#because you can spend so long between doing main story quests and the usual button smashing through conversations

[secondimpact]

i have reached the dragon's dogma 2 part of dragon's dogma 2

[nyan-koii]

Hashira ft. Sabito as genshin impact players

aunotes : Bad grammar ahead! I didnt proofread it so be aware of brain damage. plus i initially wrote it at the 1.6 update

PART 1 : T.Muichiro, R.Kyojuro, K.Shinobu, S.Sanemi, U.Tengen 

Muichiro : he probably would be uninterested at first. He's more to first person shooting game or anything other than this concept of farming or investing. So that's why when he saw yuichirou banging his fist on his desk, trying to get his fav character, he would simply just watch

"Fck this game, i've had enough,"

"But you havent finish your wishing things yet,"

Stares. "How about you give it a try mui. You might get the character i want,"

"You sure about that? You might get angry at me," "better than nothing. Now go go, get em you donkey,"

His first ten pulls on the game brings out a light we all want to see

"Eh is tha-" "AAAA A FUCKING 5 STAR FCK FCKFCK,"

Apparently, it was one of the luckiest wish yuichiro had ever seen so far

"OHMYFUCK, you GOT A GODDAMN KLEE, QIQI AND SUCROSE WTFF???"

"I think i get your fav character?"

"Yeahh!! More than that to be honest. I want klee but you brought me two more person," sniffles and cries "you're really lucky mui. You should try and play the game,"

"It's probably the system. I doubt im that lucky tho,"

Nah, he really is lucky. Apparently he wished for his friends and got what they all really wanted for so long

"Thank you for getting me the aquila favonia, muichiro,"

"It's nothing really. I just simply press the button. It might be the system that's giving you the thing you want when i wish,"

"But still, even if i were to wish, i can get really scared and paranoid over it,"

"That's bad. You shouldnt invest yourself that much in the game tanjiro. It's just a game,"

"Ehehehe, i guess so. But you're really good at it muichiro! If you download it, we can play together :D!"

!!!!

It took the word "play together" to get muichiro down on his knee for that game. Usually the idea of playing with your friends is not that interesting. So when tanjiro said that, you bet he's going to play it

Type of player

Extremely lucky it's not even real. He got a five star on the beginner's banner

Fast farming. He probably will complete all the quest and become an endgame player within one month

"I just wanted to play with tanjiro..." bashfully

He's really good with whatever he's doing. Attack combo, dodging, elemental reaction and all sorts of stuff. If he invest more of his time on artifacts, he would probably even one shot it!!

He's very lucky. Very

Kyojuro : he wouldnt even know the existence of this game. Well, he took a glimpse of it one day and boom, heart stolen. Maybe it was the fiery burning passion in bennett that made him play the game.

'oh wow!! What a determined young boy! Even though he has a very bad luck he still keep pushing forward! Amazing!!'

'I want to be like him'

Kyojuro's the type of player to read and pay attention to every single lore of his fav character. Bennett, oh my how he wish he could've had bennett in his team. Every wishes he made would make him a c6 bennett main if only barbara wont stop coming home

"I really like you barbara but i dont want you!! Thank you for the c6 though!! I promise to use you in the future but just-" he prepares to wish

"not NOW!!" Clicks

The highest con of bennett he had ever gotten is probably c1. One day the paimon's bargain shop offered bennett as their monthly character. Kyojuro had never been so excited over a game before. He usually perks up over academics and not this kind of thing. But it's bennett, the character he admires the most.

Unfortunately he couldnt get it due to low currency. He had never feel so sad in his life.

"I shall not give up. Dont worry, i will be a c6 bennett main!!!"

He will be a c6 bennett haver!!

Type of player :

Carefully reads every stories and listens to their lines attentively. He finds it amazing how the company spent their everything on this game. It amazes him. From the stories, lores and lines, he truly appreciates it.

Balance his team pretty well. He mains bennett so he doesnt need that much of a healer in his team.

Enjoys bennett's hangout very much!! He tried to not get him killed by the dungeon's trap but ended up having to sacrifice him which ultimately ends the route. He had never felt so down and guilty before.

Not much of a damage dealer. He prefers to play it in normal mode and doesnt care that much about one shotting monster.

He feeds his character three meals a day!! If only there's a sleep option, he would be sending bennett to sleep first before the rest.

Everyone loves his teapot

Shinobu : found the game while she's scrolling through the app store out of boredom. Initially she played it on her phone but due to the fps and a really bad ping, so bad that douma wouldnt find her interesting anymore, she finally downloaded the game on her pc where things has starting to get real

"Ara, shinobu chan, it's lunch time already. Come downstairs please,"

"Sis give me five more minutes, JUST FIVE PLEASE I NEED TO KICK CHILDE's ASS,"

"he's not going anywhere sweetie,"

"yEAHH BUT MY BP IS,"

'Bp?'

"DIE DIE DIE!!" Aggresive clicking intensifies

"Shinobu chan dont hurt the keyboard that much!!"

She got lucky on the beginner's banner too and pulled a 5 star along with bennett and noelle. Who's the 5 star? Diluc Ragnvindr in all of his glory. Shinobu benched him sadly. She prefers sword over any other weapon

"I mean he's cool i guess but i just really dont get that 'WOAHHH COOL' vibe from him you know?"

"then give your diluc to me! I really want him so bad shinobu chan!"

Deep sighs "yeah sure. You can have my c2 diluc mitsuri..."

Loses 50/50 to diluc everytime everyone would think she either is lucky or cursed by the amount of that man greeting him on the screen. She still bench him though, sadly

"Im begging you, give me jEANN THE GRANDMASTER I NEED HEALER iN MY PARTY TO DO ABYSS

Type of player :

Suffers a lot in the abyss because she just want the primos which is a valid reason to do because that's the only thing that keeps her going

She's a sword character main. She'll properly build every character as either support or dps. The support would be kaeya and bennett, and her main dps ayaka

Ayaka main btw

Honestly at some point she wanted to quit the game because of how tiring it is but then inazuma came out

Fragile resin = 0

Resin = 160/160 happens once in a blue moon

"i should probably control myself with the amount of resin i've used,"

"But i cant,"

Hates domain but always can be seen playing in there

Only coops if mitsuri is there

"So that someone can calm me down,"

"That's not a really good reason shinobu chan,"

Sanemi : dude probably know the game through obanai. He watched the latter play and finds it interesting on how high the numbers he dealt. He loves challenges so a game like genshin impact would probably satisfy his need.

"Obanai, are you hearing this shit?"

"What is it sanemi, im busy doing this event,"

"That loser giyuu is also playing the game,"

"Oh yeah i know,"

"YOU KNOW? WHY YOU DIDNT TELL ME??"

"i just know right after you told me,"

"...."

Sanemi's a meta but a mediocre one. He's meta but he doesnt show it that much. Probably buys welkin once in every three months or when he really needs it same goes with battle pass too. Honestly, he really just use his money when he really needs something

"Donno if my allowance can buy me a welkin so i'll probably skip,"

"But the next banner is zhongli's,"

"....."

"Ah fuck it," buys

My man cant dodge after he got zhongli. Its very painful because he used to studies the enemies movement in the early game so that he can utilizes it on the team but zhongli's shield is so tank he forgot that dodging exists

"Im gonna kill you and you and you hhahaahhaah just you wait im gonna shred all of yo- oh shit zhongli's shield. puT IT BACK PUT IT BACK ON,"

That one event where zhongli's shield plays an important role in the domain? Yeah, he felt like a god at that time. Even got his c2 on his rerun. Sanemi just really like zhongli because it kinda reminds him of himejima. Calm and wise and strong too. He looks up on that kind of person

"Zhongli sama, im in debt for all of your hard work protecting my team," bows and wipes tears

Type of player :

Spends a little money on the game to get what he wants

Zhongli main

Is that one player that has hoards of food but doesnt even use it

"Why need healer when you have zhongli's shield,"

Compare to kyojuro, he doesnt even touch the teapot because he finds it ridiculous and bothersome to create and design everything in it

Loves one shotting bosses and compares it to giyuu. He ask for advices from obanai regarding team build supports and stuffs

Doesnt do character's story quest. The key is full every single time. He unlocks it but leaves the quest like that.

"Ah shit, i accidentally activate the quest,"

His friend list only has obanai in it. Whenever people sent him friend request, he wouldnt hesitate, more like wouldnt care to accept it

They either have to coop in obanai's world or his world and after that, unfriend immediately

Says thank you after coop because he has manners and then completely disappears

"Zhongli main forever,"

Tengen : played since 1.0 this madlad has been staying loyal to the game ever since. Quite huge amount of money he spend on this game to be honest but he never gets broke by it. You can see his regular donation to the game by purchasing welkin and battle pass and some genesis crystal too. He's loaded with money, he didnt know what to do with it.

Uzui also plays honkai impact and guns girl Z so when he saw the unknown god at the intro , he was not surprised.

"Oh we have to pick between the siblings? Cool cool co- oh hi kiana,"

"Thats so herrscher of void hahahahah,"

Although he is a loyal fan to MihoYo games, he lost his composure when he saw the 1st genshin anniversary reward because what was that. Imagine getting billions of money and they give us this? Tengen cant believe this shit

"Oh god wtf was that reward, i have to draw to get a welkin and some primos?? aND I ALSO HAVE TO BE LUCKY? WHAT-"

"WHERE'S MY FREE MONA,"

In need of mona. He needs mona so bad he literally spent his money on standard banner to get mona but always ends up with qiqi. Not that he's complaining but he just wants the astrologist to complete the support team

"GOD QIQI YOU AGAIN? WTF WFF WTF-" converts genesis crystal to primigems

"Tengen, you should control yourself!"

"SHUT UP KYOJURO, IM GONNA WASTE MY MONEY TILL I GET HER,"

"yeah but my f2p ass is hurting with how many bennett cons you got," droops

Tengen sees potential in every character. Everyone has their weakness and strength so when kokomi comes out, he diss her at first but then realize maybe its a new way for a character. Adds the uniqueness if he may say so.

"Meh i dont care honestly. You guys should pull whoever you find nice or beautiful. Like me ;)"

"Who do you main uzui?"

"Beidou,"

Type of player

Spoils the storylines, lores, leaks A LOT THE REST HAVE TO BLOCK HIM ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Speed runs the game and has become an endgame player ever since but he still does his daily commission and helps people with domains and stuffs

R5 every battle pass weapon

Fights azhdaha for fun and to test out his characters rather than ruin guards and stuff

Mona wanter

Puts traveller as the pfp and doesnt display any showcase of his characters and namecards. You can only see his achievements and spiral abyss ( 12-3 ). Says its for fun and mystery

Throws a lot of pickup lines and roleplays a lot. Spams your chatbox messages with stickers and censored stuffs

Probably steals your ores and exotic things like violetgrass, qingxin and silk flowers

Screams in the chatbox whenever he saw Mona until Kyojuro had to calm him down

Changes signature every single time and sometimes put spoilers in it

In every survey he would complain "MihoYo where the fuck is my Mona,"

Doesnt heals his characters

[moralanxietystudio]

“An RPG / Visual Novel / text adventure hybrid” is a mouthful - Roadwarden Devlog

In her Rock, Paper, Shotgun article, Jay Castello has mentioned:

The game’s genre is purposefully fluid. On (...) Studio’s website, the top frequently asked question says “I can’t figure out what is this game’s genre,” to which they’ve cheerfully replied “Me neither.”

When I mention Roadwarden in my Facebook posts or on Twitter, I usually struggle describing it. I keep saying things like “RPG / Visual Novel / text adventure hybrid”, but it’s not very... marketable. I like to use “interactive fiction”, which is arguably correct and sounds fine, but it doesn’t explain well what the player does in the game.

The main goal of this post is to sink deeper into this topic: how could we label Roadwarden? And what it actually is?

By the way, during the next couple of days I want to update the game’s demo. It’s going to be awesome.

Why am I looking for a label?

Why is the label important? Is it just because it’s convenient for social media ads?

When we categorize a game, we also set up the player’s expectations. If we call a game an endless runner, we make a promise. We claim that it’ll be easy to learn and hard to master, with a very stable pacing, without pointless plot and accessible from your phone. Sure, some endless runners can diverse from this premise or even completely fail at executing it, but making this label is an act of communication. Here is what I have to offer. Are yo interested?

And while Roadwarden fits into various definitions of specific genres, it makes promises that are not as commonly associated with its labels. It has an experimental approach to role-playing. Violence, that’s always plot-related and significant, not grindy. Exploration of a grim, detailed and consistent setting, but not a very heroic one. Dialogues used as the core of the experience, not just a tool. Humble adventures of a regular person in a world that overwhelms it. And I try to avoid common tropes in my story.

And I never ask myself “is it OK to add this new feature? after all, it’s not popular in this genre!”. I add everything that helps me make a better game. I put the experience above the marketing convenience.

A term “video game RPG” is famous for being a very vague label, pretty much impossible to define. It’s one of the most diverse branches of gaming. Every person plays RPGs for different reasons, thou we could probably make a list like 1) a complex story with possible side quests, 2) some character progression (both story-wise and through XP-like mechanics), 3) combat and exploration. If you prefer western games, you’ll probably enjoy 4) having important decisions. And you probably like 5) fantasy, eventually science-fiction with fantasy elements.

Sure, there’s a lot of variety - we have action RPGs, text-based RPGs, tactical RPGs, dungeon crawlers, rouge-likes... It’s really weird that the same label somehow covers The Witcher 3, Undertale, Final Fantasy VI and Wizardry from 1981, yet not Far Cry Primal, but that’s because these games are classified by an objective definition of a genre. We just try to say: “if you like X, you may also like Y. they’re kind of similar”.

Roadwarden as an RPG

When I develop Roadwarden I’m interested in things that most RPGs consider unimportant. And I don’t mean something like “I care about story, and These Other Games are all about combat”! That would be a silly statement. But I put an emphasis on aspects of the story which are often marginalized.

For example, in most RPGs you simply kill things (in self-defense!) and grind XP to get stronger. You can kill 10 packs of wolves and 25 boars and it means absolutely nothing. You’re just overcoming a barrier while trying to get a new level or reach the other side of the forest. Killing these enemies won’t be considered animal cruelty. Won’t destroy the balance of the nearby forests. Won’t starve the villagers. These animals are not Really a part of the story.

In Roadwarden, bandits don’t randomly spawn and die without influencing the plot. They are not some random loot waiting to drop on the floor for the player’s convenience. They have families, friends, goals, story behind them. They don’t want to kill you - they want your stuff. And they’ll try to rob you only if they know you can’t beat them. Without an unfair advantage they wouldn’t put themselves at risk.

In my game, violence means something. Nobody here dreams about it, aside of the most terrible, wicked people. Every death leaves a void, and void should be haunting.

In most RPGs you find a tavern, buy a potion and leave. In Roadwarden you spend 15 minutes talking to the innkeeper, and he’s not there just to give you a quest. He wants to know more about you. He wants to know what news you’re bringing. And if you can be trusted.

Also, potions in this game are rare and have taste. And aroma.

Your character isn’t going to have one hundred thousand coins at the end of the game, nor murder two thousand creatures to save a village inhabited by 30 NPCs. They characters are not waiting for The Chosen One or a master of martial marts that can save them. You’re just someone who tries to change your own life by doing something risky, in a realm that’s filled with people who don’t even know if they want you here.

Your character is a part of the world they live in. And I think most RPGs don’t do a good work reflecting this idea. Immersion should be something more than the constant pursue of better graphics, cinematics and more “freedom”.

So while Roadwarden is still a game that includes combat, trade, exploration, unlocking new abilities and building your character, it’s all put in a new context. And there’s a good chance that a portion of RPG fans wouldn’t be satisfied with something this different. I try to encourage them to take a look... But I don’t want anyone to feel cheated.

Roadwarden as a Visual Novel

Roadwarden may also not be a perfect fit for many Visual Novel fans, even though it involves a lot of narration, descriptions and dialogues supported by limited visuals. Roadwarden has fewer gameplay elements than most RPGs, but way more than most VNs - it even introduces simple survival mechanics.

Also, the story is non-linear - it’s very complex (what doesn’t mean “long”) and modified by how the player moves around the map. Many VNs introduce story branching, but I’m pushing it unusually far. And, of course, Roadwarden has way more choices than most VNs, even though some of these choices are focused on role-playing alone and don’t impact the game’s mechanics.

Not only that, but the visual style and the lack of common tropes that are appealing for the core VN-fanbase can be a big problem. I was even asked a couple of times if my game will involve any romantic relationships. Sure, there are successful VNs that don’t involve porn (VA-11 Hall-A), romance (Ace Attorney), manga-style drawings (Cinders), nor Best Girls, so I’m not saying it’s impossible to make one and prosper. But it’s playing against the odds.

All these things push me into being very careful here, and I usually feel that I should say something like “it’s a Visual Novel, BUT...”

Roadwarden as an adventure game

So let’s make a step back. There’s an argument to be made that Visual Novels are a sub-genre of (or rather, an evolution of) a more interactive label. Here’s how Wikipedia defines the adventure games:

(...) a video game in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving.

That works, doesn’t it? It’s also fair to say that such a definition is very vague and doesn’t even exclude RPGs or games like Half-Life. Quest for Glory series, for example, is usually considered to have “RPG elements” or gets classified as a hybrid of both an adventure game and an RPG.

