#at that point just because of how cocoons gameplay is

[visualmemoryunit]

i think "i like final fantasy 13 i just think its gameplay is bad and overall its not very fun" is an incredibly pioneering take of mine.

[peachymilkshakes]

Fashion Dreamer, a review by a Style Boutique/Savvy/Girls Mode long time fan

I recently got the game and due to recent backlash of it I figured I'd write sort of a ramble review on it now that I've played through the initial tutorial phase and gotten to the meat of the game. I will most likely update my post once I got to the last Cocoon, so look out for that (or don't. Whichever floats your goat)

First a bit of a backstory. Back when I was a tiny little peach, I was gifted this game by my grandma called "Style Boutique" It was the first game on the NDS. I was immediately hooked. It had so many different brands of clothes to choose from, most of which I had memorized (And I still know them by heart if you asked me) not only that, but it also had a game function where if you finished the main story of entering and winning all the contests, then you could just keep running your own boutique, even on the Nintendo Network. You could sell your clothing to other players, and you could shop in other peoples stores too. I had MANY trips down to my local library just to connect to their wifi and download some clothes for my in game character to wear. I had many great memories with this game. Not only that, but I grew a fondness to the cast of characters. Namely, Grace, Dominic and Renée.

After a few years, Nintendo stopped supporting the game, and moved on to the newer title, Style Boutique 2. Which I didn't play at the time as my parents never got it for me. However, I played it a bit later when I had my own money, and to my dissapointment, the game wasn't the same as the first. This trend of the games getting worse kept going with the 3rd entry too. I played it for a while, but none of them managed to hook me as much as the first game did. I never quite understood why though.

Fast forward to now. Syn Sophia's newest title "Fashion Dreamer" is out on the switch. And I'm enjoying it quite a bit. I feel like the clothing selection is really cute and diverse, and the idea of the social media connections is also a really fun mechanic. I think I understand some of the critisisms. That the game loop gets boring after a while, and that they wished the clothing brands from Style Boutique came back. Personally though, I like this fresh new take on the fashion game genre. Something that Syn Sophia definately popularised. And although I can feel this getting boring, I really enjoy styling my character, and treating the game as nothing more than what it is meant to be: a digital paper doll.

Is it worth 50 euros though? Hm, It depends on what you think this game is worth. I do think it would be worth it once the DLCs hit. That said, many game companies have been doing this whole release an unfinished game spiel and I could write an entire book about how much I hate how nintendo treated animal crossing and splatoon just to prove this point but I think you can make your own conclusion there.

The game misses reoccurring characters like Grace, or at least a more tangible way to play. It doesn't need to be exactly like Style Boutique. Not in the slightest. It would be nice if we had at least something to make progress on besides the gameplay loop that we have going on right now.

I think this game deserves critisism. However, I'm also not going to pretend that this game is a pile of hot garbage. Because it's just not. It's a solid game which I really would reccomend you play if you love dressing little characters.

Verdict after the tutorial, not more than 5 hours in: the game is fun and refreshing. I like where Syn Sophia is going. However, I miss the first Style Boutique. (Which is perhaps nostalgia talking to me) 6.5/10

[lets-raise-chao]

Let's Raise Chao Together!

Welcome to the community chao garden! All chao attributes are decided via suggestions and polls.

Garden Residents || About Chao (via Chao Island) || Mod's Blog

If you have any questions or suggestions, please send this blog an ask.

In the event of a tie, unless otherwise stated, the result will be chosen by rolling a random number.

If these posts keep showing up in your Tumblr searches and you don't want to see them, blacklist the tag #let's raise chao.

More info under the cut.

Chao Attributes

After a newborn chao is hatched, I'll ask for name suggestions, and run a poll based on the replies to that post and any suggestions sent via the ask box. These will not change post-reincarnation. I'll also run a poll to determine each chao's pronouns.

Chao will not be mistreated on purpose (except for hatching via throwing because it's funny). I will also use a variety of characters to raise each chao, mostly depending on its alignment.

Alignment and first evolution will be determined upon hatching and again after reincarnation. Second evolution will be determined after the chao cocoons and becomes an adult.

Chao will be raised to max level in each incarnation. Prior to first evolution, they will be raised to at least level 20 in their intended primary stat, 0 in the opposite stat (unless affected by animals), and at least level 10 in all others. Chao whose primary stat is intended to be stamina will be raised to at least level 10 in all stats.

For animals, to simplify the process a bit, we'll first vote what animal group to give them (chaos drives only, swim, fly, run, power, random, mythical, and ghost). Then, if one of the animal groups wins, we'll vote on what specific animals to give them, either 10 of just one, 5 of two, or 3 of each. I'll alternate which ones I give them so they can have a variety of traits. Afterwards, I'll balance their stats to the desired influence and minimum levels using chaos drives.

When all of our current babies and young adults have reached a stable point (waiting for first evolution or reincarnation), we'll vote on whether to add a new chao egg to our garden via either breeding or the black market.

Gameplay

Primary gameplay will take place on the PC version of Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. I am playing with the Chao World Extended Mod, and some other miscellaneous ones. I also have access to various other tools, such as Krzys2's Chao Editor, but cheating/editing will be minimal for more authentic gameplay. Basically, I will only use it to view chao stats, speed up the garden's timescale (if needed), and correct mistakes.

I have not yet decided how we should handle races, karate, and lessons; I'm open to suggestions on that.

Relevant Mods Currently Enabled

Chao World Extended

HD Chao Textures

Improved Waypoints (fixes problem with chao not using whole garden)

Character Select Plus (allows for playing as any character in the garden)

Random Race Alignment (randomizes chao race opponents' alignments in some races)

CWE Settings Currently Enabled

Day/Night cycle

Gardens won't affect alignment

Egg colour will match the chao inside it

Baby chao can be a mix of their parents' colours instead of one or the other

Newborn chao can have varying shades of colour (for more variety in monotone chao)

Stronger chao drive + chao stat multiplier (for faster leveling)

More chao animation + expression + sound

Win jewel chao in jewel race (so we have to beat races to get jewel eggs)

Black Market debug menu (so we can obtain all egg colours)

(Not all of them listed because there are a lot, these are just ones I thought people might want to know about)

[aoife-asturmaux]

Aoife has a very similar skin tone to my wol and I was wondering if you have any good shader recommendations that don’t wash out darker skin tones? Thank you if you take the time to answer!

Thanks for asking!! I actually used to have a recs post but I deleted it after the gshade drama earlier this year. Might as well make a new one!

First, i should mention that a lot of shaders are very dependent on the lighting and environment! Some only look good on dark-skinned characters at night or indoors, or in conjunction with the gpose lighting/brightness slider to get the tone you want juuust right.

With that caveat out of the way, here are some favorites!

(note for people reading this: this post was from before the Dawntrail graphics update and some of these shader recs may not still apply. I will make a new post later)

Ipsusu Screenie Amber

Ipsusu's shaders are primarily gameplay-focused, but their "screenie" shaders have all the fancy bells and whistles of other screencap-focused presets. I'm particularly fond of the Amber variant, because it adds a really nice warm tone and looks great in broad daylight or bright places. There are a number of variants (Melon and Crystal are also quite good!) so try out the ones that look best on your wol!

Glace Clear Bloom B

This one can have mixed results (beware bright sunlight!) but works pretty well outdoors if you use the sun as your rimlight and shine a gpose point light on your wol.

Maya Sharlayan Portrait was tuned specifically for use in Sharlayan during the day, and while it works pretty well in other waterside locations I'd limit its use to outdoors/daytime. Maya Purple Cocoon has a bunch of shaders tuned specifically for darker-skinned wols, and while I don't use them very often they look pretty good with aoife. definitely worth looking into!

I'm still playing around and experimenting to find shaders that work best with aoife (and some don't work as well as advertised >_>) but definitely play around with different lighting environments and light setups. Shaders that wash your wol out in the daytime might look fabulous at night!

---

I'm going to put the remaining recs under a cut bc i actually don't want to give the person who made these any more free advertising. buuuut if your shaders came from a previous gshade install, you will have these already, and it would be remiss of me not to at least mention them when i use them every day.

Simple & Clean 2 in the Natural folder is my go-to for... just about everything, honestly. I don't always use it in daylight because it does tend to wash out skin, but at night or indoors it's phenomenal.

I also get a lot of use out of Hanami in the same folder, but that one's way more hit or miss w/ skintones.

Nami is another shader in the Natural folder that works pretty well with dark skin. It adds an overall cool tone (works great in Ishgard!) as opposed to simple & clean 2's warm tone.

Traveler can be tough to use because of its high contrast, but in certain environments it's unbelievable how good it looks. I use it most often on the moon and in ultima thule.

Vanilla Natural is in the Final Fantasy XIV folder in [Universe], and it's just what it says on the tin: all it adds is a little more saturation and a stronger depth of field blur, but otherwise there aren't any fancy effects. There's also a version with just the blur and no additional saturation. This is a great shader for folks who like the look of the vanilla game (or want to preserve their wol's skintone ;))

and that's that about that!

[sideeffx]

Welcome to my thoughts on FF13

Final Fantasy is dear to my heart much like everyone else’s but I find me and a small segment of other people appreciate it for traits that the wider gaming sphere is not focused on. Which isn’t fine, because people are liking things the wrong way. Anyways I want to talk about Final Fantasy 13, the infamous entry in the series and how it’s both not that bad but also pretty mid. A lot of people were critical of it, but I’m coming at it from a place of love. Because it’s unironically one of my favorite entries, but I think it makes a few missteps that prevented it from being great. Though I don’t think the game is the proverbial satan its made out to be (that’s 15). Beware of spoilers for a 10+ year old game I suppose.Also this is gonna be rambling instead of a clean structured review.

I’m sure if you’re reading this you know the gist of the FF13 story, the Fal’cie, glorified as inhuman protectors use humans they’ve branded called L’cie to carry out nebulous missions for them called Focuses. The entire question of fate vs shaping your own destiny comes up and the game works in favor of changing one’s destiny. I think the story is actually *gasp* good. But it could’ve been better

FF is a video game first and foremost, so it’s important for gameplay/story integration to be there. I think, a lot of the problem came from the player’s inability to care about the world as it stood because you don’t really much interact with it. I suppose then, my critiques aren’t with the story writing but how the game is structured to present that writing to you. Before I explain my complaints, let me dig into what I felt like the central themes. 

Nature vs Technology, Destiny vs Autonomy, and touching on colonization. The people of Cocoon live in shell that literally floats above Gran Pulse. The game making the point that its creation was predicated on stealing natural resources from Pulse’s inhabitants to give us a technologically advanced city that is light years ahead of everything else. Those who live in Cocoon are fed propaganda that Gran Pulse is a hellish and lawless place that they couldn’t hope to survive on, these sentiments are fueled by the war of transgression that saw Pulse’s inhabitants attempting to “invade” Cocoon. 

Of course, we could talk about the behind the scenes manipulations of all the Fal’cie involved here. Where Cocoon is really a city created to harvest human souls and thus it’s inevitable fate is to crash into Pulse and bring millions of people with it. I think the concept here is interesting, on the basis that the supposed utopian society Cocoon lives in is actually dystopian due to this revelation. However it’s not something that comes out of left field, rather the people are being put in boiling water to see how much their ignorance will win out. Case in point, the “Purge,” the most on the nose metaphor for ethnic cleansing you could probably ever see. Where those believed to be tainted by the lands of Gran Pulse are cast out of Cocoon by the Fal’cie and forced to live in the land viewed as backwards and evil.

