#every time...like I just need to know if a sidequest requires me to give up a Pokemon so I don't give up one I want!

[luxrayz64]

okkkkk i just beat echoes of wisdom. assorted thoughts (some spoilers ahead)

gameplay:

once youre past the first or second dungeon, it gets really fun

this could be because i was immediately primed against any kind of open design by how hard totk disappointed me

in the end, I had loads of fun with this game. there are more limits on zeldas gameplay than it appears

there is no one answer to every puzzle. there are a few echoes that will solve most puzzles. but they throw a wide variety of puzzles and enemies at you, and you will have to change your strategies at times

i still really fucking hate the ui for the echoes menu. being able to pin your favourite echoes (or at the very least delist certain ones) would have been nice. I still don't know how we got this dogshit menu twice in a row

not every echo is built equal. you do not have to pick up everything they give you. do not pick up that second or third pot variety no matter how hard they try to make you

it is a completion requirement. but complete it at your own risk

completion also doesn't look fucking insane from where im sitting. the might crystals will probably get fairly tedious but this is not a game that expects you to spend 200+ hours on it. the map is nowhere near as big as botw/totks and honestly Thank God

also i dislike the smoothies for much of the same reason I dislike the cooking mechanic in botw/totk; making them is tedious, most of your rewards from chests etc are smoothie ingredients, there's 0 point in buying a red or blue potion for 50 rupees when you can chuck some milk and nectar in a blender for 10. at least cooking food was charming and gave more variety.

so so so happy that empty bottles returned. why can they only hold fairies. nintendo you are limiting yourself. obviously fairies are the correct thing to hold onto but it made for fun inventory management and was useful for sidequests. still a very good reward to get

overall 👍 i had a lot of fun! please hire a new ui designer though

dungeons:

WE ARE SO FUCKING BACK

stellar improvement on just about every fucking front here

eight (8!!!!!!!!)dungeons to complete. complete with minibosses, bosses and small keys

i have genuinely nothing but good to say about the dungeons in this game. it was playing through my second dungeon that convinced me the game was good. do you know how much i MISSED this. finally some good fucking puzzle solving

the dungeons are fairly long and big, with three exceptions, each of which I can forgive for one reason or another

the first dungeon was fairly disappointing imo. both the boss and miniboss are barely a challenge, just summon some enemies and stand in the corner and it's literally fine

every other boss though? requires that not only does zelda need to run and dodge the bosses attacks, but you'll also need to use the swordfighter form.

i wont get too into it but i loved almost all of the bosses. I found just about all of them to be challenging in figuring out which echoes would be most effective and how to use them

the puzzles are also really well designed. while there are usually a few different echoes that can provide the same solution (ie any fire producing echo can light a torch) some are better at the job than others

the first, fourth and eight dungeons must be done at set points. the second/third and fifth/sixth/seventh can be done in any order. you must complete the fourth dungeon to access the following three

doing them in different orders of course affects which echoes you'll bring in with you - something that'll be very noticeable in the latter half of the game as you unlock more elemental echoes

exploration will also net you some of the more powerful echoes, though you'll get plenty of strong ones just by doing the story. I still dont know where the lynel is but I know it exists

i only game over'd at specifically the fourth dungeons boss. mostly because i brought barely any healing items in with me. fourth dungeon also comes like immediately after your third with barely any time in between so the pacings a little off in this spot especially but it was still really engaging. it was more combat focused so it was still a nice change of pace

i really really fucking love the dungeons in this game dude we are so fucking back. if they can translate any of this to a 3d game it might restore my faith in the dev team. (nintendo side. grezzo is doing great)

ok this is a spoiler so idk dont read this one i guess but I forgive eldins dungeon for the sin of being really short and straight forward VOLVAGIA IS THE BOSS. just straight up volvagia of fire temple fame. I screamed I spent the entire fight incoherently yelling about her being my sweet baby. I love her i am so fucking happy to see her again

story:

no notes cute as all hell

i am so fucking happy about deku scrubs and river zora returning. theyre so charming in this art style!!

(minor spoilers zone)

the deku scrubs are so fucking funny. only locale besides the castle to have a jail. obsessed with the latest trends. they get mad at you for fixing the rifts because the rifts spawn spiders who spin webs and the latest trend? eating spider webs on a stick

they call you a bumpkin because you dont want to eat spider webs. youre all insane i love you so much

sad theres no deku royal family but happy to see them at all. also I think they may all be genderless at least one of them got they/themed

LORD JABU JABU IS FUCKING BACK LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOO

the zora leaders are both very fun. they are extremely petty but its nice to watch them put that aside in crisis and come to a new understanding

the hebra region does return AND IT HAS YETIS AGAIN!!!!!!!! or like, at least one. condé is carrying on yeta and yetos legacy of being the sweetest fucking characters you'll ever meet

its really fascinating seeing the other side of the story. hearing second hand about link from other characters - it's such an interesting perspective into his life

it's also very sweet how much everyone in the castle town adores zelda

finally, a king of hyrule who is a good father

general wright and minister lefte did make me giggle

very important to me that zelda is both a horse girl but also has a cat!!!

(MAJOR SPOILERS ZONE)

null. helloooooo

really really interesting villain lore wise!!! ALSO FUCKING PHENOMENAL BOSS FIGHT

actually this is the spoilers zone that last dungeon, while short is really really cool. fighting ALONGSIDE LINK!!!!! is so fucking awesome even if i did wish i got to use zeldas sword fighting form again

THE RETURN OF THE TRIFORCE I CHEERED. they keep calling it the prime energy and i DONT know why. if it looks like a triforce and acts like a triforce it's a triforce

the golden goddesses are also given way more relevance here. besides a single statue in the castle im not sure that hylia is even mentioned once

my guess is this game takes place before the triforce is given that name..? maybe in memory of tri and the tris (it wouldn't be a zelda game if your companion didn't have to leave you by the end of the game)

null taking on the appearance of a giant tri is . i dont know what to think about it but its very cool

given what i know about null (very little) i dont think it feels right that theres not a single other entity in hyrule who values power more than a being which just wants Some Fucking Peace And Quiet but I'll allow it.

END OF MAJOR SPOILERS ZONE

anywayyy. yeah 9/10 it has some problems and I could probably bitch about them some more but the entire rest of the game is so fucking good i dont care. im not just a hater for being a haters sake totk genuinely sucked and this game is awesome.

maybe my only other complaint not mentioned here is very little of the music really stood out to me? I liked the dungeon music for holy mt lanayrus dungeon. not a lot of Bangers though

i love you zelda i love you. so much. really good game please play this game if you've only touched botw and/or totk this is a great way to experience Actual Zelda Gameplay in a familiar way.

[butterflydm]

WoT reread: pre-Sanderson books

spoilers through knife of dreams

I deliberately took a break in between the Jordan books and the Sanderson ones, mostly so that I won’t be ‘grading on a curve’, basically, and will be able to judge Sanderson’s characterization on its own terms rather than just being relieved that I no longer have to read CoT/KoD Mat & Perrin. I would honestly have preferred Mat standing in a field picking his nose for two books rather than the character assassination that we got in CoT/KoD, so my bar for the male characters was VERY low going into the Sanderson books, back when they first came out.

Anyway, as I enter The Gathering Storm, I just want to note what everyone should be doing next, per their most recent PoVs in the previous main-story book, and also my general feelings on the characters as of where we ended in KoD:

Rand: desperately trying to make a truce with the Seanchan, even if he has to return women to slavery to do it. Other than that, he’s basically been refusing to do anything plot-related for the last two books, mostly just treading water instead (despite there being several plot-related things that he COULD have been doing). I’m frustrated with how Rand’s plotline has ground to a halt so that we can spend way too much time with Perrin and Mat’s pointless sidequests. Theory: Jordan couldn’t figure out how to get Rand to what happens in the ending, so he focused on Mat and Perrin in order to avoid thinking about Rand.

Egwene: she is currently captive in the White Tower and her next plot point was very clearly stated in KoD - she will be serving Elaida at her next dinner that evening. Her current plot is essentially the same as the plot she's had the last six books -- become undisputed Amyrlin Seat of a united White Tower. This is really one of those plotlines that’s good but, wow, really should have taken place over fewer books.

Elayne: she's won over the Houses and now just needs to be officially crowned and then buckle down to the work of getting Andor ready to help during the Last Battle. Proud of her, love her so much. Egwene and Elayne (and the prologues) were basically the only good parts of CoT & KoD for me. Rand & Nynaeve had one or maybe two good scenes each in that entire section.

Mat: in CoT & KoD, he lost almost every good quality that he had EXCEPT for his loyalty to Rand; instead of keeping his promises being about him (secretly) being a man of deep integrity, it has essentially become a weird fey thing where he apparently feels a compulsion to keep his word but puts it off for as long as possible first. He completely threw away all his character growth from the earlier books and considers slavers to be more worthwhile companions than Aes Sedai. Expects that the next time he will see his 'wife' is being faced off against her troops on the battlefield and is somewhat sad about this (because he's talked himself into liking her despite her being a genuinely awful person) but he's prepared to do it anyway. I am DEEPLY disappointed in Mat, for the most part. His characterization basically fell off a cliff in CoT. He does still have enough loyalty to Rand and enough intelligence that he didn't actually betray anything to Tuon during their time together -- he didn't tell her Rand was his friend (Talmanes did, sorta by accident) and he didn't tell her about his medallion (Setalle Anan did, in a very bizarre characterization reversal of her own where she went from vehemently anti-slavery in WH to kissing Tuon’s ass and giving up other people’s secrets to her. I will note that trying to ‘reason’ someone out of bigotry doesn’t require throwing your previous friends under the bus and betraying them! -- post-WH Setalle Anan is kinda Opposite Day to the Setalle Anan that we got to know in ACoS & WH, who thought of Mat as a loveable rapscallion and who hated slavery, as opposed to CoT/KoD Setalle Anan, who automatically sides with Tuon against Mat because they’re both women but is willing to have ~reasonable discussions~ with Tuon about the pros and cons of slavery and is also literally fetching and carrying for a slaver) -- but CoT!Mat is just straight-up an inferior character to pre-CoT!Mat. Jordan just... really trashed Mat in these two books and it feels like most of the reason that he did it was so that Tuon wouldn’t be required to experience any character growth because Mat just rolls over for her instead of challenging her (there is so much rolling over and not challenging Tuon in these two books. And the few people who DO challenge her are all people that she instinctively non-persons anyway, so it has no impact on her) and spends the majority of his page time attempting to appease her. And destroying a main character in order to prop up a minor character is such a poor narrative choice. Just... everything about how Mat was written in CoT & KoD has frustrated me so much. Poor writing choices that turned a favorite character into one of the worst in the series. IMO, the outriggers were the worst idea that Jordan ever had, because it led to him tanking a major plotline and major characters in his main story. Mat transforms from being a “good and great man” (to paraphrase Nestelle from WH) who risks himself to free slaves into being a selfish and weak-willed patsy for his slaver ‘wife’, who looks the other way when she reclaims ownership over all the slaves in her ‘rescue party’. Anyway, his next plan is to go north to Caemlyn to the Tower of Ghenjei to help Thom save Moiraine & then he was going to reunite with Rand, because he has a lot of Last Battle-related help that he can deliver to him (or maybe the other way around). 

Nynaeve: has not had a plot of her own in a while; the last time she had a plot that wasn't basically "help this man over here" was TPoD.

Perrin: finished his own soul (& woman) selling story in KoD; has been reunited with Faile (the only thing he cares about), so should FINALLY be heading back to Rand, one way or the other. I am disappointed in Perrin, but that's nothing new. He did sink to a new low in KoD, now officially being a slaver himself, having sold two hundred-ish women into slavery. So... there’s that.

