#but again for this style of combat i literally don't think you need it and that's okay!

[maliro-t]

some game design thinky thoughts.

[godsofhumanity]

okay i admit i may have been projecting onto my best friend Apollo, but logically, if Artemis fights a lot with Hera, then I assume Apollo also has a certain level of annoyance/hatred with Hera.

anyways. for Artemis, i say that she is mean, or rather, disrespectful, to Hera based on the following:

in the Iliad, Apollo (on the side of the Trojans) and Poseidon (on the side of the Greeks), come head-to-head. but Apollo, out of respect for Poseidon, chooses not to engage in battle with him. Artemis comes face-to-face with Hera, queen of the gods, and decides that she will fight Hera and even berates Apollo for being a "coward" and not fighting Apollo:

"Let me [Artemis] not hear you [Apollo] in the halls of my father boasting ever again, as you did before among the immortals, that you could match your strength in combat against Poseidon." (Homer's Iliad, Book 21, Line 475)

and then after Hera beats her (somewhat easily lol), she goes and complains about it to Zeus, as if Hera did something wrong:

"Her father [Zeus] caught her against him, and laughed softly, and questioned her : ‘Who now of the [gods], dear child, has done such things to you, rashly, as if you were caught doing something wicked?’ Artemis, sweet-garlanded lady of clamours, answered him: ‘It was your wife, Hera of the white arms, who hit me...’" (Homer's Iliad, Book 21, Line 505)

and i know that this style of writing makes everything a lot more dramatic then it needs to be, but still! Hermes, faced against Leto, decided that he wouldn't fight her because she was a wife of Zeus and it was wrong for him to do so:

"Leto, I [Hermes] will not fight with you; it is a foolish thing to fight with the wives of Zeus, the cloud-gatherer..." (Homer's Iliad, Book 21, Line 498)

evidently, both Apollo and Hermes understood that it wasn't proper for them to fight against their elders, and Hermes explicitly states that it's not right to fight a wife of Zeus, but Artemis alone decides that she can do whatever she wants and tries to contend with Hera... ?? seems like she has a grouse against Hera (and i get why given Leto and Python, etc.).

2. in Nonnus' Dionysiaca, Artemis again does battle with Hera (and loses).

"Against Hera came highland Artemis as champion for hillranging Dionysus [when the gods took sides in the battle of Dionysus' forces against the Indians]... [and Hera] struck Artemis flat on the skin of the breast, and Artemis, smitten ..., emptied her quiver upon the ground." (Nonnus' Dionysiaca, Book 36, Line 28)

now unlike in the Iliad, i do think Artemis was justified here because she was trying to protect Dionysus, but it's just funny to me that Artemis always seems to be fighting with Hera. they never really seem to be on the same page. it's interesting because in the Dionysiaca, Hera seems to explicitly describes Artemis as a foil of Hera:

"... you virgin marriage-hater..." (Nonnus' Dionysiaca, Book 36, Line ~70)

anyways. the most stand-out point to me, is that when Artemis and Hera go head-to-head, there's always this long passage of insults that proceed any fighting, especially on Hera's end. i wont write it out all here, but you can see it in the Dionysiaca, Book 36. that says to me that Hera really doesn't like Artemis, and Artemis surely couldn't like Hera either. they strike me as the kind of people who take every opportunity to be snide and cruel to each other. even Athena, whom Hera didn't like very much in the beginning when Zeus appeared to "give birth to her on his own", Hera eventually became friends with and in the Iliad they seem to have a very close relationship. but Hera never really gets something like that with Artemis,, which is what makes me say that they didn't get along.

i admit, my language might've been extreme in saying that Apollo and Artemis were "bitches" to Hera HAHAH i am a shitposter after all, don't take my word literally. but still, my sentiments stemmed from this idea of Hera and Artemis appearing to fight a lot when they share scenes.

[eruscreaminginthedistance]

Finally got around to watching some post-embargo vids and I have some now updated Veilguard thoughts.

Stuff I liked:

Character creator is a standout as always. This has consistently been the strong point of Bioware's games in the last 10 years so no surprises there. The pronoun and other gender-related options are a welcome addition.

Companions all seem great. I'm sad we haven't got more Davrin or Bellara content yet, since those are the two I'm most interested in learning about. Their initial introduction in that terrible cinematic trailer didn't do these guys any favours, but seeing them in gameplay footage gives a much better impression of them. It's also exciting to see more companion-on-companion interactions and relationships.

I was put off by the voice acting in the 10 minute gameplay reveal months ago, but what I've heard so far has been much better.

Main menu looks pretty.

As an ME fan, I'm pro dialogue wheel; it's unfortunate that Inquisition turned that whole mechanic into a massive drip. This is less a thing I notice but something I hope, that this game's dialogue wheel will have a more DA2 or ME1 vibe.

Hngnggn vfjddjgfnbhn oooowowo o cloaks.

Stuff I didn't like:

The art style is not redeeming itself. Wolfheart made a very insightful point that it might be a holdover from when Veilguard was going to be a live service multiplayer game, and it definitely does give that impression. Everything is still incredibly smooth and it's clear there was a lot of effort put into making things "nice" looking. It's giving very "everyone's beautiful but no one is horny" to me. I'm on the haters' side with the Qunari; where are their textures?

On that note, oh my god. The UI and the VFX. This must have also been a result of live service elements. As someone who hates playing late-game mages in Origins because all of the VFX gives me a headache this game looks actively hostile. Does literally every single ability require flashing neon lights? Why does the UI look like a World of Warcraft meme? Why does every single interactive object glow? Wolfheart noted that even after turning everything off, a bunch of VFX elements were still present, which is tremendously disappointing. Bioware can miss me with this cocomelon for adults visual style; I just do not need all of these annoying tricks to try and keep my attention.

Also on the UI - idk man. Remember when fantasy games weren't embarrassed about looking fantasy? Remember when all of Origins menus opened up in a little book with parchment pages? Character selection took place in a little castle? I just don't get this Thing Bioware has had since 2 to make DA's game UI look cool and slick by taking all the fun out of its visual elements. I've heard it before but I've got to agree, Veilguard's UI looks like a mobile game. And again, it's so busy it's 100% gonna give me headaches.

The combat is.... I won't call it "bad". I just hate it. See above for one of the reasons why. I think I could write a whole essay on how discomfiting it is. The very very clear push (likely from EA) to have the game resemble big name titles like Breath of the Wild and God of War has taken the game in the direction of just kind of a generic hack and slash; at least DA2 married its action elements with its party mechanics and has its own unique voice. There's something in particular that sets my teeth on edge tbh. I'm watching gameplay of warriors and rogues in combat and they're pretty much indistinguishable from mages. Teleporting, fire and lightning flying about in basic attacks, just a ton of stuff that makes me cringe to look at. There's a complete lack of class fantasy there for me - why would I want to play a warrior that isn't just a big guy with a big sword? Is this a result of story elements? Why is my low level rogue demolishing entire groups of enemies ala Dynasty Warriors? In a world where the distinction between a magic person and a non-magic person is incredibly important, could cost you your life, watching a rogue shoot lightning out of their knives makes me groan. Are Bioware's efforts to make the player feel like the coolest specialist person that ever lived going to be addressed in-game? We'll have to see.

Lack of control over your own companions ala Mass Effect. I don't wanna talk about it it's too depressing.

