#didn't quite finish out the section of the quest i was on

[violetsareblue-selfships]

good morning!! <3

[blueseachelle]

Hard To Breathe

Sebastian Sallow x MC! Reader

Just the two in love. Not angst at all. Just a cute short little write.

The new fifth year. The talk of the school.

Sebastian walked down the hallways as he heard the other students talk about his best friend.

Every since Y/n was admitted as the new fifth year, Sebastian was always by their side. With Ominis, of course. They have been on so many adventures together. But, recently, Sebastian has been feeling something... unusual towards her.

Every time she was around and did her normal things like how she sets a hand on him or walk around with him arm in arm, he has felt like... Like he couldn't breathe. He would lose train of thought and then he would get caught up in his fantasies of them together. Not in a... certain sense but, just the romantic sense. She always then nudged him and told him if he was too far into space you might get stuck there. This always made him smile as they walked the halls.

Ominis saw all this and told Sebastian to just confess. Fear riddled the brunette's body at thought. Y/n could do so much better than him. She could have a seventh year under her thumb if she wanted. Sebastian just decided to avoid his feelings and continue in the way he was doing with her.

Little did Sebastian know that Ominis knew things he didn't. Y/n first hand told him how she felt about Sebastian. Ominis thought that she would be the thing to make him quit is quest for a cure maybe. Maybe she could talk so sense into him. Y/n is in direct contact with ancient magic all the time so, maybe she could reason with him to stop before he gets to far. Of course, he also knew how stubborn Sebastian could be. Maybe the two could balance each other out. The sweetness of Y/n and the stubbornness of Sebastian. Maybe he'll calm down. Ominis could only hope.

~~~~~~

It was quite a busy afternoon. Sebastian found himself in the library, not in the restricted section for once. He was focused on his potions book as he scribbled down notes in his journal. Ominis was studying on the second floor while Sebastian studied on the first floor.

Y/n was finish for her assignment of the day and went to look for them. She always went to find the duo to hang out or tutor them, she was always there to help and lend a hand.

She found Sebastian in the potions sections of the library tucked away in a corner. He always tried to find corner desks. He felt safer that way. His side and back would be to the wall yet, he could oversee everything around him. Anne used to make fun of him by telling him he was just scared to be noticed by the librarian. He chuckles to himself sometimes remembering her teasing him like that all the time. He missed his twin.

Y/n walked over and sat in the chair next to him. He jumped a little bit and looked over at her,

"Hey, Y/n. I thought you were doing assignments today?"

She gave him a smile,

"I got done early so, here I am! To hangout with you!"

Sebastian's heart started to race. He felt the air escape him like usual. He quickly focused back in his open book as his face slowly reddend.

"That's really nice. I'm happy you decided to hangout with me."

She giggled and put a hand on his shoulder,

"Of course! I love spending my off time with you! Your my favorite person! Just shhhhh. Don't tell Ominis."

She giggled a little more before removing her hand as she looked at his open book.

All he could do is nod. He didn't trust himself to answer her with words. He knew she would something was wrong and would poke and prod at him until he finally confessed. She, somehow, was a master interrogator for some reason. Y/n could get an answer out of anyone.

She read the book with Sebastian. She always noticed where he struggled and would stop and explain what they meant. If it was a ingredient, she would explain it's purpose. He loved how she just knew. I made him wonder how much she actually knows. He would love to explore her brain. Just to see what goes through that pretty little head of hers.

At one of the explanations, she reached over and plucked the quill out of his hand and wrote some things down for him. Her back as pressed into his chest as she leaned over. Sebastian's breath disappeared once again but, (he didn't know this) she could feel his breath disappear. She wondered why she had this effect on him. It wasn't normal. Definitely not. Of course, her oblivious self was worried for her friend/crush's health.

After the little note as finish, Y/n sat up straight and immediately cupped his cheek and put a hand on his forehead. Sebastian's body started to heat up and he gained a slight sheen of sweat on his face. This made the girl worry more.

"Sebastian, you are burning up. You lost your breath and now, you are getting a fever. Are you okay?"

He saw the concern in her eyes. He rested a hand on the one caressing his cheek.

"I-i'm okay. I promise."

She shook her head,

"No. You are sick so, we are taking you to your bed so you can rest. I don't want you to get worse."

"Y/n. I'm not sick. I-It's something else. Not sickness."

She tilted her head slightly,

"What do you mean?"

Sebastian took a deep breath before he captured the girls lips with his. Her eyes widened. She froze for a second before returning the kiss. Her hands moving to his hair. He moved his hands to her waist.

After a minute or so, they parted.

Sebastian rested his forehead to Y/n's.

"I-I... I need to tell you this. I love you. I was so nervous to confess to you. It made it hard to breathe. I want you to be mine and I your's. Please be my one and only."

Y/n got a big smile on her face and she gave him another kiss.

"I love you too, Sebastian. I want to be your's and you mine."

Another kiss was exchanged between the new couple. Y/n giggled slightly. Sebastian raised an eyebrow at her.

"What's so funny?"

She smiled,

"Let's hope your symptoms don't get worse. You don't have to hold your breath anymore. I'm your's"

Sebastian smiled widely while chuckling. He hugged her.

"You are my cure, My Love!"

They both laughed. Sebastian and Y/n continued to study together. Little did they know that Ominis hid around the corner because he came down to talk to Sebastian but, what he found was so much better. Finally, he was waiting since ever for the two of you to get together. He smiled to himself. He's proud of Sebastian for finally be actually happy for the first time in a while.

[curioussubjects]

I just finished Veilguard, and...I'm really not sure how I feel about it?

All in all: good game, had fun, but still didn't quite hit some of the highs it wanted to hit and it's still not as good as DA2

(Spoilers galore below for everything)

The Good:

Pretty game is pretty;

Love the codexes, especially the ones written by companions or with their commentary;

Speaking of, the Mementos had so excellent tid bits of lore flavor to them, as well;

Regrets of the Dread Wolf was a damn good quest;

Some truly funny party banter;

I actually thought it was really easy to figure out who my Rook is as I played the game, which was much harder for me to do for my Lavellan in DAI;

And speaking of Lavellan, she was in character she WOULD say that she WOULD do that. Bless;

Everything about Nevarra and the Mourn Watch, I wish there was more content there because I was so into it;

Orb and dagger mage is really fun to play, which was VERY surprising considering I don't play close range ever;

I also really enjoyed destroying blight boils for some reason lmao;

Petting cats (they PURR WHEN YOU DO);

Assan <3;

Taash being so autistic;

Teia and Viago my beloveds;

✨Friendship✨

The Solavellan of it all;

And Solas, too. Love that sadsack disaster man;

Maybe this is super basic of me but I liked Varric's narration...idk it's comforting;

Honestly, just Varric in general was a bit safety blanket in a nice way for me because the game feels overwhelming at first;

There's no party like an all Dalish party!

Exploring -- loved finding all the fun details in each location, and I know I didn't even do enough in my playthrough;

I'm weak for stories about guilt, fear and regret. And I'm even weaker when those stories are so obviously about forgiveness and moving forward. Also love. Always love.

The Bad:

The pacing. I've said this before but DAtV could've used a more explicit arc structure or have quests note which level they're meant for or SOMETHING because some times it seemed I was doing quests too early or too late for when I was in the main story. I also thought events kept oscillating from happening too fast or too slowly, and it very much did get in the way of immersion;

The romance. Literally what are you doing Dragon Age that you fumble the romance. Granted, I only romanced Davrin so far, but I'm getting the sense from looking through the tag that maybe Lucanis' romance also feels a bit off? Honestly I have so many issues with the romance progression for Davrin that it's its own section;

I hope this is only a Veil Jumpers issue, but I thought Rook was so separate from the faction. I felt very little connection to them;

I've seen some people point out NPCs talk to Rook like they're a child, and while I don't really agree with that I do think Rook doesn't have enough opportunities to be knowledgeable in their own right. Especially annoying with a mage Veil Jumper Rook! I miss the Inquisition perk dialogue options that let my Lavellan be a smarty pants;

Holy overdesigned armors! Yikes!

Not all areas are as well developed as the others: Rivain is the most egregiously empty and underdeveloped, but I actually thought Arlathan Forest was super lifeless too. So was the Lighthouse! You get the early game discovery bit and then nothing ever again and it's like oh that was really it huh (and the stuff we did get was so good please more?);

I hate to say this but BioWare missed the mark with Rook's place in the group. The companions seemed connected to each other, yeah, but Rook was like some cross between group therapist and not-so-undercover boss. There was none of the warmth Hawke got from their companions (or the Inquisitor, for that matter!). The game really needed 1. a lighthearted party hangout cutscene and 2. companions coming together to take care of Rook (the fact this isn't even a thing in the romance is bonkers to me);

Taash's personal quest being about choosing between being Rivain and Qunari as if that's how culture works is Bad Actually;

The worst minimap I've ever seen in a game wow;

Also: give me back my beacon marker;

The gods were in a regret prison but what were their regrets exactly we just don't know.

The Bad (Romance Edition):

Again, the pacing! Incredibly slow to start (and not in a slow burn way, mind!) and then super fast in the last third of the game;

In fact, the romance seemed to be running on a completely different level than the rest of the story. The last romance scene was incredibly out of place tonally, especially.

The first two romance titles for Davrin are "Thrill of the Chase" and "Hot and Bothered"...and like WHERE????

Davrin never writes about Rook as a romantic partner or as if he has any concerns with the relationship...which we later find out he has, but was news to me;

Tbh, the romance felt like an afterthought. There were cutscenes that in any other DA game there would've been flirting options, for instance, but this time there was nothing (what do you mean Rook can't make a flirty comment when Davrin is shirtless working out with Taash? It's low hanging fruit!);

Not nearly enough flirty banter between Rook and Davrin, which is nuts considering their personalities;

I'm really super disappointed with Davrin's romance, which sucks because he's actually perfect for my Rook and I really like his character. There was so much potential for a really fun romance that was both tense and sexy, but also sweet. But no. Secret good Davrin romance that exists in my head save me.

The ???:

Southern Thedas got scorched when the North didn't how?

Please tell me who was catfishing Andraste;

Making enemies super aggro on Rook unless you specifically have companions taunting was very weird.

[oh-my-may]

I FINISHED CHAPTER 12! (Basically... PS says I have like 7% remaining and that is probably gonna be leaving the Gold Saucer again so... yeah)

I HAVE THOUGHTS BRO.

Zack??? ZACK FAIR??? How dare you be the most beautiful gorgeous cute man ever. His sections always manage to have me tear up. The ending of this game is SO gonna hurt me my god.