This vagueness opens adventure games for many subgenres, and Roadwarden graciously falls into a couple of them at once. It has scenes with text parsers, typical for interactive fiction, but its advanced dialogue choices could even categorize it as digital gamebook (CYOA-like). Probably a better option for us is a “graphic adventure game”, since there are Some graphics and few ways to interact with the game - parsers, in-game “buttons”, dialogue choices.

I have a pleasure to be a part of few adventure game communities and there’s usually a small range of titles that are constantly mentioned as the “classic” adventure games. Point & clicks (Monkey Island, Grim Fandango), graphic games with parsers commands (King’s Quest), sometimes games like Myst...

Text adventure games, while accepted, are not really discussed often. And it’s difficult to make silly memes about them, so they are a bit obsolete. However, a group focused specifically on text adventure games really doesn’t care about graphics.

It feels to me like there Should be a spectrum of graphics vs. text, and of visible interface vs. text parsers. But it’s not the case. Text adventures and graphic adventures are almost in different worlds - not because of what they are, but rather because of what communities surround them. And, once again, Roadwarden is in between. It’s not just a hybrid of an RPG and an adventure game, it’s also a hybrid of a text adventure game and a graphic adventure game.

Roadwarden is a hybrid, and that’s not sexy

In conclusion, here are some of the genres that I think are strongly present in Roadwarden:

· RPG;

· Visual Novel;

· text adventure game;

· graphic adventure game;

· digital gamebook.

Also, I heard opinions that “it feels a lot like a tabletop RPG”. What makes me happy, since it’s intentional.

Some of my game’s features are not exclusive to any specific genre. All of the labels I’ve listed tend to be story-heavy and support their plot with dialogues (or even narration), often include inventory management, allow you to role-play a protagonist and tend to use fantasy settings. Others, however, are genre specific: parsers, open world exploration, mechanically progressing protagonist, simplified visuals, resource management...

Roadwarden is a hybrid, what means it’s going to have a problem appealing to fans of a specific genre. Yet, at the same time, it’s a game that’s not restricted by its labels - and I don’t think genres should limit our designs. My game can include all the things it needs. It can be unusual, experiment and creatively look for new ways to explore.

I just hope I can earn your trust.

[chloe-gayzer]

all of them for mitali (and adora, if you're feeling ambitious owo)

okay this was a lot but i am NOT weak and answered them all for BOTH

Mitali:

1. Age, Birthday, Star Sign

She’s almost 33, born April 20th, 2005. She’s a Taurus.

2. Gender Identity

Cis woman!

3. Orientation and Relationship status (single, taken (by who?), crush (on who?))

Lesbian, eventually taken by another OC, Savannah Wright

4. Race and Ethnicity

Mixed; Scottish and Indian.

5. Height and Body type

5’7, fit af

6. Headcanon VA

Haven’t terribly considered anyone but…… Claudia Black, with like, a scottish accent, would be Good

7. Occupation

Captain of Security

8. Weapon of Choice(?)

Bow and shotgun, for more “distance”. But fuck she loves her knifes.

9. Hometown and current residence

Bo’ness, Scotland. Prosperity.

10. Do they have any markings, piercings or scars?

Probably has her fair share of scars (newest one being from that gd crocodile). No piercings to speak of. A tattoo on her back that’s a dahlia and a transvaal daisy. They were each of her mother’s favourites.

11. Do they have any notable features, like horns, tails, or so on?

Not really, ha. Maybe her hair? It’s really long.

12. Own any pets?

A dog and a pig! She loves both Timber and Horatio.

13. Have any kids?

She wants to.

14. Can they cook? Can they bake?

She can cook pretty well but she usually doesn’t have the time. Baking, she hasn’t really been able to try. Not in a long time, at least.

15. Can they sing? Can they dance?

She can sing! Pretty well too! One of her moms was heavy into music and taught her a couple instruments. During their time in the bunker, she was taught a whole lot of songs on guitar. Might know a few dances.

16. Can they drive?

Yup! Best driver in the business ha

17 Can they fight?

That’s her main talent ngl

18. Have any special keepsakes?

She’s got her mother’s wedding rings tucked away. She never lets them away from her.

19. Hobbies

Nothing actually firm. She likes to read and there are times she likes to play music, but it can be sort of bittersweet for her. Hunting maybe, but that’s another survival thing.

20. Clothing/Aesthetic

She likes button-ups and to layer a bit. Enjoys soft blues and deep reds.

21. Fave food(s) and drink(s)

She misses salt and vinegar chips so much. Pretty partial to cider-- not the alcoholic kind-- but it’s harder to get.

22. Fave Color

Purple

23. Fave Genre

Romance lol

24. Fave Season

Fall!

25. City or Country?

Country

26. Guilty Pleasure

Tbh??? Finding someone to fight just to get some anger out.

27. What’s their family like? Who’s in it? What’s their relationship with them?

She had two mothers until she was around 16. After they passed, family wise she was alone for a very long time. Now, the Ryes treat her as family and, at some point, Savannah would be her wife. She’s close with Kim and she’d never let anything happen to Carmina. She’s fast friends with Nick when they get him back-- she’s always glad to see a good man who has no issue being soft or saying “i love you”

28. Are they literate? Did they go to school? How long? What level?

She went to school up until shortly before the bombs fell, and her mothers did their best to teach what they could in the bunker.

29. What was childhood like?

The first 12 or so years were in Scotland. She was pretty healthy and well balanced. She enjoyed music, knew some instruments and got voice lessons. She was pretty athletic too, planning to do something military-centric when she was old enough. She and her mothers moved to the west coast of the states when she was twelve. It was maybe a year before the bombs fell.

30. What was adolescence like?

The first couple years were in the “bunker”, which was barely more than a multi-roomed basement shared between her and her mothers-- their neighbor, who’d offered them the shelter, didn’t make it in. He hadn’t been home when the bombs fell. The food ran out maybe two years in and she got to spend a year with her parents above ground before they were killed. The rest of her adolescence was spent mostly alone, living in a small shelter in the woods. She rarely had contact with people, only ever to trade. Once or twice she’d lead people out of the woods. It wasn’t until she was nineteen or so that she joined Rush.

31. What’s their current main conflict?

Loooooooooooots of self-hatred. Sure, there’s the whole highwaymen deal, but her hatred of herself makes it hard for her to make friends because she honestly doesn’t believe she deserves to have them.

32. What steps have they taken to overcome this conflict?

She doesn’t, really, until after that whole deal with Joseph and the apple and the bear. She of the mind it was just a drug trip, but it did make her think about who she is. Made her afraid she really had become something monstrous. After a breakdown and some help from Savannah, she actively tries to be a better, warmer person.

33. How have they changed over time?

Her trying to change helps her a lot. She goes from being pretty quiet, pretty grumpy, and antisocial, to being a happier, more open, but still pretty quiet woman. She teaches Carmina some songs on the guitar and plays more often for the people in Prosperity.

34. What’s their room look like right now?

I mean idk how the rooming situation is in Prosperity, but if she’s able to have a room that’s more private, she probably shares it with Savannah, after a point. Might have some plants and her guitar leaning in the corner. If it’s a shared room situation, she probably sticks to the bare minimum as to not take up too much space. Maybe a trunk under the bed with her clothes and a couple trinkets.

35. What are they like as a friend?

Literally if anything hurts you she will hunt it down. If she considers you a friend, she’ll make sure you know it.

36. What are they like as a partner?

Romantic partner, I’m assuming, she’s loving and protective, but often restrained. She doesn’t like to overstep boundaries.

37. Do they have any phobias?

Water. She can swim but fuck does she hate the feeling of something about to get her. Selene’s quest did not help that.

38. Did/do they go anywhere special for vacations?

Her parents took her to Disney once, but otherwise no.

39. Your character walks into a cafe. What do they order?

Raspberry hot chocolate.

40. What time do they go to bed, usually?

Whenever she’s done with the work for the day and has the chance to crash.

41. What’s their morning routine like?

Wake up → unbraid and brush hair → get dressed → find out what needs to be done for the day. Food if she remembers.

42. What’s the dumbest thing your character’s done?

Go after Selene’s weed bag and get attacked by a crocodile, what the fuck, we can find you more weed, we can’t casually find Mitali a new arm.

43. What pokemon would your character be?

OOOOOOhhhhhh this is my kind question, I need to go look at pokemon lists. Oh fuck I’m back, she’s a midnight form lycanroc for SURE. Looks sorta scary, is cuddly, has the ability to maim.

44. What’s their pokemon team? Try to pick all 6.

I love these questions holy crap. Midnight form lycanroc because DUH. Houndoom. Pignite. Gengar. Yamask. Zangoose.

45. Theme song (and a playlist if you’ve got it!)

Wolf by First Aid Kit.It’s not a whole playlist but also: She Said Maybe by Steam Powered Giraffe. Lion’s Roar, by First Aid Kit. Ghost by Mystery Skulls. Thistles by Mumford and Sons. For Those Below, also Mumford and Sons.

46. If this character was in a musical, what would their motif be (what kind of instruments do you hear, what’s the tempo, ect).

Oh this is pretty hard.... Violin-centric, maybe. And the tempo would be different depending on which point of her life. A lively one for early life, a mournful one for like…. 16-32. Happier again after that.

47. What was this character’s biggest turning point in their life, something that changed them almost completely?

Her mothers dying for sure! She went from being a hopeful young woman to almost spiteful. Killing the men who killed her parents was what sealed the deal.

48. What was their lowest point? What was their highest point?

Yup parent death is still gonna be lowest point. It was sudden and painful and no one involved deserved it. Highest point is when she finally breaks free of that depression and realizes she doesn’t have to hate herself anymore.

49. What are some themes tied to your character’s story?

Forgiveness, redemption, hope.

50. What are some motifs associated with your character?

Wild animals (mostly wolves), death and rebirth.

51. What were some inspirations for your character (people, movies, games)?

Big surprise but….. Mitali was definitely inspired in equal parts by Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross (so Lost Legacy, in a nutshell). Also some great wolf related aesthetic pictures.

52. How are you and your character the same? How are you different?

Well this is an unexpectedly deep question that I’m going to avoid due to my own self-worth lol

53. Expectations vs Reality: what did you expect and what did you get with this character?

I expected to have her be very heavily military, but I ended up with a woman who only really wants to be a wife and just love the woman she marries with all of her heart and she wants to raise a kid and just have a good and happy family.

54. What does your character want, and what do they need?

She doesn’t know what she wants but she needs love. Any kind. Platonic, romantic, whichever.

55. What’s your character’s core trait? What’s their best trait? What’s their worst trait? What happens when these all interact with each other?

Protective to a fault. It can be both their best and worst trait, but their real worst trait is her self-hate. The two things interacting usually lead her to cutting herself off from friends so they’re “better off without her”.

56. What’s your overall goal with this character? Will they get a happy ending or will they succumb to their faults?

FUCK I want her to have a happy ending so badly. I’ll have to see how New Dawn ends first, but end goal is her marrying Savannah and eventually having a kid or two. Maybe twins???

Adora!!!

1. Age, Birthday, Star Sign

23, October 22nd 1994, Libra

2. Gender Identity

Cis woman

3. Orientation and Relationship status (single, taken (by who?), crush (on who?))

Lesbian and taken by Jess as soon as she possibly can be

4. Race and Ethnicity

Mixed, Brazilian and South African

5. Height and Body type

Lil bit on the shorter end maybe 5’4, and she's got a swimmer bod for SURE

6. Headcanon VA

Don't have one yet

7. Occupation

Deputy to Sheriff Whitehorse

8. Answered previously!

9. Hometown and current residence

Cascade Valley, Hope County

10. Previously answered!

11. Do they have any notable features, like horns, tails, or so on?

Her hair is big and curly, lovely afro. Other than that, maybe her newly given WRATH scar

12. Own any pets?

She left her pet cat with her dads when she moved, but now she's got a cougar, a dog, and a bear. Peaches is her favourite.

13. Have any kids?

in the future, she has a daughter named Masha!

14. Can they cook? Can they bake?

She's not the best cook, but she can bake pretty well.

15. Can they sing? Can they dance?

She's not a great singer but she dances well!

16. Can they drive?

Yup!

17. Can they fight?

She's really scrappy, and a pretty big threat tbh

18. Have any special keepsakes?

Her dads gave her a star of david necklace before she left. she never takes it off.

19. Hobbies

She loves to fish!

20. Previously answered!

21. Fave food(s) and drink(s)

She's 100% here for pumpkin pie and loves pink lemonade

22. Fave Color

Gold!

23. Fave Genre

Rom coms

24. Fave Season

Fall!

25. City or Country?

Depends on the day, leans towards country.

26. Guilty Pleasure

Taking a break to fish when she should be doing something else. Also taking her hearing aids out when she doesn't want to listen to someone.

27. What’s their family like? Who’s in it? What’s their relationship with them?

She's got two dads! They're an older couple who are very loving. One is deaf. Recently I gave her a brother named Adam! He’s a cool dude. Bi and lovable.

28. Are they literate? Did they go to school? How long? What level?

She finished school up to get her degree! Finished at 22

29. Previously answered!

30. What was adolescence like?

She went through a lot of emotional issues during her teens, but her dads got her in therapy and were supportive and loving. A lot of who she is today comes from the love she got then.

31. What’s their current main conflict?

Joseph fucking Seed decided to mess around in lives he should've left alone and now she's gotta clean up after him and try to protect her new friends.

32. What steps have they taken to overcome this conflict?

In the words of the lego movie: “shoot shoot shoot bullet bullet gun”

33. How have they changed over time?

Probably the biggest change was early teens to late. She was angry and spiteful and pretty depressed.

34. What’s their room look like right now?

Her room at home is covered in posters. But her room during 5 is… a bunker she found and claimed. She keeps it stocked, managed to put up a lesbian flag, and brought in the comfiest pillows and blankets she could.

35. Previously answered!

36. What are they like as a partner?

Over affectionate to the max, both with romantic partners and her work partner Hudson. A bit protective. Jealous when it comes to romantic partners.

37. Do they have any phobias?

Most boil down to the death of loved ones

38. Did/do they go anywhere special for vacations?

She used to get to pick a vacation spot once a summer when she grew up. Had to be reasonable, but she got to go to some great campgrounds, a couple good concerts, and Mammoth caves

39. Your character walks into a cafe. What do they order?

A white tea and cookies

40. What time do they go to bed, usually?

Depends on the day.

41. What’s their morning routine like?

Wake up → try to sleep longer → eventually be convinced out of bed (either by herself or by Jess) → try to manage her hair if she didn't braid it → give up on that and wash face → get dressed → eat → start day

42. What’s the dumbest thing your character’s done?

“I won't get hurt jumping from that height”

43. What pokemon would your character be?

Whisicott! But shiny

44. What’s their pokemon team? Try to pick all 6.

I seriously love these questions. Whimsicott! Of course! And a sylveon. Gardevoir. Shinx. Rapidash. And Cinccino!! She’s fairy-centric.

45. Theme song (and a playlist if you’ve got it!)

Dance Apocolyptic by Janelle Monae.

46. If this character was in a musical, what would their motif be (what kind of instruments do you hear, what’s the tempo, ect).

Hmmm… Piano. Something upbeat, most of the time.

47. What was this character’s biggest turning point in their life, something that changed them almost completely?

Therapy in her early teens. It helped her cope with the fact she suffered under her birth parents and realize she’s worth so much more than they tries to make her feel

48. What was their lowest point? What was their highest point?

It’s still gonna be centered in her abuse, but it could also be the grudge she holds on the Seed family (minus Faith). Highest point is probably something to do with Jess.

49. What are some themes tied to your character’s story?

Healing, unconditional love, leadership.

50. What are some motifs associated with your character?

Water, guilt, death, freedom

51. What were some inspirations for your character (people, movies, games)?

Adora is named after She-ra! Her brother too. Physically, I’m not sure. Mmmmaybe a little Nadine Ross, but even then, their hair is really the main similarity, and even then Adora’s is more afro than Nadine’s

52. How are you and your character the same? How are you different?

We’re about the same age? We both love Jess Black. That might be where the similarities end.

53. Expectations vs Reality: what did you expect and what did you get with this character?

I expected to have a gal who was nursing a crush on her partner in the force but instead i have a gal who’s a hundred percent in love with an archer she found locked in a cage by religious zealots.

54. What does your character want, and what do they need?

She wants some goddamn rest and the ability to go on a proper date with her girlfriend. She wants to see her dads again. She wants to be certain she won’t wake up and find herself kidnapped again.

55. What’s your character’s core trait? What’s their best trait? What’s their worst trait? What happens when these all interact with each other?

Is “sunshine” a trait? She’s a happy sort of person and likes to show it. Smiles a whole lot. Best trait is her willingness to trust. Worst trait… she can hold a grudge. For a LONG time. Holding a grudge can keep her from mending bridges, so it doesn’t act terribly well with happy & trusting. And when it does, she’s happy to hold a grudge lol.

56. What’s your overall goal with this character? Will they get a happy ending or will they succumb to their faults?

My goal is her to eventually have a happy life. She gets her “happy ending” in the shape of being with Jess until the day she dies, and even taking in a little girl to raise. She passes away in her sleep a long way down the line.

