#background npcs. still better than the majority of games

[draconicace]

scarvi being so underbaked and full of glitches and downright baffling design decisions makes me so sad because like. the games are still fun to play. the story's pretty alright. the characters are great! imo these games have the most queer subtext of any mainline game so far! the amount of character design variance (especially in npcs) is super nice! trying to do a mass outbreak in paldea near a rock wall makes me want to bite my switch

[randomnameless]

Fates unironically did the "muhritocracy" schtick better than 3H lol; the vast majority of the playable Nohrian characters are commoners who got into high-ranking positions in the Nohrian army due to being exceptional soldiers and getting rewarded as such, whereas the only commoners on Adrestia's side that aren't turncoats (or fodder soldiers that are stated to exist only in throwaway dialogue from faceless NPCs) are Ladislava (non-character with no screentime, personality or even feats to support that she did anything to help the Adrestian army in any significant way), Fleche (slightly more of a character, still does nothing to help Adrestia), Randolph (does nothing to help and isn't even particularly well-recognized or rewarded for his skills, if him being jealous of his superiors is any indication), and Dorothea (only got to a high-ranking position due to prostituting herself in order to get into Garreg Mach, befriending the crown princess of the Empire, and being made into a general of the Adrestian army due to nepotism from that same crown princess).

What makes it even worse is that Nohr rewarding merit for anyone and everyone, regardless of social class or status, is an irrelevant bit of background worldbuilding, whereas Edelgard wanting to reward commoners' merits is one of her most consistently-repeated ideals, but the only non-nobleborn CF playable character only got so far in life due to (literal) peepee-sucking and nepotism, and even the NPCs are either featless non-characters (Fleche and Ladislava) or complain about not being recognized enough despite his skill/is recognized enough and Edelgard just decided a power-hungry, immoral dumbass was meritant enough to be made into a general in her army (Randolph); shouldn't the order have been reversed? Like, the game where one of the main characters' principle ideals is to recognize and reward anyone who's skilled should be the one to have most of her allies be commoners, whereas the one where the concept of merit is completely irrelevant to the story, themes and characters could have just had the characters be mostly nobles instead of consistently making them commoners just for subtle worldbuilding? It's weird.

Want to see an upstanding posterchild of Nohrian muhritocracy?

Chaos will always topple the ones who don't earn their status. It's folks like you and me who rise to the top. And the way we do that is by cutting down all our enemies.

I won't stop at captain. I will keep on climbing!

I'll be a king someday. I'll make it happen—you wait and see.

More seriously -

It's all about the what is actually rewarded.

I've already joked a bit about it, but basically Randolph and Nopes!Caspar want to demonstrate their muhrit by... invading countries, killing refugees or randoms who returned in their home after being ousted by the Imperial army.

Much muhrit, very uwu.

Take Whodislava, as you mentioned, bar being a named NPC who as less screentime than Kronya and is supposed to be a sad casualty for war, while being the posterchild of Supreme Leader's muhritocracy, we don't a thing about her. What has she done to be granted the rank of general? What are her achievements?

At times I'm pretty sure TS was partly written to laugh and mock FE16, but Avlora is basically in the same situation, save that Avlora has more plot relevance and exists bar being a sign the devs hold that's written "please feel bad about this character you've never interacted with and only has 5 lines of dialogue and is only here to garner sympathy when she dies I mean even Fates!Candace had more presence than her".

Avlora was an orphan, trained under Groma - a famous general - who continued to train even when Groma retired, became Adre- Aesfrost's top general and defeated Maxwell in a duel. We have her story - she came from nothing - her feats - she defeated the strongest warrior in Glenbrook - and the entire meritocracy angle sticks : Avlora was a nobody made general because she kicked asses.

The meritocratic Adrestia NPCs?

Randolph... tries to get muhrit, but fails as we protect people and only laments about his status in his House (as he is fucking killing people to gain more status, like dude, priorities?) - so in way, both Randy and Flèche are imo, counterexemples of Supreme Leader's muhritocracy : Randolph kills peons and invades an orphanage to demonstrate his "muhrit" because, otherwise, without any muhrit, iirc it's implied he and his sister will be demoted to randoms in House Bergliez (even if Flèche is supposed to be younger than Cyril iirc? Like how the frick do you want a kid of 12 to demonstrate her muhrit, else she'll be kicked out of her house?).

Whodislava... dies heroically, at least that's what we're supposed to get from her very "please cry" cutscene when she dies in front of Supreme Leader in Tru Piss - as Rhea and her family + knights tried to retake their ancestral home and she prevented them from doing so - or it's the same nonsense as "we killed Ferdie professor :(", we are supposed to feel bad about people who were fighting alongside a demonic beast when, in FE16, we fucking know what they are.

Since the FE5 banner released earlier this week, FE5 paints "honorable" Reinhardt as a pitiful man, because no matter how honorable or kickass or kind Reinhardt was, when it came to defect to protect children from being kidnapped or stop the general nonsense the Empire was pulling in Thracia... Reinhardt refused to do so, pretexting remaining by Ishtar's side, and when that became impossible, he choose death over rescuing toddlers. His situation is supposed to be compared to his sister's Olwen, who, when she discovers the truth of what is happening in Thracia, ditches the Empire to help Leif rescue the children - and, imo, Amalda (who's not in FEH yet!) who is also, basically, a commander who plays a larger Camus role as in, she tries to appeal to her Lord to stop the child hunts, her Lord tells her to eat shit, and when asked why she still fights and why she doesn't defect, Amalda says if she does so, her knights will be killed + Amalda appears as a NPC allied unit in a map to hunt bandits to save a village.

So, compared to those ladies who defect or try to protect whoever they can protect - their soldiers AND civilians who are being trampled by their own army - Reinhardt who doesn't do a thing and picks "death" is, as Olwen's ending puts it "pitiful".

Back to your ask anon, even if I disgress from the meritocracy angle - Flèche, Whodislava and Randy are such non-entities compared to characters with 6 lines from FE5 that even if they try to pull the "I have to do this for my family" or the "I came from nothing and still help my emperor because I am thankful to her for having raised me from being a commoner to a general", our Adrestians NPC feel very, very flat.

Are we supposed to cry for Hans's failed dreams of becoming a king when we kill him? No, but Randy and Whodislava's deaths are overplayed with so much pathos that the game is basically telling you "and here you should feel bad because they died" but... what is more important, the fact they tried to unlock a lot of achievments to demonstrate their "muhrit", or what the hell they were ready to do to unlock said achievments?

As for Doro needing to befriend people to enter Garreg Mach, remember that Doro, being touted as another example of the muhritocracy Supreme Leader's Adrestia aims to be, had to engage in sex work from a young age, to reach the diva status - which has very disturbing implications, that are glossed over because that's FE16 for you. Are we supposed to believe Doro "worked hard" to be able to catch the eye of some deranged fucks when she was a pre-teen to become a diva - or, as Manu puts it in a support that cannot be achieved in Tru Piss, muhrit alone doesn't work to become a diva, and it's actually a pretty font to hide the "dark" deeds young singers in Mittelfrank have to do to reach the "diva" status?

Minor tidbit though, Doro is famous enough for being Supreme Leader's dearest friend but she isn't promoted to "general" in Tru Piss, she's only BESF who's not, at least in her bio, a general Post TS.

Imo the question you raise is actually relevant to how empty Supreme Leader's muhritocracy's ideal is - in both game Ferdie has to remind her that to build "muhrit" or for commoners to be able to gather "muhrit" as nobles do, they have to start at the same lever, and receive education as nobles do.

IIRC, in Supreme Bullshit, despite their feats, Hubert tells Barney they're only a commoner - not even a worthy commoner like Doro - but a fucking random - when muhrit wise, Barney should at least be named general!

In both games, Linhardt is a general... but we don't see anything from him, bar his tropey "i want to study crests and nap and i dgaf about anything else" traits - if that's all there is to him, how and why the crap was he made general??

Why, it's almost as if "muhrit" is a smokescreen to hide the fact that the one who chooses/picks who gets to be important from who isn't does it on their own terms just like irl

What is merit, really? Who gets to decide what is merit from what isn't? Or who is the "best" at doing things, from another?

It's another instance of, imo, Fodlan's artificial feel, the game raises a question/issue, and starts some smoke about it, but without tackling said issues seriously we're left with "I agree and think starvation shouldn't exist anymore" milquetoast and cliché opinions that give the illusion this game is "very deep" when it's just, a puff of smoke.

[herboretum]

since i’m full of hatred and negativity i will be answering this

(to emphasize Like these are just nuances and inconsistencies i’ve found with myself and the fandom Like genuinely idrgaf i could care less about any of the points i will make in retrospect)

the anthropomorphization of unpleasant from this fandom has genuinely WRECKED its character and made it. not that unique compared to the other npcs. like i dont know it being this like fucking gooner-type character is so awful? and i really hate it? if anything that trope given to unpleasant should have stayed with scag and ended with her, since she’s a genuine npc with more writing and thoughts attached

i saw people bring up this point again and im glad but HELLO!!!!! LETS STOP JUST ASSOCIATING LAMPERT AS WALLTER AND MARK'S SON? EVEN WHEN IT HAS BEEN DISCREDITED /MULTIPLE/ TIMES? like DAMN this fandom only attributes characteristics if it is attached to literally anyone else besides that person. its horrible. people NEED to learn to find the balance between having fun with that headcanon while also acknowledging lampert as his own separate person that is (to be quite frank) not even associated with them that much in canon

(+ people saying that the headcanon of lampert being wallmark's son is canon and fucking REPLYING saying to people who ship wallter & lampert or mark & lampert that they shouldn't. you are fucking embarrassing)

more of a fandom thing but yall ship too much lmfaoo. like guys i promise, you can interpret some of these relationships as genuine friendships i promise you'll live. can we stop with the rhetoric that just because two characters have good dynamics with each other that means that theyre in love (heavily side-eyeing protoscag and lampfected and milby dare i say)

the regretevator fandom is EXACTLY like the phighting fandom with how shipping is handled. i mean this in not a positive way

people gotta stop relying on the wiki for information man. so much lore from yeucc's tumblr has been retconned and at this point, when there's now WRITERS for the game that are actually keeping tabs, all if not the good majority of what is said on the wiki should be taken with a grain of salt. nowadays the lore is unpredictable, and only a select few (by few i mean like. 4 out of the 17 npcs) has had their lore expanded on significantly

general facts i think is fine so long as theres an annotation backing it but my point still stands . moreso with lore generally

also saw this point being brought up in the qrts but the demonization and infantilization of certain characterss (cough spud pilby pest and poob) is like. wild. i dunno i can't say much since i'm very fortunate enough to not have seen that much but my god is it prevalent from what people are saying

with pest especially since he has npd and aspd i do think that. people generally associating him as evil has NOT been the greatest thing, especially since it reduces him to a stigma of people with personality disorders which is horrific and terrifying. idk what goes on in the background but i feel like the fandom + yeucc & the people working on regretevator should have done more research on the disorders and consulted people who do have these issues better instead of using those labels haphazardly

another thing i will and always will be vocal (dog on) about the axosun team is them keeping gnarpy. like there was no reason to keep xem in other than for revenue gain let's be honest and True to ourselves. the philosophy "ohh but you can separate the art from the artist!!!!" i feel does not really apply to this scenario cause xe got a whole ass revamp despite the obvious fact that it STILL is gnarpy, a character created by a bad person regardless of the ownership change and discredited history. its the underlying thought that they were essentially built off a bad origin if this makes any sense. idk i think it wouldve been better for everyone if xe were just removed ENTIRELY from the game but. you do you i guess

lastly in this essay: i think more people should Be Kinder to each other in this fandom <3 peace and love

[somekindofsentience]

why secret anger is a better tool than secret sadness, or hiding rage under a persona of nurture.

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR: OMORI, DEMON SLAYER AND OSHI NO KO. I WILL BE SPOILING THE LATTER TWO'S MANGA SO BEAR IN MIND THAT WATCHING THE ANIME ONLY WILL NOT PREVENT YOU FROM FURTHER SPOILERS.

WARNING: DISCUSSIONS OF SUICIDE, GRIEF, LOSS AND MENTAL ILLNESS

We've all seen the character who has secretly been very sad their entire lives. Fuck, some of us are that character, and maybe have been for a while.

It's relatively easy to hide a sad backstory for a character, and it opens room to give them depth later on. And, unique to side or background characters, it allows the protagonist (and by extension, the reader) to connect further with them, giving the façade of plot and sub-plot depth. Of course, it's perfectly possible to do this well - it's possible to do every trope well - but it's also very possible to do this poorly.

And... it's so boring.

Like come on. Sad woman sad. Very sad. We're all sad, because we've been told to feel sad by the author. How sad.

I believe that there are far more fascinating tropes to explore, with much more depth - and I'd like to talk about one of my favourite forms of this. Hiding inner anger is infinitely more interesting, especially if the character can hide it well.

I've chosen three characters to discuss for this - Mari from OMORI, Ai Hoshino from Oshi No Ko, and Shinobu Kochou from Demon Slayer. I think all three of them perfectly capture the "hidden anger" trope very well, and I'll connect all of them, which allows us to understand the purpose of this character archetype overall.

Mari is an incredibly complex character, one whose complexity is actually very easy to miss. Due to Sunny's unreliable narration, we perceive Mari as perfect, since he blocks out any of her personality which mimics the truth. In Headspace, she's an incredibly default NPC, acting as a pillar for quest clues, healing and saving the game. As a player, you come to see her as some sort of comfort, a recurring symbol in irregular places. This evidently changes when Sunny discovers the truth, and we come to accept what he has done. However, Mari is never properly portrayed in the game - we only see her through the lens of the others - which means a lot of the fandom doesn't quite understand her character, let alone understand the selfish nature of perfectionism. There is nothing in the game that suggests she had external pressure causing her perfectionism (although I personally headcanon this), so we must go off it being internally driven.

Mari is not a tragically sad, or gorgeously happy character. She has been punishing herself with pent-up anger. Imagine you've been practicing something for months, over and over, only to find out your duet partner doesn't care anywhere near as much as you do. No-one cares as much as you do. All those months of practice ultimately mean nothing. Every time you pushed yourself to play the same song on repeat until it drove you insane mean nothing, because of this one moment, one stupid angry moment from your brother.

Despite all this, Mari isn't allowed to be angry, which is why the Truth segments still show her acting in an adult fashion (taking the unused Truth descriptions as canon).

In the photos of the truth, Mari looks like a disappointed mother, telling off Sunny. She says she "isn't finished talking...", like a parent. Mari was fifteen when she died. She had no outlet for this rage at all, no time to be a teenager, when she was the mother figure of the group. Her character trope as the "nurturer" trapped her in a hellish cycle of perfectionism, hiding everything until her absolute breaking point - which lead to her death.

In Oshi no Ko, Ai Hoshino is a perfect mother, perfect idol, perfect person. This seems widely agreed by literally everyone, and the manga follows her son's attempts to avenge her murder, and her daughter's attempts to follow in her footsteps. Although the goals of the children change partway through, when Ruby learns the truth of Ai's death and Aqua loses faith in his scheme... Ai remains a pillar of gold. And yet, we find out during the creation of the movie on Ai's life that people around her suspect she was hiding anger.

While I have perhaps... fallen behind... in my reading of Oshi No Ko, I'm just going to go purely off this panel and the previous chapters to analyse. Forgive me, I completely forgot which character says this, everyone's hair looks the same and I can't tell if it's Akane or the lady that adopted Aqua and Ruby. It's been a while.

