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rottenshotgungames · 7 months ago

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No more waiting, let’s talk about what y’all are here to see

Footfall Devlog 4

This Devlog will be covering the basics of what Footfall is and the challenges of making a game so heavily inspired by immersive sims.

So, without further ado:

What is Footfall?

Footfall is an occult-industrial stealth-action rpg inspired by Dishonored and Mistborn. It aims to emulate the systemic ecosystem and emergent gameplay of immersive sims, particularly the fast, creative, movement-centric gameplay of Dishonored.

If this sounds interesting to you, the free playtest is live! You can find it on itch at https://rotten-shotgun-games.itch.io/footfall-playtest

Genre Convention

If you’re interested in Footfall I assume that you’ve played stealth-action games before: Dishonored, Assassin’s Creed, Gloomwood, Sekiro, Metro, etc. If you have, you know that there are generally two categories of stealth mechanics present in any given game

Player tools & indicators (e.g. Thief’s light gem, Dishonored’s stealth kills)

Enemy AI (e.g. The xenomorph in ALIEN: Isolation changing up their search patterns based upon your actions)

These two categories are mostly separated by longevity. Player tools and indicators focus very much on short term actions and consequences that influence the long term consequences of the enemy AI—I’m including the state of unconsciousness or death as a “long term consequence.” Because the first category tends to (mechanically) impact the second more than vice versa—and because this would be a VERY long essay if I talked about both in detail—we’re gonna be covering the player side of stealth today.

The Indicators

An Indicator in a stealth game informs the player when they’ve been spotted and/or how close they are to being spotted. Some stealth games have a few Indicators that track or reveal different things (e.g. The three lightning bolts in Dishonored tell you how aware a certain enemy is toward your presence and location, and the upgraded Dark Vision lets you see enemy Vision Cones, and guards will yelp and say things when they see a body you left behind. All three of these are Indicators). There are two general categories that Indicators fall into:

Hard Indicators—distinct visual trackers, particularly a UI element (e.g. the motion tracker in ALIEN: Isolation).

Soft Indicators—Narrative elements that convey information in a manner that is less precise than Hard Indicators (e.g. the sound made by your actions in AMNESIA: The Bunker).

While most videogames with a stealth mechanic incorporate both kinds of Indicator to some extent, TTRPGs are a bit different. The more tactical subset of this medium often attempts to provide player characters with a plethora of options for solving problems and overcoming tasks, among these being stealth—but almost every one of these games uses solely Soft Indicators. What do I mean by this? Well, think about D&D 5e’s stealth: D&D has no facing rules, no rising gauge of enemy awareness—hell the only semi-Hard indicator is light level, but that’s pointless because of the non-rarity of Dark Vision. There’s exactly two TTRPGs that I can think of which contain Hard Indicators, that being Blades in The Dark and Black Seven (both of which are really cool) but their indicators are both more long-term and therefore fall into my arbitrarily designated Enemy AI portion of stealth mechanics.

Hard Indicators are crucial to giving the player a sense of control in a stealth game, watching the numbers go up and down in direct response to your actions is the foundation of the experience (and just failing one Stealth check as a transition into full-blown combat discourages wide-spread use of stealth anyway). I decided to include two major Hard Indicators in Footfall:

Facing. This one was a no-brainer, Footfall already has a physics engine that would massively benefit from facing rules, it’s no huge leap to describe how your facing impacts your Line of Sight.

Notice. Notice is a riff on the classic stealth tracker (e.g. Dishonored’s lightning bolts, Gloomwood’s huntsman eye colors) that measures how aware nearby enemies are to your presence and actions, combined with the player-centric elements of THIEF’s light gem. This has led to a more generalized resource, measuring the awareness of all nearby enemies, influenced almost entirely by the individual player’s actions. It ranges from 0 (unnoticed) to 3 (spotted).

A consistent question I’ve gotten asked is, “Why did you make Notice a player resource, rather than something tracked by individual enemies?” Firstly, tracking that kind of resource on an enemy-by-enemy basis is hellish for a GM. Secondly, and possibly even more importantly, making Notice a player resource makes it feel like they have control over their own ability to stay hidden. If it’s a number ticking up and down on their character sheet, then it’s something they’ll pay more attention to and attempt to exercise control over/capitalize upon more readily . . . so long as they have the tools to do so, of course.

Tools

There are, generally speaking, two types of stealth-interactive tools:

Maintaining tools

Capitalizing tools

Maintaining tools help you to maintain or regain your hidden status. Think the lockers in Outcast or crouching in everything. These tools make stealth feel interactive and . . . well, functional. If you don’t have the basic ability to hide, how are you supposed to engage with stealth gameplay? The balancing act with Maintaining tools is in making them strong enough that Stealth feels viable, but not so powerful that the game becomes too easy or other options are immediately discarded. These take quite a few forms in Footfall, the most basic being Line of Sight and environmental interactions (e.g. Cover, Hidden Terrain, Darkness) that prevent you from needing to make a Stealth check or slowly reduce Notice over time. Some Gifted powers are also categorized as maintaining tools, particularly the base powers of Passage, Possession, and Shadows.

Capitalizing tools allow you to take advantage of your hidden status. The most common example is the Stealth kill/knock out. Capitalizing tools make stealth feel worth it, they’re a reward for engaging in this style of gameplay. In Footfall the only explicit Capitalizing Tool is the Coup de Grace, an enhanced Attack that’s far more likely to kill/knock out your opponent in one blow; however there are a million-and-one other reasons to maintain stealth, such as the danger of direct combat, the increased freedom of power usage, the penalties from Enemy Awareness, and the Downtime penalties from killing people (some of this will be covered in the next Devlog).

This brings us around to an underrated topic when discussing Stealth TTRPGs:

Centralization

We can talk all we want about the conventions of the Stealth genre, about the specific implementations of common mechanics and mechanical types, but it’ll only ever be useful insofar that such mechanical theory informs how players interact with the game.

The end-goal here is centralization. Your stealth mechanics, where they do exist, need to impact and influence every part of rules and play. Even if your players aren’t engaged in Stealth, that decision needs to be put in context of and conversation with Stealth gameplay.

If I’m not constantly thinking about the light I’m in and the sound I’m making, I’m not playing Thief.

If I’m not constantly working to get to higher ground and hidden terrain so that I can ambush enemies, I’m not playing Assassin’s Creed.

If I’m not thinking in relation to Stealth, I’m not playing a Stealth game.

Self Promo

Hey y’all, sorry about the long wait on this one. The playtest is finally public, and we’re halfway through talking about stealth! The next devlog is gonna be about Enemies, which are a whole can of worms.

If you wanna check out my other games, and get updated when major changes come to the Footfall playtest, follow me on Itch! If you're just looking for more Footfall status updates, or want to have an impact on the design, you can always join my public Discord. If you want more devlogs, and more rpg design talk, follow me here or on twitter.

Have a great night and a great day.

