#beat the first boss with like no health. it was awesome.

[mosscrab]

nightmare kart is sooo good

[tennybird]

I have opinions about TotK. This is your spoiler warning if you haven't played/finished it yet. Also all of this is, once again, just my opinion on it and not a decisive fact! I will probably misremember things!

Anyway.

Okay so basically as someone who got it on release and beat it within a week, I'm a little underwhelmed by the game now that I'm looking back over half a year later.

It's not a terrible game! I'll say that first and foremost. But after waiting so long for it, and trying so hard to not hype myself up for it (failing horribly at that), it feels just a bit... same-y. The story is nice, and it's different. The boss fights and abilities you gain during your travels are nice. Everything else, though...

I like the map having stayed similar, with enough changes that I have to relearn some areas. The Depths are really fucking cool, and figuring out on my own that they're a negative of the overworld was incredible! But the sky islands were a little disappointing, I think. When we were told we'd be in the sky a lot, I thought there'd be more large islands like the tutorial one that you could walk around on. More references to Skyward Sword, too. It feels to me that they put more love into the Depths than the sky, in a way.

I like the main story. Figuring out Zelda was the Light Dragon (but not really believing it until the final Tears), and that she'd essentially spent thousands and thousands of years trapped inside herself, was AWESOME. Every cutscene involving her as the Light Dragon hit me hard, and I felt genuine sorrow everytime I saw her floating around the sky.

...That being said, I DO wish we could have a game where you get to actually travel with her. I WANT her to tell me about the minor lore of the world! I want to know about the various flora and fauna, and I want her to talk about Hyrule's history! Zelda is part of the royal family, and I'd imagine that part of her studies pre-BotW she'd have to learn about the history of her family (especially because of the importance of the Goddess' blood...). With how pre-BotW went between her and her powers, and her and her father, I'd imagine she'd make it a point to learn more about their history that ISN'T just the prophecy.

I, personally, did not like most of the temple boss fights. I can't really explain much of why- except for Queen Gibdo. I HATED Queen Gibdo because of all the smaller Gibdo chasing you, trying to chase down Riju for her power... It was a lot of things stacked on each other, and simply not my thing. Colgera was an absolute favorite however! The boss theme is AWESOME, the mechanics of being in the air and having to watch for projectiles, as well as crashing through the ice sheets to take it down? VERY, VERY FUN. Climbing through the sky just to get to the temple itself was one of my favorite experiences. Going up and up and up, and finally reaching the top where you break out above the storm clouds and see clear skies...

A thing that bothers me about the temples is that the cutscene at the end, where the ancient Sages gifts their powers to the new ones... I feel like they could've spent a little more time making them different, even if that meant more time in development. I would be okay with that! I think games should be in development longer in order to produce a good, finished product! Anyway.

The fight with Ganondorf was fun for me. I get SUPER immersed in it, so it was a fearful moment when I thought I'd beaten him, only to see his health bar fill again... and then go offscreen. And the DEMON DRAGON FIGHT? Holy SHIT.

I just wish there was more... substance to the game, I guess? It feels weird saying that. There are more things to do, but it's missing something I can't name. Something BotW had, but is now gone. I like TotK, like I said. It's clearly had love put into it, and I'm glad the developers spent more time on getting it as close to the perfect image they wanted as they could. Maybe it's just cause I've spent more time with BotW (over 300 hours), but I think I'm a little biased towards it. Maybe I'm just getting older and grumpier about vidya games, too. Who knows!

If you read all this, cool! I will reiterate that this is simply my view on it! If your view is different, good!! I'm happy to know there are people out there who enjoy it more than I did. Or if you hate it more than I do, maybe you have other things you want to point out about it that I missed.

[katyspersonal]

Today's SoTE adventures! Hoooo boy that was awesome!! Too bad I have to interrupt to cook food and stuff but

1) So, I continued going down the road through Mausoleum where I defeated Rakshasa yesterday! But first attempted to snipe the hyppo enemies with a greatbow.. Barely reduced their health because I had whole 8 arrows and 4 of them only served to attract them to snipeable distance 🤡 I'll get them later..... :/

2) I ended up going all the way down! And it was a combo string of me thinking one thing but it was another!! So my objective was to get to that mysterious missing spot on the map. I went all the way down on a small island and saw catacombs, assuming I went to the wrong place because it is caves or mines that can lead to another location entirely, not catacombs! Then I went there in that very dark catacomb and as soon as I saw Fulgurbloom and a big talisman I assumed it was yet another Death catacomb that'd be mirroring previous two but no! Light puzzles and no Death. THEN I assumed 'there is no way the boss is anything but Knight of Death' but NO!!!

IT WAS LIKE, A CLERIC OR SOMETHING (inquisitor actually) THAT WAS REALLY HARD TO BEAT AND KEPT SUMMONING MORE AND MORE OTHER CLERICS LIKE SLIM AND FAT AS GHOSTS AND THEY WERE LIKE HOLDING THAT ONE CANDLESTICK-LIKE SYMBOL AND PILING UP GFGFHGHGB I really wish I took screenshots during the fight but I was too busy getting my ass kicked IT WAS REALLY FUN THOUGH I WON LITERALLY THE LAST SECOND WHAT IN THE DEACONS OF THE DEEP WAS THAT SHIT LOOOOLLLLL

And as if that was all not enough, turned out that WAS an actual way to the new location!! I got that right 😎

3) I however apparently missed at least two secrets in that catacomb.. I saw the ladder that I didn't know how to access, and I didn't understand the deal with an item where that big shooting Imp was. All I got was this:

Guess I'll have to watch tutorial or ask my friends like the annoying completions jerk that I am x)

4) Soooo I ran into this message when I wanted to hop on the boulder:

I saw a screenshot of this before but didn't know the context!

Meanwhile, I was looking around and thinking that the fire cracks layout was looking a LOT like Frenzied Flame. Damn, I feel like that was what scared Torrent since he pretty much burns alive in FF ending and JUST SO I DON'T HAVE ANY DOUBTS LEFT GODDAMN RATS THAT DEAL FRENZY ATTACKED ME LET'S GOOOOOO (or not ffgghfgg)

5) So on my way further there, I defeated a pretty annoying invader, just barely, and.......

*SLAMS MY FISTS AGAINST THE TABLE* THIS

*BREAKS TABLE WITH AN AXE* THIS FUCKING SHIT IS

*THROWS THE TABLE IN THE WINDOW* SHIT LIKE THIS IS EXACTLY AND I MEAN EXACTLY

*THROWS A GRENADE TOWARDS WHERE THE TABLE WAS THROWN* SHIT LIKE THIS IS EXACTLY WHY I CAN NOT EVER LOSE RESPECT TO MIYAZAKI AS A WRITER HOLY SHIT *THROWS MYSELF OUT OF THE WINDOW TOO*

Gfhgyyggyuyb I already cried a bitter tear of being Seen @ Undestood when Miyazaki managed to squeeze his trademark loathing for those who commit atrocities under belief in their sainthood in a talisman Queelign dropped, but this too.. Like yeah, I can absolutely confirm that being hunted as "heretic" by your own is the most insanity-inducing thing. I have seen what it did with another person, I have experienced this too and honestly I can't be bitter about lolrandom ship choice with Radahn or whatever on Miyazaki's side as long as he sneaks addressing this kind of stuff in his works. He actually GETS it.. This very specific grievance with human species in general that I don't see acknowledged on this level anywhere else. I feel seen ;-;

6) Also the map too!

I am going to make a wild prediction that Midra and the boys were also unfairly slandered like heretics and so the despair festered to the point of him (?) being contacted by the Three Fingers the same way Marika was contacted by the Two Fingers after her own tragedy 🤔 Listen it is not like I've had everything spoiled, I am just trying to guess! Lol I bet that the Hornsent clerics/saints/inquisitors/whatever are now looking at this land being tormented by Frenzy and go like "well see how much Midra overreacted, it was a good call to bully him :т" like you know, in the classic fashion of witch hunters completely missing the fact that they've created their own enemy. Dipshits.

(Ok sorry for getting too emotional on this bit, those three of you who followed my blog for a long time probably know why I am so occupied with this topic -_- Granted, Miyazaki already did the topic with the Nomads so maybe now he will try an alternative route and have people in this place being actually guilty? I'll see!)

7) There were strangely places on the corner of the map where rain started and ended quick, without any reason xd

I wonder why it is like this? Probably a mapping bug but it feels for me as though something is protecting this land from completely burning this way! Based if intentional!