I've noted this in the past but obviously the tonal departure from low/dark fantasy to classic high fantasy. The character backgrounds for the Rooks pretty much lock you into playing a good guy, which is a huge shame. Even if you want to pick a faction that is canonically shady or morally neutral AT BEST like the Crows, they make sure to tell you that the other Crows don't like you because you're just that good-hearted. In a faction like the Grey Wardens, notorious for taking in criminals of all stripes, you spend your background saving helpless villagers. What are the options going to be like for people who want to play morally grey or potentially evil Rooks? It's starting to look like Bioware isn't going to give you a much wiggle room to define your character out of what they need you to be.

Lip flap looks like a very mixed bag. Maybe it's just the footage but voices and mouths look out of sync.

Can't make a post without reminding everyone that Bioware isn't our friend; they've fired half the people who worked on this game and greedy producers like EA don't deserve our money.

Update: Only just came across this but phasing out inventory management? Yeah welcome back Mass Effect trilogy :/

Neutral opinions:

Other shit like the Darkspawn and overall mob designs have been a problem since DA2 so I don't see the point in rehashing it here, other than to say that I can't wait for the "DLC with the good Darkspawn designs in it" this time around.

Opening scene gives me huge Mass Effect vibes; the bar fight and the music in that scene felt very "Lair of the Shadow Broker", which I guess is a compliment.

Varric still not dead yet. Kill that old man!

Ultimately, I'm putting in prediction now that Veilguard is going to go the DA2 route of having a decent and well-loved story, but with massive issues regarding its gameplay and aesthetic that players will just have to get over in order to enjoy the game.

I'm not gonna be buying on release - first time that's been the case for a Dragon Age game since Origins; the current plan is to wait until the Christmas sales, which gives plenty of time for the fandom to either assuage my fears or implode cos the game is shit. Either that or the Solavellan content is so crisp and juicy I'll have to learn to pirate.

[neuronic-embroidery]

deep dive character sheet

stolen from: ree tagging: everyone!

NAME: RUAN MEI

BODY

height: 175 / 5′ 9

strength ★☆☆☆☆ (she is a scientist not a fighter)

dexterity ★★★★★ (does a lot of experiments which probably needs good dex)

health ★★★★☆ (takes care of herself relatively well)

energy ★★★☆☆ (able to take on a task for an extended period of time)

beauty ★★★★★ (canonically GORGEOUS)

style ★★★★★  (have you SEEN her dress)

hygiene ★★★☆☆ (occasionally forgets to take care of herself due to locking in)

SKILLS

perception ★★★★★ (she gotta notice stuff to be a scientist)

communication ★☆☆☆☆ (does NOT usually go out of her way to talk but is to the point)

persuasion ★★★☆☆ (does manipulation/drugging count as pursuasion)

mediation ☆☆☆☆☆ (does NOT gaf)

literacy ★★★★★ (scholar moment)

creativity ★★★★★ (she is making breakthroughs)

cooking ★★★★★ (canonically loves making sweets in her spare time)

tech savvy ★★★☆☆ (pretty good with tech)

combat ☆☆☆☆☆ (the opposite of a fighter)

survival ★★☆☆☆ (could cook for herself but is not a fighter again)

stealth ☆☆☆☆☆ (not her area of research lmao)

street smarts ★★★☆☆ (could tell when she's being scammed but does not like to interact with people)

seduction ☆☆☆☆☆ (not interested in it at all)

luck ★★☆☆☆ (less luck and more hard work from her end)

handling animals ★★★☆☆ (can handle them well to observe them)

pacifying children ☆☆☆☆☆ (not a single motherly bone in her BODY)

MIND

intelligence ★★★★★ (can i give her six stars shes a genius)

happiness ★★★☆☆ (how to gage happiness when your muse doesn't feel much at all)

spirituality ★☆☆☆☆ (doesn't think about it much it's not biology)

confidence ★★★★★ (knows what she's good at)

humor ★☆☆☆☆ (has almost no sense of humour at all)

anxiety ☆☆☆☆☆ (one of the most calm mfs)

patience ★★★★★ (when dr ratio said 'patience breeds success' she was already waiting)

passion ★★★★★ (she gonna become an aeon bro she SWEARS IT)

nice         ☆☆☆☆★ mean

brave       ☆☆★☆☆ cowardly (she won't go out of her way to put herself in dangerous situations but she isn't a coward)

pacifist     ☆☆★☆☆ violent (doesn't mind violence just doesn't participate in it)

thoughtful ★☆☆☆☆ impulsive (never acts on impulse)

agreeable ☆☆☆★☆ contrary (it will go how she wants it to most of the time)

idealistic   ☆☆☆☆★ pragmatic (very grounded in reality)

frugal        ★☆☆☆☆ big spender (can't see her being a big spender)

extrovert   ☆☆☆☆★ introvert (hates most people)

collected   ★☆☆☆☆ wild (almost scarily collected.)

ambitious / possessive / stubborn / jealous / decisive / perfectionist

SOCIAL

charisma ☆☆☆☆☆ (none. none at all)

empathy ☆☆☆☆☆ (literally zero)

generosity ★☆☆☆☆ (only if it benefits her)

wealth ★★★★★ (i mean geniuses probably get a lot of funding right?)

honest  ☆☆★☆☆ deceptive (depends on the situation)

leader   ★☆☆☆☆ follower

polite    ★☆☆☆☆  rude (a very polite lady!)

political ☆☆☆☆★ indifferent (she do not gaf)

BELIEFS

higher power ★★★★★ (wants to become one)

fate/destiny ★☆☆☆☆ (she is a believer of creating her own destiny)

magic ★☆☆☆☆ (science rules)

soulmates ☆☆☆☆☆ ("a pathetic human belief that was created to self-soothe.")

good and evil ☆☆☆☆☆ (there is only what is necessary)

luck ★★★☆☆ (sure, why not)

PRIORITIES

family ★★★★★ (she would tear apart existing laws for them)

friends ☆☆☆☆☆ (unecessary)

love ☆☆☆☆☆ (aroace)

home ★★★★☆ (home is important)

health ☆☆☆☆☆ (does it matter if she can research more?)

praise ☆☆☆☆☆ (only her goals matter)

justice ☆☆☆☆☆

truth ★★★☆☆ (for the sake of research)

power ☆☆☆☆☆ (just does what she wants)

fame ☆☆☆☆☆

wealth ☆☆☆☆☆

others' opinions ☆☆☆☆☆ (she don't gaf)

[felassan]

A few more snippets of interest and insight from Mark Darrah, from an older Mark Darrah on Games YouTube video where he was livestreaming playing Dragon Age: Origins some months ago -

Chat said "I am fine with any and all cameos, but I am not holding my breath for Sera and Vivienne to have anything more than a passing mention." Mark said, "I don't think they'll worry, if they want to put Vivienne and Sera in DA:D they'll do it. I don't think either of them have any quantum endings do they? Oh that's true, Vivienne can be Divine."

"The Darkspawn Chronicles DLC is canon-ish but definitely yeah, the team reserves the right to ignore it and has."

"I don't know why they've steered away from the tree ents [sylvans]. They could come back. They're nobody's favorite, so they just kinda fall down the priority list. If there was a good reason for them they could easily come back. You could have made a sylvan off the Behemoth rig from DA:I, but that would be weird and not really match the sylvans from DA:O. I think the way you would do it actually would probably be to build something off the giant rig, but again it would be different, so you'd really wanna make a custom rig."

[source]

He also talked more generally about DA:O and the franchise and things in general. These bits are collected under a cut due to length -

"Is it just me or are the conversation trees in Awakening much longer than they are in DA:O?"