#ttrpg community #indie ttrpg #tabletop #ttrpg #footfall rpg #rpg #game design #role playing games #dishonored #stealth #mistborn

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gold-rhine · 2 years ago

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For the ask game, what about edging, dollification, collars with Albedo, Diluc, and Heizou?

warnings nsfw

hmm, edging and collars work for basically anyone, lets start with dollification. i'm leaving albedo out of this bc it feels both the most obvious and also bc he has his unhealthy hang ups on being an artificial creation which i wouldn't want to touch. now, both diluc and heizou would be fun, but in completely different ways.

like, if u told heizou "hey baby, today you'll be my pretty little doll," he'd be SO excited. he's into roleplay in general, loves feeling helpless and completely in your power, loves being manhandled and things being done to him, would adore to be dressed up and pampered and showed off as your pretty treasure. the problem is that he can't keep still for longer than 5 minutes or his hyperactive ass will die. so it wouldn't be so much dollification, as "enthusiastic heizou vibrating at high velocities for few minutes, trying to not move before breaking into giggles, whimpers and writhing." like he'd still be fun, just not very on theme.

now, diluc tho, that'd be a complicated case, i'm almost tempted to actually write it out. is he straightforwardly into this at first? no, but diluc is so repressed, he doesn't know shit about what he wants until it punches him in the face. he'll be open to try bc you asked, but dismissive like he doesn't even see the point. though passivity will be secretly appealing to him bc he's awkward and always anxious about doing something wrong or being too wooden and weird, so the fact that there's basically nothing for him to fuck is comforting. he'll see this as a challenge, bc diluc sees everything as a challenge, but it has clearly defined rules and expectation by which he can judge his performance, so that works well for him.

the thing is that diluc is already on several layers of dissociation, he sees his body as this kind of meat puppet, a tool to do things with, sometimes useful, sometimes inconvenient. so forcing him to ground himself in the sensations, in his body by focusing on it, being hyper-aware of positioning and movements might be very good for him, while also providing him safe space to realize he enjoys things without the psychological struggle to allow himself it first, bc it's not his decision, it's you playing with him as with literal doll.

so like, dressing him up in a pretty dress, positioning him carefully in front of the mirror, so he has to see himself, scars and all, being treated like a fragile and precious thing. leaving him for some pauses so he has to stew in this view, going back to make adjustments, touch him almost casually, nonchalantly, pretending not to notice that he's getting riled up, bright blush, cock getting harder. moving him to more and more provocative positions, until he's half undone, playing gently with his hair, while the sweet shame and desire and softness melt through his barriers, until it turns from a challenge to maintain stillness to actually relaxing and letting go of control, so when you fuck him, he's pliant, tension finally gone, trusting and open with his body.

collars - heizou would be into it, but i've already wrtten a fic with leashplay for him, and the social aspects of collars are kinda lost with him, bc like. he's just like THAT anyway. he's already wearing a choker, shirt with the sides cut off, his gloves are a combo of red ties and fishnet. he can show up to work wearing bedazzled "Master's little cumslut <3" collar and no one would blink an eye, except kujou sara who'd yell at him for dishonoring the tenryuo commission and he'd be like show me where in the regulations it says i can't be a cumslut, no i dont care about the spirit of the law, show me the exact paragraphs. so like it'd be fun, but i feel like it also derails the prompt lmao

albedo tho is that kind of introverted clingy where he won't be actively pestering you for attention, but he will drop anything if you ask him to spend time with you for as long as possible, and will be unashamedly open about it. he's also pretty direct about showing preferences to ppl he likes in public and in companies, as we've seen in few events now. so i think he'd actually be into collars unironically, as the symbol of belonging and being connected even when not together, an open unspoken secret that he's yours. he'd have very tasteful narrow leather collar, dyed darkest blue to match the darks of his outfit, with the golden ring in the center framing the gold diamond mark on his throat. like, it passes quite easily for fashion accessory for most ppl, for these in the know its like - is this ring for what i think it is??? or is this his artistic shit to accent the skin mark?? and like since albedo can be quite a mischievous smug troll, he can catch the confusion and press on it with absolute poker face, until the person is embarrassed that they were even assuming it, and then he'd drop a banger of double entendre that suggests, but doesn't confirm anything, again with innocent poker face. albedo would have a lot of fun with it

but also, the imagery of his "imperfection" framed, left open, just for you. the clasp of the leash, when closed, touching the gold diamond. silent acknowledgment of his nature and acceptance of it, the triple secret meaning of vulnerability under the already existing layer of suggestiveness. him sitting at your feet, surrounded by papers and drawings for his research, working as usual, but content to be close, glowing softly when he feels your fingers gently run through his hair from time to time, reaching up both eagerly and obediently when you tug up his leash. much to play with a little prince.

edging - heizou is so fun to tease <3 put him into your lap, hold him close, take your time. he's sensitive, responsive, eager, he'll squirm, whine, whimper, beg shamelessly, tease, cling to you, try to catch your hands if you don't tie him up, but get back to behaving if you scold him, pout, writhe helplessly, arc, moan, never shutting up for a second, regressing into some incoherent sweet and horny nonsense in the end. mwah best kitten.

#rhine talks #rhine writes filth #sub heizou #sub diluc #sub albedo #genshin smut

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letthemhateme · 1 year ago

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eugh it's so hard to find people to roleplay with these days, everyone is in private cliques and discord servers

so anyway here's my last attempt at screaming into the void to find interactions, these are all the canon characters I write in all the different fandoms. I write para/multipara, just about any genre (esp angst and fluff and smut) m/m ships only and 18+ for various nsfw themes, and I'm open to canon compliant threads and AUs. I'm a lil slow on replies sometimes because life sucks and so does chronic pain, but I'm also down to just hang or play games or whatever idk. I don't always feel like writing every muse on the list, and I have my favorites, but I also have pretty niche interests so don't be afraid to reach out if something catches your eye. I'm a lil picky in who I write with, I don't care for drama and I require at least basic literacy, but other than that just be nice :3

I don't write on tumblr because I have no idea how to work this hellsite tbh, but I'm open to trying

Right now my biggest muse is probably Goro Akechi (P5R) and I have the worst akeshu brainrot rn hehe I would die for akeshu interactions

Games

Cyberpunk 2077 — Johnny Silverhand, male V

Persona 5 — Joker, Akechi

World of Warcraft — Anduin Wrynn, Mathias Shaw, Sabellian, Neltharion/Deathwing, Koltira Deathweaver, Azuregos

Warframe — Tenno

Genshin Impact — Childe

Witcher — Jaskier, Iorveth, Gaetan, Detlaff, Regis

Nier Automata — 9S, Eve

Dishonored — Daud, the Outsider

Hades — Zagreus, Thanatos

Morrowind — Nerevar, Nerevarine, Dagoth Ur

The Legend of Zelda — Link (SS, TP, TotK, BotW)

Haven — Yu

Nier Replicant — Brother Nier, Emil

A Date With Death — Casper

Anime/Manga

Jujutsu Kaisen — Satoru Gojo, Toge Inumaki

To Your Eternity — Fushi

Natsume's Book of Friends — Natsume Takashi

B: the Beginning — Izanami

TAL — Baek-Jeong

Hozuki's Coolheadedness — Hozuki, Hakutaku

Bungo Stray Dogs — Akutagawa Ryunosuke, Chuuya Nakahara

Attack on Titan — Levi

Castlevania — Alucard

D. Grayman — Allen Walker, Lavi

Kara no Kiyoku — Tobi

Dororo — Hyakkimaru

The Case Study of Vanitas — Noe, Vanitas, Louis

Kara no Kyoukai — Mitsuru Kamekura, genderbend Shiki Ryougi

Talentless Nana — Jin Tachibana

Night Head 2041 — Takuya Kuroki

Shows/Movies

Every Hugh Dancy character ever tbh

The Witcher — Jaskier

Hannibal — Will Graham

Books

Animorphs — Tobias

Skulduggery Pleasant — Skulduggery, Nefarian Serpine, Lord Vile

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde — Jekyll and Hyde

Other

Fate/ series — Robin Hood, Cu Chulainn, Andersen, Gilgamesh, Zhou Yu

YouTube — Jameson Jackson, Antisepticeye

Forgotten Realms — Bishop, Artemis Entreri, Jarlaxle

Fallen London — Mr Eaten/Candles, Mr Veils, Mr Stones, Mr Pages, Mr Wines

#writing #please #fandom #basically every fandom ever #roleplay #literate rp #fandom ships #ships #seeking #looking for friends #goro akechi #akeshu #world of warcraft #mun muses #multifandom rp #multipara #sigh

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pryings · 5 months ago

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TOA Anniversary Munday

thank you neffi for this template!!!

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is.

Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing!

Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together.

Name: ruaidhrí (said pretty much like the english name rory and if you want to spell it that way that's fine too, ik irish names throw people off)

Pronouns: he/him

Birthday (no year): 25th of october!