My date was with Aerith... which i didn't mind but Cloti for the win you know. Aerith, girl, Zack is somewhere out there!

Didn't bother with any of the new minigames at the Saucer yet, since I wasn't a fan of a lot of them the first time around. Will probably only do it after finishing main story, since some of the exchangeable rewards are very nice.

Loveless was wonderful. Teared up seeing Jessie again. The song was so moving. The party acting as the main cast had me rolling tho. THE WAY YOU COULD CHOOSE BARRET AS YOUR TRUE LOVE? They're so unserious. The little game mechanics were a little confusing tho. I swear I don't have a left-right-weakness but this part had me questioning. Managed to get score A but still... wish there would havd been earlier triggers that told you what button to press... but maybe that's just me.

BUT THE COLOSSEUM HAD ME QUESTIONING EVERYTHING. WHAT DO YOU MEAN BASICALLY 6 ROUNDS OF FIGHTING BACK TO BACK AND THERES ONLY ONE OPPORTUNITY TO CHANGE YOUR EQUIPMENT. The first two rounds were easy, when they brought put the Tonberry I was having war flashbacks to the boss fight in Corel. Didn't expect a round 4, but Aerirh and Phoenix came through for me <3

THE TURKS AGAIN THO??? Listen, I'm a proclaimed Turks lover okay. I love them. My pookies. BUT YOU'RE GONNA MAKE ME FIGHT THEM A THIRD TIME NOW?? Elena is always easier to handle, Rude kinda annoying still but we got through it. Wanted to take this opportunity to say how much I love Elena being such a hater. And her having the most bone chilling horror movie scream when you land a hit or pressure her. Queen.

BUT THEN RUFUS??? ALONE AS CLOUD??? I was gnawing at the bars of my enclosure bro. I hate blonde men. Had to restart several times to get his patterns down. Was very upset with my inability tp dodge, usually I play my fights pretty head-on offensive... I was shaking crying throwing up until I had Rufus down to like half his health. Kujata on Cloud really helped me idk. Darkstar was annoying, but got him down eventually after using Clouds Limit TWICE. Almost died when Rufus was only like 3% HP remaining. The way I was shaking when it was finally over... damn. Never wanna do that again but I had already heard that the Rufus fight was pretty annoying...

Cait's betrayal was nothing new to me, I did know about it. Still made me sad ofc. THE WAY YOU CAN'T PLAY WITH HIM AFTERWARDS? I'm heartbroken.

Now it's off to the Temple/The Promised Land. Very curious what the last 2 Chapters are gonna bring. Heard 13 was quite long, but I wanna try and play it all now without any more interruptions... gonna play side quests and minigames later. Maybe I'll even be able to finish this weekend, which would be nice. I'm on vacation next week and won't be home...

So that's that. Enjoy some screenshots I took during this chapter!

[sdwolfpup]

I just finished reading HFoG and oh. Oh. My. God. I need to rant (you can totally ignore this if you'd like).

First of all, the scenario you've created fits them so well. Brienne as a mechanic is an amazing idea. She's still doing something stereotipically male (and kicking ass) at best unnoticed and at worst cast aside as no one takes her seriously or they outright mock her. You've kept her under patriarchy's thumb, and also as a powerful, simmering force waiting for someone to turn up that heat!! What an excellent mirror to her situation in the books.

Second: the extremely high risks + high adrenaline + mightily physically demanding + high rewards of F1 is another excellent transposition of their survival/quest situation in the books. I feel like that, as a setting, is what makes it feel very genuine to them as characters. Your characterization is great too! They're slightly different to the books but still familiar (they would probably act like this in this more modern, more subtle flavour of a patriarchal society). I mean. just. Man. MAN.

Also, turning a bit more to Jaime: The way all the events unfold was incredible. We go steady, quite calm but with an undercurrent of stress and anxiety, building, some doubts, triumphs, more building, more triumphs and then BAM. The dreaded doldrums where we pick up the pieces of a horrible shipwreck. Jaime never getting to that P-1 absolutely broke me. I literally held my breath reading those paragraphs, where time stops for the whole circuit after the crash, and the heavy moment of silence before Brienne hears him over the radio... MAN. I thought you were going to give him at least one P-1 before he lost his hand, making it bitersweet already at that point, and when you didn't I was SCHOCKED. You held back on that element and it worked WONDERFULLY towards the end. JB'S P-1 felt so earned, so fought for. Talk about good storytelling. AAAAHHH!!!!!

I ate it up between yesterday night and all of today. I slept at most, like, four hours. I couldn't stop reading. Congratulations, honestly. I usually don't read fics this long (or leave reviews this crazy under anonimity lol) because authors tend to meander (not a bad thing necessarily but it does get tedious at this scale) but this was SO not the case. Every. single. paragraph. mattered. MAN!!!!! (man counter: IIII)

I know you're probably quite done with it (and what a fucking project you did, my god), but if you ever want to write about JB in that universe again I see myself forced to BEG YOU ON MY KNEES to do more of their radio banter in your missing scenes section. I absolutely love it, the subtle flirting, the encouragement, and the oopsies (Jaime forgetting to turn the radio off and accidentally exposing himself as a I LOVE MY CAR MY CAR IS MY GF guy is soooooo funny). Ugh. Swooning. It has started an itch I need to scratch so bad (I feel like im going crazy a bit ngl. Give yourself a big smacking pat in the back.) that I'm just going to start re-reading it for those parts and also to get that thrill that is there between them at the beginning which is also so good! And so yummy!!!!!

Ok im done now i think.

TLDR: xoxo mwah mwah mwah i loved HFoG i worship and kiss the ground you walk on, etc etc etc. im obsessed, great job!!

"ignore this"?! Are you kidding, anon -- I'm gonna print this out and wallpaper my bedroom with it. 😂💕

I have been re-reading this ask off and on all day, wanting to respond appropriately to make sure you know how much I so sincerely appreciate you taking the time to leave this for me, and I just don't know if it's possible. I'm just... man, I'm grateful. (Man count for this post going up!!!) Seriously though: thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm gonna be riding this high all week.

(Also, I fought with myself about allowing Jaime to win the World Driver Championship and then lose his hand, so I'm always glad to hear that that choice worked for others. It was the right thing to do, but wow did that hurt to put him through it, heh. And pacing of long fics is a thing I take very personally, so I am ALSO pleased to know that worked for you, too!)

Anyway. THANK YOU. I'm gonna go back to re-reading this comment, hee.

[styrmwb]

I Beat Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

I went ahead and I did it

The urge to go ahead and finish the XIII trilogy after beating XIII-2 won out, and I can finally say I cleared this off the ultimate list of FF games.

Lightning Returns is an interesting one. It's a slow burn kind of game; it took me a bit to really lock in with it, but once I did, I got into a nice flow state with it. It's also a game that simultaneously could work very well by itself, but also feels like it's essential to be the act 2 of XIII-2. It's weird. Not bad! But weird.

Day 1: Gameplay

I think this is where LR shines the brightest.

Combat is. ALMOST like its predecessors. Rather than it being menu selection, you're pressing buttons like an action game; and rather than swapping paradigms, you're swapping between 3 "schemata", which are basically customizable job types that are also a dress-up minigame. You also still have an ATB system... kinda. Rather than a bar that fills up and executes all of the commands you put into it, it's more like an action meter. You can do so much in each schemata before you run out and you gotta wait for it to refill. On paper it sounds entirely different, but with the ATB filling and the schemata switching, I still felt that echo of paradigm switching (especially since I essentially gave myself a commando, ravager, saboteur setup), and the ATB in practice still felt like the ATB of classic. It's different for sure, but still has enough connection to not feel like it's a complete jump away from its prequels. Also, you have these points called "EP" that you get from day start or killing enemies which you can use for things like full cure or esuna, but the big thing I used it for was "Overclock" which slows down time for your enemies while speeding it up for you. It gives you a unique ATB bar that I essentially used to keep up my assault when needed. Very fun once I had enough EP to not worry about using it all up.

Where XIII was a straightforward, classic RPG story that had some side quests, and XIII-2 was more side quest heavy but still sectioned, LR feels like it's ENTIRELY made of side quests, in a way. Even the main story is split up into quests that sometimes require you to do side quests (which was weird if you gotta do them why are they side), plus it had a board of collection quests that you could turn into. If you just looked at XIII, you'd be like "what the fuck happened", but going through the trilogy, I can feel the natural progression. As someone who enjoyed the XIII-2 style quests (plus I'm MMO brained so quests are ingrained in my DNA anyways) I quite enjoyed this style of game organization. It allows you to move back and forth between the areas and their stories, which mixes really well with:

Time management. The big deal about this game that I think MOST people look at and think "oh no". I also thought "oh no" at first. There's not exactly a Majora's Mask style time reset or anything (which I gotta talk more on this topic later) and you don't really have time to sit and rest unless you're in a menu, meaning every single step counts, but it does give you a temporary time stop ability, that uses the same resource as your big combat abilities. I was really unsure of it at first, I didn't know how to handle it, but once I really got the hang of things, I realized that I didn't need to time stop nearly as much as I did, and I was able to strike a good balance. Like I said, I found the flow state of managing quests, travel, teleportation, and still leaving myself with enough for combat buffs. As time passes, different enemies come out, different NPCs appear and disappear, different stores open and close, it makes you think about where you have to be, when you have to be where, and you have to think about your travel time. There's a quest I have to do but they don't appear until 14:00, so I'm gonna sit here and kill guys until like 13:00 where I'm then gonna take the train over there. It was scary and weird at first, but it's a system that I think is improved with knowledge of just how much is in the game.

One last thing I wanted to talk about, is Undertale. This game has a fucking Undertale genocide mechanic (I know Undertale came after but hush shush). There are actually limited enemies in the game (save for a couple), and you can actually completely extinct a species by killing all of them. When you've killed all but one, that one becomes a Last One, which is a hyperpowered hot pink version of that enemy that drops better loot. This also interacts with time management well because as the days go by, enemies drop better abilities for you to use, BUT, you also have to make sure you're giving yourself enough time to do shit AND kill all of everything. This is cool! It's also grindy, which does kinda suck. Having to kill 30 reavers (behemoths) gets mindless after a bit, which CAN be enjoyed, but can also be ugggghhhhhhh. I think I felt both of those emotions. This is at its worst in the final dungeon where there's 3 new monster types that can be killed off, meaning if you wanna kill all of em for the quest that makes you kill all of em, you HAVE to last second grind. Stinks when I just wanna finish the story.

Together, Lightning Returns offers an experience that's actually quite fun, but I think you REALLY HAVE to have the knowledge to make the most of it. It gives me the vibes of something that would be better on subsequent playthroughs, where you really know just how much is in this space.