"Yeah, Oghren is pretty problematic"

"The junk mechanic in DAII in inventory was a nice quality of life feature. Well, it's not 'junk', it's more mark-to-sell"

"Games take a lot longer to make now because the number of assets and the fidelity of them is so much higher. In the late 90s you literally couldn't do that much, it had to fit on a CD or a few CDs. Now you've got blu-rays which have fifty times as much space"

"I think classes are a good thing in general just from a usability perspective, and also if you're gonna have a party-based game you need class roles otherwise you just end up with a big mushy miss. But obviously it can take things off the table that you might want to do." Chat commented "Do you think having a set type of role limits how they can evolve?" Mark replied, "It does limit them to some degree, that's sort've somewhat the problem. You could always violate those limitations if you want. You can make the hand-to-hand mage specialization"

"You can definitely see that DAII and Awakening are like, very close to each other on different sides of the line"

"It is weird that you suddenly have stamina potions in Awakening"

Chat said "I personally disliked that only rogues can open chests. It's alright from the RP perspective, but was limiting the gameplay imho." Mark replied, "It's annoying, I mean, that I don't, the out of combat stuff was even moreso in DA:I. But I think tying the out of combat stuff to the in-combat stuff puts you in a position of weird choices based upon how you want to play and I don't know that that's great. 'You basically have to bring one of everything' was the point, was the idea in DA:I, but I don't know that it was a good one"

"Awakening is a really plot-heavy expansion, with an insane amount of side quest material"

"The problem in DAII isn't that, it's not asset reuse, it's actually level reuse. That's I think what pushes it over the edge. And calling them different levels. Also that cave is too identifiable, it's got very specific bits of architecture"

"The problem with the DA:O darkspawn is that they don't really fit together, especially the ogre, they kinda look like a totally different evolutionary path. DAII is definitely trying to get them into a consistent art style"

Chat said "Should DA have beast peoples like cat people, dog people, lizard people? Qunari is bull people right?" Mark replied, "Qunari are more like dragon people. No, I don't think DA has cat people and dog people. There's snake people referenced in lore. Yeah, it is implied that qunari are descended from dragons. Yeah, they have horns, that's their main thing for why they look like dragons, is they have horns like DA dragons"

"I'll probably watch Dragon Age: Absolution"

"The problem with the Fade in DA:O I thin is you can end up easily in this weird inception level of quests because you're doing Redcliffe, which leads you to the Mage Tower, which leads you to the Fade, so you're like so detached from your goal that it really undercuts it. It's not supposed to be filler but it definitely feels like it. You finish it and then you had to finish it again. It's weird pacing"

Chat asked "Is there a reason why we never went to Gwaren in DA:O?" Mark replied "We had enough areas to visit in DA:O already. And you don't really have a reason to go there. Loghain isn't there, and there's nothing that can help you there"

"I'm pretty sure that, one of the reasons this exists [recruiting Velanna in the Wending Wood segmet] is because sylvans weren't used very much, it's a good thing to use the creature model for in your expansion pack"

"Varric is carrying a lot more weight in DA:I than in DAII"

"Stun-locking the player character is not good game design typically. Crowd control used by the player character is fine, but when it's used on the PC, you know, standing around is not very fun"

[source]

(pls note that in places there is a bit of paraphrasing of the info, the best source is always the primary source with full quotes in their original context)

[ruakichan]

A bit late to the party, but I started Ash Echoes last night. In general, a fairly solid game in a genre I normally dislike.

I really don't like RTS or sRPGs, mostly because I find them way too slow paced and sometimes too punishing for a single mistake. Ash being RTS helps a lot with the slow pace; being gacha generally means that, for the most part, the difficulty level is lower. I've been enjoying myself, especially since the combat does make me think of Kings Raid or Grand Chase DC.

The story is pretty dense from the start, but I didn't find it particularly difficult to follow along if you pay even a little bit of attention. I appreciated that the world is already embroiled in many problems and the MC--not an amnesiac for once lol--is thrust into a new position trying to deal with it. There are questions about the responsibility the MC has as a leader both to the people and the organization they work for and the groups they're allied with, all which often have conflicting goals and interests. I feel like so much of this story is what I expected and wanted Wuthering Waves to be. The characters also have a lot of opportunities to shine and interact with each other.

Speaking of which, the character spread is solid: pretty good on the men-women parity split, which is becoming so rare these days from CN games, with some interesting and attractive designs all around. From what I understand, this is a spin off game of an established CN franchise, so the characters feel less "gacha oriented" in terms that they don't have the usual tropes designed to make people pull, and the in-game lore that this world is literally a multiverse nexus allows for a variety of designs. It's pretty refreshing. I've enjoyed most of the cast so far.

There is a lot to do, which can be pretty overwhelming for people used to barebones launches. It seems best to follow the new player checklist, which lists goals and thus introduces the new systems and game progression as you go. The main mode seems to be the roguelite called Nexus, which serves as a faux equipment building mode. There's a lot of side story and lore buried in here as well.

In fact, the game is really story heavy; there's an event out right now, and it reminded me of FGO or R/1999 in terms of how long and involved the event story is. If reading isn't your thing, this game will be a skip.

As for the rest of it, a lot of the game can be auto or sweep/skip, if you're not particularly good or you're busy. Bosses seem to have the most difficulty spike.

There are a few casual modes, including dorm building and character affection building.

The graphics are... The 2D art is pretty good and I like the approach to the VN style in the main story, as I found it visually engaging. The battle graphics are fine. The 3D models can be oddly hit or miss; I'm reminded of early Xenoblade models? I don't know, the 3D models can be off-putting for some characters due to the style, especially in the eyes.

Nearly all text is voice acted. CN or JP only. Music is fine. Monetization seems standard. There's two banners: characters and traces, which are like CE in FGO or artifacts in Epic Seven. Traces are only worn by the leader and they are buffed in the aforementioned Nexus mode. More 50/50 again, but this is the new standard and I'll always hate mhy for it.

I'm sticking around at the moment. I dropped some gacha--Wuthering Waves and Love and Deepspace--so I have some free space to see if this game is a keeper for the long haul. Currently it's more appealing to me than a lot of other stuff on the market--having a good gender ratio with strong character interactions is super high on my needs--but I'm still early game and sometimes RTS can hit a hard difficulty wall if you're not good at them.

[foureyes802]

hiiiiii 💕 <- for ask game not just random love

ohhhoho favorite character time to spread the good word about the worst x-man, Angel

I think Angel/Warren is one of the X-Men characters who is chronically squandered. My belief is that when people adapt the Archangel plot they often do it as a last resort because they don't know what else to do with him, and once it's resolved (or even before then) they go back to not knowing what to do with him so the whole thing just fizzles out. But I have thoughts and ideas and I see his potential. This is code for "most of what you are about to read is headcanons, because I have been putting off reading the comics and rely heavily on the X-men cartoons right now." More under the cut :3

The whole thing about Warren is that his character conflicts are almost completely internal. He's got a ton of internalized anti-mutant hangups because his dad in most iterations is the billionaire CEO of a pharmaceutical company that's trying to develop a mutant cure. He's anxious, angry, even severely depressed, but he doesn't let that show to any of his teammates. He feels the need to rely only on himself (something something, child neglect) and by putting on a flirty rich "bad boy" front he is able to get away with it for a long time. That is until he loses his wings.