Where are you from? What is your time zone? i live in colorado and my timezone is MST

How long is your roleplay experience? i don't know exactly how many years since i sometimes have years where h don't rp but i've been rping on and off since i was 11-12.

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? oh gosh, so ff.net used to have (maybe still has, i literally have not been on that site in ages) these like... forums? and i joined one for elder scrolls rp a little after oblivion came out. i was far and away the youngest one there but everyone was so nice in helping me turn my character into a proper oc with like... backstory, a real personality, etc. after that, i spent a lot of time using it to try and grow my creative writing skills.

How were you introduced to TOA? honestly i just stumbled across it randomly! i had just replayed a few fe games and was looking through some tags and thought it might be fun to try fire emblem rp (i'd done some on indie tumblr back in the day, as well as in an mfrp a little bit, but never fire emblem exclusive rp) so i sent arden to check it out and, well, here we still are.

Do you have any pets? simon (mini poodle), john hancock (tabby cat), and tim & geeb (fluffy black cats)

What is your favorite time of year and why? (Season, holiday, general period) early spring! i also like late fall for its temperature, but i dislike snow/sleet/wet socks so spring is preferable because it's not very snowy here!

What is your IRL occupation? blessedly unemployed (health issues have prevented me from working aha)... i used to work IT though!

Some interests and things you like/enjoy? i like birdwatching, reading academic articles about ancient civilizations, and making espresso drinks

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? currently enjoying bg3 + doing a dragon age replay (in preparation for veilguard). outside current, i really like most single-player rpg type games (esp. with customizable character), stealth games (dishonored favorite), and Identity V is the first asymmetrical horror mobile game developed by NetEase for

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: my favorite pokemon ever is alakazam (and its whole line) i've loved alakazam foreverrrrr! favorite type is steel, though! apart from my psychic baby most of my other favs tend to be steel types

Tell us some funfacts and trivia about yourself! oh gosh i'm so bad at fun facts...

- i can put both my feet behind my head but i can't touch my toes - my favorite non-ancient empire to read about is austria-hungary - my cat tim was rescued from Outside

How did you get into Fire Emblem? friend's cool older brother was playing a bunch of the games in a seemingly random order. when i'd hang out at that friend's house sometimes we'd sit and watch. i asked him to lend me some and he did!

What Fire Emblem games have you played? i have now played all of them! (last year when i answered this i hadn't technically played them all, but i'd seen playthroughs and watched let's plays of all of them at the very least)

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games: a bad translation of fe4 was first, por is still my favorite—but tbh there's not really one i dislike

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series! - KNOLL (promoted to number one he's my special guy) - reyson - canas - ashnard - pandreo

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! QUAN—i have such a distinct memory of seeing him come in but i don't remember my initial thought, only that he would have my heart forever

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳 vander. duessel. hardin.

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: first was sumia! i don't have a set nowadays because i've done a different one on each playthrough - Fates: first was xander, would probably still do xander if i were to replay - Three Houses: first was seteth, if i replay i'll go for hanneman - Engage: first was pandreo! next time i plan to do ivy though

Favorite Fire Emblem class? i like shapeshifter classes! beasts, dragons, laguz, etc. i just think they're fun to play with

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? oh gosh, i'd be an infantry axe unit probably. middling starting stats but high growths if you really work at making me good (there would be heated debates over whether the necessary time investment would be worth it)

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? black eagles!

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? axe boon, heavy armor bane, budding talent in faith magic (could be classed into an fe:a style war cleric and it would be my suggested goal)

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? i want to say brodia!

How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔 toh-ah

Current TOA muses: just knoll <3

Past TOA muses? robin, niles, almedha, reyson, hardin, iago, perceval, lachesis (i think that's all?)

Who was your first TOA muse? If you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again? my first muse was m!robin and thankfully i am spared any temptation on picking him up as he is currently being written.

Do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? (If you filled this out last year, has this changed in any way?) i'm kind of all over the place, aren't i? i like characters where i can poke at hidden depths but ones who aren't too closely guarded. i like characters who are shy, withdrawn, standoffish, guarded, etc. in some way but who open up when spoken to. i don't think this has changed since last year, i've been writing for a long time and kind of know my comfort zone.

Do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could? boisterous/loud and over the top characters always challenge me, but i've never really managed to make them work, which is a shame because i tend to enjoy lively characters!

What kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? (If you filled this out last year, has this changed in any way?) -i love writing threads where setting/scenery is a focus, where i get to sort of use the landscape as a bit more than set-dressing - i enjoy throwing my muse at characters who mistrust him for whatever reason, and like to explore the kind of slow, mutual understanding that comes from two people getting to know one another - i really just like putting him in situations in general, forcing him to socialize—he's a very withdrawn character so any excuse to have him meet new people is very enjoyable

Do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man I hope I get to write this one day”? nothing specific! i have kind of an arc for him but it's loosely-defined right now

Favorite TOA-related memories? HAPPYLAND WAS SO MUCH FUN. sincerely i loved the interactions he had there <3

Present or past tense? i default to present, but adapt to what my partner prefers on this!

Normal size text, small text, no preference? small text, bolded dialogue. just easier for my eyes to take it in that way.

Got any potential muse delusions to share? 😉 oh gosh. i recently had to go down to just one muse because my health is not so good, but i will admit i already have a few delusions. if i can get myself back to a spot where i feel like i can write a second, someone may return.

#⁺ . ✕ ◞ out of character ⋅#tried to fix a typo and unformatted the whole thing #ok

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mystybelle · 7 months ago

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RPGs, Visual Novels, RCGs, and Sandboxes

FF7 (og & remake), Assassin's Creed, Persona, Homestuck, NieR: Automata, God of War, Kingdom Hearts, Doki Doki Literature Club, Genshin Impact, and Uncharted, Shenmue are all RCGs/VNs.

Minecraft, ACNH, Genshin Impact*, and the part of Skyrim that people actually like are all Sandbox games.

Baldur's Gate, Deus Ex, Eureka, Fallout, Pathfinder, ACNH, Vampire: TM, Shadow the Hedgehog, Call of Cthulhu, Dishonored, most "h-game" visual novels, and Dragon Age are all RPGs.

RCGs (Rollercoaster games), or Visual Novels, are games where you experience an unalterable plot akin to a book or movie. You might be able to interact with the setting, but no more than the way you can check a wiki about another story to find things you might've missed.

Sandbox games are exactly that, sandboxes you can play with freely. Knocking things down and building them up. The amount of freedom to change things varies from game to game, and sandboxing might not always mean literal terraforming (like Genshin Impact's sandbox is mostly in building character's stats in interesting ways) though.

RPGs are actual Role-Playing Games, where the game is entirely, or mostly about, roleplaying an existing or self insert character within another world. If it has a plot, player actions determine its direction and ultimate outcome.

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kronim195 · 9 months ago

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immersive sims like Dishonored and the original Deus Ex are the closest to being a game that captures what I love about VtMB because they're first person action games that are all about giving the player as much agency as reasonably possible to complete objectives in a multitude of ways, and to be real they do this quite a bit better than VtMB.

The reason they don't scratch the same itch for me is because they're not RPGs in the sense that you can really step into your character and roleplay them and make them your own. JC Denton is his own man with his own opinions who will constantly speak without my input. Corvo is a silent protagonist which is a step in the right direction but he has no dialogue options, character creation or any way to really roleplay in a way that the game acknowledges.

#vtmb #deus ex #dishonored

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hiaennyddei · 2 years ago

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Cover illustration and character portraits I made for my campaign guide The Whalebone Frame, for the Dishonored Roleplaying Game

#dishonored #my art #dishonored ttrpg #dishonored the roleplaying game #original character #dishonored oc

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thesffcorner · 3 months ago

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Part 7: Dishonored: The Knife of Dunwall

Dishonored’s first piece of story expansion came out in 2013, under the title Knife of Dunwall (KoD). You play as Daud, with parts of the story taking place on the day of Jessamine’s murder, while others overlap with Corvo’s escape from prison.