For secondary/tertiary characters who we know about:

Aviendha: traveling with the Aiel in Arad Doman and 'catching up' on her Wise One training.

Galad: leading seven thousand Whitecloaks, having 'deserted' from the Seanchan forces and planning to work with Rand & the Aes Sedai to fight in the Last Battle.

Ituralde: working with the Dragonsworn to try to rid Tarabon of Seanchan and firm up Arad Doman as a bulwark against the Seanchan invasion.

Pevara & Co: in the Black Tower, having just made a deal with Taim to bond with Asha'man.

Tam: recently found out his son is the Dragon Reborn (not from Perrin)

Gawyn: still taking orders from Elaida, does not yet know Egwene is prisoner in the White Tower.

Lan Mandragoran: riding from the furthest west part of the Borderlands over to the furthest east part of the Borderlands, to fight against the Shadow.

Cadsuane: still hasn’t taught Rand ‘laughter and tears’, which is literally her only goal.

Loial: plans to talk to the Great Stump to try to convince the Ogier not to abandon the world right before the Last Battle.

Forsaken: Moridin has declared that no one is to hurt Rand but definitely please try to kill off Perrin and Mat; at least some of the Forsaken are all "lol nah I'm gonna try to kill Rand anyway".

Tuon the slaver overlord: being an asshole High Blood/Empress and in deep denial that, by her own beliefs, she should turn herself over to become a damane; her main goal is probably forcing Rand to kneel in front of her; general villain-type goals of invasion and enslavement of others, etc. It really is a shame that Jordan decided to yeet any potential for her character into the void. She was intriguing in Winter’s Heart. And then never again, lol.

Bashere: there was an assassination attempt on his wife back in the CoT prologue that made him agree to something that he’d been asked by “the man who spoke to me yesterday” and we haven’t really checked in with him since then.

Olver: in LoC, he was a war orphan who was a believable child who seemed like a genuinely interesting addition to Mat’s story. In ACoS, all he cared about were boobs. In WH, he barely even noticed that the Seanchan had invaded, because he still only cared about boobs. In CoT, he briefly acknowledges that the Seanchan are the bad guys hunting them but does not at all react to them similarly to how he reacted to the Aiel in LoC - he shows no signs of anger over Mat having been injured by the Seanchan invasion, despite anger towards the Aiel due to his parents dying in the Aiel invasion being a big thing for him in LoC. In KoD, he’s buddy-buddy with Head Slaver and once again obsessing over boobs (this time, leering at a slave’s boobs, which. you know. charming). The only book where I’ve been able to stand Olver was LoC tbh. He's been just a weird & exaggerated parody of Mat in every book past that.

Minor general spoilers below for some things I vaguely recall about the last three books (no spoilers about the ending):

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I’ve read the Origins book & glanced over Sanderson’s retrospective on writing the last three books, and he mentioned some specific bits that were already written by Jordan, so I will probably keep that in mind as I read. I’ve only read the Sanderson WoT books once, so I’ll be finding out now if the experience is different this time around. 

I do feel like some of the criticisms that I’ve seen of his writing are already very present in CoT & KoD, though, specifically:

Mat’s character being noticeably more sexist (honestly, all the male characters feel like they’ve gotten more sexist the last few books; Mat is just the most obvious example).

Mat feeling wildly out of character to who he’d previously been.  Wildly out of character. To who he’d been in Winter’s Heart. Which took place one week before Crossroads of Twilight picks his story up again, and suddenly Mat doesn’t give a shit about the Aes Sedai that he risked his own escape to help ONE WEEK AGO. He’s completely forgotten that his little sister (among other women he cares about, like Elayne, who he had an entire book about coming to terms with, and like Egwene and Nynaeve) is a channeler who Tuon would happily debase and destroy until she groveled at Tuon’s feet. Mat’s reactions to almost everything Tuon does are just such character assassination that I can’t even acknowledge CoT/KoD!Mat as the same character as EotW-WH!Mat. His reactions just seem... so bizarrely off from anything he would have done previously. It really does feel like Jordan parachuted in a pod!Mat from a parallel world. I LOVED EotW-WH!Mat. You couldn’t pay me to be in a room with CoT/KoD!Mat.

Nynaeve not having a storyline of her own or doing much of anything unrelated to the men in her life.

Sanderson didn’t fix any of those problems (from what I recall) and it would have been nice if he had, but he didn’t create them either.

Some other things that I personally dislike in the series as of KoD and that I am curious to see how Sanderson handles compared to Jordan:

Slavery being an Acceptable Evil, especially with Mat, in particular as of CoT/KoD, only caring about slavery when it threatens him personally and not giving a shit about other people anymore (and he cared a LOT in Winter’s Heart. The contrast between how deeply he cares about saving the Aes Sedai & Windfinders in WH vs treating the Aes Sedai like unwanted pests in CoT is incredibly jarring). But, in general, it feels like Jordan decided that the main PoV male characters aren’t going to care about slavery if the slaves are primarily women which is... such an ugly look. It feels like the Seanchan storyline went off the rails hard in CoT & KoD, and I don’t personally feel like “but the planned outriggers!!” is a valid excuse for destroying a main storyline and main characters so badly. Having ALL THREE of the main male PoV characters coming to the conclusion that other people being enslaved is the ~price they are willing to pay~ for what needs to be done is...  it’s very much that Lord Farquaad meme, yes? “Some of you may die, but it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.” Mat deciding that he needs to defend and protect the slaver overlord hurts other people, not Mat. Perrin selling two hundred women into slavery is hurting them, not Perrin; Rand sending the damane back into slavery... etc. They are not ‘making sacrifices for the greater good’, they are sacrificing other people. They are saying that these specific people (who are all women) are not worthy of being allowed to have free will and lives of their own. And that author putting that storyline in three different plotlines implies things that wouldn’t be implied if only one of the main guys was doing it. “Women’s freedom is negotiable” is basically the message in Rand, Perrin, and Mat’s storylines in CoT & KoD. “When we say we want to save the world, we don’t mean women.” And I did not get the feeling that was the original intention of the damane/Seanchan storyline! Which is why CoT & KoD rank so incredibly low on my ranking order. Because it feels like Jordan broke the narrative promises that he made about this storyline all the way through Winter’s Heart. I think Jordan exploring this idea (of his characters willing to sacrifice women’s freedom for the sake of saving the rest of the world) could have worked in a critique kind of way if it had only been in ONE of the plotlines while the other two plotlines were about things other than allying with the Seanchan. Mat’s character is the one that gets the most distorted by this plotline, so I would have tossed his out entirely. Perrin’s is mostly in character -- his entire plot here was that he would be willing to do anything for Faile, even vile and evil things -- but I think Jordan actively deciding to have him LIKE Tylee even as her people are carting off her new slaves in the background was a character-breaking choice. Rand’s plotline would genuinely be fine (because he’s the most reluctant of the three PoVs on allying with the slavers)... except that Min and Nynaeve should have mentioned the sul’dam secret. It’s wildly frustrating how useless they are in the Seanchan plotline when they literally know THE key secret about the military and economic might of the empire. Jordan had them suffer convenient amnesia so that he could do his ‘allying with the slavers’ plotline.

The domestic violence that is endemic in the majority of the male-female relationships in the series. In particular, I am curious to see if Sanderson ever has the female characters hauling off and straight-up punching their ‘love interests’ in the ribs the way that Jordan so frequently had them do. This is an issue that really started around A Crown of Swords and has gotten steadily worse (in The Shadow Rising, Faile punching Perrin is called out as a bad thing by Perrin and by the end of the book, neither of them are being violent with the other, but in ACoS and beyond, violence is just treated as the norm in romantic relationships). 

Related but adjacent, I am also curious to see if beating/spanking remains as large a fixture in the series as Jordan had made it in the last few books.

Women being politically/magically diminished in order to be in a relationship with non-political/non-magical men (ex. Morgase and Tallanvor; Siuan and Gareth; technically Juilin and Amathera but that feels like the most understandable of the examples).

Women being stuffed into Fates Worse Than Death while men just get to be killed off (and the Seanchan becoming a dumping ground for “out of control” women that Jordan didn’t want to kill off).

Min being a liability to Rand but the narrative keeps telling us she’s Best Girl, Just Trust Me.

Tuon being a genuinely cruel and malicious person, but Mat keeps telling us she’s Better Than Most Nobles, Just Trust Me.

Okay, I think that’s everything I wanted to note before I started my The Gathering Storm reread.

[coddo621]

A Cyberpunk 2077 review

I went into this game not expecting much from what I've seen online. From glitches and downright game breaking bugs I was convinced that this would be just another AAA disaster. But after playing for some time I started seeing some improvement over the initial release.

The release of the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners series also greatly influenced my decision to give this game a try. So here's some of my thoughts from my 200 hours in this masterpiece of a game.

Gameplay

The gameplay struck just the right chord for me when it comes to customization. By that I mean every bit of weapons, quality of life and character attributes is fully customizable. Everything from the implants, quickhacks, weapons and clothing can be changed however you choose to. I know it's a sort of requirement in most of the games today, but here it seemed like a need, a mechanic to learn rather than something that just exists to justify the overabundance of items and customizations. You can add modifications to your already customized body. These cyberware mods would make your already powerful cyberware implants even more powerful. You can also modify every single gun you find. Anything from increasing damage or completely removing weapon recoil can be applied to your guns. With all this offense you can also pair them up with your armor mods. These do anything from just increasing your defense stat to increasing the carrying capacity of your character which is also able to be changed using a range of implants. All this is expandable by using the crafting mechanic. It lets you upgrade your items, but in exchange it needs item components which can either be gathered throughout the game or by dismantling the items you don't need from your inventory. It also allows you to increase the rarities of certain items which greatly increases their stats.

The combat style and quickhack mechanics also made me appreciate the game even more. The most interesting and nuance part of the game for me would be the whole cyberware implants system. It really makes you think about the combos that you could use for the implants that were available both early and late game. From the "netrunner" to the "berserk" and "sandevistan" builds you really have a lot of options and routes you can take when making your character. For example, if you enjoy outsmarting the enemy and using their own advantages against them you should pick the "netrunner" builds for their ability to quickhack the enemy or the environment at the expense of some of your RAM. The RAM mechanic is also really interesting since it makes you think before you quickhack because you only have a limited number of it at any given time. If you're more of a hardcore shooter player, or just enjoy a good power fantasy every once in a while I'd recommend the "berserk" builds since they focus more on weapons than anything else. If you're more of a "jack of all trades" kind of person I'd recommend the "sandevistan" builds which let you stop time after a certain cooldown. All of these concepts play into a bigger role, which is the story of Cyberpunk 2077.

Story

The story of the main character is so similar to the story of David Martinez from the Edgerunners series to the point that a sidequest character downright acknowledges it. Our main character, ominously named V, returns to the infamous Night city in hopes of living a better life than where they lived before. They have one driving force, or dream if you will: becoming a living Night city legend. I won't be talking about the entire lore of the game in this review because it's something a person has to experience themselves to find it fully satisfying.

Pros:

Intriguing customization

Interesting combat and mechanics

Great story

Cons:

Expensive (around $60, $30 if on sale)

A bit buggy (sometimes very noticeable, sometimes not)

High graphics demand

Conclusion

In conclusion I'd recommend this game to everyone who can afford it and has a good enough PC to run such a demanding game. There'll be moments in this game when you're going to absolutely despise some parts of it, but inevitably at the end of your playthrough, or multiple playthroughs, you're going to be glad you gave it a try.