Day 2: Story

The story this time about is weird. After the world Fucking Explodes in XIII-2, and Lightning turns herself into crystal to have Serah live forever in her memories, she's woken up (numbers) years later by God Himself, who said "hey shit's boutta explode in a few days can you go save a bunch of souls so I can put them in a new world I have your best friend here (he's a kid again don't worry about it) and I'll give you your sister back" and then Lightning goes "ok (unfeelingly)" and does it. Rather than a single focused story, it's split up into 5 main quests you can move back and forth between, all centered around a character from previous games. You got Noel, Snow, Fang, Yeul/Caius/Odin, and Sazh. Between these, and the many side quests, the game is very character based rather than narrative based, I feel, which I certainly don't have a problem with. Characters, I'm coming to realize, are my absolute favorite part of any media and the most important thing to me ever (which I think is why I end up making 20 hour long character sections (coming soon)). As you help people and your friends, you realize God is A Bitch And A Liar, so you go to Kill Him. This culminates in an ending that is 1. INCREDIBLY CHEESY, 2. A nice little celebration of the entire XIII trilogy, and 3. A little stupid. It's nice. It's not the greatest in the series or even the trilogy, but it's nice. Again, it feels like it's the second half to XIII-2, wrapping up everything that that game set up, which stinks a little cause it means it can't hold on its own well, but is nice when you're doing it in sequence.

Day 3: Characters

I've lived with this cast for 3 games now, and LR is, for the most part, a nice bow on everyone's stories/a cool way to take all their characters.

Lightning - Lightning in this game felt more of what I knew than XIII-2. Unfortunately, a major plot point was that her emotions were essentially stripped away for most of it, but it didn't stop the game from showing me her caring about her family and other people, and despite her being God's Servant, it does not prevent her from rebelling against the higher powers when they're being assholes, just like in the original XIII. She's not my favorite protagonist out of the entire series, but I think LR ended her story in a way that made me a lot happier than XIII-2. I also find it really funny that Square's IRL usage of her as a fashion model seriously had its impact on this game with the garb switching, and the fucking ending of her going to France.

Hope - My favorite boy felt off at first. Why was his voice acting like that? The reason? God is a bitch. My boy was relegated to being a child sized costume for a motherfucker; and unfortunately, this half self of him kinda got on my nerves as he Kept Telling Me Things All The Time. I know it's an hour until I get called back. Please stop. At least I can be happy about the fact that the real Hope was actually the force that helped Lightning at the end, right as she helped him. I love the relationship between the two of them, one of my favorites in the series.

Snow - I genuinely think that his role here was NEEDED for his character to go into. For two games, he's been the extreme positive force. A heart of gold and a brain of brick. Challenging this with the failure to protect the one person he loves the most, plus centuries of stagnation and trauma, pushes Snow in a way that I think was really important. I can't say I LOVED seeing him so despondent, but I do think it was the right play. Seeing him at his lowest, yet still coming out on top, and finally, FINALLY, being rewarded with time with Serah, Snow feels like he actually went through the challenge he needed to get the ending he deserved.

Fang - I actually really enjoyed Fang here, because for most of the game, it was between Fang and Lightning. I will say, Vanille is not one of my favorite characters. At all; and unfortunately, Fang's primary character trait is that she is completely devoted to the one person she loves (you CANNOT tell me that this shit isn't romantic), Vanille. This is a good character trait, I just don't care for how it's aimed. But being able to enjoy Fang and Lightning's friendship, as well as Fang starting that fire of rebellion that I loved in XIII, it made me happy. I don't understand your crush girl but go off

Vanille - Going off that point; I understand Vanille. I really do. She feels like she did a lot of pain and wants to make up for it. I just... I can't. I dunno. The vibes are off for me. I think I could have appreciated a little more insight or explanation on WHY she has the power to hear the dead, and How Exactly she's going to save them and not kill them.

Sazh and Dajh - Once again thrown to the sidelines?????? Like, ok. I get it. Compared to the fighters, the ancient warriors, Sazh and his son are pretty much civilians! So in that way, I get it, they get the easy life compared to everyone else. But to see Dajh reduced to a plot point yet again upsets me. I want to see some growth for these guys, cause they deserve it. I even feel that Sazh got snubbed in the ending cause he didn't even get to appear alongside his own Eidolon like everyone else did. I love these two, and I love seeing them happy, but... gimme a little more, man.

Odin - Can I just say, it is SO funny that fucking Odin, classic FF summon, insta-killing warrior, majestic horse transformer, reincarnated into a chocobo? Hilarious. I do love that narrative of him being by Lightning's side, though. I think it could have been strengthened back in XIII-2, but it's still nice.

Noel - This poor fucking guy dude. Living with centuries of failure and loss. He never got a chance to really enjoy and be happy; it made me so sad to see him in the place he was in, and to have that fight against him. I am incredibly glad that he finally got to have an ending with Yeul; it feels like he really got what he deserved after all his torment.

Yeul - I still think she's more of a plot device than a character, but I did really appreciate that LR completed what she is on top of giving more explanation onto Chaos. Chaos is souls, and since every Yeul is intertwined, constantly dying at a young age, all being the same, yet all being different, that's A LOT of soul juice that congeals yet contradicts each other. The reveal that the Yeuls Are Chaos was literally the one thing I needed that completely solidified all the confusion I had from the last game, and how that turned into keeping Caius around, and them entering Etro's place in the new world, made complete sense. Sure, the Yeuls might not be a character, but they're a very VERY cool world aspect. Also they let the last one be with Noel :))))))))))

Caius - He remains an incredibly cool character. LR might not add much to him, but it doesn't ruin him in the slightest. He's still completely devoted to all of the Yeuls, and their wants affect his very being. Him becoming essentially the lord of death was a very cool ending, simply because it means he still reached the only goal he ever wanted. I love Caius, man.

Lumina - She's.... confusing. I didn't understand at a single point what her deal was, and honestly I still don't think I do, but that might just be me being stupid and not literate enough. Why was she summoning cyclops, why did she break Lightning's sword, why did she cause chaos. Just for funny? I guess? Other than that though, I do think the concept of her character was cool. The part of Lightning's soul removed from her; not only is it the part that had Serah, but it's her childhood self, her childhood emotions that she pushed away. The reveal that Lumina is Claire, and not Serah, was a huge one, and I think it was honestly foreshadowed in the fact that Lumina's eyes look more like Lightning's than they do Serah's. Wait, I'm just realizing it now, was she just fucking around cause she was a kid? That makes a lot more sense actually. Anyways, I think I would have liked a little more overt acknowledgement to her appearance. Give me one verbal "why do you look like that". I also enjoyed the bits where she was actually shown to care, like in Sazh's story.

Bhunivelze - God Himself. The biggest ASS that ever lived. What a douche. I think my favorite part about Bhunivelze was the consistency of the fact that he can't do emotions. It was shown in Hope's voice acting and lack of feeling, it was shown in the one part of Lightning that he took away; and it was his ultimate downfall, when that bit of Hope reversed on him, and made him feel shit he cannot comprehend. It's cool to see something so consistent in a character like this. He also serves as your typical JRPG "church bad" archetype, God only cares about his followers and nothing else, which does give me a bit of schadenfreude, shitty as it is. He is willing to lie and manipulate to get his way and get around what he cannot do. Very cool antagonist. Not the best, but very cool.

The game's just a nice tale ender for everyone (except for like, maybe I could have used an extra moment or two with real Serah). It serves as a good celebration of the trilogy, bringing everyone back in some form. Hell, even Cid came back, even if he was just a bunch of souls in a Cid costume.

Day 4: World

I should have mentioned this sooner, but whatever. The world that the game takes place in, Nova Chrysalia, is SUCH a cool concept???? Like, with the gameplay being what it is, if they just separated the story/characters, the world being super unique could absolutely make this game stand on its own. It's the remains of the normal world mashed together with the realm of death. Since the realm of death is also related to time, and it's broken, people Don't Age. Also, since the goddess of death, who deals with reincarnation, is dead, people can't be born. This world is the perfect stagnation that makes the setting of finite time until the end work. It makes systems like the Last Ones work. It's just super cool. It's split up into 4 zones, each having a sort of unique mechanic. You got Luxerion, the holy city and the capital, with a really cool gothic and checkerboard aesthetic spread around; you got Yusnaan, the city of "we're gonna party til we die (think Eulmore from XIV)", that completely changes vibes at night, as well as having a cool coliseum, and a bunch of for flavor restaurants; there's the Wildlands, that serves as that kind of Archylte Steppe-like big area, and is the only place with a chocobo for you to ride; and then finally the Dead Dunes, a big desert with a ruin underneath it. They're all very unique feeling, and I don't feel bored, especially moving between all of them. I think the Dead Dunes are my favorite zone, simply because you get to slide down the sand and it's really really fun. Yusnaan is probably second.

I think the one gripe I have is that the game needs to sell you a little more on the fact that everyone has been exactly the same for like 500 years. I don't know why, but it just feels like it needs a little more fuel in that department to fully immerse me in it. Maybe some more stagnation or apathetic feelings. There was a quest with a girl selling her tears that I think did this right, give me more of that. Also, uh, with this all said:

Day 5: This Is Just Majora's Mask

Hi yeah let's make a game about the end of the world. We're gonna give it a time limit. We're gonna split the world into 4 sections. The game is mainly going to be focused on side quests where you help the people of the world reach their final wishes, and some of them will be based on time of day. Not to mention, in the final dungeon, we're going to let the player either go straight to the final boss, OR they can do 4 mini trials that give them a super powered upgrade right before the final boss.

I could put some of these separately as a coincidence but I'm gonna be real that final dungeon solidified something to me: something's off. There HAS to be inspiration here lmao (none of this affected my enjoyment it's just really really funny)

Day 6: Music

As usual, the music is fucking phenomenal. It's beautiful, it rocks, it's terrifying, it's amazing. Lightning Returns might have one of the Best final boss themes in the entire series and nobody knows cause it's the weird last entry in a trilogy people hated.

I have. One flaw though. I don't... really like how previous battle themes were used as normal battle themes, cause it feels like it takes away the impact. I was walking through the Wildlands at night, when I ran into a Dryad, and suddenly Desperate Struggle starts playing. I think "oh fuck I just ran into a mini boss" and I thought I was right when this dude started doing massive damage and summoned a bunch of clones. Then I ran into a slug and the same song played. I'm not sad to hear those songs because the XIII trilogy does not miss at a single point, but it makes me sad when they all have the same meaning. I'm also really upset since Worlds Collide doesn't ever get to get to the good part since all the Hoplites are dead before it gets going

Day 7: Graphics

XIII's sauce remains. The game still looks good, and they solved that weird facial expression thing that XIII-2 had. I love the consistent checkerboard aesthetic that the Chaos has, spread throughout the game. Also, that fucking final boss battle? Holy shit. Beautiful. How the floor turns into Bhunivelze's fucking robe??????? That's so cool. The final prerendered cutscene was absolutely peak.