[thechcoman]

WIBP (What I’ve Been Playing): A Hat in Time; Hollow Knight

One of the most recent trends in most entertainment and media (for better or for worse) is how everything is usually a remake, sequel, or reboot. Usually this is done as a result of wanting to appeal to people’s inner nostalgia; to a time when their lives were less difficult and money was more valuable than time. That’s not to say originality is dead (because that would be an incredibly ignorant statement to make), but among big-name companies and long-running franchises, we see constant attempts to appeal to one’s inner nostalgia. The game I’ve recently played over this last weekend however, is a bit different in this regard…at least in the entertainment world at large. It’s supposed to invoke nostalgia, yet has no previously existing IP to fall back on, instead relying on people’s nostalgia for a genre that’s been dead for years now. Like I hinted at earlier however, this is a phenomenon that seems to be exclusive to video games, rather than industries such as the TV industry or film industry. I bring this up because the game I played this weekend manages to not only faithfully recreate and innovate the genre of old 3D collect-a-thon platformers, but is also potentially better than those older games (though the older games I will always consider to be more important due to the impact and general important that those games still have).

This game is known as “A Hat in Time” developed by the indie developer known as “Gears for Breakfast”; and I consider it to be one of the greatest success stories to come out of Kickstarter. The game works on so many levels, however I feel as though the presentation and gameplay are the best aspects of the game.

For me, the most important thing in any platformer is that the jumping and movement mechanics need to feel fluid and keep your momentum, or at least give you multiple options for how to initiate a jump and try to stay in the air as well. This is why I enjoy games such as the 3D Mario platformers (Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, etc.) and the latest 2D Rayman platformers (such as Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends). If the jumping and movement mechanics aren’t about constantly keeping momentum and flow, then it needs to be about patience and precise jumps, and being meticulous and careful, while also being reactive much like in the original NES Super Mario Bros or Banjo-Kazooie.

This constant flow and motion while jumping and maintaining momentum is something that “A Hat in Time” does expertly. When you jump in the air, you have the option to then double jump, and then you have the option of doing a dive mid-air to get extra distance of the jump. Out of this dive, you can then press the jump button again to cancel it mid-air and be given more control over where you’ll land. This allows for precise platforming while also maintaining momentum. Furthermore, if you land on the ground after doing a dive, you can press the jump button almost immediately after you touch the ground in order to get a small hop forward that increases your speed for a moment. This is another layer to the platforming that makes the movement and jumping mechanics maintain momentum and make you constantly moving. This is brilliant, as the game rewards you for going the extra mile and timing your button presses by letting you maintain movement and momentum, and by doing so letting you complete objectives more smoothly.

Since “A Hat in Time” is meant to callback to classic 3D platformers such as Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64, the main goal of the game is similar to that of these older games; that being to collect and collect and collect. The main form of progression in these sort of games and in “A Hat in Time” is to usually go into some sort of world and then complete some sort of unique mission. Upon completion of said mission, you will be granted one of the main collectables in the game that you need to get in order to progress (which in this game is known as Time Pieces). However, in my opinion, one of the reasons why the genre began to die out and became boring in the first place was because the missions that were done in order to obtain the main collectables became increasingly less interesting and more boring with each subsequent game. They were usually “Collect X number of collectible item”, “Get to the end of this platforming section”, “Complete a minigame” or “Do a quick fetch quest.” One of the games that I felt suffered heavily from this problem was Jak and Daxter, which while mechanically was a fun game, the missions to obtain the main collectable were just uninteresting and boring. The only games that managed to keep it fresh was the Mario Galaxy games, and even then at times it felt like those games were being lazy.

I say all this because “A Hat in Time” manages to not only avoid this problem completely, but in fact I think that it’s creativity of the missions you complete is one its strongest aspects. There are two reasons for this, so let me go through both of them.

First and foremost, the game is short. At first, this seemed to be a criticism I had for the game, as I managed to obtain one hundred percent completion after only 13 hours and three days or playing. But after doing some thinking I realized that that the short length of the game helped with the creativity. Because there was less game to make, they could spend more time on each and every individual mission and Time Piece all in part of an effort to make the missions memorable and fun. Furthermore, because the game is short, each Time Piece sticks out in my mind. After only one playthrough, I can recite to you nearly every single mission I did in order to obtain one hundred percent completion.

This leads me into my second point about the creativity of the missions; the variety. There are four worlds in the game, and each world feels distinct from one another in terms of themes and overall aesthetic. One moment, you could be taking down the mafia, another you’re exploring a haunted mansion with a restless ghost haunting it and the game becomes something more akin to a horror game. Another moment you can be shooting a murder mystery movie and trying to solve a crime, and in another you can be exploring a city above the clouds. It’s the creativity and variety of each situation that helps to make each and every mission stand out in my mind.

Furthermore, the game has an excellent presentation. While the graphically fidelity isn’t all that high (it IS an indie game after all), I would still say the game is beautiful thanks to a very strong and colorful art style. Every stage’s colors pop vibrantly and each of them are designed with enough flavor and difference between each other to make them all feel distinct. This is something that is once again, helped by the short length of the game. The main protagonist, named Hat Girl, is one of the best protagonists in a 3D platformer. While she is a mostly silent protagonist, she still has a strong personality simply through her facial expression and the small amount of dialogue she has. In fact, most of the characters in the game have memorable designs and hilarious dialogue that adds to the charm and memorability of everything within the game.

“A Hat in Time” is one of the most memorable gaming experiences I’ve had in a long time, and I really highly recommend it. Along with it, we’ve been seeing a resurgence in this genre with games such as Yooka-Laylee and Super Mario Odyssey, and I’m happy to see what I once thought was a dead genre have a revival. I also look forward to future games from Gears for Breakfast.

Now then, as for games I’m currently playing through; I went from one throwback indie platformer…to another throwback indie platformer, though of a different ilk then that of “A Hat in Time”. This other game is a Metroidvania 2D platformer known as Hollow Knight. This is a game that my brother had actually played quite a bit of and recommended to me due to his knowledge of my love for games such as Metroid and Dark Souls.

As of right now, I’m enjoying Hollow Knight. It has the difficulty and recovering lost items mechanic from Dark Souls, with the exploration and progression of a Metroid game, and RPG mechanics similar to that of Paper Mario; all three of which are games that I enjoy greatly.

One of the things that stands out to me most about Hollow Knight is how great the presentation is. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the game was completely hand-drawn, and while I haven’t really noticed the music much as it’s mostly ambient, the sound design is fantastic. The various different grunts that NPCs make give off a lot of personality, and even if they didn’t have any dialogue I could probably still tell you what they’d probably be thinking based on their animation and noises that they make. The sound design is also great when exploring as well, as each enemy has distinct sounds they make as they patrol around, letting you know what’s in store for you.

One thing I’m still trying to get used to however is platforming and combat. That’s not to say that the combat and platforming is bad, or that it’s even difficult to get the hang of, but rather after finishing A Hat In Time, wires are getting crossed in brain, as I keep attempting to double jump or do some sort of homing attack. Furthermore, the combat has this thing where every time you attack an enemy, there’s a little bit of pushback from attacking the enemy, and if you want to hit an enemy multiple times, you need to time your swings and move forward a little bit each time. This was something that threw me off initially, but it’s also something that I very quickly adapted to.

Something else that Hollow Knight is doing well, at least based on my first impressions anyways, is the Metroidvania aspects of it. There are multiple paths to explore, usually that have something at the end of them and many of the paths also wind around, all maze-like and eventually lead back into itself. However I need more time with the game before I can definitively say how well it handles this aspect.

I also unfortunately don’t have much to say about the Dark Souls and Paper Mario influences yet, as I haven’t played the game enough yet to make a decision about either of those yet.

Anyways, thanks for reading! I’ll be back next week with another post.

PS: If this post felt a little bit, Video Game Review-ish, that’s because this is the first post of the blog, and I needed something more to talk about than just Hollow Knight, which I didn’t have much to talk about yet. So I talked about the last game I finished, which was A Hat In Time, which I had so much to say that it basically became a review. Future blog posts will be more about my experiences with the game and my general impressions.

Also, a question. I play Street Fighter V a lot. Would anybody be curious about reading my experiences with my weekly Street Fighter V session as well? Let me know!

[sg2tiger]

Back again for another year of games!! I dunno, making these lists is kinda fun, and it also tends to help me actually finish games I’ve started, so I’ll probably keep doing it at the end of the year for as long as I can be bothered.

As usual, the images mostly speak for themselves, but the obligatory TL;DR reviews are under the cut. May contain spoilers.

—————————————— Kingdom: New Lands (Steam) FINAL VERDICT: Bretty Gud —————————————— For a game that only requires one button and a joystick (or some WASD if you're into that sort of thing), Kingdom is surprisingly fun. I hesitate to call it 'tower defense' because it's not, but it's definitely got a similar sort of feeling to it. Like tower defense meets resource management/building game. You - the monarch - ride around on your horse and use your carefully-managed budget of coins (and by carefully-managed I mean you can and will probably run out at some point and fuck yourself over if you haven't planned well) and recruit peasants to join and defend your steadily-growing kingdom. Give them a coin and either a bow or a hammer and a peasant will become a worker, to build and repair your towers, or an archer, to hunt by day (to earn you coins) and defend your towers from the monsters who come out at night. You can have workers cut down trees to expand your kingdom further, allowing more room for towers and eventually farms to be built to keep your coin supply steady, and upgrade your intially-tiny campsite into a true fortress. Your goal is essentially to keep building your kingdom out as far as you can across the island, while making sure it's not overrun by the monsters who get steadily more powerful every night. The monsters can and will destroy your towers, and if they catch your workers and archers they'll turn back into wandering peasants who you will need to seek out once more to give new coins. This can be tricky, too, since their campsites may be deep in the woods, and night can fall quickly if you venture out there unprepared - having the monsters attack while you're not behind the safety of your castle walls can instantly spell game over. If you manage your resources right, though, you will eventually have enough of a coin surplus to repair the broken ship lying somewhere in the wilderness, which you need in order to escape the island and move onto the next level.

All in all Kingdom is as mechanically simple as it gets, but can prove quite a challenge to survive. I think my best game lasted about 38 days, and I did manage to get at least to the second island. Plus, the visuals are absolutely gorgeous, with beautiful pixel art and lighting. It's a great game to play if you just want to unwind without thinking about anything too complicated.

—————————————— Stardew Valley (Steam) FINAL VERDICT: Bretty Gud —————————————— If you like Harvest Moon, you'll like Stardew Valley. I'm sure this has been said a million times, but really it's about as simple as that. That's not to say SV is just a 'HM clone' of course, but the similarities and inspirations are abundantly clear. There's a lot to do, interesting characters, and even a lot of mods if you get bored of the base game after a while. I think I got through about my first year before I started losing steam, and never got around to tinkering too much with mods. I should go back and give it another go sometime.

As consequence of writing this review practically an entire year since I last played, I can't think of anything more specific to say. But I do remember enjoying it.

—————————————— Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (Steam) FINAL VERDICT: Bretty Gud —————————————— If you liked Borderlands 2, I can't think of a good reason NOT to play TPS. It seems to get an awful lot of undeserved hate simply because 'it's not BL2', which, well, is stupid. Borderlands 2 is a great game and I can understand people feeling like TPS didn't quite live up to that reputation, but that alone doesn't make it a bad game. It's not Borderlands 3 after all - it's The Pre-Sequel. It exists to fill in the gaps between the first and second games while providing an experience and humor more similar to the second, if somewhat shorter.

One thing I particularly liked and hope we see again in future installments is that the player characters felt more real. They actually TALK to the other characters during the storyline quests, rather than feeling like essentially blank slates outside of their combat banter and backstory Echoes (of which I was never able to find all in BL2). It made me feel like my character was more involved in what was going on, and actually had more of a connection to these events and characters. I played Athena in my singleplayer game because she's the narrator of the framing story, but I was Nisha in my multiplayer game and played with a Baroness and Holo-Jack. It was fun hearing the vastly different types of commentary depending on which one of us handed in a quest, which gave more variety to the characters. I'd like to do another solo run as someone else someday even just to hear all their unique quest responses.

Also, managing O2 isn't THAT bad once you get used to it. It's a little bit of a pain early on, but once you get a decent Oz-Kit it's pretty manageable. Oxygen bubbles are plentiful on the moon's surface, and there's a lot of zones that take place almost entirely in oxygenated areas to boot. Plus, slamming is a lot of fun. I thought the mechanic was a nice way of differenciating the game a bit more from BL2, in a sorta gimmicky way without feeling terribly frustrating. Also, the grinder made getting Legendary weapons somewhat feasible compared to BL2, and there were many times I'd just spend over an hour going between the loot chest and grinder over and over. ...I mean, I don't do that. Using a save editor to give yourself infinite gold keys and playing the whole game with purple guns is cheating, and I would never do that in BL2 or TPS. Not ever.

Anyway, TPS was fun. I never got around to playing the DLC, so I guess I'll have something to look forward to next time I get the urge to do a new solo playthrough as a different character.

—————————————— Riff Racer (Steam) FINAL VERDICT: Recommended ——————————————

Another one of those 'zip around a track to your own music collection' games, so naturally I had to take a look at it. Audiosurf was my first Steam game, after all. Unlike Audiosurf, though (to which comparisons are inevitable since they're similar at a glance), Riff Racer is actually a RACING game. At least to the extent that one can race against oneself. You basically load up a song to generate a track, just like Audiosurf and similar games. If you're the first person to ever run that song, any other player who ever plays that song will be racing against your ghost - likewise, if you do a song someone else created first, they're the score you wanna beat. There's no actual other cars on the track though, just you and a lot of obstacles to avoid, ramps to jump and curvy tracks to drift. Drifting is the main way to earn points, and is also the most fun part of the game. It took me a bit to really get the hang of it, but once I did I started seeking out songs that were likely to have a lot of tight corners to drift around. I was floored when I actually managed to pull off the achievement for drifting 16 beats in one maneuver, because for the longest time I could barely manage to drift 4. And the feeling you get when you're actually able to beat a powerful ghost is [relieved] [okhand]

Of course, a lot of people play this sort of game just to chill out and not worry about things like leaderboards and high scores. That's totally fine too!! It's a great game to just sit back and chill out with, just drifting along the track with your favorite tunes. I would definitely recommend this one to anyone who's into games like Audiosurf - I get the feeling it's a bit of a lesser-known gem, and it totally deserves some more love.

—————————————— Persona 3 Portable (PSP) FINAL VERDICT: UNFINISHED —————————————— I started playing this in March, I think...as I write this, it's December, and I still haven't finished. I know P3 is one of those games that makes the 'must play' and favorite lists of a LOOOOT of people, and many will hail it as the best JRPG of all time...but I have to wonder how much of that is just being blinded by nostalgia. I certainly don't think there's ENOUGH of a difference between the Portable and PS2 versions that I'm missing some great secret that makes this game so much more amazing than I can see, at least.

I haven't picked it up in a while (I've played it on and off throughout the year) but I believe I'm somewhere around the end of September or beginning of October in-game. So I'm certainly not dismissing it after only a few hours. In fact, I'm not dismissing it at all - as a MegaTen fan, I do want to finish it at some point. Really, I just keep getting burned out by Tartarus. For me, games are games - if all I wanted was a compelling story and interesting characters, I'd read a book. A game needs to first and foremost engage me with its GAMEPLAY, and while I do enjoy story-driven games with interesting characters, that alone isn't enough to save it if the GAMEPLAY isn't engaging me enough first!! And Tartarus is just...bad. I'm sorry, but one dungeon with semi-randomized floors where the decor only slightly changes periodically as you climb higher and every single floor is practically the same grind of collect items/attack or avoid enemies/find the stairs...that's just not fun. Like not even a little. It got old somewhere around the second block, and by now I'm on, what, fifth or sixth? I can't remember, it's all the fucking same. And while I enjoy MegaTen combat, and P3 is sorta similar to the push-turn system, even those get old after a while of the same 3 encounters ad nauseum for the next 15-odd floors until you hit the next boss. It didn't take long for me to start playing with my volume muted outside story segments (I use the undub patch, otherwise I'd probably have it muted for the entirety of the game) because I was sick of hearing the same OOOOOH YEAH!!! DADADA-DA DADADA-DA!!! over and over again. One thing I've always hated is games that run on having a LOT of battles and grinding, but only one piece of battle music outside boss fights. It's cruel and unusual.

Anyway. Tartarus aside, the game's alright. I personally find social links a little odd, because I'm linking with people unrelated to my struggle against the Shadows (I still haven't hit lofty the requirements to link with the girls, and outside the PSP-exclusive non-canon Girl Route you can NEVER link with your male teammates). It's this bizarre sort of disconnect - I understand that these people are part of my life in their own ways, but it feels very segregated. I should be bonding with the people in my party, the ones living in my dorm, my fellow Persona users who understand the stress we're under and can relate to my struggles. Instead, I'm cringing at a wannabe playboy who thinks his teacher wants to bone him, or a rules-obsessed student council jerkbag, both of whom I have to tell what they WANT to hear and not how I ACTUALLY feel because it's all about leveling up those sweet sweet link ranks. Devil Survivor 2 used a similar link system (most likely inspired by P3, since I believe that came first), but instead of being random people from my class/town I was actually linking with my party members. Being able to bond with the people I'm spending most of my game with felt a lot more meaningful to me than the P3 links - in fact, for the first in-game month or two, I kept waiting for some of my early links to find out about Shadows and get moved into the dorm as playable characters. I was very surprised to find out that they just ultimately had nothing to do with the main gameplay and storyline whatsoever. Maybe that's the point. Maybe there's some profound reason for this that I don't know yet because I haven't finished the game. But to me, it feels disjointed and unrelated to the main game I'm supposed to be playing here.