Ultimately, Ai Hoshino is confused, and this makes her angry. We know she's never felt love before in her life - not until she had her children - which would be incredibly frustrating. You see everyone around you experience happiness and joy, and yet life keeps reminding you that your childhood was shitty, you work in the most insane industry of all time and you're exhausted. There's some implication that Ai's relationship with Aqua and Ruby's father was complicated, so perhaps that's the reason she's furious.

Regardless, Ai is far more complicated than every character portrays her as, which makes her interesting. As a reader, you smell a rat instantly. Something is off about the way she is glamourised, and you know you're missing a piece of this puzzle.

Shinobu outright states that she's been angry her entire life, at least since Kanae's death. She's been mimicking Kanae's sweet smile as an act of remembrance, but Shinobu is not happy, not calm, not sweet like Kanae was. Now, Shinobu isn't the most nurturing figure - at least not to Tanjirou, and not much to Kanao either - but she still acts in that calm, motherly demeanor, mimicking her older sister. In that way, Shinobu is also a perfectionist - she's just got a standard to match up to.

Shinobu is often mocked in the fandom for being "weak", but I think that's not the right way to understand her character. The fact that she doesn't fight off raw strength alone is symbolic, because it tricks the reader into thinking she's sweet and calm. No-one who is that weak can be full of such rage... right?

Mari and Ai Hoshino have further links due to the way they are portrayed after their death - as perfect. Sunny heavily misconstrues his sister, acting as an unreliable narrator for her personality, and it seems as though no-one will ever know what Ai was truly like inside. Instead, characters remark on their outward traits, which fandoms then fall into... guys. you're literally being trapped by the same trap their families and friends fell into. you're being gaslit by two dead women. please try to look past the silly little mirror they tried to reflect themselves in.

Now, what is the purpose of this archetype? They aren't main characters, and they aren't there as a fake display of depth, so what are they there for? All three of these characters die to further the plot - but more importantly, they act as a catalyst for character change in their sibling or children. Mari's death single-handedly destroys an entire friendship group, but it is also the reason they are brought back together. She alone allows Sunny to forgive himself, and within that, he must accept that she wasn't perfect, just as he isn't. Ai's death ruins Aqua and Ruby, but it gives them goals, something to work toward (symbolised with stars in their eyes). Shinobu's death allows Kanao to step forward and confront Akaza, which changes Kanao as a character, but it also ties up Kanae's subplot neatly.

To the player/reader, their deaths are far more important than their lives, but there is much more to explore in their lives than people understand. This is true complexity, and it's frustrating when it's brushed over in aus or fanfics.

Please, dig deeper. Look harder. Turn these dolls into humans, because they are corpses for a reason.

can you tell i find scary women pretty aggagagahgagsa

song i listened to while writing this: テレパス by Yorushika

The song is very good at capturing loneliness, and rage is quite an isolating emotion. Mari, Ai and Shinobu are all hiding an inner version of themselves, and they took that form to their graves.

[nattosushi]

Baldur's Gate 2/3 Original character: Dahlia Kiraed

She is a representative for both Baldur's Gate 2 and Baldur's Gate 3, although her Baldur's Gate 3 appearance would be more akin to an AU. But I have a lot of crazy head canon.

Basic background (Baldur's Gate 2 setting)

Name: Dahlia Kiraed

Race: Human

Age: 23 (two years older than Gorion's ward)

Profession: mage

Profession before adventuring: scribe and clerk in a small shop that deals with magical items and scroll in Beregost

Religious affiliation: Azuth

Alignment: true neutral

Biography

Dahlia is the eldest daughter of Alianna with a follow priest of Bhaal from a one night stand. Even prior to her father's death at a very young age, she had little interaction with him; while her mother gave her the minimum of care. Dahlia would grow up in a temple of Bhaal with many other Bhaalspawns. Amidst them would be her mother's twin children with Bhaal: Elena and Sarevok.

Upon the temple being attacked by Gorion and a group of Harpers, Dahlia would be taken in by Kolnath (an elven mage whose friend knew Gorion). Kolnath knew her distant relatives from many generations ago. She would spend the next few years of her life with him in Beregost, before they parted way with her being sent to an academy in Baldur's Gate, while he would return to his city of origin. In the academy, Dahlia would become a worshiper of Azuth. After her graduation, she would work for a fellow worshiper of Azuth, who opened up a small shop dealing with magical artefact in Beregost.

At 22, she would be reunited with her half sister, who was Gorion's ward, and choose to adventure with her. Even though Dahlia is very fond of her sister, she does often point out that the other is very naïve and sheltered. Her relationship with Sarevok in the third game would be much more antagonistic, and she would even say that Sarevok should have been killed all these years ago.

Later on, she would reveal that Kolnath actually intended to kill Sarevok, but was not able to. She ended up saving Kolnath's life, which would be one of the reasons that the other took her in and raised her up. As she is two years older than both Elena and Sarevok, she has a much better recollection of what was going on in the temple. However, she also chose to hide her knowledge and only revealed it when she has to.

In Baldur's Gate 2, I actually pair her up with Adrian Sianodel, which is a NPC mod created by Raella in Spellhold studio. This is one of the best mod I have ever played and the writer did a really excellent job in creating a character that is civilized evil. Unfortunately, I am not able to contact Raella, the author of the mod. Not that I would be posting my fan fiction, but I would like to have that option.

After being captured along with Elena, Dahlia would be given to the duergars, where she was obliged to clean and cook for them. This then allowed her to met Adrian. After they escaped from the dungeon, the two of them would spend more time together, eventually becoming lovers. Once the whole issue of the Throne of Bhaal is resolved, Dahlia and Adrian would get married, and eventually settling down in Waterdeep, with Dahlia opening up a small shop that deals with magical artefact and scrolls.

Basic background (Baldur's Gate 3 setting)

Note: The Baldur's Gate 3 setting requires a much more major suspension of belief, and is probably a bit more idealistic by making Raphael into a much nicer character then what he is. Even though he is still evil by the contracts he deals with, as well as causing numerous suffering, the pairing would work with the idea that there is real love between them. Rather than saying his nature changed, it is the idea that there is a slight exception.

Somehow, Dahlia would know Raphael and is even in a relationship with him. Instead of staying with Raphael, however, she insists on travelling with Elena. After the issue of the Bhaalspawn war being resolved, Elena and Sarevok would come to conflict due to the latter deciding to serve Bhaal again. Both sisters would try but fail to stop Sarevok. Elena would be in a comatose state while Dahlia became Sarevok's prisoner, where she endured months of torture before she disappeared.

Dahlia has returned to Raphael, who declared her as his wife in a ceremony with many witnesses. Despite Raphael punishing and even killing the many that insults or even tries to attack her, her unusual position means that she is in great danger from his enemies. As a result, if she is to leave the House of Hope without Raphael, she would always be accompanied by numerous guards.

Since she is never one that yearned for adventure and is happy to stay in a well provided home, she is able to deal with the restrain of her new life rather well. Raphael naturally provides her with whatever luxuries she desires, as well as taking her out with him. In addition, she is able to accept the power disparity in their relationship, where Raphael sees her as much younger and even a bit hopeless. Even though there are times when she disagrees with Raphael's action, she knows when to speak up and when to let go. Dahlia is fully aware of Raphael's evil nature and the various sufferings he would do. She accepts this and admits that she is rather hypocritical by doing this, since her method of dealing with it is to not witness it.

She and Haarlep actually manage to get on rather well due to recognising the state of mutualism they could gain with one another. They are both influential with Raphael in their way; and are both aware that they would not be of a threat to one another, resulting in them being allies.

Additional notes

The interesting thing about this pairing is that if you take away the issue of Raphael being a demon and she is literally living in hell (albeit comfortably), the possible conflict in their relationship is that of one partner being much older and more powerful, and the other has to accept whether they able to be in a more submissive position due to the fact that it would not be possible for them to catch up with the other in term of their power and experience. Also, there is the additional issue of the more powerful partner wanting them to stay home more, due to being worried about the danger.

For Dahlia, she is able to accept this because her personality is already one that is happy to stay at home and she can accept his method of love, which might be a bit smothering at times. In a fan fiction I recently wrote, she would be discussing about this with Isela (Tav) and she would point out that it is different for Isela due to her having known Astarion in a very different way, whereas she always knew Raphael as who he is. In a rather funny way, the story can translated to her telling Isela that she is not saying don't be a housewife, but don't be a housewife without thinking about what it really means.

The illustration

This picture is really more Baldur's Gate 3 rather than 1 or 2, since mortal Dahlia ended up living comfortably, but never lavishly. My initial idea was some type of dramatic ring of fire due to Raphael, but I was not able to get my description right.

Dahlia is a brunette and since she worshiped Azuth, I tend to describe her as wearing blue. Although I don't know if she is still able to be a mage given that she has entered into a union with a demon and tied her life to him. So would she be a warlock? Since she is with Raphael, she is naturally living a very lavish life, which would be why she has numerous jewelleries in her hair, body and dress. The background is what I imagine to be her quarters in the House of Hope, which Raphael decorated with rich furnishing for her.

This drawing is meant to be done in crayon (well, AI crayon style).

[coleblackblood]

Honestly, this sums up my biggest complaints about the game. Is it fun? Sure, it's not too bad. I like the combat, it's fun feeling like a badass tearing through enemies and being able to up the challenge if I want it at any given time.

But... it doesn't feel like Dragon Age. (I started typing more and definitely got into a nerd ramble, so putting it beneath a read-more. )

They took away almost all of the major decisions of the previous game - the Divine, the Circle, Mages vs Templars .... none of that mattered in the end, despite them having such a major impact on the game.

I can't even tell who's supposed to be Dalish anymore, because their identifiers - specific accents and ways of pronouncing the Elven language - have been eliminated in favor of mixing a bunch of others together. Even the vallaslin doesn't seem to matter anymore, and has no significance. (There was one supposed "Dalish elf" who spoke with an Orlesian accent. Not a random character in the background, but a prominent NPC. I have no idea how that works, given the history of how poorly elves are treated in Orlais and its primarily cityscape existence. Unless there were Dalish hiding out somewhere in the country, maybe. But why would they sound Orlesian and not Dalish? Ferelden Dalish didn't sound like Ferelden folk.)

The Blight... honestly it feels like they're just trying to re-use as much as possible with bringing that back. And not well. Making it such a prominent factor, changing the Darkspawn so they look like magically risen dead rather than corrupted, monstrous beings (don't even get me started on that jester-looking ogre), and shoe-horning it in as - once again - a "major threat" that used to just be considered a "rarely faced threat outside of the Deep Roads"... (Also - can someone clarify for me when Solas *ever* mentioned the Elven gods using the Blight as a weapon before this game? They act like it's always been that way but I genuinely have no memory of it ever being stated. Tyrannical rulers and slavers, powerful mages? Yes. Using the Blight to control people? No.) (In fact, for the longest time, it was meant to be sourced - according to Andrastian lore - from Tevinter Magisters entering the now-named Black City, trying to witness the gods, and being corrupted for it, resulting in the Blight, so... maybe they're looking to cross over the two religions?)

The hand-holding and prompting is ridiculous. I turned off Hints, and I still get my companions going "We should use this tool there" or "We need to go back" long before I get a chance to try and figure out anything for myself, or when I try to explore.

Mind, I've only played a few hours in the game, so maybe it'll get better as I go. But as of right now?

It doesn't feel like Dragon Age. If anything, it feels like a very bland attempt, at best.

On its own though? Not a bad game.

Gods I feel you I'm only 10 hours in after having received the game as a gift and I REALLY try to like it but it just ... doesn't feel like Dragon Age. Characters know stuff they shouldn't know about, the game keeps talking down to me, nothing I did in the previous games mattered, the tone is completely different, the mature storytelling of the previous games seems to be missing so far & what I heard so far of how the lore and the characters from previous games have been handled is honestly the worst part and breaks my heart. idk even if i wanna finish the game at this point anymore, I'm just kinda ... sad.

I'm so sad and disappointed, too, I remember our conversations, fics, and headcanons about DA! We were so excited and happy, because Inquisition, DA2, and DAO were genuinely well-made and aimed at pleasing the fans, despite their faults.

DATV is a good action game, no doubt about that. The combat is fun, there is a lot to explore and discover, and many locations are beautiful, even though some are terrible to navigate (Dock Town's structure makes no sense). But that's it - it's a good action game with the name "Dragon Age" pasted on it. It doesn't feel like it's part of the series, it constantly treats the player like an idiot, some references to past games and characters are literally hidden in the brief descriptions of the mementos, and there is even a Glossary to make sure the new players don't get frustrated.

Everything is safe and aseptic, cleaned of every deep piece of lore that could have scared new fans into buying or continuing the game. Even the banters lack the depth of the previous games.

A good game company should lure new players in not by rejecting their past entries, but by making them look even more interesting with their sequels.

Bioware wasn't afraid of offering piece of lore after piece of lore in Inquisition - it was a game set in a precise moment, whose prologue was directly tied to the events of the previous game, and new players had to accept this if they decided to buy it and play it. If they liked that premise, all that information and those details, then they were more than welcome - they were encouraged! - to go back, try the older games, and see how it had all started. It was a game made for the fans the company had already managed to win over, not for possible fans who may or may not bring new money in.

In DATV the new players can jump right in after quickly learning who Solas is and what he's trying to do, and old fans are left with an empty shell, with minor references that are supposed to make us feel happy and accomplished peppered here and there, while all our past choices and our favorite characters are forgotten or brought back with a terrible case of amnesia. It's lazy, infuriating, and very sad, and it smells of reboot, because the new devs probably realized they couldn't keep up with the amount of lore and choices the series contain, and they needed to start anew.

[dreamerkitty]

Is time for an iceberg baybeeee! I’ve seen some 2kki ones before but I found them both a bit too boring or tame so I tried my best to make my own! Sorry if I missed anything good..

I tried to order everything by how well they’re known as well as how creepy they are

Spoilers I guess, and cw blood, death, decapitation and scary imagery. I try to mention all the warnings in each point so please be careful if you’re sensitive when looking these up.

Sky:

Smile-san: A static npc in the Flying Fish World. Laughs creepily every so often and reacts strongly to the telephone effect with laughs of different speeds and tempos that overlap each other.

Not reeeally a sequel: A simple point. Yume 2kki doesn’t include any story elements, locations or characters from Yume Nikki and is simply a spiritual successor in style.

Ending -1: Around the dream world, Uro can find three secret rooms that are quite quaint. But if one uses the glasses effect in the rooms, it will reveal a green seed at the centre, spewing gas and playing an ominous tone. If one finds all of these and goes to the balcony in Uro’s room, she will return with a creepy face and go to bed. After the screen fades out and in again, the seed is now visible in the room and the door slams shut. This leads to a distorted and creepy credits roll.

Dogboa: A creature that can be seen in the Sky Kindgom that moves about sporadically at the edge of the screen in one section. It’s a reference to Uboa but a much less scary experience.

Zalgo: A secret room can be found in the Magnet Room if one follows certain steps. Inside you must find your way to a teleporter in a time limit with an ominous face in the background. This face glitches over time and more blood appears on the ground alongside ominous and stressful music.

Urotsuki is a doll: In ending 2, once Uro collects and drops off all her effects, she will find a set of stairs on the balcony in the real world. Jumping off these, Uro falls, with npcs from the dream world appearing. With a thud, it reveals that Uro was a toy that fell from a claw game machine and was won by a little girl. The girl takes her home and is next seen in bed with the Uro toy on the floor. A window that resembles Madotsuki’s jumper can also be seen in this ending. However, it’s never stated whether this ending is canon or not.