In a way I see FF13 as a bit of a take on FF7′s story conventions where it heavily critiques capitalism but comes at it from an angle that FF7 didn’t, where it factors the exploitation of various ethnic groups heavily contributing to a nation’s wealth into the mix. As history has shown, a country doesn’t rapidly evolve based on its own merit. Because the enormous consumption of natural resources inevitably comes from somewhere else, otherwise it wouldn’t be able to sustain itself. Too bad the game doesn’t fully want to commit to any of this! 

My problem with 13 is the same problem I had with 7 but like, worse. While 7 had the entire midgar arc before it hit you square in the face with the whole JENOVA plotline and Sephiroth’s reveal, 13 kind of just veers wildly off course immediately and its allusions to the Pulse vs Cocoon conflict are tangential at best. While I argue the themes are obvious given a bit of critical thinking, I can concede that you can’t make a gamer do the work if you don’t give them a decent hook to be interested in the first place. For better or for worse 13 is a very character focused game where it places their struggles at the forefront and thus sculpts the bigger picture around that. 

Your characters are fugitives, perpetually on the run due to their branding as L’cie and the game reflects that by never really letting you sit and catch your breath. Everything is a point A to point B hallway, you can never really veer off course, and there are no towns to stop at. FF has always been at the least, semi linear, not favoring an open ended world where the player is meant to explore every single facet of it. But 13 forgets that the reason many FF games don’t feel linear is because they do their best to obfuscate it at every turn. Towns are always an important facet, where you can socialize with NPCs if you so choose and just generally recharge before the next batch of ingame events. The dungeons are interesting puzzles you’re asked to solve and thus take your brainpower away from thinking about how you ran straight to the place. And generally there are just personal events you can catch between characters where they’re just, talking. 

Not to mention the battle system itself, while interesting on its face was a bit of a flawed way to take us fully away from the turn based ATB days and give us something in the same vein, but different. Paradigm shifting and the various roles turned combat into an interesting puzzle at times, but it quickly denigrated into being solved extremely quickly. It doesn’t help that the game hand holds you aggressively for a gigantic portion of the story. Your party is fixed, Lightning can’t be removed from it, and their general roles are spoonfed to you. Lightning is a mixed attacker, Snow is a tank, Vanille is your dual Healer/Debuffer, Hope is a healer/buffer, Sazh is an offensive buffer, and Fang is an offensive debuffer. Eventually they all get the opportunity to act out of these assigned roles as the crystarium unlocks. But I felt as if it was too little too late, as by that time players are much too comfortable investing in their presets rather than veering off course. 

I think this was just a general symptom of the trends at the time though. Nowadays, gaming difficulty is opening up as a talking point with relation to accessibility, but so much of the backlash to “easy” games (and thus the rise of Dark Souls’s niche) was that mainstream gaming made you feel kind of stupid. There wasn’t that same sense of freedom that was in the 2000s, because players could easily get confused and frustrated with the games of old that plopped you in the world and expected you to figure things out yourself. Devs in response overcorrected and treated the player as if they were children who just learned how to walk. 13 as a result didn’t bring that level of customization you expect from FF into the mix until you had already formed a solid opinion on its battle system.  

I think in this sense, the gameplay/story integration is extremely poor and one of the reasons 13 got so much hate, but wasn’t properly identified by gamers because we were kind of in the midst of an alt right pressure cooker that years later led to gamergate. Case in point being that the biggest critique of the game was Lightning being protagonist, Vanille being found to be annoying, basically a parade of misogynistic backlash. Gaming was only just beginning to open up to the wider public when it was previously a “male nerd” thing and thus gamers were not exactly ready to receive a female cast that was so highly focused on in Lightning, Fang and Vanille. Perhaps if 13′s premise was given to us now it’d be received warmly and seen as breaking barriers, but in the 2010s, Lightning was compared to a female Cloud in a derogatory way, Vanille’s accent was described as “fake” by some people (despite that not being true whatsoever) and just generally grating due to her blinding positivity, and Fang was subject to endless lesbophobic jokes. There were a lot of genuine critiques of the game as well, because the backlash was once again overwhelming. But I’m not sure whether they were drowned out or whether Square heard them properly, given how the sequels to 13 kind of veered off course into their own things. 

I guess, what I can take from this altogether. Is that 13 had a great base that could’ve used gameplay systems to better integrate you in the world itself and failed at that. Despite it all, the game is about a 7 out of 10 at worst, and the fanbase will not let this go and act like it’s a stain on the franchise. In many ways I think people just weren’t ready for what it brought to the table and SE failed in delivering the truly interesting parts of it well. I want to say that I hope they learned their lesson, but 15 was a development disaster and I think 16 is the first time I see them not do anything new with the emerging trends and instead play into them without any of the original spin I’d come to expect from FF. In this vein all I can hope for is another studio doing what SE couldn’t and giving us a truly thought provoking feminist masterpiece. Oh well.

.

[eljesala]

Little Nightmares 2

So I have watched gameplays and here’s what I’ve gathered on what happened specifically on the ending.

S P O I L E R S

Many fans are understandably upset with the “betrayal” Six, as so they deemed, had done to Mono, dropping him off a cliff after catching him(where as she constantly did throughout the whole game, prompting Mono and the player most especially, to trust Six) but what they don’t understand is why she did said betrayal.

After this, it puts the pieces together.

Six noticed Mono doesn’t have the bag on his face hence while she caught him, she’s able to distinguish his features resembling the Thin Man. She held him for 5 seconds, clearly processing over the discovery whilst feeling hesitant, and let’s him go as she went on to the exit.

Mono is trapped within the tower, which reveals to be like some sort of a cocoon and he grows up to later reveal that he is indeed the Thin Man.

When Six escaped, she encountered her shadow persona, presumably her evil self who glances over the poster of the Maw. Before that, when she came out of the television, you could see Six holding her arms, clearly from regret till she later stood strong, determined to end the cycle. At the same time, she’s met with great hunger.

This explained a lot of reasons why the Thin Man pursued for Six instead of Mono, he’s trying to separate the two so Mono wouldn’t experience the betrayal and end the loophole. The Thin Man is unaware of what Six perceived of him and doesn’t know why she betrayed him. Since the player is controlling Mono, the perspective made both the players and Mono assume Six is just using them.

Mono also removed his bag, he’s probably the first protagonist to unveil himself showing his true intentions and personality. While Six, despite being bare from her yellow raincoat, her eyes are still shrouded from her bangs, still keeping her mysterious.

Mono/Thin Man and Six had their intentions and because of how they perceived of the other at the end as enemies is what brought them to this constant loophole.

Amidst the repetition of the timeline, they lost their memories at some point that made them wary and confused but agile on their journey.

[tiktaaliker]

@m1sosazai ok ok ok SO i guess this rant is more about pokemon evolution in the darwin sense of the word but i have to talk about that first before getting into the domestication stuff (or i guess i don't have to but i want to)

putting it under a readmore because it really is horrifically long i am so sorry

to start it off, one thing ive thought about a lot is how a pokemon evolving compares to irl evolution. and surface level? not a ton of similarities other than "one creature becomes different creature." like, normally, evolution is VERY gradual, takes place over an EXTREMELY long time, and affects the species over many generations rather than the individual. Pokemon evolution, on the other hand, happens all at once, is instantaneous, and affects the individual and not the species (especially since all pokemon hatching from eggs are base evos? VERY wack when trying to compare it to macroevoltuion)

AND speaking of eggs, egg groups???? VERY wack. usually in an evolutionary sense a split into a different species is defined by members of the different populations no longer being able to have fertile offspring (not gonna get into the weird world of hybrids here because that would make this even LONGER, so im just going to. completely ignore stuff like wolfdogs and domestic/wildcat hybrids for now lol). so, like, if you're trying to fit pokemon into our normal taxonomic system, all pokemon sharing egg groups can TECHNICALLY be considered different breeds of the same species. like dog breeds? rattata is to copporajah as a chiuahua is to a Samoyed. and then you add in the fact that a lot of pokemon have double egg groups and then it gets even MORE complicated and weird

so, yeah, sure, pokemon evolution and irl evolution aren't one to one analogs, and same with pokemon species and animal. seems pretty obvious, looking at it. but then the question is, what IS evolution?

one thing i considered is that it's something akin to metamorphasis in insects and amphibians. and in some aspects, sure yeah it works! there's even some pokemon where the middle evolution is a cocoon. there's some pokemon that are amphibians with a tadpole/larval stage!! but the main thing that makes it kinda weird is that, with the exception of the handful of baby stage pokemon? you can throw the first or second stage into the daycare and still get an egg. one of the biggest things about having larval stages and undergoing metamorphosis is that reproduction isnt possible until the final stage!! like for bugs especially that is the entire point.

ALSO, there's the fact that a pokemon's evolution is STILL a different pokemon than the previous stages. a bullfrog tadpole is still a bullfrog, and a monarch butterfly caterpillar is still a monarch butterfly, but a weedle is not a beedril. im mostly basing this on the fact that later stage pokemon can learn different moves/can get different abilities after evolving, and even get different typing. i guess you COULD argue that a line of pokemon are technically all still the same species of pokemon a la caterpillar and butterfly, and the moves/abilities are just the result of form begetting function, but that's not as fun for me in this fantasy creature scenario so i am opting to ignore that point. so while i like the comparison superficially im not gonna just accept it at face value. there is TOTALLY more going on here.

so, my theory is that its sort of a strange mix of darwinian evolution and larval stages. it's the mechanics of larval stages with the end result being more similar to irl evolution. i think that, both genetically and physically, pokemon are far more malleable than real animals. something i also think is interesting that plays into all this is the fact that pokemon usually evolve via "experience" and "levels," which is basic in a gameplay sense but biologically? absolutely FASCINATING to me. this is already really long and i havent even gotten to what i really wanted to talk about so ill keep this short but i think pokemon are beings with EXTREMELY high amounts of potential energy, and can all somehow harvest energy released by defeating other pokemon, convert it into biomass to become stronger, and can sometimes use that energy to trigger evolution. but that's probably something i should save for a different multi-paragraph ramble in the future lol

and THEN there is actual literal macroevolution happening in pokemon that we can directly see the results of. regional variants!! pokemon that have different typing and appearances and sometimes even evolutions that change in different regions!! and SHELLOS MY FRIEND MY BELOVED SHELLOS. there is direct and stated evidence that populations of pokemon CAN undergo macroevolution. this is a canon thing that happens.

but even then, it occurs WAY faster and WAY more dramatically than how it would occur naturally. like there's some that could be argued mightve happened after a split a very long time ago (aka all the alolan variants, island ecosystems ARE fantastically good at isolating populations after all), but then we have the hisuian forms. so, the hisui region in legends arceus is roughly analogous to meiji era japan (if i recall correctly??) so ill be operating under the assumption that the game takes place sometime between 1870 to 1900. also fun fact because i literally just realized this, the origin of the species was older than the meiji era. the more you know.

