#bioware should kill off more characters when the stakes get that high

[sun-marie]

being so honest. i have so little attachment to v*rric tethr*s. when i realized the reveal i literally cheered out loud 😶

[bluecladone]

Ngl if Varric dies in DA:TV it's going to severely impact my enjoyment of the game. I'll still play it, of course. I'm not the type to completely write a game off because of a plot point i don't agree with, to make no mention of the money spent. I'm sure the game is fine as a whole and I want to see Solas's story--and by extension, the DA setting--come to a close. But God, to kill off Varric of all characters...more under the cut.

Like don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of angsty, high stakes, kill-your-darlings type of plots, but it MUST have some kind of point. Killing Varric right at the start doesn't really serve much of a purpose. Like we don't need any motive or other driving force when we've been given plenty enough already a la the events and ending of Inquisition. We're well aware of the stakes. Killing Varric away from the people who loved him best (Hawke and crew, or whoever's left) surrounded by strangers (with the exception of Harding and Solas) would be such a disservice to his character. Add in extra yuck with the way EA/Bioware treated his writer, Mary Kirby. It just feels like an extra 'fuck you.' Besides, using him as such a heavy marketing tool for years only to kill him off is so cheap.

Maybe the writers didn't know what to do with him. (And maybe this is a direct result of Mary Kirby's layoff) Maybe they were afraid of the criticism they'd get if they just wrote him into retirement. I get it. Varric is a notorious busybody who shoulders a lot of responsibility, and he's so tied up into the story at this point. He's had a hand in most major plot points in the series. Not everyone would be satisfied with the retirement card. But the guy is getting old. I'm hoping and praying that they'll just settle with destroying Bianca and maybe injuring him enough to where he's like 'I'm way out of my league here, plus I've got a city to run. Time to pass this along to someone more capable.' He'd make a good advisor/mentor figure--there in the background, but still involved with the plot just enough. I feel like the team was so worried about people being disappointed that they couldn't have him as a companion that they jumped to the extreme to give us a good reason why and a chance for D✨️R✨️A✨️M✨️A.

Honestly, I wouldn't mind so much if they chose to kill him at the end, or shit--literally any point besides the very beginning. It's the last game in the series. Much like in Mass Effect 3, the world as we know it is ending and the stakes are ever higher. Not everyone is gonna make it. I know nothing is confirmed, but the set up in the trailer is so obvious. As soon as Varric tells Rook to take care of things, i got a sick feeling. Maybe they'll surprise us, but I doubt it. It's hard not to be cynical after hearing about the layoffs at Bioware and watching in real-time the development hell this game has gone through for the last decade.

Like imagine in Mass Effect Andromeda, say someone like Garrus or Liara shows up only to die right at the beginning of the story. They had no effect on the plot, other than explaining to Ryder the plot of the last 3 games to let them know why what they're doing here in the newest game should be important to them. Then they die to kickstart the plot and for Ryder to shake their fist at the villains and exclaim 'this time it's personal!' Ryder doesn't know Garrus/Liara. They met like a week ago. Plotwise, the moment falls flat emotionally when we know that Ryder wouldn't mourn Garrus/Liara as much as we know Shepard might. It should go without saying that a character dying would impact your main character more if those characters got to know each other throughout the story, but it's what I'm saying. I think it's better to shock your characters more than your audience.

And that's what this is. Shock value for the audience, to make us clutch our pearls and shake our fists at whoever is responsible for a beloved character's untimely demise. To make us care about a plot we're already invested in, and have been for 10 YEARS. Or maybe to get away from the uncomftability of having a character with an arc they don't know how to end gracefully. If they go the way I think they're going, anyway. Fingers crossed so so so hard that they surprise me.

[crossdressingdeath]

You mentioned Sera, whats your take on her?

Honestly I can't say a huge amount because a) I haven't played Inquisition in A While and b) even before I stopped playing it I had stopped recruiting Sera (because she's Just The Worst), so. Just to be clear, I'm working off what I remember of her character, which may not be entirely accurate to what actually happened although I'm pretty sure it is.

That said, she's just... awful to Lavellan. Just horrible, all the fucking time. She insults their people, insults their culture, if they're a mage pretty much insults their entire existence (and the mage thing extends to Trevelyan and Adaar). She gets mad at Lavellan for refusing to abandon their beliefs having LITERALLY JUST SPOKEN TO ONE OF THEIR GODS because SHE thinks Mythal was actually a demon! I have a post somewhere about it, but if Lavellan points out that it doesn't actually matter what they believe because the Inquisition has made it clear that they'll insist on calling them "Andraste's Herald" even if they've outright denied it and come as close to saying "don't call me the herald of the religion that has persecuted my people for centuries and all but destroyed my culture" as the game will allow she disapproves of that because, again, they're not willing to convert to the religion using them as a glorified figurehead against their will! If a female Lavellan romancing her does this she will break up with her! And you'll notice that I only mention Lavellan; she will not break up with any other Inquisitor if they suggest Mythal might have been real. Oh, she'll still disapprove, but it's only an offence worthy of breaking off their relationship if her girlfriend actually worships Mythal. In other words, her girlfriend being Dalish and holding to the Dalish faith after being given empirical evidence that her gods exist in at least some form is worth breaking up with her over. Because she can't prove Mythal wasn't a demon and that makes choosing to believe in her a huge problem. In a game that is largely about faith. And of course there's the whole "elves and mages aren't little people" thing when they're literally the bottom rank of all of human society that we see (and certainly in Ferelden, which is where Sera grew up, and Orlais, where we meet her); you don't get more little than that! Also (speaking of relationships) from what people have said she comes across as outright objectifying towards a female Cadash or Adaar Inquisitor, but having never played either of them with her in the Inquisition I can't say whether or not that's true.

