silently) Disapproves or Garrus picking a fight because Do It His Way Dammit Shepard, but that’d be it, it’d almost be like the companions weren’t aware that sidequests exists. ME:A so far seems to have fixed this in that squadmates are obviously engaged and invested in the sidequests. I was following a sidequest that involved scanning things lost underneath sand to solve a mystery, and it felt like the companions had something to say at each step of the way – including verbally cringing when a crucial piece of evidence went and chucked a huge fucking wrench into this small storyline. It was great, it really felt like I was travelling with people, for the first time, and not just walking guns.

Also, Bioware is as good as ever at punching you in the Feels. I am not joking. There’s a crucial scene in the first chapter that literally made me cry, it punched me in the Feels that much, and just remembering it is tearing me up fuck fuck fuuuuuck Bioware whY??? FUCK ME OH MY GOD

Interface – Honestly the interface is the biggest bugbear but, again, not a big deal. It’s annoying that I can’t just open and close the map, I have to close the map then close the “esc” options. I hope they fix it, but if they don’t, don’t care. 

There’s also the loadout screen that tripped me up – in ME1-3, you get the loadout screen, then the squad screen. But much like CC, you might miss the squad selection screen because the “select squad” button is in the loadout screen, at the top of the screen, and not easily spotted the first time around. 

You also might get tripped up because you don’t ever have to change squadmates; you load squadmates, and then you have the option of never seeing the “select squadmates” screen again if you don’t want to. I guess this is Bioware’s solution to “everyone always takes the same two companions everywhere” thing that made choosing squadmates kinda redundant. 

But I got tripped up here ‘cause I recruited Vetra, went onto Eos, and… wait, where’s the squadmate selection screen?? why is Cora and Liam there??? I want Vetra??? Went back onto the ship, came back out, nope??? wasn’t until the third try that I saw the little people icon above my guns in the loadout screen, clicked it, “Oooh, there it is!”

Honestly, all Bioware’d have to do to fix that is make the button ping or glow subtly or something to just grab your attention. Once the game “trains” you to check the top of the screen for extra categories, you won’t even notice this any more.

Even though I’m talking about things from a “what’s the big deal” perspective I somehow still make this game look bad, so I’m gonna make it look as good as I actually see it as here:

Overall, things I am loving about this game so far:

The Companions/Characters – 

In summary, every character so far has either hinted or outright shown that they’re multifaceted and that they’re… people. Like human beings IRL, there’s who they are in company, and there’s who they are in private, who they are when shit hits the fan. Every character so far has shown shades of this – except for Drack and Peebee, and that’s only because you’ve only just met them before the trial stops letting you proceed through the story, and I have full confidence they’ll both show to be more than they seem to be, too.

I was fully prepared to be bored by the human companions. I’m not. I love Liam. I love Cora. Liam’s super witty and playful, and as far from boring as you can get. He is no Kaidan 2.0, let me tell you. I had no intentions at all of romancing him but… well, I haven’t decided who I’m going to romance for certain yet, but he’s definitely found a place on the list now. He’s awesome! Even if I don’t romance him, he’ll definitely be my Ryder’s canon best friend.

Cora’s also great. She makes me think of a Mom Friend even though she’s not really Mom-like. She doesn’t fuss or anything. But she is encouraging of Ryder, and is also interesting in that she appears to think a certain way but then the face she puts on cracks a bit and you can see that there’s more to her than there appears to be, and that maybe she isn’t as well put together as she seems to be. She makes me think of Dorian, actually, in that respect – except while Dorian screams “HA HA HA I’M ONLY PRETENDING TO KNOW WHAT I’M DOING I DON’T, ACTUALLY”, Cora’s so subtle that you won’t notice the difference between who she is and who she tries to be until the facade cracks. (I also wanna romance her too, oops, I wanna romance everyone who do I romance shit shit shiiiiit)

Vetra is fucking incredible, holy shit. You know how Garrus liked to pretend to be a smooth motherfucker but it was totally see-through and he was a total dork? Well, Vetra is who Garrus wished he was. I have never seen a character portrayed as this smooth and subversive without being a slimeball, but Vetra’s wonderful, charismatic and so damn smooth that she kind of pulls something and you won’t even notice until she’s like “uh, yeah, so it looks like I totally Did The Thing…” and you’re like, “Oh, yeah, she did do The Thing, didn’t she?” because she pulled it off right in front of you so casually you didn’t think about it twice.