just gonna sleep in the inn for a bit now to get to

Day 13: 0 Days Until The End

Lightning Returns is a game in a weird place. I definitely do not think it deserves the reviews it got; I think that is a result of a time mechanic people didn't really give time (lol), as well as being the 3rd entry in a trilogy where people Did Not care for its first entry, but it really doesn't deserve to be one of the lowest rated FF games.

It could honestly work as its own game. You remove all the actual FF bits, and you have a wonderful standalone action JRPG. But in the same vein, it really Only works as a finale to the XIII series. The story, the characters, and even the evolution of gameplay, it only works/it's at its strongest when you've played the previous games. It wraps up bits from XIII-2 in a way that it feels like it was MADE for doing that.

When I started the game, I wasn't vibing with it. You need to give it time. You need to understand it, and know what it offers and how it works to really appreciate it, it's not going to be instant. Although, towards the end of my playthrough, it was getting a little grindy cause I really frontloaded my experience, not really knowing how much content I had, and in how much space. Especially with the NG+ feature, I imagine this game goes hard on your 2nd-on playthroughs. I'd love to see a speedrun or a fully optimized playthrough, that's GOTTA be sick.

7/10. A bit of an awkward experience in places, but in the end a fun, unique experience that also serves as a nice ending to an overhated trilogy. It's also Majora's Mask. Bhunivelze's Savior.

[veebs-hates-video-games]

And now for something completely different: I actually finished an entire game and even liked it! Wild, I know.

I think 8 is still my favorite, but I had a lot of fun with Ys X and overall probably liked it about as much as 9, with some things a little better in one or the other.

Adol continues to be the most upbeat and wholesome and aroace shounen protagonist. He's just here to go on adventures and make friends and go on adventures with friends. I tend to be less likely to get invested in games or series that center around male protagonists, but Adol is just a decent guy who happens to get caught up in shenanigans constantly, and there's always an interesting cast of other characters surrounding him.

That's actually something I've really been appreciating about the modern games in the series. They've done a really good job for the most part of having a good amount of variety in terms of ages and genders of both important characters and minor ones you spend a decent amount of time with. The main party members tend to be in their teens and twenties, but it's nice that you end up hanging around with extremely mixed groups ranging from eight-year-old kids to middle aged parents to 70-year-olds, who all also tend to have interactions with each other too and are developed enough to get their own side quest storylines.

And it's also been fun jumping backwards and forwards through the timeline and seeing how recurring characters like Dogi develop too. In this one he's just barely joined up with Adol (I think it takes place immediately after 2 if I remember right?), and he's still not quite sure what to do with his life, while in 9, the previous game that takes place several years later, they've each grown to be the most important person in each other's life and someone they can count on no matter what happens. It's fun seeing little slices of that from different points in time, and it's always nice in general to see guys being genuinely good people with healthy relationships who just want to take care of the people around them.

I won't say too much about the story, but it's enjoyable too and has some good moments in it. I don't think it has anything super deep to say, but sometimes you just need to go on an adventure through absolutely bonkers European history fanfic.

And as far as the gameplay side of things goes, I think overall it might be my least favorite of the three recent-ish games in the series while also doing some things the best of the three.

The ship sections aren't bad, but they're definitely my least favorite thing in any of the three games. It gets better as you get more upgrades to make movement and stuff suck less than it does early on, but it still kinda kills the pacing at times compared to when you're on foot, and even on foot the movement options don't feel as good as their counterparts in 9 did.

I think the combat might actually also be my least favorite when fighting regular trash enemies, but at the same time it probably has the best boss fights. Switching to a block-heavy system and really de-emphasizing dodging didn't really click with me at first for a while, but a lot of the later boss fights get to be pretty satisfying as you learn their patterns and start pulling off perfect blocks and getting a huge damage multiplier as a reward. It's also fun how a lot of late-game enemies reward you for charging directly at them like an idiot and dodging directly into an attack so you get a free random finisher as a counter. It really works well with my tendency to be reckless, be stupid, have no plan, and improvise something when you get there.

The new engine works great on the Switch too compared to the previous one. Shadows and stuff still aren't great, but overall most things look much cleaner than they did in 8 or 9, and it feels a lot better to play without it constantly dropping frames like 9 did.

I'm just glad there are still people out there making mid-budget games like this that have almost disappeared in the sea of $100+ million AAA games and indie stuff made in someone's bedroom with a budget of like a buck fifty. They can still have the scope and polish most tiny indie games can't afford to, but without having to make too many concessions to reach the wildest possible audience because they need to sell 20 million copies to turn a profit. They can just keep doing their own thing for the niche that happens to be into that.

[evilpenguinrika]

The brain bees are making me think about my hosie/final fantasy 14 AU and will not leave me (literally started writing this post at 4am but stopped because it was almost 5am but now I've come to finish this post at an appropriate time in the late afternoon)

Youre free to check out what kind of weird niche AU I've created by going through my "hosie ffxiv au" tag on my blog!

Okay. So I've had a lot to think about in terms of what Jobs Hope, Josie, and their kids would have and despite my very first post saying otherwise, I've come to a new conclusion:

Hope Mikaelson, our favourite Tribrid, would have these Jobs in this exact order:

Dragoon (no Tribrid reasoning tbh. Dragoons are just fucking hot ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ although one could argue it would fit her werewolf side)

Red Mage (there IS a Tribrid reasoning for this. Red Mages use magic, so that's a no brainer for Hope's witch side. But apart from magic casting, they also fight with rapiers, and I thought that was a cool little touch. Plus, it reminds me a lot of the blood sword we saw Hope use in the show. Not to mention Red Mage--like Dragoons--have some very fanciful moves that made me think of Hope as well. Very fitting.)

Dark Knight (another with Tribrid reasoning. I haven't actually gotten to Heaven's Ward expansion pack to unlock this Job or its Job Quest so all the information of Dark Knight are from videos I've seen. But the Job is perfect for Hope's vampires side as Dark Knight has this blood guage or something which was so fitting. And the lore behind this Job apparently goes super fucking hard lol. And edgy and broody, which is even more perfect for our resident Tribrid!)

//

For our lovely and favourite brunette siphoner, Josie Saltzman, here are the Jobs she would have in this order:

Black Mage (this felt like a no-brainer Job for her to have. Especially because this class focuses a lot with switching between your Blizzard spells and Fire spells. And we all know Josie is secretly a pyromaniac (lol I jest). So for her, Black Mage is perfect)

Blue Mage (this is another no-brainer and fits in theme with her Siphoner witch abilities. Blue Mages are able to copy the moves they've seen from their enemies, now sure this may not seem very Siphoner themed, but I assure you, it's sort of parallel to it. Siphoners are able to use magic if they siphon/take magic from someone or something magical right? Blue Mage is sort of like that in which they acquire spells of enemy moves to add to their arsenal of magic. So it makes sense in my book)

Honourable mention for Josie before I move on is the Bard Job. I felt like this Job would suit Josie nice because Bards have music stuff and I thought that fit. Though I don't quite remember if Josie being into or dabbling in music was canon or a fan fanon thing. Now, with the next Expansion Dawntrail coming out summer, I have been made aware that there are a few other Jobs that will be included in the pack--new jobs too (Viper being one of them but I'll get to that Job later). So it's possible that I will update this list for Josie once more when we get news of the rest of the new Jobs.

//

Moving onto my very precious Hosie Fankids!

Lana Mikaelson, she, like her mom Hope, is a Tribrid as well! So this will be pretty much the same except for one additional Job:

Dragoon (same reasoning as Hope)

Red Mage (originally I didn't think of Lana taking Red Mage, but when I realized Stormblood Expansion pack is now included in standard edition and free trial permanently, I had to try out Red Mage. And then I realized Red Mage is a perfect fit for Lana for the same reasons I gave in Hope's section)

Dark Knight (same reasoning as Hope)

Viper (this is one of the new Jobs that will be included in Dawntrail expansion and I am so excited. What information we have are from things that had been showcased already, with gameplay footage you could find on YouTube. But I chose this Job for Lana is because I'm a simple pal and loved the aesthetic. But also because YOU FIGHT WITH DUOBLADES THAT CAN THEN BE CONNECTED INTO ONE DOUBLE SIDED BLADE HOW COOL IS THAT PLUS it also fits well with a certain event and scene that I have plans for when it's time to write about Lana's adventures in my future kid fic series So I Swear That I'll Protect It. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up)

//

Hayley Mikaelson. The werewolf of the kids and one of Hosie's twins! I love Hayley she's the best:

Monk (felt this Job was fitting for her werewolf side. She's a heavy hitter, packs a mean punch, and werewolves sorta rely on that, most of the time I'm assuming. Sorry it's been a while since I've watched the series haha. But for Hayley, despite her werewolf side, I felt like Monk was the perfect fit!)

Rogue (now, I've already written up an in depth reasoning for picking this starting class here. But I'll paraphrase here anyways. I thought it might also be jnteresting to have Hayley, not only be a charge in type of girl, but also someone who knew how to be sneaky and use her cunning. She would have been taught to try out different battle tactics so she wouldn't just rely on her base instincts. The reason this is a starting class is because the next 'evolution' I guess is the Ninja Job, which I'm not sure if I want her to take. It's also very jarring to have a pirate-esque western-y feel and then evolve to something very Japanese-theme, but that's just me. Plus Jay is the anime weeb in the family lol

So literally after writing this post the other day I logged in to play as Hayley and ended up having her pick up the Marauder class so she can actually become Warrior haha

Warrior (like I've mentioned before, Hayley's fighting style is very rush in guns-a-blazing. She will do whatever it takes to have the focus on her so her friends or siblings/family can get the jump on the enemies without fear of getting targetted themselves. Which is absolutely fitting as a Tank role because Tanks pull mobs and enemies, they make sure all mobs and enemies are focusing on THEM while the rest of the party does their job without fear of being targetted. And I specifically chose Warrior as the Job for Hayley is because out of the four Tank Jobs: Paladin, Warrior, Dark Knight, and Gunbraker, I felt like Warrior fit better for Hayley in terms of her role and personality)

Reaper (I was writing this post about how to incorporate Hayley and Leo's TVDU backstory abilities into FFXIV AU and now I can't unsee Reaper being an excellent fit for Hayley because my hc is that Hayley is a werewolf yes, but she also has vampire blood running in her--courtesy of her Tribrid Mom) [RPR Job point added Feb 1, 2024]

Honourable mentions for other Jobs Hayley might take up. I have been humouring the idea of her taking on one of the four Tank Jobs (Paladin, Warrior, Dark Knight, and Gunbreaker), but I truly am unsure which of the Tank Jobs would be best suited for her. I mentioned previously that she's quite a "charge in head first" type, and that's usually what the Tank Jobs do where they pull enemies away from the party members so the party can do their thing. And I think Hayley is very much like that. Maybe Paladin or Warrior would be the two I could see for Hayley because iirc, in one of the intermission chapters for my very first Hosie fic Sad Bedroom Eyes, she was playing D&D and had chosen--nope never mind I just checked I had her pick the Monk class. Welp, that doesn't help me lol. I'll think more on this and then decide. Either that or wait to see what the new Jobs are for Dawntrail (I mean I guess Viper could also fit. And it would be nicely aligned with Rogue. We'll see though).