8) Not gonna lie, I've gotten a little nervous when I've picked this thing:

Winter Lantern? oMgggg LiKe iN bLooDbOrNe IS THIS A BB REFERENCE 👀 cfhkgjhuh

Okay, but so pattern looked familiar and I suddenly remembered a creature I've seen in a trailer o_o So yeah, I just knew it was not going to be a huge pain in the ass soon 🙄

9) And I fucking died lol gfbgg

Honestly I don't know if I am mistaken, but I don't recall seeing a healthbar of this thing! It seems like all hits had no effects so maybe I did something wrong, I don't know.. I'll figure out what to do later I guess

So yes, not too much progress but a lot of emotions! One of the biggest "holy shit I love this DLC" moments so far after that pretty hard battle!

[toyota-supra]

My Top 10 Favorite Games I Played In 2023

In chronological order. It's a long one.

Titanfall 2

I've been told to play this for years now, though for most of those I did not really know why, as it never seemed like my kind of game. But, ever since I started really getting into mecha sometime in 2022, I decided to finally give it a try. I'm very glad I did. Titanfall 2 is a criminally short First Person Shooter with a very fun mech/pilot dynamic, really good mechanics of movement and combat for both, and some of my favorite level design of any game I've played in a long while. The platforming is crazy good! The mechanics are tight as hell! The mech is awesome! I recommend Titanfall 2 for literally anyone reading this.

Mega Man Zero

The Zero series is the one that most called to me in the Mega Man franchise every time I looked these games over, and I was right in that judgement. While I couldn't say if I was going to appreciate most of the GBA era action platformer difficulty or not, it was clear from Zero's more agile movement and bite-sized missions with very memorization-heavy bosses that I would enjoy it. And I did enjoy it a lot! Most of the bosses kicked my ass but it was an absolute blast to finally learn their patterns enough to defeat them. The problem is, I went out of my way to not get any of the game's health upgrades or energy tanks, making the final boss so hard for me that after days and days of attempts I gave up. Not beating Mega Man Zero is probably my biggest regret of the year lmao

Fate/Stay Night

Honestly, what do I even say? You can see my Saber icon, right? Fate is a franchise I never bothered to get close to, knowing of its name only through vague images and names of more popular characters (not even from FGO, just in general), and from later on getting to know that Fate/Grand Order was the game it is I felt like it wasn't for me at all and who cares. So when I learned what the original VN was actually about I felt stupid. How could something so fitting to my tastes have gone under my radar for so long...? Despite not being much of a reader in general, F/SN is a very long game that feels like it's just as short as you need it to be. The prose flows so well, every single character is lovable in many ways, and there's so much passion written into them and the situations they're in that it's one of the most smooth-flowing VNs I've read (which granted are not many) even though it's around the high 6 digit wordcounts. I love this game dearly.

Stranger of Paradise - Final Fantasy Origin

I wanted to play this game since the first few trailers! How cruel was it that, not only did I not have a powerful enough machine at the time, but the game wasn't even on Steam until the year after release? Final Fantasy Origin is the game it presents itself to be. There's something about it that's so special to a certain kind of person (which I happen to be one of) and that falls flat for everyone else. The combat and its many Weapons, Jobs and Skills to use are just fantastic in how nice they feel, and I really do like the type of story Stranger tells. I haven't finished it yet, but I'm close to it. I like to describe Stranger of Paradise as everything good about PS2 and PS3 games in a modern title.

Pseudoregalia

An old feeling from a new friend. Pseudoregalia is everything I like in 3D Platforming, and a little bit of what I don't. If you've ever looked at a single gif or video of Super Mario 64 and thought, "this looks pretty fun to play," you should be playing Pseudoregalia. If you like goat ladies with big butts, I can't say I understand if that would sell you on a game or not, but it is a feature everyone mentions. I wrote on this game already, so please do check that out and get it. It's one of the three titles of this list that came out this year, and I have not heard enough people talk about it.

Armored Core VI - Fires of Rubicon

My favorite in this list, which is funny because I don't know what to say about it at all. Armored Core is a series I've been studying up on from the outside for a while, and the announcement for this title was my reason to finally dive in. Unfortunately, I did not get past playing the first mission of AC1 a few times and booting up AC3 once. But I will get to it eventually! Fires of Rubicon is one hell of an action game, that I adored for every single one of my (currently) 67 hours of play. Going through the campaign with builds a little too busted for the AI most of the time was my dishonorable focus of the experience, but there's a lot else to do for every kind of person. The amount of freedom you have for messing with your builds for either single or multiplayer is not to be underestimated. Though it could be better. Here's hoping there will be a game that is.

Midnight Club 3 DUB Edition Remix

I played this game as a kid so much that the main menu and its theme are scarred into my mind, yet this whole time I had no idea what the game was actually like due to the fact that most of my playtime was doing a few races and just cruising around. Once you dive into trying to finish the story, MC3 is a much different experience. One that frustrated me so much, I got actually ill from the stress. Please take breaks, gamers! Your health is more important than finishing an 18 year old game! Still, I did eventually do it. Midnight Club 3's handling model and gameplay structure are really impressive in comparison to the much more popular Need for Speed series, and I have to admit I did enjoy the game a lot. It's just a lot harder than it ever needed to be. I'll probably never forget this game, and that's not really a good or bad thing. Just, advice from me, if it gets too hard, maybe switch to sports bikes. Buy that Ducati.

Test Drive Unlimited

Another car game, but this one I have the least to say about of any on this list. I had played TDU on PS2 multiple times before and thought it was awesome. The atmosphere and immersion of this game are unrivaled by any racing game to this day. But playing the PC version with a steering wheel and pedals made everything so much more incredible. I played the Platinum mod, which adds hundreds more cars and fixes a lot of issues with the original game (but not all of them; the game was still really rough and I hate how much the resolution is a pain to change). Overall, one of my favorite experiences with a steering wheel controller so far. Otherwise, a pretty good game if you like driving.

Super Mario Sunshine

An old friend, and a new feeling. I don't play 3D platformers as much as I wish I did, because they're really not part of my main priorities looking for games lately, but every time I play a Mario game, it's like I found love again. It was not the first time I played Super Mario Sunshine, as I had collected a dozen or so Sprites years before, but playing the whole game in I think two weeks during the latter half of the year was such an incredible experience. Unless for some reason you play it on the Switch, Sunshine is a game that loves you as much as you love it. And you do love it, right? I know I do. I'd love to play this game many other times in the future. Granted, that applies to every game here, I just wanted to say it out loud for this one.

Lethal Company

A fairly recent release! Having played it with many groups of people by now, both modded and vanilla, I think Lethal Company is probably one of my favorite multiplayer experiences ever. It is scary and hilarious, but also just really really good, to a level that surprised me for my quality standards of co-op (horror) games. Lethal Company turns friends into improvised horror movie actors and it's incredible. I'm almost at 30 hours played and will likely get to 40 at minimum. It's also pretty cheap and likely runs well on all sorts of machines, so consider checking this one out too.

Honorable Mentions

Witch on the Holy Night and Story of Seasons - Friends of Mineral Town are games I am adoring and could definitely go on this list, hadn't I started them both quite late into December. Maybe next year I'll give them a shoutout!

[otakween]

Digimon World 3 - Final Thoughts

I've beaten the third Digimon World woohoo!! It was a brisk 40 hours, the perfect JRPG length. Overall, it was way better than Digimon World 2, but maybe not better than 1?? I dunno. It was definitely more enjoyable than 1 gameplay-wise, but if I look at it big picture it was way more generic and less memorable. Defeating the first Digimon World felt like more of a triumph and beating 3 felt kinda hollow (because it was easy and anticlimactic).

Despite any gripes I have, I could see myself replaying this. I'm especially interested in a potential revisit (like 10 years from now lol) because I found out that the PAL version of the game (Digimon World 2003) is the true, complete version of the game. Whoops...

So uh...Lord Megadeath and Snatchmon huh...great naming sense guys, good job.

Confession: I straight-up ignored all of the side quests in this game. Skipped all of the card battles, never got the fishing pole, etc. In the end, I don't really regret it because those card battles were kind of pointless anyway.

Confession part 2: I WAS planning on getting back to the side quests in the post-game until I realized that there is no post-game in this game. This is one of those games where you beat the final boss and they kick you back to the start screen with no opportunity to save. I hate it when games do that TT__TT now there's now proof that I beat it!

That ending was kinda lame. I liked the final battle with all of the epic FMVs, but the epilogue with the kids was literally so boring. They did not make me care about any of these characters in the slightest.