Peebee and Drack have both been met but the trial doesn’t go far enough in the story to let you recruit them. For those who follow me, Peebee is as Space!Liriel-y as I thought she was, minus Liriel’s Fight Me. Peebee does what the fuck she wants and is totally casual, but not at all crude or mean. She’s so cute. Drack, in comparison – only met him in one scene, so far he seems typically krogan, so I don’t know what he’s like beneath that mask.

Jaal I have not even seen a sign of yet. No signs of any angara yet.

Alec Ryder is lovely. He’s a total badass. I was expecting him to be this super tough anal frowny Military Father Who Disapproves but… he’s not. He’s great fun, he’s badass, and yeah, he could’ve been a better father, but it’s not a “RYDER HAD A FUCKED UP CHILDHOOD” kind of way, it’s in a “yeah I should tell my kids I love them” kind of way that… every good parent ever has, really. He’s also shown huge signs of having hidden depths, too, and it looks like exploring these will be a major part of a subplot – if it doesn’t wind up tied into the main plot itself.

SAM has some spoilery things that ping me as there being more to this AI than meets the eye, and I really look forward to getting to know them.

Jallo (Kallo? Fuck), Suvi, Lexi, Gil, etc – They seem awesome so far, looking forward to getting to know them better, too!

Nakmor Kesh – Special shoutout to this lady krogan who’s a fucking engineer! Holy shit.

The Other Stuff – 

I am still upset and emotionally scarred by That One Scene. You’ll know it when you see it. oh god. oh gooooooddd.

The characters being better than in previous games only makes the story more engaging. They have way more to say, way more reactions.

Bioware commented once that ME:A’s cast was way more inexperienced than the trilogy’s cast. Without spoiling, at first, Ryder seems to be the only one self conscious about their inexperience, thinking everyone else knows what they're doing. Then it becomes evident that, no, everyone is making it up as they go along, they’re either better at covering it up or they’re giving up on bothering with that. It’s fantastic, it really reinforces the overall theme and atmosphere of the main story – which is “we tried to settle in Andromeda but oops shit went wrong, what the fuck do we do??”

FAST TRAVEL!!

THE NOMAD.

SAAAAAAAAAAAAM.

The overall atmosphere. The characters, the story, the design stuff – all of it supports that atmosphere of “oh shit what next” when Things Go Wrong. It really reinforces Ryder’s own arc of growing into a leadership role. Because when shit goes wrong, it’s Ryder who steps forward. Even though you have the option (much like every NPC ever) of going “FUCK WHAT NEXT” out of sheer panic. Or you can play it cool and pretend you know what you’re doing, like everyone else before Things Went Wrong.

Overall, I can’t wait to get to know the characters better. I adore Alec especially. I am gonna wind up being a huge Alec fangirl, I just know it.

I’m loving this game. I can’t wait until the full game is released. Zero regrets about preordering, all my fears have been laid to rest.

It’s gonna be awesome.

[geochic03]

Final Thoughts on FFXV

So, I finished the game a few days ago and needed an outlet for my thoughts and feelings because oh man did Chapter 14 bring the feels train fast and hard. To the point where I am giving PSA’s at work about it to my co workers who are playing the game.

 Before I start, I just want to say that I had been following the game development for a few years now and was undecided after playing the Platinum demo how much I was going to like the game.  I am a traditionalist when it comes to Final Fantasy games and when they change things to much I don’t like it (looking at you X-2).  So when I saw the battle system I was a little skeptical that I would like it.  But none the less I gave it a chance especially after all the hype and how well done the Brotherhood anime was.

 With that said, there a few things I need to get off my lady chest:

 - The throw away dialog and puns in this game were just everything. (What are you my mother?  Mums the word ahahaha)  And the animation in battles and while driving were so fantastic (Ie when your driving Gladio and Prompto start plugging their nose and getting mad at Noctis like he farted in the car.  Like omg lol that is such a bro thing I can’t even.)