ANYWAYS, i would like to talk about sneasel. im focusing on that line in particular both due to the connection to hisui/sinnoh (weavile being introduced in gen IV) and the fact that it's a new evolution INSTEAD of a modern evolution. so, for a lot of pokemon, its not exactly clear where they ACTUALLY originated from; it can't always be assumed that the region where we first see them is where they're ACTUALLY from, like with yungoos being stated to "imported from another region" into alola. so with the other hisuian forms (especially pokemon that can't be found normally in dpp), it's plausible to think that MAYBE these are much older offshoots of pokemon that died out entirely and no longer occupy the region, like with the slugma line, or even the qwilfish line, since it's plausible that after a while after hisuian qwilfish died out, regular qwilfish might've just migrated from somewhere else to the waters around iron island and filled in the nice again. or its like the zoura and basculin lines, which are both. pretty much already dead. or with ursaluna and kleavor, its that the conditions they required to evolve don't really happen anymore. i could go into a whole OTHER rant about electode but im already getting off topic enough

ANYWAYS. sneasel. i believe that of all the regional forms sneaseler is the wildest in terms of implications. first of all, TWO new types, fighting and poison? every other hisuian pokemon other than the zoura line have at least 1 shared typing from the other forms. and unlike kleavor, which evolves ALONGSIDE scizor, sneasel evolves into sneaseler INSTEAD of weavile. a hisuian sneasel cannot evolve into a weavile. so what happened??? what i am trying to imply is that maybe hisuian sneasel came BEFORE the modern dark/ice senasel, and evolved in the darwinian sense to fill a different niche. hisuan sneasel is implied to be a more direct hunter, while the typical sneasel is infamous for stealing other pokemon's eggs. additionally, im basing on hisuian sneasel coming first on the fact that it's REALLY unlikely for a species to re-evolve a trait that was previously lost.

considering that hisuian sneasel and sneasler were around as recently as the 1900s, that's like. a relatively VERY short time for something that major to change. im guessing that sneasel got REALLY close to complete extinction but eventually bounced back as the modern form via a bottleneck situation, but that still seems like a very short time for something that major to happen? so like. to try to sum my thoughts up quickly because i am becoming hyper aware of how LONG this is getting holy SHIT, something about the nature of pokemon as a whole allows them to evolve in a darwinian sense MUCH faster than in real life; since just being in a region can change a pokemon's evolution, its possible that maybe outside conditions can actively cause mutations in the egg, allowing a population to adapt faster and more efficiently to their environment?

and so, FINALLY, i can actually talk about domestication. the whole point of this rant in the first place????? whoops.

in real life, domestication is a VERY long, VERY arduous process. it's pretty much a type of targeted evolution. it's usually either a very deliberate process in terms of selectively breeding for desirable traits, like with a dog's temperament or a sheep's wool production. its NOT something that can be done quickly, and there has to be a trait to select for in the first place. there are also some cases of self-domestication, where the animal directly benefits from being comfortable around humans. for example, domestic cats and house mice are both self-domesticated.

my theory is that, in the modern day, EVERY pokemon is technically domesticated.

so, here's some of my reasoning; for one, you can't just go outside and grab a raccoon from your yard and expect it to act like a pet. it's not a domesticated animal, its WILD. on the other hand, you CAN grab a cat or pigeon off the city street and you have a chance of taming it down if you work at it enough. they're not wild, just feral. in the same reasoning, a wolf is gonna be WAY more dangerous to be around than a stray dog, and a wolfdog (i know i said i was going to ignore those but shhhh its my rant i can pick and choose what i discuss in too much depth) is going to have a SIGNIFICANTLY different demeanor than a dog.

in the modern pokemon games, however, you can just catch whatever pokemon you want and you can pet it and dress it in funny hats. you can catch a literal dragon and like 5 minutes later PLAY FETCH WITH IT. additionally, you, the trainer, are never directly attacked by wild pokemon. you have to fight them, but only with your own pokemon. when you run out of pokemon, you are able to flee and get to a pokecenter relatively unharmed!!! no matter where you were!!!

in hisui, on the other hand? these pokemon are actively trying to kill you. most pokemon in the game, when they see you , will either run away or just start swinging. and, yeah, you can catch them, and can use them in battle, but there's a few things different; there's no set turn order, with each pokemon going once per round. you just gotta hope you're fast enough to get a hit or two in. there are NO double battles. the only time you fight more than one pokemon are with diamond/pearl clan, who don't use pokeballs; i like to think that they don't actually directly command their pokemon in these battles, maybe they give a few but its mostly just the pokemon doing their own thing. and in those, you only get one pokemon at a time. this, along with akari/rei's trouble with pikachu not listening, implies that it's typical for a trainer to not have as much... i woudn't call it control, that sounds too harsh, but i think its more like the trainer and pokemon don't have as much immediate understanding on how the whole battle thing is supposed to work, i guess.

so at some point between the time of legends: arceus and modern times, pokemon as a whole became domesticated. i think it's reasonable to think this something that COULD happen in that span of time, since i already explained here my thoughts on how pokemon can undergo change much quicker and at a much larger scale than irl animals.

as to how it happened? for one, i feel like the whole thing the diamond and pearl clans are doing with both nobles and just the pokemon they partner with is like. a perfect example of domestication. like they are probably more likely to keep pokemon that do well with humans around their settlements, and just like. idk i feel like whole noble thing could end up with domestication even if its completely accidental. like im pretty sure the ride pokemon in particular are probably self-domesticated at LEAST.

but ok, my WILDEST theory as to why even in legends you can catch a pokemon that wants to rip your arms off and five minutes later chill out with your new buddy? and how pokemon as a whole went from being potentially deadly to a mild inconvenience while traveling between towns? pokeballs. it was pokeballs.

so, like, i think catching a pokemon in a pokeball is kinda similar to evolution in pokemon, in that the energy involved in the process allows for rapid and dramatic change. like, ok, a big motif with evolution? the pokemon is shrouded by a glowing bright light. what happens to a pokemon when it's caught? there's a bright light before it enters the pokeball. its definitely WAY less of that energy than with evolution, but i think it's probably VERY similar. so pretty much part of the whole appeal with pokeballs is that it speeds up the domestication process in the same way evolution speeds up... evolution. it's the pokemon universe's equivalence of selectively breeding wolves to make a dog (and falling into my previously proposed theory of an individual pokmeon acting almost like a species in terms of evolution)

and then, in legends arceus, you're expected to catch a LOT of pokemon. you're probably going to catch multiple of most of the pokemon. and you're ALSO gonna be releasing these pokemon. those are no longer wild pokemon, they're feral, and mixing in with the rest of the population. over time, this mass catching and releasing for research ends up adding a LARGE amount of domestic pokemon to the wild. with pokemon being so adaptable, its possible that these pokemon pass their better temperament towards humans onto their offspring, and now there are pokemon that are more domestic without ever being caught, and all this compounds over several generations until pokemon are no longer trying to murder every person they make eye contact with.

ok hm i think all that might sound a bit colder than i wanted it to? im mostly just having a moment about how being a pokemon trainer is inherently an act of love and trust going both ways. you have to trust your pokemon! your pokemon has to trust you! and a pokeball is a symbol of that trust and also the result of people trying to form a bond with these strange creatures!!!! and i just think that it would be really, REALLY cool if, the pla protag's effort to make people trust pokemon more is also causing pokemon to trust people more!!!! it goes BOTH WAYS.......

ok ok ok and as a final note, my thoughts on starter pokemon!! i think they were the earliest attempts at domesticating pokemon, and the process was a lot more similar to irl domestication rather than the pokeball theory. I like to think that maybe the Cyndaquil at least was captive bred (its kinda a mouse and kinda a ferret and BOTH of those are domesticated animals). the Oshawott is a bit iffy, but based on the final evolution im guessing it was chosen specifically for battle prowess. ROWLET tho. ROWLET. IT'S FALCONRY. IT'S FALCONRY!!!!

falconry is a REALLY old practice that i find EXTREMELY fascinating because. yeah those are still completely wild animals even today pretty much every falconry raptor is going to be wild caught. but falconry is also a thing of trust and understanding the bird's wants and needs and!!! it just fits SO well with the themes of pokemon!!! literally the whole reason why i started thinking about pokemon domesticity so much was because i could NOT stop thinking about decidueye falconry ever since the starters for legends arceus was revealed.

EDIT because i forgot to mention!! so i think that with the starters, by modern times they're all 100 percent completely domesticated to the point of no longer naturally being found in the wild. sure, youll find some wild ones sometimes, but theyre gonna be random, small clumps of pokemon probably released by a trainer that was breeding them. like feral cat colonies. typically you're only gonna be finding a starter from a pokemon professor, or a breeder specifically focusing on starters. they used to have wild populations in the wild (ie sinnoh starters found the wild in legends arceus) but all eventually just. stopped existing in the wild for some reason or another?

anyways thank you for coming to my ted talk

[actualbird]

nobody asked but here are my personal top five pat gill videos | a 2.1k word long post where i rank and review pat gill’s videos for just way too long.

Right around the tail end of April, 2020, I fell into the rabbit hole of my current obsession; Polygon Dot Com Video Content. As a consequence of this was being introduced to the phenomenon of Pat Gill. A dire consequence of that consequence was me slowly, deeply, irrevocably, finding myself attracted to this marionette of a man. So, I enjoy his content and I think he’s hot and that combined with the fact that some of my friends bully me over that latter fact has inspired me to do this: rank my personal favorite Pat Gill videos in a post that’s entirely too long.

Before I get straight into the rankings, I need to explain my process. 

First, I needed to narrow my scope. Polygon has a lot of videos. Polygon has a lot of videos with Pat Gill in them. If I didn’t narrow my scope, I would either go bonkers yonkers or have a list that would be kilometric in length and thus miss the entire point of ranking altogether. So, for my sanity, I am excluding any videos that are a part of a Polygon video series. This means no Overboard, no Gill and Gilbert, no Video Game Theatre, etc. If I included these, I would cry. I do not want to cry over Polygon Dot Com Video Producer Pat Gill.

Second, I need a criteria. If I just ranked videos with no system, I would find myself endlessly rearranging my list based on whatever thought comes out on top in my mind at the given moment. I am a disorganized person, so I need rules. I have decided that I will rank Pat Gill videos using the EEEH criteria. 

Entertainment. Do I smile, watching the video? Do I chortle? Am I filled with the embarrassing urge to show this video to my sister and derive glee from her laughing at the exact same moment I laughed? Entertainment is key.

Education. Did I come out of this video knowing something I originally did not know? More importantly, was I engaged in the learning process? I come from a family of teachers, so I have high standards when it comes to education. If I am to learn, I must learn well.

Exaltation. This is a bit of an oddball criteria, but it is important to me. The word “exalted” is defined as “elevated in rank, character, or status.” This criteria refers to how good it is at exalting, elevating, pulling me out of a depressive episode. That is to say I’ve been in a depressive episode for the past month and whether or not the video made me stop crying and brush my teeth is essential. Polygon video content has been integral to my serotonin production lately, and thus the video’s ability of acting as an audiovisual antidepressant for me factors into the rankings.

[BONUS POINTS] Hotness. How Hot Is Pat Gill In It? I felt bad, morally, ranking videos based on how good looking I thought Pat Gill was in it---because beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and all that, and people don’t exist to be beautiful, they just are, and I agree---so I’m relegating this criteria as a bonus point. Standard is 0, because he’s always hot in my mind, but he gets plus points if he is exemplary in the hotness department.

The maximum score for each of these criteria is 5 points, making the perfect score a 15, but because of the bonus points, a 20 is, hypothetically, possible. 

With that out of the way, let me dive right into it. 

5. The fastest interview ever with Ben Schwartz from Sonic the Hedgehog

Entertainment: 5 Education: 2 Exaltation: 2 Hotness: +2 Total Score: 11

Pat Gill is a good interviewer, he’s engaging and fun and keeps the interview interesting, but this interview is particularly special because it seems that, and let me quote Youtube user AudreyN who left a comment on this video stating “ben schwartz consumed all seven chaos emeralds prior to this interview.” Pat Gill and Ben Schwartz’s dynamic is amazing, and by “dynamic” I do mean “Ben Schwartz absolutely just fucking dunking on Pat Gill for 14 entire minutes.” and it is glorious.