Speaking of FMVs, this game had so many!! The FMVs combined with the awesome pixel art definitely made this game great. It was a little lame how half of the world was just the same environments but palette swapped, but eh...whatever. There was enough variation to keep me excited.

Travel in this game was BULLSHIT. I said in one of my previous posts "fast travel will probably come soon!" NOPE, never came. The worst was when you beat a boss and then they made you back track throughout the whole dungeon for no reason. Thank God I played this on an emulator because an unexpected death would have set me back AGES. Very often it would take me an hour in REAL TIME to get to the next place I needed to be. Entire game sessions were just me walking across the map. If it wasn't for this mechanic, the game would have been like 10 hours long lol. Definitely artificial padding.

I noticed a couple of digimon here and there that I had never seen before. I think this game had a great variety in its wild encounters, although it was kind of weird to battle so many ultimates and whoop their butts so easily.

Speaking of easy...I think this game was maybe too easy or at least too exploitable. Health items were dirt cheap so it was super simple to stock up on 99 of each at all times, the counter crest allowed me to deal massive damage beyond my digimon's levels. The final boss fight with Galacticmon was just a game of letting my digimon attack until they died, resurrecting them with a healing item, and repeating that cycle until the battle was finished. The resurrection item brings back all digimon in your party with their full health which is pretty OP. By the 2nd half of the game this strategy became unbeatable and battles became kind of stale.

SO many random battles, like an obnoxious amount. I would leave one random battle, take a single step and another one would be triggered. I listened to a lot of podcasts slogging through this.

One of the weakest parts of this game was the plot/writing, but that was also weak in Digimon World 1 & 2. At least the translation seemed pretty decent this time around. I guess the "stuck in the game world" cliche was kinda fun.

The other thing I ignored in this game was the bonus digimon you can pickup along the way. I did end up getting two of them, but I never used them. They start at level 1 and ain't nobody got time to level up digimon from level 1 halfway through the game. Also, I wasn't super interested in using Guilmon when my Renamon already had MegaloGrowmon in their digivolve roster. I kind of wish this game allowed you to catch the wild digimon because you could create some really crazy parties.

My "main digimon" that I ended up using the most was Kotemon in their Kyukimon form. This was unfortunate because I think Kyukimon is butt ugly, but oh well lol.

The blasted mechanic in battles was really great and I hope they bring it back in future games! It allows you a second chance when you're in a pinch and just feels epic. I rarely used the digivolve option in battles, so it was nice getting a "free" digivolve every now and then.

I could go on and on about this game apparently, but I'm gonna wrap it up here. I have many many more games to get through before I start the next season of the anime. Onwards!

I give Digimon World 3 a solid 6.5 out of 10

[ordinaryschmuck]

Finished the main story campaign in Spider-Man 2

What I liked

There were some AWESOME action set pieces. Sandman's boss fight, the prison transfer, Kraven's den, chasing Black Cat, and hunting the Lizard just to name a few.

The swinging is still fun and I LOVED the web-wings. There are times when I go in for a glide, hoping to get to the checkpoint without needing to swing. It's more addicting than it should be.

LOVED Kraven. Probably the best adaptation of him yet with an interesting motivation that makes sense for a character like him.

Miles' little story with Mister Negative is ALSO interesting, and I like how it ended, especially with what they do with Martin in the end. It's pretty good.

The boss fights are a huge improvement, adding in a health bar that lets you know how far along you're kicking ass and making each fight feel like a battle WON. It's frustrating that I got MY ass kicked more times than not, but each time I finally beat the boss it I EARNED that victory.

That brief moment where I was killing people as Venom was super fun in a sick way. PLEASE make that Venom Spin-off game, Insomniac. We want you to just for gameplay alone.

Peter giving into the madness of the symbiote is handled pretty well. It DOES feel like he becomes a little more evil quicker than he should have, but I blame that on me going through the game's story mode and actively avoiding the side missions until I finished the campaign. Everyone's gameplay experience is different and something that feels fast in the story might not feel as fast to others.

MJ's stealth missions are actually pretty exciting this time...a bit bullshit that SHE can take care of certain goons, but at least I'm not wasting time hiding anymore. And that final mission with her was surprisingly fun and intense.

I liked those prequel scenes of Peter as a teen. Really sold how young he was when starting out as Spider-Man.

What I Didn't Like

THAT GOSH DANG PARRY SYSTEM! I'm willing to blame my own lack of skill for this, but I HATE parrying. I almost NEVER get it right, and it sucks when fighting foes where parrying is a requirement to beating them. And it's extra bullshit when the game throws in attacks you HAVE to dodge and get super FUCKED when you parry instead. It made combat more frustrating than fun, and actually hurt my enjoyment in the combat, which I INTENSELY enjoyed from the first game and the Miles Morales spin off.

And don't even get me started on those horseshit checkpoints! Every time I start over, I am filled with DREAD that I have to do all that annoying difficult shit all over again because I didn't get to this exact point the game wanted me to get to.

It doesn't make sense that Kraven has goons. He works best as a solo act and I don't get what his minions get out of working for him. I know it's to give us more people to fight against, but it doesn't work for me.

Norman Osborn is surprisingly underutilized in this game? Like, with how much of a prominent role Harry has, there's not much of a need for Norman, nor a valid reason to be there other than get pissed off over what happens near the end. It feels like his character was an afterthought, which is strange for someone who's meant to be the Green Goblin soon.

Harry's character...gets worse the more the game goes by. He started out interesting as someone both clinging to the past and trying desperately to pick up his life right where he left it. But as the game goes on and it tries to push this...idea with him, it doesn't really work as there's not enough time to properly develop it. It was a good idea with not that great of an execution.

Miles' suit...I don't hate as much as the rest of the people who played the game, but I do think it's nonsense that Miles made it while the city was being destroyed. Yeah, Peter made a new suit in the end of the last game, but there you can argue that it's for practicality purposes in order to get the upper hand against Doc Ock. Miles just made a new suit because he thought it looked cool...It does not.

AND WHERE ARE THE AVENGERS?! It didn't make sense that they didn't show up in the first game, and it makes even LESS sense now! Like, you really expect me to believe that NONE of the Avengers were available at the moment? NONE?! Not even Hawkeye?! At this point, I expect the third game to end a similar way Peacemaker did, where Peter and Miles are carrying away a bleeding out MJ after this big apocalyptic fight, and the Avengers show up JUST as its over only for Peter to go, "You're too late, assholes!" And now that I say it...that would actually be pretty funny. But it's still nonsense that they're not there!

And that's about it. 8/10 game, not as great as the first one, but still pretty fun.

[writercole]

Five Minutes More

Summary: Dean may have developed a crush on one of the girls he plays his mmorpg with. When she comes to town for work, feelings take over. Squares: Gamers spnfluffbingo Words: 2413 Warnings: Fluff, sweet Dean Credits: @princessmisery666 for looking this over ages ago. I'm lowering my expectations and posting it now. A/N: This was going to be a very long series but it's honestly a lot and I can't handle expanding it but it's so sweet that I have to share it.

Likes are loved but reblogs are golden. Patreon is gone. Tipping is available through Tumblr if you're so inclined.

Wednesday

 “Alright guys, keep your focus. Another two percent,” the raid leader, Dean, better known in game as DWImpala, called over the voice chat. The only thing that could be heard over comms was the steady click-clack of key presses for spells and attacks. The numbers steadily decreased, chunks of the boss’s health falling off as the eighteen players gave their all.

The boss went down and everyone cheered, congratulating the lucky players who got loot and lamenting that they didn’t think the stupid horse existed since another week had gone by without a drop.

“Alright, I’m calling it here for the night,” he announced to his guild. “Next week we’re going to do a full clear, then go on raid break until we get new content.”

Players said their goodbyes and logged off the game and the voice server, leaving their officers alone.

“So, uh, I’m going to be out next week,” Scuttle announced. She was the healer lead and the few people who knew her well enough called her Y/N.

“Oh yeah? Hot date?” Demonfall, a DPS known as Ash, teased.

“Out of town for work, sadly,” she replied with a sigh.

“Anywhere fun, at least?” Dean questioned, disappointed that she’d be gone. She was great at her class, sure, but he’d also developed a bit of a crush on her.

“Not unless you count a tiny town in Kansas as fun,” she scoffed.

Dean’s heart skipped a beat when she said Kansas. He’d grown up there, hell, he still lived in Kansas. He knew the odds of her coming to his tiny town were slim. 

But if he were honest, he wasn’t even sure he wanted to meet her. His crush was probably nothing; he didn’t even know what she looked like. But she was an awesome person from what he could tell.