 - I am fairly certain Regis somehow sabotaged the car to delay the journey long enough so they wouldn’t be anywhere near the Crown City when the NIff’s pulled their bull shit.  I mean Cid more or less implies it in the game and Regis doesn’t seem that stupid to not know it was a trap and wanted to save his son. (hence why the wedding was to be in Altissia)

 - How did Gladio get his orginal scars?  Did he get into a fight about cup of noodles defending their honor?  Also what the fuck happened when he went off those few days on his own.  I mean I have theories (see my post below about Gladio and the Cup of Noodles cult) but damn it I will riot in the streets if his DLC doesn’t explain it.

 - I really want to know more about the girl Galdio is seeing 10 years later.  I mean he is obviously smitten with her to bring her up to them the eve of their taking the city back.

 - Iris is queen.

 - Prompto’s heart belongs to Cindy.

 - Prompto’s heart also belongs to Noctis (I didn’t get Promptis until I played the game and my god do I ship it.  I ship it so hard.)

 - Is it ever explained why Cor is called Cor the Immortal?  Maybe his DLC will explain it but I imagine it’s because either he is really immortal or its a derogatory term used towards him because he always seems to miss the big battles?  I am thinking the later because he doesn’t seem to happy about being called that.

 - I feel like Noctis and Luna had this Romeo and Juliet thing going on for awhile.

 - I wish they went into their relationship more in the game…I mean obviously there was more to this engagement than just political reasons.  They obviously cared for each other.

 - The Chocobo side quests were everything in this game.  I mean they might be my favorite Chocobos in a final fantasy game of all time.

 - I may or may not have driven the Regalia in first person view so I could turn the camera directly on Ignis and just stare at that beautiful man’s face for hours.

 - “That’s it!  I’ve discovered a new receipe” will now become a trigger of mine.

 - Sorry Phichit from Yuri on Ice!! but Prompto Argentum is the new king of selfies.

 - Also sooooooo many butt shots in this game.  I mean come on Prompto….we get it you have a thing for butts…expecially Glaido’s butt.

 - Prompto really did take the best pictures.  I mean dude’s got a gift. (Also I was undecided if I was going to enjoy this feature in the game but my god if it was not my favorite thing to do out of all the guys special skills.  I loved to see what pictures Prompto took today)

 - Speaking of Prompto…all this time I thought his insecurities stemmed from being a ackward fat kid (can so relate to that) but nope, not at all.  Dude had the darkest back story of the game.  I mean after Chapter 13 I just wanted to bundle him up and protect him at all costs.

 - Also, apparently he was adopted as a baby but how did he know he was an MT?  Did he just make the connection while they were traveling or did he always know?  Or did Ardyn tell him?  So unclear.

 - In the beginning I kind of hated Noctis.  I thought he was just this emo trash kid who was sheltered in life and didn’t want to grow up.  But by the end of it all I was literally on my knees bowing to the almighty true king.  I mean jesus did he redeem himself in the end.

 - I’m not ok with the fact that Prompto never met Lunafreya or saw Pryna again.

 - I was more upset about Ignis going blind than I was about Luna getting stabbed.

 - Ignis being blind the rest of the game was worse than if they just killed him off.  It was so sad to play pretty much 4 chapters watching him struggle.

 - I am fairly sure Cid lived with Ignis during the 10 years Noct was gone.  Like Ignis took him in and took care of him while they were in Lestallum.  Iggy is such a stand up guy.

 - Ardyn just screamed stranger danger throughout the whole game.  I mean in Lestallum I was screaming at my tv for them to not go with him.  Like really that red convertible was literally a big white shady van.

 - Also I feel no sympathy for Ardyn at all.  He was a sick twisted mother fucker.  I mean he had the images of all his ‘kills’ hanging above the thrown.  That is a sick and twisted man-demon.

- However I do feel sympathy for Ravus.  Poor bastard loved Luna so much and was really the casualty of this shitty war between Lucis and Niffilheim.

 - The Final Fantasy call backs in this game we great (the soundtracks from old games, Wedge, Biggs, the Spira bank etc etc)

- Noctis sitting on the throne after defeating Ardyn killed me so much.  He was so strong and just accepted his fate.  Poor guy never had a chance for anything else.  God damn destiny.

 - Nothing in life has ever made me cry sobbing ugly tears like the camp fire scene during the credits.  I mean I was crying the minuet they were all sitting there silent not wanting to bring up the big white elephant in the room and then Noct just telling them he made peace with his fate and fucking Prompto just sobbing and god damn it even Galdio had tears in his eyes I just couldn’t take it.  It was too much.  I am still not over it and never will be.  I re-watched the scene again on Youtube a few times and I still ugly cry.  No scene in a video game has ever made me that emotional before.