Here are some screenshots I took while playing the game.

[neon-moon-beam]

Just my thoughts on whether or not Ingo is a Faller

This is just my opinion. Contains some spoilers for Legends: Arceus.

Blankshippers dni, I will block you.

Ingo probably isn’t a Faller, because if he were, the Ultra Beasts would be showing up, looking for him.

Now granted, I haven’t gotten to the Alola games yet, but my understanding is Ultra Beasts mistake Fallers for another wormhole due to the energy around them and start chasing them down.

Space-time distortions, unless it officially says otherwise, are not wormholes. They’re what it says on the tin; distortions in space and time, and if they were more than that, we’d likely be seeing Pokemon from other regions that would be in a National Dex the player would have to put together rather than just Hisui’s Regional Dex (which, obviously the Hisuian variants are part of despite many having been first introduced in Unova or later). From a developer perspective, they’re a way to get the fossil Pokemon and the entire Porygon line, both Pokemon where the technology to have them hasn’t been created yet, as well as items that wouldn’t exist yet needed for evolution (Dubious Disc, Linking Cable, etc). Ingo and Dawn/Lucas being described as having come from “another world” doesn’t necessarily mean they’re from a different dimension. It could just be a way of saying the time and place they come from is so different from Hisui that it’s like a different world. Ingo also has even less of an idea where he’s come from than Dawn/Lucas, who might be recognizing they’re in their own home region, just in the past, so it might not be the best idea to take Ingo literally when he asks about the “world” Dawn/Lucas came from, or mentions his “world”. Legends is also considered a mainline game; chances are it won’t be considered an AU, but rather taking place between 4th and 5th Gen given Dawn/Lucas being about three years older than in D/P/Pt/BDSP, and possibly at least four, if not more years between the Sinnoh games and Unova (evidenced by Caitlin).

While nothing says Ingo fell out of the space-time rift, nor does it say he's been sent back in time by Arceus itself the way we see with Dawn/Lucas, that doesn’t mean he wasn't (after all, the game is from their perspective, not Ingo's, and Dawn/Lucas' mission seems to entail much more than Ingo's potential purpose for being sent to Hisui would--more on that later). We don’t know his story, and neither does he; he mentions “standing there”, not knowing anything that happened when the Pearl Clan showed up and took him in. We don’t know where this happened, or how the Pearl Clan found him. Was it by chance, or did they see him come tumbling down from somewhere? It does sound like they found him almost immediately when he arrived. And how else would he have gotten to Hisui since wormholes most likely aren’t happening there?

Potentially they could add an DLC to Legends that would have the Ultra Beasts show up, but I think it’s more likely if we get a DLC, we’ll get more added to the story (can we get confirmation Ingo and Dawn/Lucas go home, please?), but nothing added to the PokeDex. Legends requires the PokeDex to be complete in order to complete the main storyline; it would suggest the game was released incomplete if they were to decide more Pokemon should be added. This wasn’t the case for SwSh adding more Pokemon in two DLCs because the main storyline was completed when the player became Champion and then caught Zacian or Zamazenta. So to complete the game, including the PokeDex and catching Arceus, and then have a DLC come out and tell you there’s now more Pokemon you have to catch even though you completed a clear-cut objective wouldn’t look the best.

I’m not saying they 100% wouldn’t do that though. After all, I don’t work for Nintendo. Just giving my opinion that it would mess with the fundamental storyline to have Ingo be a Faller and add the Ultra Beasts (unless they did find a way to work it in nicely), and backing it up with what’s actually in the games.

[cerastes]

Man, ok, you hear it a lot, even adjacently or by osmosis, but “Yakuza is the spiritual successor to Shenmue”. Yes, I guess, but I think the correct phrasing is “Yakuza is Shenmue made by someone that actually values fun in a video game and doesn’t suffer from a terminal case of Stick In The Rectum”.

Understand this, Shenmue is not a fun game.

It’s a fascinating piece of simulation media. It’s a good simulation. It’s an excellent simulation, but it’s not a good game. I feel people speak of Shenmue in much the way they speak about Huckleberry Finn: They know it’s a classic, but they never tried it themselves. Shenmue should be compulsory and required ‘reading’ if you want to talk about classics, like El Lazarillo de Tornes is in my country, like The Great Gatsby is in the US, because you need to comprehend just how much ass it sucks to play Shenmue.

It’s a great simulation, ahead of its time. You can interact with every drawer in Ryo’s room. You can pick up everything, every item in there. That is a room in which someone lives. No doubt. It’s not a Dark Souls 2 Drangleic Castle where it is clearly a video game setpiece where no one lives, it’s not a Resident Evil 4 village with just enough detail to make you believe people live in there with the bare minimum of detailing with some extra meat on places with key items, no, Ryo’s room is a place where someone most definitely lives. It’s a room’s room.

It’s an incredible simulation. It does nothing for the gameplay. It is incredible in assisting with the illusion of it being inhabited. 

And that’s what Shenmue does: It gives an illusion of life. In that, it succeeds, and should be commended.

But by god as a game I would rather snort sink mold.

You hear about its robust combat system a lot. You know how many fights there are in Shenmue? Four. No, not “obligatory and not counting sidequests”, there’s just four. In the whole game. To get to the first fight, you spend somewhere around 2 to 3 hours, and between the fights, it’s another 2 to 3 hours.

What do you do the rest of the time? Simulation. Illusion. You walk the streets, wait for time to pass, play gachapon, play arcade games at Club SEGA, get soda from a vending machine, talk to the NPCs, and they are charming, don’t get me wrong, but... There’s jack else to do. Nothing.

Most plot events take place at night, and there’s no way to pass time fast. You can only pass time by actually doing things and physically, really waiting for time to pass in the in-game clock. And you can only pull little Sonic gachapons for so long before you just want to see what else there is in the game.

But that’s the cord, Johnny, you pulled it, you pulled it right off the wall.

There ISN’T anything else in the game. You see it all in the first two hours and then it’s just the longest slog with Lore(tm) every couple of hours until you get hit with the cliffhanger and get told to buy Shenmue 2 which also progresses the plot in literally no way until you get hit with the cliffhanger and then like 20 years pass and Shenmue 3 gets crowdfunded and, guess what, you better bring your hiking equipment, because you will hang from the cliff a bit more by the end because nothing at fucking all happens again.

It’s all an illusion.

It’s a classic, but not in the ways people think it is.

It’s a good experience. Shenmue is an interesting experience for sure.

But don’t get caught being told Shenmue is a good video game. You get more adrenaline out of playing tic tac toe with the hallucination born from the sink mold you snorted than you do from “playing” Shenmue.

[spiribia]

hello i booted up gw2 and i wanted to ask how to get started in the game? also how do you get a flying mount? like how many hours does it take? i asked someone in game and they said it was a lot of work :(

Hi! Happy to see another prospective gw2er! I don’t know if you’re looking for any advice about anything in particular, and feel free to ask (or even DM me if you’re comfortable) if you have any more questions at all. gw2 is intentionally pretty unique from your standard MMORPG experience – level 80 is the max level, and the process up to reaching that level is considered the BEGINNING of the game. It’s only after level 80 that the starting expacs become accessible, and a more traditionally linear, uninterrupted storyline begins.

The narrative before then comes in the form of a more branching, choice-based Personal Story, a new chapter of which unlocks every 10 levels until the conclusion at level 80. Gw2 carries a very “explore and do whatever appeals to you” philosophy, so to bridge these beginning story chapters you’re really encouraged to just wander the overworld. There aren’t really traditional sidequests, but doing tasks in the form of renown hearts and live events or even just reaching a new place or vantage point you haven’t been before (some require a bit of parkour) will get you a decent amount of experience.

You also can’t swap classes, so what you picked in character creation is what you are for life for that particular character, BUT each class comes with a lot of modularity in the form of different builds and weapons (equipping a new weapon completely changes the first 4 skills on your bar). The game is also super alt friendly - a lot of progress in terms of unlocks saves account wide rather than localized to a single character - so feel free to play around with that. That’s all I really have to say about getting started though, the early stretch seems mostly just for figuring out how you like to play yourself.

As for flying mounts, there are 2 in the game at the moment, the griffon and the skyscale. You currently need the Path of Fire dlc to unlock mounts overall, including the griffon, and the expac after that (Living World Season 4) to unlock the skyscale. These do honestly take some time, though I couldn’t tell you exactly how many hours – it’s pretty variable given the open-ended nature of the obtaining process. I’d say getting the griffon is popularly regarded as the less tedious of the two - its main obstacle is that you need to dump 250 gold into it, which is still nothing to scoff at. The skyscale comes at a much lower cost in gold if you don’t buy any skips, but requires a lot more running around and doing specific meta events and bosses, interacting with objects in the overworld, time gates, etc. A lot of people find this process soul-crushing, but I’m the weirdo who really liked it. I will say my one tip for a newbie regarding this is if you think you might be around long term and even kind of think you might want the skyscale in the future, start making charged quartz early. You can only make one a day, and you’ll need a minimum of 12 and an optional maximum of I believe 22(?) for the skyscale unlock. or you can buy the required stuff with gold instead, but it adds up to be pretty costly.

Although gw2 has a very robust mount system even for ground mounts, and I would say having a flying mount, though fun and convenient, isn’t make or break, if any of that sounds daunting to you. The springer mount, for example, lets you catapult yourself upwards vertically, which is great for rapidly scaling the environment. Heart of Thorns dlc (which comes free with Path of Fire) gives you a glider.

Hopefully that helped at all? But you’re always welcome to reach out if you need anything else

[mannakete]

(this is the only not-dark photo I have of her)

#wolqotd’s from twitter, Raze Elakha edition

> Hoes does your wol(oc) feel about their name? (from RikaXIV on twt) related q:  depending on culture or circumstance, does your WoL have an alias or multiple names? How did they get their new name? (from OriWhiteDeer on twt)

Raze enjoys her name. She kept the family name she was raised with but she changed her name to Raze once she left her forests and grouped up with Adelline and company. She had never had another name but her birthname, which she’s given up entirely.

>  Does your WoL have a signature hairstyle or is your WoL like me who fancies changing hairstyles every now and then? (from rinkunffxiv)

Raze flips between 2 hair styles, very long or the side tail. If I had my way, she’d have a long thick braid. Similar to the Raiden Shogun’s for people who have seen her but not nearly AS long in back or nearly as clean up front.

>  Just out of curiosity, how old are your WoLs in your canon? (from Mortinfami ART (answered last year))

Raze is also in her early 30s at this point of time (6.2)

> who's your wol/oc's favorite twin: alpinhaud, or alisaie? (from protractions on twt)

Raze likes Alisaie a little bit more. She’s easier to talk to (she doesn’t fully understand half of the things alphinaud talks about) and she can just Talk with Alisaie about anything. Alisaie especially likes gossip about Adelline. Which Raze gives. Very willingly. She does still like Alphi. If she had it her way, the group would only be her, Adelline and the twins!

> I assume the question was about the WoL’s feelings about the end of Crystal Tower, but the tweet no longer exists sadly

Raze was also upset about it, just like Adelline. She also wanted to take G’Raha with them, since they were always travelling anyway and figured, why not! It would be a good experience and there would be fresh faces. Eventually she did get her wish and she’s happy as a clam about it

>  I have another incredibly important wol question. summer theme let's go. could they crush a(n allagan) watermelon between their thighs. (from catnipfarm)

Raze can do it without blinking. She uses it as an intimidation tactic.