He was vaguely aware of continuing conversation between the other two people but he wasn’t paying attention. His mind had gotten lost in fantasies and what ifs, trying to come up with a reason to find out more about what she did and where she’d be just to get a glimpse of her. He knew it was creepy to manipulate the conversation for information. So he kept his mouth shut.

The sound of a user disconnecting snapped his attention back to the present, his heart falling at the thought that he’d lost his chance to talk to her more. But when he saw that they were the only two left in chat, his mouth went dry.

“De? You still there?” she asked.

“Oh, uh, y-yeah,” he stuttered and cleared his throat. “Sorry, I kinda zoned out after you mentioned you were coming to Kansas.”

“Coming to Kansas? Is that where you are?” she questioned eagerly, anxious to get some kind of information from the private man she had started to have feelings for.

“Yeah,” he confirmed, “Lawrence.”

“You’re kidding,” she deadpanned, unable to believe what she was hearing.

“Uh, no,” he replied, confusion evident in his voice.

“That’s where I’ll be. If you have some time one day, maybe, if you want, you can show me where to get a decent burger?” Her voice held a lightness, a hope that he’d accept.

“I’d love to,” he answered enthusiastically. She’d been the first one to ask. She actually wanted to meet him.

“Really?! I mean, I’m there all week so it’s whenever you’re free but that would be amazing,” she babbled.

“So when are you getting in?”

“Sunday evening. I’m driving down and should be there somewhere around 5 or 6,” she informed, doing the math in her head about what time she needed to leave and how long the drive was.

“Okay, well how about we meet up Sunday evening? I can take you out for a late dinner,” he offered. 

“That sounds great,” she agreed with a smile evident in her voice.

“Awesome. I’ll DM you my number and you can just text me when you’re close?” Dean suggested as he typed his cell into the chat box.

“I’ll text you from my phone so you can save my number, too. Just make sure your girlfriend knows who I am,” she chuckled.

“No girlfriend, sweetheart,” Dean clarified, “but you make sure your boyfriend is cool with it.”

“Yeah, about that,” she said softly, “we broke up two weeks ago.”

“What? Scuttle, why didn’t you say anything?” Dean scolded.

“I don’t know. I mean, it’s not like I was in love with the guy. So what if I caught him in his car with some redhead? It’s not a big deal.” Her voice contained a venom that Dean never wanted to be on the receiving end of.

“Where does this guy live?” Dean practically growled, anger at the man who treated her so badly burning in his chest. 

She laughed then, a sweet giggle that doused the fire and diverted his attention.

“I’m serious, sweetheart. Say the word and I’ll take care of him,” he repeated.

“That’s sweet, De. But I’m fine, really. It’s getting late, though, and I have to work tomorrow and pack. I’ll see you Sunday?”

“Five minutes more?” he pleaded.

“Five minutes,” she confirmed.

Sunday

Five minutes turned into an hour. That hour turned into texting back and forth over the next few days, nearly all day long, and talking every night for hours. By the time Sunday came around, Dean was sure that he was falling for her. 

As sure as Dean was that he was falling hard, so was she. Her ex had said that she cared more about that game and people she’d never met than him. In hindsight, he may not have been wrong. He was still a dick, though.

She texted Dean when she was leaving home and starting her drive. He smiled at his phone before slipping it back in his pocket and sliding back under his car, whistling as he worked. It was just a simple oil change and he was done in no time, deciding to wash and detail the car while he had time. 

He sang along to Metallica as he dried the water, not realizing that he had a smile on his face until Benny walked over from next door.

“Wha’s gaht yah smilin’ like dat?” he teased in his thick Cajun accent.

“Nothing. I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Dean quickly denied.

“Who’z dah guhl?” 

“What girl?”

Benny fixed him with a look, letting him know that he wasn’t buying it. Dean sighed and Benny smirked, knowing that he’d won that battle.

“Okay, so you know how I’ve told you about that girl I game with, Scuttle?” Dean started.

“Oh yeah, tha one you sweet on,” Benny replied.

“I’m not five, Benny. I’m not ‘sweet’ on her.” Dean rolled his eyes and Benny laughed before Dean continued. “Anyway, she’s coming to town for work and I’m taking her to dinner tonight.”

“You gonna tell Cher yah like her?” 

“No. I mean, I don’t really even know her. She doesn’t even know me. And she just broke up with her boyfriend because she caught him cheating on her.” Dean returned to his work polishing the chrome trim on his car, pretending to ignore his friend standing behind him.

“Dean, she jus’ broke up wit’ her boyfriend. Don’ you think’ tha’ you should say somethin’ before some otha man does?” Benny chided as he shifted to see Dean’s face instead of the back of his head. “Girl like dat won’ be lonely long, brotha.”

“Jesus, Benny. Can’t I meet the girl before you give me the speech?” Dean whined as he stood up, his phone pinging in his pocket. He pulled it out without breaking eye contact with his friend, then looked down to see a message from her. He opened his phone quickly, finding a picture of a sign advertising Lebanon, Center of the Continental United States - 50 miles.

“How long?” Benny asked, not giving any other context.

“About an hour,” Dean replied without thinking, typing out a message and slipping his phone back in his pocket. He cringed when he realized what Benny had asked and saw the smug look on his friend’s face.

“Ah’m gonna go. See yah at work tomorrah. Gonna wanna hear all ‘bout th’date.” Benny strode away to his yard, leaving Dean to finish up the car and get ready to go out.

She texted Dean once she’d checked in and told him where she was. When he responded that he was on his way, her palms started sweating and her heart started pounding. She tried taking deep, calming breaths but nothing was helping the nerves.

A knock sounded on the door and she froze, panicked that he was already at the hotel. She was second guessing everything from her wardrobe to her hair to even meeting up with him. Another knock echoed through the room and she moved towards the door automatically, taking a deep breath as she turned the knob and pulled the door open.

Her breath caught in her chest when she laid eyes on him for the first time. There had to have been a mistake. There's no way this is…"Dean?" she asked as she met his gaze.

"Yeah," he confirmed with a wide grin. "It's nice to meet you, Y/N."

“Wow, I…you look nothing like I pictured,” she blurted out, quickly following up with “that’s not a bad thing! I just didn’t expect…you know…a model.”

He chuckled at her candor, ducking his head while the tips of his ears turned red. “You flatter me, sweetheart, but you’re the one who could be a model. I knew you’d be gorgeous but I didn’t expect to have the wind knocked out of me.”

“That’s sweet, De,” she giggled. “Do you want to come in? Five minutes and I’ll be ready,” she told him as she backed into the room.

“Yeah, five minutes. No problem,” he replied.

Dean took her to a small diner where they had burgers and pie, laughing and talking until they were the only two people left in the restaurant.  It was still early so they opted for a ride around town with the windows down, the cooling air blowing around in their hair as Dean drove down quiet roads.

He kept stealing glances at her, drawn to the way the moonlight surrounded her in an ethereal light, making her glow. He pulled down a dirt road and turned off the headlights, letting the full moon be his guide. 

“Is this where you kill and bury me?” she joked as he parked the car.

“Nah,” he chuckled, “this here is the best part of Lawrence.”

Dean stepped out of the car and walked around to her side, opening the door and offering his hand to help her out of the car. He kept a hold on it as he started to walk through the trees ahead of them.

She followed him quietly, trusting him completely. They stepped through the trees and she gasped at the sight before her. 

Inside a quiet clearing was a small pond, barely big enough for a boat to float comfortably.  Moonlight reflected off of the water, sparkling as the small waves moved in the breeze. A little dock led to a small gazebo over the water. 

Dean took her to the gazebo and she looked around in awe; the roof was made of a clear material, allowing her to see the stars shining in the sky. Thick benches lined the walls of the wooden structure, a waist-high railing surrounding the edge, the rest of the space open, allowing the cool breeze of the night to pass through.

Dean watched as she took in the space, her eyes wide and her jaw slack. He knew this was the right spot. It’s where his brother took his wife for their first date, where Benny took his fiancee’, where his parents had their first date. The hope that something could bloom here lifted his heart and drove out the nagging thoughts of her leaving again. 

She turned around to face Dean, finding him standing next to a pile of blankets and pillows that she was sure hadn’t been laid out when they got there. He reached out his hand and she accepted it, following his lead and settling into the soft mountain to watch the stars. 

As the pair talked and laughed, they drifted closer to one another, lying on their sides facing each other when Y/N started to yawn.

“We should get you back to the hotel,” Dean told her quietly.

“No, no, I’m fine,” she insisted. “Five minutes more.”

“Five minutes then we head back,” he promised.