Social Links, and Tartarus. Aside from the storyline itself, those are basically what make up this game - and I'm not terribly fond of either. Sure, I'm enjoying the story well enough, and the glimpses I get of my party members through the main storyline and things like the hidden camera videos...but that's not enough for me. The GAMEPLAY needs to win me over as much as the story, and it's just not. I'd like to stick it out and finish it, and I do still pick it up from time to time...but there's a reason I haven't finished it despite starting it so many months ago, and this is basically it. I simply don't find it fun. And it's great if it's the favorite game or best JRPG for a lot of people? But it's not that for me.

(I'd also like to play P4 and even P5 someday, but I don't own any consoles so I'm basically riding on the popularity of things like Dangan Ronpa to convince more Japanese developers that porting their games to Steam is worthwhile...otherwise I'll probably never get to play either of those)

—————————————— Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (Steam) FINAL VERDICT: Recommended —————————————— While I ultimately burned out before I could finish my NG+ all the way through and then go to Bitterblack Isle, I had a lot of fun with this game. DLC aside, I basically 100% completed everything else - all normal quests (had to catch a few missable ones on my NG+ for the achievement), all regular notice board quests (including the annoying ones like mining a fuckton of that one rare mineral or getting 100 clumps of hair or whatever it was, and the one with all the skulls), and even got all the badges (also including the missable ones on my NG+). The badge sidequest should absolutely have an achievement attached. I'm not sure why I bothered actually...personal satisfaction, I guess. Either way, I only bother to put that kind of effort into a game if I really enjoy it, so that says it all right there.

Dragon's Dogma, on the surface, is a fairly generic fantasy RPG. The world of Gransys is pretty dull - aside from the small village where you grew up, there's pretty much just the One Big City, and long stretches of wilderness with a fortress or two. The NPCs are mostly generic peasants with a handful of quest givers, aside from the story-important characters...and everyone talks in this weirdly forced archaic style where 'aught' is the most popular word in the entire world. Hearing your pawns say the same 3 stock phrases over and over again also gets really old - yes, I know that goblins ill like fire, I've probably killed more than a million of them by now!! The story is also told in a really confusing style to where you probably won't grasp what's actually going on until you go through a New Game+ - not because it's terribly difficult in itself, but just because of the odd way in which the game gives out information. Having to talk to an NPC 3 or 4 times in order to hear all they have to say in a given conversation doesn't help matters, either, because if you don't know enough to do that you may well only speak to them once and then walk away, simply not having enough information to know what just happened. It's basically Capcom trying to apply JRPG logic to an open, WPRG-style world, and it doesn't always work.

That aside, however...the real meat of the game is in the combat. The hack-and-slash combat and multiple character classes with their own abilities and playstyles is what really makes the game. I found it similar to Kingdoms of Amalur, if slighly more robust - not surprising, though, since it's from the same company responsible for Devil May Cry. So you can be certain that the combat always feels engaging and solid. The best part to me, though, is the giant monsters. After a while you'll get sick of cyclopes and chimera (the most common large monsters), but in the early game they're appropriately terrifying. You're ENCOURAGED to climb up on them and go after their weak points, rather than standing at their feet slashing away like an idiot. If you're fighting a cyclops, naturally you'd go for the eye. But what if it's an armored cyclops, with a helmet protecting the eye? Then you have to get the helmet off before you can really damage it. If you're fighting a chimera, each part of the beast does something different - you generally want to kill the snake first so it can't poison you, but meanwhile the goat is shooting magic at you and the lion is tearing you to shreds with its claws, so situationally it may be better to take out one of those parts first. With each part, you disable and severely weaken the beast, making it easier to finish it off. Every enemy has a weakness like that, and it's particularly important for the giant ones. And God forbid you don't take advantage of the weaknesses when fighting a dragon (sorry, a drake/wyvern/wyrm), you're pretty much guaranteed to die.

Another thing I really liked was how much nighttime really ups the terror of encountering giant dangerous enemies like this. Gransys isn't nearly so big a world as it tricks you into thinking, because there's no mounts and fast travel is fairly limited/difficult for the first half of the game or so. This means that if you want to get anywhere significantly far across the map, you're going to have to pack enough lantern oil and prepare to travel during the night. Night in Dragon's Dogma - even with a lantern - is PUNISHINGLY dark. This is the kind of darkness you WISH your Skyrim lighting mods and ENB could achieve. Your lantern only illuminates a small circle around your character - just enough to see where you're going and not bump into things. But not enough to warn you of a chimera about to leap at you from the darkness before it's far too late to dodge...something that happened to me once during the early game and nearly gave me a heart attack (I don't play horror games because I can't handle jump scares, but this chimera had more or less the same effect on me). You have to be very cautious and very quiet, and sticking to the roads can mean the difference between life and death. Resource management is also important and you can't just stock up on 300 mega-heal potions at once - even in the late game, you'll still only be buying/finding the lowbie herbs, so you've got to combine them together yourself to make more powerful healing items. The crafting system is also forgivingly simple (a case of 1 + 2 = 3, across the board) so it doesn't get overly tedious to have to spend a little prep time rifling through your bank storage and combining some items before adventuring.

The pawn system is also a lot of fun (despite how much their repetitive dialogue will grate on you after the first hour). I've always preferred that JRPG feel of traveling with a party of adventurers to the WRPG style of being a wandering solo hero (I'd travel with 3 followers in Skyrim if having even one follower didn't tip the game balance so far in the 'too easy' direction). By mid-game I'd basically settled into Magic Archer as my class, so I'd usually have a fighter (my pawn), a mage (dem heals), and either a ranger or strider to fill in the gaps. It really captures that sort of oldschool JRPG feel of traveling the little 8-bit lands with your little 8-bit party...but like, in a 3D third-person open-world(ish) way, so more immersive. I only wish there were more dungeons - after backtracking to the catacombs and the canyon place 300 times within a playthrough, it got pretty stale. But the first time through the Water God's Altar I remember feeling like this was a JRPG-style dungeon given life, with the puzzle solving that's almost never present in WRPGs.

In the end, while Gransys itself always left me wanting something more, the core mechanics of the game were solid enough to keep even the multiple backtracking trips to the same 5 places fun. And while the story was a bit convoluted in how it was told, once I really put together what HAPPENED in the end, I was speechless. Not to say it was some kind of incredibly profound, award-worthy storytelling experience, but it was one of those moments where it all clicks together at once and the realization sets in and you just sit there for a few moments thinking, 'oh my God'. I won't say anything more so as not to spoil it, but don't be quick to dismiss the story as just an excuse plot for a game that's only about the combat, either. All in all I'd definitely recommend this game to anyone who enjoys RPGs, J- and W- alike, and I really really wish we'd get Dragon's Dogma online someday, or another single player game as a sequel, or something. I just want more.

Guess I'd better get my ass to Bitterblack Isle.

—————————————— Sunless Sea (Steam) FINAL VERDICT: Bretty Gud —————————————— Having played Fallen London before (on and off, with very long breaks in between because I keep forgetting it exists...then I go back for a bit, rinse, repeat), I sorta knew what to expect with Sunless Sea in terms of narrativ style, setting, and general weirdness. What I didn't realize was just how HARD it was gonna be. Within less than 5 minutes of making my first character, I got eaten by a shark. Amazingly though, through numerous EXTREMELY CLOSE brushes with death and, dare I say, miracles...my second character (Tigeru 2, in a name scheme that shows just how long I expected this character to last) is miraculously STILL ALIVE. In addition to surviving, though, Tigeru 2's life goals consist of finding the bones of their lost father and also killing crabs. Lots of crabs. Like, all of them. Because fuck those guys. Anyway, it's hard to REALLY give a solid verdict on this one given the general style of the game and the fact that I haven't gotten very FAR yet...but it's good at being what it set out to be, and that's a difficult exploration game set in the Fallen London universe.

—————————————— Darkest Dungeon (Steam) FINAL VERDICT: Bretty Gud —————————————— I had my eye on Darkest Dungeon for a while before it left early access, but was never quite ready to drop any money on it because the reviews would often swing wildly between positives and negatives. Conceptually, I loved the idea - that the reality of dungeon crawling would not just be heroic, climactic battles but also stress, resource management, and fear. But while it sounds good on paper, it also sounded like something that might work better as an anime plot than a video game, because maintaining those exact same resources could quickly go from 'fun' to 'chore'. Anyway, I finally decided to take the plunge during the summer sale, and it's almost addictively fun...in small bursts. It's the kind of game where I can get caught up in the 'just one more level' dynamic for a while, but also the kind of game that feels repetitive and tedious after so many runs fighting the same enemies over and over. But I also think that I'm playing it 'wrong', in a way - because I don't want to lose the characters I've worked so hard to build, I'm playing it too safe. I'm so terrified of dying against bosses that I've actually OVERLEVELED my best characters, not realizing that characters who are TOO strong will refuse to take on levels and bosses they deem beneath their ability. If your heroes are too strong for the weaker missions, you just won't be allowed to bring them.

Some might call this a type of 'fake difficulty' but I'd disagree because it really does enforce the game's entire theme. Which is actually kind of nice because it ensures you're forced OUT of that 'playing it safe' comfort zone that I was trapping myself in, waiting until you're so OP you can stomp anything that comes your way. That sort of gameplay goes against everything Darkest Dungeon stands for - the whole point of the game is that you're NEVER going to be truly prepared for the horrors that lurk here, and that there's no such thing as weak enemies or an invincible party. Your preparedness to tackle a dungeon lies not in your character's levels and OP abilities but your ability to manage resources, trinkets, phobias and diseases, and picking the right heroes for the job instead of steamrolling every level with your 4 favorites. And even then, there's the RNG...which is something I really hate, and the subject of many negative reviews, but I honestly think it also makes sense for this game. Again, no matter how prepared you are, you're going up against unspeakable eldritch horrors here. YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY ACCOUNT FOR EVERY CONTINGENCY. Sometimes you can do your absolute best and things will still end up going terribly wrong because you were just unlucky. Heroes will die. You may have to drop rare treasures and flee just to save at least one life. It's bound to be frustrating, sure, but it's the very nature of this game to be like that. All you can do is make the best of a bad situation, and rebuild from your losses to continue on. No, it's not going to be easy - but if that's what you expected, you picked the wrong game in the first place.

—————————————— Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition (Steam) FINAL VERDICT: BUGGY AS FUCK ——————————————

I grew up on Baldur's Gate (well, Baldur's Gate II moreso) when I was just a wee child. Thus, when I found out they were rereleasing 'enhanced' editions, I was very excited. However...anyone who has played Baldur's Gate or similar CRPGs from the days of yore knows that they're long, and often tedious games. So while both enhanced editions sat in my Steam library for a long time, I could never bring myself to actually want to sit down and PLAY them because the idea of starting such a long saga was daunting. But during the summer, some friends I often play co-op games with proposed the idea of doing a multiplayer run...and it sounded fun!! At first.

At least, until we realized that Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition was barely 'enhanced' at all. Aside from a few new characters, it was basically just the original game...bugs and all. And there are a LOT of bugs. In fact, this is quite possibly the buggiest game I have ever played, and I wish I were exaggerating. We tried our best to deal with the snags and press on, but it eventually just got to be too much, and none of us were really having any fun with it. Thus, we decided to call it quits and do a multiplayer run of Neverwinter Nights II instead.

Unless you're a hardcore fan of the originals or a serious masochist, I couldn't recommend this game. Maybe the enhanced BG II is better...and maybe someday I'll find out. That was literally my childhood game, after all. But BG I EE...is just bad.

0/10 would not Enhance again.

—————————————— Tabletop Simulator (Steam) FINAL VERDICT: Recommended —————————————— Simultaneously not an actual game, but yet, every game known to man. You know that feeling when you walk into the local comic and games shop and see all these really cool games that you and your friends would have a lot of fun with...if your friends didn't all live halfway across the country - if not other countries entirely? Because I know that feel, and it sucks. Enter Tabletop Simulator, where those games probably already have mods...and if they don't, you can make your own with just a little ambition and elbow grease!! In fact, I've got 181 hours in TTS currently, and I'd wager less than 50 of that was spent actually playing games with friends - the rest has been me MAKING games to play with my friends. I made Umineko Clue (AKA Clumineko) as well as a version skinned for my friends and our roleplaying OCs...then I adapted the Risk-based game of gang warfare that I'd made as a final project in my game design class in college...then I just spent ungodly amounts of time decorating a 3D room with 3D objects to play games in with my friends, AND applied the same treatment to revamping the Clumineko mod into an entire 3D room based on the iconic witches tea room. Never in a million years would I call myself a 'modder', but I actually learned how to do some basic stuff in Blender and Unity ENTIRELY so I could make fun games and shit to do in TTS with my pals.

It may not be a 'game' so much as a sandbox physics engine with which to make and play many games with ease, but even so I'd be hard-pressed not to call it one of the best games of all time. If you have a good group of online pals I seriously could not recommend this one enough.

—————————————— ICEY (Steam) FINAL VERDICT: Bretty Gud —————————————— At the very last minute I found out about the Steam Link bundle deal in which you'd get the normally-expensive device for $1 with purchase of a little-known little 2D action game. Despite not having a great interest in the Link, I could hardly pass up the offer to get it for a dollar, and the game seemed pretty fun besides. On the surface, ICEY is a pretty fun little action platformer...but ALSO on the surface, it's a meta game. And that's because it advertises itself in exactly this way. That's the biggest flaw with ICEY, I think - you don't make a meta game and then say 'hey, this secretly is a meta game!!'. If it had downplayed those aspects and just branded it as an action platformer with maybe some cryptic hints that there was more to it than that, encouraging players to explore and find out what's going on in the game's multilayered world...it would have been a lot better, and maybe could have gone on to become a cult favorite instead of flying under everyone's radar. That aside, it's a pretty good game. The action is actually quite fun on its own, and uncovering the various endings is entertaining. The English voice over could use some work, but it's a Chinese game that only recently even GOT an English voiceover, apparently, so it's hard to fault that too much. Again, the meta aspects would have been more enjoyable if the game didn't advertise it outright, but it's alright.

I haven't actually finished it yet (think I have another boss or two to go; I got stuck and haven't yet gone back to it) but if the story actually ends up making sense in the end that'd be nice. I'm sort of waiting for that kind of payoff because right now everything just seems a little nonsensical. For what it's worth, though, I did have fun playing it.

—————————————— World of Warcraft: Legion (PC) FINAL VERDICT: Bretty Gud —————————————— I first included WoW on my 2015 games list, back when I first started playing. My verdict was essentially 'it's okay I guess, but it feels super dated all around and not very welcoming to players expecting a more modern game'. Well, obviously that hasn't changed - old content is still old content - BUT, with Legion, I feel like the newer content is at least taking steps in the right direction towards making the game feel less dated overall.

Legion was actually my fourth WoW subscription. Since my best friend has been playing for like 8 years and is really into the game, I get free subs thrown at me at least once a year, and I play for a few months until next time. My previous subscription ended just on the heels of Legion's release, and the changes to all the classes hit me pretty hard when suddenly my preferred Rogue spec (Combat) was altered so completely that I just did not want to play anymore. Everything I was used to was retooled, if not completely gone...and I was angry. But having an entire year to cool off and lose that muscle memory, I came into Legion with a fresh spec (Outlaw) and a new region to explore.

Legion content was definitely the most enjoyable to me so far. After making it through all the older content during leveling, my highest version during my first subscription (and review) was Pandaria, so I spent by far the most time playing in that zone. I liked the aesthetic, but the gameplay still felt dated, and I spent most of my time working on my farm or building rep with two factions who had mounts I wanted. Draenor wasn't TERRIBLE, though I had more fun building my garrison than I did questing the actual Draenor zones. Legion was the first time I felt like I actually had a LOT of different things to do, and had a real sense of character progression for the first time. I admit I know almost nothing about WoW lore (nor do I care to go down the rabbit hole of learning it), so there was a lot of ??? during the main Legion questline, but I still felt like I was being engaged in a real STORY for once. The cutscenes and voiced dialogue went a long way to making the game feel less old-fashioned, for one thing. For another, having the order of each zone be up to player's choice because of leveled enemies gave me some much-needed freedom during leveling, and not feeling like I either had to stick around in a lowbie zone with no EXP for the sake of following a storyline...or moving through the zones so fast that it wasn't even worth bothering to follow along with the stories because I'd only abandon them all halfway to move onto the next higher-level area. In Legion, I ended up doing basically every single quest in a zone before moving onto the next one (though I'd then do all the mandatory dungeons in one burst rather than one at a time). I actually read through the quest text instead of skipping along and just trying to hit 100 as soon as possible. And when I DID hit 100, halfway through Highmountain (having done Azsuna and Val'sharah already), I continued the Highmountain quest to the end and then did all of Stormheim.