And she just will not take anything seriously! If memory serves she wants to play pranks in Halamshiral during a very important diplomatic event that the Inquisition CANNOT RISK BEING KICKED OUT OF FOR FEAR OF CORYPHEUS WINNING! She will murder a man to assuage her own feelings without considering the impact that could have on the organization trying to prevent the end of the world that she is ostensibly part of (a man who if memory serves is useful to the Inquisition if you make the right choices) because he's a bad person and she thinks she has the right to be judge, jury and executioner without so much as asking anyone else including the person whose orders she's SUPPOSED TO BE FOLLOWING (because murdering a noble won't piss off the Orlesians at all...)! The fate of the world is at stake and she's just dicking around, playing pranks on the people in charge of keeping it together! And some of her pranks are downright cruel, or even dangerous! Like, dumping a bucket of water on Josephine and humiliating her in front of her people so that they'll laugh at her is just uncalled for, especially given there's as far as I recall nothing to suggest Josie is anything but good to those serving under her; hey, maybe her people don't want to laugh at her! And if memory serves her "prank" against Vivienne involves putting a venomous snake in her underwear drawer! Vivienne turns it around because Vivienne's badass, but that could have killed her! What the fuck is wrong with Sera that she thinks putting someone's life in danger is funny?! I don't think she even offers any assistance that we see outside of her own presence even though the Red Jennies should logically be useful!

And you know the worst part? You can never call her out on any of this. From what I remember the closest you get is the option for some ableist insults that in no way even begin to cover any of the actual issues an Inquisitor would logically have with her, and from what I understand even if you kick her out you don't get to tell her "Your refusal to take this seriously is putting us and the world at risk and I cannot allow that" or "I cannot and will not work with someone who refuses to so much as not openly insult my culture and religion" (at least Solas, bad as he can be, will apologize and reconsider his stance if your approval gets high enough and has understandable reasons for responding the way he does) or "You have made it clear that you think my magic makes me at best less of a person and at worst a monster and I will not tolerate that any longer"! Basically Sera is horrible to the Inquisitor if they're an elf or a mage and Bioware said "What's a reasonable response to this when we give the player an opportunity to react negatively? Ableism? Yeah, let's go with ableism" and it pisses me off.

[sugarbubbleslove]

Dragon Age

Alright - I'm gonna go with what I would love to see in Dragon Age 4.

Stealing. I want to steal back. I LOVED being the Dark Wolf in Origins/Awakening. (My Cousland adored having everyone freaking out). It's part of the reason why I can't really play as a rogue in II because it feels wrong with no stealing.

Healing. PLEASE give me my goddamn healing ability back. Screw limited potions and no healing. I want the chance to play as a spirit healer again.

Bombs/Traps again, please? Because those were fun. Origins were so much fun because of their versatility.

Hybrid classes. Looking at the Trailer for DA4, I get the feeling Magic is going to play a big part in it and I'm...not enthusiastic about it.

Don't get me wrong - I love playing as a mage (Damien Amell/Melinda Hawke dominate the battlefield) but I do LOVE playing as a Rogue/Warrior.

But I want how the Warriors could dual-wield, use archery and steal. Hell, even my mage could steal.

But I would love it if my Warriors could bash locks or my Mages could use magic to open locks. (Origins really makes me feel I should be playing as a rogue with the number of locked chests about).

More Specializations. I like Ranger for my Rogue. Summoning animals, yes, please.

Spirit healer was fun - and would have been an awesome addition to Inquisition if you could have a spirit agree to help you with your magic, imagine the conversation Solas/Cole could have had with your spirit (But at the same time, I get why they didn't because you know - can't have the 'Herald of Andraste' communing with spirits (never mind that Andraste could have been communing with a spirit)

The options to USE ALL MY TALENTS I unlock! Like in Origins/II, you could use the wheel to access more abilities where in Inquisition, you're freaking LOCKED!! Unless you have it on the tab, you're screwed and it's annoying!

What's the freaking point of giving us all those talents if I can't access them while in battle?! Seriously! GIVE ME MY GODDAMN TALENTS!!

And...I'm gonna be spiteful here but this is mostly because of my current playthrough - the chance to kill off my Inquisitior....

I have a playthrough where my Cousland romances Alistair, makes him the King and agrees to be his Queen only to refuse the dark sacrifice and takes the final blow. Then I leave my Hawke - who romances Sebastian and makes him prince, becoming his Princess - in the Fade so....please? I kind of wanna continue the trend of my heroes pretty much giving the country/world the finger before jumping to their death.

(Though I was even more bitcher and had my Cousland keep Alistair a Grey Warden, refused the ritual and took the killing blow then left Alistair in the fade because...fun...)

I would be so fucking gleeful if I get the option to actually kill off my inquisitor at some point (or find out they died in between Inquisition and 4th game).

To keep the chance to refuse to believe in the Maker. God, that was so funny, I actually played my Trevelyan who refused to believe in the Maker, who refused to believe it was Andraste in the Fade (arguing with Mother Giselle as a result) and I got the option to tell Mother Giselle that she was happy that was she was right about it just being dumb luck that she had the Mark and that the Maker/Andraste had no say in it and Mother Giselle actually called out my character, saying she was no better than those who like to shove their facts down people throats.

I was actually stunned and I wanted to bite off Mother Giselle's face for the first time since playing this game by reminding her that the Chantry shove their 'facts' down everyone's throat, constantly cut out/covers up the parts they don't like. Like I didn't hear about Shartan being cut out of the chant you hypercritical little bitch! I was there at fucking Haven when Shartan said he fought at Andraste's side yet your pathetic cult cut him out because he was an elf and you can't have your precious Andraste cavorting with an elf, can you.

It was actually the same with Wynne, my Cousland told her that she never wanted to become a warden, didn't find it an honour and just wanted to find her brother. Wynne actually called Cousland selfish for wanting to put her own needs above the world.

Like excuse me you little cunt, you were locked up in that circle the whole fucking time. YOU have no idea what is required to become a warden. If you thought it was such a fucking honour, then you should have offered your own ass to Ridoran when he was looking for Wardens. Then I could have given you to the Archdemon.

And not to mention Grand Elthina. Like holy fuck did the Maker have a fucking hand in my Warden saving the world. She didn't save it for the Maker's sake, she died because she LOST her fucking FAMILY to betrayal. Seriously - if my warden was there, she would have snapped the old woman's neck. Glad that my Hawke could say that the maker had nothing to do with it.

And I still firmly believe she was setting up the stage for the templar/mage war. Like hell the Maker would waste their time saving your pathetic ass when you couldn't even do anything to stop the war.

She could have easily gone to the Divine with her fears and suggested a change in Knight-commander and First Enchanter. What did she do? Tell Hawke to tell Leliana that everything is peachy keen and there is nothing to world about.