 - The scene at the end with Luna and Noct I thought was nice but so sad.  Why couldn’t the six just grant them their lives back for being so pure and good?

 - Also, I am certain the chocobros lived.  I think the scene in the afterlife was just Ardyn hallucinating and Noct drawing on their bond to finish them off.  Otherwise why all the emphasis on rebuilding and Gladio making note of the structures being save able and the whole walk tall speech?  Noct was leaving the rebuilding process to them.

 - My ending head cannon would be Noct and Luna coming back and the chocobro’s meeting them on the steps of the Citadel and everyone reuniting and Noctis introducing her as his fiance and Luna healing Ignis’s eyes so that he can finally see dawn and everyone giving Gladio shit about the girl he’s been seeing and then teasing Prompto about pursuing Cindy for 10 years.

  In the end I got an epic bro road trip that turned into a runaway feels train that came crashing down hard.

 But I still loved the game anyways.

[isaacathom]

its time for me to yell

ooh fuck thems robots. this looks really nice. hyping me as fuck. loving this beat. oh my god they blueballed me what the fuck was that cut. daemon x machina...... nieeat.

ooh, xenoblades. wai- wait didnt they just release that a while ago. that yellow haired lady is VERY familiar. hold on. hold on whats happening. is this a sequel or dlc. those are characters from that recent xenoblades. oh, dlc, kickass.

reggiiiieeee hello. reggie we know what a swich is. reggie. Reggie. oh lets go.... they looks ok i guess. what if i just play like, pokemon go............. ok.

reggie can we see something like, Cool. reggie pls.  PLS SHOW

im ready maybe? am i ready? i dont - mario party. yea ok. thats fair. id probably play it if i had Friends. multi switch is kickass though. i do love that. shame i have No Friends. i do have some nostalgia for mario party though??? which is weird..... because.... ok yknow what it is. its because i have nostalgia for a mario party -esque game from my primary school computers. smth to do with dungeons and dragons. the volcano exploded.

seros???? SEROS???? am i being fucking called out. fire emblem?????? THREE HOUSES??? OH NO???? DONT FUCK ME AGAIN LIKE THIS.  DO NOT FUCK ME AGAIN LIKE WE DID WITH FATES.

Oh it looks fucking great though........ oh it looks fantastic. like it looks really good. the interactivity with filler units gives me uhhh dynasty warriors vibes, but in a good way.

ok so is three houses its NAME??? or was tat like, a Thing..... i hope its just the name and its a single ver game. not a fan of the split game thing.

idgaf about fortnite. i hope they all have fun. today? nice. thats fun.

hi reggie. reggie no. 10am is, what, 2 hours? 1 hour? i cant math, its 2am, be nice.

oh overcooked 2, cute. im into nindies. killer queen black? oh multiplayer stuff. lads. Lads im begging you. im shit at games. i HOLLOW KNIGHT FOR SWIIIITCH. kickass. i like that. i mean im shit at hollow knight but i Like That.  today??? today??????? TODAYYYYYYY!!!!! FUCK. FUCK ME. I WANT IT. YOU WHORES.

octopathhhhh. ooh, new demo. thats nice. i like those devs committment to iteration and improvement.

sizzle real, i see. its bouncing off me lads. i saw a minecraft rip off tho. paladins now? neat. i cant read 90% of these logos. oh thats twewy. i know that.

shinya- whomst are you. are you the new guy or am i getting confused. i dont.... think he was the new president.... no, wrong guy, ok.

SMASH NOW???? ALREADY?????? SO SOON?????? I THOUGHT ITD BE THE END GAME

nice cop out, sir. oh this is cute. show me! show me sir! shiny mario. kirby boy...... beautiful boy..... botw link, love him, pls. hi marth.  ALBW ZELDA!!!!!!!! ALBW ZELDA!!!!!!!!!!!!! A LINK BETWEEN FUCKING WORLDS ZELDA. IM BLESSED. NITNENDO! NINTENDO!!!!!!! NINTENDO IM SO GAY FOR ALBW ZELDA IM BLESSED. OH I LOVE HER. ILL STAY ON THAT POINT BECAUSE I ADORE ALBW ZELDA SO FUCKING MUCH IT HURTS.  I LOVE HER. SAKURAI YOU HAVE BLESSED ME THIS DAY. THANK YOU SIR. I AM BLESSED. I LOVE HER SO MUCH. i am confused that you didnt use botw one? not sure why. but i wont complain. i fucking adore albw zelda. i love her SO FUCKING MUCH. YALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY GIRLFRIEND!!!! IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