“Five minutes.”

Monday

Dean woke to sunlight streaming in his face and a heavy warmth across his chest. He stretched, thinking he was in his bed, only to be met with wooden planks surrounding him. Memories of last night came flooding back and his eyes fluttered open to find Y/N sleeping soundly on his chest, still in the gazebo over the small pond. 

His gaze had found a home on her peaceful face and he stared unabashedly, counting the barely there freckles across her cheekbones, admiring the way her lashes brushed her cheeks, resisting the urge to trace the soft lines around her mouth and eyes. She began to stir and cuddled closer to him. 

Dean prayed she couldn’t tell how fast his heart was beating beneath her ear in her half-awake state. His arm tightened around her, holding her close. He closed his eyes and wished for time to stop, to be able to stay in this moment forever. His hopes were dashed when his phone started vibrating in his pocket, the alarm he had set for work blaring through the silence.

Scuttle groaned and swiped towards the sound while Dean fished in his pocket for the offending device. He turned it off and gave his attention back to her, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

“Hey, sweetheart, it’s time to wake up,” he coaxed, his hand trailing up the arm tossed over his chest.

“Noo, five more minutes,” she mumbled as she wiggled next to him.

“Five more minutes,” he agreed quietly, a soft smile gracing his face, the possibilities of the upcoming week shrinking under the impending end of their fling. He would enjoy the next five minutes of her in his arms as if it were the last.

[soft-serve-soymilk]

Boss fights in RPGs that give me war flashbacks

Dolphin made a really insightful and meaningful post on her side blog that was really telling and vulnerable of her :) I’m going to do the same thing but in a completely different fashion :P

Ansem, Seeker of Darkness (KH1) Back in the day (2019), I didn’t own the PS4. I played the entirety of the Kingdom Hearts series in the living room after school before my dad came home, right on the big screen. Or sometimes I got a couple of hours on the weekend. This gave me limited time and not very much privacy (but awesome sound which probably contributed to my audiophile tendencies 😅). Anyways this was problematic when I became stuck at certain sections,, namely this bitch. Because I do NOT want to be made fun of for struggling, or berated for the repetitive soundtrack. I woke up at ✨ 4 am ✨ to have time to myself to beat this motherfucker. 4 am. That was the lengths I was willing to go. Obviously it meant the sound was really quiet (if non-existent) but I still finished the game like 6:15 😅

Roxas (KH2) It took a solid nine attempts here. Yup. Nine tries. This is still the record number of attempts on a single boss fight. I was so flooded with dopamine that I had to go laugh it out in the kitchen so I could feel sad for the following cutscene 😂😂😂 This was when I was in my era of feeling bad that I couldn’t cry/empathise with a lot of media (thanks dad), so I tried to force myself to feel sad for a lot of things. I thought if I made enough of a :( face, I could trick myself into feeling things 😂 Anyways Roxas is an iconic example of my infamous awfulness at 1 vs 1 fights.

[Redacted] (Xenoblade Chronicles 1) Censored for spoilers but it’s the final boss. Another one I got up at 4 am for, to do it on a docked switch on the big screen <3 Didn’t take nearly as many attempts as Ansem, but I was still punished for being underleveled <3

Heldalf (Tales of Zestiria) Speaking of being punished for being underleveled, here’s a great example! :D First phase was simply impossible to survive with my tragically low skill level (and level in general, I start skipping fights a lot at the end of games because I get bored 😐 My intentions for YHNN are to make an endgame where this doesn’t happen) I didn’t fight a SINGLE ENEMY outside of those four minibosses in the final area :P Holy potions are mistake for people like me. Here’s a secret: I actually lowered the difficulty to beat him

Tiamat (Tales of Zestiria) War flashbacks but in a good way. I’m still impressed I was able to concentrate on whittling its health down FOR 40 MINUTES STRAIGHT. Thank god Rising Up is a great song or I would’ve died from insanity 😂😅. I think the only time I spent more than 40 minutes on a single round of a boss fight was when I attempted Kuni-no-sagiri in Persona 4 for the first time. That took an hour. Yes, in both cases, that is the degree of underleveled we are talking about. I have a serious problem with motivating myself to fight, games where you can modify exp yield without sacrificing difficulty are such a boon to me 😭

Shadow Okumura (Persona 5 Royal) You know your game design is fucked when making the difficulty MERCILESS makes the fight easier. I was actually called in to beat this one by my dad. I spent 2 hours grinding up his levels first to attempt this even 😭 And then I went to the velvet room to fix his atrocious persona situation (he BARELY fused and it showed). Relying on the DLC personas felt bad but I did what needed to be done 🫡 (I REALLY needed that maeigaon) I actually scrawled all the weaknesses of each phase on my hand to make it easier on each subsequent attempt 😭 Fuck the arbitrary time limit fr

[eldenringslut]

Hey people, sorry I’ve been away so long. Uni has been inverting my legs recently so I only managed to finish AC6 last night.

These will be my (spoiler free) thoughts on AC6 as a long-time Fromsoftware and souls game fan. And as someone who has never played another Armored Core game before.

The first thing to realize is that, more so than any other fromsoft game, AC6 is NOT a souls game. It doesn’t play like one and it doesn’t feel like one. It is different on a very fundamental level. The combat, the exploration, the gameplay loop, the controls and the customisation, all of these are vastly different to what you’d find in a souls game.

Now this isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. Fromsoftware are clearly going for something different here, and so long as you don’t go in expecting a souls game you wont be disappointed (although the banging-your-head-against-a-wall bosses remain and still feel amazing to finally beat).

Now for the most important part (in my opinion), is the game fun? FUCK YES!!!

The combat system and controls take some getting used to, but after that the gameplay loop quickly becomes addictive. Even before you enter a mission you are constantly building, customising and testing new equipment. The game does an excellent job of incentivising customisation, with every setup having advantages and disadvantages that are needed for specific scenarios.

The game lets you save multiple setups and easily swap between them as needed. This eventually gets to the point where you’ll have multiple ACs set up, and will be theorising about what you’ll need and which one to bring before the mission even starts. Even better is that if you ever die, the game will let you change your setup before respawing at the last checkpoint. Without having to restart the mission.

This loop is perpetuated by how you’re constantly unlocking new parts. So it will take a long time before you exhaust all your customization options. And i cannot tell you how awesome it feels to slowly and precisely tailor the perfect AC setup for a specific boss and then finally beat them.

The story, music and art direction are, as expected from a Fromsoft game, all fucking amazing. The story is similar to Sekiro’s in that the main plot is told to you pretty directly, but you can still uncover a wealth of other information by reading logs and item descriptions. The game even incentivises this, rewarding you with parts for finding audio logs. There are several bosses that are so goddamn cool to fight that i didn’t even mind when they turn me into whipped cream. The game also has great replayability, with multiple possible mission paths and 3 endings (one of which includes several unique missions that can only be played in ng++).

Now obviously the game isn’t perfect. Some of the missions are objective defensive and can be kind of annoying. And for some of the bosses the best strategy is just to be as tanky as possible and just outgun them (which can be kind of boring). This is also a problem in PVP, with the meta setups being far too oppressive and skill mattering too little for my taste.

Additionally, you really don’t have that same sense of fear and caution you get from playing a souls game. You are much more likely to be worn down over the course of a mission (running out of ammo or health) than to die to any one tough enemy. The low ammo capacity of some weapons can also make them unusable in certain scenarios, which can be a bit annoying.

Overall however, this game is one of the best I’ve ever played and I 100% recommend it. The game is so good that it’s making we want to go back and replay missions to find all the secrets i missed. I recommend it whether or not you’re a souls fan.

9/10 absolutely fucking amazing.

[cloudninetonine]

Okay so I’ve been replaying LoZ games, right? Skyward Sword, Hyrule Warriors, Link Between Worlds— the whole sh-bang because LoZ will forever be my comfort series.

And the amount of comments I make during my playtime is absurd. Half of them are me casually calling Link a Chad (is now being drawn)

One time I was playing Skyward Sword and I apparently never gave Link his shield back. He proceeded to defeat a boss shield-less and with almost full health. Like what a damn Chad.

ANOTHER time is during Hyrule Warriors where I, accidentally, got Link to level 15 and he took the 3,000 KO killed by taking down Volga in Adventure Mode… I proceeded to say “damn bbg”

So now I present to you; Player who does the exact same thing.

Wild takes down a Lynel without breaking a sweat? “Damn, alright. Cool it down there Chad”

Warriors takes a strong enemy down with ease? He’s now Player’s babygirl. I will not elaborate.