This is how the Archangel arc starts, usually. Warren gets severely injured in some kind of freak accident and ends up in the hospital, where his wings are amputated without his knowledge or consent. FTR this is not even close to the most extreme case of medical abuse in this soap opera ass series. A villain, usually Apocalypse, promises to be able to get his wings back and coerces him into a contraption that brainwashes him and turns him blue and gives him wings made out of metal blades and it's all very late-80s edgy. The X-Men come to stop him and they knock him out of the brainwashing and he leaves forever because now that he's not evil I guess he's no fun anymore. What I'm doing is standing on the rooftops and screaming ARCHANGEL IS NOT A CHARACTER!!! HE IS A NARRATIVE DEVICE!!!!! Yes his knife-wings are very cool and more fun to write and draw combat scenes with but Archangel is a corrupted version of a character we know who has been overtaken by rage. Archangel is REVENGE, Archangel is GRIEF!! He had an integral part of his identity, a literal piece of his body taken away from him and he turned to a very dark place to try and get that back and it changed him permanently. THAT'S INTERESTING! If you work backwards from that it can also make normal-style Angel really interesting too. Does he snap at people? Is he directing his self-loathing outwards? Does he grow at peace with his mutant identity and reject fully the prejudice of his family, content with the family he has found in other mutants, and THAT'S when you strike and take his wings away? MUCH TO THINK ABOUT!!

Wolverine And The X-Men is not a good cartoon, being especially notable for its sidelining and disempowerment of the women X-Men, but it gets the closest to understanding Warren. He's not super present in the show prior, but in "Guardian Angel" he gets the spotlight and this single episode tackles the becoming Archangel part of the arc so well that it's the reason I'm obsessed with this B-list white man. Weirdly it's Mr. Sinister who turns him and not Apocalypse, which doesn't *not* make sense in context unless you remember that if they got a season 2 they were gonna do Apocalypse. But that's a tangent in itself. Anyway the episode is really really great as a somewhat-standalone. The stuff about a mutant cure is an interesting take on fantasy eugenics and Warren is so queercoded it's insane. He's so queercoded that Storm is his girlfriend for no reason and it never comes up again in any other episode. The show also drops the ball on following through with anything Archangel does; see the aforementioned Apocalypse thing, they were probably going to resolve it in season 2. Honestly it's a tossup whether that would have been satisfying had it gotten to exist. WATX is weird, don't watch it.

That's a lot of my thoughts on Warren. It's not all angst, I also think the moments where he's a prankster bastard are really fun. It's just clear to me that so many writers see him as the guy whose boring power is "having wings" and nothing more and that's really disappointing to me, the world's number one enjoyer of arrogant pricks who secretly hate themselves.

[kitkatopinions]

ALrighty!

Spoilers for RWBY ep.... 8 I think? Below the keep reading as well as criticism:

So I was wrong about the Cat. I wish it had turned out to be a morally dubious good guy, but whatever, guess the writers wanted yet another 'the person guiding you is actually not trustworthy' plot.

Here's what I'm gonna say - Neo got fucking taken over and possessed the moment that she actually started getting a spotlight as a villain? HATE that shit. I want Neo, not just some conglomerate taken over by the cat? And I don't like that she talked at all. It should've just been the cat's voice.

Idk if Little is dead or not, but I really don't care about or like Little, so if they are dead, okay??? Better than having to see them again tbh.

Seeing people 'resurrected' but all wrong was kind of dissatisfying? Torchwick was the only one of them who was actually used well (because rwby is going through plotpoints at the speed of light in fourteen to sixteen minute eps so of course we can't sit with things,) but his voice acting was off and so it messed with the immersion some. I don't blame them for not being able to get an exact copycat and I don't think they tried very hard since they didn't need Roman for long, but still, I wish his voice actor had done better. The animation of him was pretty good though.

Ruby ascended? Fuck that shit! I have hope that we're actually going to get 'Ruby down in the tree realizing what 'ascension' actually is, but first off, I wanted Ruby to have a breakdown and struggle, not to be full on suicidal and decide to basically kill herself. Second of all, if this means 'no more Ruby' I am going to be so pissed off. This is Ruby's show, right? Or it's supposed to be! Even if this means that we don't get much Ruby for the next two episodes, I'm still gonna be mad. The 'development' we've gotten so far is just Ruby being in pain, and then seemingly dying? I'm trying not to count my chickens before they hatch or whatever, but this could be worst case scenario, people.

The moment where Ruby was getting attacked by everyone who was dead was... Well, first off, it was weird. Because A. Why would Neo bring in Clover, Leo, and Ozpin? Was she just bringing in everyone she thinks that Ruby may have sort of known who died? Second off, why does Neo think Penny cared about Ruby most in the world? When did she have access to that information? How did she know to use Penny that way? Third off, I liked the 'Ruby strikes out at Ozpin, only for Neo to replace him with Oscar' thing in theory but I would be wrong if I didn't point out that once again the only member of Team RWBYJNOR with dark skin gets the most violent things happening, which is a bad pattern. I get that it may be because Oscar is actually more like Ruby's friend than the rest of her team atm (which is sad,) but I just think the writers should be aware that this is a thing they do that they maybe should correct. Maybe they could've had it be Weiss or Yang that Ruby 'accidentally killed' in these visions? Just a thought. Fourth off! I liked how Neo transformed people into Ruby's alive friends and family, judging her for the 'murder.' Fifth off, I just gotta say the combat was not good for me once again. Neo literally has several people there fighting for her, and they all shot like stormtroopers? Ruby's discombobulated and depressed, so her going down without much fight isn't the problem, the problem is that Neo alone by herself should have been able to easily bring her down, let alone with her clones there to help her. Maybe she only knew Roman well enough to really replicate his style, but Neo and Roman? Tag team of the century!

On to... Team WBYJ. I'm not even gonna get into the fact that Blake and Weiss were more sympathetic to Ruby's struggles than Yang was (I am really frustrated with Yang this season,) but they all just stand there and do nothing while Ruby drinks down poison? What the hell? That is not a freaking good look, guys.

Anyway... I don't know how to feel about this episode, but I'm mostly frustrated and disappointed. And on the other hand, I guess we got good pics of Roman and Neo? I'm gonna have to wait to form a concrete opinions on this ep until we can confirm what the frick actually happened next ep, but for now, it's looking like another 3/10. I got some enjoyment, but overall a bad experience once again.

[rawliverandgoronspice]

https://www.tumblr.com/rawliverandgoronspice/718014251940315136?source=share

Ill be honest and say i think the removal of sheikah related lore was not for internal weird racist reasons and instead simply for game design reasons, why the zonai tech is so similar in concept and execution. totk is a sequel and also a redux, they needed technology for mechanics and a reason for the world to change and introducing an entirely new race of characters would be the perfect scapegoat. it feels like it ignores botw almost entirely because 1) new players 2) to be a finished version of botw more mechanics and more content. the narrative was barely a thing in this game because what mattered the most was design and gameplay above all else. i don't think caring about gameplay first particularly bad, it's a fun game they will probably revolutionize the industry once again, and that nintendo doesn't care about lore at all but it really wasn't the priory here at least that's how I felt when i play the game. i adore the overworld and the npcs but the main quest (tears) story itself is very stale. best praise i can give to it is character design and zeldas sacrifice/how they handled her and link that's literally it (vague because i don't know if you've gotten there yet, it's after the completion of the tears quest and getting the master sword). zelda lore at this point is a sandbox and us fans will do what we want with it. sorry for the ramble!

Hey, thanks for the ask!