Surimuki murder victim: Surimuki is an npc found in the library and Broken Faces area. When interacting with her book, text appears that says ‘I got scraped’ followed by a giggle and an image of the girl with a gash in the side of her head and blood down her body. Her statement makes it seem like she was murdered by someone else but in a recent update she was added to the Monochrome school rooftop, perhaps implying she took her own life instead.

Numerous devs: Another simple point. Numerous people are allowed to work on Yume 2kki. This results in varying quality and ideas. Some critique this since some additions make the game feel very amateur and all over the place.

Dark Museum face: In the Dark Museum, one can hear a horrid sound and if Uro goes near it, she can see a red and white deformed face twitching.

2kki isn’t very original: What it says on the tin, some areas can be blatant rip offs of Yume Nikki worlds such as a neon area, a white desert monochrome area or a checkered tile path. Some areas do this better than others but some seem like the creator has no imagination of their own...

Dress up rooms: The Dressing Room from Urotsuki’s dream apartments lets Uro dress up in (cute!) outfits. Some of these are basic costumes, some are based on minigame characters and a majority are outfits of other fangame protagonists. They’re mostly a lot of early games but do include still popular ones like .flow and Yume Nisshi.

Grey Hoodie Boy: A boy found in the Glitch Ending, he was the original protagonist of Yume 2kki before Uro

Strangler eyes: Also known as Marginal Vivid Worker. They give the Marginal effect and overall have a very unnerving appearance. An image in the library shows the worker strangling three women(?) as blood spurts from their heads.

Kamen’s death is permanent: Kamen Eshi is a painter found in the Art Gallery, he is one of the rare npcs that once killed, will never come back in the current playthrough. Once killed, he will splash red paint(hmm) onto his canvas. Killing him unlocks a Kura Puzzle so it’s a tough choice to make...

Unused effects: Unused effects can be found as sprites or facesets in the games files. Some of these include: a camera head, a scooter, a bride outfit and a utility knife.

Variable 44: A randomised variable (number) that is decided at the beginning of each dream. This variable decides appearances of things such as the nexus background, the appearance of npcs and the appearance of areas. (Sounds cooler than it actually is...)

Combination effects: Visual changes to using two certain effects at once. They are wolf and bike, twintails and glasses, cake and haniwa, and teru teru bozu and red riding hood. They have unique animations but don’t do much too different than the original effects.

Uboa coming out your ears: Kinda linked to 2kki isn’t very original. The devs seem to loooooove girls in rooms with light switches that change into monsters. I’ve heard some people love Uboa clones but... I think it’s awfully predictable at this point... Events in 2kki like this include: Seishonen, older versions of Marina’s house and Ahogeko’s house.

Trans Uro: There are multiple effects that turn Uro into a boy which allows her to use male bathrooms. Unlike Madotsuki, she can’t use male bathrooms regularly in her dream. She also has feminine effects too like the Maiko or Twintails effects. One can theorise Uro is trans and that these forms in her dreams are what she prefers or who she once was.

Provost-san’s gender: An npc from The Docks. Provost-san has an ambiguous appearance with apparently the japanese fanbase preferring male and the western fanbase preferring female.

Majora Moon: A moon found in the Eyeball archives looks very similar to the moon from The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. This moon also appears by the rabbit Usamimi and could be a reference to the japanese folklore of rabbits living on the moon.

Trans Seishonen: An npc from Urotsuki’s Dream Apartments called Seishonen takes on the appearance of a blue haired boy. However when using the glasses or invisible effect, they reveal themselves to be a red/orange haired girl. The fact they become a girl when they think Uro isn’t there (invisible) may show that they’re embarrassed or self conscious about presenting as female.

Dice Effect: A recent new effect and the first new one in a while. Urotsuki turns into a dice that can flip itself to roll a new number.

Aojiru has to die: In the Hospital, if Uro interacts with the bed in the room with Aojiru, she will be transported to an inescapable room. If Uro interacts with them, she will atomatically kill him with a chainsaw, even if she doesn’t have that effect yet. This could show Uro’s feelings towards Aojiru or perhaps reference to the illness they may have and that they’re going to die soon anyway.

Tip:

Blood Sacrifice: An event from Blood World. Uro will be transported to an area full of white ghost creatures with blood dripping from their eyes. Behind a bigger creature, an altar covered in blood and surrounded in swords(?) can be seen. If Uro chainsaws the big creature, the music will become darker and the small creatures will chase Uro. Once caught, Uro will wake up.

Old effect designs: Effects such as the spacesuit, bunny and insect effects used to have old designs. Some changes were simply better sprites but one notable one is the insect where Uro’s appearance has changed massively. The old effect seemed more of a costume than a full transformation.

Killing your reflection: In the Day and Night towers, there is a room where Uro will be reflected wherever she is. Certain effects will show her reflection with an opposite effect like the stretch and child effects. Uro can use the chainsaw on her reflection, however, it causes two screams with both Uros disappearing and Uro waking up.

Victim: An npc from the Snowy Forest. He can be found by his car in the early time of the area. However, due to the progressing time in this area, if Uro waits long enough, he can be found hanging by a nearby tree. If Uro uses the telephone effect however, he will pick up the phone and be saved.

High Priestess event: A stressful event from the Forest Carnival. In an area with faceless Virgin Mary statues, Uro must chainsaw dressers while being chased by numerous fast blob chasers. These dressers pour blood once chainsawed. If Uro is touched, the crowd will cheer loudly and the screen will go darker (which can happen around 1-4 times until she is forced to wake up). If Uro suceeds, the screen will fade to black and show six npcs, the exact same number as the dressers and it is implied that Uro killed them during the event to please the crowd.

The Monster’s Jaw: An ominous looking monster from the Forest World though it’s really quite peaceful. Uro can use any effect and interact with the edge of the jaw to see a scene from where she got the effect in the first place. A lot of these involve the npcs you get effects from sleeping which is absolutely adorable.

March of Progress: An event where Uro parodies the famous march of progress as different stages of mankind. A very unsettling event that ends with a giant, blank Uro head watching over a homosapien Uro.

Mother’s two screams: An npc from Urotsuki’s Dream Apartments is a mother with a foetus visible in her tummy. The room is also full of a pink liquid that floods the floor, blood stains in the water and a bloody tube emerging from the wall. If Uro chainsaws the mother, two screams will be heard, even though the baby is just a foetus.

Wataru: A developer who once worked on 2kki and their works were beloved. They stopped adding to the game and all their worlds have been removed.

Drowning: A removed event where Uro could drown in the Depths (although she got up again once the event ended). Since this was in a wataru map, it was too removed.

Underwater Amusement Park dungeon: A very well known event. In the depths of the Underwater Amusement Park, Uro will find a prison with children and later skeletons in. If Uro continues, she will find herself dropped onto a pillar on a conveyer belt. Two children are on pillars beside her and both are slowly crushed by pillars from above leaving an imprint of them on the pillar. A pillar appears above Uro and crushes her too, leaving her mark on the pillar and waking Uro up.

Oni Musume is Yume’s daughter: Yume and Oni Musume are two npcs from the Dark Room. Wallpapers call Yume the ‘Director’ and Oni Musume ‘Director’s daughter’. Yume also sits outside Oni Musume’s room, maybe keeping an eye on her.

Mary’s Song for Ib: In the Eyeball Archives, Uro can find a bar where a musician will play. If Uro pays them, they’ll play a version of Puppet/Mary’s theme from the rpgmaker game Ib, called Mary’s Song for Ib in the files. This can only be heard once.

Guts World: An eerie world that features ominous npcs and backgrounds. When seen from zoomed out, parts of the map seem to resemble hands.

OFF npc: An npc from the Monochrome GB World resembles the Batter from the rpgmaker game OFF. The fact he turns into a different being when the glasses effect is used and that he’s in a monochrome world both link to the Batter and OFF

Seishonen’s glitched room: Seishonen’s room has a 1/31 chance to glitch when entered. The music becomes eerie and the visuals become dark and glitched with the screen flashing every so often. Seishonen also turns into a mass of eyes and jumbled up parts of their sprite. A shadow figure can also be seen walking about in an inaccessible area.

Child Effect and Mado: In the room that houses the child effect in the Hourglass desert, one can find a rug on the floor with the pattern on Madotsuki’s jumper. Additionally, an illustration of a girl that resembles Madotsuki can be seen on the wall. She is holding a staff that has the same pattern as the rug and is joined by a cat that highly resembles the black cat from Yume Nikki also.

Hakoko has an illness: In the Visine world is an eyeball shop where a doctor, Megusuri Uri and a girl, Hakoko live. They’re both placid npcs with Hakoko hiding in her box if interacted with. If Uro chainsaws Megusuri Uri while he is in the first room of the shop and goes to Hakoko’s room, she will have turned into a large, mutated eyeball monster. This only appears if Megusuri Uri is killed so one could theorise that he is the one keeping Hakoko from turning into a monster.

Stop signs and traffic cones: The bane of any 2kki explorer’s existence... Some developers love to add their worlds to the game but not finish everything so for the places they haven’t implemented yet they can just put unpassable stop signs and traffic cones in the way. Finish your worlds first...

Shallows:

Uro kills Santa: In the Christmas World, Uro can find a person in a house wearing a Santa hat. If Uro kills them, they drop the hat and Uro can wear it (and a matching outfit) herself. She can then further pick up a present in this same room and gift it to a girl in the same world. This girl also resembles a palette shifted Uro.

Galaxy Town deaths: In the now removed Galaxy Town B, in a shopping mall, if Uro tried to chainsaw any of the shop workers, they would fight back and kill her instead. Regular workers would pull out a gun and shoot Uro, making her fall down and bleed on the floor. Buff workers would punch Uro, also making her bleed, and one shopkeeper would summon vines to ‘strangle’ Uro. Apparently, these were removed due to negative backlash. I understand the guns and blood but the ‘strangling’ of the vines is never shown, Uro is just covered in vines. Plus the punching death is just kinda funny because the punch animation is laughably slow...

Lolrust x 2kki: It has been stated that Lolrust, the creator of .flow contributed to the Guts World however this isn’t confirmed, what is confirmed however is that they contributed to one dream world computer screen.

Instructions wake up: The instructions (in the effects menu) have a 1/54 chance to show up as red, making Uro wake up.

Haunted cabinet event: In the Nostalgic House, when interacting with a cabinet, the screen will be covered in static then show a monochrome image of a woman sitting by a dark hole or lump with her head scribbled out. Ominous sound effects play during this.

Hallucination experiment: In the Laboratory, if Uro kills the head scientist, other scientists will chase her. If caught, Uro becomes the test for a hallucinogenic substance in a test chamber. Uro’s walking is slowed and the screen is covered in nauseating patterns. If Uro interacts with the glass in front of the scientists she will bang her head against it. After a few times, blood will spurt from her head and she will stop hallucinating but she keeps going. The scientists try to stop her but its too late and she falls unconscious, thus waking up.

Innapropriate wallpaper: An early version of wallpaper 149 showed Uro taking a bra off from the back. Not okay when her age is undetermined and she could be a child :)))))

Red Rock Caves event: In the Red Rock Caves, Uro can find two creatures over a rose. If she uses the Fairy or Rainbow effects on it, it will lead to a beautiful event where Uro travels down a river with more of these creatures and falls down a waterfall to a rose filled pond. However, if Uro uses the Chainsaw or Torch effects on it, it will lead to a dark version of the event with blood and dead plants. This destroys the original rose permanently, making either event inaccessible from this point.

Uro’s execution: In the execution grounds, if Uro chainsaws any grey npcs, a clown in the area will start chasing her. If caught, Uro will be executed with an applause, duh-!

Early Uro designs: Early designs of Urotsuki show her as a Mado lookalike, a brown-grey girl, a kid in check pyjamas and more.

Uro gets drunk: In the Underground Bar in Japan Town, there is a bar Uro can visit. She can buy drinks for 200 yen each. If Uro drinks too many however, the screen and area will warp and characters Uro has killed will show on screen. Afterwards, Uro will wake up.

Oni Musume book: If Uro chainsaws Oni Musume in the Dark Room and looks at the bookcase, she can see a book from the shelf. The left side of the book shows Oni Musume flying in the sky with books yet the image is scribbled out. The right side shows Oni Musume being pierced by numerous spikes.

The Woman and the Mirror: An event from the Ocean Storehouse. There is a 1/9 chance that a woman in a deep red room will be shown. She is sitting at a mirrored dressing table facing away. Static will flash on the screen and the woman will twitch while unnerving music plays.

fdjkkdjf: A youtuber who has been playing Yume 2kki since 2010. A great collection of the many areas of the game as well as how the game has progressed over the years.

Puppet show: In the Ocean Floor, Uro can find a puppet theatre at the end of a path. If she uses the child or stretch effects, depressing scenes can be seen where Uro is neglected by two adult figures. If Uro uses the glasses effect, the two adult figures will stare at her for a moment.

Take spacesuit off in space: An area called Space can only be accessed if Uro enters with the spacesuit effect. If Uro takes off the effect, the screen will go black and a falling sound will play for a long time. Uro will then wake up.

Flesh Paths: An unnerving world that features many strange faces that act as pathways to other areas. Some stand outs are a blank Urotsuki face, a bug-eyed long-necked girl and blood-dripping faces.

Depths:

Decapitation sheep: At the end of the Realistic Beach, if Uro chainsaws a black sheep, the screen will go black and more chainsawing sounds will play. You’re then shown an image of a decapitated Uro with a chainsaw through her torso. It’s.. really fucking graphic... how did they let this in but not the Galaxy Town deaths???

Fused Faces world: An ominous world with monochromatic faces horrifyingly fused together. An item that looks like a detonator causes the world to become photorealistic when interacted with. The monochrome faces become flesh coloured with realistic skin and eyes and the background becomes black. A simple premise, but pretty darn unnerving

TV Room channels: The TV room is a small area accessible from the Highway. If Uro sits down and watches tv, she will get a random channel shown in a full screen event. The channels vary from calm, to disturbing to downright scary. Channel 9 may feature a jumpscare (though its very tame), Channel 10 features Urotsuki riddled with holes that may trigger trypophobia and Channel 13 features flashing lights that may not be suitable for one with epilepsy

[tigerkirby215]

5e Vex, the Gloomiest build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Horace “Hozure” Hsu. Made for Riot Games.)

Writing this build in a dark room late at night, super tired and stuff... Stuck inside cause of this dumb virus... AFKing in TFT for a Prestige skin like a tryhard... It’s kinda aesthetic, ya know?

GOALS

Another person to kill... Shadow? Can you handle it? - You don’t need best friends: you’ve got your Shadow. He’s the only cool one, because he’s basically you.

Ugh. Can we get some rain clouds in here? - No one likes a debbie downer, but everyone loves a good scare!

Man, walking suuuucks - Nowadays even the anti-dash champion needs a resetting dash. “Do the thing, Shadow.”

RACE

I could make Vex a Harengon to justify her rabbit ears, but she doesn’t really do much “jumping.” That, and I didn’t buy Wild Beyond the Witchlight. So Halfling still works good enough for a yordle. Your Dexterity increases by 2, and while your movement speed goes down to 25 you have Halfling Nimbleness to move through people who are bigger than you. You’re also “Brave” for advantage against fears (when you hang around the Shadow Isles stuff really isn’t that scary) and of course have good ol’ yordle Lucky to reroll Nat 1s.