Hyrule clears out a dungeon without a shield? “Shit bestie, carry me with those loving arms wow”

I mean— Of course, Player also yells out “THAT’S MY BESTIE” or “YEAH FUCK ‘EM UP” followed with how proud they are. Bonus if Player is bilingual and says shit in a different language. BONUS BONUS if they swear at the enemy in said other language.

So now the Chain has to deal with the chaos of their commentary (especially if they’re roasting the enemy) and the confusion of the other language they’re speaking in.

Because the amount of times I’ve stated at the enemies in game and just decided to send them to an early grave is ridiculous. Also memes.

I’ve yelled at Lynels saying the stupid meme “there’s a coffin. There’s a name engraved in it. WHORE. It’s empty. And YOU’RE GOING IN IT” while beating the shit out of it is hilarious.

Anyways. That’s all I keep thinking about and that’s all I wanna share. Have a good day and stay hydrated

- 🪶

LYNELS CAN EAT SHIT I REMEMBER COMING ACROSS THEM THE FIRST TIME AND THEY SCARED THE SHIT OUTTA ME

Warriors fits the baby girl category so we'll to you bet Player is gonna call him that- nit to his face of course but maybe a whispered "Damn baby girl." When he does some awesome heroic shit. (Bro's hot, okay)

[tlgtw]

Hey ... thank you for your awesome work on youtube! I wish I could effort to support you, but maybe in the future ... I have one lingering question I still hope to find answers, and maybe you could shed some light on that. The rune of death is, as far as I understood, the factor that is needed to destroy a god in body & soul. And also other living beings, as well as the erdtree. But how do we "lore-wise" kill bosses like Godfrey, Rykard or Morgott?

Thank you for your question, and don't worry about it. My financials may slow me down, but they will never stop me. My heart just won't stop beating.

As for your questions, they're actually answered in parts by my Episodes 1 and 3, but in essence, the powers of the Rune of Death are more one-trick-pony than you'd think.

'Gods,' to start, isn't actually a formal term in Elden Ring's setting. The way it's used by various characters, calling someone a 'god' just means that you think that being has a mega-huge power level: Hence so many different creatures all yet being referred to as gods. (Marika, Marika's family tree, the God-Eating Serpent, the Fire Giant, post-resurrection Malenia, the Greater Will, etc.)

This is also how we're able to kill so many of these 'gods' by simply attacking them. They aren't fundamentally different from mundane non-godlike creatures--Marika, for example, is a human post-ascension-to-godhood. But she was able to have children with the ordinary human Godfrey, starting her royal family's line, without any issues. (Godfrey is referred to as a demigod in one of the items somewhere in English, but this is a mistranslation. Godfrey's an ordinary human like the rest of the Tarnished.)

What the Rune of Death does, when we get our hands on it after killing Maliketh, is specifically (basically) just for turning off the Erdtree's golden shell, from which the Erdtree and its thorns derived their enchantment of invincibility. With the enchantment of invincibility dispelled, *entering* the Erdtree in the first place, which remained our original goal, becomes possible.

How the Rune of Death was relevant in the past, of course, since it was used to assassinate Godwyn the Golden, is in-fact the exact same thing as we do to the Erdtree. Prior to the Shattering, before "the Greater Will had long renounced the demigods," every member of Marika's bloodline shared the same kind of enchantment of invincibility as the Erdtree's golden shell gave it. The name for that enchantment being 'grace,' as we hear so often in-game and as is responsible for fueling our health and magic potions.

As the Rune of Death was used to turn off the Erdtree's invincibility, so as the Rune of Death was used to turn off Godwyn's, allowing himself to then be killed where previously it was thought impossible.

Then, after the Shattering, and post-"renouncing" as the Two Fingers tell us, the invincibility of Marika's family line is manually shut off. Allowing all the named demigods to be killed by us on-screen, and all the unnamed demigods in the Belled Mausoleums and whatnot, to be killed off-screen.

Death is the inevitable destination for all things considered living. What Grace only ever did was stall for time. What the Rune of Death effectively does, in regards to that, was forcing Grace to shut down.

Outside of, specifically, magic derived from the Golden Order of the Elden Ring, the Rune of Death isn't particularly special. Hence in actual gameplay why the powers of the Rune of Death don't instantly kill every enemy or something like that.

That's why everything is still able to die, with or without the Rune of Death being directly used.

[twilightknight17]

P5T Story Finale - Part 1

I'm just starting off with the assumption that this will have to be 2 parts, to fit all the pictures I took. XD

So, where we left off, I was doing pretty good.

We'd beaten Metal Marie, and Lavenza had some challenges for us to unlock our final skills. I was kind of hyped, because honestly, it seemed like a good opportunity to get everyone's ultimate personas back. And then Erina could just have whatever.

It was not second awakenings, despite the way they talked about it sounding very second-awakening-ish. Instead, we get a maximum power skill for each Thief's specific element. And, sorry everyone, but Joker's is the coolest.

I also think that it's worth mentioning that when you die, Lavenza quotes Paradise Lost at you.

She also quotes it at the very start of the game, so she's very well-read. Probably Margaret and Theodore's influence; I can't see Elizabeth sitting through a book like that. XDDD

Anyway, Lavenza's challenges were some very elaborate puzzle levels and endurance missions with gimmicks, but nothing that was completely unreasonable. The one where you had to kill everything in one turn by using one-mores and platforms to get Joker to the top of the level to trigger the widest-possible AOA range was awesome. I felt smart when I finished them, which was the important part.

And my reward, other than skills, was......

You have to be level 96 to fuse Satanael, tho, so like... holy fuck, Atlus. Booooooo. And he's got like seven components, which I'm pretty sure he did in P5, but you couldn't fuse him til NG+, so you at least would have had most of them by then. This is just taunting me. Plus, it's not nearly as easy to get money in this. You have to replay missions, and later missions give more money but also take longer, so it seems like it'll be a little tedious to complete the compendium.

ANYWAY.

Metal Yoshiki and Metal Shadow Toshiro went down next, and I'm pretty sure it confirmed that it wasn't actually Toshiro's shadow, just a piece of Salmael masquerading as it. I wasn't... super impressed with these fights? They were basically the same as the first go round, just with more health, more damage, and slightly different arenas. Metal Shadow Toshiro skipped his first round and went right to Giant Scary Eri, so... Yeah. They were fine, I guess.

I did notice something a little funny, though. The final Kingdom is "The Path to God" in the replay menu, and there are six missions (not counting the bosses), each with a letter appended to them.

All six in order spells "A S Y L U M".

If Salmael rules this Kingdom, is he the crazy one, then? :P

So, we are off to the final boss. My goblin kids are ready to beat the shit out of their third god in like... four months? Wow.

Slap him so hard he drops his head, Futaba!

I finally realized what this thing's appearance reminds me of. Some weird fusion of Yald, and the Queen from Deltarune.

He has the SMUGGEST VOICE of any god so far and it just makes me want to hit him harder. Maybe I should have done some grinding for Satanael after all.

He just wants to ~save humanity~, and I'd just like to mention how much I love my wife.

Salmael is totally cool with our disagreement, obviously.

Us? All by ourselves? You think so highly of us~

Salmael says that his actions are the consensus of humanity, so we should just give in. The game gives you an option here between "Our wills are firm" and "Send us back to the real world." Which, if you remember, he offered to send us all home without our powers or memories, so... put a pin in that. We'll be back. In THIS timeline, we tell God to fuck off, as is our wont.

I feel justified in writing Ryuji calling Yaldabaoth "Yald" in an actual fic, now. XD

Seriously, Atlus, one line of dialogue. "We've already beat up a 'god' who thought he knew what was best for us." Call Maruki on his BS.

Anyway, as always, these gods who want peace and happiness and order are willing to murder us. Ooohhhh nooo, I don't waaaaant to use force, you just leave me no chooooooiiiiiice~ Blarg. XD

The battlefield is wild, though. I'm always down for a good giant clock.

The five platforms rotate either forward or back based on a skill that warns you in advance. Platforms that go past the end positions sink into the green, and more arise on the other side to replace them.

So, we wallop the shit out of god while avoiding being tossed into a green abyss. I only lost Toshiro during this stage of the fight, so I still had my three primary fighters and three baton passes.

Salmael, upon being knocked down in round 1, throws a temper tantrum, and... well, I guess calling it "going one-winged-angel" isn't appropriate here. He's still got all his wings, just gets more raggedy and dirty.