Also with her picking up a Tank job, I think Hosie would have very different outlooks and opinions on it. Hope--since Dark Knight is also a Tank--would be proud of Hayley and would probably help her fit into her role as a Tank until her daughter feels more confident and comfortable. As opposed to Josie who would be fretting about Hayley having to be the one to pull enemies and have all the attacks be aimed at her. I also think if the entire family goes do dungeons, Hope and Hayley would both be Tanks, Hope being main Tank and Hayley being off Tank at first--but I think they'll switch roles so that Hayley will get a chance to be main Tank. I think that would be really fun and really sweet bonding moment for the Hosie family.

//

Jay Mikaelson, the loveable goofball, twin to Hayley, big time anime weeb, and Siphoner. He will also have similar Jobs like his momma Josie, all except one additional Job:

Black Mage (same reasoning as Josie)

Blue Mage (same reasoning as Josie)

Dancer (in my fic So I Swear That I'll Protect It, Jay has taken dance classes and gymnastics and uses those moves to incorporate into his fighting in addition to his magic. It took me an embarrassingly long time to remember this information and only popped up when I was writing chapter 15 of We're Reckless And In Danger--second installment in SISTIPI series--so I quickly added this Job to Jay's list! And it's just so perfect for him)

//

Leo Mikaelson, the adopted son, youngest Mikaelson kid, and the ONLY HUMAN in a family of supernaturals. The kid's got his work cut out for him:

Scholar (I felt like this class was fitting for Leo since he wishes to learn all that he can about magic in order to relate more to his three older siblings. Of course Hayley is just a werewolf and does not have magic, but the sentiment is still there. And Scholars have a faerie that pretty much helps with buffs and heals and I think that's also nice for Leo. I see him as someone who's very friendly towards lots of creatures. And since Scholar is a Healing Job, I think it also works even more with Leo's need to want to support his siblings/family and help them out when he can.)

Bard (so I also wrote an in-depth reasoning for Leo taking up this class as well here, but I'll paraphrase. Asides from learning potions that do not require actual magic abilities, I think he'd also want to learn how to help protect his family and contribute a bit more. So he'd go to grandpa Alaric and ask for him to teach him how to fight with weapons. Obviously Hope and Josie were against that because Leo's too young to fight with weapons, but Alaric just teaches him archery--which works because Bards uses bows as their weapon. Another reason why I chose Bard is because in my first Hosie fic Sad Bedroom Eyes, I think I had Leo be really into theatre and performing arts, and Bards traditionally are performers, and in the game, they can play music. So that's why Bard is perfect for Leo!)

Summoner (in the game, Scholar and Summoners are Jobs that branched out of the Arcanist class. Summoners basically summon little versions of Ifrit, Garuda, and Titan to help fight them along with the Carbuncle. Oh, the Carbuncle is like a cute little fox creature anyways the Carbuncle turns into either Ifrit, Garuda, or Titan depending on the button you press anyways--like I said in Scholar, Leo would be out there befriending all the creatures like a tiny Snow White or Cinderella)

Astrologian (I mentioned how this is a great Job for Leo but never elaborated so now's my chance haha. Astrologian is also a Healing Job but they use tarot cards--which I thought would be excellent for Leo because it just connects back to Leo's wish to learn all that he can about magic. I'd like to think Freya teaches Leo how to read tarot and he's become very good at it)

Machinist (I think Machinist would be nice for Leo as well. The way I headcanon it, Leo would make potions and would somehow incorporate those into his fighting style. He'd probably tinker with things and build some sort of contraption or whatever. And Machinist are kind of like that--I mean they use guns in the game and I don't think Leo would actually use guns, but again, the sentiment is still there. The lore for this Job is that Machinist sort of follow the footsteps of Cid Garlond, a man who's great with utilizing magitek. So Machinist uses the knowledge that they know and turns it into something they can use in battle. And I think Leo would definitely--again--be creating trinkets of sorts to help his siblings/family that also incorporate the magic element)

White Mage (listen. Leo is a precious sunshine boi with a big imagination. Also White Mage are pure healers so that fits right up Leo's whole "i want to protect my family and make sure they're safe" and the fact that he is, in fact, the only damn healer in the goddamn family lmao. ALSO YOU GET A UNICORN WHEN YOU PLAY THIS JOB. OBVIOUSLY I'M GOING TO HAVE LEO PICK THIS JOB UP ARE YOU KIDDINGGGGG) [WHM Job point added Feb 14, 2024]

Wow I think that's about it for what Jobs Hosie and my Hosie Fankids would take up. Leo's ended up getting a lot more Jobs compared to the others, but I think it also makes sense considering how Leo is so eager to keep up pace with his supernatural family since he's the only human/non-supernatural.

Of course, maybe this list will get updated once the rest of the new Jobs for the Dawntrail expansion pack gets revealed, but until that happens...

If you've actually made it to the very end of this post, I am so sorry lol. But also thank you for reading through this very niche Hosie AU that was born out of my love for the ship and my love for the Critically Acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV with an expanded free trial which you can play through the entirety of A Realm Reborn and the award-winning Heavensward expansion and award-winning Stormblood expansion up to level 70 for free with no playtime restriction <3

[angryaurikhori]

Having finished Dawntrail's msq yesterday, I figured I'd toss my review into the ring. I was hyped for the expansion for sure, but I kept my expectations low due to witnessing two back-to-back overhyped WoW expansions that were incredibly bad - in story, gameplay, and overarching expansion systems. Needless to say, I've been burned before in the mmo expansion circuit because of Warlords of Draenor, Battle for Azeroth, and Shadowlands - and quite badly by the latter two - but my overall feelings regarding Dawntrail are highly positive. I've put my deeper thoughts below the cut, as they'll be pretty spoilery. And quite long, as I'll be comparing and contrasting FFXIV and WoW's approach to expansions, characterization, and how they handle launches.

A lot of people would say that the story drags, but I love some good world building. I honestly really enjoyed the "back to basics" approach that the first half of expansion's story took - going around to meet the different people of Tural and learning about their cultures. It took me back to the early days of ARR where you're just a guy doing what they can to help people, and as a WoW refugee to FFXIV, an approach I definitely prefer over being THE Hero who often got sidelined in the big moments so Jaina/Anduin/Thrall could do their thing. Only this time, we're the ones doing the mentoring instead of the Scions/our Job Trainer being the mentor to us. True, we only had a few moments of actual mentoring, but there were plenty of "silent talking" moments that you can opt to fill in with giving Wuk Lamat advice.

There was only one true hiccup to my enjoyment of the Rite of Succession half of the expansion, and I'm sure it's also on everyone else's list of hated moments this expansion - Wuk Lamat's kidnapping. I get it's supposed to establish that Wuk Lamat's still a bit too trusting and naive to rule Tural, that Bakool Ja Ja is a true threat to the Rite, and give us some bonding time with Koana, but this section dragged on far too long. And it had two stealth follow segments in a row! TWO! Granted, they're a bit easier now with the big "DO NOT APPROACH" aura compared to how they worked in Endwalker, but it's still my least favorite gameplay mechanic.

The zone and dungeon designs were gorgeous, and the music team 100% hit it out of the park again. Out of all the early story areas, I think that the lower portion of Yak'Tel has to be my favorite, as well as Skydeep Cenote being my favorite dungeon. The music in that dungeon is appropriately haunting, given that it's a mass grave for all the failed Blessed Siblings that never had a chance to live. Speaking of...

I did not expect to enjoy Bakool Ja Ja's character as much as I did. He was introduced as a bully, willing to do whatever it took to be crowned Tulliyolal's new leader. Then the Mamool Ja storyline happened in lower Yak'Tel and my view of him did a complete 180. He was a guy who shouldered the hopes and expectations of his people due to the circumstances of his birth, but carried all the guilt of being the one to survive while other Blessed Siblings did not. Having a sympathetic antagonist is nothing new for FFXIV, but he never truly was a villain at heart. Seeing his growth as the msq went on was wonderful. I hope we get to interact more with him as a friend instead of an antagonist with patch content.

Going back to my earlier point of being sidelined so the Big Name characters can do their thing, it does happen in Dawntrail, but not in a way that felt overly egregious to me? It's entirely possible it didn't bother me as much because we were there to see Lamaty'i's growth first-hand versus needing to track down and spend real money on outside media to read about how Character A went from a normal person to certified Grade A Badass, which was the case more often than not between WoW expansions. I mean, I was floored when I first started playing and they kept the "next expansion preview" quests in-game versus an event that runs for about two weeks and is gone forever once time's up, so there's also that to consider.

As for the two "main" big bads of the expansion, I have mixed feelings. Zalool Ja was a far cry from the Saturday Morning Cartoon villains of WoW or the ARR days and I found him actually far more compelling than the other villain who I'll get into later.

[kyogre-blue]

Wuthering Waves day 2.

I saw someone comment that Scar showing up was the highlight for them, but for me it was the opposite. His entire section with the village and the fake picture book was just so........ cliche and unimaginative. You can just tell they thought they were on to something there, but he's the worst character in the game so far.

Aside from that, they unfortunately didn't really link up the little side quests they send you on. You find out about a plague from twenty years ago and then just kinda drop that plot thread. You go toward the war front, see a vision of the general fighting there, and then... drop that plot thread, turn around and leave without even seeing the front line. You run into Scar, explore a random cult village, and then... he peaces out, we drop this plot thread, and that's it.

Since we're being purposefully sent on these little side quests, I figured they'd like... have something to do with each other?? But apparently not.

Anyway, it was at this point that I hit the level gate, but I also got dailies, so there's that.

Other points:

I finished the beginner banner. I didn't get lucky at all and had to do the full 50 pulls to get the guaranteed 5 star. I got the little girl healer. She's cute, but I'm not sure if I want to sub Baizhi out for her. I don't even know her.

I also got two dude who both use guns. I... should probably sub out Chixia for one of them. But Chixia is a fun gal, I don't want to leave her...