Halflings are normally pretty cheerful but Ghostwise Halflings are perfectly dark. You’d normally increase your Wisdom by 1 but I’d recommend increasing your Constitution instead. But I mean, it’s not a big deal if you take Wisdom instead. It is only +1. You also get Silent Speech to keep to team chat with 30 foot telepathy. I mean, they have to understand your languages but at least you don’t have to tell everyone what you’re talking about. And oh yeah you obviously speak Common and Halfling.

ABILITY SCORES

15; CHARISMA - Turns out when you don’t release any new yordles for (wait it’s been 5 years since Kled was released? Holy shit) people end up wanting them.

14; DEXTERITY - Just because you don’t like walking doesn’t mean you’re slow.

13; CONSTITUTION - Imagine dying like a normie.

12; WISDOM - Vex isn’t sad because she’s pessimistic. She’s just realistic.

10; INTELLIGENCE - You’re too cool for school. (And I needed everything else more.)

8; STRENGTH - Ughhh I don’t wanna lift heavy stuff! I’m tired...

BACKGROUND

I guess you’re technically a Haunted One, even if the black mist is the best thing that ever happened to you. You get proficiency in Arcana and Survival as well as two language of your choice to talk to your "allies.” (I guess one of them has to be exotic or whatever.) (I’d personally pick Sylvan as the language of yordles and whatever language the majority of your party knows as your second choice, but that’s just me.)

The thing that sucks about having a Heart of Darkness is that everyone keeps trying to help you, thinking that your sadness (and the living shadow on your back) is something to be fixed. I mean, at least you can get the NPC normies to help you, as long as you don’t spook ‘em. “No doctors! I told you: being sad makes me happy.”

(Artwork by @ToggleD0wnFall on Twitter.)

THE BUILD

or whatever...

LEVEL 1 - SORCERER 1

Starting as a Sorcerer for saving throws and stuff. Also proficiency in Intimidation and... Persuasion, I guess? Look, persuading people that you’re fine “no really” is a skill too.

I wonder what Sorcerous Origin we’ll pick... If only there was one based entirely on shadows and darkness... Oh hey Shadow Magic. As a Shadow Sorcerer you get Eyes of the Dark for 120 feet of Darkvision to see with your dumb Halfling eyes, and Strength of the Grave which will let Shadow take a hit for you. (As long as you make a good Charisma save.)

But of course the main appeal of a Sorcerer is the Spellcasting. You can learn 4 cantrips from the Sorcerer list and two level spells: For cantrips Mage Hand will let Shadow pick things up for you, Mind Sliver and Sword Burst will keep loud people off you both up close and from afar, and Prestidigitation will let you do all sorts of normie yordle magic. As for leveled spells Shield and Mage Armor are both kinda mandatory for some Personal Space.

LEVEL 2 - WARLOCK 1

What? Did you really think we wouldn’t get at least some support from adults? Work for that cool gloomy dude Viego and make a pack with The Undead. That’s because Undead are super dark and morbid and have a Form of Dread: as a bonus action you can turn on your Doom and Gloom for 1 minute. You get some temporary hit points, fear people when you hit them, and are immune to fears yourself. You can transform a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus and regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

You also get Pact Magic, which is different from normie Spellcasting because you get the cool stuff done with just a Short Rest. Anyways you can learn two cantrips from the Warlock list like Minor Illusion to have Shadow trick some normies and Eldritch Blast to Eldritch while you Blast. You can also grab some first level Warlock spells like Hex to mark people you don’t like, and Arms of Hadar if you really need your Personal Space.

LEVEL 3 - WARLOCK 2

Second level Warlocks get their Eldritch Invocations for extra stuff that you don’t have to put effort into. While Armor of Shadows does exist it’s honestly better for you to cast Mage Armor with a spell slot, so with that being said take Agonizing Blast to agonize while you blast and Eldritch Mind so you can keep your concentration around annoying people.

You can also learn another spell like Hellish Rebuke, because people just keep barging into your Personal Space!

LEVEL 4 - SORCERER 2

Now that you can agonize your blasts it’s time to go back to Sorcerer. Second level Sorcerers get a Font of Magic for Sorcery Points which currently don’t do much other than give you more spell slots. You can turn your Warlock slots into Sorcery points though, which is good because they come back on a Short Rest but the rest of your magic does not.

You can also cast another spell like Earth Tremor, to slow people down with Looming Darkness and sunder the land with your edginess.

LEVEL 5 - SORCERER 3

Third level Sorcerers finally get Metamagic! Empowered Spell will allow you to maximize your damage and retain your role as an artillery mage. Alternatively if you want to guarantee fears in your foes take Heightened Spell to give them disadvantage to resist Shadow’s influence.

If you want Shadow to stick around then Dust Devil will swirl around for quite awhile. Alternatively Shadow (Magic) also teaches you Darkness for free, and you can cast it with 2 Sorcery Points to see through it! Your friends can’t see through it, but you can team up with Shadow for some powerful combos when you can see them but they can’t see you!

(Artwork by @jpdiasarts on Twitter.)

LEVEL 6 - SORCERER 4

4th level Sorcerers get the first of many Ability Score Improvements, but I can’t take Fey Touched every time for Flash. That, and we won’t give into basic yordle society. So let’s get value out of our Halfling race with the Second Chance feat. Along with +1 to your Charisma you can also use your reaction to make an enemy you can see attacking you reroll their attack roll, potentially making them miss.

Don’t use this against an attack that you can Shield against, but if someone gets a really good roll you can use this to get your Personal Space back! You can only use this once per combat though (it comes back when you roll for initiative!) so make sure to use it when it matters to keep your spell slots in check.

Oh and you can also learn another spell, and another cantrip! For your cantrip Shocking Grasp will help you push people away if they get too close (folk tend to react poorly when zapped by a tazer!) As for leveled spells Web will keep foes from dashing around, and is also pretty flammable. Huhn; wonder if that’ll be useful.

LEVEL 7 - SORCERER 5

5th level Sorcerers get gifts from the Ruined Queen Tasha in the form of Magical Guidance. You can use a Sorcery point to reroll a d20 if needed, potentially squeezing a success out. Don’t use this all the time (even if Warlock slots means you’ll have plenty of Sorcery points to spare) but this can be very useful in an emergency!

You can also learn third level spells and hey: Fireball may be a normie spell, but it’s still pretty effective. It’s maybe a bit too flashy to be Looming Darkness but it’s a good source of AoE damage which isn’t as loud and annoying as Shatter.

LEVEL 8 - SORCERER 6

All this time being a Shadow Sorcerer and Shadow hasn’t even done anything for us! Well how about you go out there and get some work done, Shadow? For 3 Sorcery points you can summon a Hound of Ill Omen to target a foe within 120 feet of you.

Shadow is basically a Dire Wolf except he’s Medium, has temp HP equal to half your Sorcerer level, can move through stuff (but takes damage if he ends his turn in stuff), and automatically chases whoever you told him to go for. Shadow will appear 30 feet away from the person you told him to get, and will chase after him like I said. All he’ll really do is attack the target you told him to though; he won’t even opportunity attack unless it’s the person you told him to chase. But if Shadow’s near someone they have disadvantage on their saving throws, which is pretty cool. (Unfortunately it’s only against spells, not your Form of Dread.)

Speaking of saving throws: Slow is a really great way to keep normies from running around doing annoying stuff. And you don’t have to hit Shadow with it which is pretty cool.

(Artwork by @Lauriquess on Twitter.)

LEVEL 9 - WARLOCK 3

Third level Warlocks get to choose their Pact Boon: if you want a really small Shadow go for Pact of the Chain, and if you want your cool necklace go for Pact of the Talisman, but we’ll be going for Pact of the Tome because you’re mostly a spellcaster really. (And we definitely don’t have enough cantrips.)

You get a Book of Shadows (See? Books can be cool!) with three cantrips: take Thaumaturgy to be extra spooky, Vicious Mockery for some sick teenage burns, and Sapping Sting to make normies fall over when you fear them. Some might say that 10 total cantrips by level 9 is a bit overkill but look on the dark side: you’ve now got a cantrip for basically every type of saving throw in case you can’t hit with Eldritch Blast!

Honestly none of the Pact Boons are particularly important for Vex so I picked the one that made the most sense. Feel free to take something more practical since 10 cantrips is admittedly overkill.

Oh and you can learn more Warlock spells, so now it’s time to finally take Misty Step. For Flash!

LEVEL 10 - WARLOCK 4

4th level Warlocks get another Ability Score Improvement: getting more Charisma for better spellcasting is probably a good idea.

You can also learn another spell, and hey look another cantrip. For your cantrip even if more damage options are kinda overkill by this point Chill Touch inflicts Grievous Wounds, which might be useful. You can also grab another second level spell and Blindness / Deafness (which is on the Undead list) is far more useful than any of the other normie options you’d have at this level anyways.

LEVEL 11 - WARLOCK 5

5th level Warlocks get another Eldritch Invocation, and even if you’ve got a resetting dash you’re still a squishy mage. So grab Tomb of Levistus for Zhonya's Hourglass.

You can also grab third level Warlock spells now! Remember how I took Fireball and complained that it wasn’t a good replica of Looming Darkness? Well Hunger of Hadar takes your Concentration but it’s a lot edgier!

LEVEL 12 - WARLOCK 6

6th level Undead Warlocks have become Grave Touched by the mist, and can make mist of their own! Along with being able survive without eating, drinking, or breathing you can turn any of your damage into necrotic damage. If you’re in your Form of Dread however you can add one extra damage die to whatever you’re using to get people to buzz off, adding to that morbid and macabre aesthetic.

You can also add another spell and if you’re bored with Shadow being a wolf how about you make them a Summon Shadowspawn? Weaponize your Fury, Despair, or Fear (I’d honestly recommend Fury since it has good synergy with your Dreadful Aspect) and work together with Shadow to deal with all your annoying foes! I’d also suggest replacing Hellish Rebuke with Counterspell, because even if the former fits better the latter is way more useful.

(Artwork by Jennifer Wuestling. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 13 - WARLOCK 7

7th level Warlocks can finally activate Shadow Surge. Relentless Hex lets you mark a foe with Hex and then dash to them. And technically you can move Hex around after the fact to reset your dashes! And while you’re at it you may as well grab Dimension Door for Summoner Teleport.

You could also upgrade Summon Shadowspawn to Summon Aberration if you so desire, but Summon Shadowspawn is more than strong enough and far more fun and thematic.

LEVEL 14 - WARLOCK 8

Another Ability Score Improvement. Yay. Cap off your Charisma for the best spellcasting you can get out of Shadow. You can also learn another spell, but we’re going to wait for...

LEVEL 15 - WARLOCK 9

9th level Warlocks get another Eldritch Invocation: even if it’s kinda ineffective Ascendant Step is still pretty useful to have Shadow carry you around. I mean yeah it’s slow but not that much slower than walking for you, and Shadow can lift you up in the air. “Shadow; carry me...”

You can also learn 5th level spells. If one guy’s being particularly annoying Negative Energy Flood can get them to shut up and work for you. Alternatively if you want more Personal Space Antilife Shell is on the Undead List and will make sure normies keep faaaaar away.

LEVEL 16 - WARLOCK 10

Are you ever so sick of everything that you just want to explode? Necrotic Husk has two benefits: for one you’re resistant to Necrotic damage, and immune while in your Form of Dread because being around Viego for so long means you’re used to his work.

But additionally when you are reduced to 0 hit points you can use your reaction to drop to 1 hit point instead and cause your body to explode! Each creature of your choice within 30 feet of you takes 2d10 + your warlock level in Necrotic damage. You do gain 1 level of exhaustion after using this, and after using it once you can’t do so again until you finish 1d4 long rests. So I’d perhaps use Strength of the Grave first unless you really need to lash out.

I hope you weren’t expecting more spells because you aren’t getting them from Warlock: just a cantrip. By this point we’ve honestly got far too many cantrips so I dunno maybe just grab Prestidigitation again and swap it out from Sorcerer when you get the chance.

(Artwork by @DukkoArt on Twitter.)

LEVEL 17 - SORCERER 7

Finally back to our yordle roots: 7th level Sorcerers get 4th level spells like Storm Sphere for a sphere of darkness and angst. But I mean the real benefit is that you get more Sorcery points let’s be real.

Oh and you can swap out Prestidigitation for Gust I guess. Spooky winds and stuff. Either this level or next level depending on your DM.

LEVEL 18 - SORCERER 8

Your last Ability Score Improvement... You’re gonna have to ask: what’s more important to me? More Metamagic, or more Eldritch Invocations? If Metamagic is to your liking take Metamagic Adept for Careful Spell and Distant Spell along with two more Sorcery points to use on them. If you like Eldritch Invocations though Eldritch Adept has a ton of options as a level 10 Warlock. I won’t tell you what invocation to take (they’re all great boosts but none of them shout out at me as something you should prioritize) as there are plenty of options to make your own Vex now that they’re all grown up.

I can at least tell you what spell to take: none of them! Wait until next level!

Oh and you can swap out Prestidigitation for Gust I guess.

LEVEL 19 - SORCERER 9

9th level Sorcerers can learn 5th level spells which means you’ve finally caught up to your Warlock slots. And look at that: the good wish Tasha gave you one last way to weaponize Shadow. Bigby’s Hand does a bunch of cool stuff and is pretty much the ultimate way to make Shadow crush some normies. (Most literally.) Alternatively if you want to borrow from Viego Enervation will let you heal from the mist and also do some damage. Great if you’re stuck in a corner with a bunch of annoying normies.

LEVEL 20 - SORCERER 10

Our final level is the 10th level of Sorcerer for one last spell, one last cantrip, and one last metamagic option! For your metamagic it’s honestly about time you take Quickened Spell to up your DPS. For your cantrip take Mold Earth to dig holes in the sand and brood. And as for your leveled spell? Honestly I just like Synaptic Static, and there isn’t much else I want anyways.

FINAL BUILD

PROS

We’re all doomed. But you’re more doomed - 5th level spells pack more than enough punch, and you’ve got plenty of them. Warlock slots will always be at your fingertips, and Sorcery points give you plenty of flexibility too!

I can feel it: someone’s happy over there! - Along with giving you a temporary hitpoint shield Form of Dread puts a nice bit of CC on all your abilities. Keep enemies scared and sad with tons of Doom and Gloom!

Ugh. Stop copying me Shadow! - Hounds of Ill Omen are cool. Summon Shadowspawn is also cool. Bigby’s Hand is especially cool. And hey: even your lower level Concentration spells like Hex? They’re pretty cool too.

CONS

Ughhhhhhhhhh this is gonna take foreeeever! - You’ve got limited fumes, even for a coffeelock. Form of Dread has limited uses and there’s only so much spell slot melting you can do to get your magic back.

I’m dancing... Happy? - You’ve got a really boring set of really normie skills... and if you’re playing Vex the way she’s meant to be played you’re probably not going to use any of them except for Intimidation.

Yup; the glass is half empty - Half your levels are Sorcerer levels, meaning you’re squishy. You’ve also got Mage Armor on which guess what: also means you’re squishy. People who hit teenagers sure are lame but it’s really not hard to Power Word Kill you.

But I guess you’re pretty cool overall. Shadow’s an alright partner and you can spread Ruination even without Viego. Trudge around and get people to frown for once. There’s nothing wrong with being sad, and there’s nothing wrong with wanting the world to be sad. But do try to at least be happy out of character, because we play games to have fun. I mean, who’d play a video game that just makes you depressed and angry?

(Artwork by @AzzylumArt on Twitter.)