> (Endwalker spoilers)  While recovering from the final fight with Zenos, who comes to visit them? Do they even want/allow visitors? (from InMyLeyLines)

I haven’t gotten this far with Raze but she would absolutely not allow ANYONE to see her. Even Adelline, because she’d think she was dreaming and she doesn’t want to be hopeful that she’s alive.

>  If your ffxiv character wasn't the warrior of light, what would they be instead? Job quest npc? Custom deliveries npc? Raid story npc? Whacky sidequest npc? (from Loudwindow)

Raze is also just a wanderer but her profession before that was a blacksmith. So if she never became the WoL, and by some twist of fate, never met Adelline, she’d be a smith somewhere in the world.

>  How did your WoL take learning about their Azem? (from faeth_s)

Raze denies it. She’s happy as she is and doesn’t believe she could have been anyone else, nor does she want to be. 

>  What's the most unnatural job for your WoL to play? What's the least suited to them as a person/their combat style? (from byletri)

Anything that can use magic. Her magic abilities are very low (she thinks her martial ability is just as bad) so anything that requires high amounts of aether manipulation she can’t do on her own. Even for teleporting she needs a booster.

>  Inspired by a recent question about what scents they like: I want to know what their magic smells like! If they're not a caster, are there any scents you associate with particular kinds of magic in general? (from InMyLeyLines)

If Raze COULD use magic well enough to not need someone else’s help, it’d probably be very woodsy.

>  WOL/OC question: what disciple of the land/hand jobs do you consider canon for your WOL? Is there any special context in their story? Are there some that they like and partake in but maybe aren't very good at? (from thancredulous)

Raze was a Blacksmith by trade before she met Adelline, and had ben doing that since her late teens. She’s also good at armorcrafting and gathering plants. Essentially, aside from gathering ore required for forging, she was the one supplying weapons and armor for the group. 

>  Did your Wol want to be a Wol? (from RikaXIV)

Not really no, and only because she’s not confident enough in her own combat abilities (despite having fairly good proficiency in mid-range combat. She also buckles under pressure and lots of responsibility so if she could transfer the ability to be WoL to someone else, she would.

>  What type of crier is your WoL? Loud, ugly-sobbing type, or perhaps it takes far too much to get even a single tear? (from WoLQuestions)

She’s the kind to start slow and then it speeds up before becoming uncontrollable. She’s not loud, but it’s also not quiet. She’ll shrug off and get upset about things, but if she’s actually crying, something hurt deeply.

>  On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being incredibly easy, and 10 being nearly impossible, how difficult is it to date your WoL/RP OC? (from ChubScarlet)

Realistically, 10. She’s very committed to Adelline. for funsies, a 4. All you really need to do is be nice to her long enough and mean it.

>  everyone wants an ishgardian ballroom scene but how well would your wol actually handle all those noble lords and ladies mobbing them for dances (from radicrow)

Raze does not like crowds. She’s also the most likely to step on their feet and then put her weight on it without thinking. So its best to avoid that with her.

>  Who is your WoL’s emotional support? (from WoLQuestions)

Adelline. And to an extent Alisaie when she feels she’s putting too much on Adelline (From either side of the story, Raze being wol or adelline). She’s tried confiding in the other scions but it never went very far. 

>  What kind of video games would your wol play in a modern AU? Any reason for that? (from CGekkou)

Raze loves Stardew. She would probably play every farming sim and life sim at least once. 

>  Your WoL returns to their childhood home. How do they react? (from AnrhiOri)

Raze borderline ran away from her childhood home so she would like nothing more than to never see it again.

>  What would be your WoL's catchphrase when you select them in the Trust menu? (from FF_XIV_EN (official)

"Alright. Time to move."

>  Cringe/comedy/awkward scenario— given how known the WoL is now; what would YOUR WoL/D do if just outside the Rising Stones a bunch of obnoxious fans now gather to try and get a glimpse of them??? (from SmolWol)

Raze absolutely uses adelline as a miqo’te shaped battering ram to leave the rising stones/wherever they were staying to Adelline’s endless amusement.

>  where was your wol during the calamity at the end of 1.0? (from bardings)

On another continent, she hadn’t yet made it to eorzea with the others.

Non qotd facts from my twt: > Has a very good singing voice. Adelline affectionately calls her a bird. > Not the biggest fan of cat based puns > Is one inconvenience away from an emotional breakdown > flusters very easy > Thrives in the cold, doesn’t do well in the heat (this is a holdover from ye old wow incarnation)

Raze’s class path: (2.0) DRG > (3.0) DRG > (4.0) DRG > (5.0) DRG > (6.0) DRG

[something-very-special]

they ran over the seals

More Replicant playthrough observations and general nonsense under the cut. For reference, up to the keystone quest; completed the Forest of Myth and Junk Heap.

This fucking game I swear to god.

A vaguely coherent ramble about sidequests An observation about sidequests in general in this game -- and I don't recall if I ever voiced this somewhere public or it was just a personal observation from my time with the original -- is that the quests in the first half of the game are all relatively easy to complete. There's that one asshat who wants 10 goat hides, but other than him, most of the sidequests are either very much based on finding characters, or gathering a sensible number of items that are either relatively common, purchasable, or given a guaranteed spawn for the duration of that quest.

The sidequests everybody remembers having to do are in the second half, where everybody is demanding and awful and I'm sorry ten MACHINE OILS do you know how goddamn rare those are? They're goddamn rare.

(We'll not discuss Life in the Sands.)

This is generally agreed to, in the technical vernacular, 'suck'. And it's always funny that the most interesting sidequests are the ones with very minimal requirements (Yonah's cooking, getting Popola drunk, the Lighthouse Ladoh my god everything's gone blurry I'm not crying you're crying who am I kidding we're both crying). That particular aspect of the design also feels intentional, not really gating your ability to progress the really meaningful or funny sidequests behind an unreasonable number of rare items. The other aspect of the design is that these quests are not meant to be completed in a single playthrough; most of them are single-stage and just absolutely unreasonable, but if you're going through the game four times you have a... reasonable chance of getting everything you need more or less naturally.

Nobody does that but I think that was the intended design. I think it's a good idea, although the execution of expectation is flawed so I don't really blame people for saying those sidequests suck. (Although I will in turn blame people for saying the sidequests suck as a blanket statement. Yeah getting that guy who burned his kitchen down a billion Broken Motors is aggravating but did you not find that old man's dog? Speak to Ursula on her death bed? Solve a murder? Then again I think tracking down that rotten son who's trying to get away from The Family Business only to learn his father is a con-artist and get literally no reward is the height of comedy so maybe I'm not the greatest point of reference.)

But that asshole in Facade can get bent. I can't exploit my garden properly, jackass! I am no longer a god of time. (I kid, of course.) (This guys sucks even when you can fix your clock.)

Forest of Myth It didn't even occur to me to wonder how they would incorporate the comprehensive voice acting into the Forest of Myth. I like how it plays out, although I wish the voices maybe had a fade as you went deeper into the dream instead of just cutting out at some point, especially for the lines where the characters are being ascribed actions by the narrator that they themselves aren't doing near the start of the Deathdream. But it's just delightful to go back to it. The second half of the game really sticks in your mind both for emotional reasons and because you play it at least three times per full playthrough of the game, but the first half is just so much fun.

Protip: Talk to everybody after you've finished the dream sidequest. Weiss tries to dissuade you. Don't let him dissuade you. I'm still delighted by the Mayor; "We're building a statue of you, made of solid gold. I know you don't own a horse, but we're going to put you on a horse."

I forgot about Yonah being a disaster chef Papa Nier's reaction to the stew is better. Brother is still funny but Papa Nier just expecting to die is comedy gold.

For anybody curious, the joke about the cakes is that Yonah made 'fruit cake' using some of the worst possible fruits for cake-making. If only she'd thrown a tomato into the mix, too.

Lighthouse Lady Every time. what the fuck is a canal I'm aware of the addition of the new-old content but it didn't occur to me until Popola suddenly starts nattering on about fixing the canal when I'm expecting Yonah to talk about a penpal that oh, yeah, I guess Seafront would have had something going on the first half that would play into the second half? (I assume it does. Be weird to introduce these characters just to have groundwork for an added sidequest. ...but it was a cute sidequest.) But look Popola my boy is supposed to be in the next area I visit could we-- I mean he's on the way could we just-- no-- fiiiiiiiiiine. (It was short and sweet, though, and I appreciate that the couple's love is exemplified by them both calling Weiss a floating magazine in tandem.) On a related note but was I the only person suddenly concerned when the sidequest completion maxed out at 50% and not 51%? I had to double-check with a guide just to make sure, since I've spent the last decade telling people to make sure you hit 51% before going on to Part II.

MY BOY I love that nowadays, Emil is everybody's son. But I really wish I could go find somebody only familiar with Automata and just watch their reaction. (I'm guessing there are streams out there that fulfill this but man I'd love to get it in-person.) If you're only familiar with him from Automata this has to be a mindfuck.

Personal anecdote, but I've had the privilege of playing NIER with somebody else almost every time I've gone through it. I had a wonderful experience of doing a replay some years back with somebody who had experienced it with me before but didn't have the most solid memory of the beginning (and had actually missed the entire weapon's lab the first time through). I get to the boy at the piano introducing himself and the 'Wait, what?' was a thing of beauty.

MY ANDROID This was a welcome mindfuck for me; finding Sebastian and having him 'reactivate' in such an unnatural, mechanical way. I don't recall if it was ever officially confirmed that Sebastian is an android (I know that it's just understood that this is the case but I'm not I can't recall a specific one) but the little flair they added to his animation caught me completely off guard. I liked it!

Destroying the food source A lot of people will cite a major inciting incident for the game as being when the protagonist heading back into the village and killing the child Shades just outside the entrance. This moment is such a great bit of subtle foreshadowing that's so easy to miss... but kind of joining that, just before the Knave of Hearts attacks, I realized that the Shades out on the Northern Plains are clearly ramping up for an assault of their own by murdering the sheep. The sheep population at this point is decimated (which is great when you realize you haven't gotten the Sheepslayer trophy and you're about to enter Part II and you don't know if the boar drifting minigame got carried forward with the inclusion of 15 Nightmares). You go out onto the Plains and you will find not only small clusters of sheep left behind instead of the vast, terrifying herds from the start of the game, but until you get their attention the Shades are prioritizing killing the sheep. (Also annoying because that doesn't count toward my sheep murder number.) The Shades will be out there also killing sheep earlier on, but since the whole map is in Overcast mode after talking to Yonah it's especially prevalent to go out to the Northern Plains and seeing the slaughter. And I realized-- they're cutting the Village off from a primary food source. Shades don't eat and they don't have any beef with the local ungulates (at least, no more so than anybody else does), so why are they hunting down the sheep? To deprive their enemies of resources. Sheep are extinct by the timeskip. It's actually really clever of them, and a really clever indication of their sentience and intelligence before it's fully verified.

"Let's get these shit-hogs!" Everything about the way Kaine and Emil interact across the entire game is perfect I will brook no argument this is objective fact.