Hot take, but I like the story in the expansions better than the base game. I think the plot is more original, I like how it fills in the gaps of the main story, I like Daud better than Corvo both as a character and mechanically and many of my gripes with the base game start getting addressed here.

Changes:

The first and most notable change is that we no longer have a silent protagonist.

This is a really good change, not the least because it would have been incredibly weird to have Daud voiced in the original and not in the expansion. Michael Madsen reprises his role and he’s even better in this DLC; he gets more lines and more time to shine and develop Daud’s voice and character.

There is a longstanding debate in video games on silent vs voiced protagonists. I understand how someone might prefer a silent protagonist (especially if the alternative is someone who will not shut up), but I’ve always preferred the latter, especially in this series, since we are roleplaying as a specific character. Having a voice helps develop Daud's personality, and actually allows for dialogue and real interaction, instead of picking 1 out of 2 prompts while his scene partner just stands in front of him, looking straight down at the camera.

Though you can technically play as Corvo in Dishonored 2, the intended protagonist is Emily, meaning that every instalment of the series has a different PoV character, and each has their own personality, beliefs, skills and powers, and so none of the games feel repetitive or boring.

Moreover, many of the series staples, like the presence of witches, a conflict between different gangs and/or the City Watch, corrupt/black bonecharms and favours/contracts are first introduced in the DLC.

Story:

Daud can't sleep after Jessamine’s murder. Something inside him has broken, and the Outsider, who hasn’t spoken to him in years appears. The Outsider loses his interest in his marked subjects who use their powers ‘predictably’ - violence for power’s sake. Daud questioning his choices has made him interesting again, and he stands at a crossroads. Whatever path he chooses, things will never be the same again, and if he truly wants to change, he can start by solving the mystery of Delilah.

For the next 6 months, Daud searches for Delilah, and finally on the day that Corvo escapes Coldrige Prison he finds her - a whaling ship owned by Bundry Rothwild.

Instead of a revenge, this time we have a mystery, one whose answer will determine the course of Daud's life. Not only has he killed Jessamine, he has had a lifetime of killing that he can’t easily atone for. Finding out who Delilah is and how she ties in with Jessamine might be the very last chance Daud has to save his soul.

Gameplay:

The chaos system is the same from the previous game; stay quiet, stay unseen and don't kill if you want low-chaos; it’s even possible to do a full non-lethal run called Cleaner Hands (as opposed to Corvo’s Clean Hands).

High chaos still allows you to destroy everyone and anything, and gives you a different, darker ending. Once again, I am partial to low chaos, so for the most part, we’ll be discussing that.

In terms of gameplay, there are a lot of small changes that I found really improved the experience.

The first and FUNNIEST is that Daud, the assassin, has MORE non-lethal options than Corvo.

He has the standard sword/pistol combo, along with regular and explosive bolts, as well as grenades. Instead of a crossbow, he has an Assassin’s Creed style wristbow, with regular bolts and sleep darts. He also has 3 new weapons: an arc mine and a stun mine, the first one being deadly, the second not, as well as chokedust, a smoke bomb that’s invaluable when confronting groups. So he has 3 options in his arsenal that are non-lethal and silent, which is 2 more than Corvo did.

Daud too is marked, but his powers and abilities are different. Blink and Bend Time are the same, but his Void Gaze combines Corvo’s Dark Vision and the heart, highlighting both enemies and runes. He has another power called Summon Assassins which as the name suggests, summons an Assassin to help out in a fight.

Daud has 4 of the same abilities as Corvo: Vitality, Agility, Blood Thirst, and Shadow Kill, but he also has Arcane Bond which copies his own abilities to his assassins, so they can use the same powers he can in combat.

Daud’s powers and abilities are unlocked and upgraded with runes, and like Corvo he also collects bonecharms, which give him different buffs.

Here the game includes a new mechanic - Corrupted Bonecharms. These charms have greater advantages in exchange for drawbacks; for example, taking no fall damage, but depleting all mana when falling. It’s up to the player to decide if the perk is worth the downside. Personally, I’ve never found much use for any of the bonecharms, but I imagine on challenge or higher difficulty runs they make a difference.

As for the enemies, it’s more of the same. Overseers, Guards, and the City Watch make a return; the only ‘new’ enemy are Soldiers, which are a reskinned version of the Guards. We still have gangs, but instead of the Bottle Street thugs we have Haters.

Characters:

Our protagonist is Daud, and he is a much more interesting character than Corvo, starting with being able to speak. He narrates the opening to every level, he comments on events and characters, and he makes quite a few jokes, especially in response to people questioning his authority.

His conflict is a lot more personal than Corvo's because he is the source of his own problems. Not only will he sentence Dunwall to destruction if he doesn't find Delilah, or if he continues down the bloody path, he has been on for years, but he will also doom himself at Corvo's hands. If he changes, he may live yet and save Dunwall from certain destruction. The Outsider tells Daud that his years of slipping into the shadows with no consequences for his actions are over.

If you played low-chaos in the base game, you already saw the kernels of his redemption; he curses Burrows, admits that killing Jessamine was a mistake that permanently changed him, and pleads for his life. In KoD, we see the journey he took to arrive there.

Is Daud truly sorry for what he did? Does he understand the consequences of the life he’s lived? Or is his repentance all a selfish ploy to get out of the vengeance that’s coming his way?

My reading is that Daud starts off his journey selfishly, trying to do what the Outsider told him in an attempt to deflect or delay the punishment he knows is coming. However, through the course of both of the DLCs he comes face to face with people who reflect his worse qualities back at him, some much worse than even the Lord Regent himself. This, I think, is what gets him to start changing sincerely.

I like Daud better because he's a more complex and more difficult character to like. Even on high-chaos you can easily sympathize with Corvo - he's a wrongfully accused man, he had everything he loves taken away from him, and even his allies became his enemies. The Guards he kills work for the same people who have his daughter, who murdered his lover and threw him in jail.

Daud has spent 30 years killing people for money. The people who want to kill him deserve to do so. And yet, despite everything, it's not too late to change. He can never bring Jessamine back, but he can make sure there are no more Emilies in the world, or at the very least, he alone can stop creating them.

The few other notable characters we have are:

Billie Lurk;

Delilah;

Bundry Rothwild;

Barrister Arnold Timsh;

Thalia Timsh;

Abigail Ames;

& Overseer Leonard Hume.

As you can see, the gender breakdown is already better than the base game. Not only are Billie and Delilah well developed and interesting characters in their own right, they are equally as important as Daud. We’ll talk about them more later; for now, let’s start with:

Level Breakdown:

KoD has three levels and like before have a mix of city levels and single location levels. There are levels here which are on par with Flooded District in length, which is impressive for a DLC.

We open on Daud narrating Jessamine’s murder. The Outsider pulls him into the Void, and it’s very apparent that whatever affection they had for each other is long gone. Daud is being replaced by Corvo, but he doesn't know that yet; all he knows is that the Outsider wants him to find Delilah.

There is no Hound Pits Pub-like area where Daud can relax and shop, so you start each level with an upgrade screen. This is where we are introduced to Favours, a concept that gets even further developed with the Black Markets and Contracts in the sequel.

Favours are small things that Daud can pay for to make the game slightly easier or open up different paths of playing, such as purchasing extra tanks of whale oil to be put in a specific location or having a rune hidden in the level. You can finish each level without them, but they are useful, and especially on low-chaos, quite helpful.

A Captain of Industry:

Boundary Rothwild, a former deckhand, now owner of the Rothwild Slaughterhouse, is brutally crushing a worker strike with the help of the City Watch and his Butcher enforcers.

Daud needs to find a way to infiltrate the factory, and he has help from his second, Billie Lurk. Billie is a Whaler, Daud’s point-woman, and the best and smartest of the crew. She’s snarky, sarcastic, and isn’t afraid to show anger and compassion alike during missions. I loved her and Daud’s banter; their dialogue really fleshes out their characters as well as their relationship.