[epicspheal]

I’m going to be 1000% honest here and say neither Lillie or Leon’s episode (I know shocker, me not being excited about Leon appearing) really did anything for me. Pokemon Twilight Wings, PokeToons and Pokemon Generations are doing what Pokemon Evolutions did 100 times better. Like for me, both episodes have the issue of really just covering things we see in game but not in a transformative manner. The Darkest Day for Leon’s episode and Lunala vs Necrozma are all scenes we’ve seen in game some how and also the main anime. I’ll give Leon’s episode credit in that it highlighted his trauma and the weight of being the Galarian champion in ways the games neglected to do so, via sparse hints through optional text. Leon desperately needs more blatant characterization that shows his complexities rather than using the whole “I’m an unbeatable champion who is a Charizard fan and pants with directions” we got for the majority of the game with the real things that make him the great character he is get shoved off to the side. But even then it still didn’t really wow me like how his Twilight Wings episode did. 

And Lillie’s didn’t really offer anything new we haven’t seen if we played SM or USUM. I think it would’ve been nice to see Lillie in the Rainbow Rocket castle fighting alongside Selene or even teaming up with her at the battle tree with Red or Blue (with flashbacks to her journey to save Nebby) to show how far’s she gone. Or if we wanted to, use SM Lillie (the better plot her IMO) and have her recollect all of those things while she’s in Kanto starting her own journey.  Like at least with Generations if there was something that copied the games a lot of the time there was still an extra element. Like seeing Gabby and Ty, the reporters and how they were getting information and it just so happened to show us the Rayquaza and Deoxys fight from ORAS. Like yeah we’ve seen the fight in game but the addition of Gabby and Ty added an extra dimension. We got to see two not that well known NPCs working, but also adding some worldbuilding to how journalism works in the Pokemon World. Not to mention how the scientist at the end was like “the world is not ready” again hinting at potential coverups on some legendary and mythical Pokemon.  And as much as everyone knows how much I adore Leon, considering his brother hasn’t even gotten a chance to really show his story, I think I would’ve like to have seen Hop more. Or Bede or Marnie both of whom had storylines that were neglected. And again with Lillie this is even worse since she gets so much screentime already in games when there were other characters who should get fleshed out. Like an evolutions episode focused on Hau or Guzma would’ve been so much better since they got shafted hard despite being important characters and their presence giving a lot of context to Alolan culture as a whole. Like Blue’s episode in Generations, and Nessa and Oleana’s episodes in Twilight Wings were leagues better in my opinion as we got to get focus on characters who didn’t get much in their respective games. 

Getting to see how Blue went through the elite four while also giving us some hints to his feelings about being Oak’s grandson and getting a chance to know that getting 8 badges is a monumental task that very few in Kanto could do, showing that Blue was just as much of a child prodigy as Red? Amazing. It gives justice to a character whose development was pretty much solely offscreen especially compared to later rivals.

Seeing the struggles hinted at with Nessa managing her gym and her status as a model in real time while also giving us hints to the league ranking matches with the brief shots of her match versus Milo, her relationship with Sonia, as well some more insight into how Rose can come off in unsettling ways while trying his hardest to do good by Galar? Perfection. It gives us a chance to see an amazing character with only a minor role in game and it’s something I wish we could’ve seen for all of the Galar gym leaders. Seeing Oleana’s background before being Rose’s assistant, showing how much of a great help she is to Rose, showing how much she has to put up with a daily basis, while also giving us glimpses to more hinted events (like Melony and Gordie fight and again showing different dimensions to Rose once again further developing his character in a way the games neglected? Outstanding. Again things that could’ve been added to the game to make the whole Macro Cosmos plot a lot better. But at least we’re seeing it.  Obviously as these are shorts there is only so much storytelling that can be done. But I think I’m going to be looking forward to the episodes like Leaf/Green’s, Zinnia’s or Barry’s more as we’ll be getting a chance to see characters whose inner workings are more neglected by the narrative and could use the extra spotlight. Or just do a Poketoons and show us the Pokemon world in a light for people who are just average citizens. There is just so much worldbuilding that could be covered in shorts and just choosing to animate things we’ve seen if we have played the games without any extra worldbuilding, even if the animation is done superbly. 

[beyond-a-name]

I think a lot of people get intimidated to learn a new RPG because they think it's always going to be as intense as learning DnD.

DnD is a lot. There are other RPGs that can fit in a png.

Here is Swords & Scrolls

This is 100% of the game. Every piece of published material is right here. It is also entirely free. If you do not have time to try other, bigger RPGs, but you have the general grasp of how the flow of play works (DM describes a thing, you respond in character, etc.), then Start Here.

Scrolls & Swords is going to fit very well with the same kind of classic fantasy settings that you see in DnD, but it's going to be much more flexible to your group. If you really like homebrewing DnD (which it sounds like you do), Scrolls & Swords is robust yet small enough to be an excellent starting point for that. It lends itself well to Rule of Cool styles of play, but also a focus on common sense play ("Of course you know how to saddle a horse, you used to be a stablehand," and so on), depending on which your group leans into more. Additionally, these rules don't just apply to combat, but anything your DM decides would be an interesting challenge. That means you use exactly the same rules for combat as you do for seducing a guard or haggling a better price or riding in a horse race.

If you decide to download that image, you now own a copy of a full RPG system to the fullest extent that you can own anything and can then use it to run your next campaign.

Learning DnD can be an expensive and genuinely massive undertaking, especially if it's your first RPG (which it sounds like it is). What a lot of people don't realize is that most RPGs aren't like that. The majority of them are going to be a single novel sized book for half the price of one DnD book. And I mean that novel is everything: rules, character stuff, GM reference, and even a few starting adventures, for less than the price of the Player's Handbook.

The thing is, if you currently have time to play DnD, you have the chance to pause it for two sessions and spend that time reading a new game. Keep in mind, if you do pick a novel-sized game, that includes everything that the three core books of DnD covers, so you will not even need to read the whole book (your GM will, or will at least need to read a bit more than other folks in your group). I know that DnD is huge, but the majority of these other games simply are not that; you really can get everything in the same time as two DnD sessions.

I'll list some that I really like, and I'll make sure to only include shorter rulebooks with a low-ish price point.

Mouse Guard

Play as a little mouse protecting an entire frontier of mice! It uses the Burning Wheel system, which means you're going to still be defining your characters' skills very clearly, but you do so by outlining their life experience and family. Very clear about the roles of the GM and the players, so it's hard to feel "railroaded" or lost.

Monster of the Week

If Buffy, The Dresden Files, or Supernatural were an RPG. Uses Powered by the Apocalypse, so you'll still have a "class" but it's really going to fill out your narrative role and relationship to other characters really well (like if you rolled your background, class, and character bonds and flaws into one neat package). It's going to be good if you don't like the grid combat of DnD and wish it focused on the drama of a fight more, or if interacting with NPCs or solving mysteries is your favourite thing to do in a game.

Crash Pandas

Play as a band of raccoons in an illegal street race, all trying to drive the car at the same time. Made by the same person who did Honey Heist (which I also recommend), so you can expect the same kind of goofy, easy-to-learn style. It's another one-page game like Scrolls & Swords up there (albeit a bigger page) and is equally free. You can own it for $0 and a quick google search if you wanted.

I hope these can get you started. DnD is massive so if it's the first RPG you've played, it can make all RPGs seem equally daunting. If you take nothing else from this, know that other RPGs are far more accessible than DnD might make them seem.

Idk even as someone who likes 5e some stuff like this is just kinda silly

Like if you dislike so many things about the way 5e is made just try a different game, there's SO many ttrpgs out there now I'm sure you can find another one that fits what you want

[gaijinhunter]

Monster Hunter Rise: 2nd Trailer and news blowout

Hey guys this is Gaijinhunter. I am uploading this as a text post since I caught a cold and have been unable to edit a video.

There was a huge second wave of news for Monster Hunter Rise with the reveal of the 2nd trailer the other day during the Game Awards 2020 show. Keep in mind the actual full length trailer is much longer and better than the shorter edit they showed during the show so makes sure you watch it. It showcased a second map, 2 new monsters, several returning monsters, and more. They also updated their official website with a ton of information so instead of doing a trailer reaction or breakdown, I am going to give you all the info they shared but split up by category, trying to focus only on the new stuff.

New Map

Director Ichinose hinted in an interview that one of the new maps would be nostalgic and boy he wasn't kidding. The Flooded Forest from Third Generation has been massively remade and is back in MH rise. Of course given this game’s focus is verticality, there is no underwater combat sections but they really nailed it from what I can see. One of the most iconic parts of the forest was the ruins in the backgrounds, and now you can scale up it using the wirebug. How cool is that. 

With the new map we also got the reveal of 2 new monsters.

First up is the mermaid wyvern, the Somnacanth. This marks the much hyped return of the leviathan class of monsters which were missing in world and iceborne. This Monster looks so wild. It has a special breath that will put you to sleep, is super aggressive, and has this crazy taiko drum like chest in which it will grab oysters and other things and bust them against it to break them open and buff itself. The Japanese name is quite a mouthful and is called Isonemikuni. This is the monster that Ichinose teased with his cute drawing on twitter.

Next up is the tengu beast, Bishaten. This monster is really unique, it looks like a mix of a monkey, bat, and bird. It has a huge and powerful tail it uses for massive mobility and it will chuck various fruits at you as well. One of the most iconic fruits it throws are persimmons, which are very Japanese and if you haven’t had them before, they are kind of an acquired taste. It’s Japanese name is Bishutendo. 

For returning monsters we have a few. First is our favorite sponge, the Royal Ludroth. This is a fan favorite and a great early to mid game monster. It has one of the best move sets in my opinion, very telegraphed but it can still catch you off guard even if you are super used to it. Strategically figuring gout where to stand in order to cut off its tail or break the sponge has always been really fun and intersting so I’m delighted to see this monster return, also look at that texture of the sponge!

Then we got the return of the Great Wroggi, the anti-poison skill tutorial monster. This thing really messed me up back in MH3G until I spent the time to get the materials to craft anti-posion decorations and even then, like the Great Izuchi, it fights really well with its sidekick small wroggis and I cant wait to see the improved cooperative AI that they are making for the Great Izuchi applied to this monster as well. It’s armor also spots a really cool Crocodile Dundee hat and look in the trailer and you can see the palico armor as well. So cool.

Finally, we got a small scene that appears to show a snow map and a group of baggi getting hit by a Khezu lightening shot. Does this mean the Great Baggi will return? Not sure. But that scream 100% is a Khezu, and I cannot wait to see how it looks with higher resolution texturing, I bet it will be creepy as heck. So while not technically confirmed, I’d say it’s safe to say Khezu is returning in some form. The balance of all these monsters is so great, I love the selection so far.

As far as other returning monsters that might return, I think we all expect nargacuga and zinogre. These are flagship monsters from games directed by Ichinose and he even tweeted his palamute and palico both named after these two monsters. Especially given the Japanese aesthetic, I think it’s pretty much guaranteed they are returning. Then I think mizutsune is also highly likely given its Japanese design, the fox theme, the kimono armor. Plus the model for it doesn't look that far off from the new Somnacanth. Anyway I have super hyped.

Interaction with animals and endemic life

One of the huge features of Monster Hunter Rise is the focus on wild life and animals to buff your hunter or be used as tools during a hunt.

There are 4 major types of Endemic Life: Temp Buffer, Permabuffer, Hunting Helper, and environmental.

For Permabuffer, we got a new render of the Spiribirds, which will buff your hunter if you move near one, and the effects depend on the color of the pollen it is carrying. Green increases your max Health, Orange increases your defense, red increases your attack power, and yellow increases your max stamina. There is even a special rainbow colored one, which I assume will buff all 4.

Via their website, Capcom announced a new item called the Petalace, a bracelet made of a plant called a Sending Sprig that each hunter has equipped. This is what collects the pollen from the birds and buffs your hunter. There is a variety of Petalaces in the game and some may increase the amount in which an attack boost is applied from a single Spiribird, raise the max value that health can be boosted, and more. Here in the screen shot we can see the caps for each and the amount gained for each buff. Just a quick note but this is not going to be replacing charms as we know that they are giving away a talisman for pre-order.

For Temp Buffer creatures, they revealed the name of the Clothfly, a butterfly that will temporarily increase your defense once you interact with it and cause it to generate a cloud of dust. In previous videos we have seen Peepers that reduce stamina usage, birds that raise your base stats, and a dragonfly that boosts your affinity and I had calculated it out to being applied for 90 seconds but we’ll have to wait for hte final game to see if that depends on the effect or if they change it, but it sounds about right.

For Hunting Helper creatures, we got an adorable new render of the Stinkmink. You can carry up to 5 Hunting Helpers and use them like items. The Stinkmink can be used to cover yourself in a special pheromone that will attract large monsters to you, even allowing you to lure one monster toward another to cause a turf war. I personally can think of other applications like luring a monster toward a trap and stuff like that.

And for environmental endemic life, they didn't show it in the trailer but there are also wildlife that can be used like environmental traps. For example, use raw meat and the giganha fish will go crazy, damaging anything nearby be it a hunter or monster. I can’t wait to see someone hunt a Great Wroggi using only raw meat. I love that we finally will have more use for this item.

NPCs

In the new trailer we got to hear several of the NPC villagers talking and on the website they go into a lot more details. They have quite the star-studded cast in Japanese and the English voice actors are also very interesting picks. This really marks the first time in Monster Hunter that the main cast of villagers will all be called by name and speak, which I think adds a lot of personality to the game.

First we have Fugen the village elder of Kamura and skilled long sword user. 

Then we have Hinoa the Quest Maiden, a cheerful and optimistic girl who serves as the quest giver in the village while her twin sister runs the gathering hub. While not announced in any other language, the French and Italian language sites for the game list her sister’s name as Minoto. Hinoa’s name is Hinoe in Japnaese and for the rest of the cast their names are identical between the two languages.

One thing I am excited for is that they said that one of the ways they will help communicate the uniqueness of Kamura is through songs and they shared a sample of one of them in the full trailer. This one is sung by Izumi Kato. If you remember back in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate they featured songs by the wyverian Diva, and I am so happy they decided to do songs again, they add so much richness to the world and are just lovely to listen to.

Next up is Yomogi, our village chef. In this game you will eat meals at her Tea Shop, where her speciality is the Bunny Dango she makes along with the help of some palicoes. I love that we’ve seen her in past videos with a heavy bowgun, so the idea that all the villagers are active participants in the story is great. 

Then we have Hamon the blacksmith. He used to hunt alongside Fugen back in the day but now creates weapons for the hunters of the village. His grandson also appears in the game and is a kind-hearted youth that loves your hunting companions.

Next is Kagero the merchant. Despite his mysterious appearance he is actually very warm and kind. If there is a sale going on, not only can you buy most items for half off, but you can also participate in a lottery where you spin a wheel and it dispenses a colored ball. Get a rare color ball to win a rare prize. You can do it once per sale, but you can also scan an amiibo to spin two more times, but only once per day per amiibo you own.

Finally we have Komitsu the sweet-tooth, she sells candy apples in town. What these do is still not yet revealed.

Companions

We got an adorable render for the Cohoot, the pet owl that shows the positions of monsters on your map. You can interact with it in the town and even dress them up in fancy outfits.

Kamura Village

We got gameplay showing that the entire village is open to the 4 person multiplayer session and you can even ride around on your palamute and use your wirebug while in the village to zip around and have fun. There is still a gathering hall but the ability to see each other in the village as well as jump around and really explore it is a lovely change they are making.

Story wise we got more info about the Rampage, both a story mechanic and new quest type. For some reason the monsters will sometimes gang up and attack the village all at once and no one knows why. They call this a Rampage. There was a really bad rampage 50 years ago that nearly destroyed the village and in response the town has created a Stronghold to stop further invasions. This looks like a new quest type with multiple monsters all at once, and a slew of different artillery options at your disposal. I could see this as being a really fun type of quest to do online with other players. 