Emotive Rectangles I wrote an essay about this before but it really bears repeating that the job the original animators did with this scene is just phenomenal. The way Weiss drifts, flits, flips, fans his pages, drunkenly swerves, shoots around the room in defiance... He's a goddamn rectangle, but there is so much emotion and personality in this scene just based on the movements conveyed through a what is effectively just a box. Ten years later and triple-A titles with full facial capture don't have this much seething personality. I really have to give props to the cavia animators, wherever they wound up. That studio could really put some subtle love and care into their titles, utterly unnecessary and easy to miss but you can tell that whoever was working on it was giving it their all. The books are probably the exemplification of this, but every time I go into Seafront and visit the seals I can tell that the guy on seal duty was having just the best day. They made Emil so pretty There's an FMV cutscene right smack in the middle of the original game after the battle against Noir. I understand why it was a necessity on a technical level, but it always looked pretty out of place and a little uncanny valley compared to the rest of the graphical fidelity. That's no longer a necessity so this cutscene is rendered in-engine. I admit I was actually curious to see it redone this way and it looks fantastic. I single out Emil since he is the focal point of cutscene and because his particular high-poly model had some pretty weird difference from his in-engine model, but he and Kaine both look great. But, like, it's almost mean how pretty he is.

They made Brother Nier so pretty Yeah okay you got me he's kind of hot. Kaine's expression when she wakes up and looks him over is... significantly easier to read now. Good voice, too. (Ancient rumors tell that one of the issues with international releases of RepliCant was that they couldn't find an English VA with a voice that 'fit' Brother Nier. He sounded good out the gate but hearing him growl "Let's go TAKE CARE of those KIDS" during the thief sidequest-- I got chills. It sounds so silly but there's a kind of percolating fury to that delivery. Papa Nier was like frustrated but mostly disappointed dad; I felt like Brother was going to take care of those kids, and nobody was going to find the bodies. Younger Brother Nier just never stops looking goofy to me but Older Brother just looks great in motion, between the alterations they made to the movement and just the entire weaponry system. The distinction between the two halves of the game was always a little odd in the Gestalt version-- not odd enough to really raise eyebrows if you didn't know about RepliCant, but of course you can tell that this age gape between the optimistic doe-eyed dogooder and a man largely ruled by his fury and calloused by tragedy is what the timeskip was going for. Swab me down and call me Ishmael, it works. Younger Brother wasn't quite clicking with me-- not because of any writing or voicework issues, but I've got Papa Nier on the back of my mind and it's impossible not to compare and contrast the delivery and dialogue between the two. I know that this is intentional, too; Younger Brother is supposed to be that happy-go-lucky video game protagonist, always doing the right thing and helping people, in order to contrast against the man he becomes. Even just edging into Part II the effect is dramatic and it recontextualizes Younger Brother into a much more effective overall character. And let me reiterate, I enjoyed my time with Younger Brother just fine, I have no issues with him. But he's up against Well Meaning Big Dummy Part I Papa Nier. No contest. And I'm excited to see where Older Brother goes from here.

Speaking of voices I mentioned this before but the delivery on the character's lines is different. The entire game was re-recorded and quite a few lines are still pretty similar to the original, but there are some that are... definitely different. Part of this is a difference in the relationship between characters based on their life experience and ages-- Weiss is much more of an ass to Younger Brother but has a much more even respect for Older Brother (neither of which are like the rapport he established with Father). Some of Kaine's lines feel more aloof, dismissive, and almost tired in the front half of the game. I haven't really gotten to a point to dig into Emil's rapport with the other characters, but the delivery feels more hesitant and uncertain (which I think is more in line with his Japanese VO, but I'm prefacing that on an untrained ear and a presumption rather than recent memory). It's been interesting to see not just where hey adjusted dialogue (and how-- there are some lines that didn't need to be rewritten), but also how they adjust tone and delivery. Dealing with Younger Brother is one thing, but as I said, I'm very excited to see what's different in the second half, especially being much more familiar with that part of the game. Speaking of Voices! Halua got dialogue! I... preferred when it was inferred (and the implications of "I'll always be watching over you" are borderline malicious given the results of their fusion dance, yeah THANK YOU HALUA this is GREAT). Halua's delivery also felt a little too innocent and upbeat both for the situation and when compared to her narrative voice in The Stone Flower, where she comes across as much more cynical and cold. But given what she's been through and the nightmare she's finally escaping I guess she's allowed express happiness. She's certainly earned the right to having a spoken line. No matter what. Every fuckin' time.

"Here we go." This was always a great line to kind of ease in to the officially-official start of Part II-- every time you start up a New Game+ you're greeted with Emil musing about his conflation of Halua to Kaine, and then the phrase "Here we go". There's a lot in that one line. On a personal level he's grounding his thoughts in the moment and steeling himself for what comes next and pushing through his pain and sadness and fear. Whatever Nier told him in the facility he's still terrified, desperately terrified, that Kaine -- who was the one who told him his life had meaning -- is going to reject him. And why wouldn't she? Ultimately they don't know each other, not really. He understands at that moment that his relationship with Kaine is based on confused memories of his sister, that maybe the bond he thought they established isn't actually real. As soon as he frees Kaine he's going to have to confront her, like this, and how could she ever-- she won't-- but he can't just leave her. Whatever happens next. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. (God it matters.) "Here we go." On a meta level, that's our introduction into the second half of the game. The first half is all prologue. This is where we'll be spending the rest of our time, even to the point that 'New Game+' skips straight ahead to this moment. Now that we've finished the establishment, this is where it all builds and where it all matters. Here we go, audience. The ride starts now. You get up to this point now in Replicant. You get the same lead-in. My dumb ass even whispered "Here we go", because I can't help myself. And he says, of course he says--! "Anyway." ... ...a-anyway? What the hell kind of line is that? "Here's some deeply personal musings that are also an indication of my own discomfort as I babble to myself just to fill the void so I can stave off thinking for just a few more seconds. ANYWAY." What a... bizarre decision. Just bizarre.

Upgraded melee combat The introduction to the armored Shades always feel kind of rough-- the defenses on those Shades are significantly higher than anything you've faced and the new weapons you're given to combat them just aren't that good. (If you got lucky you could have a fully-upgraded Faith by now, which is nearly three times as powerful as the 'heavy' two-handed sword you're given; if you downloaded the 4 YoRHa pack for Replicant you've probably been able to upgrade one of those weapons once, which are also a really nice strength boost that leaves the freebie heavy swords and spears in the dust). As an introduction to the new weapon types it always feels like rough going. But then you get a chance to get decent weapons and the combat system truly opens up, and compared to the first game you really feel it. At this juncture I would always just bustle off to Facade and grab the Phoenix Spear and never look back-- the raw power compared to the rest of your arsenal coupled with the triangle dash is basically the bread and butter of the rest of the game. It's not exciting, but it's effective. No more triangle dashing, which was deeply disappointing... but both weapons definitely feel good. I am also somewhat ashamed to admit that it wasn't until now that I realized attacks weren't just about rhythmic input-- you can hold the attacks down to do different charged hits and combos depending on when you execute them in your combo, similar to Automata. I, uh... I felt a bit dumb. But hey, wow, it's a welcome adjustment and it makes all of the weapon types feel equally valuable for different purposes. I never liked using the heavy blades in the original release because they just felt too slow for the damage output they did, even if their 'point' was mostly to sheer off armor (and they definitely felt too slow for use in crowd control). Now they're still heavy and slower, but not to the point that you're basically leaving yourself open just trying to attack. Spears now do crazy sweeping combos and multi-hits. Both of these properties were borrowed from Automata and I find myself prioritizing melee combat and almost forgetting I have magic because honestly it just feels intuitive and fun. I feel like Kaine and Emil might have gotten a power boost as well? Not that I can really confirm this but going into some of the Junk Heap rooms I'd focus on killing a few robots in the corner and then turn around and just see a field of item drops and no more robots. Don't take my word on that, of course, but they felt a little more effective, and a placebo effect is still an effect. "You're staging a protest? That's fun!" Emil. Rebel without a cause. Will not hesitate to kill you if you trespass on his property. (Might explain the statues in the courtyard, actually.) I'll have to double-check this dialogue because I definitely remember more of a melancholia before we get to roasting marshmallows. I think Papa Nier actually offers to talk to/implicitly threaten the villagers to let them in the Village whereas Brother offers to sleep outside with them... which is actually kind of funny. In the former it comes off as Emil and Kaine maybe kinda-sorta not wanting to be allowed in the Village for their own reasons (they're not happy reasons but they're reasons nonetheless) and reassuring Father that no, it's okay, it's fun! The latter is almost telling Brother to stay inside because he'll ruin their sleepover.

(They're absolutely having giggly girl talk about him outside the gates, 100%.) they ran over the seals All I want in Seafront is to enjoy the music and run out to the big beach and hang out with the last living seals and they put a fucking pirate ship on top of them. Oh, wow. Gideon. Wow. OG Nier featured a Gideon that tried to keep himself together and then had fits of mania. You'd be concerned about him during some of the dialogue but generally speaking he came across as... functional. The delivery on all of his lines is now so insanely murder bonkers, like every line he's addressing you like you're already chained to the wall of his serial killer dungeon and it's glorious. I don't know if the distinction between the games is deliberate (in that Gideon in Gestalt was just more even-keeled between his 'rip 'em apart' snarlings and was always just totally nutso in RepliCant) but I do appreciate it. It's a good mirror to Brother Nier's own anger, which only ever seems to be mollified when he's talking to his friends (even kindly accepting sidequests there's a pretty consistent -- not universal, but consistent -- air of barely-bridled frustration). The other characters that Brother encounters are various reflections of himself if things had just been a little different-- Gideon was a representation of the kind of obsessive madness that would have eaten Brother alive if he hadn't had his network of support. Gideon's constant fury and bloodlust even bleeds into him just saying "What can I do for you?" He has no anchor to keep himself sane, nobody to stay human for; he's all mania, all anger, and he only takes any real interest in Brother on his return because he sees an opportunity to act out his vengeance. After defeating Beepy and Kalil he even goes so far as to not only blame Beepy for killing Jakob, but for also killing their mother, which is patently insane but really speaks to how far his justifications and fury have taken him. Papa Nier responds to his anger toward Beepy by basically backing away slowly and saying "Oookay then". Brother, however, actually commiserates; "That's enough. [...] We get it. We really do." This is definitely one of those moments where Brother's context works better than Father's; he absolutely sees himself in Gideon. He completely understands him and sympathizes. He recognizes the madness of his own quest, he sees where it could take him, and there's a resignation when he speaks to Weiss: "Revenge is a fool's errand." "...yeah." Papa Nier has a similar delivery and similarly implies that he understands how terrible his quest is, but there's something decidedly haunting in Brother's sympathy. Also just verifying something on the wiki and this bit of 'Trivia' really jumped at me:

Gideon is the only character to only cause the deaths of other characters. In his case, he caused a platform to crush Jakob and ordered the deaths of P-33 and Kalil, with P-33 surviving.

Metal AF.

[jazinerambles]

Persona 2 Innocent Sin Review

I wanted to have some time in between playing the game and writing my thoughts for Persona 2 Innocent Sin. I will be referencing it and other Persona games so there may be some light spoilers for games 2-5. 

I played the psp version of the game on a Playstation TV. I beat the game at 76 hours on the dot. I have not completed most of the theater missions, but I have completed the main story of the game and did do a few sidequests.

My review will be organized in several sections-gameplay, story, music, characters, LGBTQ representation, extra content, wishlist and recommendation.

Gameplay:

Persona 2 Innocent Sin was released in 1999. Therefore plays as a game from 1999. The PSP rerelease updated menus, changed the difficulty, and added all out attack art similar to P3-P5 for the fusion spells. I love the all out attack animation and although the menus got a little cumbersome, it didn’t really impact gameplay for me. 

The biggest complaint about Persona 2 IS is how easy and repetitive it is and the high encounter rate. The battles for the most part are easy and if you set up all your attacks in the first round, you can basically use autoplay until an emergency occurs or you encounter an enemy in which you must change it up. 