‘infinity war is the most amibitious crossover of all time’ nintendo: *cracks knuckles*

NEW???? oh. oh we’re going in depth? CAPPY. WEDDING OUTFIT. WHERES THE DRESS YOU COWARD. LET MARIO WHERE HIS DRESS. OH THE DETAILS.  FEMALE PIKACHU. I LOVE HER. I LOVE THIS. HHH. YES. midair charge? kick. heyy yuri lowenthal in my smash games. snake?? snake! snaaaake! im being pummeled but im loving it. pichu!!!! ZELDA!!!!!!! ZELDA. ZELDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ZELDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I ADORE MY GIRLFRIEND!!!!!!!!! im gay for zelda so bad

LEAF!!!!!!!!!!!! LEAF LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE HER! SHES HERE!!! she was removed from let’s go in favour of ???? but here she is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

do they wanna remind us advent children exists. three whole links..... my god.. MY BOY! KIRBY MY SON!!! hahahhh dev joke. oh streamline monado, kickass. oooh ganon mm. 12 whole voices..... oh yea pit. man this is hype as fuck. i love the DETAILS. I LOVE THE DETAILS!!! SO NICE!!!

this is delightful but i Will not sleep tonight. oh jeff...... wii fit is still here....... but i love her so its fine. oh this is SO MUCH. THEY KEEP GOING. IM NOT MAD IM JUST IN AWE. THEY DROWN ME IN THIS CONTENT. THEY REALLY WANT ME TO BUY THIS

BRAND NEW?????? DAISY!!!!!!!!!!!! DAISY!!!!! MY WIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY FUCKING WIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I FUCKING ADORE DAISY! YOU FUCKERS!!!!!!!!!!! MY WIFE IS HERE!!!!!!!!IM IN LOVE. IM DESPERATE

NEW!!!!!! Oh. i was excited for a sec but yea, inkling. i do love her. pls tell me she can have the splat 2 look too, i love that look... splat 2 inkiins? no? ih ok. 

SQUID SISTERS! MWAH!

holy shit it keeps going. they cant have time for animal crossing........... how can we have time. NINTENDOGS ASSIST TROPHY. NINTENDO DOGS.  oh delightful. oh this is content lads. oh my god i fucking Nut everytime i see zelda, oh my god...... yall dont understand......... how much i love her.............. my girlfriend. SPIRIT TRAIN!!!!!!! SPIRIT TRAIN!!!!! THEYVE ACKNOLWEGDED SPIRIT TRACKS. IM DYING. LADS. NITNENDO IS DIRECTLY CALLING ME OUT. THESE FUCKERS KNOW I LOVE ALBW AND SPIRIT TRACKS AND TEYVE GIVEN ME BOTH. LADS IM BEING CALLED OUT.

oh fuck me i need a fucking switch dont i.

oh my god it never ends..... my hips killing me. nintendo i came here for animal crossing. 

is that a camecube controller. IT IS. WHY. BUT WHY. I KNOW HATS COOL BUT WHY.

BEFORE WE GO. SORA FOR SWITCH????

come on..... give it to me..... im ready sakurai........ im ready...... im prepared. im open....... im o- uh? huh? is this star wars? oH MY GOD. oh damn. so ridley, ok. fucking nice. i dont like, feel anything about ridley, but fucking Nice. OH MAN. THERE HE IS. THERES THE BOY. OH MY GOD. A MADMAN. THE POWER.

just 4 fighters from the sex number nintendo, you can Do it. i know you wont but jsut Imagine that shit. just think about it.

anyway 2 mins left, yall fuckers got like, animal crossing. december 7th, nice. into it.