Hitting level cap no longer felt like I'd met the 'goal' of the expansion, and had nothing really left to do but fuck around. After finishing all four main zones, there was Suramar, and the Broken Shore. There were world quests and the reputation tied to those. There were the class weapon quests, and the goal of gaining the class mount. There were even the falcosaur quests which I just barely managed to finish before my sub ran out!! Plus, having played September/October/November, I also had a lot of holiday events to work on (it was my first Brewfest, and then I went about finishing the Halloween and Thanksgiving achievements I didn't get last time I played in the fall). And in addition to all of THAT...I also got my Hunter through the rest of Draenor so he could do Legion content, too. I had wanted to make a Demon Hunter after that because it seems like the sort of class I'd enjoy playing, but I didn't end up having the time for that. Point being - for the first time, Legion gave me a whole lot of stuff to do, and I never really felt like I was 'done'. Every time I met one goal, there was another to work towards. That's the kind of experience I feel is really important in a game like this...but something I always sorta felt I was dragging myself through in past subscriptions, where I'd spend more time doing pet battles or trying to get transmog gear and mounts and basically anything but actually questing. This time, the questing and dungeoning didn't feel like a chore, or just a means to an end. The whole Legion experience managed to be enjoyable - and I never even wound up going to Argus.

By the time I play next, the newest expansion will be out, and I'll have even more to do. I hear there's gonna be new playable races this time, so maybe I'll even end up making another alt once I get my Rogue and possibly my Hunter through the expac content. Plus I can still make that Demon Hunter and go through Legion again. All in all I think WoW is finally breaking through my initial perceptions of it being a dated game, more fun for long-term players or hardcore raiders and not so much for newcomers who are more into PVE. What the new expac brings remains to be seen, but for once I'm optimistic that I'll end up having some fun with whatever that is.

—————————————— ARK: Survival Evolved (Steam) FINAL VERDICT: Recommended —————————————— Growing up, there were three things in particular that captivated my interest (and also conveniently my Lego sets): pirates, ancient Egypt, and dinosaurs. Assassin's Creed: Black Flag captivated the first. Assassin's Creed: Origins will no doubt captivate the second, once it drops in price enough that I can actually buy it. And since I somehow doubt that assassins existed in the prehistoric eras, picking up the third interest is ARK.

I'd been watching ARK with a close eye since the early access days, precisely because the very concept of taming and riding dinosaurs sounded rad as fuck. It made it from my 'following' list, to my wishlist, to my 'groans sadly' list during every Steam sale when it'd drop no lower than $18 which was still far more than I was willing to spend on an early access game whose reviews were always swinging wildly between positives and negatives - particularly in the optimization department, as I had doubts that my computer could even RUN the game comfortably in its then-current state. Finally a friend of mine (who had bought and refunded the game several times already, also I believe due to optimization issues) had started playing it comfortably and generously gifted it to me about a year ago, just a short time before it finally left early access and went for full standard retail price. As predicted, I could barely run the game...even on the lowest graphic settings, with no sky effects and on the low memory setting, I was getting about 15 FPS just trying to walk around on the initial beach where I'd spawned. I sadly had to shelf the game and hope that I'd be able to play it someday in the future, when it was either optimized better or I'd upgraded to better hardware.

Now, both of those things have happened, so I decided to give it another go. Now that I can run it at an average 50 FPS on a mix of medium to high graphics settings and have actually been able to PLAY the game, it's the early days of Minecraft all over again, and I can't stop. I've been playing both singleplayer and multiplayer with a friend on an unofficial PVP server, and each game is sort of its own experience. The PVP server has everything set to 10x, so gathering resources and EXP all goes REALLY fast. I'm already like level 70 after only playing two days of multiplayer, and we've gone from a somewhat crude houseboat base to a slightly less crude base in the mountains with a decent crop of early to midgame dinos (we had more, but some died to alpha raptor injuries with others being on the wrong end of a tame and otherwise non-hostile T-Rex and its fertilized egg). Meanwhile in singleplayer, which I've actually spent more time in (only doing multi when my friend is available), I just hit level 30 and am only now starting to feel confident enough to venture away from my crude campsite on the beach where you first spawn...and have faced more than a few setbacks already. I did turn my dinosaur tame settings up to 10x (because waiting several REAL WORLD HOURS to tame critters is like, unreasonable) but otherwise I'm running just standard growth rates for everything, plus going solo...so it's a much slower experience overall. I want to keep my singleplayer experience a bit slow and steady, with more of the intended 'harsh survival' feel to help me better grasp the basics of the game before getting too adventurous playing on servers without the help of my friend, but once I feel that I've got a good handle on the game and its dangers I will definitely branch out more.

Between PVP, PVE and mod-based servers, not to mention the other official DLC maps, ARK is a game with a LOT to do. If I ever actually manage to conquer The Island, there's still a ton of content left waiting for me, giving the game a long life with lots of replay value. The only thing is that I tend to get burned out on games that have SO much to do and little in the way of like, actual endgame goals, so I'm sure I'll hit that at some point - but for now, I'm just having a blast enjoying the ride.

—————————————— Fire Emblem Heroes (Mobile) FINAL VERDICT: S'Alright —————————————— I don't normally include mobile games on these...well, probably in no small part because I don't normally PLAY mobile games. But, being a fan of the main Fire Emblem games, I decided to check out Heroes back when it first launched earlier this year. And it kept my interest for several months, which is impressive considering, again, I'm not really that into mobile games. I was impressed by how much it captured the same basic feeling of a Fire Emblem game despite being distilled down into a simplistic bite-sized mobile system - incredibly easy to just pop on and kill some time, but also enough to provide a challenge for those who want it. The 'story' was never really anything more than an excuse plot, but it's not as though I would have expected much more for a game like this in the first place so I don't really dock any points for that. All in all it's very good at being what it set out to be - a simple implementation of Fire Emblem as a mobile gatcha game.

Before long, however, it got very stale. For quite a while, new characters were introduced few and far between. It felt like 90% of the roster either came from Awakening or Fates (at the time the most recent games in the franchise), with almost everyone else from the Marth games. Games like Path of Radiance and Sacred Stones had next to no representation. As someone who has yet to play Fates, having that HUGE pool of characters from both games making up most of the heroes felt alienating from the start. Naturally, in a game like this, you most look forward to getting your favorite units...so for me, that part of the appeal was already lost, since most of my favorites weren't even IN the game. By the time they started adding in more variety my interest in the game was already waning, because it just felt like there wasn't much to DO. Once you've cleared all the story maps, it's basically just grinding your units up in the training tower, doing the arena 3 times a day (unless you build up a small fortune of dueling swords over time from the daily login rewards, which I did), and waiting around for a decent challenge map Tempest trials didn't even exist at that point. Of course, there was always quests, which for a long time I did try to complete as many as possible of before the month was up - the problem is how incredibly unfair so, SO many of the quests are. Almost every one with a worthwhile reward requires all 4 units to survive, which is fine...good rewards should be earned through challenge. But when you add to that '...and you have to use all red units' or 'a team of fliers' or something extremely specific like that, and the map is specifically designed to pit you against a bunch of blue units or archers...asking all four units to survive ON TOP OF THAT is just outrageously unfair. There's a big difference between the sort of strategic challenge of a regular Fire Emblem game and the kind of 'fake difficulty' imposed by these quests, and it got to where they just plain weren't fun anymore.

Without wanting to do quests, things got boring quickly. Sure, they introduced skill inheritence, adding a new layer of customization...but not only does that sort of micro-managing not appeal to me personally, but having to go up against ridiculously overpowered units in the arena and losing constantly made THAT not fun anymore either. No longer was it just about what units you got lucky enough to pull in a summon and took the time to raise to 5 star max level, but ALSO about what units you were lucky enough to pull and feed to your 5 star max level units to create the most broken and unbeatable character builds. That was around the point where I stopped logging in every day, only playing sporadically...and then, eventually, almost never at all.

I know by now they've introduced even more changes. Suddenly there's been a huge surge of new characters from the new and upcoming games, and then I log in and see that winning in the arena now nets you coins and other items that I have no idea what they're used for, or how I see some kind of element marker next to my name that I also don't understand. There's new story mode quests now, it seems, but for me it's all just too little too late. The initial months of the game were very stagnant compared to now, and it wasn't enough to keep my interest. By now, my lofty arena rank has fallen due to inactivity, and my once massive stockpile of orbs has dropped down to less than 10 because the most I might do is hop on and run one of the new summoning events in hopes of getting a character I actually care about, but end up walking away with 5 3-star Ests yet again.

I'm a Fire Emblem fan, but not a mobile gatcha game fan. It's hard to really say whether I'm FEH's target audience or not. All I know is that I had some fun for a while, but that time's now passed.

—————————————— Dragonball Z: Dokkan Battle (Mobile) FINAL VERDICT: Bretty Gud —————————————— After the above review, it may be surprising that I ended up giving another mechanically similar mobile gatcha game a try. It's no secret to most who know me personally that I have a very love/hate relationship with Dragonball. It was my adolescent obsession and the reason I even got into this crazy anime world in the first place, and will always hold a special place in my heart...but I also despise literally everything the franchise has become, and Super just plain does not exist in my world. So why would I play a game that basically exists to promote the Dragonball of today, full of Super characters and weird SSJ3 fusions and all kinds of other stuff that I hate? Peer pressure, mostly.

That aside, I've only been playing for a few weeks now (I think my consecutive logins are in the 20s, and I've logged in every day since I began), but I'm enjoying it so far. There are a lot of systems that are naturally very similar to FEH given they're both the same genre of mobile game, but in most cases I feel that Dokkan implements them better. For instance, duplicate units. In FEH, all those 3-star Ests are useless. 3-stars are almost never worthwhile for skill inheritence, and the effort it would take to rank them up is simply not worth it when you could invest your feathers in 4-star characters. In Dokkan, however, I can use those duplicates to increase the special attack of the original, or to unlock paths in their hidden potential. Plus, ranking up weak units is a lot easier. A 3-star Est may not be worth investing the time into raising, but an R or SR Dokkan unit can be trained with very easy-to-acquire training items and awakened to a higher level - and oftentimes awakened even further if they're given a Dokkan mode. In the event that you pull characters that truly are useless, you can at least cash them in for some trade points that can be used to buy rare items or characters in Baba's Shop, or just sell them for Zeni, which will get you more use than the small pittance of feathers you'd get for releasing duplicates in FEH.

Of course, aside from sharing those gatcha game staples, they're two totally different games and it's probably not entirely fair to compare them...but since I have played both and have no experience with other gatcha games, naturally I'm going to compare my experiences. Gameplay-wise, Dokkan seems at first like a pretty simple 'tap to match the colored line' game, which is a far cry from even the simplified Fire Emblem strategy battles in FEH. The complexity of Dokkan comes less from the orb tapping itself and more from the other aspects of team building. Using units with good skills, and who share links to power each other up, is often just as important as getting your purple character to get a long chain of purple orbs. Gathering medals from maps and using them to train and awaken your characters, and unlocking their hidden potential, are all more important in the long run than tapping the pretty colored lights. Basically, the actual 'battle' of Dokkan Battle is the least important part...though they can still require some strategy in the more difficult missions (where just having your purple unit grab a lot of green orbs isn't going to be 'good enough'), and you can still feel satisfied if you manage to pull off a really long chain and activate a super attack at just the right moment.

As I said, it hasn't been long. I may very well get bored of Dokkan in a few months just like FEH before it. But for now, I'm having fun, and I think a lot of the gameplay is more fair and balanced than the often-frustrating FEH. I will probably continue playing at least a little bit each day for some time yet.

[ciathyzareposts]

My Favorite SteamVR Games

When I’m actually home to enjoy it, I’m still having a blast with my Pimax 5K+. While some of the newest headsets are going for a simpler, plug-and-play user experience, the Pimax 5K+ remains the best hobbyist / enthusiast headset for the consumer market. And… to be fair, I have less issues with it than I do with a Vive Pro (especially audio).

Between sales, bundles, and just wish fulfillment trying to take advantage of the VR I’ve been waiting half a lifetime for, here are the VR games on Steam VR that I personally enjoy the most, the ones that I use the most to share VR with others, and the ones I am most looking forward to. I confess that I am a lot less critical of VR-based games than games on other platforms. I still take VR as an experience first, and a game second. This is not something I expected, just something that I discovered.

My Personal Favorites:

Digital Combat Simulator (DCS) / IL-2 Sturmovik: Famous Battles Series / X-Plane

Right out of the gate I’m cheating with three titles at once.  Since you are inside a cockpit instead of directly out “in the world,” I assumed flight sims might not be the most thrilling VR experience. I am happy to admit I’m wrong. If you are flight-sim inclined, these are three fantastic, high-end titles with built-in VR support. There are others, but these three are (currently) the best. X-Plane is one of the top civilian flight sims on the consumer market, and has a ton of third-party support – but not all third-party aircraft support VR. Do your homework if you get a plane for VR use. IL-2 is a fantastic World War II combat flight simulator well-optimized for VR, and it now includes early access modules for tank combat and World War I aircraft. It’s hard to express how awesome dogfighting in a biplane cane be in VR. Last but not least, DCS is pretty much the one to beat for hard-core realism in mid-to-late 20th century air combat. While there are a handful of easier, lower-fidelity modules (which don’t work as well in VR because the cockpits aren’t interactive), most of the aircraft are study-level sims with almost every switch, dial, and button realistically modeled, and the weapon systems and flight models painstakingly created to simulate things as close to real life as possible. The result is amazing, if you have the time and patience to actually learn how to fly a sophisticated fighter jet. It also supports some aerobatic / trainer aircraft and World War II aircraft.

Skyrim VR

Skyrim VR for the PC is fantastic, if a little clumsy because it wasn’t designed from the ground-up for VR. But it’s beautiful, and fighting a dragon in VR is absolutely amazing. Stalking through the dungeon with a bow, ready to shoot a necromancer in the neck is similarly an awesome experience I’ve dreamed of since childhood. If you are a fan of VR and RPGs, just get this one. It’s also compatible with most mods.

Beat Saber

Okay, I wasn’t going to let this one go. At all. Beat Saber has sold a million copies, making it the highest-selling VR-only game out there (I think). Many people have already heard about it even if they haven’t played in Virtual Reality yet. My best way to describe it is “Dance Dance Revolution with Light Sabers.” You hit the incoming blocks in the right direction, timed to music, getting points for your accuracy in slicing them in half.  Sounds simple (and it is), but it can be crazy hard at high levels. If you have VR for the PC (or PS4VR, or the upcoming Oculus Quest), you must get this game. It’s as simple as that. The game has been expanded on and has added DLC since its first release, all of which makes a great game even better.

Star Trek: Bridge Crew

In theory, this is a perfect idea. You get to sit at your station on the bridge of a Star Trek starship (including, now, the original Enterprise and the Next Generation Enterprise-D, besides the stealthy USS Aegis), executing your role to perform missions. ON BOARD THE FRICKIN’ ENTERPRISE. It’s got cool factor all over it from there. It’s magical. The one down side is that it plays best in multi-player, and assembling a team a good team can be challenging. If you have three other friends who have the game and can play at the same time (or even just a couple of friends), then you are golden. Otherwise… I haven’t tried to gather a pick-up game since it released, but my results were generally good, but one of the team was usually a little drunk, which made it funny, but not particularly successful.

Vivecraft (Minecraft mod)

Minecraft has its own built-in VR mode, which I’m sure is great, but it only supports Oculus and Microsoft Mixed Reality. I’m sure if they wanted to support SteamVR, they could, but so far… nada. Enter Vivecraft, a mod which solves the problem at the low cost of being a few versions behind the latest. As this was still several versions beyond where I’d last played, I got to enjoy the latest features and changes as well as being able to play Minecraft in VR. And let me tell you… Minecraft in VR is a whole ‘nother story.

Catch & Release VR

Okay. This is a totally stupid game that I’d be totally stupid to buy and play, and I still can’t help myself but spend a bunch of time sitting on a chair pretending to fish with my VR controller. Especially after a long and stressful day at work. Don’t judge me…

BoxVR

If you want an excuse to play VR games, this is it. It is a fitness-boxing trainer, ignoring any actual competitive boxing in favor of teaching you (I believe) boxing technique and then having you max it out in a DDR-style experience that will build up the right kind of sweat (not the “I’m feeling sick” kind) in no time.

  Favorite Games to Share:

These are the games that I like to use to introduce other people to VR. Beat Saber was already mentioned – it’s still a crowd favorite.  Sometimes just showing someone the main menu cave of Skyrim VR is a better approach. There are a few experiences–not really games–that are also good for introducing someone to VR. The Blu is a classic. Apollo 11 VR also shows the power of VR as an educational tool. Google’s Tilt Brush is another one that helps people “get” VR.

Space Pirate Trainer

Another oldie but goodie, this is a great “wave shooter” that has been popular for a while, and for good reason. It’s clean, fun, and polished. Built from the ground-up as a room-space shooter, there’s no need to teleport. Just dodge, block, shoot, and enjoy power-ups.

Superhot VR

I didn’t play this game until the VR version came out. Be the hero in an abstract-world action movie, moving at “bullet time” to fight off bad guys with guns, throwing knives, or whatever little objects happen to be at hand. It’s incredibly fun, and the heavily stylized world makes the imagined violence a lot cleaner. I heard that the VR version of Superhot has finally outsold the original. I’m not surprised. I’ve only played the VR version, and I have a tough time imagining how the game is played without it.

Paranormal Activity – The Lost Soul

For those who can stomach the tension and scares, Paranormal Activity – The Lost Soul is good and creepy. I haven’t played it enough to comment on its gameplay, and I don’t know how it’s non-VR cousin is. But taken as a spooky experience with puzzles and so forth, it’s fun.