In terms of exploration, I don't mind the way the world looks overall, but it's kind of hard to tell which parts are interactable sometimes. It's not bad, but for some reason I don't feel quite the same mindless enjoyment as Genshin. Maybe I'll get more used to it tho. I still always forget to wall-run.

Combat requires way too much engagement for me. I don't want to parry and perfect dodge things, man. Surely there is a character who has great AOE and doesn't require brainpower to use.

I can't tell whether it's a glitch or what, but the dialogue got really weird near the front line. You can tell Yangyang that you saw the general before you actually get the vision of him, and then afterwards you have the option to tell her about him... and a woman in red, but I didn't see any woman in red...? Truly puzzling.

I am really wondering whether the government was giving some kind of subsidy for putting in a liondance character, between this guy and Gaming. I started his quest, and man. You could make a drinking game out of every time "lion dance" is mentioned.

[nintendowife]

I finished Assassin's Creed: Revelations on PS3 a couple of days ago. I played Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood last year and got a pre-owned copy of Revelations to see the story further. Revelations is continuation to the story of Brotherhood and the final chapter to the Ezio trilogy. You step in the boots of matured Ezio Auditore Da Firenze and this time you head to Constantinople (known as Turkey's Istanbul today) in 1511 AD. As usual you meet plenty of historical figures like Prince Suleiman, Niccolo Polo (Marco Polo's father) and Manuel Palaiologos. There are also sections where you play as the legendary assassin Altaïr Ibn-LaʼAhad, the protagonist of the very first game in the series.

I liked the landmarks skillfully recreated for the game and the work on the characters' outfits is outstanding again. The characters are written rather well and I found them interesting. My favorite character may have been the charismatic Yusuf Tazim who heads the assassin operations in Constantinople. His interaction with Ezio was quite funny and enjoyable. The first time they meet, Yusuf introduces himself and he confirms "and you were Ezio Auditore Da… lalalala?".

I liked the ambience of the environments and the dialogue made me laugh at times. When a conflict between the Templars and the Assassins broke out, there was this civillian crying out "Why me?! Always in the wrong place at the wrong time." Some main story quests were hilarious too, like when Ezio and his pals needed to disguise as minstrels for a party in the Topkapi Palace. A guard commenting "you sound like a dying cat" about Ezio's singing talent cracked me up.

Traversing the environments was pretty handy with the new hookblade that allows for faster climbing and sliding on ropes suspended over the city. Ezio's behaviour when parkouring was a bit erratic at times though and occasionally instead of going up a tower he suddenly jumped down to a haystack for example. Stealth was a bit difficult to maintain at times (maybe I was just impatient) but performing silent kills was satisfying.

The story was pretty cool, a good combination of history, fiction and mystique. I liked the story of Altaïr and the game ends in a cliffhanger that made me want to see how it continues.

There's plenty of side content aside from the main story in form of collectibles, a tower defence minigame, rebuilding the city by renovating shops and landmarks, side missions, online multiplayer, etc. I collected all the memoir pages which unlocked the Ishak Pasha armor and I fully rebuilt Constantinople, other than that I didn't care much for the side content. There's a separate first-person platformer / walking sim game mode where you learn more about Desmond but that was so clunky and had such terrible level design that I didn't finish even the first section of those.

Overall my feelings towards the game are clearly more positive than negative regardless of some frustrations I had with it. The game was concise and felt like just the right length. According to HowLongToBeat it takes 12 hours on average to complete the main story.

"Nothing is true, everything is permitted". I'm looking forward to playing Assassin's Creed Mirage once it launches this autumn.

[iantimony]

accidentally back to tuesdaypost

despite my best efforts, shabbat came and went and i did not make my post. oops. trying a new heading template this week as well.

maybe not this week but i am thinking of starting to host images for the making section somewhere else...maybe on gdrive? or postimages.org? imgur? just so that if my tumblr ever breaks the images in dreamwidth won't vanish.

listening

partizan! halfway through episode 12 right now, which means, according to where i was last week-ish, i am averaging about one episode a day LOL. extreme sport FatT speedrunning. also relistening to all is as all should be recently, just scratches a brain itch for some reason. it's very brain-worm-able to me, i've been humming songs from it all week.

reading i was going to say fallow and then went. hooold on. i've been reading SO many things just not, like, books.

wikipedia articles of the week: Naomi Shihab Nye, Rachel's Tomb, Matzevah, Alexandre Cabanel, Abd el-Ouahed ben Messaoud, Leo Africanus

because it's november and i'm nostalgic for nanowrimo (and considering doing it again once i'm done with classes and therefore homework), i went and reread some of my nano from when i was in high school and WOW. nostalgia!!! some of it is very very bad, unsurprisingly, it was almost 10 years ago, but some of it is actually quite good. very fond of the comments left by a friend on it that were preserved when i downloaded the google doc a billion years ago to save on my external drive, including one that said "your prose is crisp like an autumn apple" or some fucking thing like that. truly delightful. i'd also somehow forgotten that i'd actually hit the word goal? the document is about 60k words give or take, the story was not finished though which is probably why i misremembered. i should start writing again.

in my quest to populate my inoreader with blogs and other such things i've been delving into my bookmarks and re-found this delightful site, their most recent article is just the world's most specific niche horn memes it's so funny. like this is absolutely meaningless to literally everyone else that it passes back into absurdity and probably funny to non-horn players again. i am VERY excited to peruse their pdf library though.

playing pokegoooooo. i am visiting my grandma and going on long night walks around the old people development with pokego is very elite. i am a little nervous that someone will call security on me though because i frequently just stop (often like...in front of people's apartment buildings....) and stand still to catch pokemon if a bunch have spawned in one location...

watching i have not watched it yet but i am VERY excited to start season 2 of the tgcf donghua!!

watched kurtis connor's "deep dive into potterheads" and literally cheered out loud at the end when he mentioned the snapewives. that made me want to watch strange aeons so i also watched her video on msscribe and snapewives.

i wasn't On Livejournal or active in fandom while everything was going down but i remember learning about it a few years after it all happened so seeing comprehensive deep dives now is very, very...satisfying isn't quite the right word, but i am a messy bitch who lives for drama especially when i'm not involved in it. what a mess.

making pottery!!! i have a bunch of stuff coming out from a glaze run that i'm very excited to see but it will have to wait til saturday when i get home from visiting my grandma for thanksgiving. i do however have pictures of this little box i made:

it was a gift for my grandma, and i glazed it all the way back in the beginning of october i think? the kilns got monopolized by some other stuff for the owner's business (which is super fair) which means we didn't get a student project run until literally friday, two days before i was supposed to leave town, so after some texting with her she was able to put it out on her porch around 11pm on saturday when the kiln cooled down enough so i was able to pick it up at like 5:30am on my drive to the airport LOL so all in all it worked out! next roundup post will have pictures of some of my other glazed pieces, i'm very very curious how they do!!!

i've been playing with underglaze because i was like ohhhh i love the look of carving designs into underglaze...and i bought some fun colors when i went to The City a few weekends ago...so i have this mug that needs its first fire, i also have some fun eye-motif ones in the works at the moment! i also added some underglaze color to my dragon carving from last week.

finally this bowl already had its first fire but i painted underglaze on over white to try and get a watercolor-type effect? i put lilypads on the inside and painted koi on the outside (no picture of that yet)

misc not a whole lot else! since my summertime trials and tribulations i have unfortunately become the kind of person who gets tummy issues when my stress levels get too high. i have always become a basket case in the ~24 hours before i have to travel somewhere so that's been less than fun but i'm figuring it out. also trying to switch psychiatrists right now is sooooo fucking aggravating i will not get into it but ughhhhhh.

[zachsgamejournal]

PLAYING: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

I'm starting to enjoy the game more, but the combat is...I don't like it.

Not sure where I left off. I got a Sith uniform. At lost has changed since then. I was able to get to the undercity with the uniform. Turns out there's a gang down here with an "honorable" leader. Noble leader of the untouchables, I guess? He didn't step down when his second wanted him to, so his second started a rival gang and they're not noble...I guess. I've traded my sith uniform for sith papers, which give me free movement.

So to find my missing Jedi friend, I need to attack the enemy gang (they have her). They also have prototype engine for a race that the noble gang wants me to steal. This is all to get my jedi friend back Balista, or something. To get in, I need to use the sewers. To find the sewers, I've been encouraged to find a young woman and her Wookie friend. i met them earlier. They seemed nice. I pick up some bounties on the way.

I go to this other place where the real down-and-out are living. There's a disease that's turning people into monsters (feels zombie-movie-esque) and this town is on the frontier of that. "Town". A doctor wants a sample of the disease to make a cure, but another man is offering me money (his mob boss wants to make a profit). Being anti-capitalist and pro-free healthcare, i know what to do here...

So the down and out place has a gate that separates the "town" from ghoul-ridden area. I hit a glitch and accidentally get warped to the sewer WTF? climbing out of the sewer I find myself on the wrong side of the ghoul gate. I wander around, die a few times, lean into using my grenades. It's not really fun and it's confusing. I'm worried I'm stuck, as I'm not quite ready to raid the enemy gang camp through the sewer yet. I find I can warp back to my "home base" and it works.

I end up using this home-base-warp a lot.

Now I'm able to heal up and get more equipment. I end up learning there's an old man that has and idea of a "promise land" for these people. I find the journals and turn them in, the whole "town" up and leaves. I like how the game is willing to make permanent change based on my actions. But the town left before I could finish a side quest regarding infected people. Oh well.

Oh, another bug--when I came into the town at one point, a man outside the gate screamed for help. Every time I offered to help, a cut scene would show me run outside the game but then nothing else would happen. I'm curious if my earlier warp fucked things up? Anyway, i had chose "let the guy die" to move forward. I swear, if this game has a bug that prevents me moving forward, I'm not starting over. That's just gonna be it.

I find the young woman and wookie and add them to my party. I kick out Carth cause he's grumpy. Also, these two feel like a pair and I don't want to split them up. We raid the enemy. I'm able to hack computers and blow up transformers to thin the heard. I run into a boss that uses a laser shield, so I equip everyone with swords...apparently these developers like Dune. At this point, i'm starting to get a feel for the combat, and really leaning on grenades.

I also end up clearing some other areas--collecting weapon and armor attachments, stocking up on supplies. I accidentally complete a bounty. On another bounty, i have choice to help the guy fakes his death. That was kind of neat. I wondered if this was going to be like the Tattooine section of Ep 1 for PC, where I got to do some trading and collecting and negotiation. This is better, and what I was looking for!

But the combat is crap. I was fighting a boss and doing no damage. I just sat there as my character attacked the boss FROM BEHIND and kept "missing" despite watching his swords slice through the dude.