IS THAT IT??????????? WAS THAT IT???????? DAMMIT!!!!!! ANIMAL CROSSING???? doesnt exist.................. my depression.............

anyway i love zelda im fuckin deceased.......... i love her so much............................................... im deceased................ she slew me............ hhh

ok i need to sleep its fucking nearly 3am adios bitches <3

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

COMMANDER LILITH

THIS NEWS @ ME AND THE VINE COMP

LETS GOOOOOOOOO

BEST NEWS FIRST

IT’S SUPPOSEDLY FREE AND COMING OUT NOT THE 11TH BUT THE 9TH LIKE THIS MONTH THE 9TH LIKE IN 4 DAYS

I FEEL BAD FOR THE PEOPLE GOING TO E3 CAUSE NOW THEY CAN’T PLAY THIS DLC UNTIL THEY GET HOME, F IN CHAT FOR THE BOYS

HOLY SHIT THIS IS REAL OKAY

EVERYBODY STAY CALM

SANCTUARY IS UNDER SIEGE

TELL ME SOMETHING I DON’T KNOW, BABY

THE VAULT MAP HAS BEEN STOLEN

OH WE’RE OFFICIALLY CALLING IT THE VAULT MAP NOW, OKAY, CALYPSO TWINS CONFIRMED TO HAVE TAKEN OUR OLD KEY

YOU KNOW WHAT’S NOT CONFIRMED WHATEVER THE FUCK IS GOING ON WITH ALL THESE GODDAMN PLANTS

YOU GUYS REMEMBER THAT OLD CANCELED TPS DLC? OF COURSE YOU DO, THAT’S WHAT THEY ARE APPARENTLY USING AS A BASE FOR THIS ONE

REMEMBER THE “INFECTED” STATUS EFFECT? WELL, I’M ASSUMING THAT’S WHAT THE TOXIC GAS IS

“A DERANGED VILLAIN HELL-BENT ON RULING THE PLANET” SO WE’RE NOT FIGHTING THE CALYPSO TWINS?! SOMEONE UNDER THEM??? I ALMOST WANT TO BELIEVE IT’S SOMEONE ENTIRELY DIFFERENT- JUST SOME RANDOM ASSHOLE WHO WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD AND THE TWINS SHOW UP AT THE END OF THE DLC AND WIPE HIS ASS OFF THE MAP FOR US AND YOINK THE VAULT MAP THAT IS RIGHTFULLY OURS AWAY FROM UNDER US

NEW LEVEL CAP 80?? HOLY FUCK?????? AND WE CAN START PLAYING IMMEDIATELY AT LEVEL 30 OH MY GOD I COULD KISS WHOEVER DECIDED THAT WAS NECESSARY I LOVE YOU

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR OP LEVELS? AM I GONNA BOP IN WITH MY OP8 ZER0 AND END UP FIGHTING ENEMIES AT LEVEL 88 WHEN I FINALLY LEVEL UP??? WHEN MY GEAR IS LEVEL 80 (AS THAT’S WHAT OP8 DOES) BECAUSE OH MY SWEET JESUS I DON’T WANNA GRIND MY HIDE OF TERRA AGAIN AHHGGGGGG

okay im gonna take a breath now

we’re calm

we’re good. this is good, we’re okay, i have to type everything 5 times over so its coherent but you know what this is okay this is happening, we’re cool.

i have to be the bearer of bad news as well but i don’t know if those screencaps of the ship from bl3 are what we’re seeing here in the new dlc (as much as I want to be right lmao). the screencaps of the ship definitely seemed like a insect infestation, not a plant one, ya know?

THEY’RE TURNING THE CARS GAY

or at least like... Buttstallion themed... check out the little horseshoe emoticon in the back there

but it’s pride month, they totally knew what they were doing and the fact that pre-ordered copies of bl3 apparently get a buttstallion themed skin for their ...gear... guns..? iirc... that means we can have gay guns in bl3, too. gearbox is treating us so fucking right, thank you

anyway the location the car is in looks like the highlands or a hammerlock’s big game hunt-type area. mossy/grassy with boulders in the background.

it looks almost like uranus spawns in right at the start of the dlc! which is awesome, and now i understand why they boost you to 30 before you start.

im verrrryyyy interested in that shot of Sanctuary up in the sky there. you can see the drill, its surrounded by a cloud of dust, it looks like its falling to pieces. i also don’t know where exactly this screenshot takes place but my first thought was the eridium blight (because of the mountain in the back) but that wouldn’t match the sky at all. I then thought maybe the ruins of helios? but we would be able to see more rocks and shit around the edges. then i was all “maybe the highlands”? the rock would match as it has grass growing on top, and sanctuary is very close to overlook, so it’s definitely possible. im gonna say somewhere near the highlands, yeah. the WEP and Opportunity are both fairly near there and it does have some pretty mountainous areas... so. maybe the highlands.