I never saw the gameplay as repetitive as others do and I feel those who do only just battle and that’s it. I was constantly trying to get all the fusion spells, max up my personas to trade them for items, try different combinations for the demon negotiations and spread demon rumors to get items, spells, and cards (you need cards to summon new personas in the velvet room.) Demon negotiations also allow you a better look into each of the characters’ personalities and relationships. Events in the game will change how the characters react in these negotiations so it is always nice to go back to them throughout the course of the game. 

The demons you encounter have emotions. I believe they are intrigued, happy, angry and fearsome. Make them happy and they will offer a pact with you and give you free stuff and willing to spread rumors for you. Make them angry they will fight you. Make them fear you they will run away. Make them intrigued and you get the cards needed to summon personas and even more if you already have a pact with them. 

I wanted to return to the big complaint though, the high encounter rate. This was something that I felt hot and cold about. Most of the time this didn’t bother me, because I needed to level up my personas anyway. But when I needed to backtrack and explore further, it did get a little bothersome. 

You can use estoma to avoid enemies weaker than you. It is not a passive skill, so once you have a persona that has it, you have to cast it every time it wears off. At the Mu casino, you can also purchase a disguise kit that does the same thing, but it effects last about the same amount of time and it is ridiculously expensive. Just use estoma. 

As briefly mentioned above, unlike Persona 5 in which you can just catch Personas, in P2IS there are only two ways to get them. You get cards from demon negations, take those cards to the velvet room and then trade them in for a Persona. But you have to enough cards to summon it and the persona has to be 5 cards within your character level. 

You can also talk to the demon painter, for him to make you cards for the specific arcana you want by using blank cards. These are also given through demon negotiations that you have a pact with. 

In P2, ALL your characters are capable of changing out Personas, but their compatibility with different personas varies with their Arcana. 

The other way to get personas is through the story. There are certain actions that you must take to get the prime personas and then the final personas. These personas are character specific and you can’t give them to other characters. 

I wanted to talk about three more things before I move on to the story: rumormongers, fusion spells, and dungeons. 

Persona 2IS is based around rumors. Just like P3 is for the dark hour, P4 the midnight channel, P5 around palaces and so on...

To get certain items and progress the story, you MUST gather and spread rumors. There are five characters throughout the game called rumormongers. They will give you information in exchange for receiving information. You then share this information to the detective agency, pay a fee for them to spread them for you, and there you go. rumor spread. As mentioned earlier, there are also demon specific rumors. 

Fusion spells were something I really enjoyed in this game. Although hearing “Are you ready? Here goes” and “Let’s go everybody” will be stuck in my head for the rest of eternity...

Basically, to create a fusion spell, members in your party require a requisite spell and then that party member is placed in a specific order when taking turns. Once that spell is unlocked, it will let you know if you have the requisite spells and you no longer have to adjust the order of party members. Some of the spells you need to unlock fusion spells are persona specific. The fusion spells are elemental. 

I will not go into weaknesses of elemental spells, I am just going to say that you aren’t “down”’ed like you are in 3-5. 

Finally, my first real pet peeve with this game-the dungeons.

Oh boy. Air raid, AeroSpace and one of the four Zodiac dungeons (I am pretty sure its Eikichi’s) gets ALL my hate. There are cheap gimmicks that make the game artificially hard but only for these dungeons and more so, frustrating. 

But I am not going to go into detail why, and the other dungeons are not bad at all. But play the game and experience these dungeons for yourself. That is all I am going to say about that.

Story:

This section will be nowhere was long as gameplay. The story did not go where I thought it would, but that’s a good thing. I would go in completely blind if you can. The ending definitely surprised me a bit. I think it has one of the best stories of the persona games.

It does not follow a calendar like the later Persona games and time just blends together. By the end of the game, you won't know if a day, week or month passed from the beginning to the end.

Music:

The music is actually really good. It is the reason why I played the game in the first place. Just don’t look at the soundtracks names. Spotify has it available if you live in the US. You are better off listening to the soundtrack because I promise you that most dungeons songs will be cut off due to the frequency of battles. 

Some of my favorite songs are Smile Hirasaka, Unbreakable Tie, Kurosu’s theme, Joker and the Taurus dungeon’s theme.

Characters:

Despite Persona 2 not having social links, I feel like I know these characters better than some of the persona games that do have social links. It is also the only Persona game that I can say without any hesitation that I like the entire main cast. 

I truly love them all, but my favorite would probably be Yukino or Maya. 

Unlike other Personas, the dynamics for Persona 2 IS are different, because not all of your party members are high school students. The adult characters have adult problems, the high school students have high school problems, and all of them have deep psychological problems and abandonment issues that will take years of intense therapy (or Philemeon) to forget.

One of the biggest themes of Persona 2 is confronting your past and learning from the mistakes of your childhood. And the characters do! And by the end of the game you are so proud of how far they have come. And then things happen...

LGBTQ representation

Let me say that I started P2IS off on the wrong foot, but I am still absolutely justified at being upset by it. One of the very first interactions you can have with a NPC is through a very uncomfortable exchange between you, Eikichi and a transman that is pretty transphobic. And to add the icing on the cake, Atlus refers to him as a “weird woman.” 

I was literally going to just stop playing the game like an hour in because of that, but I decided to continue.

What I discovered was a game that has highs and lows when it comes to LGBTQ representation. 

You can play as a bi character who can confess his feelings to men and women. *Stares hard at Persona 4 and Persona 5*

You have a gay character that has an interesting story, character development, is unabashedly gay and isn’t a walking stereotype. Nor is his entire arc centered around gay panic. 

From what I understand the dialogue from the NPC does get better, but I am not holding my breath. 

And the one sapphic kiss scene we get in a Persona game is a kiss of manipulation and not love. So that is a little sad. 

But overall, P2IS does try to make an effort. And it definitely makes a better effort than its successor released almost 2 decades later.

Extra content:

Again, Persona 2 doesn’t have social links or a calendar. Please don’t approach it like the other games where you have to fill up your time between dungeons. It is not a necessity, but there are things you can do. 

Mu is a casino that you can visit that allows you to play mini games to gain coins that you can use to get weapons, rare items, and even unlock personas. I spent a little too much time at Mu....

You can also talk to NPCs to do side missions. Be careful though. You have to do the side missions in a given amount of time or you may not get rewarded for it. Also P2IS is very much like Final Fantasy 9 where it is much better to go to a place sooner than later, because there may not be a later...

You also have the factory which is an optional dungeon that opens up more and more as you progress through the game. 

There is the theater which is a PSP exclusive which has side missions unrelated to the main story that you can play. They are okay.

Wishlist

I hear so many people wanting a remake of P2IS so the game can be more accessible. I am very torn about this. Besides the difficulty and maaybe tweaking the encounter rate a bit, I wouldn’t change a thing. However, I also know that I couldn’t enjoy Shadow of Colossus until the controls were updated. Like I tried and then just gave up. 

I honestly don’t want a remake. I don’t trust the Atlus of today with this game.

I do want it to be acknowledged and more accessible though. 

But if I had to make a wish list, this is what it would be. Again, this would be a “it would be nice list.”

Make the battles harder.

Update cut scenes? I really like the art for the cut scenes already, but would like some more. Maybe keep the drawings but update the CG?

Social side quests. I do not want social links in Persona 2. However, side quests that allow you to learn more about your character like a social link would, would be something I would be very interested in. 

Make the portraits consistent. The art from the original game and the new art put in the PSP game (I am talking about you climax lady) clash so much. Pick one style and stick to it.

I want to fight Ms. Ideal. Let me do it for reasons. Give me a chance to battle her.

I want the option to switch out characters. I love both Jun and Yukki, but I want to be able to play with both. 

Let me skip the animation when I create a new Persona. 

*EDIT*  I can’t believe I forgot this and feel awful I did, but I do think they should keep the trans NPC, but change the dialogue and the the name. It isn’t the NPC that is the problem but the dialogue and actions. Otherwise, I think it would be ok. 

I think that’s it.

Recommendation:

So should you play Persona 2 IS? Short answer, yes. Long answer is that it is complicated. In a few months the game will no longer be accessible for psp consoles. The physical version of the game is ridiculously expensive. You will have to accept the fact this game is on psp and its sequel’s psp version never came to English speaking markets.

You may not like the graphics, gameplay, or that it doesn’t feel like the later persona games. And as much as I love this game, that is alright. You do you. But I truly do think you are missing out on a great game. So if you have the opportunity to do so, yeah absolutely give it a shot. 

[americanegg]

egg’s digestible guide for attainable rides: cyberpunk 2077

(cheap to mad expensive) post then later a (free quest cars) post

Car Model >  €$ (Fixer). All details about each are my own experience. Location of vehicle by district and waypoint.

(Reminder that if you’re short on eddies you can do Gigs, Sidequests, and ��Assault in Progress” mini quests to get rich and level up.)

1. Thorton Galena G240 > €$ 13,000 (Regina)

Rusty hunk of junk but functional, especially after your car gets bodied in the beginning of Act 2. Located in the garage of your apartment building.

2. Makigai MaiMai P126 >  €$ 14,000 (Wakako)

Small. Super fucking small but decent and could turn into a red bullet on the highway at the cost of absolutely no control on your turns. Located in the southern part of Charter Hill, Westbrook sitting neatly in a small parking lot.

3. Mahir Supron FS3 >  €$ 16,000 (Reyes)

Sort of van type situation but compact. Cheap and definitely made of plastic. Like it says that in the lore. Located East from Hargreaves St waypoint in Arroyo.

4. Chevillon Thrax 388 Jefferson >  €$ 17,000 (Padre)

It’s a smooth ride, I’ll give Padre that. Long in length and takes years to turn with but it’s not made for street racing so it’s still decent for traffic and looking like a corpo. Located directly South of the Pumping Station waypoint in Wellsprings.

5. Villefort Columbus V340-F Freight >  €$ 19,000 (Dino)

Another van-type situation with plenty of seating. Could drive your kids to soccer with this one and get there in one piece. Average vehicle overall but can go 210mph if needed. Located SouthWest of the Downtown Central waypoint and sitting in a parking lot.

6. Thorton Galena “Gecko” >  €$ 21,000 (Dakota)

Found in the Badlands this is a great choice for rocky roads at 100mph. Go crazy and go stupid outside the city with this bad boy. Shred rubber and whatnot. Be wary of turns and speed in rocky areas as you can make as much airtime as a dirtbike on a ramp! Located SouthWest of the Old Turbines waypoint in the Eastern Badlands.

This is where Street Cred Level will come into play along with your pocket full of eddies:

(cred = streetcred level)

7. Kaiba Kusanagi CT-3X >  €$ 22,000 > 12 cred (Wakako)

Right after Jackie’s Arch, this is my favorite ride in the game. She’s sleek, perfect for bypassing traffic, and very well-designed. Located in an abandoned parking lot in Japantown, Westbrook directly NorthEast of the Skyline and Salinas waypoint.

8. Archer Quartz EC-L R275 > €$ 29,000 > 12 cred (Regina)

Another great set of wheels for burning rubber and kicking up sand in the Badlands, if you have the eddies for it. Located South of the Offshore St waypoint in Northside and immediately next to a Neutralize the Perps mini quest.

9. Chevillon Emperor 620 Ragnar >  €$ 32,000 > 12 cred (Dino)

First of the heavy duty SUV you acquire at 30k eddies. Didn’t drive this one very much since I’m a small and sleek kinda dude but if you need to ram a taxi or show off to your video game girlfriend your chunky ride, here is the car for you. Located in Corpo Plaza SouthWest of Arasaka Tower waypoint or NorthWest of Reconciliation Park waypoint.