And of course the most exciting news was that there will be a demo in January with more details to come later. That is far earlier than I expected and I now have to finish up my back catalogue of games in like the next month.

And that about wraps it up. Cpacom said that they will be sharing weapon preview videos for all 14 types very soon and if they do the way they used to do it, we’ll get one new video a day for 2 weeks. I hope you enjoyed this recap of the news and please let me know down in comments what you thought about the second trailer. And until next time, happy hunting.

[dreadfutures]

Inquisitor as a Companion: Ixchel Lavellan

Is your OC a Companion in the Dragon Age series? What would it be like for a player to select them to join their party for quests (or romance them, perhaps? 👀)

Here is Ixchel’s (fake) DA Wiki page, if she were a companion. Meme started by @little-lightning-lavellan​​ , so tag her if you do this!

(Find this on AO3, where I will add Location Comments and dialogue options as I think of them.)

Ixchel is an elven warrior and activist. She is a potential companion in Dragon Age: Inquisition. (WIP Tarot art by me. :) )

Background

Ixchel likely originated in southern Ferelden, but the events of the Fifth Blight drove her northward. She encountered several Dalish clans who did not take her in, possibly due to the limited resources available due to the encroaching Darkspawn hordes, or perhaps because she does not appear to be fully-elven. Ixchel has smaller, rounder ears than normal for an elf, though they are longer and sharper than that of a human. The orphan stowed away on a boat to the Free Marches, where she found no refuge in Kirkwall or the major cities and took to wandering the countryside in search of food and shelter. During this time, Ixchel encountered Clan Lavellan outside of Markham, but she did not remain.

After the Archdemon’s defeat, Ixchel returned to Ferelden, as she felt drawn to the traces of elven history she had found there as a child. There, she encountered a Warden who helped her read a word that she found in a ruin: Ixchel.

Sometime between 9:34-9:37 dragon, Ixchel reappeared outside of Markham, calling herself by this new name. In 9:37 Dragon, a particularly harsh winter drove the Lavellan Clan to seek out the orphan and took her in to teach her to hunt and fend for herself better. She proved to have a keen mind for learning, and a drive to prove her value. She remained with the Clan for two years. In 9:41 Dragon, she volunteered to go to the Conclave in Haven as a spy, due to her ability to pass as human and travel largely unnoticed. She is roughly sixteen years old.

Involvement

Dragon Age: Origins

A Dalish Warden can potentially encounter Ixchel as part of the Lead Her Through the Darkness side-quest in Dragon Age Origins: Witch Hunt DLC. She appears as a precocious, nameless orphan less than ten years of age. She has written a word on her arm in ash and asks the Warden to translate it. It is unclear if the name is Elven or Tevene in origin, but the Warden translates it as Ixchel (ihsh-chEL).

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Ixchel can only be recruited after relocation to Skyhold and beginning the A Fallen Sister side quest in the Emerald Graves. After freeing the prisoners from the Veridium Mine, the Inquisitor will come across Ixchel under attack by a group of Freemen. The Inquisitor will help Ixchel defeat the Chevaliers, for which she expresses gratitude.

A Dalish Inquisitor has the option to call her “da’len” and express relief that she escaped the Conclave. Ixchel explains that she fled Haven after the explosion at the Temple of Sacred Ashes and went in search of a Dalish Clan (see: The Knights’ Tomb) to take her in. On her way, she saw the harm caused by the Civil War in Orlais. She sees how much good the Inquisition can do and offers her services to help uproot the Freemen of the Dales and fight Corypheus. Her travels and experiences have made her well-suited to consider the needs of elves, both among alienages and the Dalish, as well as humans. Ixchel cannot be recruited if Wicked Eyes, Wicked Hearts has been completed.

In Skyhold, Ixchel can be found in the center of the courtyard by the main stairway, either near the Training Ring (if Skyhold is upgraded) or near the City and Dalish elven NPCs who often argue there.

If Ixchel and Solas are in a party together, they will develop a fast mentoring relationship as Ixchel asks Solas about his dreams in various locations they have traveled. He will comfort her after she expresses anger at the treatment of elves in Halamshiral and gently encourage her to take action. She will argue with him about his scorn for the Dalish and insist on the merits of their resilience and efforts to reclaim their heritage after centuries of oppression.

After accessing the Exalted Plains from the War Table, Ixchel will approach the Inquisitor in Skyhold and ask to meet with Hawen’s Clan. The dialogue options vary depending on whether the Inquisitor has yet discovered that the Dalish have been killed at Din’an Hanin. Ixchel is worried about the Clan’s proximity to the front of the Orlesian Civil War.

When Hawen’s clan is first encountered, a Dalish scout will address Ixchel as “flat-ear.” Ixchel is deeply upset by this and explains to the Inquisitor that it is because Ixchel does not have vallaslin and that she doesn’t appear as fully elven. A Dalish Inquisitor has the option to reassure Ixchel of her place in Clan Lavellan with or without the vallaslin. If the Inquisitor wins high approval among Hawen’s Clan, Hawen offers to formally adopt Ixchel by giving her vallaslin and initiates the Inner Circle Quest, Inward Glory.

Ixchel hesitates to accept the honor. Ixchel wants to learn the history of the vallaslin and asks the Inquisitor to help her learn how the practice has evolved from enslaved elves in Tevinter, to the elves of the Dales, to the modern Dalish Clans. The Inquisitor must contact researchers in Tevinter, Orlais, and Varric’s contact with the Dalish--Merrill.

Completion of Inward Glory is followed by another Inner Circle quest, Proudly Crowned Withal. Ixchel meets with the Inquisitor and Solas to review what she learned and make her final decision. The Inquisitor can encourage Ixchel to honor her heritage and take the vallaslin, tell her that she can serve her People better as a human-passing spy without vallaslin, or tell her that she has proven that she cares for the elves and belongs to them whether she shows it on her face or not.

If she is told not to take the vallaslin, she will not, but she Greatly Disapproves. Solas will Disapprove of all options. A Dalish Inquisitor has the added option to tell her that the Inquisitor, as well as the Lavellan Keeper, considered her to be part of Clan Lavellan even without the vallaslin. If Ixchel is told to accept, or if the Inquisitor lets Ixchel choose herself, she will accept Hawen’s offer.

A Dalish Inquisitor who has completed their romance with Solas will have the option to ask Solas to tell Ixchel the truth about the vallaslin. A Dalish Inquisitor who removed her own vallaslin has the opportunity to tell Ixchel one-on-one. Ixchel will reveal that Solas in fact told her the truth before the completion of her personal quest, and Ixchel made her decision knowingly.

After completing Ixchel's Inner Circle quests, new missions will appear on the War Table. Ixchel wants the Inquisition to work with factions like the Red Jennies, Briala's spy network, and even members of Celene's court to make reparations for Empress Celene's burning of the Halamshiral alienage, to put an end to the Val Royeaux Chevaliers' tradition of hunting City elves in the alienage streets after dark, and to restore self-governance to the alienage in Denerim, whose freedoms were restricted after the events of the Fifth Blight.

Trespasser:

If the Inquisitor has high approval with Ixchel, the warrior has devoted her time to activism in Orlais’ alienages, potentially allying with Briala. Ambient dialogue in the Winter Palace indicates that she and her movement are reviled by members of the Orlesian court, and the ruler of the Empire is considering a preventative strike for fear of a violent uprising.

If the Inquisitor did not win high approval with Ixchel, she still appears at the Exalted Council to reunite with friends in the Inner Circle. She reveals that she spent the intervening time between Inquisition and Trespasser traveling the world with Morrigan (or Morrigan and Kieran) to continue research in Ancient Elvhen history, as well as sowing rebellion--which she calls mien’harel-- in alienages across Thedas. She is saddened that the Inquisitor has still heard no word from Solas.

In the Epilogue, if the Inquisitor has resolved to kill Solas, Ixchel vanishes. She leaves a note to a high-approval Inquisitor saying that she is sorry but she has gone to find a third option to thwart Solas. If the Inquisitor instead chooses to convince Solas to change his plans, Ixchel remains allied with the Inquisition as she redoubles her efforts to unite elves across Thedas against oppression, and to actively counter Fen’Harel’s recruitment.

Approval

Ixchel appreciates honesty and empathy in Inquisitors. Given her upbringing outside of both human and elven customs, she is skeptical of actions motivated by religion. She is generally supportive of increasing freedom and understanding between groups like Mages and Templars and humans and elves.

She is curious and precocious, and she approves of exploring magic and history without bias. She is unlike other companions in that, if she is met with anger or scorn, her approval does not change. Dialogue options that mock or disrespect other members of the Inquisition and their beliefs, even those she does not get along with outright like Sera, will net disapproval.

Ability Tree/Specialization

Ixchel is a two-handed warrior with access to the Champion specialization tree. She begins with a two-handed greataxe.

Combat comments

Kills an enemy

“Push them back!”

“Move and parry, strike and kill!”

“Did you see that?”

Low Health

“Come and get it!”

“I’m taking you with me!”

“Not sure how much longer I can hold…”

Low Health (Companions)

(Inquisitor) Inquisitor! You must keep fighting!

(Inquisitor) Lethallen, no!

(Solas) I’m coming, Solas!

Fallen Companions

(Inquisitor) Guard the Inquisitor!

(Cole) I can't lose Cole!

Companion comments about OC

Vivienne: She is certainly a quick study, but painfully earnest, that girl. It is too bad the Game is played out in court, not on the battlefield. 

Solas: A childhood free of human or Dalish dogma allows her to see the biases ingrained in many who are older or more experienced. (“She’s young and naive.”) Because she expresses empathy for those who might not appear to deserve it? *sigh* I too have expressed that such openness might only lead to heartbreak. What she told me belies a wisdom far beyond her years: ‘When we ascribe compassion to be virtues of the gods, it becomes impossible for mortals to embody them. But the Fade reflects the waking world, and Compassion, Empathy, and Justice can be found in both.’

Dorian: There are quite the depths in her, despite her stature.

Bull: You don’t see a lot of atheists outside of Par Vollen. Everyone needs to believe the world’s fucked up for a reason, that there’s something waiting for them that’s better than the crap they have to suffer. Then again, people who pick up a sword that big are usually trying to prove something. Maybe that’s it.

Sera: There are two kinds of elfy-elves--people like him [see: Solas], and people like her. She’s been like me before, hungry an’ angry. And she doesn’t want anyone to be hungry anymore, so she gets all angry. ‘Stead of lookin’ back, she looks forward. And both of ‘em forget to look right in front of their noses.

Cole: The lonely traveler [see: Dirthamen] seeks, and finds, and loses again. She is bright, but she cannot see. Where she walks, the flame catches.

Trivia

The names of Ixchel’s personal quests are from various Percy Bysshe Shelley poems

Ixchel can receive the vallaslin of Dirthamen

Ixchel’s face bears heavy scarring that she claims is due to an encounter with dragonlings

Ixchel’s in-game body model is the same height as a Dwarven Inquisitor and Scout Harding.

If Blackwall and Ixchel are in a party together, they will stand near each other. Instead of entering their idle animations, they will draw their weapons as though they are about to spar.

Ambient dialogue in Skyhold implies that she trails after Cassandra “like a loyal hound” and they frequently practice together.

[border-spam]

Hello! I've been reading up on a lot of folks' critiques of BL3's writing here & there, including the writing quality of the twins, but I'm curious as to what you'd think of instead of the twins as the main baddies, we had the other two we saw a couple times, Pain & Terror, as the primary baddies. I personally thought they'd have made for more entertaining baddies, where they host a reality show that attracts all the bandit gangs to them, instead of the cringe inducing Twitch stream references.

Ah yes, I’m right back on my shit again. Buckle up!

I want to get off Border-Spam’s wild ride.

OK, so! Pain and Terror. Great stuff. Dramatically theatrical entertainers who live stream sacrifices and raids in honour of the beings they worship? Nice.

Know what’s juicier than that though? 

Two cursed twin Sirens (one a male!!), locked in a spiral of both loathing and relying on each other to reach their goals while they lead a massive pyramid scheme scam-religion as self-made false Gods, bleeding their followers dry through predatory megachurches and donation tiers while they scrabble against the Crimson Raiders in a race for ultimate power. 

So.. how come the Twins were completely shit then while Pain and Terror, who you had about 2 hours with, came across great?

It’s because Pain and Terror got a short, satisfying arc of introduction -> threat -> urgency -> climax -> payoff... and the Twins got fucking 30+ hours of non-stop TELL don’t SHOW while Randy Pitchford made fart sounds in the background.

And guess what, every “bad” character mostly disliked by the fans and every “good” character that’s mostly liked, follows this same pattern. The longer their screen time within the story, the more likely they turned into a trainwreck. Essay under the cut. /dab

One of Bl3′s main failures in writing (bar all the other shit everyone and myself has brought up 1000s of times jesus christ oh god oh god hhh), is the complete lack of “Show don’t Tell”. 

“Show don’t Tell”, for anyone who’s not heard of it, is one of the crux points of any characterisation or story writing. It’s the idea that if you only tell a reader about something and it never actually takes place as a tangible scenario or character action, it ceases to actually have any weight. 

Now I am not a professional writer, I’m a tool with a Tumblr blog and a bad case of loving a pair of fucking atrocious characters, but the Bl3 writing team are professionals. They know this rule, so I still maintain this isn’t their fault and whatever crapped all over the plot of this game was out of their hands.

Either way though, any character who was in the spotlight for more than 1 or 2 chapters was a complete shitshow. Yes, you may have your favorites within them, but looking at the game while unbiased shows too many pain points to ignore, even when it’s with a character so many people including myself love... like Tannis. 

The Twins and Lilith are great examples of how  “Show don’t Tell” being ignored destroys characters completely regardless of their backstory or what possibilities they had to be amazing.

We are told that the Twins lead a mega religion. That Troy is desperately cunning. That Tyreen is horrifically vicious. That their sway over corporations and billions of followers is so powerful, they have an unstoppable army of unlimited, deathly devoted followers.

We are told that. What are we shown for 30 hours?

Idiots. 2 people who barely are even shown on screen, have absolutely no sway over Pandora bar mayyyyybe a couple of hundred poorly equipped bandits we mow down, and who’s Grand Cathedral had like.. ten people in it. Two fucking morons who kinda hated each other just a lil bit till one of them popped his clogs and the other shrugged and walked on. The COV isn’t even the main enemy in the game. That’s Maliwan... for some reason. COV forces just randomly show up in between Maliwan fights. Even the takedowns are Maliwan. Maliwan is on Necrotafeyo long after Katagawa is dead with no logical explanation other than the only other enemy option was the COV, and they held so little threat that no one playing would have cared.

We are told that Lilith is an incredible commander, that she’s seen as some kind of awesome leader, worshiped as a hero across Pandora. That she’s trusted to lead the entirety of the crimson Raiders to the point of not being questioned by her subordinates, that after the events with Hector, she’s reaffirmed her maturity and prowess as someone to follow.

We are told that. What are we shown for 30 hours?

Idiot. Mistake after obvious mistake. Clueless leader. Atrocious at managing even a tiny crew. Acts like the VH’s victories are the raider’s, then sacrifices herself at the end while we are treated to a montage of everyone loving her so much as Thiiis girl is on fiiiiyaaaaa plays, like we are meant to actually be remotely invested in an NPC who did nothing but sniff her own fingers and proc “Speak to Lilith” quests the entire game.