For Entertainment this scores a solid 5. Quite honestly the funniest interview I’ve ever watched in my entire life. Just the sheer beauty in the exchange [Pat] “You would use Sonic’s power to gaslight me?” [Ben] “Just you.” In terms of Education, I guess I did learn a bunch of things about the Sonic movie that I didn’t know before, but the avenue by which it was portrayed in was not exactly the most engaging, more like I was absorbing it via watching two experts discuss on a webinar. I would have given just 1 point to Education but I made it 2 because of the wonderful knowledge that Pat Gill can draw a pretty good Sonic in a few seconds. When it comes to Exaltation, I must admit that while this video got quite a few laughs out of me, it didn’t make me want to get out of bed and take a shower. 

BONUS: Pat is +2 hot in it. His short hair makes him look very handsome. He’s a spiffy boy, in this video. Very, very good.  

4. Pat Will Not Tweet at Nintendo This Week Because He is Resting at Home — PLEASE RETWEET, Episode 12 

Entertainment: 5 Education: 0 Exaltation: 5 Hotness: +1 Total Score: 11

I know I’m breaking a rule I set for myself a few paragraphs earlier by including an episode of Please Retweet, which counts as a video series, but this is my post and I can do whatever I want. More importantly, this video is so fucking funny to me, it feels like it would be a crime not to put it in this list. 

Solid 5 out of 5 for entertainment. Pat Gill, alone in his apartment, drinking six cans of what I think is beer silently while the intro music plays. That scene in itself should win an Oscar. Sadly, a solid 0 for Education, because I learn nothing in this video except for the fact that Pat Gill is the type of person to put out a coaster and then just completely not use it. I quantify things as educational if I can maybe answer a trivia question with them, and unfortunately, this fact does not pass that test. In terms of Exaltation, seeing Pat Gill lie down on the floor next to his cat made me get out of bed to do the same with my dog, and with myself thusly out of my bed cocoon of sadness, I was able to actually complete tasks on the day I watched this video. Perfect 5.

BONUS: Pat is +1 hot in this because there’s something very beautiful about him being a little bit miserable. However, I do miss his beard when I watch this video. It is one of my favorite things about him, and it is not present here.

3. Pat and Simone Play Human: Fall Flat

Entertainment: 5 Education: 1 Exaltation: 5 Hotness: 0 Total Score: 11

I very much enjoy Polygon’s gameplay streams. I often play them in the background while I’m doing other stuff like doodling or origami, but this stream is special. It is special because of the moment at 24:00 when Pat Gill, in game, swings a stereo into a glass window, shattering it, while saying, “Actually, y’know what? Let’s talk about trauma.” and then proceeds to tell a horrible and embarrassing story from his childhood where he had to do a rap about Ancient Egypt. 

5 points for Entertainment. This is partly because of Pat’s tragic childhood story about the Egypt Rap (and, segue just to point out 33:22 the incredible moment where you can hear Pat’s feral panic when Simone finds the lyrics to the Egypt Rap) but also because Pat and Simone just talking to each other is so deeply entertaining to me in a very comfy way. I’m starved for human interaction, in this quarantime, okay. Let me enjoy listening to other people have conversations while playing video games. Education scores a 1 because, again, nothing in this video will let me answer a trivia question, however it does get 1 point and not a 0 because the Egypt Rap’s lyrics are in the comments and I did end up learning stuff about Ancient Egypt that I didn’t know. A perfect 5 for Exaltation because this video showed me that talking about trauma can actually be cathartic, given that you’re trashing a video game living room at the same time, and I think that message of not bottling up your experiences really helped me, in these trying times.

BONUS: Pat Gill is not visible for the entirety of this episode, so he scores the standard 0. I’m sure he was hot. We just couldn’t see him.  

2. Why Bloodborne and Muppets are the same thing

Entertainment: 4 Education: 4 Exaltation: 3 Hotness: +2 Total Score: 12

Ah yes, one of Pat’s “x is y because of z” videos. He’s made a number of these and they’re all very good but this one is my favorite among them and earns a spot on this list because 1) I think puppets are cool and 2) I fucking love monsters. 

This video scores a 4 on Entertainment, just shy of perfect, because as funny as it is, it also gives me the vibe like I am being lectured by a professor who’s just a little bit off the shits. And we all know that lectures are supposed to be taken seriously. Which brings us to Education, which also scores a 4. I learned a lot in this video! Watching Pat Gill explain to me that children’s puppets and these horrifying viddy game monsters use the same character principles in different ways is not only very educational but is also explained in a streamline and easy to understand manner that I WISH some of the shitty professors at my old university could emulate. As for Exaltation, while this video did give me enough energy to have a meal, I did eventually end up back in bed for the night at 8pm crying myself to sleep, thinking “I’m like the slime scholar. Used to be a scholar. Now they’re slime.” 

BONUS: Pat Gill is +2 hot here. He’s rockin that basic ass monochromatic aesthetic and I love his look dearly. 

1. Preparing for Big Boy Season in Red Dead Redemption 2 

Entertainment: 5 Education: 3 Exaltation: 5 Hotness: +3 Total Score: 16

Here we are. My favorite non video series Pat Gill video. The video where Pat Gill tries to make Red Dead Redemption 2 protagonist, Arthur Morgan, large. 

Perfect fucking 5 for Entertainment, which I’m sure many may find odd. Afterall, this video is told in a serious investigative tone reminiscent of Vox’s videos on current issues. But that’s the glory of it. The complete and utter ‘playing it straight and serious’ for a ridiculous issue in a video game. It is high tier comedy in a subtle, understated way that sings to my comedy loving heart in a melody so lovely, so wonderful, that it urged me to give this video 5 points for Entertainment. It scores 3 on Education, because I have never played Red Dead Redemption 2, nor will I ever, but now I know things about it. The information was also relayed to me in a very interesting style, via something like a crime procedural, and thus it was engaging for me to absorb all this new knowledge. Exaltation scores a perfect 5 because of this video’s beautiful end about existential smallness. No joke, but hearing Pat Gill say “Our bigness isn’t measured in pounds, but in the impact we have on the people with whom we shared the world.” deadass made me want to talk to my friends again after conversationally isolating myself for 3 days. Preparing for Big Boy Season has a special place in my heart. And there it will stay.

BONUS: Pat Gill is not visible for most of the video but he does appear for like 15 seconds in the middle of it, and guess what. He’s hot. +3 hotness. Good beardage, good hair, all in all, good Pat Gill. 

So there you have it. My five favorite Pat Gill videos. If you read this whole thing, holy shit. You’re welcome, I guess.

[cosmic-navel-gazin]

I just now realized that both Adam and Raziel are the small boys of their own duo. And by small I mean the other two are just insanely tall. This is just the second half of Part 4 of these ramblings that had to be split in two. Also, I really want Kain’s pants.

In which I chronicle my Legacy of Kain journey and bridge it with your boy Adam Warlock, and Thanos too for a bit! (Part 4.5 of many, not many SPOILERS for Soul Reaver 1 and 2)

Part 1

Part 1.5

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

I ended Part 4 talking about how both Raziel and Adam can’t stay dead for long.

 In Adam’s case, whenever he is killed / is mortally wonded / just needs a bit of solitude and peace and quiet, this gross ass cocoon forms around him and keeps him safe (similar to the one that gave him birth).

He stays there dissolving and reforming, metamorphosing for an uncertain amount of time (could be an instant, could be years), and coming out a little bit changed every time.

He’s had other methods of resurrection but this is the main “normal” one.

And I want to follow that with a bit of a tangent on how this “undying business” translates into gameplay with Raziel. I think the devs made it into a very interesting mechanic in my opinion, present in both Soul Reaver 1 and 2.

 Basically, if you lose all your health, you are transported to the Spiritual Realm  - a more spooky and eerie version of the Material Realm, where architecture bends, passages open and everything gains a bluish tint. I let myself be killed here as an example:

If you get killed while in the Spectral Realm, you are transported back to the last checkpoint (in Soul Reaver 1, you would be transported to the bottom of the Abyss and have to make your way up to where you were killed). Another example:

In Soul Reaver 2, even the checkpoints have an in-lore explanation, which I think is awesome, Raziel says:

"These ancient obelisks were mysteriously attuned to my spiritual essence. By simply touching the symbol, I could safely preserve an imprint of my soul, and thus create a milestone to which I could return when weary, and from which I could resume my journey."

You can also just shift to the Spiritual Realm whenever you please without having to die. Useful to gain access to previously inaccessible places:

Yey stairs!

Here's a few examples of this mechanic in Soul Reaver 1 I found online:

But, even though you can go spiritual at will, to return to the Material Realm you need to be at specific marked points, and be at full health (done by consuming a few wandering souls):

I don't know if it is technically impressive or not for the PS1, Dreamcast and PS2 to pull this off, but I personally marvel at it every time. And I think it's an interesting way to represent immortality through gameplay, not just storywise.

I do wonder now how you would translate Adam’s resurrections into gameplay if Marvel had a game where he’s playable. I think some notes and ideas could be taken from Soul Reaver. Maybe while his body is being recreated in his cocoon, you take control of his soul, hanging out on Mistress Death’s domain, since he’s no stranger to that place. I don’t know, I guess I just want an excuse to see him and Death interact more:

Anyway... oh yeah! I spent so much time gushing all over the soul devouring mechanic in Soul Reaver 1 in my first post, that I forgot to show how it looks in Soul Reaver 2 in both Realms:

I'll be honest, I think I prefer the green flame look from the first game (probably because that was my first exposure to it), but I do like the Spiritual Realm version of the souls here with the little skulls flying about.

Ok, back to that scene between Raziel and Kain I started talking about in Part 4 when they’re at The Ruined Aerie .

I mentioned in Part 3, how it started to look like we might get a similar development for them to that of Thanos and Adam, in the sense of them going from sworn enemies to friends. And the tone of this meeting shows a nice little change in their relationship in that direction (yey! because I'm a huge unrepentant sucker for this kind of thing).

Whereas before their encounters were wholly antagonistic from Raziel's part, now it is much more ammicable. It's not sudenly smiles and hugs or anything, quite the opposite. Raziel does say that he will try and kill Kain if he even suspects that doing so will make things better. But it is noticeably different.  Instead of it being all like "face me and die monster!", like usual, we get this exchange:

Raziel:

"Oh no. Every time you turn up something monumental and terrible happens. I don't think I have the stomach for it."

Kain: (laughs softly):

"No drama this time, Raziel."

Nice.

In the last couple of scenes Raziel even openly defends Kain when talking to others, which would be unthinkable during Soul Reaver 1. Our greatest enemy in the previous game is now an ally of sorts, or the closest we have to that. And our previous benefactor, The Elder God, who rescued me form the Abyss and tasked me with destroying Kain and the vampire race, may not be as benevolant as he showed. 

Just awesome stuff here with your allies turning into foes and vice-versa the more we dig into this land's History. In fact, I'll just throw this out there, but the whole seemingly betrayal of Raziel, of Kain ripping his wings and throwing him into the Abyss...

I'm beginning to think that it may have been a necessary evil in Kain’s attempt to restore Nosgoth, and not so much a fit of jealousy as it was shown. But I'll reserve judgement. It kinda depends on when exactly did Kain stumble upon Moebius' secret lair and peered into the future. Like, if he knew that Raziel had to burn and become a wraith to help create the paradoxes. So for now it's just a random thought.