Bonus Titles:

Honestly, I don’t have as much time to play as I wish, and I have several games that may become favorites once I get a chance to really give them a good test run. Project CARS 2 and Redout are racing games that are made much better in VR. VR Dungeon Knight was an early favorite, but it has changed substantially since I first played it, and I haven’t played it enough recently to really get a handle on the new changes. Or, like, go through more than a single dungeon without dying. Island 359 is a chance to play “Jurassic Park” in VR, and Arizona Sunshine is the zombie apocalypse VR experience that you didn’t know you always wanted. I really haven’t had time to give Elite: Dangerous a fair shake, but every time I play it I am thrilled.  I never really came to grips (pun intended) with the controls in X: Rebirth – VR Edition. I should probably give it another shot.

    source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/my-favorite-steamvr-games/

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[orhinge]

Games Update!

Felt like mentioning a few games I've played recently.

Nier: Automata

I... don’t know what to say about the game really, and i’ve seen too many people do great pieces writing about it. Really don’t feel like I can add to the conversation.

Yakuza 0

It’s a wonderfully quirky game, but I must admit the gameplay just hasn’t clicked for me yet. This is my first Yakuza game, mind you, so I suspect that really is all there is to it, I just need to figure out a good style for myself. Have not finished yet, in case you couldn’t tell. Planning on getting back into the game at a later date.

Persona 5

I’ll be the first to admit i’m pretty new to the series, my introduction was 4 Golden and I never played any SMT, let’s leave it at that, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

It really is a wonderful game, and an interesting contrast to 4. While I will say I preferred 4′s main villain, I still don’t fault the game for it. 5′s main villain works more as a symbol really, but they work very well as such. Far as the rest of the characters, i’m not going to go into comparisons between the two games. Really they just all work in my opinion.

The gameplay is prettier and spruced up, it’s funny really because the game has a lot of RPG elements I've never liked. Enemies return when you leave an area, you don’t recover MP/HP after combat (well, later there’s a method to regain a small amount but still), so it feels in essence you’re being bled dry, while it sticks this niggling idea in my head that I should grind as much as possible when I DO have resources to be strong enough for later (supposedly the grim reaper foe can pop up in Mementos if you spend too long, but I never encountered them in my playthrough).

Then outside of that, you got the whole time mechanic, you get two “actions” per day, sometimes only one, or even none on some story-based events. (although you can also shop around as a “free action” as it were). Buffing your stats, ironically doesn’t actually affect your combat skills (although some areas that buff your stats also reward you with currency), but they are required to perform some social links that do reward you with benefits from in-combat abilities for yourself or party members, to allowing yourself to create a daily item as a “free action” (that can actually be quite expensive, but doing more stuff in a day is always a plus!), along with the awesome character moments they lead to which is honestly the real prize /bleedingheart.

I love the moments, which is part of what makes it frustrating. I second-guess my every action, some actions (like going to the gym, which gives you a hp boost) fall by the wayside because dagnabbit, I want to upgrade all the social links! But I need to buff my stat, but where do i buff that stat, how can I best buff that stat, I can hang out with this person now but I can’t upgrade their social link, could I be upgrading it now had I done something else? Oh no! I was given the chance to read a book on a train as a free action, but i have no books! Or I had books, but it turns out they were about going to places I had already unlocked. It also means the idea of leaving a palace before finishing the second i’m in is a travesty, one that tried my darndest to avoid doing after the first. Not helping is that going into a palace or mementos consumes both daily actions, and in the case of mementos you can occasionally be “surprised” by another encounter one needs to do for a social link, but you can complete multiple quests in mementos at once! But how long do you save up the quests before doing them in one burst? AAHHH!

Ultimately, most of these worries will fall by the wayside once I get around to doing a second playthrough, since you get to keep your stats and i’ll have more then enough time to get to know all the social links, but that nagging feeling remains. And in spite of all i’ve said, the game still somehow works for me. I ended up giving all my characters SP bangle accessories over time. SP is king, with SP you can recover health AND do the moves you need to fight your way through areas. If you want to complete an area in one burst, recovering SP every round really slows down the bleed you get fighting through foes... Or you can be the phantom thief you’re meant to be and only fight when necessary while avoiding others. Course, then it’s a crapshoot whether you’ll be leveled up enough to take on the boss (or bosses in some cases), so do as you will.

Honestly i’m disappointed in myself for some of these “complaints”, it really is just me being sad that the game isn’t made just for me. I’m sure many Persona fans love the resource management and the strategy in planning out your actions for the day. And ultimately, to a degree I think I still enjoy it. I love the game. It really is more personal issues then issues in the mechanics/gameplay. Just felt like mentioning it nontheless. Hey, this is my blog after all XD.

The Surge

Sci-Fi Souls! Wooh. I feel like giving a bit of advice to the game, even though i’m not great at it and haven’t even finished it yet. Still, maybe someone can learn from my mistakes.  I’ll try to minimize spoilers like i did with the previous games, but there might be some vague allusions to plot. Also, note that i’ve been going with a slow, single-rigged weapon for most of the game, so I can’t give much combat advice for faster weapons.

First up, think Demon’s Souls rather than Dark when it comes to the safe zones for levelling up. There’s one per area, and you don’t find more but rather shortcuts that lead back to it. So keep your eyes out for those shortcuts, or your death will lead to a much longer backtrack then it needs to.

In general, similar to Souls remember to always move cautiously and keep your eyes open for enemies waiting in ambush (and in one case a hole in the ground that leads to your death... not that i’m bitter.) and alternative directions to go. Alternative directions hide rewards, better entryways that can turn an ambush against itself, shortcuts, or show you where a future shortcut or area may be (and yes, you do return to some older areas). If you don’t know which is the “main road” and which is the “alternative” one, don’t be afraid to turn back and give the other one a peek after strolling through it a bit.

If you’ve been following the game, you’ll probably already know with human enemies that dismembering limbs can get you items, from what I can tell you only get them by going for armored body parts, going for the unarmored areas may give you some scrap or lesser items, but if you want the whole limb, you need to go for the armored part (they say it just matters how much “damage the part has taken”, but if there’s a small chance you can get the whole limb even hitting an unarmored part, I haven’t been lucky enough yet.) Not only does going for the armored part do reduced damage, but it also decreases the stun effect your attacks have on an enemy. With a big weapon you can essentially stunlock a human enemy to death if you hit their unarmored part, but be ready to block or dodge their counterattack if you’re trying to get their gear (don’t stay back too long though, or you won’t have the energy needed to perform a dismember!)

Wearing an entire set of gear gives a buff, one I assume depends on the gear in question. I’ll admit, I haven’t experimented with my gear to find out exactly what the buff my set has actually does, but it’s there.

When you wield a large, heavy weapon like I do, it’s usually best to start off a battle with a charge attack (that is, leap at them and attack), it isn’t quite as damaging as a regular attack (it’s close though), and it consumes quite a bit more stamina, BUT it is a heck of a lot faster then a regular attack. Far too many times I found a foe could hit me as I was winding up with my bigass weapon and there wasn’t much I could do about it. Most of the time my character could power through thanks to hyperarmour, but the damage is there, and it’ll add up over time. 

Dash attack and you can usually stunlock your foe long enough to kill, or at least do a large chunk of damage before you retreat or block. Alternatively you can try to play a bit more defensive, and just make sure you only attack after your foe has tried and failed to hit you, but with some faster foes (or maybe you’re taking on multiple and they just don’t leave a big enough opening) your attack is just THAT slow and they can just go again while you’re open. Honestly, I think just a tiny attack speed increase for the slower weapons wouldn’t be amiss. Not a massive one, but just a small tweak.

That being said, I might think this way because I haven’t mastered blocking, which the game does advice heavier rigs to do over dodging. Blocking is a little different from souls. First up, instead of slowing down stamina regen, it outright drains stamina, so you can only do it for a short period of time before needing to recharge. Also, there’s actually only a small window of time where your “block” can work against bigger attacks (about the only attack that i can block after that small window seems to be drone charges or similar small attacks) and leave them open for a counter. There’s no other “parry” button, you just need to time your block right. You can also “duck” or “jump” while blocking to avoid some attacks, although I've had limited experience with it so can’t judge how effective it is.

Weapons also all have separate “combos” of R1 and R2 presses. If there’s a menu where it tells you what those combos are I haven’t found them, so you should either look it up or just play around with the buttons and experiment. In the tips in the game menu it mentions timing the presses right in the combo also decreases stamina drain, which I might look into at some point, and you may wish to as well.

At a point in the game you’ll notice some green smog that seems to do damage to you. Honestly this was probably just me being silly, but in case someone else makes the same mistake note that it isn’t the smog perse as it is the blue gunk on the ground that is damaging you, if you be careful and dodge the gunk you won’t take damage. Wish i’d known that earlier...

Later in the game, there’s a robot enemy that has a “tail”, taking out the tail not only limits the foes actions, but gives you an item that can give your rig more power in exchange for a slot. If you’re like me you’ll struggle a lot through the area where this enemy is and collect a lot of them, you can actually sell them back at base for 1000 scrap each, which isn’t too bad.

That’s about all the advice I have for the moment, I've also got a few minor complaints.

That damn tiny gap in the second area tunnels that make you fall to your death, darn you! darn you!

There’s a robot enemy on wheels where the back wheel is it’s weak point. Charging this foe, even with it’s back turned, is a grave mistake as it turns nearly in an instant. It’s just a frustrating feeling that I can’t ambush these buggers, even with my dash attack you’re not fast enough and hit armor and, most likely, a nasty counterattack. Maybe it’s just me, but it feels kind of cheap (the main way to best them isn’t great either, mainly just strafing around them waiting for them to make the mistake of attacking and just smack ‘em in the back. You can’t execute bots anyway so there’s no benefit in attacking the armored parts from what I can tell (well, apart from when that part is it’s weapon anyway).

The third boss has three parts that annoy me. First up,locking is pretty impractical with them, all well and good, except when you attack an enemy you lock onto them, so i find myself having to delock every time i hit the bugger. In hindsight, maybe there’s something in the options menu that removes it though... I’ll have to check later.

Second, theres a point in this boss fight where you learn the annoyance of hitting enemies that spend most of their time above you, it’s really awkward trying to hit them, lockon doesn’t really work (once again, i found it easier to delock after every hit), and since my weapon’s combo is based around enemies being on the ground, i essentially have to pause after every attack to make sure he doesn’t try the second part of the combo, which will miss by a mile! Blaaaaargh.

Third, for a poor bugger like me who died multiple times to this boss, collecting the scrap is a bit awkward. You have a “load bar” when you’re collecting it, except it doesn’t seem to work properly when you drop down into the boss fight and doesn’t actually pick it up even when the bar finishes. A couple of times i’ve been smacked to the earth for the sin of trying to pick up my stuff before I started fighting him. Actually, speaking of, there seems to be some unavoidable falling damage just entering the boss arena when you fall in. Isn’t much, but it’s there. Seems like a bit of an oversight.

Oh! And not a complaint, but I noticed while trying to beat the boss that along the way i’d suddenly start regenerating a little health briefly and have no idea why. Just weird, I think it has happened elsewhere too. Maybe it is what my gear does? Except i’m pretty sure it does something else, and it isn’t consistent, a healing symbol pops up and i just start veeeery slowly healing.

[shadyb00ts]

Horizon: Zero Dawn - A Review

Right, gimme a moment to compose myself after the INCREDIBLE RIDE that was this fucking game.

Okay. So. Picture it: E3 2015. There I was, minding my own business, completely PS4-less and only scoping out upcoming PC titles since at the time I was a proud PC gamer. Deep down I was always bitter that I probably would never get a PS4, though, so I usually knowingly avoided any footage of PS4 games like inFamous: Second Son, Uncharted 4, etc. I’ve always been a naturally jealous person, so seeing footage from those games at the time sorta stirred up some jealousy there.

But regardless of that, I still end up seeing the original gameplay trailer anyways. And holy fuckballs, I was so pissed. There in front of me was footage of a game that was literally MADE for me, I swear to god. It had all the elements that I loved in a game. Let’s list them, shall we?

Lush open world with gorgeous vibrant landscapes and incredible graphics: check and check

Female protagonist that looks badass and is voiced by ASHLY FUCKING BURCH: check, check and check

Bow and arrow combat: check

Stealth: check

RPG elements like side quests, skill trees, dialogue trees, etc: checkcheckcheckcheck

Intriguing and mysterious story: check

Platforming and climbing mechanics a la Tomb Raider & Uncharted: check

Honestly, I could go on and on but you get the idea. I never thought I’d see the day where a game could so perfectly fit the criteria of everything I like. So 2-Years-Ago-Me was completely heartbroken since at the time I was convinced that I’d never own a PS4. It was up there with Kingdom Hearts III as the games I thought I’d never get to experience.

Flash forward to now, having been a PS4 owner for about several months. This game was pretty much top priority on what to get, so as soon as it was available for preorder, I clicked that shit so fast I almost broke my mouse. So naturally, when the game finally became playable, I completely immersed myself in it.

This may be a bold statement, but I think Horizon is going to be one of my favorite games of all time. For real.

So all those elements I listed up there were true, but there were also additional elements I love that I had no clue were even in it, prior to playing. Like for example, I had no idea just how deep into the RPG category it was going to go. This game was so freaking immersive. I was immediately in Aloy’s shoes and experienced the world through her eyes, starting from childhood. And then what a pleasant surprise it was when I discovered that the game presents you with moral choices, too! At that moment I knew that the game was going to exceed my already extremely high expectations.

There are also dialogue trees in which you can exhaust a lot of dialogue from, and I of course took every chance I got to choose all the options. I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about this intricate world Guerrilla Games has built and encountering its inhabitants. I loved finding out more about all the different tribes and their own unique traditions and religious beliefs, as well as their relationships with each other. It also helps that their outfits are all so fucking rad. In addition to all that, there are collectibles called “datapoints” where you could find various text, audio and holographic documents from the world of the “ancient ones”, and there’s so many interesting tidbits you can discover from these files. Guerrilla really has fleshed out this world as fully as they could. And let’s quickly touch on the diversity this game has. Man oh man, there were so many people of all different races throughout this game. Lots of strong female characters who weren’t one-dimensional, and I even stumbled upon a gay character during one of the side quests. The diversity showcased doesn’t feel contrived or there to appease the masses, it feels natural and well represented.

I was a bit worried about the story at first, since Guerrilla were definitely shrouding it in mystery and being extra vague every chance they got, which I guess a part of me did like, since it made me not know what to expect and heightened my sense of discovery while playing. But these devs have crafted a really amazing story with a likable cast of characters, including the star of the show Aloy herself. I’m a little biased about her though, since she’s voiced by Ashly Burch who I adore to pieces, but even regardless of that she was simply a wonderfully written character. I just loved watching the story unfold, finding out more and more about what happened to the world and witnessing Aloy finding out the truth about who she really is. The lowest expectation I had initially about this game was probably the story, but it didn’t disappoint at all. I was thoroughly hooked and craved to know more. I won’t spoil anything, since I want those of you who are going to play the game to be more engrossed by it as you have your own experience through it.

Those of you who have seen screenshots and/or gameplay know that this game is a visual masterpiece. The environments are lush and full of life despite the post-apocalyptic nature of it. Originally I had thought the Last of Us had the most gorgeous post-apoc landscapes of all time, but Horizon definitely takes the cake for this one, no question about it. There’s a photo mode available, and because the game itself is so beautiful, it’s probably impossible to take a bad shot. Even without using the filters provided, the graphics have that gorgeous pinkish glow that I always love in games, very reminiscent of Dragon Age: Inquisition I think. The screenshots in this review were some snaps I took using the photo mode feature, and it’s really fun to play around with. You could probably spend hours with it taking scenic shots and action shots to your heart’s content.

Now let’s talk combat. A game automatically has me sold when it has archery. My love of this developed through the 2013 Tomb Raider remake, which I’m sure I reviewed on here a long while back. It grew when I played the sequel to that remake, Rise of the Tomb Raider. This game takes that style of combat and amps it up to a hundred, adding a bunch of various unique and craftable arrow types, as well as multitudes of elemental traps and explosives. Most unique out of these is probably the Ropecaster, which allows you to tie down enemies to leave them immobilized. These are extremely useful for the flying machines that you’ll encounter later on in the game, since they can be pretty tricky. The combat relies heavily on weakpoint takedowns, so you’ve definitely gotta have real good aim in order to slay them robots, especially the bigger ones. Unlike most action games, you can’t just go in guns blazing and continuously shoot arrows at random spots on the machines’ bodies. Focusing on their weakpoints is key, as that’s where all the real damage lies. Most of the robots are also weak to specific element types, so exposing those weaknesses gives you an even bigger advantage. Some enemies you could even strip off their ranged weapons and use it against them, which I thought was fucking radical. I did it more than a few times and it was a hell of a lot of fun.

There’s also melee combat in this game, although I rarely ever used it to be quite honest. The only use I found for melee are the silent takedowns during stealth, but in battle I would say ranged is the way to go. Battles with the machines are very exhilarating and intense, since they are clearly much more stronger than you, even the weaker ones. There are also human enemies like bandits and cultists, but they’re pretty easy to pick off since all it takes are headshots, basically. The machines are the real challenge. I played on Easy since I’m a scrub, and have always had no shame in playing games on easy difficulties anyways since, unlike most gamers, I’m not much of a fan of challenge. Basically for me, Easy is my Normal. That’s just how I roll. But even easy mode was a bit of a challenge at times, at least for me. I had some trouble with the huge, stronger machines. Then again, I pretty much spent the entirety of the game doing nothing but side stuff and power-leveling, so by the last few main quests I was already at max level. But even at max level and wearing arguably the best outfit in the game, the final boss was a lot to handle.