So I sort of agree, especially on the first part. I absolutely believe that yes, sheikah were not sidelined for malicious reasons, and the ease of just having one super-powerful ultratech culture you rely on was cleaner than having the old relics hanging around. I actually think it's the cleanest choice to make (one that would have been *even cleaner* would have been to write a story and think of a world that reinvent its landmarks based on that new ideas of archeology and the past bursting back into the present, which is theme that coats the game but doesn't ever permeates it). I still think any acknowledgement that it used to exist would have enriched a world that has, ultimately, very little new things to teach us about itself (I have scoured the Depths a bunch, and it's a combat/exploration hotspot, and that's cool but also what a missed opportunity to try some proper FromSoftware-style worldbuilding down there!). I don't think this would have confused new players; if anything it could have hinted at more and gave the new players any reason to pick up Breath of the Wild? But: the world is a playground! That's cool. I think it could be a much more meaningful playground, that's all. There's a category of players who kind of need some light modicum of internal consistency to be invested in exploration, and will just get bored otherwise (I have seen a bunch of people making this exact remark, and honestly... yeah, there are areas in the game I'm not interested in exploring just because I know it's a consequenceless challenge in the end --I'm just not the kind of player that is hooked by a game loop on its own merit, I need to understand what I'm building towards or I lose interest. It's the kind of thing that wouldn't have changed anything to a regular TotK's enjoyer experience, but would have greatly enriched the experience of players like me)

Still think that making Sheikahs a subset of hylians was a very weird choice. Not an outright malicious one, but one that does build up with all of the other weird choices and make this Hyrule feel like a revisionist Hyrule; and one they simply... didn't have to make.

(I'll maybe do another post about this, but there are so many things in this game that would be very confusing to a new player either way also --but that's kind of going into another territory)

I disagree about one general point, however, and I may get offtrack here a little but I guess you gave me an excuse to rant a little about how narrative design is perceived by the general public and what has been frustrating to witness in regards to the conversation surrounding this game from my perspective.

Mainly, this notion that "they had no other choice" because they chose to prioritize gameplay. I'm going to overshare a little (again sorry) but I work in gamedev in real life; I am actually a narrative designer that did quest design and game writing on a couple of games, some of them that also qualify as AAA open worlds. I think it's completely fair to see this game from a player perspective as a series of compromises struck to privilege the aspect of the game they were the most confident with --however, it is literally my real life job to walk through situations that can be extremely similar to this one and find solutions that weave narration with fun experiences game and level designers managed to put together. It doesn't mean that story has to swallow gameplay: if anything, narrative designers always try to privilege mechanics first and treat them as narrative devices in their own right before whipping out the actual cutscenes and the constant writing (and this game was somehow under AND overwritten in my opinion, especially in English --so I don't think it even solved this aspect?). This is not at all aimed at you in particular but at the internet at large; it ends up being quite grating to see assumptions being made about what can and can't be done in non-linear narrative as like, a fact of the universe instead of it being a specific field that deserve research and investment just like any other graphical advancement or intricate interactive feature, and explain away poor design decisions by the strange notion that they had no other choice, as if Nintendo studios aren't comprised of a bunch of humans who made active and passive choices. Like, I worked on very similar issues. There are solutions to how you feed information to the player in a non-linear way. There are ways to maximize impact and depth, even when you let the player guide the story. Again: it's fine if it doesn't bug you or a lot of people --but there are flaws. It happens. It's gamedev. It's a miracle any game is made at all --and this one is its own sort of miracle. What strikes me as strange is that I never see that level of excuses made for companies that do not cultivate that same image of being an unapproachable, united workforce, that get instead torn to shreds at the slightest sideway brush --but that's another subject maybe (maybe).

Narrative design is this thing that, when it's not there, people don't realize it could be; and when it is there, people take it for granted unless it's very visibly front and center like in Edith Finch or Disco Elysium or any other number of indie games (generally it's the indies who do all the research and development and take all of the risks on that front --like seriously I worked in narrative-driven studios, known for their narrative games, where 2/3 of the game designers couldn't care less about emotional impact beyond satisfaction/frustration/boredom, and it's infinitely frustrating (heh) to have your specialization considered optional fluff when you know how far thematic cohesion can push a game when handled well ANYWAY anyway). So: I was always going to care about the way they handled narrative, because it's how I'm wired, what I research, and I also played this game in part because I was very curious on how they'd push their explorations of BotW's possibilities, which were very interesting if a little limited. Needless to say, this was a let down. And I think it's not unreasonable to have higher narrative standards than this.

I do want to autocorrect myself on a statement I put out before, however, that being the notion that not enough research was put into narrative. I think I want to push forward a new theory that sounds much more plausible to me (again based on nothing but speculation and weird déjà-vu vibes, which is perhaps why I care that much :) :) ), and that being: a lot of research was done, and then cut. It seems very plausible the narrative used to be much more ambitious than this --and then, for one reason or another, somebody panicked, or the thing got out of hand, or they couldn't get it to work exactly right, and everything was downscoped pretty late into production. Six years of development is a long time, and I don't think anyone with the standards of a Nintendo employee would have been happy with handling the storyline the way it was. It kinda feels like a rushed cobble-up of loose threads after a massive downsizing, leaving plot holes and suboptimal emotional experience. Again: just a theory, no proof at all. But I absolutely wouldn't be surprised, and it would explain a lot of things.

[katyspersonal]

Sometimes I just can't shake the feeling that "the curse of Mico simps mysteriously vanishing" I half-jokingly mentioned earlier is simply a reflection of the issue of Bloodborne fandom both being small(ish) and having many very talented artists.

Out of all fandoms I've been at, Bloodborne is the one where literally nothing is easier than to see extremely skilled artists banging out masterpieces every week and feel kinda.. talentless? Mediocre and not wanted, even, especially if you have a simple or cute/silly art style. The only ways to combat this dread is to get on the good side of "cool popular kids" that distribute majority of likes/reblogs, or to find your own supportive group of friends. With Mico fans it just is harder because for some reason the fanbase of this character has always been kinda disorganized, and he himself tends to attract people with very sensitive, intricate souls hahah. Thinking back on Mico fans that mysteriously vanished from the fandom like goddamn magic that I used to know, they all had severe self-confidence issues...? AND no network of "the same two supportive mutuals". Maybe that's why so many of them just deactivated or never posted again? Maybe feeling "small" as artists was too much?

Again, not only this character, but the example I am most familiar with because unlike other characters, this one fails to create a "core" if you know what I mean? But THE funniest thing? Situation with art in the fandom reflects how Fromsofts games feel themselves...? The sense of being overwhelmed by something much bigger and stronger than you, feeling your self-confidence crashed and wondering how THE fuck are you supposed to overcome this? This is the other side of being in the community full of a little TOO talented people, really. It just can be easy to feel like you are worse than others and not wanted.

Basically, I don't know who needs to hear this, but if you feel like your skill and talent are lower than everyone else's - treat it like being kinda not very good at soulsborne games as a player, and if you feel like you just can't join a group or create your own to get enough engagement and validation - treat it like not being able to online coop for help! How would you continue playing in this situation? Right, you would study the game, keep trying new tools and practice on your own terms and at your own pace! If you feel this kind of dread, do the same: experiment with the style, designs, characters, ideas and so on until you feel so engaged and satisfied that you just can't quit. Until it becomes almost like addiction and finishing your art ideas becomes what keeps you here. Before I've found the same five people that always like my art I've also been feeling like I just don't belong and my art is worse than that of "actually" talented artists here. So I've kept looking for something within my art itself and discovered a passion: both for drawing characters in the way that captures every single detail (no matter how much it torments me lol) and for depicting absurd amount of references for characters in every single state of their life! This is what helped me to not feel so bad about what art skills I lack, this keeps me engaged even if I stop getting notes and compliments at all, this is what makes how good other people's art is irrelevant because it is about my goalposts now, and I am sure other people who don't feel confident can find their own ""playing style"" but in creativity that'll make it fun!