But the important part is that he loses the mask and his face is FUCKED UP

He gets two new attacks for this round. The first one is a very Dark Hour-esque clock which leaves numbers on some of the platforms. That's how many people need to be standing on that particular platform to avoid triggering an attack that paralyzes you on your next turn.

Overall, challenging! Especially because the numbers don't rotate with the platforms, so if he does both skills at the same time, you've gotta make sure you're not gonna rotate away from the number you need. (Learned that the hard way.)

The second one is some kind of giant antenna that spawns in the middle of the arena, and you have like... three turns to AOA it before he does some horrible targeted missile barrage. I had the worst time with that. That's how I lost all three of my remaining squad in one turn, because I couldn't get the downed enemy to line up right to allow the AOA.

So we're down Ann, Morgana, and Akira. Welcome to the fight, Haru, Yusuke, and Ryuji!

Salmael's second form has about twice as much health as his first form, which can be mitigated by AOA-ing the antenna, because Futaba can then turn the missiles on him. I only managed that once. X'D But the game REALLY smacked me when it did the clock attack and the arena rotation on the same turn, and the clock was four platforms, each with a 1 on it. I didn't have Toshiro anymore. I couldn't put one person on each platform. So everyone got paralyzed, and the rotation was poised to dump both Haru and Yusuke into the abyss with no way to move them.

It was going to be up to Ryuji to win this fight alone.

...or, it would have been, but as I watched Yusuke sink into the green depths, I realized that... the platform just popped back up on the other side. Yusuke was fine. Didn't even do any damage. X'D I spent the whole fight thinking that if I got sucked down with a platform, that person would just die. But no.

In the end, Haru dealt the final blow, and Salmael took that really well. He just straight up starts taking a swing at us and throwing gears. So I guess we DID slap him so hard he dropped his head!

My baby boy gets to say more than one line of dialogue in this game!

This is the smile of a savior, everyone.

Honestly this last AOA cutscene is wild. I like it better than Scramble's, I think? I need to watch it again, but it's really well done. Halfway through, Erina gets squashed by a whole ton of gears and ends up... I'm assuming drifting in the Sea of Souls, and Toshiro calls her back so she can take her Ernesto form and blast the hell out of Salmael. And then she turns back into Erina and she and Akira slam a flag through Salmael's face. :3

Yeah, yeah. Same as every other monster.

Salmael takes defeat well, of course. By exploding.

And Toshiro catches a brief glimpse of the overwhelming existential dread that knowing about meta-space can cause: namely that humanity is constantly accidentally almost destroying itself.

I like to think that he gets a phone call from the Shadow Ops at some point. XDDDD

Anyway, with Salmael dead, his primary Kingdom is collapsing, so it's time to get the hell out of here. And with this, I have hit the image limit, so... Off we go. Part 2 is next!

[pixelatedbugs]

what do you mean theres no more “the scholar and the merchant” crossed path . i need more gay men

okay im going to ramble about the stories ive completed now spoilers! uh oh! for partitio, osvald, ochette, temenos, and hikari! (the last two, i havent completed their stories but i mention something spoilery)

i did partitio’s first since he was my first character and i needed to get him OUT of that first party slot . he’s free now . I loved the story though i was mildly disappointed in the ending (i wanted that old capitalist man to die) but tbh it wouldn’t have really fit the tone or partitio’s character to leave him for dead. plus partitio started the whole ass industrial revolution and created the concept of a department store so . that chapter was really fun by the way, i love how it actually had a permanent effect on the town and also alrond is fuckin great. the final boss was teetering on annoying for me but I think that was because i was a bit underleveled for it. overall i think it was creative, i mean it was a fucking train thats sick as hhell. but that cannon does SO much damage god.

osvald. holy shit massive mood change . like i already had a big mood whiplash when i got osvald after agnea but damn. anyway harvey is actually fucked up, way more than I already thought he was. if he wanted to steal osvald’s research and kidnap his wife and kid for their special magic blood he should’ve just killed osvald. that would’ve been the smart decision, but he’s so envious, so angry that they’re equal and he’s not better, that he decides to frame osvald for killing his wife and daughter, leaving him stuck in a really shitty maximum security prison for 5 years, then use his wife’s blood to make a chimera (okay shou tucker), lies to osvald saying it’s actually her. and it does have her voice, and i presume a bit of her mind, considering that once it begins to run out of health it starts to crumble and cry, and its tears heal osvald…its still not her though. she’s dead because harvey saw no more use in her. but hey, osvald’s daughter is still alive! and her minds been fucking manipulated so she thinks harvey is her father. jesus christ chapter 4 fucked me up. anyway the final boss battle was great. Osvald finally finding the answer through wanted to protect Elena was fucking awesome. the power of love is based and its also a giant fuck-off laser beam that transcends the elements to all foes, and reduces their shield points regardless of their weak points that costs 75 SP.

ochette’s was so good! the final boss being the companion I didn’t pick (in my case, the lājackal) almost made me cry. it was so sad, it didn’t deserve that, and im really excited to see my mom play her story because she picked the lājackal and I wanna know what Mahina could’ve been…also, the boss fight was hard as fucking hell, and extremely creative. The fact that it gets different attributes based on who you’re using??? thats fucking sick?? why did i have to be using castti so it got infinite heals every turn?? i still beat it first try but god it was hard. i still don’t like the human chief but at least she’s trying. I was really worried we were going to come back to the beastling village being overrun ON TOP of the night of the scarlet moon. oh yeah, who the fuck was the dark hunter? probably will find that out later..

also starting to see where these stories connect. The Shadow and D’arqest have been a running theme, at least in ochette’s, osvald’s, temenos’, and it’ll probably show up in hikari’s as well. plus there’s that purple fog with the creepy music that shows up sometimes (it was the same music during the part with all the corrupted people during osvald chapter 5…)

anyway im going to take a break now. i wanted to do castti’s so i could train up my lower characters but i am tired because i played for like 10 hours straight . hyperfixations suck ass sometimes i cannot stop thinking about the fuckin game and i need to fuckin sleep. holy shit i wrote a lot sorry.

[myverycoolproject]

Designing my final boss

This is my planning for the final boss of the game. 

What is a final boss? 

Is the boss you face off against at the end of the game. Story wise, they are the reason for the player’s journey that is the final challenge to end the game. These are unique enemies with more health than regular enemies.   

This is me looking at all the final bosses of the souls borne series, my favourite being Gehrman because he is so cool and one of the best bosses in Bloodborne. He’s not too difficult as I beat him first try but he can brutal if your not careful. 

I then decided that I wanted to make my final boss difficult so I looked at a list of difficult bosses. What I learnt from this list is that to make a hard boss is large damage outputs, damage sponges and a healing mechanic to make them extra annoying. 

This was a list for some of the hardest bosses in souls series (Demon souls, dark souls and Bloodborne). I learnt that what makes these bosses hard is their damage outputs, long move sets containing some damaging moves and something that makes them hard e.g. multiple phases, less damage in certain spots, etc.   

With these in mind, I created my final boss: The creator, leader of the scythers and is sort of like a god of robots or something. I aim to have him have at least three phases: the first one being a joke and tricking the player into thinking it will be an easy battle. The second phase will be real and a lot more harder, depending on what abilities the player used in the first phase the boss will have ways to counter them. The final phase will be a grand conclusion with the player being able to use an item to become much more stronger and the boss becoming much more harder. 

I wanted a seated bosses for the first phase like Urizen from devil may cry 5, where he would just sit there and launch projectiles at you. For the other phases, I wanted him standing up and being all over place with crazy moves and combos, a lot like Urizen’s final form: Vergil. 

I want his backstory to be sad and show his descent into evil. I want him to be the first person to be reincarnated in the new world during the war of shadow, he was also a shadowling. He wandered the fabled lands until a group of humans came upon him and tried to kill him, thinking hew was hostile. He tried to run away but was cornered, nowhere to go, until he unleashed a hidden power became the opposite: a body made of light with two black eyes. This power tore a hole in the fabric of space and he was transported to Algerious, which was a long abandoned. He didn’t know what happened but then a voice in his head told him to destroy the fabled lands, if he did then he could go home. When he was human, he was a proud engineer so he started up Algerious and built himself a body. His new power allowed him to turn gems into powerful magical stones, which he calls ‘light tears’ these being the things that power the scythers. For years, he spent building up the scyther army and planning out an invasion, so one day he could complete the mission given to him by who he calls God. 

These are some design I made with Dall.e, the prompt being ‘A giant robot god with blue lights and wielding a sword’. These were my three favourites. 

I love this one as it really awesome, with the colour scheme and I like the added spear, which makes him look even cooler. Just the design makes him look like a proper boss you would face off against. 

