#but there's a loooot more dialogue in this game than i expected so it's only natural he ran outta breath quickly gjdjfjd

[dragongirlafro]

highlights of watching my boyfriend play Okami (first playthrough for me ฅ(//ÒωÓ//)ฅ )

-soooo many silly boy voices >ω<

-learning that my headphones have the mic i speak into during calls

-turning my gf into a wolfgirl

-ftm Isabelle Animal Crossing was in there somewhere

[bettydice]

I have finished Veilguard. A bunch of thoughts under the cut!

The Companions: Loved all of them and all the banter and their interactions. I thought the companion quests were fantastic and there was a lot of content there and I enjoyed it all. Voice acting was fantastic and some line deliveries made me tear up. And while it was honestly nice to have everyone get along well and be respectful with each other, I did miss some... bite and conflict. Like you get all those delicious conversations with Solas and questioning of motives and I wanted more of that sort of thing. Also I'd die for Assan and Manfred. The Environments: This is definitely one of the strongest parts of the game for me. Everything is gorgeous and I loved just walking around, exploring. I thought they found a great balance of streamlined and exploration! Puzzles were at a difficulty that I can still enjoy (thus very simple, I'm sure other people are annoyed by that) and it made exploring satisfying and relaxing instead of a chore. And I loved seeing changes in the environments after certain events or NPCs moving into places that I'd cleared. I rarely fast travelled because I loved walking through the Crossroads so much.

Rook: Overall, I enjoyed Rook. I chose Erika Ishii's voice for my first playthrough and thought it was fantastic. Also loved every Mourn Watch dialogue option. However... Rook has a loooot of auto dialogue and the dialogue options feel quite limited, so I'm worried about replays and being able to make different Rooks actually feel different. Also hate to say this, but Rook could smile a little less in cutscenes... I also don't think you can play a Rook that antagonizes any companions or is just plain shit at conflict resolution.

Combat: Even though I never felt like I fully mastered it, I enjoyed it. And especially after recently replaying all the other games - the dragon fights were so much cooler (though as a mage, they were also 80% running around screaming). I didn't miss being able to control my companions, except for taking screenshots. Romance: I romanced Bellara and I love her, she is my beautiful wife. I do wish there'd been more romance specific content, especially because you get to see soo much of your companions getting together and being together and you're just there like... what about me? Spare romance banter for Rook pls? I didn't even get a romance specific greeting! Though ultimately, I'm really happy with the romance and the ending added some welcome drama, because Bellara was the one that got abducted by the blight/Elgarnan and yesss! The drama! The fade statues guilt trip! She's so smart and fierce when she returns! And the last scene was super sweet. <3

Story: Overall I'd say... Yay? Loved all the Lore drops and actual answers. Thought the side quests were well done and interesting. Another shout out to the companion quests! All in all, I'm satisfied with the ending, I think. HOWEVER! You can feel the Things We Didn't Import all over the game. There were so many moments where I was like, okay they COULD have mentioned xyz here easily, but no, they have to go out of their way to be vague or not let you talk to this character much. I don't need actual cameos (Isabela you deserve better) but there's so many missed opportunities for simple mentions or codex entries and it's such a shame. Because this IS the culmination of the story and why can't we see that reflected in little moments, so that we can truly feel the depth of the story once more? But I do love the Codex! There's so much good stuff in there! I might even go back and read all the Codex entries I haven't yet. Oh, why do we see no Elves working for Solas? Did he manage to get his entire spy network killed before the game? Classic Solas. Music: Soundtrack was fine, better than I expected tbh though a few scenes had some really awkward whimsical music that made me go ?????????? The Varric thing is dumb. The 'twist' only works because I guess nobody ever mentioned his death ever again. I hate sacrificing character development or People Behaving Normally for twists.

Why is the Inquisitor still wearing FUCKING PYJAMAS. Really wish there was an option to dye armour. The decision between Minrathous and Treviso is a cool concept and loved (though hated) seeing the fallout but what.... Rook and their two buddies are the only thing standing between a city and complete ruin???? I do not think so.

That's all for now.

[boinin]

Just home from seeing the EpiNagi dub ⚽🤍 It cracked me up a lot, occasionally unintentionally, but it's a fun film. Some of my personal highlights and thoughts on the film below (spoilers):

Main unintentional humour were the instances of dodgy animation. Nameoka's hands look so jank as he's dissing Reo pre-Hakuho match—I was chuckling. Tbh the bad animation was amusing more than distracting to me, since I knew going in that the movie would have S1-equivalent animation.

Nagi calling Isagi a short normie 💀

Zantetsu's VA and his dialogue were really funny. Unfortunately some of his line delivery was quite muffled, so it could be hard to make out. But his dilemma over eating Nagi's steak and the "shooting out the womb" (??) bit were hilarious.

Bachira saying a really quiet zoom after out dribbling Zantetsu. Also, he had his own friggin insert song for scoring against Team V 🔥 as he deserves 💛

That one OST song that plays over Nagi's death aura scene is so damn cool; I know what album I'm looking up tomorrow.

They bishi-fied Kunigami even more for the movie. Also, any time he cheered IT WAS SO DAMN LOUD. Dude can shout.

Speaking of, why did they make Kuon look so pretty after fouling Nagi. Like?? Noticeably prettier than the other cast, even Chigiri. Only Nagi and Reo got that level of detail otherwise lmao

The movie hammered home how integral Raichi was to beating Team V. His "OR I'LL KILL YOU" moment went way harder than it had any right to.

Anri being a dork — I'm paraphrasing, but she says "It's like going Super Seiy—uh, right?" Then she pouts when Ego shoots her down. 🥹 ily queen you deserve better

The scene of Nagi seeing Isagi's light before the game ends, and Reo's reflection on the the breakup were both really nicely animated. They skimped a loooot in other places, but they knew where to invest time and money.

The post credit scenes 🤍💜 They're movie-original, and do volumes for Reo's characterisation. I can't wait until Episode Nagi's manga reaches that point.

The dub as a whole is decent, though Reo's dialogue is a shade more dudebro-y than it needed to be IMO. It's not as shippy as I'd expected, but that could be down to how they localised the dialogue. The animation is unambiguous though; Nagi's just like 🥺 whenever he looks at Reo.

Zantetsu's dialogue needed more breathing room to land than it received. I still really enjoyed his VA's performance. Other standout performances for me were Ego, and Barou's VAs. Chigiri's VA nailed the few lines they gave him, the standout being "I'll give you a headpat later." 👑

Anyway, I'm considering going to the subbed edition on Saturday, since that's the version I initially wanted to see... I just couldn't make the subbed cinema times this week. 🤷‍♀️ If I do go, I'll make a comparison post.