I’ve spent the majority of this review gushing about this game, but was there anything I disliked? In all honesty, not really all that much. Most of my negatives are pretty much small nitpicks. I thought the climbing mechanics could’ve been a little bit better, since unlike Tomb Raider or Uncharted, most of the platforming can be done just by pushing the left stick and only pressing the jump button once in a while. I would’ve liked it better if the jump button was more frequently used during platforming, basically. You also can’t filter between icons on the map, and the map interface can get pretty hectic as a result since there’s so much stuff cluttered in it. Not sure why they didn’t add the option to filter between machine sites, collectibles, etc. Would’ve made for an easier time navigating.

Another negative is probably how I wish the outfits were more customizable. As it stands, each outfit is already one full set, and the only modifications you can make are by using two or three slots where you can insert mods to increase certain effects like elemental resistances, stealth, etc. I wish it was a little more in-depth in that you could get different pieces for each body part, like most RPGs, and maybe be able to insert modifications to each individual armor piece. Actually, the modification system in general, for both outfits and weapons, is a bit too simplified for my taste. You can’t really upgrade them, it’s as simple as just inserting a mod or two and you’re done. This may be ideal for more action-oriented players, but since I’m an RPG enthusiast, I find it to leave much to be desired. There are some other small nitpicks I have with the game that hold it back from being absolute perfection, but honestly they’re all pretty much easy to ignore. The positives crush the negatives.

So yeah, overall I’m extremely overjoyed with how this game turned out. It’s everything I had been hoping for and then some. It literally just came out a few days ago and already I’m aching for a story DLC or, hell, even a sequel. This game better branch out into a franchise; there’s so much Guerrilla can explore with this world that they’ve created.

I give Horizon a 9.75/10. 9.5 seemed a little too low and 10 seemed a little bit too high, so I thought fuck it, 9.75 it is. This game is near perfection, and if you have a PS4 or are going to own a PS4 in the future, then I swear to you that you won’t regret having Horizon in your game library. It’s a mishmash of various elements in open world, action-RPG gaming all rolled into an impeccable, beautiful package. And for all you trophy hunters out there, it’s pretty easy to platinum too.

Man, do I love this game. Jesus. Looks like I’ve found something new to unhealthily obsess over.

[thehallofgame]

Review: Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

Release: 2006

My Rating: 7.5/10

              Riding high on the success of Aria of Sorrow and fan’s adoration of the Game Boy Advance trilogy of Castlevania games Konami came out with Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. Gameplay remained the same iconic duo of side scrolling exploration and combat with some unique window dressings to make the game feel individual.

              Portrait of Ruin is set at the start of the second world war. Men’s suffering and killing have summoned the mythical castle of Dracula to the human world. Therefore, Dracula must be slain before he can visit terror and misfortune upon the earth. Which is basically the premise of every single Castlevania game.

              The hero this time around is Jonathan Morris. He, though not of the Belmont family (the family that usually provides Castlevania protagonists), has inherited their magical whip, the Vampire Killer, which allows its wielder to strike down Dracula every time he appears. Unfortunately Jonathan has found he cannot use the whip’s true power and so he is joined by Charlotte, a powerful young wizard. The two accept the mission to enter the castle and attempt to banish its evil.

              Castlevania games don’t usually possess deep stories and this is no exception. The main characters are as flat and predictable as pancakes. And, despite the considerable twist that another Vampire, Brauner, has taken control of the castle and Dracula himself isn’t yet awake, the story is also predictable. There are some sparks of interest though. Brauner has two daughters, Stella and Loretta, whose abilities roughly mirror Jonathan and Charlotte’s. These two are fierce opponents that occasionally suffer crises of faith at odds with their usual fanatical devotion to their father that later develop into an interesting subplot. Meanwhile, the two heroes are supported on their quest by an enigmatic ghost calling himself Wind. Though dead, he is bound to the castle and gives out advice as well as side quests. The game isn’t always clear on the ‘right’ way to progress and has several possible ending scenarios based on what a player does and doesn’t do in the end-game. Though one is clearly the true ending the others are a bit of tongue in cheek humor and it’s fun to see a brief cutscene play out showing how badly you messed up rather than a game over screen.

              The core of the game is the fast paced, side scrolling exploration and combat which luckily doesn’t need a plot to hold it up. Jonathan and Charlotte jump and slide their way over and under obstacles, gaining more abilities to traverse previously impassible paths and progress to more distant and difficult reaches of Dracula’s castle. Brauner has given his new castle some personal touches in the form of magical paintings that contain small to medium sized levels with their own enemies, puzzles and final boss. The player’s object is to find the paintings hidden in the sprawling castle and destroy the bosses within in order to weaken Brauner before ultimately challenging him.

The directional buttons move the player’s sprite left or right across the screen, the b button is for jumping and the a button is for attacking. As new abilities are gained combing directional buttons with the face buttons causes secondary attacks or platforming abilities to activate in ways that feel smooth and flowing. One of the shoulder bumpers causes a dodge action and the other calls the partner character to use their support ability.  

              Given that the Nintendo DS has two more face buttons than nintendo’s previous portable systems, and that the castlevania control scheme was pretty much set in previous entries, the two extra buttons were given over to controlling the partner character. Jonathan and Charlotte can be switched between at will to utilize their abilities or summoned to fight beside the other in combat using their physical attack. Jonathan’s high strength allows him to do massive damage with heavy melee weapons and the arsenal of whips he collects have impressive range. He can also equip secondary ranged weapons of various strengths that span a wide breadth of reach and height of effect. Charlotte, however has much more flexibility in terms of her attack. Though her physical attack is much shorter ranged and vastly inferior to Jonathan she is faster and easier to strike and doge rapidly with. Charlotte’s secondary attack is powerful magic that can clear the screen, cause buffing effects or even unlock new platforming options for the characters. Together the two can also cast powerful combination magics or physical attacks that do massive damage but rapidly deplete the MP bar.

              MP must be watched carefully because it fuels both character’s secondary abilities and also acts as the inactive character’s HP. If MP is reduced to zero the other character will become immobile, unsummonable and unswitchable until at least a small amount of MP has regenerated. The partner AI isn’t great and can become a burden in boss battles but does come in handy in swarms of low level enemies. In many ways managing the supporting character adds another layer of nuance to gameplay, and much like which character is more effective to play, whether or not the player likes the system depends on their play style.

              Castlevania’s signature boss battles are what really put the icing on the cake of the game. The game borrows from gothic literature and mythology to craft a collection of massive, gruesome and deadly monsters that are as much reward for completing a level as they are challenge. They’re tricky but once their attack patterns have been discovered they’re not impossible to kill. This lends a nice feel of achievement and sense of length to what is ultimately a quite short game.

              The questing and shop system, while technically present, aren’t necessary to the game at all and can be completely ignored or exploited to the player’s content. The store sells limited healing items and very pricy armor and weaponry. By the late game it’s far more important to avoid damage than heal it, so as annoying as it is to be restricted to 18 or less potions in the inventory at one time it ultimately encourages competence at gameplay rather than spending big on restoratives. Meanwhile, the early sidequests are fun and yield useful items but soon devolve into repetitive busy works and farming enemies for rare drops. Many have goals so obscure the player has to have encyclopedic knowledge of the game or to simply look them up which can be frustrating. Ultimately both systems feel like a footnote to the experience.

              Portrait of Ruin had excellent pacing and managed to feel longer and more content dense than it was, in the best way possible. The difficulty curb is just right, arcing smoothly up to the final encounters of the game which feel like they require a solid mastery of combat and precision timing but aren’t arbitrarily punishing.  Likewise the game doesn’t drag long enough to bore the player with repetition or the simple story. It simply dazzles with creative and memorable bosses, endears with a backdrop story of loss and regret and keeps the player working to perfect their technique right up until the end of the game. Portrait of Ruin is a bit shallow and eclipsed by beloved titles that came before, yet still remains a fun and nostalgic time for those yearning to return to the classic Metroidvania feel.

[akiratachimori]

FF8 - A weird romance story, poor character development and hero is dead/dream theories

I am officially done with FF8...after 93 hours of gameplay.  Seriously. This game is not long by any means but getting everything done in the game is so goddamn tedious. And I won’t even mention the 10k enemies killed achievement. Considering you don’t meet big groups of enemies and the fact you usually meet 3 enemies and let’s say one battle takes 30 seconds:

10k / 3 * 30 / 60 / 60 = 27 HOURS

Achievements shouldn’t be about super tedious actions like that. I can get collecting all the cards, especially since as long you get rid of the random rule in all regions, winning the matches is quite easy. And I got my 100 win about the time I was doing the Queen of Card side quests so clearly you don’t need to spend so much time doing it and the matches are vastly more entertaining since you have to think at least a little bit. I have all stats junctions, auto-haste, and Mad Rush so that I don’t have to mash the V button. It was still a very boring process. The only challenge was Omega Weapon given the damage amount and frequency but after spending 3 fucking hours in the final dungeon I was so done I just used Hero (which makes characters invincible) and laughed my ass off maniacally seeing 0 damage popping above my squadmates’ heads. I kinda wish I cast Aura on Selphie and used The End just to troll it even more, lololol. The same problem goes with 100 lvl Chocobo achievement. Walking Boko not that bad since you can automatize it a bit and Chocobo World’s window is tiny so you can easily make some other stuff in the background. ...That being said, considering that if you are really unlucky (like me) and you get the worst possible Chocobo ID, you CANNOT beat the Evil King. Like wtf. I tried it 20 times until I read that there is no way in hell I can win. Still, going all the way to level 100 is really tedious even once you encounter Moogle.

Okay, now that I vented my frustration out, let’s discuss the bits I have mentioned in the title.

The romance

It’s impossible not to speak about the romance in FF8, given how it’s given the spotlight in the last disc and a half. It would be all good and dandy if the romance was well executed.

But it isn’t the case.

Don’t get me wrong, I can enjoy me some romance. Even if I some pairs are NOPT for me, I can still acknowledge that the progression of the mutual attraction made sense. For example, Aerith was clearly made the main romance partner for Cloud in FF7 (although there is a lot of complication with how he processes the world, the fact her bf Zacks died and she can tell it right away thanks to her abilities, or that Cloud adopting Zack’s personality traits and achievements because he is too ashamed of his own, he got serious case of Mako poisoning and so on, and so on), or Locke’s affection towards Celeste was made very clear in FF6.

The main problem with FF8 romance is just the sudden shift in Squall’s attitude towards Rinoa. I wasn’t much of a fan of her or her pushy behaviorism so I picked pretty much all cold options towards her I could. But then she falls into coma and Squall pretty much loses his shit and obsesses over her. It would be fine in case of a normal romance escalation but it looked ridiculous since merely two scenes before Rinoa was literally hanging on the edge on a cliff and Squall just tells Zell to take care of it and had to be told by Qustis to go save her to actually do something.

During the battle of the Gardens Squall had so much responsibility pushed on him by Cid (yeah, let’s make him the head of the whole organization. Oh? He qualified into being a SeeD member only two weeks ago? Even better! Because fuck being a responsible adult and taking care of your students) that he was more worried about the well-being of other students (who had no battle experience of any sorts) and possible destruction of a place he considered home than saving his “beloved” from falling down an being violently blended into tiny pieces.

I am surprised that Rinoa was able to hold up for so long tbh.

At any rate, this “go and help her, I have to take care of all other responsibilities” and “I want to hear her voice again. I want her to call my name again.” is pretty much a 180-degree turn and since the game does not present you with any choices in this situation, those two attitudes towards Rinoa are canon.

But I said that it was two scenes before, so what happened to Rinoa and Squall between those events?

Well, not much. But it’s important to note how out of place the scene I will describe now was.

Imagine you have saved the girl from your squad but you are not done yet. There are still screams and explosions happening in your close proximity and you know that you have to defeat the opposing army to save people who are part of your “home”. You run through the battlefield with your squadmate at your side as you see your other members of your “home” fight off the soldiers to the best of their abilities.

And then you move to another screen where your squadmate stops you to talk about your ring. Your favorite ring you gave to another of your squadmate (Zell), since he asked you and you agreed under the condition that he will fucking return it later. And then Rinoa is all bubbly, merely seconds after she was hanging from a fucking cliff, people are getting injured and are risking death just one screen away, and says that she wanted to ring since she would like to have the same one. And then says “but then people would get a wrong idea.” while she is clearly saying it flirtatiously.

Of course, by this point Squall even muses that his whole squad is obviously trying to get them together. He doesn’t say how he exactly feels about it but it comes across with his usual annoyance when someone is bothering him.

He is still lukewarm towards her at best and after some battles, she falls into a coma for plot reason and Squall goes bonkers. He goes even more insane later considering that allowing Rinoa to be sealed until they deal with Ultimecia would be a safer (and more comfortable for him) choice which is why he initially agrees to it until Quisits scolds him and tells him to help her.

Given Squall’s dismissal of Rinoa’s affection, it seems more that he gave into peer pressure more than anything and partially into his fear of being left alone. The reason why Squall joined SeeD was in order to find his missing sis and this desire was strong enough to remember it, even with the excessive usage of GFs; he had forgotten that he was in the orphanage with his other companions (all, except for Rinoa), that Edea was their matron and his sis’s name but this desire to find the one person he loved the most in the world has stayed with him. It also caused him to have some serious issues with keeping people close in fear of losing them and desire to stand on his own since he was terrified that he will be abandoned and left to his own devices.

Squall does go through some interesting character development, don’t get me wrong. I did enjoy seeing him come to care for his companions and his awkward attempt to be verbally supporting which is clearly not his forte. This awkwardness was actually quite fitting since you cannot change overnight and it felt that it was happening naturally, meaning that the desire to open up and care for other people came straight for Squall rather than from the outside. I enjoyed the worry and care Squall shows towards his squad throughout disc 2 and during the visit to the Trabia’s Garden thoroughly and this could have easily been the complete focus on Squall’s character development since none of it seemed out of character at all.

Of course, things aren’t “bad” just on Squall’s end. Squall’s live long rival called Seifer was Rinoa’s romantic interest. Or at least he seemed to be, it wasn’t explicitly stated, but since they didn’t spend much time together, her way of speaking indicates that he was her crush. So she had to deal with fighting against her possible crush while she was looking for certain character trait in Squall to fit how she viewed Seifer; similarly how Aerith wanted to see Zacks in Cloud (unaware that her secret desire is actually what is going on in the story, lol).

Seifer did have some similarities with Squall but the game made the point of making them clear opposites. Both use the same weapon but have different fighting styles, both have scars on their faces (they gave the scars to each other at the beginning of the story) but their angle is flipped, both become the sorceress’ knights at some point in the story, both have charisma and leadership capabilities (although Squall feels uncomfortable being a leader with his limited experience). At the same time: a. Seifer wears all white while Squall wears all black, b. Seifer has blonde hair and Squall has brown hair, c. Seifer defies authority, Squall follows it, d. Seifer is open with his emotions and has no problem expressing it, Squall keeps to himself and has a hard time showing care or affection, e. their character card values are flipped, f. Seifer is aggressive, Squall is passive unless provoked.

The specific trait that I saw Rinoa trying to influence throughout the game is Squall’s problem with expressing emotions and keeping to himself. The thing is that, in the story, it didn’t seem like her pushiness was really doing anything else that makes Squall close even more while his companions like Zell or Selphie gave him space which made him feel comfortable and slowly change without realizing it. This is why the dynamics between Squall and his squadmates from Edea’s orphanage was really interesting, even if they weren’t interesting characters themselves except for Selphie. Speaking of which...

Character Development

Many characters came across as either very hollow or unpolished for some reason.

I still don’t get why exactly did Seifer help Ultimecia. At first, it seemed to be some kind of mind control but by the time disc 3 rolls in, it’s clear that he is serving her out of his own volition. Why did he side with her? Why was he willing to hurt Rinoa in order to do so? Why was he okay with butchering the Garden he grown up in? Was he aware that if Ultimecia’s plan succeeds, only she would be able to live in the time compressed world? Did he want to break the world?

Ultimecia isn’t a very complicated villain either even with the limited information the game provides. The most we can get about her motives are from the speech she gives in Deling City. She mentions that she is now hailed by the lowlifes that condemned her for generations. It would be interesting to see just what she went through and what made her hate other people so much (like of Sephiroth looking down on people and burning Kalm without more information would make him feel very shallow, but because you learn that he despised Hojo and he pretty much went insane after he realized that he was a product of an experiment, he went through losing two of his close friends, etc.).

Zell is Zell, lol. Hot-dogs, fighting and (a mutual!) crush on the girl from the library. It was cool that he offers to protect Edea while Squall is away so there was that. It’s disappointing that he didn’t talk to his parent about being adopted which I think would be an interesting addition to his character since he joined SeeD because of his grandfather. His accessory making came out of nowhere just to serve as part of the whole “Rinoa: I want to have a ring just like Squall, *heart*.” so let’s not talk about that. It would also be interesting to see him confront Seifer on equal terms given how it turned out he was his lifelong bully.