I told Leliana to get the Divine to start a fucking holy war before the war actually broke out (and look what happened, Elthina died. The Maker didn't save her)

and WHY do people think the Maker would actually save them? Like hello? The last time the Maker, apparently, got involved - Andraste was BURNED at the freaking STAKE!

Do you really think the Maker would risk that again?

And I just went off on a rant...sorry about that.

But, by all means Bioware, keep giving me shitty old woman who thinks they know better so I can keep kicking them off the ledge of their high and mighty horse.

[theseerasures]

Conspicuous Media Consumption, 2020

it’s that time of year again! *saddest toot from the party horn*

for those of you just joining us: it’s a “consume a different content every week for 48 weeks of the year” challenge. for a longer explanation, check out last year’s write-up here, and as always, feel free to pop in and ask questions about any and all of this content.

(same disclaimer as last year too: content for this project ONLY here, and not certain...*looks at my billion Sad Cop Lady posts*...hyperfixations.)

(man remember when i was big into X-Men comics earlier this year? better times than these, if only because no one's discoursing about Emma Frost’s woobie/war criminal ratio anymore--her w/w, if you will)

(...i swear at one point i didn’t exclusively like platinum blondes but alas)

Bitter Root (comic, 1 issue finished 1/1/2020): still very cool on a basic concept level, but runs into the Image Comics problem of just not having enough content to keep my interest beyond that. part of that is on me, for picking it up again BEFORE the second arc rolled out, but the first five issues didn’t really follow (or resolve) any cohesive story either, so...meh.

Immortal Hulk (comic, 3 trades finished 1/17/2020): still not gonna be something i care deeply about (maybe one of Bruce’s Hulksonas dyed his hair???), but i do want to give kudos to Al Ewing for sheer consistency in terms of sustaining this level of quality storytelling month by month for more than two years now. working with the dense archive of the Hulk mythos and managing to make it interesting and thoughtful is impressive even if i personally would not expend the same effort.

Disco Elysium (game, finished 1/18/2020): honestly i should have twigged onto what this year was gonna be like when the third thing i drew from the barrel was pure uncut Eastern European flavored depression. i faintly recall people ragging on it for being pretentiously cynical, but i actually thought its core slid more towards idealism than people give it credit for. also gratified that i haven’t heard anything about Robert Kurvitz using slave labor to finish it, which is a thing we have to say about our video games now!!! fun.

Watchmen (TV, 7 episodes finished 1/27/2020): i am a fool who wants to believe in Damon Lindelof and I WAS RIGHT!!! honestly still cannot believe that he pulled off this highwire act with such deft aplomb. might be my favorite TV this year, which is a pretty high bar given how much TV i ended up watching.

On a Sunbeam (comic, finished 2/1/2020): Tillie Walden rightly deserves all the praise for inventive queer storytelling, but i will say that on reread--since i first read this as a webcomic--there ARE some issues with pacing here that clearly come from the foibles of its original intended medium. still just excellent, even if after some plot significant haircuts i was having trouble telling a few folks apart.

Lazarus (comic, 1 trade finished 2/8/2020): it’s so good and i want moooooorrrreee--though obviously Rucka and Lark have the right to take all the time they need. the newer longer issues work really well with the epic prestige drama vibes of the story! i’m into it.

The Good Place (TV, 4 seasons finished 2/18/2020): i’m gonna be super honest: i actually wasn’t a big fan of the finale, nor the last season as a whole. it felt like all of Eleanor’s flaws vanished for a majority of the season, and the Chidi-centric episode where they tried to give a legible justification for why he’s Like This was...i didn’t care for it. still, it’s so good and unique on the WHOLE that we’ll literally never get anything like this ever again, and that counts for a lot.

The Old Republic (game, finished 2/21/2020): it’s an MMO so it will never actually Be Finished so long as the servers aren’t shut down, but i caught up on the content i’d missed in the intervening months. Onslaught thus far has mostly been...kinda bland tbh; going back to Imps vs. Rebs after all the shakeups in the previous expansions feels like a waste.

High Road (album, finished 2/22/2020): someone should tell Kesha not to say that word!! otherwise i was very happy with this album, and happy FOR her even though we don’t know each other. being able to find joy again in the same genre of music you made while you were being horrifically exploited is very cool.

Young Justice (TV, 13 episodes finished 2/28/2020): given how much the middle stuff dragged--STOP KILLING YOUR HIJABI CHARACTER IN HORRIFIC WAYS--i was...actually kinda mad by how the end managed to stick the landing anyway. the day being saved by Vic’s self-acceptance and Violet’s sublime compassion was A+, and even the Brion/Tara switchup was a pleasant surprise, though it relied on me caring about Brion MUCH MORE than i actually did.

Manic (album, finished 2/29/2020): do people still care for/about Halsey? i feel like even That One Song that was on every tumblr gifset ever has kinda faded into obscurity at this point. this album was...okay. i feel like people give Halsey a pass for extremely obvious lyrical turns that they wouldn’t for other folks because of her subject material--which is fine. not really my cup of tea, but i also listened to lots of Relient K this year, so that’s probably a good thing.

Jade Empire (game, 3/10/2020): the only 3D-era Bioware game that didn’t franchise out, and for good fucking reason!!! the Orientalism and appropriation really haven’t aged well, and even beyond that the story was...standard Bioware faire. even my usual “my wife’s a bitch i love her” Bioware type didn’t do it for me, and i just ended up romancing no one. it did make me think a lot about what level of cultural borrowing is accepted nowadays, and why: people still look fondly at Avatar and talk about how ~accurate and respectful it was, for example, despite it being staffed almost entirely by white folks, and the Orientalism ALL OVER the monk class in DND is still fine for some reason.