Just don't quit, okay? Like... no matter how much you may feel that "everyone else is more talented or more supported or both", I promise you can find the way. Just like how you didn't understand how to beat these games at first but adapted in the end. EVERYTHING Soulsborne goes back to a theme of having to overcome a really hard challenge, right? Creativity too, and our self-confidence is under constant testing which I honestly do not recall being the case in my previous fandoms??

[bubblegumsunshine333]

I beat An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire for the first time today! I installed it for the first time just two days ago. I quickly became addicted and just kept wanting to play more, no matter how janky or absurdly hard it got. I love it so much and have already planned out how I'll do things differently in a second playthrough.

It's a short game (only 7 somewhat linear levels) but it's like old shooter games, where every damn obstacle you encounter is an unnecessarily confusing puzzle, so each level takes way longer than you could imagine from the start. Weirdly enough, it's kind of like Dark Souls or similar in that you need to run past certain enemies in order to survive, because it's impossible to kill everything in one go. The game outright tells you this in written text by the way, the devs made sure you knew certain enemies are practically or literally impossible, and in one level they give you hidden items that let you 1-hit-kill certain enemies with a special dialogue option.

So it was a bit much, between the tough hordes of enemies, and the weird one-off scamps with (literally) 10,000 HP, just as a little prank from the devs. There are even water pits (which you can't escape from; you must reload if you fall in) with notes behind them that say "Intelligence Training" and it's the most troll bs ever... It's funny coming from the same series as Skyrim, which aims to be as player-friendly as possible.

It's so hard, I think the only more difficult games I've played are Wildfrost and maybe Star Wars Dark Forces or TIE Fighter. I had to save and reload so many damn times, and if you clip into any geometry, you are most likely stuck until you die or reload. And the game fucking stops when you die... It has to boot up from DOS again every damn time. Every single misstep is a huge punishment, especially considering the Level 5 save bloat bug which means if you need to reload 30-50 or more times during that one level, your character will become unplayable unless you take specific steps to prevent said save bloat. Thankfully I found out about it beforehand, or I'd have been screwed.

Anyway, fun game, hard as fuck. I've played all the numbered TES games except Arena, so I know what I'm doing, and still had a rough time. In the help section of the game, the devs even recommend that "Experienced Players" try multiple builds in the beginning of the game, meaning that even if you know exactly what you're doing and how the Daggerfall-style stat and combat systems work, it still doesn't mean you'll be able to complete the game. I had to start a second, better character build after I couldn't defeat certain enemies in Level 2. So wack. I don't ever think I've had to create a new character in any game I've EVER played because I literally couldn't kill certain enemies. I highly recommend it if you have the patience.

[veebs-hates-video-games]

Ok time to go through some more small things quickly because I'm getting behind.

Will You Snail?

More fun and interesting than I expected. I wasn't really sure what I was getting into beyond it being cheap and having tons of positive reviews, but it turned out to be a precision platformer where you play as a snail (and can wear another smaller snail as a hat), and it's about the fear of AI literally taking over the world and whether reality is really real. Also the AI is an asshole and spontaneously spawns bullshit spikes and lasers and stuff exactly where it thinks you're about to go so you have to contend with that in addition to just making it through each room.

I had a good enough time to finish the story and get somewhere north of 50% completion, but I don't really see myself doing the optional stuff like beating everything on the highest difficulty. The auto-difficulty kept me somewhere in the 2-3 range out of 4 95% of the time with very rare spikes to 4, and with me getting worse at stuff like this over time as my reactions get slightly slower, my vision gets worse, and my brain just gets generally weird, I don't really see a point in pushing myself harder just to frustrate myself.

Lara Croft GO

It only took me forever to get around to this one, which I probably would've forgotten about if someone didn't gift me a copy a few days ago. Basically you, uh, raid tombs. Big surprise, I know, but this time it's a turn-based puzzle game. I liked the puzzles enough and different mechanics they introduced enough to finish it because some of them were reasonably clever/satisfying, but I'm not sure if I'll bother with the extra ones after the credits roll. Toward the end after I got the hang of it I tended to finish levels without having to retry more than a couple times, but just knowing I'd have to start over entirely for every mistake or misclick makes it less enjoyable.

I'm pretty sure it's my second favorite Tomb Raider game now, and one of only two I've ever finished. The other was the 2013 reboot, which I thought was great. I tried the sequel to that and didn't really like all the changes they made to the formula because they all made it less fun for me, and I always thought the pre-reboot ones were just bad. To be fair I heard the later ones did get better and I never tried any of those, but the PS1 era games were anti-fun for me.

I'LL KILL HER

More of a digital comic book than anything, like a visual novel with an extreme emphasis on the visual part and no decision making. The art style was enough to get my interest to try it, and that's probably the main thing it has going for it. The story is...fine? Not super deep or original and feels like it maybe has some translation or non-native English issues sometimes, but it all fits together well enough in the end I guess. All of the content warnings for this one for stuff like abuse and domestic violence and suicide.

Cris Tales

Somehow this is the only one of these that I gave up on before finishing it. A lot of stuff in it is absolutely gorgeous (go watch the animated intro, seriously), and I was getting into the setting and some of the themes it was hinting at, and the time shifting mechanics are pretty neat both for exploration and combat, but I just don't really enjoy playing the game very much.

Society has advanced beyond the need for random encounters, but Cris Tales has not. Good thing it has irritatingly long load times for each one, at least on the Switch, and it has to do it again going back from the battle screen to the main overworld. And I really am not into how the combat encounters are balanced. Even basic trash enemies a few hours into the game can do absurd amounts of damage, like 40+ when your characters barely have over 100 hp. You can reduce that with timed button presses like Paper Mario/Mario RPG games, but the animations while pretty are really bad at conveying the actual correct timing for stuff.

Basically I like most things about the game except for actually playing it. Well, it's fine in towns I guess, but there's too much other stuff I'm not into for that to make up for it. Oh, and the voice acting isn't terrible or anything, but it's definitely worse than most things I've played this year with voice acting and didn't really do it for me. Also it has the most basic and obvious bug that I'm mildly surprised I've never seen in anything else: it counts the entire time the game is suspended while the Switch is asleep toward your play time. I apparently spent 60 hours on the game, when really it was about 3.

[nerdnag]

Tell me about your blorbos! Absolutely anything you want to share. And any OC's you have for any fandom you're in?

Omg omg omg!!! I love talking about my blorbos!! Thank you for asking 😍😍😍

Ok this will barely be structured at all because I am so excited but bear with me.

First! We have Constance von Nuvelle. Everyone should know at this point how much I love her and relate to her. She is so Babygirl. A genius before her time. I love writing her i love drawing her i love cosplaying her. One day I will learn how to speak in a voice that sounds like her and when that day comes I will have reached immortality.