Billie informs Daud that all worker timecards have been confiscated, and many workers are still trapped inside.

Outside the Slaughterhouse, you will be dealing with regular City Watch; inside are the Butchers. Butchers are my favourite enemies in the first game; they are brawlers who come in two flavours: regular dudes who use a cleaver and massive giants with whale oil powered chainsaws. The death animation from their saws is GRUESOME. They scare me every single time, no matter how many times I replay this level. They also set you up for a fake out with Rothwild; the whole level you imagine him as a giant brawler too, and when you meet him, he's a regular dude who lifts.

There’s quite a lot to do before you enter the Slaughterhouse. First you can visit an apartment that gives you Granny Rags’ first side quest. Though she’s not physically present in any of the DLCs, she still has the most involved side quests, and the reward for all of them is a rune.

In this particular one, you need to find a Weeper body and then the eye of a whale. The body is nearby; the whale will come later. From this apartment, you can find a safe whose combination is a favour you can purchase, hidden behind some planks. That very same balcony is also where you can climb down and talk to a man in a boat. He mentions someone named Abigail who could help you, but she’s stuck inside.

From the boat you can easily get to the impromptu prison, where Butchers are keeping some of the striking workers. If you free them, one will give you his timecard, though you don’t actually need it to get inside. If you already have one, the workers are shocked you saved them and are asking nothing in return.

The best way to get inside is to power up a crane and use a balcony on the other side. This not only gives you a good vantage point over the whole slaughterhouse entrance, but also lets you get to a body with a rune.

The Whale Butchers (the jacked-up cousins with the saws) are threatening a worker. If Daud saves him, he will tell Daud about Rothwild's torture chair. You can find the chair in the next area, where you get to see, and more disgustingly hear the Whale Butchers using their saws on carcasses.

The chair is electric, and it will serve nicely, should you elect to go that route with Bundry.

The Slaughterhouse is my favourite location in the first game. It’s fairly big, with many interconnected paths, and interesting things to do and see. You can find the other half of Granny Rags’ recipe in the Whale Harvesting Room.

Apparently, the best way to get oil from whales is to slowly and brutally electrocute them to death. Billie will outright ask you to put the whale out of its mystery, which you should. To do this, you need to power up the machine and electrocute it quickly; then you can steal its eye.

The area is grim, every detail contributing to its atmosphere. The river of blood and oil running under the whale, the Butchers with their smoking saws, powered by the same oil the whale is being tortured to produce, the clashing noises of their saws and the whale cries, the enormity of the room. It's a brilliant piece of world building.

From this room, you can blink up into the archives, circumventing some Butchers. There’s a safe here that you can rob, and you can listen to Bundry’s really creepy audiograph in which he's doing an ASMR gloat.

Currently, Rothwild is arguing with Abigail Ames. Ames only appears in this one level, but she knows who Daud is. To the workers she was a union rep; to Rothwild she was the head of his labour force. In reality, she’s an agent for Lord Ramsey (the guy who called the Guards on you at the Boyle party), sent to kill Rothwild and steal his workers.

If you decide to play non-lethally, you will be met with scorn and resistance from everyone you encounter. Here especially, both Billie and Abigail make fun of Daud for considering alternatives. Abigail agrees to tell you about the boat if you blow up the slaughterhouse, and when you ask about the workers, she mocks you for growing a conscience. She doesn't consider Rothwild or the Butchers are people, so she doesn't care if they get caught in the explosion.

If you are serious about doing a non-lethal run, don’t leave Abigail and Rothwild alone; she will stab him with a screwdriver. It’s best to knock her out and put Rothwild in the chair.

Delilah belonged to Lord Arnold Timsh. He sold the ship to Bundry for a quarter of its market value, because he wanted to get rid of it as quickly as possible.

This leaves Daud with two choices. You can leave Rothwild in the chair or you can put him in a crate that will take him to the furthest part of the Empire. If you leave him in the chair, in the next level, Butchers will be waiting for you at the docks, to kill you for what you did to him.

With that done, beware of the Butchers that enter the Slaughterhouse from the front door (this is why I like the roof entrance) and leave. You can finish Granny’s recipe for the rune, and on your way out, you’ll get your first real brush with the Overseer music box.

Music boxes were used in the base game, but Daud encounters them far more frequently. They disorient magic users, taking away the use of their abilities. Billie is surrounded by Overseers and disoriented by the box. The best way to save her, is to chuck a chokedust at them, and she’ll blink out herself.

Billie asks Daud if she can tag along for the next mission too, since she was already planning a hit on Timsh. Daud agrees.

Eminent Domain:

Daud narrates the start of the second level, explaining what he knows about Arnold Timsh. He is a wealthy noble, barrister, and close friend of Hiram Burrows, and during the plague, he's tripled his fortune by confiscating property from plague-stricken families (not all of whom had the plague). However, he’s embroiled in a familial war with his niece, Thalia Timsh, over his mother’s will.

Armed with this knowledge, Daud seeks Thalia out, and she agrees to meet him at Treaver’s Close.

The level starts with you and Billie taking out some guards; if you didn’t kill Bundry, Billie will follow your lead and knock the guard out. Treaver’s Close is on the other side of the wall of light, so you have to make your way there.

The main advice I have for you is to SHUT IT OFF. If you don’t, there’s no way across the wall and no way to deactivate it from the Waterfront side, so you will essentially break the game. Do it and save yourself the frustration.

Thalia is waiting for you; a Hatter has killed her bodyguard and is harassing her. This is a trap: two of his buddies are waiting behind the roof, and they’ll attack you as soon as you take him out. Moreover, if you’re not careful, and you say, try to get into the open window, you might alert ALL the Hatters in the area, since there’s a lot of them.

Thalia tells Daud that Delilah completely messed up Timsh’s mind; he is erratic and seems to now be afraid of her, whereas before they were lovers, and he was willing to leave everything to her. Thalia wants Daud to kill Timsh and replace his will, which is maybe a problem if you’re playing Cleaner Hands.

Before you can worry about that though, there is the slight issue of getting into the Legal District. If you listen to the City Watch talk outside, you’ll hear that they lost the key to the Legal District to the Hatters, and you need it if you want to get inside.

If you’re low-chaos, the key will be in the Hatter building on the second floor. In high and medium, it’ll be with a dead Hatter named Chauncy, whose body changes rooms. The stronghold is crawling with Hatters, so be careful.

The other thing to note is that if you break the wooden planks on the Hatter side of the street, you’ll start a war with the City Watch. It’s easy to get caught in the crossfire, and this also alerts the City Watch,

There’s an apartment here that has another incomplete Outsider shrine with a bone charm instead of a rune. On the shrine you can find Granny Rags’ second recipe and this one is a lot more involved than the first one.

If the Slaughterhouse was my favourite location, this is my favourite level. I love the city levels where you get to explore the interconnected apartments and observe the street below. Apartment 10 is presently locked, but well be needing it. For now, get as close to the entrance as you can, and after you hear the guy being congratulated for finally getting a squad after what happened last night, enter the Legal District.

Since the Whalers have been planning a hit on Timsh for a while, you have a scope location already set up where you can talk to Billie and stock up on weapons and gear. Before you do that, it’s good to visit one of Timsh’ former ‘friends’, Roland.

Timsh has destroyed Roland's entire family by falsely accusing them of having the plague and confiscating their property. Roland wants revenge, so he gives daud the address to his old apartment, where he has a fake immunity document signed with the forged signature of the Lord Regent, along with something to make his apartment infected with the plague; a bag of dead rats.

The apartment is 10, and it makes it easy to circumvent the Legal District entrance and return to the Waterfront. Conveniently it’s also the best vantage point to blink into Timsh’s third and fourth stories. Inside, behind a bookshelf is the actual Outsider shrine.

Billie is aware that Daud can speak to the Outsider and wonders what he’d say to her. I find this very sad; the actual first time the Outsider speaks to Billie, he’s 20 years too late.