10. Villefort Cortes V5000 Valor >  €$ 37,000 > 12 cred (Padre)

If you want to look like an asshole you can check this one out. Pretty much a bougie limosine type situation. Long car so long turns my guy. Located in Wellsprings, Heywood sitting in a parking lot West of Berkeley & Bay waypoint. 11. Thorton Colby C240T (aka Thorton Colby C125) >  €$ 39,000 > 20 cred (Regina)

Vehicles to pick up your gf/bf and go to a drive-in theater with? This one. Smooth ride with plenty of seating to do you know what at said drive-in theater definitely not watching Bushido 3. Located Northside, Westbrook South of the Docks waypoint in a small parking lot in front of the Ded Zed clothing store.

12. Thorton Colby CX410 Butte (Green) >  €$ 43,000 > 12 cred (Reyes)

Imma be honest... I’m a slut for Thorton car models. This one is straight up satisfying to my ears and eyes. Located in the parking lot of PieZ waypoint in Rancho Coronado, Santo Domingo.

13. Thorton Colby “Little Mule” >  €$ 49,000 > 12 cred (Dakota)

Truckin and fuckin around the Badlands? This is definitely the car for you!  Located near the Sunset Motel parking lot in the Eastern Badlands.

14. Quadra Type-66 Avenger >  €$ 55,000 > 20 cred (Dino)

Remember those Need for Speed games? No? Well imagine it for a second and look at this preem ride. Got that image in your mind? Now look at your wallet. Located West of Metro: Republic Way waypoint tucked under the Empathy club building.

15. Quadra Type-66 “Jen Rowley” (aka Quadra Type-66 640 TS)  >  €$ 58,000 > 20 cred (Reyes)

If you haven’t noticed, Quadra Type-66 are very good at designing cars that make you look like you shred these streets since you were a babe. Like, Baby from Baby Driver would fuck this ride up, you know it choom. Located West of Kendal Park waypoint in Rancho Coronado, no more than 2-minute walk away.

16. Villefort Alvarado V4F 570 Delegate >  €$ 62,000 > 20 cred (Padre)

Another Limo! I’ll be honest, six wheels on a car this low is crazy but Villefort always finds a way. This is the ride you’d drive to your corpo apartment to go pick up your corpo wife so you can take your corpo ride to a nearby corpo restaurant and only drink Spunky Monkey in a wine bottle. Located directly West of the Palms View Way waypoint in The Glen.

17. Herrera Outlaw GTS >  €$ 62,000 > 30 cred (Dino)

Limousine type body but god damn if it ain’t gorgeous to look at. A real sexy piece of wheels, this one. Located in Corpo Plaza, North of Ring Road waypoint. 

18. Quadra Type-66 “Javelina” >  €$ 73,000 > 30 cred (Dakota)

God am I a fan of rides that pick up hefts of sand and dirt? Yeah, I am. Do I love how this car looks? Absolutely. As a Nomad V, is this one of the sexiest rides you can get? ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY. Located in Southern Badlands near the Protein Farm waypoint.

19. Mizutani Shion MZ2 >  €$ 75,000 > 30 cred (Regina)

Not gonna lie, this is the car that occupies my headspace every time I boot up Cyberpunk. Maybe it’s the name, maybe it’s the design, maybe it’s the car I would take to my honeymoon, idk. Located in the same garage as the Thorton Galena in Little China, Watson.

20. Quadra Type-66 “Cthulhu” >  €$ 76,000 > No cred requirement (Regina or Sampson)

Condition to receive for free: Sparing Samson in “The Beast In Me” side quest

Okay other than Beast which is a chonky beast this one is a very speedy beast with classic racecar features but bulky armor. The wiki literally says this ride has 666 horsepower so you KNOW this shit is gonna slap as soon as you get in and hear that engine, dawg.  Can be found in Little China, Watson in Megabuilding H10.

21. Brennan Apollo >  €$ 94,000 > 30 cred (Padre)

If you thought Jackie’s ARCH and the Yaiba Kusanagi was sexy boy you will not be disappointed. Smaller and more compact but a speedy on the highways and countryside. Side Effect is you’ll look like the coolest pizza delivery driver in Night City. Located in Vista Del Ray, Heywood a short walk away East of Delamain HQ waypoint. 22. Mizutani Shion “Coyote” >  €$ 115,000 > 20 cred (Dakota)

... Look at her. Just... just look at her. Look at those wheels, that build, the spoiler, look at her! I would own so many Hot Wheels and have her in a display case alright. Like, you know what you’re signing up for at 100k eddies for Dakota. Like this car that was originally used for scooting around the city was LITERALLY modded for the Badlands. As a Nomad this is a must-have. Located in the Eastern Badlands, North of the Sunshine Motel waypoint.

23. Thorton Mackinaw MTL1 >  €$ 128,000 > 30 cred (Reyes)

The most SUV that ever SUV’ed in Night City. Reyes calls you for this one and shit, it’s new, it’s spotless, it’s a shiny new car, and trouncing down Badlands, the streets of Kabuki, Pacifica, name it. This beaut does go maximum of around 150mph but with how big this bad boy is, it can charge through the highways but be wary of how you turn corners! Located around the block from the Red Dirt Bar waypoint to the East in Arroyo, Santo Domingo.

24. Quadra Turbo-R 740 >  €$ 129,000 > 30 cred (Wakako)

TURBO-TASTIC ride. Again, of racecar design, you can almost smell the 1980s nostalgia from the picture alone. Located in the Dynalar building/waypoint in Charter Hill, Westbrook.

25. ARCH Nazaré >  €$ 138,000 > 40 cred (Wakako)

Writing this guide up to this point I have discovered that Old Lady Wakako knows what “fucking nova” means because all the cars she offers are fucking bangers so of COURSE she would offer an ARCH bike like this bumblebee badboy. You can see all the fun bits in and around the bike to know what you’re getting into so expect some hella smooth sailing. Located on the way TO the Drive-In Theatre in the lot of the Gig: A Shrine Defiled. South of Drive-in Theatre, North Oak, Westbrook.

26. Rayfield Caliburn (White) >  €$ 157,000 > 40 cred (Dino)

Dino actually coming in clutch with this last call for vehicles he offers. Like, I had to look up what “hypercar” meant to logistically know how hype this car makes me every time I hit the gas. At high speeds the engines purr like a cat, which is a whole other satisfying experience after driving hunks of junk. Located West of the Corporation St. waypoint in Downtown, City Center.

27. Rayfield Aerondight S9 “Guinevere” >  €$ 225,000 > 50 cred (Wakako)

Um... so... this is- this is the last car from Wakako. I haven’t even gotten to the point of being able to afford this... this... work of art. I can only imagine, with the Rayfield brand, that it’s better than the Caliburn. Which I don’t even think that’s possible but once I buy it I’ll let you know. Located North of the Columbariam or directly West of the North Oak Sign waypoints in North Oak, Westbrook.

Yo, if this guide helps you or makes your day or think it’s absolutely genius or dogshit don’t forget to like/reblog! Share with your friends!

Free Vehicle Post coming soon!

Images from gamesatlas.com, cyberpunk.fandom.com, & game-maps.com

[scottymcgeesterwrites]

Final Fantasy III Review

Year: 1990

Original Platform: Famicom

Also Available on: Nintendo DS, iOS (DS port), Android (iOS port), Ouya (Android port), Steam (Android port), PSP (iOS port)

Wii/3DS/Wii U Virtual Consoles and Nintendo Classic Edition releases are only in Japan.

Version I Played: DS

Synopsis:

Four orphans (originally only named by the player, DS remake gives them names) fall into a crevice after a sudden earthquake. There, a mysterious crystal warns them about the oncoming darkness that will engulf the world. The four orphans must band together to restore the balance between light and dark.  

Gameplay:

ARE YOU READY TO GET YOUR ASS BEAT?

YOUR BALLS ROCKED?

I’m warning you – this is the most difficult Final Fantasy game to date.

There are no ethers - only elixirs, which you should definitely reserve for the hardest battles. Also, phoenix downs cannot be found in stores - only in treasure chests and as dropped or stolen items from enemies.

The gameplay returns to that of the original Final Fantasy –  turn-based combat and the Job System, only this time the Job System is greatly expanded. Vikings and Geomancers and Bards and Dragoons and the list goes on. Summons are introduced to the series via the Evoker job, which later gets upgraded to Summoner. The expanded Job System allowed for greater customization of your four characters than in the original Final Fantasy.

This game is notable for the Onion Knight. In the beginning of the original Famicom game, the default job is Onion Knight. If you continue playing as an Onion Knight, your stats remain relatively low. However, if you dare to play the entire game as an Onion Knight and reach level 99 – the Onion Knight suddenly turns into the most powerful job in the game.

The DS remake does things a little differently. Instead of the Onion Knight, you start out as a Freelancer – a new job that has a little bit of everything. However, the longer you use the Freelancer job, the weaker you become. This is a good incentive to have players naturally explore other jobs.

The unfortunate feature of the DS remake though is that the Onion Knight is ONLY available after performing sidequests via wireless with friends. This is impossible to do now since the wireless features for the original Nintendo DS (and also the Wii) have been discontinued. HOWEVER. Playing the DS remake through Steam allows you to unlock the Onion Knight by completing at least 25% of your bestiary. You will then receive a message via the Mognet to start the sidequest.

Final Fantasy III is notorious for its high difficulty. The trick mostly lies in constantly switching between jobs and finding the right balance for the right moment. However, changing jobs requires you to level up that job. This means grinding – lots and lots of grinding. Insane amounts of grinding. This is Final Fantasy: Grind City.

In retrospect, Final Fantasy II was hard as well, yes, but more in a stupid way. Leveling up there was annoying but people could find tricks around it like finding weaker enemies and purposely hitting yourself and healing yourself to raise your HP or defense stats.

Final Fantasy III is difficult but it hurt so good. This game turned me into a masochist. There's two types of video game rage - the good and the bad kind. The bad kind is usually because the game's mechanics are irritating or virtually unplayable. The good kind is cursing out loud but then saying, "I'LL GET YOU NEXT TIME!" and actually being pumped about trying again because you see it as a challenge.    

The game has an explosively difficult finale. The finale takes place in the Crystal Tower, which is surrounded by Ancient’s Maze. You have to walk through the maze, then through the tower, then fight multiple bosses through other events which I won’t spoil here. The entire ordeal can pretty well take up an entire hour. At least (in the DS version, I don’t know about Famicom) you can save before entering the Crystal Tower. But if you ever need to venture out into the world map again to get something you forgot, you have to go through the Ancient’s Maze. Once you enter the Crystal Tower, you cannot save the game. It’s one long shot to the final of final bosses. In the Crystal Tower, you get to walk around seemingly endless and maze-like floors such as this:

 YAY.

Seriously though - I still enjoyed the challenge and thought it was epic. If you're going to hit me hard, you might as well go all out. Nothing in this game is held back. Also, the expanded job system allowed you to try out so many different things.

I tried for the longest time to play Final Fantasy III on an emulator but for some bizarre reason, I couldn't save, not even on save states. When I have the time, I definitely want to go back to that, try a different ROM or something, and experience the original. But I played enough of the original to know how hard it is. I died right away when I ventured outside the first town.

The DS remake mostly retains the difficulty of the original, which I admired, unlike the watered down PSP Anniversary Editions of Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II.

Graphics:

The original Famicom game definitely has a lot more going on than the first two Final Fantasy games. Battles are still 90% black space but the rest of the game is 8-bit Heaven. 