Then! Let's go with Hubert von Vestra!! He is adorable and clever and I love myself a tricky man. He will do almost anything for those he cares about. He has a cute brooding thing going on. I like his little hair horns!!! And his way of speaking is lovely to write. I love to write him love to draw him love to put him in awkward or traumatic situations. 10/10

I also love Yuri Leclerc!! He is so smart and tricky and pretty and his combat style is really fun to write. Love his loose ponytail. Love his street smarts. Also love that he hates Hubert and likes to tease Constance. He's so funny all the time aND HIS POINTY SHOES ARE 10/10 BY THEMSELVES

Then outside of fe3h we have Killian Lu!! He is a true Babygirl. He uses magic built on WORDS how cool is THAT. It's so fun to write because I can do magic with poetry and insults!!!!! He's so cool and skilled and smart but he has literally no friends. Like at all. But he deserves them and he deserves a break and he deserves to be adopted by Dina who is another blorbo of mine and omg she is so precious. Literally just says whatever comes to mind at any point in time. A literal plant girl who's trying to find friends but fails time and time again. She brews various types of tea with interesting effecta and her humor is Spot On. Love Dina and Killian together they are literally perfect together, as friends or otherwise.

And then there's Kazuma Asogi!!! Also hella cool. He knows what he's talking about and he says it well. Everyone wants to be him, including me. How is he so cool. I want constant wind in my hair too. Also SPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSBUTHELOOKSSOGOODINAMASKHHHHHNNNNGH

Who else?? You know what. Let's go with Adrien Agreste too. Haven't written or seen him in YEARS but he is such an awkward cinnamon roll there isn't anyone more pure on this EARTH. Literal model who didn't have any real friends until he was like. 14. Literally evil father and omg all my blorbos have family trauma don't they...

There's also Arlo! Captain Arlo of the Civil Corps! First time I met him he kicked down the door without a care in the world. He's such a dork and wants to be an adventurer but he's also very good at punching things. And he's a cute redhead. What else do you need

Speaking of redheads we have Sylvain Gautier! Back to Fe3h I guess! Such a silly little traumatised fella. I both want to give him fluff and to hang him upside down from his toes. I have several fic ideas jotted down for him but don't know if I'll ever write them. He deserves a found family in the Ashen Wolves by the way.

And oh oh oh lemme tell you about my fe3h oc!!! This is heavy spoilers for my fic but currently I do not care I am so excited. His name is Lukas and he is the 11th Hresvelg child, but he was brainwashed and memory-wiped by Thales so he thinks he's an Agarthan named Lysias. And also he has parts of Nemesis inside of his body. Poor babe he just can't catch a break. Such a little devil. He's excellent at dark magic and knows how to Pretend but he's so lonely. And also when he learns the truth about himself he kinda melts into a puddle so uhhh. I like the Troubled Ones I guess. But I am going to fix it for him I swear!! Eventually!!

Oh I also have a Fe3h oc named Androtimos who is a Morfean!! I imagine his voice as smooth and warm as liquid honey and personality-wise he is basically that as well. But also he's a lil tricky-tricky. He's a librarian who secretly knows some dark magic and has a mother in TWSITD.

Who else who else? Is that everyone have I forgotten anyone?? I probably have in which case I apologize to that blorbo and I will add on to this post if I remember!!

[ghenry]

2023 YouTube channel recap!

It is now the end of the year, so now I'm looking back at the videos I managed to release in 2023! There weren't too many, but they were all challenging in unique ways. So let's take a look!

Hi-Fi Rush | As Basic As Things Can Get

So, this video is pretty polarizing. And I knew it would be! Hi-Fi Rush received endless praise when it was released in January 2023. Being fairly dabbled in both action platformers and hack-n-slash games, I had to see how it was for myself. And the water of mediocrity splashing at my face was cold enough to convince me I needed to vent about it in video form. I took this video as a lesson on exercising absolute honesty. I feel like I have been holding myself back with a lot of video projects because I was afraid of coming off too strong. But this time I didn't care. I let out my most raw, uncouth feelings about this game because I want to be more comfortable with my voice and assertiveness. In that sense, I think I succeeded. The split ratio would say otherwise, though.

The point of the video: Hi-Fi Rush took advantage of having this specific art style that not a lot of high-end companies really tackle, and that carried it throughout waves of praise, despite having middling game design and lack of confidence in what it actually succeeds in. It underplays its own strength--the hack-n-slash combat-- and pads the game out to a high degree suing boxy platforming with only character dialogue attempting to make it drag less. Games like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta have similar structures where it showcases awkward platforming that isn't very fun to perform, but they both go elbow-deep with their pure combat (which takes up the majority of their campaigns) because the developers were confident in the hack-n-slash gameplay. Tango did not have that confidence, which is why the majority of the gameplay is boxy platforming that lacked any sense of urgency or challenge.

Also, the writing sucks complete ass and Chai is a terrible example of writing an unlikable protagonist. Nothing will ever convince me otherwise. I'm so sick of everyone trying to make their own Spider-Man.

I don't regret this video, even a little bit. I don't care how many people unsubscribed, if they're not here to take in my thoughts and feelings, what are they here for? Because that's all I'm doing and will continue to do with my channel.

Crime is Crime | The Silver Case Analysis

This was something I've wanted to do for years, but prioritized Travis Strikes Again as well as No More Heroes 3. Even so, The Silver Case was a daunting project. I'm not a professional writer, I never took any elective courses for it throughout my school career. I don't consider myself even remotely smart, never-mind 'an intellectual.' I'm not even that familiar with philosophy and such, so part of me was thinking "Do I even have the capacity to analyze this game?" literally every single second I was writing, capturing, and editing the video.

Regardless, in the end, I think I got a good grasp of the story and was able to dissect a lot of it in a satisfying manner.

The point of the video: Crime will always exist, but what's more interesting is the source of it. The motivation of an individual, a society, or even a corporation. The game also showcases a lot of elements and even narrative quirks that would be prevalent in Suda51's future directing gigs. I think he and his crew have some fine critiques on things like capitalism, police justice, and what it means to be a part of a controlled society. It doesn't give any answers in how you can change the worst parts of a society, but it isn't really meant to in any real way, it just isn't that simple.

Analyzing Henry Cooldown | The Devil In the Details

What started out as a little defense piece for Henry in No More Heroes 3 ended up much longer and more in-depth than I initially planned. While looking over his dialogue, appearance, and overall design, I realized there is so much more to this living plot-twist.

The point of the video: I think Henry represents the devil for Travis Touchdown. And this further accentuates what I've pontificated in my full analysis of NMH3, that Travis is stuck in this eternal form of hell. While Suda has never explained --and probably never will-- what he was trying to say with games like NMH, I like to think having Travis be cursed with eternal battle, eternal recognition, and eternal brand potency (like many video game icons) was something he was considering, at least by the time he was making NMH3.

And, sure, I've analyzed and described Henry to mean different things, but so what? He can be more than one thing. Nothing is certain, a lot of this will remain open for interpretation. That's art.

Grasshopper's Translator | James Mountain Interview

Earlier this year I got to have a nice, long chat with James Mountain, the main translator/interpreter of Grasshopper Manufacture! I wanted his input since he was the sole individual given the task to translate the entirety of The Silver Case from beginning to end. I ended up learning a lot about him as well as the process of such a dense job that is interpreting a visual novel completely by yourself. I also thought it'd make a good exercise if I ever want to release videos like this again. I had fun learning how to make audio visualizers as well as including visual context during our conversations.