it looks like the giant vines are reaching up towards sanctuary so i retract my previous statement. i don’t think that’s dust. i think they’re drilling away at the plants trying to grow up to it lol

“Shooting the Moon” makes me think this has something to do with Elpis (not a surprise, if you realize the dlc they’re basing this off of is an old TPS dlc called Luxy’s Space Adventure where a bunch of mutated plant people end up on the space-cruise ship) 

honestly i’m really fucking hoping they bring back the flamethrower for the final boss (elon musk’s..?)

an area where we can see exactly what this space-cruise ship was supposed to look like

we also know in the dlc that the disease was spread by some space pirates, so i don’t know if that’s going to be the case here (they board the cruise ship and start spreading disease). Loader bots are apparently ‘Hacked’ so it’s probably not Hyperion we’re going at again. I could see them throwing the space pirates at us, tho maybe changing the guys a little bit so it’s not too much like Captain Scarlett. 

there is this boss character and that logo on the bottom, possibly a logo for who we’re going to fight in the new dlc? Interestingly enough, she’s got the red and black color scheme, too. cough troy cough. god them having space pirate as a backstory would be fucking AWESOME

i have been going thru the concept art album here if you want to take a look for yourself and tbh

this pic got me thinking about that “Atlas ice cream shop” prompt the VA for lorelei released 🤔

anyway, moving on from old dlc to what’s new! because lord knows they must’ve changed a lot lol

the infected psychos on the title art

also, correct me if im wrong, but it looks like lily is standing in 2 places at once- flying sanctuary on the right and three horns divide on the left

anyway

uranus looks a lot more DAHL themed than i originally noticed, like yeah he looks like saturn, but check that color scheme. may be the work of the new baddies.

this logo may hold some importance, but i can’t recall ever seeing something like it before.

so this minimap

lucky me i extracted all the textures from bl2 a couple days ago

im very pleased to say this doesn’t look like any minimap we’ve been shown so far, although i did a very quick glance through, so if you guys recognize it, please tell me!!

i can’t believe they made the guns sparkly and gay. Thank you gearbox. fucking thank you.

the area sal is in reminds of that one place in frostburn canyon, but i doubt that’s actually where he is. likely a new area we haven’t discovered yet!!

lily

the background is uhhh disgusting, but it is giving me WEP vibes, with the windmill/lighthouse (wherever that area is where you find maya’s ECHO log) and the walls. though the texture of the ground is giving me hammerlock’s hunt vibes.

anyone know why her wings are giving off the digital pixel look angel’s did? like the digistruct vibe?

weird.

tina! she’s clearly playing a big part in this dlc. wondering if pickle and athena are also around. I don’t think this is sanctuary. the big wall in the back. perhaps where the vines are actually growing from below the mining ship?

would then pin this as somewhere near overlook.

brick! looks to be the same-ish area as tina (if the buildings have anything to say about it)

honestly the people in the ground is killing me lol. person on the left seems like some random civilian..? he’s just got pants and loafers on. maybe the cruise ship crashed on pandora and the pirates aboard are taking their changes lol

doubtful, though, considering the plan seems premeditated with the huge cloud of toxic gas and shit

now I’m just wondering if the reason the CoV psychos are wearing those respirator-like masks is because the twins showed up with them and were like “if you wear these ‘blessed masks’ when you go to fight the plant shit, you won’t die. yeah, we’re gods. join our cult lmao”.

im just really curious how this ties into the CoV. I imagine either the twins are working with the (new?) villain somehow, or they end up stealing the Vault Map away from us (and possibly killing the bad guy first) at the very end of the DLC. I do want to entertain the idea that they’re like “hey!!! we can help!!!” and then end up betraying us right at the end and toppling Sanctuary for good and taking the key.

alright, that’s all i’ve got. I’m gonna go scream into my pillows now until the 9th happens. 

btw, season 1 of vip stuff happens TOMORROW (the 6th!). hype!!!

edit:

lilith’s digistruct pack has a red accent on it now

im wondering if this is some sort of projection of Lily since her wings have the weird pixels...