As for the Outsider, he’s not too thrilled with Daud’s sudden ‘no killing thing’. He thinks it’s another desperate attempt to avoid his fate, rather than a genuine change of heart, something that many fans seem to believe to this day.

There are many ways to go after Timsh. My favourite is to blink to the fourth floor and speak to Delilah first. She knows who Daud is, and warns him to stay away from her, but do whatever he wants with Timsh, who is no longer of use to her. Billie calls Delilah a bitch and hopeless painter.

Timsh is on the third floor, arguing with his Head of Guard. He’s supposed to get a visit from General Turnbull, but Turnbull is late because of Corvo kidnapping Sokolov. Once the argument (concerning Thalia) ends, Timsh goes upstairs, and you can knock him out and steal his key. On the third floor you can replace his immunity document with Roland’s forgery. You can then steal the will, which to Daud’s shock, leaves everything to Delilah.

Before you dump the dead rats in the cellar air duct, finish Granny Rags’ recipe. On the first floor of Timsh’s house there is a deck of tarot cards. If you have Granny’s note, pull out the World card. Then, return to apt 10, place the card on the Overseer Shrine and cut your palm over it. Take the bloodied card and throw it in Timsh’ fireplace. Whoala; you have a rune.

With that done, dump the rats, and watch Turnbull arrest Timsh for using a forgery of Burrows’ document.

Thalia is waiting for you at the docks, like she said she would. Though she's not a good person, she does keep her word, and give Daud Delilah's backstory.

Delilah was a baker’s apprentice in Dunwall Tower, before she became Sokolov's apprentice. She met Timsh and they became lovers, but this led to conflict between Timsh and his mother because he would put her life in danger for Delilah and tried to write Thalia out of the will in order to give everything to Delilah.

Timsh is Delilah's experiment for her real plan which involves Emily, but Daud doesn't know this yet.

On their way back to the Flooded District, Billie comments that she likes the poetic nature of Timsh getting taken down by a forged document, like he had done to so many (a callback to Daud's speech about the Lord Regent) and muses that she might have misjudged Daud.

This for me is the platonic ideal of a Dishonored level. It's long, but doesn't drag, it involved a lot of weaving from building to building, carefully knocking out or avoiding enemies, but also some sneaking through corridors and hallways. The scenes between Daud, Billie and the Outsider are great, Granny Rags' side quest is interesting and not too easy, and I really enjoyed seeing a different part of Dunwall. It’s nice to see that Dunwall was still a functioning city while Corvo was out killing people.

As Daud returns to the Flooded District to regroup and plan however, Delilah has other intentions.

The Surge:

As soon as Daud enters his base, Billie Lurk informs him that Overseers have attacked the hideout. Many of the Whalers are dead, and others have been captured. Billie is adamant that you can still push back against the Overseers if you free your men and attack. Daud is more interested in how the Overseers found the base in the first place.

This is the final level in KoD, and I HATE it.

It's not dull like A Light at the End, but it combines my least favourite elements of the series. I hate fighting Overseers and their Hounds, and I hate dealing with the Overseers music boxes. I don't like single location levels where you fight a bunch of enemies, and this one has the double whammy of being a reused location from the base-game. It's also a hard level, full of groups of enemies that can’t be easily separated, and to make it worse, because the base has many walkways and bridges, using projectile weapons will have you reloading at least 5 times a minute to save all the Overseers you accidentally kill by knocking them off the edge.

The last time I replayed this level, I think the game glitched on me, because all the Overseers were in a permanent alert state which made it fucking impossible to do anything. I’ve never had hostiles notice me from that far away, like buildings away (some could even see me THROUGH walls and barriers) and become that aggressive that quickly. I had to restart several times over, and even when I finished it, I still felt like the game was breaking under how many enemies it threw at me, even though I was playing Cleaner Hands AND Low Chaos.

The only positive I will say is that story wise, this is the most famous of part of the first game, and it's crucial to everything that happens in BW and the sequel. So, let’s go over it.

You can retrace Corvo’s footsteps from the base game to discover the absolutely insane number of Overseers in the base. Like always, there are multiple ways you can do things, but honestly? They are all bad.

The best thing I’ve found is to free all your captured Whalers (there’s 4 of them), and then go after Hume, because that way you can get to the best position to get to him; through the window and floors of the neighbouring building where you fought Daud as Corvo in the base game.

Dealing with the Overseers for me is like pulling teeth, so I won't belabour things; my only advice is that chokedust works well to disorient and briefly scatter groups, and gives you enough of a window to choke out the music box carries, and THEN shoot the rest, because the boxes are impossible to deal with when they start playing (they also alert even MORE Overseers to your location).

The trick with this level is that it’s actually deceptively simple. You don’t even NEED to save the captured Whalers; all you need to do is choke out or shoot Hume and steal his letter which is how you know that the Overseers had a plan that Hume moved early on. You still need to actually look into the Overseer plans, which are in a heavily guarded building across from your base, but knocking Hume out will open the possibility to rendezvous with the rest of your crew, and you can order them to choke out or kill the rest of the Overseers.

Taking Hume down is easiest by using the window and Bend Time. One thing to note, is if you do go after Hume, and you’ve saved at least one assassin, make sure to knock him out and run before you’re seen, because otherwise Billie will help you, and she will sometimes just kill Hume even after he’s been darted.

The plans you find will let you know that Hume was tipped straight to your hideout, and that there’s a massive Overseer force coming. However, with your knowledge, Billie and the others can bottleneck the Overseers and prevent them from taking over the base.

Once you do all this you can talk to the Whalers. Billie comes clean; she is the one who gave Delilah your location.

Unfortunately, because of how well known this scene is, it was spoiled for me before I got to play it, but I still loved it. Billie has been your partner the whole game; she bounced ideas off of you, helped you develop plans, commented on your actions, joked with you - she is clearly as close to Daud as much as he lets anyone get. To find out that she sought Delilah out and wanted to betray you is a genuine blow.

What’s more, even on low-chaos, Billie’s biggest regret isn’t attempting to kill Daud, or getting her friends killed; it’s moving in too early, before she was ready. She regrets it because she failed Daud's teaching; that is not what he would've done. It's still a reflection on him; she messed up because she wasn’t as effective a killer as he is.

It's not that Billie doesn't regret betraying Daud; she tells Delilah Daud deserves better when Delilah appears, angry at her failure. It's more that Billie is mad at herself for misjudging Daud, mistaking his unwillingness to kill for weakness.

It was really Hume who blew the whole thing; had he not moved early the Overseers would have taken the base, and Billie would have killed Daud in his tunnel. Delilah mocks Billie for telling Daud that her life is in his hands (which Daud echoes in his confrontation with Corvo), and after your decision, she bamfs out, with a ridiculously over the top warning that she will “crush your cold heart and walk into your skin”.

This is your final, real choice as Daud: kill, or spare Billie.

To compare this choice to Covo’s choice of sparing or killing Daud, I think this was done much better.

Firstly, Billie has been with you for 3 straight levels. She has a strong personality and presence in the story, both physically and to Daud as a character.

She betrayed Daud directly, and if you died a lot in this level like I did then you have a lot of personal reasons to be angry with her. Your feelings and decision as a player are aligned with that of Daud, the character. In the base game, even after two expansions all about how Daud changed, I still don’t think Corvo would let him go. Corvo doesn’t know what happened to Daud, nor do you when you are playing as him. Daud knows everything about Billie, and your choice informs the way you see his character: do you believe that he is changing, really is sick of killing and trying to make amends, or is it all just a shallow facade in an attempt to avoid his inevitable fate?

I also like Billie’s little aside about how she and Daud, both knew it would end like this between them; Billie was going to betray him at some point, and he would have had to face her. Even Delilah acknowledges this, by saying she knew Billie’s betrayal would have been sweetest.