The point of the video: There was a lot of debate (and bickering) in regards to the English interpretation of the game, and I figured who better to clarify their process of the whole thing than the interpreter himself? I had a lot of fun conducting this interview, and there were a lot of bits I didn't use for my analysis video, so I figured it would make a nice bonus for everyone!

That's everything from this year! I'm really proud of how all of these videos came out, and I'm itching to keep going, expressing myself to my best ability! But I think a little break is in order. Thank you so much if you have read up to here! Have a great rest of your holiday, and I'll catch you in 2024!

[msommers]

artificer, fighter, and warlock for riya and iggy!!

i give u kees mwah // d&d character class asks

artificer: How good is your muse at picking up new tools/skills? Are they proficient with any tools? How are they at making things with their own hands?

RIYA — if she's interested in the tool/skill and it's a hands on activity, then she'll be a quick learner! otherwise it takes her a bit to pick things up either from lack of intrigue or the struggles she has with continual study of text. she's proficient with alchemist’s supplies and i have to assume that's from her fucking around and finding out through her years at the college lmao. i hate that i have to do it to her but riya's a weaponized incompetence girly and i've gotta call her out on it. she's never made anything with her own hands and she'd rather flirt her way into having literally anybody else do it before she gives it an actual try. give her proper instruction and a veeeery long period of practice, then she'd probably do an Okay job on something she has an excitement for doing, otherwise it's trash. don't waste the resources babes

IGGY — unfortunately i think iggy’s memory troubles would hinder her ability to pick up new things with ease, and contributes to the fact that she has zero tool proficiencies as of leaving vyrantium. that said she would be great at making things with her hands! as long as somebody’s there giving her instructions and occasional gentle reminders to stay on task if something else nabs her attention. she’ll be a great workhorse for the grey wardens tbh, just stick her on wall/reinforcement building when she’s not out there cutting down darkspawn and it’ll get done well enough to feel secure.

fighter: What's your muse's fighting style? Are there any weapons your muse is comfortable with, or a weapon they'd like to learn to use? What drives them to fight?

RIYA — she's a little all over the place when it comes to strategy (she'd swear there's a method to it but if you ask for the explanation you'd be there for like 15 minutes hearing the debrief on how chaotic her head is during combat), but the classic Glass Cannon is a nice default no matter what her prepared spells look like. has a little bit too much fun rushing the enemy if i'm being honest. she's best friends with staffs, a few types of blades, and technically she can handle a couple of other weapons but she doesn't particularly care for them. she's learning how to use herself as a conduit for magic instead of the bestie staff. she fights out of a desire to live, for the thrill of action, to protect her allies and those needing her aid, and to make her family proud. 

IGGY — when she’s in control of her faculties, her default is protection duty as that’s been her most frequent directive for so damn long. i, tabby the player, had it to where any activation of her lycan order hybrid transformation meant that she’d fully lost control of any logical thoughts and decision making. aka it’s her going full feral mode, only animal instinct (and rage, if that’s active) pushing her forward until it wears out, she’s knocked unconscious, or one of her runes is activated to rein her in. she’s capable of wielding whatever weapon is put into her hands because of the long decades she’s spent training and fighting, though she favors a sword or axe if given a choice. she’s driven now by a desire to do good with what time she has left, devoting her capabilities to ridding the world of however many darkspawn she can because surely it all makes a difference (she desperately needs it to make a difference, to maybe in time even slightly make up for all she’s done). tbh??? she’s probably made some kind of vow to herself to never harm another person again which motivates her efforts elsewhere.

warlock: Has your muse ever made a deal to get something they wanted? Is there anything your muse wants enough to broker for it? What would your muse sacrifice to get what they want?

RIYA — i imagine a joking thing between the clairmont kids came out of their mother being The business woman where they’d make silly nonsense deals with each other, either to have fun or be difficult depending on their mood (riya would constantly make deals to have her absence at boring events be covered by one of her brothers). she negotiated with warden recruiter rasha while in a whole ass prison cell to save bastian’s life, and would have given him anything to see it through. recently made a deal with warden commander satine and she puts that down to having experience requesting insane things from her own mother. unfortunately i think she'd sacrifice quite a lot for something/someone she cares deeply for, and she wouldn't think twice about it in the moment. IGGY — her only genuine deal would have been with the magister during the oneshot, because she was actually given something of real value in return for her efforts. any deals made with the family that had her enslaved would have been small things just to appease her or trick her into thinking they were giving more than they truly were, y’know all about furthering the control and dependence.

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

I'd like to know what your thoughts are for this: what if Hogwarts Mystery was made the exactly like Hogwarts Legacy? Would you have enjoyed more or is it better of as a mobile game?

Now that is...difficult to imagine. But I've actually been thinking about it a fair bit ever since I started watching Akemi Stormborn's Let's Play. Because we were all thinking that Magic Awakened would be where all of the HPHM fans would go after the game was over. Turns out, basically everyone left for HPHL instead, and didn't even wait for HPHM to be over. In general, a lot of the hidden areas in this game look like they could be Cursed Vaults, and essentially function that way.

Honestly? I've got no qualms with HPHM being a mobile game, because mobile gamers are real gamers and let no one tell you otherwise. Every type of gaming is valid. But that said...would Hogwarts Mystery have worked better as a big console game like Legacy? It's hard to argue that it wouldn't.

Hogwarts Legacy has a lot of things that would have made HPHM better than it is. For instance, the leveling system. No more grinding for attributes, you just play normally. The combat system is more than just rock-paper-scissors, it's totally involved - and you can learn the Unforgivables! Sure, it's immersion breaking, but who cares? The player doesn't have to use them, it's their choice. And perhaps the most coveted change of all - the lack of the energy system. I say this all the time, but what really holds HPHM back is that stupid energy system. All those arbitrary timers that don't need to be there, forcing the player to stop and wait literal hours to pick up the game again. That's now how video games are supposed to work. Even if it's deliberately designed so that you can "pick it up throughout the day" guess what Jam City, players could still do that if we were so inclined, all you've done is force that play-style on us.

But there are advantages to HPHM as well. Features that it has and Legacy does not. First of all, the characters. From what I can see, HPHL has some incredible characters, but HPHM still wins due to the sheer number of them. Half the cast of Hogwarts Mystery is more memorable than the Legacy characters, with a couple of exceptions. (Sebastian, obviously.) Legacy does have brand new teacher characters, so that's working in it's favor, but again, the massive amount of student characters still gives the victory to Mystery. Not to mention, Mystery has a dating system. How many players would hop on the chance to date Sebastian? But it's not there. You know what else HPHM has that HPHL doesn't? Quidditch. Yeah, the Quidditch mini-game is simplistic and the story-line is frustrating, but at least there is Quidditch content in the game. Legacy offers nothing but the vague hope of (presumably paid) DLC in the future.

Frankly, that's a good segue into the greatest strength HPHM has over HPHL. Content. Hogwarts Mystery has seven years worth of content available for a player to experience. It may be a pain to get through because of the aforementioned energy system, but that's still six more years than Hogwarts Legacy is offering. Not to mention the quests. It should go without saying but Hogwarts Mystery has countless side quests and easily outmatches Hogwarts Legacy on that score. The only issue is, again, the arbitrary timing system. All of the most substantial quests in HPHM are TLSQs, and we're so often denied the chance to play or finish them because of how the game's "economy" works.

Hogwarts Mystery could have all of it's problems solved if it was adapted into a console game. It has so much content that if it was released on the same engine as Hogwarts Legacy...man, it wouldn't even be close. Mystery would blow legacy right out of the water.