But yeah maybe Raziel's starting to see that Kain has been as much of a pawn as he is. Both forced to play out some part in a grand scheme, and both forced down a path of bad decision after bad decision. Just how Adam and Thanos get closer as they realise they’re more alike than they care to admit, especially in their flaws and shortcomings, and that each is the only person the other can really relate to on a deeper level.

I mean don't get me wrong, Kain is undeniably monstruous, but he seems to be genuinly trying to fix things and the raw deal he was given in life. So maybe we can get something like Thanos’ “redemption” years for Kain by the end of this cosmic drama:

Would like to see Kain getting out of this wiser (and Raziel too). Things seem to be pointing that way at least.

So once we do manage to travel to the distant past as we intended, to the big Vampire Purge Era (because Raziel wants to talk with this ancient vampire who supposedly knows about the Soul Reaver Sword, and is the only person who might tell me the whole truth), Soul Reaver 2 takes advantage of me and impales me through the heart:

I'll elaborate. On the next post. Where things will get very real again.

See you until then.

[inspector-montoya-fox]

here’s why, in my opinion, Apollo Justice doesn’t suck

first and foremost, it has the best animation out of the entire series. the trilogy’s pixelated characters and backgrounds were suiting for its cute feel and its perky aesthetic, but weren’t like masterpieces or anything (even the HD version of the trilogy just added some gloss over the original models, nothing more). but Apollo Justice delivered. the game gave us polished, shiny character designs and refined backgrounds (Guy Eldoon, Lamiroir, the doctor’s office from Turnabout Corner, the dressing rooms from Turnabout Serenade). i could literally replay the game just to admire the artwork. it’s so perfect.

my flatmate straight-up hates the game because of what they did to Phoenix and it’s understandable because she grew up playing the trilogy. i can imagine that if you’re reading this and you too grew up playing the trilogy, you’d be miffed that i’m defending a game that turned the main character into a drunken tramp, basically. it’s like when i read posts that defend Thieves in Time (although that game has absolutely no defense whatsoever). and i get it. i was pissed off too. i get even more pissed off when i think that Capcom backed down from their initial idea of moving onto a new defense attorney’s story and then have Phoenix return for Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice, which, let’s be real, weren’t masterpieces. actually, i think Dual Destinies is the worst game in the series because it tried salvaging what was left from Apollo Justice’s catastrophic take on Phoenix’s fate as a lawyer and turning Apollo into a mere sidekick. all this being said, i’d much rather they stuck to their initial idea.

as i said in my previous essay, Trials and Tribulations wrapped up the trilogy masterfully. as such, it didn’t leave any room for a sequel. i don’t think Apollo is an interesting character. hell, i’d even say he’s boring. but, i respect the idea of moving onto a new character and his own story. i understand why they did a seven year jump and their focus on how the law has changed. it’s actually interesting to see how the respected court and the law all comes crumbling down due to the rise of wrongfully accused people and fabricated evidence, as well as how this paved the way for the existence of the jury in Turnabout Succession. and i think they could have evaded all the hate the game got by simply removing Phoenix. portray him as a living legend but don’t have him actually show up. have him rise to the ranks of Edgeworth, a respected defense attorney or chief of something. don’t turn the office into a magic shop, and don’t go behind the fans’ backs and have him adopt a daughter and then conceal the truth. it just felt like i was being disrespected for all the emotional investment i put into the trilogy. and most importantly, don’t back down from your initial idea. use Apollo Justice as a starting point, where you sow the seeds for another epic trilogy. have an Apollo Justice 5 and 6, where the events transpire into something huge, continue with the Gramarye backstory. but i guess Capcom got scared because of the backlash, so we got Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice instead, which have diluted, watered down narratives in comparison to the trilogy’s story arcs.

i know it seems like i hate Apollo Justice, but i don’t. i want you to view it as a solo game. it had four awesome cases with interesting characters, unbeatable animation, awesome music and an interesting overall story. i might think Apollo is a dull character, a blunt version of Phoenix, stripped of the fun comments and thoughts, but he’s the yin to Trucy’s yang. Trucy is an excellent assistant. and the final reveal about the two makes their relationship even more fulfilling for the character. the combination of the two characters feels refreshing, especially as the story progresses and they start getting familiar with each other. as for the rest of the cast, we get a rockstar prosecutor who is charming as hell and his psychotic brother who turns the tables on everything we’ve come to know about the series by being both a villain and a defense attorney. the defense attorneys were supposed to be the good guys..... the Gramarye stuff is also rich in lore, and the untimely death of Zak Gramarye really adds a darker tone to the game. Turnabout Succession delves deep into the seven year gap and the truth by allowing us to play as Phoenix and time-hop around. although the digital jury system felt cheap and kind of like an anticlimactic layer to the story (which was never brought up again in future games) it was the right solution for the law’s problems.

Turnabout Serenade is my favorite case from the game because Daryan Crescend’s dick-looking hair is so hot the setting is so spectacular, the hidden passages feel so Scooby-Doo-like (the Hex Girls Mystery Inc. episode!) and the motive surrounding illegal imports of miracle cocoons is so absurd it might as well feel real. honestly, the world has changed in the seven years since we played as Phoenix and it feels kinda future apocalyptic but future apocalyptic chill. it gave me Teen Titans or Loonatics Unleashed vibes. and even so, the cases feel both nostalgic and fresh. there’s just something so Phoenix Wright about murders happening real-time whilst you’re at the scene (Turnabout Serenade) or a search for stolen panties turning into a full-blown mafia story about the mob’s doctor and his blackmail (Turnabout Corner). as for gameplay, Apollo’s ability to detect lies is a great replacement for Phoenix’s magatama. the game hones the trilogy’s best elements and even adds to them, by having Ema Skye (an annoying but finally competent detective) bring back her various forensics tricks and even allowing the player to zoom in on specific areas of the locations.

so, i think the hate Apollo Justice got was undeserving. i understand why it got so much of it, but it ultimately made things worse for the franchise. sure, we got Phoenix back, but it never felt the same again. and Athena Cykes is a better Apollo, but still dull. maybe she could fix the problems caused by Apollo Justice but she didn’t. we never got to meet Apollo. Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice both tried to add some backstory to the character but failed. ok i can understand Apollo’s best friend being Clay Terran and his love for the space centre, but how the hell did he end up in Khura’in after Lamiroir abandoned him? honey, it just doesn’t work... but whatever. Apollo Justice is a great solo outing, and an even greater wasted opportunity... tragic, tbh.

[tumblunni]

Also yeah while im on the subject

I really hate fantasy settings where magic is limited by biological sex. Because usually its used to enforce some sort of stupid gender stereotype that the writer believes is "biologically innate" rather than predjudice, by making up a world where it actually is biologically innate. Or its like "oh but women cant do those jobs" but again, a made up excuse for it to be LITERALLY TRUE. And usually they either dont even touch on the subject of trans and gay people (since it often conflates heterosexuality with gender...) or else it actually does bring it up and just creates a cavalcade of even more everything-ism...

Like i mean i love the game Jade Coccoon and considering it came out in the early 2000s i can understand it being more sexist, and its supossed to be a dark game anyway and a lot of the societal structures in Syrus Village are meant to be wrong and evil even if the characters act like its the way the world should be. The villain of the game is basically the toxic atmosphere of your shitty town and their paranoia of things they don't understand. Tho that means the player kinda has no motivation to finish it cos the main conflict is also saving those same villagers from dying and theyre all fucks. Anyway i'm going offtopic! What i mena is that i dont think it was a particularly sexist example of the inexplicable gender segregated magic trope. But just cos its a fave game of mine im gonna pick it to talk about anyway. Hope i dont sound too negative on it, cos seriously i love it loads!

Ok so to use Jade Cocoon as an example, here its a thing that only men can be cocoon masters and only women can be nagi. Tho it also gets a bit complicated because nagi is also an ethnicity as well? Its kinda like being romani, they're a race of displaced people who travel the world giving their magical services to other countries while searching for their lost homeland, which you end up finding at the end of the game. So yeah its extra weird cos male children of the nagi race are born with no powers whatsoever and cant even become cocoon masters, yet they get the ruling position in this homeland place? Like thats a better metaphor for how christian societies work, honestly!

Anyway im going offtopic again!

Basically, cocoon master = adventurer dude who catches monsters, nagi = magician who purifies those monsters so you can use them in battle. So when you catch stuff it becomes an inventory item rather than being able to use it on your team right away. And also nagi women can fuse monsters together to make super badass new ones and basically the gameplay system works really well to make you believe your wife is absolutely necessary to your quest and you would die without her, even if she cant fight. And honestly its actually kinda romantic! I just wish it wasnt presented as this weird sacred heterosexuality arranged marriage nonsense where all women are physically unable to go to a dungeon and all men are physically unable to not fight every day. Or at least thats how the powers work and if you try and step out of that role you fuckin die. Like it would be romantic to have a couple of a battle partner and a supporter magician if they actually chose it, yknow?

And whats annoying is that they actually do bring up the subject of people defying gender roles and canonically state that you not omly die but bring a curse upon everyone and are hated forever. They dont mention trans or gay people, instead the excuse is that a man loved his wife so much that he tried to learn nagi magic to lift the burden from her. Cos oh yeaj women get 'punished' by god for doing this magic?? Cursed tattoos all over their body the more they use it, and everyone hates them and eventually they turn into a fairy and forget they were ever human. And in the japanese version you can actually fight other nagi women who met this fate, theyre just another monster that you can fight and capture. They were censored in english cos they looked like really racist stereotypes of black women! Ugh! So yeah anyway nice straight husband is punished by the magic straightness enforcing rules of the universe for loving his straight wife too much. So what is the even point? If a man tries to use nagi magic it creates the "black cocoon" of cursed doomness and blah. Literal punishment for not conforming to gender. Damned if you do, damned if you don't!

Anyway this setting always made me wonder about all the stuff it just glosses over with this implication that every one of these relationships worked out fine. Like even before we rub lgbtq topics all over a retro videogame, there's a lot of logical holes! Like seriously how many of these arranged marriages ended up loveless or abusive? How many women just didnt want to stay confined to one room forever and not even have anyone look at them because their magic markings are shameful yet its also shameful not to want to do it?? How many men were terrified of going out on this advebture fighting literal demigods sent by heaven to punish humans? How many of them just had no ability to fight and died immediately because of shitty traditions, while perfectly qualified women had to sit there and watch it happen? What if there werent enough straight men and women of the same age and people were forced into gross pedophilic shit or other horror scenarios just cos there has to be this one magical straight couple or the village dies? Whenever theres this stupid gender magic its ALWAYS portrayed as idyllic and never failing ever, unless *gasp* people dont follow the gendrules...