Irvine is a bit forgettable but he played a vital role in revealing that everyone in their groups is connected (except for Rinoa) and this actually explained well why he wasn’t able to assassinate the sorceress. He was probably made a bit vague on purpose too since when Squall is thinking about his companions when they were younger he muses: “Sorry Irvine, you are just too forgettable.” lol

Quistis is defined the most by being a serious character but it was disappointing that she step aside as soon as Rinoa get into the picture. She was also the one who pushed Squall to be closer with Rinoa the most from the bunch. Not that I ship Quisits x Squall, but she says that her affection was most likely an unaware attempt to fill in a role of Squall's sister but given how obviously she wanted his D and was open about it, I think that it was just a statement to distance herself. She also is good at card. Not better than me tho.

I actually liked Selphie’s character, even though she was a bit too hyper for my taste in many moments but seeing her reaction when the Gardens were threatened by Galbadia’s missiles and interactions with the members of her Garden really added up to her character. She might be an idiot. But she is mine idiot. Lol. Same goes for Laguna. It’s sinful to be so lucky and so stupid and the same time. She also comments close to the end of the game that she is surprised that Squall and Rinoa got together since they are complete opposites and she didn’t believe that her pushy approach would work on Squall but ultimately she is happy for him. I wonder what her personal info says, the computer never got fixed. And I wish I knew what GF she has junctioned when she was younger.

Squall was clearly the most covered character and so long I ignore that horrible romance, I have no complaints. I didn’t expect to like another moody and broody Square Enix protagonist but he touched upon many interesting things in his inner dialogue and I can’t help but sympathize. I also had a wild guess that Squall is Laguna’s son (I had others like when I found Timber Maniacs issue about Laguna’s visit to Esthar, I joked to myself he probably became their king. How right I was. Lol. Also, Esthar was hands down the most interesting city.) so it would be funny to see some interactions between them and Ellone but because the game focused on the romance it was mostly swept under the rug. It’s disappointing that despite Krios’ saying that they should sit down and talk about it once Ultimecia is defeated, the game does not give you an option to do that. T~T

Rinoa. Ughhhh. Her character had potential but because SE decided to focus on romance, so her character was just not well rounded. The most interesting thing about her is that her mother was Squall’s father crush for a long time and since I am a fan of two people not ending up together but their children do, it was a cool concept but it’s left as a very obscure thing since only one NPC’s dialogue mentions her. Thinks that could have been talked about instead of focusing on romance: What exactly caused a rupture between her and her Father? Can their relationship be mended? How does she actually feels about being a revolutionist? How much it’s about genuinely wanting Timber’s independence and not acting to oppose her father? Another thing about her character is that she has a dog named Angelo but they have little to no interaction. Angelo seemed more like a GF than a part of the squad, especially since you have little control over summoning so I saw him fewer times than I have seen Odin. Which is sad. And there is Watts and Zone who are helping her but after they end up on the White Seed Ship you don’t really hear about interactions between the three of them so it makes all of them even less dimensional than they already are.

Squall is Dead theory

My first attempt that finishing the FF8 ended with disc 1 since I couldn’t find the rest in my brother’s big CD collection so when I stumbled on the theory recently, I thought: “well, it was shocking to see him die for me back then. I expected he died to be honest which is why I wanted to play the next disc as soon as possible, lol. I would be interesting to see if it’s true.”

But the theory does not appear plausible to me. The cool thing about the hero is dead theories is that they are some elements introduced that you are familiar with or they make enough sense for you to go with what is happening but at the same time there is this sense that something is wrong. Those might be just short hunches. I didn’t find THAT much weird as long as I ignore Squall’s failed attempt to get back to Edea’s Orphanage during the time compression.

But let’s examine some clues people put together to support this theory.

1. Why Ultimecia wouldn’t kill Squall? And why would she have a newbie interrogated instead of Quistis?

I think that it might be just pure luck + possible Seifer’s intervention. The icicle pierced Squall’s left side of rib cage so he avoided pretty much instant death via heart piercing and given the rivalry with Seifer, he could have asked Ultimecia to keep him since he can torture him later (which he does with obvious eagerness and pleasure). It’s also possible that Ultimecia didn’t find him to be a huge treat and even didn’t know or care how long Squall was a SeeD/didn’t bother with that. It was only important that he was one and that she needed to know what SeeD is in order to protect herself. Killing him would be risking losing additional information, besides even if he had no information, he could always be tortured to make others wag their tongues. We do not know how resourceful Ultimecia is but she took Seifer as her knight soon she laid her eyes on him so it doesn’t seem to be too farfetched. Still, Seifer was running the show in the prison so he picked to torture Squall first to stroke his ego and fulfill his sadistic desires.

2. Why there is no wound after Squall wakes up, why would Ultimecia heal Squall to full health just to interrogate him?

It’s difficult to interrogate someone if they are bleeding to death. She also didn’t have to heal him to full health, just enough to make sure he doesn’t die while he is knocked out for however long he was.

3. Why are Moombas talking? It’s a really strange element to be added, especially how lions are important symbolically to Squall.

It’s probably to give a clue that Squall is Laguna’s son early on in the game. We learn later that Moombas can recognize people by the taste or smell of the blood so since Squall is Laguna’s son, it’s probable that he smells at least a bit like Laguna. As far as symbolism goes, I think that the point is symbolism but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a projection of Squall’s admiration of Griever. It seems to be, again, a clue that Laguna’s little boy is like a lion ;)

4. NORG the master of the Garden. Why he is never talked about again after he is defeated? Also how weird is having a yellow, slimy thing fund SeeD? Edea and Cid’s marriage comes out of nowhere.

I do not understand why this question was brought up. Cid does comment that he approached/was approached by NORG to gather funding to fund SEED and sometime after the battle you met some other Shumi tribe member and tells briefly that NORG was consumed with greed which made him the black sheep of their tribe. It’s pretty much the same thing that Cid says.

As far as the second question goes, not that weird. It’s a FF game after all. It has fat chocobos, tiny minotaur throwing a bigger one, synchronized chocobo dancing, dodgy sex hotels and so on.

5. Too much, “perhaps it’s fate”.

I don’t think it’s too much. After we learn that everyone (except for Rinoa) was in the orphanage their fate as SeeD is to kill sorceress is clear (which has been founded by Edea, another sorceress), Seifer and Squall are fated to fight (they were rivals since childhood with Seifer taunting Squall and him falling for it because he wanted to stand up on his own) and Squall leading the Garden doesn’t make much sense to me since even when Squall meets Edea in the past he doesn’t introduce himself as the head of the Seed but just as a member. And I still think that Cid shouldn’t have thrown everything in his lap just because, but I think that he is just irresponsible which is why he sent out Squall and his squad to deal with Edea.

6. “Just stay close to me.”

“Speaking of a perfect fantasy, the romantic storyline of Final Fantasy VIII is just that. The romantic plotline, which many fans consider to be the most successful element of the game, is completely fabricated for Squall’s personal satisfaction.“

Stop, the romantic plot is a horrendous atrocity and I question the sanity of anyone who says that it was a successful element of the game, let alone a most successful XD It’s as much of a crutch as it was for SAO. Well, maybe a bit less. Hard to tell, I have been avoiding SAO on purpose and I don’t want to hear about it again just to compare the two.

I don’t think that Rinoa’s affection is weird in the dream-like-way. She is overzealous in my opinion but Squall has some similarities to Seifer that could have drawn her to him (I only question why he responds to it the way he does after coma happens). Rinoa does dislike Squall’s cold and introverted personality initially and later on you can see that she is trying to mold him to suit her liking. If it has been all a dream, Squall’s dream no less, why not make her like him the way he is? Why have the dream version of Rinoa try to change him?

“The relationship Rinoa and Seifer had is never again mentioned, except by Seifer in the form of taunts during battle.”

Actually, it is mentioned even if dismissively when Rinoa and Squall are returning to Earth. I DO think that jumping from Seifer to Squall is a stupid, immature decision but I don’t think it’s that far-fetched. As far as Seifer being an alright guy to complete villain post Squall’s possible death, I think that it’s just really bad writing. You can see it with the majority of the characters in this game.

7. The end.

I do admit that the final cinematic was some weird shit. I mean...

Sweet dreams everyone.

Okay, but as far as why only specific scenes are replayed over and over again, I think that those the scenes of most significance to Squall. He fought with Rinoa and there was this weird flirting on her part throughout the game but definitely the very first time he met her, he was thrown out of his element which is why the ballroom was of such significance. Squall doesn’t feel comfortable with dancing so being pushed into it out of nowhere definitely caused him a lot of personal distress, something that it’s easy to recall. Same goes for Rinoa in space, by this point he developed an obsession with her and was terrified she was going to die, had there been a cutscene with here laying in the hospital bed, we would most likely get it as well.

“If this was really how the game was meant to be interpreted, why did they make the “dream” so subtle?“

I think people are just giving to much credit to this game ^^; Some things are way too elaborate for it to be a dream and others can be explained logically even if you play by the “dream’s” rules. The weirdest thing that did happen in the game was Laguna “dreams” but those were happening before Squall “died” and Ellone is the very first person you meet in the game. I also find it funny that Squall would dream about having Laguna as his father, he just didn’t seem like a good material for one until you get the “dream” from his stay in Winhill and Squall didn’t like him at all and think she is a moron. And by FF standard, the rest doesn’t seem that crazy tbh.

“The ending is like recapping the game on acid.“

Oh, that’s for sure. (*look at the picture above* *shudder*)

I guess I will type what I liked/didn’t liked.

+ Laguna, Selphie, Squall

- Romance

+ GFs

+ draw system (tedious but it was cool to have no mana to worry about)

+/- GF system (there should be more slots for abilities)

-/+ Music (not memorable but okay, one song during the final battle was cool)

+ Triple Triad

+ PuPu Quest

- the lake quest (way too vague)

- confusing graphic (no option to mark passages or ladders like in FF7 led me to a lot of confusion since I either didn’t realize that you can go to x room or that there is a lever/rope I can pull. It is caused by rending interactive elements with the background which makes them difficult to distinguish. Chrono Cross handled it well since the interactive objects were rendered similarly to the character models).

- fuck 10k kills achievement

-/+ if you miss Occult Fan III you cannot ever get it (luckily you don’t need it for achievement or to summon Doomtrain)

+ Selphie’s limit break, lol

+ Gilgamesh getting payback for Odin, lol

- too easy (fight against the final boss was laughable and I was only using attack command).

[thehallofgame]

Review: Infinite Undiscovery

Release: 2008

My Rating: 7

Review Under the Cut,

                When this came out I recall it receiving a surprisingly harsh reception and to this day I’m still not sure why. The Xbox 360 had few enough RPGs worth playing without trashing a decent one. Infinite Undiscovery didn’t hang the stars with its’ story or gameplay, but it didn’t do anything to tarnish them either.

              The game is your basic JRPG in a can. A group of heroes must stand up against an evil empire, a unknown young man rises to herodom with a princess in disguise at his side and they gain a growing party of companions on their righteous quest. The world of Infinite Undiscovery is a little more creative than its story would lead one to believe though. The moon and its’ god defines life for everyone in the world and it is the moon that is in danger of being destroyed. An evil order is chaining the moon to the earth, apparently attempting to pull it out of the sky and bring disaster to all people.

Aristos, special people who have been granted extreme longevity and power (and a floating crescent moon symbol that hovers behind their back) by the moon god, rule over the common people. Humans who are born when the moon is visible in the night sky receive Lunaglyphs which allow them to channel the moon’s power into magic. At the bottom of the social strata are the Unblessed, those born on the new moon, who do not have a glyph or magical powers. These people are ostracized by society and are even banished or killed outright.

              The game’s story is predictable and most of the characters so trope-ish and cloned from other games I almost expect they were meant to be parody. Yet the game didn’t go far enough for that and so most of them ended up being uninteresting and occasionally outright annoying. The dialogue is uninspired and occurs often, though these scenes aren’t too long winded. It wouldn’t be worth noting excepting that the game’s voice acting varied greatly in quality and conversation could have whiplash inducing switches in acting quality with every line. That said, Infinite Undiscovery is good at running long cons on the player that pay off in a few dramatic and emotional story moments that really drive home the game’s messages. And it does have a message about ill treatment of minority groups and how arbitrary the dividing line between different groups of people often are that it tells slowly over the course of the game.

              I was also surprised at how well the game has aged. I found myself double and triple checking the release date even though I distinctly remember purchasing this game not long after I bought my first 360. The graphics are slightly anime-inspired and brightly colored. The slight exaggeration and stylization of both characters and environments went a long way to making the game look younger than its nine years. It was only when the animations were a little clunky and mouths didn’t move when they were supposed to that its’ age really showed. Also, despite being split between two discs and a being a decent length game load times were very short and unobtrusive, something I most definitely do not expect from early 360 tittles. This probably had a lot to do with the game’s size and structure.

              The world is divided into towns and dungeons the player walks between. Towns felt a little smaller than in most games but frankly I appreciated the lack of NPCs trying to give me fetch quests (though there are a handful of optional quests throughout the game) on every other street corner. The dungeons were just perfect. They were big and complicated enough to provide some exploration and a few puzzles but didn’t stretch on so long as to become huge torments. Which was lucky for the game because a couple dungeons had frustrating trap-style gimmicks that could drag on and become frustrating. This was often exacerbated by the sometimes odd placement of save stations. You can usually save every twenty to thirty minutes of progress, which is my preferred interval if a game is going to have set save locations. However sometimes there would be a save station in the center of a dungeon and not one before the boss which made dying in a boss battle more frustrating than it needed to be. Likewise save stations were often placed before time consuming puzzles (good) and then followed by another sizable portion of dungeon and the boss with nowhere else to save (bad).

              Interestingly while Infinite Undiscovery is meant to be to an action RPG I often found myself telling people I was playing a dungeon crawler. Aside from magic and items healing is only accomplished by resting in towns or during certain story events so dungeons can be more of an endurance trial than most modern RPGs. By the end of the game the party is filled with several characters that each have unique traits and abilities to consider. Some have buffs to avoid traps and unlock chests, others get bonuses for being paired with other party members they’re friends with and still others have circumstantial debuffs to keep in mind (scared of the dark, frightened of insect-enemies ect.). In some scenarios the party must split and the player must build up to three four-person teams to tackle a dungeon. This is more of a set dressing than anything though the game provides a grade and bonuses at the end of the scenario based on how ‘well’ you assigned the teams. This mechanic can be largely ignored on normal and easy difficulty though it is a good way of encouraging the player to rotate party-members. On hard and nightmare difficulty maximizing your party-buff becomes a useful and even vital mechanic. Luckily if the player really does just want to run with their favorites in their party the background characters gain experience at half the rate of the active party so if a certain character is needed for a dungeon they’re still combat-worthy.

              This mechanic eliminates most of the need for grinding in Infinite Undiscovery, which really ups the pacing from the JRPG standard. The story is well-paced as well and the game moves along comfortably, never going quite too long without at least a reminder of the meta-plot.

              Combat is very basic action-rpg 101. The player has a light and heavy attack that can be chained to form combos and two equippable, mp consuming, special attacks that are triggered by holding down the light or heavy attack button. There is also a block button that requires quite good timing and to be aimed in the exact right direction. It’s of no use in a crowd and there tend to be too many flashy, colorful effects to even seen when an enemy is attacking. A successful block does stun an enemy for several seconds which gives the technique some limited use. There are two gimmicks that also come into play in combat but ultimately play very minor roles. The first is that the main character was originally a flutist by trade and is granted a magical flute early in the game. It allows him to play magical songs. The most commonly used reveals invisible objects and enemies. Most other songs provide some form of buff. The other gimmick involves ‘linking’ with another party member to order them to use a attack the player sets or a special ability/attack that’s unique to each character (the player can also link in town to use the special abilities of characters with non-combat techniques). This is of limited use in combat because it’s typically easier to switch between the preset AI patterns for the party. The AI is surprisingly competent and actually does what the AI says it will. The party can be ordered to fall back and wait for the player to reactivate the AI, conserve MP, attack the same target as the player, attack different targets from the player or act ‘freely’ which allows party members to follow their individual scripts. The only drawback is that the party AI also uses items happily. This means you don’t have to worry about your party leader being killed as long as you have resurrection items, but it also means that storing curatives and healing potions ends up being virtually useless as your party members will fling them out left and right.

              The game also boasts a pretty expansive crafting system which produces weapons, accessories, armor and potions as well as food that can be consumed for certain benefits like curing conditions and slight hp and/or mp restoration. It’s not balanced enough to keep up with the party’s epuipment needs unless the playing spends considerable time grinding for materials. Instead it mostly functions as an additional revenue stream. It is also the only way to obtain new songs.

              My last note comes from the very beginning of the game during difficulty selection. The game tells you that not all of the game’s content is available on easy or normal difficulty, but hard isn’t unlocked until after you’ve cleared your first game. I did only a little digging but it seems that most of the content, including the bonus after end game dungeon, is available on normal mode. I believe the unavailable content refers to achievements that can only be earned on Hard or Nightmare difficulty. Still, it’s always a bummer to be told outright you’ll need multiple playthroughs to see the entire game.

              Infinite Undiscovery is probably one of the most average games I’ve ever played. It doesn’t do anything particular special and it doesn’t tell a new story, but it is a perfectly okay game. I had fun for the most part playing it. I don’t think it’s worth going on a quest to track it down, but if you’re a JRPG loving xbox360 owner looking for something to play it might be worth giving a shot.