Alif the Unseen (book, finished 3/31/2020): interesting to have read this AFTER reading The Bird King last year, because it highlights how the intervening years have shifted G. Willow Wilson’s thematic interest and improved her craft. i’m actually quite fond of how her characterization work is rougher here--Alif is extremely flawed to the point of being insufferable, but it makes his development by the end more satisfying. Dina is also just good and i love her

Baldur’s Gate (2 games, finished 5/31/2020): well, having finally finished the series i’m happy to say that it...still doesn’t really do it for me, sorry. any awesome story moments were overshadowed by the EXCRUCIATING inventory management system and the combat (i still don’t know what a THAC0 is and at this point i’m afraid to find out). these games crucially lack the Home Base that later Bioware games were so good about, and that (coupled with the huge cast of characters you can drop off and never see again) really hurts the intimacy for me. by the time we finally did get one it was the Hell Dimension in Throne of Bhaal, and i was just...trying to get through it. (yes, i did just say that about one of the most beloved expansions ever to one of the most beloved games ever.) THIS particular iteration of “my wife’s a bitch i love her” was very good, but the game wouldn’t let me romance her :(

The Underground Railroad (book, finished 6/19/2020): honestly what is there even left to say at this point! it was exactly as good as every critic on the planet said it was, even with my usual aversion to hype. draining and horrifying in turns but still insistent upon a future for Black folks.

Steven Universe (6 seasons and a mooooooviiieeee, finished 7/11/2020): yes, i DID finish the show and almost immediately begin a rewatch. this series is now one of my top five most formative things, and the amount of love and respect i have for it is incalculable. that said: i once again did not love how the central conflict of Future was resolved (just the resolution--i loved the finale just fine). for all of Steven’s breakdown was built up, resolving it with “EVERYONE HUG HIM UNTIL HE CRIES” felt...cheap, especially since up until this point the show had been so good about treating trauma and mental illness with the respect and nuance it deserves. it made me wish some of the earlier, less substantial episodes had been cut so we could spend more time at the end.

What It Is (comic, finished 8/19/2020): y’all i love Lynda Barry SO MUCH. for the longest time i was worried that One Hundred Demons was more a lightning in a bottle situation but every book of hers i pick up makes me feel obscure emotions i didn’t even realize existed. the compassionate way she’s able to describe her child self and how weird and fucked up she was (and still is) is honestly aspirational.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (TV, 5 seasons finished 9/26/2020): so here’s a reversal of what i’ve been complaining about with other shows: i was mostly lukewarm-to-warm about She-Ra, but the later seasons and the finale made me much more into it as a whole. more shows should improve in stakes and overall quality as they age tbh!! i still don’t actively love Catradora (my sole quibble with season 5 actually has to do with the way Adora kept backsliding as a character to make certain Plot/Relationship things happen), but i’m very happy for them nonetheless. i can certainly appreciate a show that will go for High Feeling over tight plot. dark horse standout moments: trees growing everywhere proving that Perfuma Was Right, and Hordak and Adora seeing each other--that weirdly intimate moment of recognition.

Fetch the Bolt Cutters (album, finished 10/7/2020): again i find myself not having much to say that no one else has said. it’s good! once again love it when an artist reclaims something they’d attached with negative affect (anxiety, depression, disordered eating) for better and brighter things.

Solutions and Other Problems (comic, finished 10/25/2020): i was very into Allie Brosh’s ambition with this book, which feels weird to say but i stand by it. it’s cool to see an artist try to make a new medium work for them instead of just sticking to what already works. not all the experimentation was 100% effective, but it was still delightful and occasionally devastating to read, so.

Legend of Zelda (3 games: Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, Link Between Worlds, finished 11/1/2020): this was the third time i’d played Ocarina of Time, which made it the nice, comforting groove i settled into before Majora’s Mask blatted me in the face. i’m not usually a completionist Zelda person because...the gameplay in Zelda is bad, do not at me it just is, but i really felt like i HAD to be one for Majora’s Mask since the whole point is to get attached to the banalities of the town. i’m sure nobody’s surprised that i loved it, even if it gave me an existential crisis about how life goes on in the game for NPCs when you’re not there to save them from it, and there’s not enough time to save them all all the time (also not a surprise to anyone: Romani and Cremia gave Personal Feelings). Link Between Worlds...bad. not like in a “this is a bad story by every measurable gauge” way, but i was already struggling with the 2D playstyle shift enough that for the whole story to end with some “yes it’s v sad that Lorule is Like This but trying to steal Hyrule’s privilege is Even Worse Actually” noblesse oblige bullshit left a VERY poor taste in my mouth, this year of all years. i did audibly gasp when Ravio took off his mask, though. i’m currently playing Breath of the Wild in cautious increments; it’s the first time i’ve enjoyed early Zelda gameplay, but if they wanted fully voiced cutscenes i wish they got voice actors who...knew what words sound like.

folklore (album, finished 11/6/2020): my belief that Taylor Swift is Just Fine continues, i’m afraid. i LIKED this album, don’t get me wrong, and respect her constant drive to innovate, but i didn’t love it substantially more or less than any other Taylor Swift album. mostly i’m just tickled by how she thinks leaning into the indie aesthetic means borrowing Vita Sackville-West’s entire wardrobe, though i will admit to feeling Something when she swore in a song. i think it was like. savage vindication?? you go ahead and swear, Taylor Swift. you deserve it.

Shore (album, finished 11/19/2020): do people still care about the Fleet Foxes? i think there was some Drama with Josh Tillman a while back but i don’t remember where the discourse landed with who was being more problematic. it was nostalgic for me to listen to their new album--made me remember being an undergrad who exclusively listened to men who mumbled and played acoustic guitar all over again.

Star Wars (3 movies: original trilogy, finished 11/27/2020): there is So Much bad Star Wars these days that every time i rewatch the original trilogy i’m afraid that they will suddenly be bad, but guess what! they’re not. i love these children and their hot mess stories, i love that Lando doesn’t know how to say his best friend’s name. what stood out to me this time was the way Obi-Wan described the Force in A New Hope, which strongly implied that ANYONE can be Force Sensitive; that obviously faded with each subsequent movie, but part of me does wish they’d kept it.

X of Swords (comics, 22 issues finished 12/5/2020): i am enjoying Hickman’s X-lines!!! not so much here for the Grand Conspiracy or whatever, but the character work and highkey weirdness is fabulous--they FEEL like X-Men, despite all the shakeups in-universe. this crossover is a nice microcosm of all that: grandiloquently all over the place, but still full of cool standout moments and genuine hilarity. ILLYANA DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO SPELL MAGIC.