I get the prototype jet, now I have to race. I was a little worried but also impressed they would have a racing section. I expected something like Jak 2's racing. Nope. You just move a thing side-to-side on a straight away. Fun mini-game, but clearly a simple option. Winning the event leads to drama and our missing jedi friend breaks from of captivity to help me kick butt.

The Jedi lady is a jerk and arrogant. I wander if there's some misogyny in her writing, as male jedis are often shown as level headed. Well...maybe not Anakin. The drama between Carth and Jedi is so contrived and annoying. It's like a JJ Abrams production. We're contacted by a mandalorian that is definitely fine with taking his helmet off and definitely not wearing anything else that looks mandalorian.

I get a robot friend and we invade the sith base. I'm getting comfortable with the combat and I'm pretty successful. Oh yeah, I put it on easy. This is a long ass game and I just don't have time for this bullshit numbers. I already hate the over-reliance on numbers and chance. I'm interested in the story and adventure, the experience, not dying 100 times because I got unlucky dice roles.

While playing, I noticed the graphics were pretty good. released in 2003, it should be expected to look decent. It just looks more decent then I was expecting. Maybe I'm too used to PS2 and the FPS Star Wars games I was playing.

I'm about to leave my first planet. I'm having a pretty good time. I worry that I'm not attributing points smartly on level up, choosing to focus on personality and persuasion. I'm doing auto-level ups for party members. Stressing over stats for one character is bad enough.

I'm kinda mad I started playing this instead of some of the other games I was excited about. But I bought this 2 years ago and haven't touched it. I feel like I should get it out of the way.

[daybreakrising]

okay, finished acts III and IV today. thoughts under the cut

i've already touched on my thoughts regarding act III: boring filler, dull af, too many 'walk, cutscene, walk, cutscene, walk-' elements, not enough actual story or useful information, hate hate hate c//itlali: she just fckn annoys me and her voice is grating AF bc 90% of her dialogue is either yelled/shrieked or the tone of it is just obnoxious and harsh to listen to-

act IV, thankfully, was much better. it is so good to see actual consequence happening on a large scale when we're dealing with war. i//nazuma should have been like this. that entire section of going place to place to fight back the abyss and seeing corpses of people and saurians scattered everywhere was exactly what it should have been like, and i'm glad they went there. war is brutal and it was nice to have that shown in game beyond "oh this one npc we met for five minutes is dead" (rip teppei)

i did really enjoy that entire section too - yes, it was a little repetitive but that's to be expected given the context of what we were doing, and there were some unique elements here and there with the npcs we interact with etc so it wasn't too stale for me by the end like endless combat stuff would usually be. the map slowly getting covered with purple fog and the markers slowly changing to "come here and you'll die" really added an element of threat and danger. & it was so weird but also so great to be working alongside f.atui npcs too lskdbgkfjnh love those reluctant allies-

my one complaint about it was that you couldn't pause. normally, when a quest has that restriction / is going to take a long time, the game tells you this and suggests you make sure you have enough time to complete it. now, unless i missed it somehow, for some reason this part of the quest didn't have that - and i ended up having to rush through some dialogue scenes because i had to go out and couldn't pause the fucking quest without risking restarting shit. i know there were a few "door of resurrection activated" pop up messages throughout so presumably it saved it in stages so you wouldn't have to do the whole thing from scratch if you did have to quit the game, but.... would have been nice to have the warning. (again, i might have missed it, but i don't remember seeing anything like the usual pop-up message on screen from previous quests involving a similar mechanic).

capitano lore? great. i gotta admit, the reveal of his identity (to an extent, as we still don't know everything-) was a tad disappointing for me, just bc i've seen so many really cool and interesting theories over the months/years, and the truth just... felt a bit eh in comparison, BUT still very interesting to know - and made me squint a lil at a certain mr boughkeeper (tell me your secrets, dain-). very interested to find out more after these reveals (also, rip to my menogias au that i never got to use-)

the last two 'heroes' were pretty obvious from the start, considering the tribes and the characters we've been introduced to. still undecided on how i feel about o//roron as a whole but his weird soul deal is definitely curious. c//hasca.... eh. i don't dislike her, but i also don't exactly like her. i don't really have any feelings regarding her, strong or otherwise. and tbh.... i'm so tired of the 'power gets awakened when loved one dies' trope, especially when said character is already the 'tragic backstory' kind. loved the consequence of war, hate how that one in particular was used. (at least we now know why she got the unique npc/potential 4* design but no visible vision-)

some nice world lore reveals in this act too - of course, honourable mention to the visual confirmation of the fake sky deal. very interested to see where that goes from here. and the cinematic cutscenes, as always, were fire (pun intended).

and now... we wait until 5-point-fucking-3 for more. hyv, you better be cooking something real fckn good-

[the-great-elwisty]

NWN2 cut content: Patron of the Arts

Azim Qo'toth's appearance seems to have been created then reused for a Mulsantir merchant.

Mask of the Betrayer was developed at speed, and had a more organised, less bumpy path to release than the Original Campaign. (You may recall that lead designer Eric ‘Ferret’ Baudoin left the job of senior designer before the OC’s completion, and was replaced by Josh Sawyer). As a result, planned b-priority quests tended to be dropped at an earlier stage in MotB as opposed to being half-implemented before running into the time-and-money axe.*

The one quest, or series of quests, that was cut is quite well-known since it was discussed in interviews by George Ziets and Kevin Saunders, and the section of the design document where it was described was shared online. The link to the design document is now dead, but Lt. Danger reproduced the relevant content in his Let’s Play:

With Lienna dead, the actors at The Veil need a new patron. After the player completes An Ally at the Veil, he will be approached (on his way out of the theater) by Amber Rose, who will ask the player's help. The company's playwright, the air genasi Vesper Jinn, is upset over the death of Lienna and has been unable to come up with any ideas for the company's next production. Amber asks the player to see if he can inspire the unfortunate writer. If the player speaks to the writer, he can inspire him with the tale of his own adventure in NWN2. The writer likes it, and he asks the player to give him a day to work out the script.

The player returns the next day and gets a chance to muck with the script a bit (Vesper: "There's some really brilliant bits, but the ending's not quite right. They all get smashed by a collapsing temple? I mean, really?") This will also provide an opportunity for the player to say how things "really" happened for him in NWN2. Also, the player may get to decide who will play the starring role (i.e., the player).

Once the writer has finished discussing the script, Lothario comes running up with a new problem: Azim Qo'toth, the brilliant actor they'd planned to use as the King of Shadows has decided not to take the part. The player must now resolve this situation as best he can (the actor's lover has jilted him, thanks to a threat made by Vladek, the owner of The Sloop, who is attempting to sabotage the production). Once the actor's services have been secured, the player is asked to return in another day, after the company has had a chance to rehearse.

On the third day, Azim is working out well enough (the player gets to see him practicing his King of Shadows lines onstage), but Lothario comes running over again. There's another problem. The actors at The Sloop seem to be rehearsing a play that is strikingly similar to the player's script. Again, the player must resolve the situation with Vladek and his acting company (represented by Clive the Dandy).

Finally, on the fourth day, the player may return and watch a brief cutscene of his play being performed for an audience.

The player may speak to Magda after the show ends, completing the quest.

George Ziets, the lead creative designer on Mask, discusses Patron of the Arts:

We had originally planned to include a lot more quest content dealing with the conflict between the two competing theater troupes, Veil vs. Sloop. I think some info about this eventually made it onto the Web — the main quest was going to be called Patron of the Arts, with the player in the central role as patron of one of the two theaters. Our idea for the culmination of that quest would have been pretty neat, and I think that it could find its way into a future project…so I’d better not say any more about it.

Kevin Saunders, Mask’s lead designer and producer, regretted the loss:

GameBanshee: Is there any content that you regret leaving out or didn't have time to add?

Kevin: No (but see below). There are a few things I wish we could have added. One was a side quest we called Patron of the Arts. It was a complete tangent from the main storyline and mostly for nostalgia value and comic relief. It involved organizing a play using the actors at the Veil (and competing with actors at the Sloop).

The play would be about your adventures from the NWN2 campaign and would culminate in a cut scene of the play that would have depended upon how you "wrote" the script and which actors you convinced to play the roles. It was an idea that we all really liked, but it became clear that we just wouldn't have the time to do it well, so we dropped it from consideration early on.

There is a tiny trace of the quest remaining in dialog.tlk – not actual dialogue since Patron of the Arts never made it that far. Just references to its different stages:

{B} Patron of the Arts [Playwright has no ideas for the next production. Maybe badass player-adventurer can help?]

[Player told the story of NWN2. Playwright loves it but wants to work out script.]

[Script draft is done, but playwright had concerns about story details. Player addresses concerns and decides who the lead role should go to.]

[D'oh! Actor portraying King of Shadows turned the part down. Secure his services so production can continue.]

[Idea theft! The bastards at the Sloop are doing a similar play. Make them quit it.]

[NWN2 play completed! Quest over.]

[Optional: NWN2 play aborted because PC chose not to resolve one of the problems. Quest over.]

Clive the Dandy on stage in the Sloop.

It’s kind of funny that we have quite a lot of information about the unimplemented quest, but I’m still not sure if I’d have liked it – I expect that would have depended on whether the play could say something about how my player characters’ felt about the OC without limiting their choices too much. My guess (speculation alert!) is the PC would have made a core choice between two attitudes represented by the Veil and the Sloop. The Veil would stand for high (melo)drama, and the Sloop for low comedy.

Especially given that several pieces of Ammon’s MotB dialogue are not-really-disguised developer comments on the OC (Exhibit A: “An understandable reaction to such an abrupt and disheartening conclusion, I suppose... but the circumstances were well beyond our control, and it was far too late to change that course of events”), the Sloop or Sloop-inspired production would probably have given the writers more room to let off steam with commentary in that vein. In the Sloop version, everyone is incompetent and/or a bit mad, and Rocks Fall Everyone Dies is the final brutal punchline.

The Veil play is more about heroism, and perhaps romance, and the end is about sacrifice and tragedy. The King of Shadows as played by Azim Qo'toth appears to be the central character, which he wasn’t in the game. The player could maybe have given the play an optimistic reading by telling Vesper that the sacrifice was worth it, or a self-hating one – they led their friends to their deaths, and got them killed – or cynical: everyone, the PC included, let themselves be duped into a fight that shouldn’t have been theirs alone etc. etc. The options couldn’t have been that extensive since everything you specify could change the excerpt of the play that would have concluded the quest. Very quickly you could end up with dialogue trees ten times more complex than the Landsmeet in Dragon Age or the trial in the OC's Act II.