We end the DLC with Billie boarding a ship away from Dunwall, and I don’t just mean in your choice. Billie Lurk is one of the most important characters in the Dishonoured franchise and her story isn’t even close to being over.

As for Daud, we stay with him for the second of the DLC expansions - The Brigmore Witches.

Part 6: Dishonored: Concluding Thoughts

Part 8: Dishonored: The Brigmore Witches

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#dishonored #dishonored retrospective #dishonored kod #knife of dunwall #moni talks

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meisekimiu · 1 month ago

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5 (+2) of my favorite games I played in 2024

In the past I've had a bit of a tradition of writing about my favorite games I played in the year. But by 2022, I kind of stopped playing games for a bit. 2023 was much the same and so I didn't end up writing up anything. But! This year I actually managed to play video games! Yay?!

Like usual, this list includes any games I played this year, regardless of their original release year. I also have TWO bonus mentions which are games I didn't really like but still wanted to write about!

(Dis)honorable Mention: Bowser's Fury

When Bowser's Fury released in 2021, I heard a lot of comments on how it was ushering in a new era of 3D Mario. "It's basically a new 3D Mario game!" "This is what the future of Mario looks like" "If you love 3D Mario, you have to play this". Well a few years after it released I finally rolled credits on Bowser's Fury and I gotta say... I'm not a big fan!

I love 3D Mario games but Bowser's Fury just kind of annoys me. For years I've been critical of Super Mario 3D World's limited controls and level design, because I always found the more free and expressive movement in other 3D Mario games to be way more fun. But I do have to give credit where it's due: at least Mario 3D World's level design and controls were developed in harmony with each other. Bowser's Fury is an intriguing sales pitch: the gameplay of 3D World but with way more open world level design. But it kept feeling like the controls were designed for a completely different game... because they were! I don't usually have to "fight the controls" while playing a Mario game, but this one is the exception.

I feel like the game also has a lot of little annoyances that add up. The game doesn't really encourage doing 100% completions of each little area all in a row, but instead encourages you to venture from area to area and slowly loop back on older ones to eventually 100% them all. But why? Why am I discouraged from playing like this? Why do I have to sit around and just wait for Bowser to destroy a block in every single area? Why do I have to manually leave a level to reset it, can't it just boot me back to the beginning like Mario 64? Since most level layouts are reused, it means I keep having to do the same linear platforming challenges over and over again for different shines.

It's an interesting experience but in my opinion it's always going to be an extra thing tied to 3D World instead of its own release.

Bonus Dishonorable Mention: Bionicle The Game

This year I played a couple of games that I was never able to beat as a child with horrible hand-eye coordination. One of these games was Bionicle for the Gamecube. This game is not very good, as one would expect. It's pretty short and I feel like it misses one of the main appeals of Bionicle: the world! Running through levels to defeat bad guys as a hero character is cool, but where are the villages?

In video games there is a weird pattern that a small fraction of players will follow that most developers will never even consider or account for at all. If your game has the capabilities, children will use your game as dolls. They will roleplay a completely different story with the on-screen characters. They will play house. They will find a way to do this.

I think Bionicle kind of lacks this capability though. The levels are a bit too linear and boring for this to really work. This is a very niche complaint but I think it's one reason why I didn't like this game as a child. (I mainly don't like it as an adult because. Well it's a low budget licensed children's game for Gamecube. There was no way this game would be good)

Now that some dishonorable mentions are out of the way… let's talk about the games I really did enjoy!

5. Splatoon 3 + Side Order

I finally beat the story mode of Splatoon 3 this year! The story mode on this game was mainly a "I'm waiting at the gate at the airport" type distraction so it took me forever to finish it. It was fun! I'm glad that they decided to replicate Splatoon 2's Octo Expansion instead of its original campaign but... it kind of felt a bit too much like a copy of it at times. Regardless it was fun, and the final moments were the kind of special wackiness that felt absent from Splatoon 2's main story mode.

I happened to finish this story mode right as Side Order came out so I played that too. And I gotta say... I kind of get why the hip thing in gaming right now is The Roguelite. I get it. It makes every moment of gameplay way more engaging because this could be the run that wins! I think this Roguelite treatment fits Splatoon's gameplay pretty well too. I am hoping that if there's a Splatoon 4 that it doesn't copy this roguelite formula for its story mode. But still! Very fun and if I was a kid with all the time in the world I'd totally try to 100% complete Side Order. As an adult? I'm happy just beating it once.

4. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door

They made Vivian transgender. They put a transgender in my favorite childhood video game. :')

But seriously though revisiting this game on Switch was fun. I think there's this idea that remakes of games are low effort cash grabs. And it's definitely true that remaking a game is often easier than making a completely new game from scratch, I do think that people tend to underestimate the work that goes into a remake. All of the things they added or changed aesthetically in this remake are great. I especially love all of the concept art you can unlock which really gives you a look into both original development and the work that went into the remake.

Vivian... 🥺😭🏳️‍⚧️

3. Until Then

I initially heard of this game from a Godot engine showcase video. I have to say, while it doesn't matter to the player at all, I like what this game is built out of. It was a pleasant surprise to see that they also used Inkle's Ink to make this game.

Anyway, if you're looking to play a Makoto Shinkai-esque story set in the Philippines, play Until Then! I loved how explorable the game's social media feed is in particular. I don't want to spoil too much of the game so I won't go into much more detail, but I love all the characters in the game. I almost got faked out when the credits rolled for the first time.

2. Famicom Detective Club - Emio: The Smiling Man

It's been a while since a game announcement has actually made me excited. Maybe I've been burnt too many times. Maybe it's just that the Nintendo Switch has most of what I could ask for at this point.

When the mysterious "Emio" trailer was revealed to be for a new Famicom Detective Club game, I was in a good mood for the entire week. A brand new game in the series was at the top of my "most wanted Nintendo Direct announcements" for the last few years. And we finally got it!

And well, this game really is a brand new Famicom Detective Club game. I think it fits really well with the other two games in the series, despite the fact that they were made decades apart. I was hoping that the game might more fundamentally reimagine what one of these games with modern system specs, but it plays pretty much identically to the previous ones. So much so that I feel like a "demake" of the game to original Famicom hardware could be possible.

That's actually the only disappointment I have for the game. One of the earlier games in the series has a small maze-navigation minigame near the end and I was really hoping that Emio would deliver a similar surprise minigame that was a bit more advanced in gameplay. It doesn't, but that's not a deal breaker.

To be fair, Emio does deliver something that would have been impossible in the Famicom days and I think it's going to stick with me for a while. Like, one of the wildest post-games I've ever experienced in a game ever, and probably will ever experience. Buy Emio please they need to make more of these.

1. Quest 64 / Holy Magic Century

This one's really getting the number 1 spot on my list, huh?

I started off my games backlog this year by playing through Quest 64, a game that my family has owned for as long as I remember. Despite this, I've never seen very far into the game. I'd get through the first town and give up playing pretty quickly, and my family would pretty much do the same. But there was something about this game that haunted me over the years.

For some reason, I am fascinated by generic, yet more obscure and old JRPGs. I do not know why this is the case. I don't even really like JRPGs. But Quest 64 fits that mold and it called out to me. There is something thrilling about playing a game like this because it feels like you're truly exploring something that not many people have seen. There's a bit of wonder that comes from not knowing where this game is going. I dunno.

Holy Magic Century (the name that Quest 64 fans usually use because it sounds more fitting) is a very ambitious game. In many ways it's incredibly ahead of its time. This is a fully 3D JRPG where battles take place in the overworld (this isn't saying much, but Pokemon didn't achieve that until 2022!). And when I say it's 3D I mean it's fully polygonal 3D. No pre-rendered environments like Ocarina of Time or Final Fantasy 7. Most NPCs have some kind of unique appearance, and there are many completely bespoke NPC models. The camera control is... fine for the time. There are not too many blatant glitches. The battle system is novel and has a fun learning curve. At times it feels like I'm playing a JRPG from the PS2/Gamecube era instead of the Nintendo 64. The moment-to-moment gameplay is surprisingly solid.