The characters who survived this slow assassination are the likes of Winny and Hammerlock, Clay, Katagawa, the ones most fans agree are good.

But they are only good because they got short, concise story arcs that weren’t stretched out into absolute bullshit by atrocious writing for the entire rest of the game. It’s the same reason the DLC’s are so much better than the main plot, the story is clear, has an actual flow, and always follows introduction -> threat -> urgency -> climax -> payoff... the main game didn’t for any major character.

If Winny and Wainwright had been main story characters for more than 1 or 2 chapters? Folks, I can assure you they would had ended up terrible. If Katagawa, P+T, or Aurelia had been the main villains instead of the Twins? They would have been assassinated the exact same way. 

All the characters in BL3 are good characters, Ava included, the bad ones were just handled so poorly that they were ruined before they got the chance to shine.

Asks are Open!

[subcorax]

(Caveat upfront: I do not have ZERO criticisms of Veilguard, it's still a Bioware joint and there are some issues, I definitely agree with what a lot of other folks have said about Taash's storyline and some other cultural/writing issues, so please do not read this as a completely uncritical take lol.)

BUT, okay, some slightly more cohesive thoughts:

I am actually completely okay with Veilguard deciding that few/no decisions from prior games mattered. I love my Warden, my Hawke, and my Inquisitor, but I think VG was a stronger game - and frankly, that Inquisition was a much weaker one for it. To be clear: Inquisition is a well-loved, well-remembered, well-reviewed game, and for good reasons! It was a lot of people's first point of entry into the series, and a lot of people's favourite even now, and I don't begrudge them that at all, but for me personally, it really, really did not work, and a big part of that was the scope. It was too big to be able to do what it wanted to do. The DA Keep was ambitious, but fell flat, because it was impossible for the devs to account for every possible variation of a worldstate in the same game. Whatever impact your previous choices had on the world had to be surface-level and easily interchangable with any other outcome of that choice. Most minor choices ended up being functionally easter eggs, an NPC you might happen to recognize in passing or a stray line of conversation with one of your companions or advisors. The choices that had major outcomes on the social and political landscape of the setting, like who the current ruler of Ferelden is or whether Starkhaven is currently doing a crusade in the Free Marches, had to be confined to tightly-controlled cutscenes, or war table missions. Because all of your choices had to matter, none of them could actually matter.

I think that Veilguard just deciding upfront to go, "Don't worry about southern Thedas, Inquisitor's got it covered, worry about what's going on up here" was genuinely a smart choice, because it freed them from having to worry about accounting for variations in the worldstate and allowed them to just tell the story they wanted to tell. (And for what it's worth, I think DA2 also made this choice by setting the game in Kirkwall and going "man who cares what's happening in Ferelden, we've got other shit to worry about", and I think that was a good choice for the story they were telling. DA2 did also have the benefit of being from the same console generation as DAO and therefore being able to easily port a worldstate from one to the other.)

And genuinely, I think that time and effort was better spent on building out the world they did in Veilguard. The story and setting feel concentrated and purposeful; the maps are a lot smaller than Inquisition, but have felt unique and interesting, because man, is it cool to actually get to explore the crypts in Nevarra instead of just reading a codex entry about them or having an NPC exposit to me about them! And it feels as though your character's background actually matters! The sheer amount of ambient dialogue, casual references, variations in conversation during quests, based on your character's faction and race, is fantastic to see! Like, that's where I'd rather have the time and effort of development going, to making each variation, each version of Rook feel fleshed out and established within the world, a character with a background that they and others think and talk about.

And of course, your mileage may vary on any of this. Folks are both happy with and disappointed with Veilguard for any number of reasons. But for me personally, with what I wanted out of this game, I'm glad they made the choices they did, and I honestly do think it's a stronger and more cohesive game because they deliberately limited the scope of it.

may or may not elaborate on this later but ultimately where i'm falling on this is:

if someone loved inquisition for all the reasons i hated it, they'd probably end up hating veilguard for all the reasons i'm loving it. and i don't think this is necessarily a good or a bad thing, we just probably wanted quite different things out of a game

[ruakichan]

Memorial Saga - Ramge (1/2)

Playthrough log up! So long post, lots of screencaps, lots of squeeing and complaining about my headcanons getting destroyed, all spoilers ahoy!

The story opens with a brief storybook style cut-ins of Ramge’s childhood.  Most of this we knew.

He looks super young in all of these, even in the parts referencing more recent events, so I’m not sure if that’s intention or the artstyle. (He’s 19 by the game start.)

The most important thing is 100% the confirmation that yes, he was going to steal Exestruk from the beginning. (...ngl i think the game writers kind of forgot this sword exists tbh)

The actual gameplay for Memorial Saga (MS) is done in the chibi ‘paperdoll’ style you see from the overworld map.  The environments are really vibrant and well done though.  I was really surprised by the effort from the design team.

The first chapter is dedicated just to introducing the player to the controls and forcing them to explore town, talk to NPCs for some flavor text, and look for treasure chests.

First headcanon destroyed: Sia talks casually to EVERYONE even though talking cats are NOT a thing in this world and everyone reacts with mild surprise. LOL

Hawkeye asking the big question here:

Sia gets indignant, demands her master defend her honor with blood, and he just says ‘ye she smurt uwu‘ cause it’s Ramge.

But holy shit, the game defied my expectations: Rachel shows up in the first chapter.  With a big entrance that made me feel some serious secondhand embarrassment.

oh my god my son you don’t have to show off for your boyfriend

I find it absolutely hilarious that Rachel gets a huge honor guard and Ramge has... uh... Hawkeye. LOL

lord the first thing out of his mouth is a complaint

he really complains a lot ramge has the patience of a god

Oof.  Major blow to my headcanons. I always characterized Rachel as having a really complicated relationship with his feelings about Saint West, versus Ramge’s more straightforward feelings about North von Frosty (which MS also seems to be jossing).  But looks like Rachel’s a pretty proud patriot!

... i won’t be changing this headcanon tbh lol

After Rachel marches off with his honor guard, Ramge reflects a bit on his first impression with meeting another prince for the first time.

dude saint west is legit re-enacting the game of thrones i don’t think he has it better his daddy ain’t even his daddy

(still wondering if they’re gonna have baileysh come out as being the original royal since he’s the one carrying rothbrok’s lineage BUT ANYWAY)

Ramge’s feeling a little inadequate next to the shining god that is THE BEST CHARACTER IN THE GAME dont@me, but as he’s anxiously fretting, Sia reassures him and proves that she’s the best cat not named Cactus or Fern.

Sia actually does a lot of talking and decision-making for Ramge.  She really coddles him.

Chapter 1 ends here and Chapter 2 opens with you entering the palace.

It’s a bit different than what I envisioned based off the few backgrounds we see in the actual game (I expected something a lot more airy).  Rachel’s hanging around but you can’t actually hold a real conversation with him yet.

Rudley catches up with Ramge and says that he’ll gather the other King’s Guard to have them all introduce each other.  Ramge immediately begins fretting about being social and MEETING PEOPLE!!!!! and Sia again has to reassure him.

Aww.

As a sidenote, I’m a bit surprised by the translation quality of this compared to uh... the rest of the game, which is infamously Engrish-y.  Guess they put in a little more effort, which is much appreciated.  It’s not the best writing, but at least it makes sense.

You can explore a bit before meeting the rest of the Guard.  Popping into the Emperor’s room, you can actually talk to him—and get dismissed as being impertinent.  Look bud, I was just looking for treasure chests. You get killed later anyway. No one even knows your name, I think.

So the Guards gather. Rera notes there are new faces here—another hit to headcanon for me, as I actually always figured she was the LAST to join. But I was right in that Ramge and Rachel did join the Guard at the same time and were both rookies: they are the new faces Rera was referring to.

Ever the asshole, Xiakhan is the first to fire the first shot:

Very, VERY curiously, Rachel thinks it’s aimed at him:

Now I’m really, really interested in why Rachel thinks Xiakhan would be referring to him. I wonder if it has anything to do with his... uh... “bad habit” that King John covers him for.

Xiakhan blows off Rachel (who he knows of, cause politics).

And then proceeds to bully Ramge.

Sia gets indignant on Ramge’s behalf, saying he’s more talented than anyone here.

Then Xiakhan says what everyone thinks when they meet Ramge:

Like damn, Xiakhan, I thought you were water element, not fire! Cause I felt that burn!

Rachel then speaks up—or rather, speaks down toward the other King’s Guard:

Xiakhan then alludes to the rumors about Rachel’s real personality:

Rachel blows him off and says the following, which is the exact moment you can tell Ramge fell for him LOL:

Ramge reacts with a !! and turns to Rachel, which was an animated gesture I couldn’t capture, but holy hell, you can tell right at that moment, he was staring starry-eyed at his new hero. LOL

it’s ok ramge i really loved that line too oof i felt all of rachel’s pain in that one rachel memorial saga when oozoo

Rachel then tells Xiakhan (and the others) that they should stay out of everyone’s private business from now on, but if they insist in meddling, they’ll have to deal with him first.

laying it on thick aren’t we rachel

Baraka finally speaks up, LOLing at the whole thing:

So my headcanon that Baraka and Rachel generally get along is still going  swimmingly. hooray!

But the mood in general has been soured so no one wants to deal with a reception party. Everyone leaves.

But Ramge, despite his shy nature, really, really wants to talk to Rachel.

Flavor text:

like you go boy grab yourself a cute boyfriend

Ramge finds Rachel talking with Rudley, where Rachel is surprised by how the Guard is... not a very cohesive group, that spends more time sniping at each other than being cooperative.

As an aside, so far Rachel’s being painted as a very naive boy, which absolutely 100% destroys my characterizations for him lol. (I also will not be changing this LOL).  He’s supposed to be very pampered and spoiled, being the favored son of a very powerful, wealthy nation, but goddamn, you’d think living the life of a royal noble, he’d know that aristocrats wouldn’t get along with other nobles just by the petty power squabbles (which Xiakhan even referenced in their meeting) alone.

But anyway, after Rudley leaves, Ramge tries to talk to Rachel.

oh my god he’s doing that fists to chin cute shy pose lololol

Rachel (mercifully?) just cuts straight to the point.

WOW already hitting on him ok

lol

So they introduce themselves and Ramge thanks Rachel for helping him, which gets a bit of a tsun reaction from Rachel that made me laugh.

Sadly, he’s probably telling the truth here. The only proud people Rachel tolerates is himself LOL.

Sia also thanks Rachel on her master’s behalf, so he addresses the elephant in the room—talking cat what?

OH NO HE DIDN’T

that got just about the exact reaction you’d expect from sia so they’re off to a great start LOL

then rachel just digs in further

Sia is extremely indignant about this, but their argument gets a very small laugh out of Ramge.

Meanwhile, Rudley is watching this interaction... and tells the steward to make sure their assigned rooms are close to each other.

OKAY

OKAY

OKAY RUDLEY

i mean i loved you before but i love you more now

RUDLEY SHIPS IT

Cutting back to the budding lovebirds besties:

feeling soooo justified about my characterization for understated, dry snark Ramge right now oh ho ho ho

But can we talk about that REALLY reaction in that last pic up there OMFG FISTS TO THE CHIN AND EVERYTHING so cute

The two then decide to have a date i mean go look around the city.  even though it’s night time lol

But the steward shows up to tell the pair their rooms are ready and they need to go inspect their luggage—at the local inn. Another joss—apparently King’s Guard training means they stay at the inn, and not the palace.

Rachel, predictably, complains about having to live it rough, but is informed it’s a tradition, so what’s he gonna do? So the two put off their date cause it would take Rachel all night to inspect his belongings because oh my god

Some more headcanons AND FUCKING ILLUSIONS SHATTERED rachel’s a mama’s boy just like his not-brother LOLLOLOLSGH kl;ahg;lakdgj a;l hahahahahaaaa

i always figured ramge was the more mature of the two but not THAT mature omfg? hahahahahaha how the fuck is rachel the one that takes care of him hahaha?

Annnnnnd emergency maintenance happened so I guess this is a good time to end this particular post since it got so long.

So far, pleasantly surprised with what I’ve seen so far, but I guess setting my expectations to zero helped lol. Hopefully this will continue through the rest of the chapters.

The rest of the chapters here!

[cosmiciaria]

Assasin’s Creed III Remaster review - Spoilers! - Long post!

I wanted to keep this spoiler free, but as this game is such a narrative experience, I don't think I'll be able to. I'll try to keep them at minimum, but be warned: there are major spoilers ahead. By the way, this game is almost a decade old, so y'all had plenty of time to get spoiled beforehand. And if you're reading this, it's because you like this game and you probably know how it ends.

Review under the cut because this is way too long. 

As always, I express my feelings and impressions regarding my experience with a game – I write it because I like writing reviews instead of, I don't know, recording a video for YouTube. I'm not a YouTuber and I feel safer behind a keyboard where people don't point out about my weird accent (the accent every Hispanic person has when they speak English). Since the pandemic started, I found refuge and comfort in AC games, with Syndicate being my first contact with the franchise, and Unity solidifying my love for it. I found strength and weaknesses in all the installments I've played, which are almost all of them by now (excluding the first AC with Altaïr, the new saga with Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla, and Rogue). I've also platinumed three of those games I've played, and I'm on my way to platinum this one, so I think I can speak from a deep fan standpoint by now.

Since Syndicate, I studied from up close each of the protagonists of the mainline games. I felt drawn to Arno because he looked like one of my oc's (and his girlfriend looked like my oc's girlfriend as well); I wanted to learn about Ezio because he's a fan favorite; I wasn't at all impressed by Edward but ended up growing fond of him; I respect Altaïr for what he means to the Brotherhood; but I can safely say, that I haven't felt as attracted to a main AC protagonist as I felt with Connor.

From the moment I knew he was a native American (such a bold choice, it seemed for me) I felt instant attraction – but not the, idk, physical (he's a cutie I give it to you), but because of what he could bring about as a main character. A perspective we don't usually get to see, and personally, as I'm not American, a point of view to educate me on a different side of history. I wanted to see what they could do with him as the star of the game, I wanted to play with him and understand how someone like him could rise up and become a protagonist of such a well known and beloved saga of games. I applaud this decision from Ubisoft, whether they did it because they wanted to look progressive or not, I don't care, I'll always cherish that the protagonist of a famous videogame is a Mohawk. And with the American Revolution as the main stage, no less. Such an important scenario to strengthen the virtue of independence, patriotism and love for a country, going hand in hand with a character that represents America even more than the Founding Fathers.

(Also I'm a Hamilton Fan Trademark so I couldn't stop singing random parts of songs while playing this game, it was a nightmare every time Lafayette appeared on screen because I JUST HAD TO start mumbling Guns and Ships)

I lunged blindly into this game – I'd only spoiled myself the very ending because I played Black Flag before – so imagine my surprise when I first saw Haytham, Connor's father, as the main protagonist.

So here's the deal. Let's clear this out of the way.

I thoroughly enjoyed the game. It was what I expected and more.

But.

Yes, there's always a but in AC games, you know the drill.

As I kept playing with Haytham, charming though he was, I kept thinking to myself "ok but when does Connor come into play". I also already knew Haytham was a Templar, so the end of the first few sequences didn't catch me by surprise – actually, what caught me by surprise was that there was no mention of Assassins or Templars during the "prologue" with Haytham, instead you're left to believe they're all Assassins until he prays to the Father of Understanding and you realize with a gasp "oH NoO!".

You play with Haytham the first three sequences. One of these have the most memories out all of the sequences more or less. This whole thing can take up to three to five hours depending on how much time you wish to put into exploring or completing the optional objectives. And still no signs of Connor.