And then SERIOUSLY do no queer people exist in this universe?? Man i'd be so interested in their stories! I actually had an oc idea of a self insert version of me as a travelling merchant. Because maybe what if nonbinary people could do both sides of the magic at once and thus adventure alone without being tied to a village's straight marriage system? So i'd just go around purifying monsters and then be a place you could buy new and rare mons from other villages without having to catch them. Maybe an easier way to get the super rare drop fusion materials for tiger pattern and stuff? And like seriously itd be good to have a character to talk to who agrees that your village is made of assholes. I cant say its bad writing cos it was clearly intentional, but they shoulda at least put a bit more incentive to keep playing even if you didnt care about these people. Also it would help plug the plothole of how a village even survives if it doesnt have the required people to form this magical straight marriage. Have some mysterious enby avengers who travel all across the world and save everyone regardless of country! All we ask is you buy some of our lovely souveniers! Maybe a pet patalchu for your family? Seripusly why dont they ever show anyone using the purified monsters for anything other than fighting the unpurified ones? You'd think they'd be really useful in repairing the village and guarding the walls and like..regular industrial jobs. Help the place actually advance and not have to live day to day on scraps,bickering amoungst themselves as the monsters grow ever closer to breaking through. Hell, you could even have them help spin the cocoons for other monsters! If this magic only depends on having a dick or not, then cant we just dress up some animals in the magic straight marriage outfits? XD

And like aaaa man im getting so emotional just imagining a trans woman who's constabtly told she will literally bring about the apocolypse if she tries to fill the female role in this ritual. And then one day she tries to spin the magic silk and she thinks she's committing the ultimate sin and they were all right. But the magic responds to her touch, and she makes a spell more beautiful than any other woman in the village! It would probably be harder for a trans man cos the magic doesnt have so much of an immediate proof like that. Just going out and winning a fight with a monster can be called "dumb luck", and knowing these assholes they'd probably keep calling it dumb luck even after the thousandth time you save their life!

And man, i wonder how gay relationships would work in such an annoyingly strict system of enforced heterosexuality? Would it be like the magic isnt REALLY gender locked at all, and it can just be any couple with either partner taking either role? Or would it be that it is one magic per gender but the bigoted villagers were wrong about it being impossible to do things without both? Like maybe when you're going into battle alone as a single cocoon master you cant fight without catching other monsters. But when two cocoon masters love each other their magic is amplified and they become able to like.. I dunno.. Imbue each other with elemental strength so they can fight the monsters hand to hand? Cos really the elemental system is the only reason you cant do a no monsters run of the game as it is. Maybe since they cant purify monsters but they can still catch them, they equip the monsters as sort of a power rangers transformation? Or socket them like materia on their weapons? Or just if the world was less segregated into tiny sexist racist villages they could simply buy the purification coccoons from another local nagi, and villages without a coccoon master could buy the services of travelling ones. Oh, and maybe two nagi lesbians could be even more badass! Cos if they can only purify and not fight, maybe their double purification is so strong that they can just straight up walk into the forest and monsters don't attack them. They dont even need to do the full spell, they can calm a beastie's rage just by holding out their hand and patting it on the head. So they coukd be infinately more effective and not have to just tenporarily clear single travelling routes of a few monsters, but actually work towards slowly purifying the entire forest and creating a peaceful land again. Tho i mean the game did have a unique atmosphere with the whole 'no hope of ever beating them' aspect. It was unique to see a society formed around the idea of never going into forests or you Die. But magical lesbians and their family of a million pet dragons is honestly better!

And uhhhh ive gone all offtopic now and i camt stop thinking about how much i love magical lesbians with a million pet dragons

The End

[jakiphyr]

Jak (re)plays Gaiden  [Part 03]

→ Previous installment: Yo, Alm!  Listen to this guy! (3x)

That rescue sure went silky smooth.  ]/steals joke from @azebraslife ]

—

[Game]

I’m heading on inside the Thief’s Shrine now to beat up some fruity exp bandits and recruit this holy plot importantz lady.

If Tobin goes archer in this playthrough, then I’m going to be happy because he’s going to need that SKL to flippin’ hit stuffs.

Awesome!  Kliff’s shaping up to be surprisingly—

What the froggy fuck?  Again?  Twice in a row?

Is this game trying to bless me or make my life harder down the road...?

Alm gets Role Model points for continuing to be an aspiration for the sweet kiddo.

I’m not quite sure how to train/deal with Kliff as a unit yet, but I’ll level him decently for now.  At least he can promote at this point.

Alm and Luckas both get luck.

The last squeezed in level ups from the first dungeon encounter.

Only two whole lines and the author gave her such a huge, important role in the story, god damn.  I find that vastly impressive.  I sincerely wish we got more of her angle in Shadows of Valentia in one manner or another.

Just for funsies, I decide to go up to the Mila Statue and see what the game’s RNG first class picks suggested.  I got: Mercenary Kliff, Cavalier Tobin, and Soldier Gray.  

Now it’s hellbent on Merc Kliff, Archer Tobin, and Mage Gray after 5 more times of talking to the statue-thing.

Anyway, I stop goofing around since I didn’t confirm any classes for them — least not juuuust yet.  I will only proceed after I dig out what the novel has them promoted into...

—

[Novel]

Chapter 1 - Liberation Army Part 1-3: Mysterious Girl Silque

[ Warnings for mild blood. ]

Clair’s capture and Mathilda’s disappearance following it are still unknown to Lukas, that it may be too much to bear once learned.  Escaping from Mycen’s eyes, they set to march from Ram without waiting for dawn, not getting any sleep.  They stop to rest north of the woods because Lukas’ legs were sore and the three villagers were starting to lag behind, Alm was able to keep up the pace without delay.  Straight north is the coastal cave and they felt an evil aura from it.  Alm explains the burglary problem, which was why he accused Lukas of being one, since their hideout was so close by.  Within moments, shadows dart out from the bushes and surround them.  The thieves put up a fight until screams were heard, two bandits were killed the remaining four grew cowardly and ran away in the direction of the cave.

Lukas, Alm, Gray, and Tobin take off after them.  Kliff watches then talks to himself in a quiet yet heavy voice.  “I know Alm’s tragedy, no one can change his destiny.  It will be a huge tragedy that will impact the world.”

Kliff heard stones falling from inside the cave and he went in the rift, the cold, damp air was felt in the darkness and he could not see, Suddenly there’s a flame in close proximity from a torch held by a hand. The first thing he saw was a girl’s face being illuminated, and there’s a bandit holding her hostage with an arm around her neck, threatening to kill the priestess if he took another step. When Kliff did hesitantly move a little, the bandit makes a display by pressing the dagger’s edge to the girl’s throat that he was serious about the death threat.  Immediately, Kliff drives his sword into the bandit’s thick arm, forcing him to let go of the poor priestess who then hid in the dark and ran away.  The torch’s flame blew out as the burglar and Kliff got engaged in a fight.  The thief slashed his dagger into Kliff’s stomach giving him a deep cut and at the same time Kliff manages to knock the enemy down, disarming him.  Ignoring the pain and the bleeding, Kliff went over quickly to slam the hilt of his blade against the back of the bandit’s head to dispose of him, then Kliff collapses on the ground.

The girl comes back out, rushing over to Kliff’s side.  She says her name in a prayer in the service of Mila and to get Mila’s protection upon the injured villager to heal him.  A ball of light surround Kliff and he was surprised to see no scar remaining on his belly after Silque was done with her white magic. The others show up after defeating the bandits from where they were and went to thank Silque for her assistance.  Tobin says helping a priestess is the highest honor.  She volunteers to go with them as a Sister of Mila which was met with refusal from Lukas who warns her that liberating Zofia is their mission, that if she doesn’t want to lose her life in the conflict, it’s best to stay out of it.  He also brings up that she may also be an enemy. Gray grabs at Lukas, hoisting him off the ground with his strength, yelling at him they should bring her along because she helped heal Kliff and she would be a valuable vitality to the team.  

Silque politely interrupts, thanking them for their thoughts and concerns, she explains that she got there due to the Mila Shrine deep within the cave and she was visiting to do her duties as a priestess.

She guides them further inside to an area dimly lit by sunlight through the small peephole through the rocky side.  The morning sun’s light sweeps in softly like snow, illuminating a Mila statue and two springs by the base.  Silque goes over to the fountain to turn the hand knobs and calls Gray up to be first.

Gray decides on the battle path of a knight and cleanses his hands in the fountain water as per the ritual.  Silque starts the rite with a chant - in power and will, may Gray rise as a knight in the blessings of Mila and Duma.

(Yes, Duma. 「ミラとドーマ」is in there in the text.)

Threads of light begin to wrap around Gray like a yarn ball until it looks like a full cocoon.  There are faint screams and the underside of the light cocoon gets stained with blood. One of Gray’s muscle tendons were cut as a mid-process side effect of taking in the blessings (it gets fully healed afterward).  Silque summons a horse.  Gray comes off the stage with a more beefed up body fitting of a knight’s stature. 

(Don’t ask me what the bloody hell happened with Gray.  I thought he was getting turned into a centaur while reading it...)

Tobin and Kliff both get up on the stage after Gray, going into the rituals one after another.  Tobin decides on the bow style, blessing him the way of an archer.  There’s a tormented feeling going high-speed in his dominant arm’s muscles that only last some moments.  Kliff wishes for magical ability and prowess, making him a mage.  Cliff gets a sharp headache that was difficult to bear with until it was over.  They step away from the stage to get a feel for their newly adjusted bodies and group hug each other and celebrate in joy.

Lukas puts his hands together to pledge in silence, sending a prayer where he swears to free Zofia.  Silque cleanses her hands for the fourth time and looks over to Alm, asking him if he will also volunteer for the promotion.  Alm does not answer as he and the statue stone are having a staring contest, and he feels it deep within his gut that it is not that time yet.  He wasn’t fascinated by the pain of the promotions, and he doesn’t fault his friends for their desperation [on wanting to gain power and will]. Alm believes that initiation came from either the Mila’s servant or the Goddess herself, so he listens to it and tells Silque this.  

The morning sunlight gets blocked from the outside from falling rain.  Silque has some symbolism monologue about rain equating either the heaven’s joyful tears or the rain of sadness over Alm’s future and believes it may be the latter. She reminisces on the reason she swore herself as a Sister of Mila - it is to protect Zofia and the Mother.  She then tells him, “Sir Alm is a special person, I vow to serve him for life.”

Kliff watches Silque’s expression with unease, he casts his gaze downwards and chews on his fingers.  In the cultural custom of Ram Village, it is a behavioural sign of jealousy and troubled love.

—

[Game]

I’m going to cheer on for Kliff becoming a strong boy.  He hurt a damn man.

Okay!  So I’ll go promote Kliff into Mage, Tobin into Archer, and Gray into...

. . .

?fuck the What.|What the fuck?

But.

Wait...

This knight... 

Freshly Buff Binch On Mila Steroids gets a horse.

Stay tuned on: How long will I use him as a unit for when Mathilda and Zeke exist?

The being in pain from getting promoted thing makes some sort of sense when you factor in the gameplay stat gains, so I guess that’s what’s going on there.

Doesn’t look like stat booster springs were used, so it’s freedom of my choosing.  I won’t use them yet until I pick up Clair and do some grinding.

For their promo gains:

Mage Kliff gets +1 SKL, +2 SPD, and +6 HP.

Archer Tobin gets +1 STR and +1 HP.

Knight Gray gets +1 SPD.

Posting these stats for reference to compare for when I go grind.

—

＊Note: Chapter 2 covers Celica’s departure, so I’ll be skipping it to Chapter 3 where it starts with Clair’s rescue.  I’ll get back to Chapter 2 for Act 2.

 → Next installment: Rescue Clair  [coming soon]

[bobson-dugnut]

Fallout 4 quest ideas

I’ve been doing a lot of walking and daydreaming lately, and I had some ideas for quests in Fallout 4 that could have been fun.

New Boston Geographic

Piper has managed to get her hands on a working camera. She’s decided to use it to take photos and compile them into the first edition of New Boston Geographic - a fascinating look at the commonwealth, in all its danger and beauty.

You got enough film for 15 shots, and you have to photograph interesting locations - there could be a hidden point system that varies on location. Extra points could be accrued for having dangerous creatures like albino deathclaws and mirelurk queens in shot, as well as interesting sights like the geysers, glowing sea, the USS constitution or the like.