(*) I like MotB, but find the lighter, picaresque OC much more congenial. I’m thus one of the minority of players that prefer the big rambling initial adventure to the critically acclaimed sequel.

Questions/food for thought

How would your play of the OC have worked? What bits would you have liked to focus on? (Given that a play of the whole OC would last so long that D&D 4th edition would have been introduced before it reached the first interval, some focus would be necessary).

Would your play have been a comedy or a tragedy?

Would you have liked to see the quest in MoTB or is it better that it was cut?

[robynmarkius]

Endwalker's Final Zone Quest Names

I had most of this finished a little while ago, but I ended up getting sick. Feeling better recently, so I felt I should get this up before 6.1 next week. ^^; This is the final zone in Endwalker, and for most of the trip through, the Quest Names seem pretty strange. On a whim, I started using Google to look bits and pieces up as I went and found it kinda neat. When I went through again on Moko, in Japanese, I found it was still strange, but in a different way. It was also not as simple as just swapping my Client and looking at the Journal for the titles. Not all the quests are listed in the completed log. I don't know if that's intentional or not, but as of right now, there're 4 quests that are not listed in the completed log. I'm not sure how well I'd manage to play through that zone in German or French just for curiosity. D: The two characters I could maybe possibly try it on are still both just freshly landed on the moon, as I've taken that progress slow due to aforementioned sick and trying to keep up with Savage Raiding.

All Spoilers will be below the cut, but I hope this gives enough information to you to know if you want to click and join me down the rabbit hole. lol If you do, I hope it's interesting to you. :3

From the very First Quest in Ultima Thule, I wondered what was going on.

When I talked to my Japanese FC Member, he said:

I do find the japanese quest titles are more cryptic with the removal of key words, like for 「戦争＊＊＊を＊＊た星」on this star/planet, for what purpose did they go to war and against whom, how did it resolve and such. in a sense they've removed the 5Ws/how but all of it is sort of explained in the quest dialogues then again some of the english quest titles are the same as well

In English, we essentially put secret messages in the titles with the special characters, but what I couldn't quite figure out until I asked him for help was that they removed/blacked out the details/key words of a sentence. The details are filled in to you by the quests, just like in English. It explains the weird messages you can get from the title, or at least clarifies it a bit, but it did make for a rougher time translating. XD As such, some are just more direct translations of the words between the censors.

...Well, the last few English ones were frustrating, and nearly made me cry trying to solve them while the story was happening around me, but I made it. D: lol I also didn't italicize the romaji in this case because when I tried that in Discord, it ended up screwing with the special characters used for the titles. X_X;

The first quest you're given in Ultima Thule. 89 EN - "A §trαnge New World" §α - "Section Alpha"

89 JP -「◾ と敗北◾ 侵さ◾ 星」 ( ◾ to haiboku ◾ okasa ◾ ◾ hoshi ) "◾ with loss ◾ star ◾ affected"

The second one that has you interacting with the dragon memories. 89 EN - "On Burdɛned ωings" εω - "Variable Omega"

89 JP -「あらゆる◾ は淀み腐って」 ( arayuru ◾ wa yodomi kusatte ) all◾ are festering in stagnation

The third quest that ends this sector. 89 EN - "A Test of Wιll" ι - "Iota" (Could refer to an iota of will, or an iota of forward progress.)

89 JP -「厳尊と平和」 ( imu takashi to heiwa ) "strict nobility and harmony"

These are pretty simple, we learn through the course of the quests that we're in the memory of the dragon star. After Omega destroyed it and abandoned the star, after Midgardsormr fled to Hydaelyn. All the dragons had given up on fighting, and let themselves rot away into obscurity. Estinien is the one who convinces the only dragon with an iota of willpower left to quit feeling sorry for itself and get emotional; to do something. In the process, granting us a path forward; just as Thancred had done. The Japanese titles are similar; Weth loss, the dragon star was greatly affected. They gave up fighting because of that, to fester and rot into obscurity.

->Quick Sidenote/Fun Fact: I stumbled over an alternative reading while looking that last one up. "gen mikoto to PINFU"; which would roughly translate to "Lord Stern and a concealed winning hand", and while it is the wrong translation/reading, it was an amusing enough moment to giggle at the thought of calling Estinien "Lord Stern/Strict", and I wanted to share it. xD

Our first Quest in the new area.

89 EN - "Roads Pαved | | Sacri⊢ice" α | | ⊢ - "Alpha Proven Absolutely" (Alternatively: "Sacrifice Proves Alpha" )

89 JP -「⚫ の限界⚫ ⚫ 明し⚫ 星」 ( ⚫ no genkai ⚫ ⚫ akashi ⚫ hoshi ] "⚫'s boundary ⚫ ⚫ reveals ⚫ star"

The second quest in this area... I knew by now this was a pattern, but this was when I started to get scared of how bad it'd get...

89 EN - "F//εsh Aban∆on⊣ ∆" //ε ∆⊣ ∆ - "Parallel to Zero, Delta is Delta" was the best I got from this one... My husband gave me the suggestion “parallel to zero; incremental progress”, which I like a bit better. Looking at it now, it could mean "Next to Zero, Progress is Progress". (I just don't feel as confident in this one.)

89 JP -「⚫ ⚫ を捨てて久しく」 ( ⚫ ⚫ o sutete hisashiku ) "⚫ ⚫ long abandoned"

Then we got the third quest in this area and it seemed really easy...

89 EN - "Where Kn∞wledge Leads"

∞ - "Infinity" (Could refer to the 'Infinite Knowledge' the Ea suggest they have, or the 'Infinite Expanse' we've traversed, or even the 'Infinite Void'. There's lots of things it could be referencing, and if I had to guess, I'd say that's the point of this one.)

89 JP -「文明の発展」 ( bunmei no hatten ) "advancement of culture" (Alternatively: "Civilization's Advancement")

This whole section introduced us to the Ea. Theirs was a star that had gone beyond the boundary of knowledge into enlightenment. So far beyond, that they were able to abandon their bodies and become beings of pure aether. They believe they hold infinite knowledge and that no one should know what they do because they likely couldn't handle it. This echoes a lot of how Sharlayan feels/has become, and I feel like Y'shtola might have recognized that. To a degree, Urianger probably did as well, but I think he likely wanted to support her in her decision, so neither of them ended up alone. (He had just been reminded of Moenbryda the entire time they were there, and just got some closure with her parents. That was still relatively fresh when they left.) Y'shtola has always pursued knowledge and answers, so the idea that the Ea found knowledge they don't want to share seemed to offend her on principle. lol

While I still find it a bit odd that she just blurted out what she did about our Azem Crystal, I think it was still in line with her previous self-sacrifices. ("Don't you dare summon us back even though I know you can.")

OKAY. THEN THIS HAPPENED. ; A; lol The first quest of the third area just... I audibly whimpered. In Japanese, I blinked at how many asterisks were there!

90 EN - "Vic⫞ory ¨¨¨×, | ˘ | | ε Lost" ⫞ ¨¨¨×, | ˘ | | ε - "Victory Equivalent to What is Lost" or "Victory Stalled; Incremental Progress Lost"

-> Note: A lot of the symbols in this referenced Classical Poetry and Language rather than Math so far as I could find...? But they still make little sense to me. Like, ¨ is a diacritical mark, and ˘ is a breve... are these used in advanced mathematics? I couldn't find what they meant. My best, educated guesses, based on previous quests, are what I wrote above... I'm far less confident on this one than I was on "Flesh Abandon".

90 JP -「戦争＊＊＊を＊＊た星」 ( sensou ＊＊＊ o ＊＊ta hoshi ) "Star ＊＊＊ of ＊＊ War" (I keep wanting to make this one just 'Star Wars', please help. lol It's the quest when we go to Omicron Base, and they are constantly prepping for war. It fits, but... my brain. xD; Could... probably also make it something more like 'A Warlike Star', but I couldn't sort out how to make it work with the missing context.)

The aforementioned whimpering was louder this time. lol This is the penultimate quest in this area.

90 EN - "⊢⊣ "//" No⊣ 𝜙oun∆•••" ⊢⊣ "//" ⊣ 𝜙∆••• - "Equivalent Parallel Not Found; Repeating•••" -> Note: I'm fairly confident on this one, especially given the context of the quest and what we've learned up to this point. Now, especially with the Japanese Quest, I feel a lot more sure that what I put is more accurate.

90 JP -「見つからない＊＊」 ( mitsukaranai＊＊ ) "Not Found..."

The last quest here indicates the last of the symbols in the quests. (No screenshots.)

90 EN - "Hello, World" 90 JP -「ハロー•ワールド」

Finally, this is, of course, usually the test phrase to make sure your program or code is running; an indication that all is set up and ready to move forward. And since Raha's sacrifice paved the way for us to go up towards the 'nest', it fits. It also indicates that it's the last funky text quest... lol

Encouraged by the fact that it's exactly the same in JP.

We meet the Omega, the race that evolved by replacing themselves bit by bit until they were just immortal robots. They eventually only knew war, and conquest. We come to find they haven't heard from their leader in a while, no orders for their next direction... so they've just been forever preparing for their next conquest/assimilation. The leader was starting to question themself, wondering what they could do... what they were doing. Raha saw a bit of himself in the apathetic being; they really pushed the 'Crystal Exarch' feeling with this one. I had the sinking feeling the entire time that it would be Raha's turn next and really hated that I was right when it came time. But... I think he needed to say what he did, for himself just as much as anyone else. The phrase "Equivalent Parallel Not Found" that I had gotten really struck me because neither of them wanted to admit things to themselves, let alone out loud. It also refers to the fact that each area was solved by someone who resonated with the strongest memory of each.

(Also, yes, I cried. ; 3; )

Finally, the status of "Endwalker", in Japanese, as a bonus to this long post. I did post this as its own thing before, but I had sent it along with all the text dump of Quest Names when I asked for the translation help from my FC Member. ^ o^;

エンドウォーカー 終わりの旅を孤独歩む状態。 その足取りわ重い。

[ ENDOUOOKAA owari no tabi o kodoku ayumu joutai. sono ashidori wa omoi. ]

Endwalker Solitary walk to journey's end. With heavy footsteps.

yup, no changes here その足取りわ重い is pretty much the japanese equivalent of the english phrase 'the burden weighing heavy (on ones shoulder).'

I hope someone finds this at least a little interesting. As always, I may not be 100% on translations, but it does help me with my kanji reading to do these things. Additionally, all the symbols threw me for a loop and is just my own interpretation. I am admittedly extremely bad at math and could never understand advanced Math. ; 3; So trying to interpret some of these and finding explanations of equations felt confusing.

If someone else has an insight into some of these, please reblog and add on! I'd love to learn more/hear other ideas. :D

Thanks for reading, all! :3