Connor does come eventually – as a child – by sequence 4. It's not until the end of sequence 5 that you get to play as (almost) adult Assassin Connor, so maybe five or six or even seven hours into the game and you're barely starting.

I know what they did here. I understand. And this is what I meant when I said they were going for a 'narrative experience'. To make you play as Haytham before, to lure you into a false sense of safety believing he was an Assassin working for a just cause, to make you feel invested in his relationship with Ziio – only to discover he's one of the bad guys, that will eventually give birth to our true hero of the game – it sediments everything perfectly. It tells you everything you need to know to understand these characters and their motivations. I can see where they're going and some of it can be quite predictable, but it was done right. On the narrative aspect at least.

I got used to Haytham by the time we switch to Connor, we're used to his cloak and his three pointed hat – his accent, his sassiness, his everything. You grow fond of him and you think, hey, maybe it isn't so bad to not play as Connor, I can roll with this – until the sudden change happens. The game completed its purpose: let you know and care for Haytham, only to strip him away from your hands and bring you the real protagonist with an interesting background that didn't need to be told, but it was instead shown to us players. What a better way to tell a story.

But the problem is – most of Haytham's memories are fillers. For starters, the very first memory where you appear in the opera house (similar to that one at the end of Black Flag… mmm) serves as a tutorial for climbing and killing with the hidden blade. Then the whole memory on the ship to Boston – completely expendable and removable, the story doesn't suffer from it. All the memories used with Haytham as tutorials – how to shield from an open line of fire, how to use ranged weapons, how to sneak and find stores and viewpoints, how to use horses and walk on snow, fricking Ben Franklin – everything, everything could've blended in better. You could still tell the story you wanted in only one sequence playing with Haytham, and end it the way it does end in sequence 3, without avoiding any important detail to frame Connor's backstory as well – but instead, this part with Haytham does feel like it overstays its welcome, and by the end you're just hoping it ends soon, it drags on for too long, and there's no real sense of thread pulling the strings together here, everything just kind of 'happens'.

But the never-ending prologue doesn't end there (badam tum tsss), because Connor still isn't an Assassin. Connor is not Connor actually, as I had been led to believe prior to playing this game: his real name is Ratonhnhaké:ton, which I wish it was used more often than it was. Ratonhnhaké:ton is like four or five years old when you first play with him, and his village is assaulted by what we assume are Charles Lee's men, a Templar and companion to Haytham. Ratonhnhaké:ton swears revenge upon these putrid British invaders and he grows up resenting the death of his mother, who died in the fire provoked by these Templars.

Not even knowing what a Templar or an Assassin is, Ratonhnhaké:ton is sent by one of "the spirit guides" (actually, Juno, one of the Precursor people) to seek the Brotherhood. When he's around 14, he sets out of his village into the wide world and finds Achilles, who will become his Assassin mentor – that is, after completing a set of tasks that yet again seem to go on forever. Ratonhnhaké:ton turns into Connor to cover his true origins, a name I thought it was random, but by the end I realized how wrong I was.

It isn't until Connor turns 17 that he becomes a fully-fledged Assassin – and you might think, well, Ezio became an Assassin at the same age – yes, but it didn't take him five sequences to reach there. I can't believe I'm defending Ezio.

It's not that I didn't enjoy playing as Connor when he was a kid, no, and I also don't think that part of the game should be skipped since it shows his people, family and friends – maybe comprised, yes, into only one sequence – the real problem here is the fact that first you need to play what could be considered the longest prologue ever, even longer than Kingdom Hearts 2's one, and you're teased with grasping the real protagonist but no, because there's still more 'prologue' to cover with Connor's rise to the Brotherhood. The real, real story, begins in sequence 6, and even then you still have a lot of tutorials to listen from the NPC on duty.

And if you do the maths – you're halfway through the game – halfway! – and you're just starting. The game has twelve sequences and the meat of the plot is on the last six. Then, why did I play all the previous parts?

For the 'narrative experience' thing I talked about. They wanted to lay the groundwork for a better, compelling storytelling, and I can appreciate it, but not when it hinders the pace of the game this way.

That is, certainly, my biggest issue with the game. The pace. If you're going to give me such a slow start, introducing characters non-stop, and only give me resolutions, discoveries and action packed sequences on the later half, then the story isn't balanced at all – I understand that at some points you need to slow down and sink in what's going on; you can't also introduce ten characters in one cutscene because that's just bad story telling – but the memories of this game are clearly not well organized and weren't thought with the player in mind, but rather with the story in mind. To think that the first mission you do as a full Assassin is to receive more and more tutorials on how the fast travel points work and how you can lower your notoriety (as far as gameplay goes in this mission, it's only walking around at a slug's pace to follow the NPC giving you instructions) it does feel like a slap in the face after all the things and hours and effort you put into it to finally reaching this point (which, I remind you, it's by sequence six!).

It's at this point where I can't blame people for not following through with this game. I have plenty of friends who abandoned it even before reaching this part. And I found myself having trouble to return to it: I only wanted to go back to it because I knew I had to like Connor, I knew he wouldn't disappoint me as a character.

Boy, was I RIGHT!

Now, to be honest, I may be biased, like I said: I was instantly attracted to Connor due to his backstory and I wished to see what he could bring to the table. And I have to say, he didn't disappoint me at all.

Maybe you know or maybe you don't, but up until this point, my fave Assassin was Arno: he showed weaknesses and he suffered the consequences of his actions, to the point of no return, that rendered him vulnerable and a mere human being. And I love me a good vulnerable character who knows their limits and strives to get out of that pit. I love me a good, compelling character that has growth and agency and isn't made of cardboard or has a one-dimensional personality. And Connor delivered on this front.

Connor might very well be my new fave Assassin. I'm sorry, Arno. I still love you babe. But Connor… I never found myself rooting for a character more than I did with him. I wanted him to succeed, I wanted his people to be saved, I wanted to see his ideals become a reality – and he's got so much agency, he's a storm when he comes into a scene, his naivety mixed with the brutality of his killings, the simplicity of his reasonings – he's an idealist, and he fights for it, whether we like it or not, and that devotion to his own creed is at least respectable, let alone admirable. He's never downplayed for his upbringing or his ethnicity, he works among the most notorious people as if he was another one of them, he's well respected in his community, he shows kindness and always offers a helping hand to those in need, but never doubts to plunge his blade into this opponent's throats, fearlessly, he doesn't mind telling George Friking Washington to shut the hell up and not follow him because he'll kill him (there's such a pleasure in a native reprimanding enslaver Washington) – he's, simply put, a great hero.

I've seen many complain that he's boring, or that the actor who played him, Noah Watts, delivered lines in an emotionless way – the only thing that could make him 'boring' is the fact that he's not a lady's man like Ezio was, and to my eyes that's a plus. He speaks slowly and modulates well in English because that's not his mother tongue, and I can appreciate when a company puts these little details, like his way of speaking changing throughout the game as he gained more confidence with this new language he was learning to use. As non-English native speaker, I certainly can commune with the feeling of adapting my tongue and my brain to a new language, and I also know that I speak weirdly to those who are native, maybe I don't have the same intonations, and maybe I sound emotionless as well, who knows, but I can't think of a better portrayal of a non-English character speaking English in videogames than this one. They remained faithful to his culture, and even though I noticed Noah didn't speak Mohawk as fluently as English, I can still feel pleased with the fact that Connor speaks in his mother tongue in all of the scenes he interacts with Mohawks (that's something they did better here than in Unity, where not a single character has even a French accent. I switched the language spoken to French in my subsequent playthroughs, much to my disappointment, because I really liked the Canadian actors). I know subtitles may seem threatening to some, but I wish they did this more often: deliver more lines in the original language of each of the protagonists. It shows care and respect. And I think this game excels at respect.

So, yes, I liked Ratonhnhaké:ton, as you can see. Maybe a lot. Too much.

I also really, really enjoyed his relationship with Haytham.

When Haytham appears back in to the fray it's when the plot picks up. Their interactions are gold: I love the rivalry, I love that Haytham is constantly testing his son, and I love the tiny bits that may show or make us believe that Haytham has a soft spot for him – I love that we never truly know what's going on through Haytham's mind, why does he do the things he does – but what I enjoyed the most about these two fighting together is the fact that they represent opposing forces, a clash of interest, and they bring back the concept of the blurred line between the Templars and the Assassins, their different methods. Haytham represents the collectiveness of the Templars, through him we learn of what they truly uphold as right and just, and behind some of his reasonings you can see sense and understanding – you comprehend his goals, you get to know your enemy, your antagonist, which is something, for instance, the Ezio trilogy lacks (because Templars bad bad pium pium die Templar bad guy) and Unity and Rogue tried to do but ultimately ended wasting its potential. I never understood Templars more than I did through Haytham, and sometimes I found myself nodding at some of his statement, like 'hey… huh… he's not that wrong about this…'. But still, we're led to believe that the good guys, the Assassins, are never wrong, so we pull through with Connor – only to realize that yes, Haytham was right in many aspects, and yes, Haytham has lied to us and he needs to be stopped.

It's here when my love for Connor reached its ultimate stage: when he denies both his father (Templars) and Washington (for whom the Assassins were working). It's here where you see the true agency of this character. It's not black or white, as Ezio's games were; it's not that he was expelled against his will from the Brotherhood like in Unity; it's not that because of a clash of interest now he resorted to the Templars, like in Rogue; no, it's the philosophy of the very first AC game with Altaïr: Templars and Assassins are one and the same, they only differ in their methods, and when Connor comes to this realization, his struggle is visible and he puts his people first. Like always.

He remains true to his personality. He's grown, he's seen the truth, but he must make a decision. And after all, we're here because we want to see him protect his people. That's his real main driving force and we root for him because of it.

Now, I've spoken a lot about our main character. But, what about the secondary ones?

Achilles, Connor's mentor, hides more than he's willing to share – but slowly his backstory unfolds. In his homestead, Davenport, you're able to build a community with different townsfolk that you can invite to live with you through special sidequests, which combine plot and gameplay seamlessly. Through the homestead missions, you get to know Achilles and the other inhabitants and you see them thrive and grow into a tight-knit community close as family. I daresay that these missions were my favorite out of the whole game, and seeing the town grow not only in NPC's walking around but also in sounds, steps, people working and laughing and dogs barking and kids playing, gave me all the fuzzy and cozy feelings of a warm blanket in winter. Most of Connor's innocence and kindness is shown through these missions, and there are also some really good jewels hidden there, like the quest that asks you to guide the pigs back inside – damn. This game gave me very good laughs.

On a gameplay level, this game is light years away from its predecessors – the parkour alone has been revamped and revitalized, making it more fluid. Free running now isn't a chore anymore. Now you can hunt, which is a great part of Connor's backstory and culture, so it's good to see they blend gameplay with plot like this. There's a crafting system that took me ages to understand, but thankfully I got the hang of it. The combat is pretty much the same (counter kills always for the win) and the difficulty remains quite easy, as the games that came before. I wasn't looking for a challenge so I'm fine with it. Now, if you're looking for a challenge… the optional objectives got it covered for you. Because, good lord, they made these stupid main missions so much unnecessarily HARDER and IMPOSSIBLE to complete without having three or four ragequits and sometimes you have to restart up to ten times. To be honest, I never found myself more enraged with the optional objectives than I was with these missions, and I thought Unity's optional constraints were stupid ass complicated, I was wrong. This game. Must be. The most. Annoying. Piece of videogame. To platinum.

Apart from the 'oh I want to die optional objectives' thing, you have naval missions – which, yes, you guessed it, take place on a ship – I guess they were testing the mechanics for a (not so far away) future pirate game, because I can see the seeds of what later Black Flag came to be. It's serviceable and it fulfills its purpose, but as I don't like ships much, I left it on hold for the endgame. 

If you don’t dig the naval missions nor the main missions, there’s plenty to do in this game: you have the aforementioned homstead missions, the club challenges (which can take... quite a while), the underground fast travel points (a nice change of pace, though you can easily grow tired of them), the liberation missions, which will see you help liberate a city from Templar control and recruiting a new Assassin apprentice, much like in Brotherhood and Revelations; taking Forts, hunting like there’s no tomorrow, courier, delivering items and message delivery missions, a ton of collectibles, etc, etc. 

You might realize I stopped talking about the plot by the time I reached sequence 6 – yes, it's because I'm a little upset with it.

I said that we're here because we want to see Connor protect his people and triumph against the Templars. Yes. We receive that, yes. Amidst. A thousand. History. Lessons.

In my Ezio's Collection review, I complained that in Revelations we were shoved history in the face – I hadn't still finished AC3, because then I would've mentioned something about it. Connor comes across all the important figures of the American Revolution in such a contrived way – he acts as a guardian angel of this revolution, aiding each of the emblematic characters that took part in. I can roll with it in my suspension of disbelief (how come this one person was present at every major event, you know), what I can't roll with is the fact that he was present at the Declaration of Independence – this is some Ken Follett level of bs of probability of something happening to a character. Besides, it's always latent though never truly explicitly addressed, but Connor's skintone was something that should've deterred him from even speaking to someone like Washington – let alone, be present at the moment they signed the Declaration. He does mention at some point that freedom and this new nation was only for white men, and that he acknowledged that slaves deserved as much freedom as everyone else was fighting for; I'm glad he addressed the elephant in the room, though I'm also glad they didn't make the whole thing about it, because normalizing a character like this as a main protagonist was the main idea, I think, when they chose a Mohawk to represent the American Revolution. Still, that someone like him was able to achieve all he achieved in a plot like this, it only means he has some kind of Main Protagonist Shield, otherwise I doubt this could've served as a realistic story for anyone else in the same situation as him. It's, uh, a little hard to believe, that's all. Whereas I can see Arno existing within the historical frame of the French Revolution, without being the one that let the guillotine fall on King Louis' head, this one was a little more far-fetched.

I haven't touched upon the Desmond part – the present day of this game is more, uh… present than ever. And I loved it! I loved it because it delved deep into the Precursor's lore, and also it fleshed out Desmond's relationship with his father, and we actually do shit with Desmond – though that part of the Brazilian stadium, huh, for a company that paid too much attention and consulted with experts on the Mohawks, they clearly left Brazil out of their investigations. I forgive them, they tried.

The music… didn't have as much personality as other installments, it was kind of there, and right now I can't evoke a single theme except for the main menu one, so there you go, it's quite forgettable for my taste, sadly.

I forgot to mention that: this game looks gorgeous. I played the Remastered version of the game, and sometimes it looked like it was done for the PS4 instead of being a remaster (it does look better than Black Flag which came afterwards!). Lighting is magical, the trees breathe life into the screen, the water effects are crystal and realistic; many times I felt like was horse-riding in a Last of Us game (yes, I just compared Ubisoft to Naughty Dog, don't hit me). Davenport Homestead is my favorite location, now more than ever, because it's not only beautiful, but it also means home.

This game accompanied me in a very important moment of my life: I sprained my ankle and I spent a week in bed recovering, while also pondering about my job and the prospects of my future; I took many decisions while playing regarding what I want for my life. I cried at the end because I realized I had become too attached to the characters and because I was so sad to see Connor keep losing things. It all comes full circle by the end. It's a very mature ending, maybe a little unfulfilling, but reality is often disappointing and not everything needs a happily ever after.

All in all, my major complaint goes to the structure of the game and the poor organization they gave to it (AND THE OPTIONAL OBJECTIVES DAAJKSDAD). But Connor as a character in itself made it all worthwhile for me. And I'll always cherish him. I know he won't resonate with everyone, but he resonated with me.