Fire Emblem (4 games: Sacred Stones, Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn, Awakening, finished 12/14/2020): this was the thing that i was closest to giving up early on, but i ended up hyperfixating on it instead. that’s a credit to what the gameplay does to my lizard brain more than anything else, because the story and character writing is...insipid. it was very bizarre to witness this franchise blunder around with its animal-people racism allegory around the same time i was getting back into RWBY, and ITS animal-people racism allegory blunders. Awakening was the first time i felt anything for the franchise beyond “teehee red units disappear make exp bar go up and brain go ding,” so i’m excited for more mature storytelling in subsequent games (they MUST get better. they MUST). the child husbandry thing is...very bad tho, and Apotheosis being “challenging” entirely through the game changing all the rules is also bad.

once again no vidya games that came out this year--i’ll probably pick up Spiritfarer or Hades after the New Year, though (or maybe TLOU II! but probably not. sry Laura and Ashley). more TV and franchises this year, which made me feel In Touch with the Children but was also kinda exhausting. nothing was so egregiously terrible i dropped it without finishing! in a year like this that feels almost like an accomplishment

[legionofpotatoes]

My expanded thoughts on Anthem if anyone cares, under the cut

Here’s the thing about this thing. I had a very fun weekend with the Anthem VIP demo overall, despite its own damn self a lot of the time. That’s the short of it.

But I feel as a lifelong Bioware fan that’s been sucking off singleplayer titles and mercilessly dunking on competitive gaming I should like, Elaborate(tm)

Firstly yes, it was plagued by client-side bugs on launch, so the start was a fair bit wonky. I was trying to enter freeplay for like 3 hours. The incredible music kept me sane, but as the thankfully transparent communication came in it became apparent it wasn’t an easy issue so I chalked it up to bad connectivity shenanigans that won’t rear its head in the future. The devs genuinely worked tirelessly to get it fixed, so when I finally got to the meat and potatoes of it all I shed prior biases and tried to focus. What I found an intriguing new world wrapped in a type of game that still felt very.. alien to me. And yet it also felt like it had a Bioware heart beating underneath its shell. 

Which can mean fuckall nowadays, I know; but speaking about story based on the demo is wack because the context and flow of world-building is difficult to grasp; the slice here throws us in the middle of the story with no training wheels and much of exposition locked away for the full thing. There is definitely a very rich, purposefully-built lore here (already there are traces of Bioware’s signature motifs with the legacy of Helena Tarsis, the politically motivated factions of Bastion, the controversial emergence of cyphers, etc), and it seems intent on making its fat points throughout the critical path. That I found reassuring, since my multiplayer-averse ass will eventually need to latch on to something more gratifying than loot chases in order to keep invested.

Of course that fundamentally means that the game is not FOR me, per se. Nor would I say it’s for anyone who loves single-player games exclusively and thinks of Bioware as that particular stamp factory. This is not a campaign-driven RPG that has multiple gameplay pillars feeding its narrative. And it definitely is not doing backwards flips trying to pretend to be one (Fort Tarsis initially felt like that exact type of posturing, but it has a pleasantly balancing function instead). It has one pillar and one pillar only, and that’s the loot chase. Whether or not Anthem will be a good game depends wholly on its commitment to make said pillar into the crux of everything it contains. And so far said commitment is a bit vague - it has a nice basis for these systems, but variety, presentation, and balance seem very much at their infancy.

I say this because I have tried my hand at other games of similar type - Destiny, Warframe, Borderlands, and Overwatch. No others but I think this is a good enough blueprint to analyze Anthem’s part on the market - all of these titles dwindled out on me because of the loot chase eventually being prioritized to the point of absolution, with story, character building, and even palatable gameplay pacing (how fucking fast are WF and OW, jesus christ) sacrificed at the altar of frighteningly well-calculated doses of FUN. It all feels indulgent (which is not bad) and a bit pointless in the end (this is my own high-horse take), and as I understand that’s what kind-of makes them successful. 

And Anthem IS geared more-or-less the same way. It’s an experiment of a game that tries its best at separating storytelling from the loot chase in a way that one does not interfere with the other. The lore and worldbuilding is very clearly designed to support that structure. Which is good for obvious identity crisis reasons - this isn’t a game pretending or trying to please many audiences, something Bioware has been guilty of a lot. This is a story-driven looter shooter with a couple of gameplay loops that elevate its stake, but will ultimately only delay what is sure to become a repetitive experience for me, since the Gun(tm) is the only interaction with the world.

What saves it for me however, are two things; number one are the aforementioned escape bouts to Fort Tarsis, where some pretty hilarious and heartfelt characters are dotting the streets, and where Bioware’s tenure has the most room to breathe and work its magic. This is not a throwaway compliment, there’s decent work being done here. The dialogue system itself is barebones, non-cutscene conversations still look a fair bit stiff, but that twinkle of life that shows itself when you hear a character speak of their experiences is still there. The actual cutscenes look amazing and genuinely fresh, and, like I mentioned above, this isn’t an abstract canvas of lore that ONLY exists to justify the gameplay - there’s something being told here that has many moving pieces in a exciting, new-IP kind of way. Again, hard to deduce from the demo slice, but obvious in retrospect.

The second thing that I personally will look to as a saving grace is that left damn analog stick.

Because dudes. This game isn’t perfect, but it is insanely good at its selling point that was advertised years ago. The lush alien vista of Bastion is a bustling garden of terrain oddities and exotic creatures, with truly groundbreaking verticality hammered into it - the map is honestly more like a cube rather than a flat plane. And your javelin has the simplest tool to experience it the best possible way. It can fly. 

This is always such a weird thing to say to people asking about my big expectations for the game, especially since I’ve basically been in bed with it since its very announcement for reasons they can’t comprehend. I don’t blame any of them of course, but it really is that simple for me - the fantasy of flight in a science fantasy universe created by Bioware is that tiny indulgent thing I always wanted, ever since playing that terrible Dark Void videogame and wishing a better studio had made it. It works INCREDIBLY well, has a balancing wink to it, and elevates the core loop a fair bit. No pun intended. Even the different javelins handle in their own unique ways. It’s just great.

Of course, there’s now a possibility for a BonerLord420 to interrupt my Quality Bioware Experience by throwing a flare in my face before leading an endless army of mobs into it, which is something I hate, have hated, and will hate for the foreseeable future. But the genuine moments of cooperation I did have felt earnest, no one was being a hopeless grief, competitive shit was kept to a minimum (enemy kills don’t drop XP directly), and my socially inept heart opened up just a tiny crack to the possibility that this might be some strange kind of fun.