This one isn’t a full body but either way he looks cool. His blue sword does look really good (even though it does need a little bit of work) and his design looks really menacing, his head especially reminds me of Megatron from Transformers.  

I like this one because it looks more like a suit of armour than a robot, the sword is really cool though. The background also makes him look so much more cooler, I think it’s a blizzard or something and it just makes him look super intimidating. 

All three of these design look cool, But I think the first and third ones are my favourite because they just look like proper bosses. For an overall design, I think a mix of both would look cool. 

[transgirl-gaming-thoughts]

My Thoughts On: Kirby Super Star Ultra

Why has this been sitting in my drafts for so long?

Hi there, its Alex! I love Kirby. Who doesn't? First you draw a circle, then you dot the eyes, dah dah-dah dah-dah-dah, and presto! It's Kirby! I purchased Kirby Super Star Ultra for the Nintendo DS a while ago and loved every second of it, so here I am to finally share my thoughts!

Kirby Super Star Ultra is a remake/port/expansion of the SNES game Kirby Super Star (or Kirby's Fun Pak in PAL regions, what?) and adds ton of new games and features! I won't go into deep detail for each of the games because this post would be longer than my wishlist, so I'll just hit some highlights and low-lights!

The DS controls feels absolutely amazing, like Kirby was made for it! The game progresses like the SNES original for a while, but pretty soon opens up all the new stuff! There's a bunch of bite-sized Kirby adventures, some mixing up the classic Kirby formula; a whole game played as Meta Knight (which is awesome!); and even two boss rush modes called The Arena!

About The Arena... The first one was also in the original game, a classic boss rush featuring all the bosses from Super Star. Cool and good. In Super Star Ultra, there's another one, The TRUE Arena, which features all the new bosses added in the remake! This is fine in theory, and actually is a lot of fun and a good challenge for most of it! But then you get to the end... SPOILERS: mentions the final boss of the Meta Knight segment of the game! The final boss of The TRUE Arena is Galacta Knight from Meta Knightmare Ultra. A necessary inclusion as a new boss, but Galacta Knight still manages to single-handedly ruin The TRUE Arena for me. That fight was not built for Kirby; it was built for Meta Knight, who has the ability to HEAL himself by using some of his charged move meter. Kirby... can't. This means the fight is not only at the end of a boss rush that's probably worn down your health and your copy abilities, it's also 10x more difficult for a ridiculous reason! It's not impossible, obviously, but it's definitely a detriment to the game as whole. Because of that, I have yet to beat The TRUE Arena and 100% the game. End spoilers!

All in all, it's a fantastic Kirby title, and great fun on your own or playing minigames with friends! It also allows you to play the first game, Spring Breeze, with a friend via Download Play! If you have a DS and enjoy Kirby, I cannot recommend this game more! There's plenty of different copies circulating on eBay, take your time and you can find a good one!

Thanks for reading, and be sure to ask questions and suggest new post ideas in my ask box! Stay safe, stay hydrated, and God bless! Happy gaming to ya!

~ Alex

[less-than-three-3]

played metroid prime just like everyone else on the planet, apparently

it was ok (for a metroid game) (that means it is still pretty damn good)

But I can’t lie, given the reputation this game has, I was somewhat disappointed. For transparency, I did play it m+kb on my microsoft wii, though if I had shelled out the price for the remaster I doubt my experience would have been much different lol. Explanation below, with spoilers?

I’ll start with what it does well though, and that’s being Super Metroid but in 3d. In terms of exploration, how the world is presented, how you progress, etc. was translated to 3d pretty perfectly. Having pretty much no guidance and a full map, but still having one or maybe two actual correct ways that, if you just keep going forward or think about what you’ve seen before, you can find really easily. Honestly, in many ways, it just kinda feels like a really really big zelda dungeon. Or maybe zelda is a mini metroidvania. You decide! You can really see the bones of this game in so many modern metroidvanias. There’s not even really things you need to shoot a million times because of scan visor! 

And yeah, the scan visor is really cool. Being able to just scan to find out how to approach enemies, or how (or when) to get past obstacles, or learn stuff about the world is pretty neato. The other visors, though, were... ok, I guess. They aren’t interesting to use or anything, just *necessary to see certain enemies*, which I guess is fine just not nearly as interesting as scan visor. (They are also sort of an eyesore, and I imagine the remaster does improve on that)

Speaking of needing a thing to beat certain enemies, I just really hate the space pirates and drones and metroids that have a certain element that they can be hit by. This might just be some bias but I feel like they just take way too long to kill compared to their 2d counterparts, and being forced to use, say, ice beam (which shoots slow as hell) is just a slog. It kinda leads into my first major gripe, being that the combat feels like it takes a little too much of a spotlight for how... admittedly boring it can be. And this is with m+kb controls making aiming a lot better. I don’t really know if it’s actually just later enemies having too much health but the shooting doesn’t feel *that* fun or fluid, like in the 2d games, or out of the way, like in ori 1. Like if it was just a minor thing you just don’t have to think about I wouldn’t complain, but since fights take so long I can’t help but just be a little underwhelmed. 

It is definitely exacerbated by my second gripe, which is just that enemies, and especially bosses, are not that interesting? Like they have 1 or 2 attack patterns that you can recognize and dodge, and then you have your turn and you shoot them in the weak spot or with the weak element, rinse and repeat for however long. I think I can give it a little bit of a pass for how old the game is, but I just didn’t really feel that engaged by the bosses. Maybe that’s just a boss design thing and not the combat? I don’t know. Something in there just felt underwhelming.

One last thing to complain about, I promise, but I felt pretty much the entire last “act” was kind of... eh? I didn’t really care for the artifact hunt, it felt a little annoying (especially having to go through the space pirate research base again...). And then the back to back to back of Meta Ridley, Metroid Prime, then Metroid Prime again just really made a point of showing me the totally awesome boss fight design. Especially the final Metroid Prime form which I thought would be like Dark Beast Ganon like oh cool I super zap it to deal a ton of damage.... and then it dealt like maybe 1/10 of its health bar. And then it started summoning more metroids, some of which were the annoying ones. So it was just a really really... fun.... “I have my turn (for a full minute) and then you have yours (for 10 seconds)”. And to then top it all off, I don’t even get an evacuation sequence?? :/

This one’s a more minor, personal issue, and that’s just that I really don’t care to read so much lore. Environmental storytelling and worldbuilding, and ambient mood setting are things that I think Super Metroid perfected and nothing has really met, and that’s something I still believe even having played Prime. If you want to deliver story beats/developments/realizations in a game like this, you show don’t tell. I’m not delivering like a crazy revelation here, any writer knows this lol. But like, for example, to show that, say, the space pirates experimentations of phazon with metroids, instead of a bunch of space pirate data logs to read, there could have been like, idk, some metroid encounters or you see a metroid escape that looks unstable and oozing with phazon. And the chozo artifacts could definitely have been better tied to the phazon stuff too. It’s why I’ve always really enjoyed Fusion and Dread, even if they are departures from the way things are presented in Super, because they actually commit to narrative telling. Maybe I’m off base here, idk, but I just really wish there were less lore tablets and more intuitive things or like even straight up character interactions to show me what’s going on. I hope Silksong improves on that, but I doubt it. Wait what game are we talking about again?

Ok but enough negativity, I really enjoyed everything up to then. Like I said the actual metroidvania parts of it were really excellent. As good as Super Metroid? Not quite, but I do consider that pretty much peak metroidvania performance, so that’s a very high bar. It emulates it super well, and I was definitely really enjoying the full loop of unlocking and going further into the planet. The music too, was really good -- but again Super Metroid’s soundtrack is simply a masterpiece that I think even the 3DS and Switch’s adaptations/remasters of the same tracks don’t hit the same. 

All in all I think that’s pretty much a really good way to put it. It adapts Super Metroid’s strengths very well, but not quite to the extent of it, and some things do just get lost in the transition to 2D and 3D, I guess. It’s different from Fusion and Dread because those games are unabashedly more straightforward experiences, while still maintaining pretty much all the Metroid backbone and blood. It’s trying the same thing, but in a different form. I can respect it, but it’s definitely not my favorite. Which is a high bar! For reference I still end up rating this game pretty much a 9/10 - which may seem odd given all I’ve said, but I think for the most part this really hits the mark, and Metroid has just a really super good backbone, there’s just some.. growing pains? idk. I’ll definitely play the rest of the trilogy. I did see Dark Samus escape from metroid prime so... I think the next 2 games will definitely up the ante. Or maybe they won’t. We’ll see.