The more points (and maybe perception could offer a bonus too?)  the better the book ends up being, and people around diamond city could have different opinions on it - it could earn Piper respect or make her a laughing stock. It could even inspire people to explore and rebuild?

You could read the article after quest completion, seeing all your shots in their old timey grainy glory. Think of it like a mix between Wasteland survival guide from Fallout 3 and classic inspiration from New Vegas.

(it would also be neat if your current companion reacted to being in shot and everyone had a different pose that displayed their personality. Having Dogmeat in shot would secretly add a bonus because everyone loves him).

Rock around the clock

Travis is having trouble keeping listeners invested in Diamond city radio because he only has a limited amount of songs to play, and after years of the same old music people are tuning off.

Vadim has heard rumours about a radio station with a slew of holotapes containing new songs - he offers you caps to fetch them and bring them back, in order to pique people’s interest in his friend’s radio again.

You head over to an old radio station, and find a kindly old man named Robert residing inside - he’s managed to get the tapes to play, and make his own show - he believes making people happy and giving folks something to look forward to makes life worth living. but unbeknown to him, his broadcast tower is actually broken and his signal isn’t reaching beyond his small station. 

You have a couple of choices to make here - if you high intelligence or the right scrap, you can fix his antennae so that his broadcast reaches the length of the commonwealth, and Robert will continue broadcasting happily not knowing that nobody has heard the years of shows he’s put out.

You can tell him that nobody has heard the shows he’s put out, and depending on your dialogue he will either

-  become depressed and give you the holotapes to take back to diamond city (you could also murder him or steal them, which would garner a disgusted reaction from your good companions)  

or 

- become determined to start again with a fixed antenna (this leads to you repairing it if you haven’t already) - you could then choose to ask to copy some of his holotapes to take back to diamond city. You could also promise to recommend his station to listeners.

Your reward for doing this quest is an additional radio station to listen to (Or diamond city having more music depending on the outcome) with extra music and commentary, which is great for a 100+ hour game.

Smoke gets in your eyes

In Goodneighbor you overhear a guy talking about a crazy new drug called Smoke that sends you on intense psychedelic trips.

You mention this to Hancock and he gives you some caps to get some - bring it back to him (or if he’s a companion, head back to his office) and he offers you a hit, and if you accept you hear a sound similar to a jet inhaler and...nothing.

once you step through the doorway out the office, colours gradually start getting brighter, textures change, and as you descend the spiral staircase it starts to go on forever. The gameplay switches from free-roaming to a sort of path - think Kellogg’s memories - and the world starts to take on impossible shapes and bright, beautiful colours. Looking up at the ceiling would make it look as if it was going on forever, and the center of gravity would routinely shift. At times you’d have to start swimming through the air.

Everything starts to look like its melting, and bringing up your pipboy brings up bare arms instead. You follow the path, and cocoons start emerging from the walls, hatching giant patterned moths. If you fire with your equipped weapon it fires paint rather than bullets and enemies explode into brightly coloured smoke. Talking to Hancock during this would yield different lines, and you’d both be having a great, if weird time. There could be kinda boss battle where the two of you fight a multi-headed smoke deathclaw and at its conclusion, the hit would wear off, revealing that you never left Hancock’s office.

Nickellog quest that i haven’t got a name for

Nick starts having flashes, similar to those of Pre-war Nicks, only way more violent, frequent and erratic. He confesses that this starting to worry him.

You take Nick to Dr Amari, and she deduces that these are just Mnemonic impressions - However, Nick already has one set of memories inside him, as well as his own, and juggling Kellogg, Nick’s and Prewar Nick’s memories is taxing his CPU and making it difficult for him to function. His mind is trying to make sense of it by “Stitching them together” Which is adding to his memory issues.

She decides the safest way to remove these impressions is to hook Nick into a memory lounger and have you go through Nick’s head, in a similar way to how you went through Kellogg’s, and manually removes traces and memories that do not belong. 

Similar to Kellogg’s memories, Amari points you to the clearest strongest memories Nick has - ranging from pre war Nick’s to his own in the current world, giving the player the chance to explore a tiny tiny bit of pre-war Boston. 

There is a slight gameplay change here, in that while you can move freely and activate items to hear Nick’s thoughts about them (Which can offer optional information about the pre-war fallout world and Nick’s backstory) you can’t fire weapons or shoot and you do not have access to your pip-boy - think tranquillity lane in fallout 3. (I’m torn between you playing AS NICK in these parts, simply because I don’t think Pre-War Nick’s appearance should ever be revealed)

You need to use what you know about Nick and Kellogg to recognise a memory that isn’t his - for example, Pre War Nick could mention having a daughter named Mary, but we know he doesn’t - but Kellogg did. Looking out the window could show the golden gate bridge, which is in San-Fran, not Boston or Chicago. Once you recognise a misplaced memory, Amari will remove it. 

(I like the idea of a quest like this cause the concept art for Pre-War Boston is friggin beautiful and I would love to see it, as well as know more about Nick’s life and backstory)

i got more but i’ve ran out of energy typing.

do you have any quest ideas? I’d love to hear them! what do you think?

[u23art]

A LOOK AT FINAL FANTASY XIII

Final Fantasy XIII, you’re lucky you’re pretty or I would have been much angrier at the ordeal that is your final 3 boss fights. I commonly tell myself that I was at an age some years ago where I simply didn’t have the patience to play or let alone beat RPGs, hence why I had put XIII down. Afterwards, I let myself get absorbed by the mindset that this is a game to be hated, that it was senseless bells and whistles and it was the popular thing to hate. It wasn’t until I beat Final fantasy XV and sat through the lack luster ending that I felt I should give XIII another try. Even while playing XV, I found that listening to the XIII soundtrack while driving was oddly more fitting. The story for this game revolves around the turmoil between the planet Gran Pulse, the world of Cocoon orbiting above it, and the governing body of Eden above Cocoon. Everything originates from Pulse, the humans and the magical beings known as Fal’cie. Long ago a was broke out between Fal’cie, leaving a lasting fear in the hearts of people towards them and those chosen by the Fal’cie, the L’cie. A Cocoon Fal’cie, sensing an approaching threat to the world chooses 6 individuals to be bestowed with powers to combat the coming danger that is Ragnarok. There’s Lightning Farron, professional ball breaking Guardian who is roped in after trying to save her sister Serah, and Serah’s fiancee Snow; the local rascal and top of Lightning’s punching list. While hell is breaking loose while Lightning and Snow fight Eden’s hired guns PSICOM, they end up bringing the reluctant pilot Sahz and freshly orphaned Hope along for this drama. And lastly there is Vanille and Fang, the last two party members who join you in due time and are suspiciously Australian. With every twist and turn bringing more bullets and distrust their way, the group must sort out their differences before the end comes. If there was one issue I had during my 50 hour campaign with this group’s relationships, it was that there wasn’t enough time spent having them speak to each other in humanizing moments. All dialogue spoken does not deviate outside of the focus given by the Fal’cie or events that led up to the Fal’cie’s ordaining. This became a problem for me when following two characters, Sahz and Hope. Now Sahz is a good character in his own right, if I had to compare him to anyone it would be Han Solo, he does the straight talking and doesn’t let his own discomfort with things keep him from speaking what’s on his mind or just reluctantly addressing what needs to be done. But his motivations all stem from his relationship with his son, who eventually drops out of the story at one point, leaving Sahz to join the group just because of the Focus. And then there’s Hope. I hate Hope. He spends the first few chapters of the game, plotting and conspiring like a serial killer, and the last chunk of the game has him spewing motivational speeches and one liners. It feels forced because he doesn’t even confront Snow, whom he bares an irrational grudge towards, for more than two minutes before being interrupted by an explosion. Then after Snow takes the hits for this piece of crap, the issue is simply resolved and we move on. It wasn’t until I compared his Ravager and Medic stats with Vanille’s that I came to the conclusion that I didn’t have to regard him outside of the story and removed him from my main party. Now the gameplay is a little tricky to talk about, it still features an ATB gauge like previous titles. But there is no micro managing needed in a traditional sense for each member of the party. This time around you simply switch between different sets of paradigms, and the character will automatically perform moves from that setting. Fast switching between your sets will come to be critical with most of the bosses thanks to the added feature of the break gauge. As an enemy takes hits, this yellow gauge will fill, and upon reaching a certain threshold of damage you enter a brief period where damage is multiplied for really wailing on your enemies. But leaving enemies alone will end up making the gauge deplete. Using the Comando paradigm’s physical attacks will slow down depletion and the ravager paradigm’s magic can drastically fill that meter. This adds tension to the gameplay when the bosses hit hard. Honestly solid, but you never really feel powerful. There are no random battles in this game, enemies roam around the maps and touching them will bring you to a separate battlefield. And leveling up is similar to that of FFX where you activate nodes on a grid to gain benefits. However, this time you have to spend Crystarium points that are accumulated from defeated enemies. These two points together can make progression feel slow, this combined with relying on the break gauge periods against enemies with 100, 000 to 500, 000 HP can feel like a grueling uphill battle. And an additional small nitpick I have is the extra long animation that plays when switching paradigms the first time in each battle, this is annoying and leaves you vulnerable. And there are even fewer options for healing and equipment as previous FF conventions are removed. This includes the usefulness of potions and items, and the removal of Gil after winning battles. There are places to shop online in the game at save points, but you could end up ignoring most of them since you never have much gil to spare.

Now the game is linear yes, but it does eventually open up once you reach Gran Pulse, a wide area with branching paths, but this isn’t until at LEAST 30 hours into the game. If anything, the entire game should have been structured around multiple hub areas of the sort. These could have provided actual side quests and fixed two big issues I had. Side quests could present opportunities to level up, provided character building between the main cast AND remove the feeling of being funneled to the end of the game. I mentioned early on that back a few years ago I did not have the patience I have now to finish RPGs, this is crucial to have or at least it was for me on this game’s final boss. The three phases are a test of patience that took me over 2 hours to beat. The final boss has 3 phases, the first phases isn’t hard, you just have to slowly shave away the health while keeping alive after hard hits. But the other 2 phases go into the realm of being unfair, as not only do you have to stay alive after hits that take off nearly all your health but you are also hit with the cast spell death. If your party leader dies the battle is over, thankfully I was allowed to start at the beginning of the boss phase I had died on. But I couldn’t allow myself to quit because I didn’t want to fight the 1st phase again for half an hour. And within that 2 hour fight, I died a lot.

And last, but certainly not least I need to talk about the music. The music is what made me forgive this game. The music is unique in the sense of putting a modern twist on otherwise more orchestral pieces, it’s refreshing and in most cases enthralling. And thank you to whoever chose Leona Lewis’s “My Hands” to play for the final cinematic. The original song in the Japanese version would have made the ending feel generic and I actually WOULD have been angry at this game. But My hand’s coupled with the visual of the sunrise hitting Cocoon in the sky, made the party’s victory feel like a strong personal triumph for each of them. This is in strong contrast to the original japanese ending overselling this idea of friendship between them, and honestly that isn’t really there so My Hands does a gets the job done better. So I have to make an apology to Final Fantasy XIII, it doesn’t deserve most of the harsh criticism it gets and I forgive most of its indiscretions thanks to how rewarded the player is with the visuals and music. Given everything put together, I give Final Fantasy XIII an 8 out of 10.

Feel free to comment or contrast, and thank you for reading.