Bioware DID bring me out of my shell with their whimsy multiplayer modes for the last Mass Effect games, so I feel a bit safer in their hands than I normally would with a game like this. Amazingly, I’m looking forward to exploring Bastion and finding out what this Anthem of Creation business is all about. Cautious, but on board. I definitely love the grabbits with a fierce passion, as well.

[burnouts3s3]

Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, a review

(Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit unprofessional blog post written by an unprofessional blog poster. All purported facts and statement are little more than the subjective, biased opinion of said blog poster. In other words, don’t take anything I say too seriously. Just the facts 'Cause you're in a Hurry! Publisher: Sega Developer: Sega CS1 Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP): 59.99 USD How much I paid: 59.99 USD Rated: M for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes How long I played: 12 Hours to complete the story mode (while watching the cutscenes) on Easy Mode. Microtransactions: An alternate Skin that is free if downloaded between October 2nd through October 16th. Pre-order bonus of 6 Destiny Talismans, equipable items that boost stats or other effects, all which are earnable in-game. Dual Audio: Yes. Both the Japanese and English Audio is available. English Cast: Robbie Daymond as Kenshiro, Sarah Williams as Yuria, Greg Chun as Shin, Allegra Clark as Xsana, Imari Williams as Jagre, Kirk Thornton as Toki, Kyle Hebert as Rihaku and Patrick Seitz as Raoh. What I played on: A Regular PS4, not a PS4 Pro Performance Issues: For the most part, Fist of the North Star runs very smoothly, with little to no hiccups that’s beautiful even to look at, even on a regular PS4. One instance of a game pausing for a brief moment before transitioning to a quicktime event. My Personal Biases: I only recently got into Fist of the North Star and have to say I quite enjoy following Kenshiro and his many adventures in the wasteland. My Verdict: Get ready to say “ATATATATATATA!” as you kick, punch, slap, and brutally kill any bandit you come across. While the open world element doesn’t offer anything new in terms of revolutionizing the genre, there’s such a plethora of content, mini-games, challenges and sidequests that even after the short campaign is finished, you’ll be busy mixing drinks, playing baseball with steel girders and managing your own nightclub. It maybe a Yakuza game reskinned as a FOTNS game, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a whole lot of fun. Buy it! Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, a review

Sega is at it again. After their successful Yakuza series getting prominence in the West, the same developers decide to do the same thing, but using the Fist of the North Star license. Will they succed the same way they did with Yakuza? Let’s find out in this review of “Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise”! The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic alternate timeline Earth. After a nuclear war, the oceans have dried up. Kenshiro, a successor of the martial art Hokuto Shinken, was defeated by Shin, who proceeded to kidnap his fiancée, Yuria. Kenshiro thus travels through the wastelands to find his beloved. He eventually hears rumours that a woman called Yuria could be found in the city of Eden - he makes his way to Eden to find Yuria. Newcomers don’t have to worry about being lost as the game takes place in an alternate continuity and explains all the events occurring so they can catch up. So while the series’ iconic villains, such as Shin and Raoh, and familiar faces, such as Bat and Lin, make an appearance, the game’s narrative changes the context of such settings to fit into the world of Fist of the North Star and the new land of Eden. The city of Eden itself might alienate fans of the original show. Eden is a fully working city with services, guards, food and currency. It’s such a departure of one usually expects from Fist of the North Star. But, if you’ll give it a chance, you’ll find yourself loving the city but also invested in its characters. Things actually get less interesting outside of Eden. While the Wasteland is vast and allows for lots of exploration in your buggy, it’s mostly empty save for the occasional group of enemies and item to be found and sold. Occasionally, defeating an enemy will unlock a treasure map, markers that show valuable loot on the map. But most are under a timer so Kenshiro will have to drive fast before it’s lost for good. Combat is the game’s strength. While it doesn’t evolve much between light and heavy attacks, the variety of foes and situations he can use his abilities always surprised me. Just when I thought it would get tedious, Kenshiro finally pulls off a move that has my jaw dropped to the floor. Should a foe be in a staggered position, players can press the circle button to active a quick time event, leading to a cinematic kill. Sometimes Ken punches an enemy 100 times. Sometimes, he uses both thumbs to make the enemy’s head explode. Should Kenshiro use the circle button to ‘channel’ at just the right time, it leads to an instant death of the enemy, causing them to explode into gooey bits! And what Sega open world would be complete without mini-games? Remember that manga chapter where Kenshiro played some arcade games? Or worked as a bartender? Or used his healing ability to treat the sick? Or managed a nightclub and had to deal with troublemakers? That’s right, in this game you get a plethora of sidequests (called ‘substories’) where Ken can earn experience and money by playing mini-games. Working at the hospital activates a rhythm mini-game using timed button presses. Managing the nightclub means having to manage your ‘girls’ put them in the right table and manage their money, the customer type and their energy levels. Of course, if you’re feeling up to something more manly, you can fight off waves of enemies at the colosseum. (My personal favorite is using a large steel girder to play baseball against incoming motorcycle gangs and hitting their bikes away).   Completing story missions, doing substories or playing minigames will earn Experience, causing Ken to level up and gain Destiny Orbs, blank orbs that can be used to progress the game’s skill tree. In the colosseum, he can earn Battle Points and use it to buy Technique, Body or Mind orbs to progress your tree. The skill progression is surprisingly varied, allowing for different branches to explore and can give significant boosts or techniques in combat. Ken soon learns that in the city of Eden, Yuria has locked herself into the sacred chamber, a mysterious room that somehow provides power to all of Eden. But invaders and combatants would soon loot Eden for its resources and Kenshiro finds himself teaming up with the city’s guard to stop the bandits before they destroy everything. The game’s plot is serviceable. Granted, much like the source material, it relies more on coincidence than character action and reaction. (It find it a bit odd that many of the main players just ‘happen’ to know each other) as well as the reliance of weird rules to generate stakes (when you find out why certain plot devices work, you’d have to question the logic of what the architects and engineers were thinking). It’s too bad the game’s main story is all too short and the game attempts to hinder speedrunners by scaling the enemies to ridiculous amounts of levels so that players will have to grind mini-games and coliseum fights or be overpowered. What’s surprising is that the English dub of the game is actually very well acted. Robbie Daymond  (who voiced the English Goro Akechi from Persona 5) manages to capture the cold yet gentle nature of Kenshiro (though I think my favorite will always be Lex Lang in the old dub). At first, I thought Daymond would be too young and high pitched for Kenshiro but he actually delivers at the moments that matter the most. And it’s great to hear voice acting veterans such as Kyle Hebert, Patrick Seitz and Kirk Thornton voicing the NPCs. But praise should be put on Allegra Clark. Bioware fans (what few are remaining) will recognize her as Josephine from Dragon Age: Inquisition and Nakmor Kesh from Mass Effect: Andromeda, but she’s also done some anime work (such as in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure) and she does a really good job as Xsana, growing a scared girl who doesn’t know what to do to a leader willing to leader her people into prosperity.   THE JAPANESE VOICES ARE AVAILABLE TO THOSE WHO PREFER IT. CAVEAT: Fist of the North Star is by no means a revolution or an innovation to the open world genre. Like Yakuza, it’s a polished, well-made entry that offers a lot to both fans and non-fans alike. A lot of critics are going to say that the open world element feels restrictive or that the level scaling is attempting to make up for the short campaign or that the combat, at times, feels repetitive. While all those criticisms are true, I still had a great time with the game. It’s a game that’s more about style than substance, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t have one helluva style! Verdict: Buy it!