It seems like I'm praising the game to no end but let me be clear. While I think Holy Magic Century has impressive technical ambitions that rival or maybe even surpass what Ocarina of Time or Final Fantasy 7 do, it's important to note one big difference: Ocarina and FF7 were actually finished. They have to resort to pre-rendered background environments, but those environments are at least fun to explore around! They actually tell a story! They add up to make a memorable game! I cannot say the same thing for Holy Magic Century's impressive but unfinished polygonal world.

Holy Magic Century's world feels like a barren wasteland at times. The pretentious part of my brain almost tried to interpret this as an intentional artistic choice ("is this a game that's about emptiness?") but as you play the game and research its development it's clear the world is shaped by the limitations of time and budget and overambition. As you get through the game these limitations become more and more visible. You see that the once-novel battle system starts to get old and tired once you've realized you've seen all there is to see with it and you're only halfway through the game. You can tell which characters would have joined your party if they managed to finish that part of the game. You can see other traces of mechanics that should be in the game but were never implemented.

I know a small group of people will defend this game to death and hate it when people say "Quest 64 doesn't have a story" but like... it's kind of true? There are hints of a story. Concepts of a plan. But as someone who was truly, actively trying to engage with the story... there was basically nothing here. The tiny hint of story we get at the end was a welcome surprise after basically nothing the whole time but that doesn't make up for the rest of the game.

And yet... I still kind of liked it? When I beat the game I kept thinking of all the things I'd do in my next playthrough. Which... is kind of wild? This game is disappointing but it's disappointing in a very fascinating way. I feel like I've never seen such visible scope reduction in a finished video game in my life before. You can practically see which corners were cut. Which mechanics are essentially just bandages covering up ambitions never fully realized. It's really fascinating to play through and it's going to be a game that will continue to haunt me even after I thought I was finally done with it.

...Oh god I really became one of those people who's actually pretentious about this game. Fuck.

#holy magic century #quest 64 #until then #famicom detective club #natalie's gamez of the year #at the very least Holy Magic Century is objectively one of the top 3 JRPGs on the Nintendo 64

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jazzmckay · 10 months ago

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tagged by @broodsys for this writer questionnaire uvu ty, i got really into this one. the deep jazz lore incoming <3

tagging @lyriumlullaby-ao3, @inscrutable-shadow, and @skadizzleross

copy and paste-able question list at the bottom of the post!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

says 88, but one is anonymous lol 89 babey

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

824,682

3. What fandoms do you write for?

dragon age currently, prior to that, detroit: become human. some witcher and RWBY mixed in. teen wolf, dishonored, red vs blue, homestuck back in the day, a couple other things.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Truth in Melody (witcher, geraskier)

The World Upside Down (dbh gen)

left an impression on my heart (teen wolf, scott/stiles. its over a decade old i am not linking this lol)

Variable Outcome (dbh, connor & gavin gen)

Winter Chill and Summer Bloom (dbh, connor/gavin)

5. Do you respond to comments?

absolutely! if i don't, it's only because the person is being a jerk or just uncomfortable. give me a heart emoji, you're getting a heart emoji right back. boop

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

i generally write happy endings, no matter how hellish the road to that happy endings is. i do, however, have a Bad End dbh oneshot. Fair Compensation. it's straight up non-con, and from aggressor pov, so viewer discretion is advised

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

gosh idk how i could pick. as i said in the previous answer, i try to leave off on a high note. Truth in Melody or perhaps Promises to Keep. wouldn't say they're happier than others, but they're among my longest fics, which means the characters had to go through some bullshit to get those happy endings lmfao

8. Do you get hate on fics?

a couple times. more often, i get weird / uncomfortable comments that i just ignore

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

i do! well, i'd say "kinky" tends to be a general theme ahahaha and feelsy! smut in my chaptered fics are more basic, the oneshots can be wild though. and then there's from the depths, an ancient song, where i wrote a foursome involving a LOT of tentacles. like a lot. so take that how you will.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

ive dabbled in ideas, but rarely get around to actually writing them. i do like the concept of smashing my favourite universes together, though. my dbh vampire series is basically just the lore of vampire: the masquerade, but i wouldn't consider it a full crossover

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i know of

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

i have! and a couple additional requests, one that i denied, and another that i agreed to but no result yet! still hoping <3

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

yes, for events. shout out to any of my buddies from the homestuck shipping olympics who see this :p can you BELIEVE how long it has been

roleplaying is also kinda like co-writing fics sometimes honestly. i've got some threads that have been ongoing for years and took a lot of plotting and planning together uvu

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

how dare u ask me this. this is nearly impossible aughh but i'm going to say corvo/daud from dishonored

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

basically anything from my favourite games and such that are nonetheless overshadowed by current hyperfixation. i'm forever sad that most of my many, many dishonored fic ideas were from a time when i chronically could not finish anything

16. What are your writing strengths?

i don't know, i'm bad at acknowledging good things about myself lol characterization, i suppose, that tends to be what i get the most lovely comments about <3

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

fluff, unless it's the resolution to angst lmfao i need to build up to it. drop me straight into a nothing scenario of fluff and i don't know what to DO. technical-wise, idk, descriptions i think

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

it certainly has its place and can be done well! but it's easy to mess it up, too. you need to make sure it's accurate and fitting for the scene, you need to avoid racist stereotyping, you need the story to still make sense and flow well. if the message isn't clear because most readers don't know the language, or have to keep looking it up / reading author notes, that's immersion-breaking imo. with fictional languages where much of the fanbase is familiar with the common words, though, no big deal i'd say

19. First fandom you wrote for?

honestly i think it was the cartoon, angry beavers lol i didn't know what's what i was doing, at the time. as far as serious, intentional stories, maybe firefly? or xmen?

20. Favorite fic you've written?

i cannot pick just one lol 4 is as low as ill go

previously linked Winter Chill and Summer Bloom: this is very hurt/comfort, my favourite thing, with a bunch of my other favourite things tossed in. touch-starvation, non-verbal character, characters getting away from the location of their suffering to heal in a better place, both physically and mentally, sweet slice of life stuff etc.

take these broken wings and learn to fly: more h/c! this one starts off heavy as hell and involves a lot of Process of Healing (to no ones surprise, at this point). healing has gotta be one of my favourite genders. also it's femslash.

Sight & Shadows: it's both plot- and character-driven, i'm happy with how i balanced both simultaneously. it's my vampire au, and other than the v:tm lore borrowing, it feels almost original to me. it's a rarepair, in an au--as niche as it gets, shaped a lot by the universe and story i put together for the whole series. it was a joy to create, because i truly did write this for ME. i wouldn't say any of my fics were written for others, per se, but i guess this one just felt different from the start. i wasn't anticipating an audience, i was just telling the story these characters needed, the way i like to do it. i had great friends supporting me through it, so i wasn't alone in the process or anything, it just felt the most like writing an original story than any of my other fics have

into the light of the dark black night: first of all, yes, 2/4 fics listed here are titled with lyrics from blackbird by the beatles. blackbird lyrics means intense feelings, that's just how it is. i've done it twice, and ill DO IT AGAIN. anyway, this one takes place in one of dbh's grimmest possible endings--the nuclear blast ending. i did a lot of research for this one, and also put a lot of thought into handling it with as much care as i think a concept like this requires. it's weighty, but hopeful. it has apocalypse elements, which i love. i got to do cyberpunky stuff as well. i added some of the elements i think dbh would have included if d@vid cage weren't a coward. i projected multiplicity onto some of the characters. i got to write north as the steadfast and successful leader of the revolution, as she deserves. blackbird fly <3

if you made it through all of that... thank you :>

and the template:

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

3. What fandoms do you write for?

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

5. Do you respond to comments?

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

8. Do you get hate on fics?

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

16. What are your writing strengths?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

19. First fandom you wrote for?

20. Favorite fic you've written?

#about #my fic #tag meme

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