[hentaihunblog-blog]

Pokemon Go Update Changed Many Things – OtakuKart

New Post has been published on https://hentaihun.com/blog/2017/12/11/pokemon-go-update-changed-many-things-otakukart/

Pokemon Go Update Changed Many Things – OtakuKart

Niantic parent company behind Pokemon go launched the biggest update of 2017, It seems Niantic really loves to surprise its Player community in year’s last month. Niantic Launched 50 new Generation 3 Pokemon Go.With new amazing generation 3 Pokemon, Niantic included a really amazing Real-time weather system.

Pokemon Go’s latest update came up with APK 0.85.1. As Pokemon go updated to its most recent version 0.85.1 with this updated version of Pokemon Go parent company Niantic is reported to launch Generation 3 Pokemon. Player community rejoiced as soon as the got hands on this new amazing update.As Apk was out data-miners started data mining and found out really cool secrets inside.

Some major changes in short that were seen in the APK were Asset Changes and some big code changes.The first thing that was added by Niantic was a new loading screen which clearly shows we will be getting a Christmas or New Year event.This new loading screen came with one of the biggest silence breakers on second generation Pokemon that is Delibird.

As moving to second biggest change we come to see the New Set Of Moves are added to the APK.One move that excited everyone the most was Delibird’s “Present”. This gives us pretty much an idea that we would be seeing Delibird real soon.

Third major change that was updated in Pokemon Go APK is a New Item know Star Piece, not 100% sure what this item is used, but we believe it will be a Lucky Egg for Stardust. It comes in x1, x8 and x25 quantities and it’s now in the APK and in the code base, it’s referred to as.ITEM_STAR_PIECE.  upon further inspection of the APK, miners found it to be something completely else.They believe that Star Piece (item listed above) will be used as a Stardust gain booster, similar to how Lucky Eggs are used to boost XP gain!

With Generation 3 Pokemon, Niantic added one more addition and that is Real Time weather to make the Pokemon world more realistic and data miners were astonished by the fact that the weather effects have several levels, from 0 to 3, and that those levels fall into two severity categories: moderate and extreme. Also, it seems there is actually 7 weather effect, let’s see how will categories of weather affect the gameplay.

Niantic is also tackling a long-running issue with Pokemon Go storage space.With more Pokemon about to be introduced, Niantic is increasing the minimum storage capacity by 50 additional Pokemon, and the maximum storage by 500.”With the addition of Pokemon originally discovered in the Hoenn region, the need for more Pokemon Storage is greater than ever,” reads a Niantic post.

“You’ll now be able to store up to 1,500 Pokemon. We’ve also increased the minimum Pokemon Storage size by 50, so all Trainers will soon be able to carry 50 additional Pokemon.”Battle Parties are another new feature being tested by Niantic.

The new Battle Parties feature gives players the chance to create and name teams of up to six Pokemon. This will give Trainers quicker access to Gym and Raid battles.”We’re thrilled to announce that we’re also rolling out the first iteration of battle parties.”Battle parties are preset teams of up to six Pokemon that you are able to create and customize to fit your needs.

“Whether you want to create different parties for frequent Raid Battles, or have battle parties that take advantage of certain weather bonuses, this feature will make it easier than ever to quickly choose which Pokemon you bring to battle.

“During this beta phase, battle parties will be saved to your device, so you’ll need to reset your battle parties if you get a new device or use multiple devices to play Pokemon GO. Once the feature is fully launched, your battle parties will carry over to each device you log in with.”

A big holiday update is in the works, with more details to be shared “soon.As we can clearly see Niantic is actively expanding the Pokemon GO development team to build many more amazing updates in 2018.“Stay tuned for news next week about upcoming improvements to certain features.” and as a trainer, I hope we get something much better than a global event.What are your thoughts?Lemme hear you guys out in the comments or you can get connected with me on Snapchat-Vibsz16 and Instagram. Stay tuned.

All 50 Generation 3 Pokemon Which Are Available In Pokemon Go

Pokemon Go launched Generation 3 Pokemon, but there’s a catch to it.Only 50 Generation 3 Pokemon are released by Niantic.Niantic parent company behind Pokemon go launched the biggest update of 2017, It seems Niantic really loves to surprise its Player community in year’s last month. Niantic Launched 50 new Generation 3 Pokemon Go.With new amazing generation 3 Pokemon, Niantic included a really amazing Real-time weather system.

Treecko

Desc- TREECKO has small hooks on the bottom of its feet that enable it to scale vertical walls. This POKéMON attacks by slamming foes with its thick tail.

Type- Grass, No-252, Species- Wood Gecko Pokémon.

Grovyle 

Desc- The leaves growing out of GROVYLE’s body are convenient for camouflaging it from enemies in the forest. This POKéMON is a master at climbing trees in jungles.

Type- Grass, No-253, Species- Wood Gecko Pokémon.

Sceptile

Desc- The leaves growing on SCEPTILE’s body are very sharp edged. This POKéMON is very agile – it leaps all over the branches of trees and jumps on its foe from above or behind.

Type- Grass, No-254, Species- Forest Pokémon.

Torchic

Desc- TORCHIC sticks with its TRAINER, following behind with unsteady steps. This POKéMON breathes fire of over 1,800 degrees F, including fireballs that leave the foe scorched black.

Type- Fire, No-255, Species- Chick Pokémon.

Combusken

Desc- COMBUSKEN toughens up its legs and thighs by running through fields and mountains. This POKéMON’s legs possess both speed and power, enabling it to dole out ten kicks in one second.

Type- Fire and Fighting , No-256, Species- Young Fowl Pokémon.

Blaziken

Desc- In battle, BLAZIKEN blows out intense flames from its wrists and attacks foes courageously. The stronger the foe, the more intensely this POKéMON’s wrists burn

Type- Fire and Fighting , No-257, Species- Blaze Pokémon.

Mudkip

Desc- The fin on MUDKIP’s head acts as highly sensitive radar. Using this fin to sense movements of water and air, this POKéMON can determine what is taking place around it without using its eyes.

Type- Water, No-258, Species- Mud Fish Pokémon.

Marshtomp

Desc- The surface of MARSHTOMP’s body is enveloped by a thin, sticky film that enables it to live on land. This POKéMON plays in mud on beaches when the ocean tide is low.

Type- Water and Ground, No-259, Species- Mud Fish Pokémon.

Swampert

Desc- SWAMPERT is very strong. It has enough power to easily drag a boulder weighing more than a ton. This POKéMON also has powerful vision that lets it see even in murky water.

Type- Water and Ground, No-260, Species- Mud Fish Pokémon.

Poochyena

Desc- At first sight, POOCHYENA takes a bite at anything that moves. This POKéMON chases after prey until the victim becomes exhausted. However, it may turn tail if the prey strikes back.

Type- Dark , No-261, Species- Bite Pokémon.

Mightyena

Desc- MIGHTYENA gives obvious signals when it is preparing to attack. It starts to growl deeply and then flattens its body. This POKéMON will bite savagely with its sharply pointed fangs.

Type- Dark, No-262, Species- Bite Pokémon.

Zigzagoon

Desc- ZIGZAGOON restlessly wanders everywhere at all times. This POKéMON does so because it is very curious. It becomes interested in anything that it happens to see.

Type- Normal, No-263, Species- TinyRaccoon Pokémon.

Linoone

Desc- LINOONE always runs full speed and only in straight lines. If facing an obstacle, it makes a right-angle turn to evade it. This POKéMON is very challenged by gently curving roads.

Type- Normal, No-264, Species- Rushing Pokémon.

Wurmple

Desc- Using the spikes on its rear end, WURMPLE peels the bark off trees and feeds on the sap that oozes out. This POKéMON’s feet are tipped with suction pads that allow it to cling to glass without slipping.

Type- Bug, No-265, Species- Worm Pokémon.

Silcoon

Desc- SILCOON tethers itself to a tree branch using silk to keep from falling. There, this POKéMON hangs quietly while it awaits evolution. It peers out of the silk cocoon through a small hole.

Type- Bug, No-266, Species- Cocoon Pokémon.

Beautifly

Desc- BEAUTIFLY’s favorite food is the sweet pollen of flowers. If you want to see this POKéMON, just leave a potted flower by an open window. BEAUTIFLY is sure to come looking for pollen.

Type- Bug and Flying, No-267, Species- Butterfly Pokémon.

Cascoon

Desc- CASCOON makes its protective cocoon by wrapping its body entirely with a fine silk from its mouth. Once the silk goes around its body, it hardens. This POKéMON prepares for its evolution inside the cocoon.

Type- Bug, No-268, Species- Cocoon Pokémon.

Dustox

Desc- DUSTOX is instinctively drawn to light. Swarms of this POKéMON are attracted by the bright lights of cities, where they wreak havoc by stripping the leaves off roadside trees for food.

Type- Bug and Poison, No-269, Species- Poison Moth Pokémon.

Seedot

Desc- SEEDOT attaches itself to a tree branch using the top of its head. It sucks moisture from the tree while hanging off the branch. The more water it drinks, the glossier this POKéMON’s body becomes.

Type- Grass, No-273, Species- Acorn Pokémon.

Nuzleaf

Desc- NUZLEAF live in densely overgrown forests. They occasionally venture out of the forest to startle people. This POKéMON dislikes having its long nose pinched.

Type- Grass and Dark, No-274, Species- Wily Pokémon.

Shiftry

Desc- SHIFTRY is a mysterious POKéMON that is said to live atop towering trees dating back over a thousand years. It creates terrific windstorms with the fans it holds.

Type- Grass and Dark, No-275, Species- Wicked Pokémon.

Ralts

Desc- RALTS senses the emotions of people using the horns on its head. This POKéMON rarely appears before people. But when it does, it draws closer if it senses that the person has a positive disposition.

Type- Physic and Fairy, No-280, Species- Feeling Pokémon.

Kirlia

Desc- It is said that a KIRLIA that is exposed to the positive emotions of its TRAINER grows beautiful. This POKéMON controls psychokinetic powers with its highly developed brain.

Type- Physic and Fairy, No-281, Species- Emotion Pokémon.

Gardevoir

Desc- GARDEVOIR has the ability to read the future. If it senses impending danger to its TRAINER, this POKéMON is said to unleash its psychokinetic energy at full power.

Type- Physic and Fairy, No-282, Species- Embrace Pokémon.

Shroomish

Desc- SHROOMISH live in damp soil in the dark depths of forests. They are often found keeping still under fallen leaves. This POKéMON feeds on compost that is made up of fallen, rotted leaves.

Type- Grass, No-285, Species- Mushroom Pokémon.

Breloom

Desc- BRELOOM closes in on its foe with light and sprightly footwork, and then throws punches with its stretchy arms. This POKéMON’s fighting technique puts boxers to shame.

Type- Grass and Fighting, No-286, Species- Mushroom Pokémon.

Slakoth

Desc- SLAKOTH lolls around for over twenty hours every day. Because it moves so little, it does not need much food. This POKéMON’s sole daily meal consists of just three leaves.

Type- Normal, No-287, Species- Slacker Pokémon.

Vigoroth

Desc- VIGOROTH is always itching and agitated to go on a wild rampage. It simply can’t tolerate sitting still for even a minute. This POKéMON’s stress level rises if it can’t be moving constantly.

Type- Normal, No-288, Species- Wild Monkey Pokémon.

Slaking

Desc- SLAKING spends all day lying down and lolling about. It eats grass growing within its reach. If it eats all the grass it can reach, this POKéMON reluctantly moves to another spot.

Type- Normal, No-289, Species- Lazy Pokémon.

Makuhita

Desc- MAKUHITA is tenacious – it will keep getting up and attacking its foe however many times it is knocked down. Every time it gets back up, this POKéMON stores more energy in its body for evolving.

Type- Fighting, No-296, Sp