[commanderlurker]

I've had a day to decompress, I’ve thought about the game, and I've worked through a few of my feelings on it. They are contradictory and hypocritical. I fully acknowledge that. 

2,300 word diatribe under the cut, with game spoilers and character hate. I need to get it out of my system so I can move on with my life.

I went into the game with low expectations and the game still managed to let me down. I think one of the reasons for this is that I went into the game with the wrong mindset. I went in with high expectations for the characters while not really giving a shit about the story, because characters are what Bioware is good at! But in the end, the story was the most interesting part while the characters... well... they lacked.

My one continual feeling throughout the game was boredom. The side quests were boring. Travelling between systems was boring. Side quests that required you to travel between systems were so boring. Mining was boring. Crafting was boring. The characters were, mostly, boring.

There were a few moments of ah! Yes! But they were let down by poor execution. Take Ryder Family Secrets, for example. I absolutely loved that quest line and if I end up writing any fic for Andromeda, it will be based on this. Sure, finding floating orbs of light as 'memory triggers' was dumb but it's a game mechanic so whatever. The memories themselves were great. Alec's reasoning for partitioning them was mostly great. Then the big reveal at the end? Your mum isn't dead? WHOAH!! BUT, and this is a huge but,  the reactions you get from the two Ryders are, 'Wow! Isn't this great! Mum's not dead!' But I'm sitting here like, WHAT THE FUCK GUYS??? I was fucking pissed off that Dad hadn't told us. That he'd lied about her dying, that he'd gone so far as to take an unconscious woman who had already accepted her death to another fucking galaxy possibly without her consent. Don't get me wrong, it's a great twist! But the execution, the fact that the only 'angry' option I had to respond with was a confused and sad 'why didn't dad tell us' instead of an actual angry 'wtf dad' response really pissed me off and took away from the emotional impact of that whole story.

Sticking to the Ryders for a moment, I really did love my Ryder. Frustrating character creator aside, I made someone who looked great and the VA was perfect for her. I can’t stand BroRyder’s VA but that’s just me, not really a legitimate criticism against the game. BUT that your sibling is asleep for such a long part of the game doesn’t really give you much time to develop a relationship with them, or ‘remember’ them, as it were. Sibling wakes up and is very soon thrown into the Main Plot deep end. The stakes are raised too soon. I was sitting here thinking, if I end up having to choose between me and Bro, I’m going to choose me because I have very little reason to care about Bro.

First contact with the Angara was really underwhelming. We get a couple of interactions where we can't understand each other and then our translators kick in no problem. That's what annoyed me the most, actually. That they were so wary of outsiders/aliens was understandable in light of what you learn about the Kett, so I have no complaints there. But the whole scene was just… short. And… dull. That was really frustrating.

And, this might just be me being an Antipodean, but making the angara sound foreign by giving them Australian (and Dickens-eque servant/maid) accents just made me laugh. I kept expecting an Angara to turn up with a cork hat and a dagger between her teeth and suggest we go wrestle a crocodile. Not really a complaint, just something weird that kept pulling me from the game in an amusing way.

My other translation gripes are with the Kett interactions and then the Jadaan at the end. How did SAM manage to instantly translate this dead language? ~plot reasons~ obviously. SAM ended up coming across as a bit of a deus ex machina, except when the plot meant he needed time to decrypt something that he had no problem decrypting from a mission ago.

One thing I really liked about SAM: When you're in the Archon's ship and SAM say he (is he a he?? I don't care) has to stop your heart, kill you, in order to get you out of the Arcon's fancy jail. That for me was cool. It really highlighted the AI/Human conflict, and the characters' reaction to that, Lexi, in particular, was great. Again, if I write anything, the AI/Human relationship will be considered (but there are people out there who will do a much better job of that than me), BUT I didn't really feel like I had enough time to work up to that, to consider life before an AI implant and life after.

Game play: There were a couple of very frustrating instances of the game not being good in telling you what to do. In Liam's loyalty quest, you have to shoot/smash through a wall, but there is nothing about that wall to indicate that it is smashable. I kept following my quest marker and getting stuck at the wall, thinking, it can't be this way, I must need to go another way. In another mission, I encountered another such wall and Ryder or someone said, 'maybe try shooting it'. I don't know if I just didn't hear that the first time or what, but I got so fucking frustrated (don't get me started on how much I fucking hated Liam's loyalty mission and how much I ended up hating Liam afterwards.) I ended up watching a walkthrough on youtbube and when I this fucking player just shot the wall I almost threw my fucking controller across the fucking room. My god. In other games, a breakable wall is usually pretty obvious: a different pattern, a slightly off colour. It looks out of place. But these breakable walls just looked like they were part of the room.

The Krogan/Salarian conflict: Oh my god. Call me a space racist, I don't give a fuck, but I fucking hate the krogan and wish they'd not been brought to Andromeda. Being constantly reminded how much the Krogan and Salarians hate each other was really fucking grating. Morda was a fucking cunt. Wanted to shoot her. Wanted to nuke the entirety of New Tuchanka (with the exception of the nice romantic krogan guy. He was a sweetheart).

There is no nuance to their conflict. In the Trilogy, the krogan are fucking awful, too, but they're tempered by Wrex. The Salarians' involvement in the genophage is ~okay~ because Mordin is cool. (I don't like Mordin, FYI, I think he’s a fucking dick). But in Andromda, the generations-long conflict is constantly shoved down your fucking throat to the point where I stopped caring about the Krogan at all. Grow up, put on your big boy pants, and join the negotiation table. Stop playing the victim and acting like none of this is your fault (to be fair to them, they were treated very badly on the Nexus), take some responsibility, and stop threatening to blow people up. Terrorism, or the threat of terrorism, doesn't make people want to work with you, Morda! Or whoever. That quest was confusing. I wasn’t paying attention because my god, I just stopped caring about the fucking krogan and their fucking problems.

The shove-down-your-throat issue was really highlighted on the Archon’s ship. The choice between saving the Salarian Pathfinder and her mates, or some random fucking krogan scouts of Drack’s? Of course I’m going to choose the fucking pathfinder over some random fucking krogan scouts. Oh my god. What is wrong with the krogan.

On the topic of cunts, how the fuck did so many low life scum get into the Initiative in the first place? Just how many fucking exiles were there?!?! I killed so many. SO MANY. HUNDREDS. And the hundreds more in Kadara Port that I also wanted to murder with nuclear weapons but for some reason the game didn't give me that option. I read Nexus Uprising and while it gave me a bit more context (especially with Sloane--but that's a can of worms I'm not going to open right now) than what non-readers had, neither the book nor the game really answer a) how these fucks got into the Imitative and b) why so many people were woken up. If I remember correctly, only two people in the book had manual override codes for the cryo pods, and Tann, Addison, and Kelly agreed (for once) to only wake those needed to get the Nexus working. But there must have been, what, 10k people across the Nexus and the exiles? That’s the impression I got. I understand the need for “low skill” people like dancers and bar staff and cleaners in Helius, fuck, not everyone is a scientist, but I question why the people likely to shiv you were allowed in. That made me really depressed, actually. You travel to another fucking galaxy and we end up with another Omega. Great. Conflict like that lasts generations. Sons and sons and sons of the first exiles hating the sons and sons and sons of the Nexus for history that no one really remembers the truth behind. I vacillated between wanting to save as many as I could, bring them back into the Nexus family, and wanting to fucking nuke them all.

This leads to a point that I read in another post: Just about everywhere you, as Ryder, went, the exiles had been already. Whether it was a planet or a star system, chances are, Ryder stumbled across stolen Nexus shuttles/gear/satellites. In a game that was advertised as going-where-humans-have-never-been-before, there sure weren't that many opportunities for Ryder to actually be the first.

Do I do a breakdown of the characters? I feel like I should, since I went into this game really hoping to find my new OTP, the person who would break my heart in all the right ways. Positive first: I really liked all the female squadmates. That was the one thing I wanted and the one thing I got: Likeable women. I didn't fall in love, but I did get a great female crew.

All in all, the characters fell flat, and that's the most disappointing part of Andromeda. In Inquisition, I could forgive the shit plot and that the whole story peaked with the destruction of Haven because the characters made up for it. In Andromeda, the characters were at best, interesting, but mostly not much more than cardboard cutouts. Not much in the way of nuance. They rarely felt like real people, fleshed out.

Cora was not what I was expecting personality wise but I loved her anyway (except for her tragic biosecurity blunder with the seeds on Eos, but I'm putting that down to writing rather than her character). Her loyalty mission made me feel feelings, which is an achievement, to be honest.

Vetra is amazing. She's wonderful. I love her and I love Sid. Had she not been turian, I would have romanced her in a heartbeat.

Peebee was fun and unpredictable. She's who I ended up romancing and I enjoyed it, but that's all.

Liam. He was gone as soon as I figured out how to change my squad (and that took a fucking long time. That loadout system is not intuitive at all). I liked him fine to start off with, I just preferred Cora and Peebee on my squad. But then came his loyalty mission and fuck him. He was out. I was glad I got to yell at him at the end. Never used him again.

Drack grew on me. Totally love grandpa Drack. Surprise star. Still, never took him out except when I had to deal with the Krogan, which I avoided whenever possible.

Jaal got on my tits. Bro, please talk faster. I have five other crew mates to talk to, I don't have all day.

After I got over my disappointment of Lexi being an Asari and not, you know, Natalie Dormer, I really liked her.

Suvi's great. Liked her a lot, especially after you discover the ~truth~ about the Angara. There’s lots of nuance there, lots to explore in terms of creation and evolution. Her lip gloss looks like it tastes like strawberries.

Once I could remember Kallo's name, he was cool. I liked his and Gil's continual conflict and the way it was resolved.

Gil was great, though I worry he has a gambling addiction. I don’t have any strong feeling either way on his baby with Jill. I thought Jill was a dick, but whatever, I didn’t need to be friends with her.

I really liked the main missions. For the most part, it was action packed, full of suspense and wonder, and well executed. HOWEVER the Archon was a pretty fucking boring antagonist. One sided. I did see a post that talked about him being effectively a middle manager defeated by his own hubris, and that take does add some interest to him, but ultimately, he's boring. The kett are boring. They are Collectors. There is barely a difference between them and the Collectors. Cough *reapers* cough. A more interesting story could have involved just the Remnant tech. But you got to shoot, something, I suppose.

A list of the other shit I didn't like: crafting, R&D, AVP, mining, SAM talking over my squadmates to tell me shit I already know about AVP and mining, huge maps, mining, why the fuck am I the one doing the fucking mining, HUGE MINERAL DEPOSITS of 67 iron wow thanks that's great.

Yeah. I think that's it. I'm disappointed by how disappointed I am. I resent how much of the game is shit, and how much that shit detracts from what is actually good. I don't know how many of my complaints are legitimate criticisms or nitpicking, or whatever. But like I said at the start of this diatribe, I went in with low expectations and the game failed to even make it to that low bar. Perhaps, after enough time has passed, I'll pick the game up and stick only to Priority and Allies missions and hopefully enjoy it more. But right now? I'm bored. So bored. And so disappointed.