The DS remake is AMAZING. I would argue that Final Fantasy III DS is really the first great Final Fantasy remake. They got a chibi thing going on and it works here. It’s cute without being obnoxiously cute.

The FMV sequence for the DS is staggeringly beautiful.

I also kind of laugh at this one part where Luneth and Ingus are arguing and it’s the equivalent to a stock photo of two people arguing.

I only wish they added an ending FMV. That would have been the cherry on top for the remake. 

Story:

Final Fantasy III is kind of like crossing the original Final Fantasy with Final Fantasy II. The story is wider in scope and more epic. The fictional world is much more interesting. The score has a wider repertoire. You fly many different airships. It also begins what I like to call the "Crystal Trilogy." Final Fantasy III, IV and V, as you'll read later, are quite similar in their general plot, which utilizes crystals as important plot devices.

There’s more to the story than people give credit for. You venture into the world and run into secondary characters who have their own stories, such as Cid, Desh, Princess Sara (reference to the original Final Fantasy), Prince Allus, Priestess Aria, and even four imposters of the four heroes of light. You save towns with a variety of problems, from a village cursed by a genie to finding a missing precious stone for the dwarves. Then you discover the truth behind the world you live in. . .

The DS version elaborates on the story by giving the four orphans names: Luneth, Arc, Refia, and Ingus. This sharpens the story by connecting more dots. The DS story starts with Luneth and Arc as childhood friends. They later meet Refia, a runaway who was tired of her guardian's blacksmith trade, and Ingus, a knight of Sasune who protects Princess Sara. I was disappointed by one rather misleading thing in the DS remake. The opening FMV sequence seemed to imply that Priestess Aria plays a wider role in the story – she doesn’t. That disappointed me.

As I’ve said already, the DS version is a wonderful remake of the original. I very highly recommend it. It enhances everything about the original and more. The remake's heroes hardly get any recognition in other Final Fantasy media and that’s a shame.

Music:

As Final Fantasy games keep getting bigger, so does the score. Uematsu shone here. He did some unique things for a Japanese composer at the time. An example is the illusion of having chords in the track Crystal Cave.

Final Fantasy III’s soundtrack is twice as long as Final Fantasy II’s. I’d say that out of the entire Famicom/NES era, this game probably has the best soundtrack. The battle theme has a sexy bass with more drums added to it. Eternal Wind, the world map theme, is definitely the greatest map theme in an RPG. Period. It truly gives the feel of wandering around a fantasy world.

The DS version reinvigorates the entire score. I loved every second of it.

The way Uematsu composed the final of the epilogue is reminiscent of how John Williams does his finales in the credits for Star Wars or Indiana Jones films. In this case, he references the Final Fantasy Main Theme at the end of the credits.

The result is a wholesome feel to the game. Final Fantasy III has a fantastic score that is perfect for closing the 8-bit era of Final Fantasy.

Notable Theme:

I'm split between Eternal Wind and Priestess Aria's Theme. Fortunately, the DS opening cinematic includes both. It has a great orchestrated rendition of the classic themes.

Verdict:      

The hardest out of all the Final Fantasy games (so far). At the same time, there’s so much to enjoy – but it’s not for everyone. Because of the difficulty, I would save this game for last. There’s something about this game that actually gives me a true “final fantasy” feel. The final stretch is so kick-your-nuts-hard that nothing else in the series can compare to it.

If you go for the DS version, however, that can be a tad bit easier. Just a tad. A smidge. Nothing more. It’s one remake that I highly recommend. They did a good facelift on both the game itself and the story. The DS version was adapted into Android and then ported into Steam, so you can get it there. 

Direct Sequel?

No.

[baphomet-media]

Blaster Caster - An Ikenfell Review

Genre: Adventure Subgenre: Tactics RPG Developer: Happy Ray Games  Publisher: Humble Games Platform(s): PC, Switch, Xbox; Reviewed on Xbox Series X Release Date: October 8th, 2020

Ikenfell immediately caught my eye in a marketing email from Humble. The art style looked charming, and it stayed on my radar for a while until I gave it a try on a whim from Game Pass, needing something to sink my teeth into on Xbox. I was a little wary at first, as tactics games can sometimes be difficult to get into (I’m looking at you, Fire Emblem), but the art style and whispers of praise I kept hearing drew me in. Does it hold up, though? Let’s dig in!

Story

The story of Ikenfell follows Maritte, an “ordinary” (non-magical) girl who travels to the titular school of magic to find her missing sister, Safina. After suddenly gaining magical powers of her own, Maritte soon realizes that something that happened at the school is causing the world to destabilize and magic itself to distort in strange and unusual ways. Best of all, Safina seems to be right smack dab in the middle of everything.

Along the way, Maritte will meet a number of students of Ikenfell, friends and rivals alike of Safina, with whom she will partner in order to get to the bottom of the strange happenings at the school. One of the best things about the game is its diverse cast of characters, seemingly all of whom are queer to some extent. It felt really nice to have some representation that didn’t try to make a huge deal out of the characters’ identities. That being said, I found it somewhat difficult to keep up with characters’ genders, pronouns, and sexualities, since it’s rarely mentioned by the game. One idea that could alleviate this is if the game could remind you of the characters’ pronouns on their status pages. Additionally, while some characters, such as Maritte, Gilda, and Pertisia, felt fully realized and fleshed-out, the other half of the party seemed to languish in stagnation. While Rook and Petronella had a bit of development regarding their relationships to Safina, Ima had basically no backstory and felt forgotten.

The game has plenty of side characters as well that help to flesh out the cast, particularly the bumbling dandy Ibn Oxley and his surly protector Bax. These two were pretty adorable in their relationship, and I’m always a fan of the incompetent braggart archetype, however I feel like they didn’t do much except constantly get in the way throughout the entire story, and I felt like I was always cleaning up after them. The headmistress, Baudovinia Aeldra, has a very touching, and surprisingly dark, backstory, and she becomes something of a tragic antagonist throughout the course of the story.

Perhaps the thing that impressed me the most was the game’s scope of worldbuilding. In one chapter, you ascend a tower as the game drip feeds you bits of its mythology, and I was really into it. Additionally, I like that there are small hints about the world at large outside of the play area, which made me feel like the school was only one part of a larger world, even if it was effectively the center.

The story itself is fairly basic and somewhat on the short side. There were plenty of touching moments throughout, but I couldn’t help but feel like I was just chasing Safina’s coattails the whole time, as she’s all that anyone can talk about. What’s worse, outside of flashbacks, Safina doesn’t actually do anything the entire game, which was a disappointment. I was looking forward to having a sororal bonding moment that didn’t really come until the epilogue, and even that was a bit lackluster.

Gameplay

At its core, Ikenfell is an RPG. The battles take place on a 12x3 grid, and on each character’s turn, they can move and cast a spell from their repertoire. As opposed to other games that have MP or a fixed number of spells, Ikenfell’s spells are thankfully unlimited. Instead, some spells have a cooldown time, though this is rarely an issue, as most spells with cooldowns are powerful spells anyway. Additionally, each spell has its own effective range, so proper positioning is constantly important. Most spells can be categorized as one of the following:

Single-target damage dealing 

Area-of-effect damage dealing 

Ally buffing 

Enemy debuffing 

Placing a trap 

Other, or some combination of the above 

Despite this, most spells feel different from a combination of their ranges and other unique properties. For example, while Pertisia’s Retaliation spell hits multiple targets for damage, it has the unique range of hitting all allies that are orthogonal to her or her allies, incentivising close-quarters play. This pairs well with Gilda’s Teleportation ability, which lets her teleport to the other side of the battle grid and immediately take a second turn. In all honesty, I found the combination of Gilda and Perty so powerful that I spent most of the game using only those two and Maritte, who becomes so physically powerful by the end of the game that she’s a must-have. Unfortunately, I never found much use for Rook and Ima, as their spells never really stood out much to me, aside from being the only characters able to set traps. Traps become useless pretty quickly, since most enemies can fly or teleport to their destination square, meaning unless they land right on a trap, it’ll more likely hinder your own movement. Nel at least had unique abilities in being the only character able to cast healing spells, but the spells are so difficult to actually perform, and they’re so miserably weak otherwise that it doesn’t feel useful to include them, which is really sad considering their backstory!

Enemies also get the same mechanics as the player, which usually meshes well, however it seems like most enemies get way more turns than the player, especially certain enemies that can use actions that immediately give them an extra turn. It pretty much requires you to use Gilda to provide speed buffs and debuffs just to feel competitive. This is felt particularly strongly during boss battles when bosses can summon minions and then immediately take another turn. It can get overwhelming quickly, especially if one character gets knocked out. Fortunately, if you’re leveled up enough and you stay on top of healing and taking out minions, you should be fine in any battle, though this does put the player in an odd dichotomy where you either stay on top of everything for the entire battle, but you make one mistake and you basically lose outright.

The other mechanic to battles is the timing mechanics. Every spell has a specific timing for pressing the A button in order to deal max damage or buff. You also use the same timed button press to defend against enemy attacks, which gives the battles a slight Paper Mario feel. Unfortunately, I found that timing was often inconsistent. Some spells have helpful visual indicators for letting the player know when to hit A, but many are best used slightly before or slightly after the visual trigger, making it frustrating when you whiff a spell or take major damage despite looking like you were right on time. The game has some accessibility options that can bypass this, by making your attacks auto-hit or skipping battles altogether, but this feels more like cheats than balance, so I didn’t use them.

As far as the overworld goes, you travel between areas to reach various story objectives, giving strong Mother series vibes from your party following along behind you. The game allows you to save your progress by petting cats around the school, which is automatically an A+ from me. The cats also refill your HP, so you don’t have to worry too much about healing outside of battle.

I really enjoyed the equipment system in the game as well. Aside from weapons, each other item can be worn by any character, and usually offer both benefits and drawbacks, so it’s up to you to decide which stats you want to optimize on each character. Though it wasn’t a really tough decision, as there are only 5 stats (HP, Attack, Defense, Speed, Movement), and most equipment only modifies the middle three. I ended up speccing Maritte into Attack, Perty into Defense, and Gilda into Speed, since those seemed to match their play styles and base stats.

There isn’t much in the way of side content in the game, the main sidequest being collecting hidden gems throughout the world. These gems can be exchanged for special accessories that give unique effects. Unfortunately, these accessories don’t provide any stat bonuses, so I didn’t find any of them as useful as just buffing stats. Lastly, the game has a few optional bosses to defeat, which basically require you to hit the, admittedly low, level cap of 30. These bosses were interesting, but at that point I was getting sick of boss battles.

Presentation

Ikenfell is a gorgeous game. There’s plenty of great pixel art throughout, particularly in the environment. The character sprites are very expressive, both in battle and on the overworld. I wasn’t a huge fan of some of the portraits (Perty particularly has some oddly lumpy cheeks), but for the most part they’re perfectly fine.

The music in the game is wonderful, and is largely done by electronic musical group Aivi & Surasshu. Most of the background tracks were a wonderful blend of chiptunes and melancholy instrumental which is definitely my thing. Unfortunately I wasn’t all that fond of the vocals on some tracks, but that’s likely just a personal preference thing. My partner loved them, so your mileage may vary.

Conclusion

JK Rowling wishes she could tell a magic school story this good. At the end of the game, I loved the characters and felt good knowing that I had accomplished everything the game had to offer. I loved just exploring, seeing the different locations, petting cats, and listening to the music. Definitely give this game a try if you love RPGs, queer representation, good stories or music, and DEFINITELY if you have Game Pass.

Score: 8 / 10

[thebibliomancer]

Song of the Dark Crystal liveblog pt 20

Song of the Dark Crystal by J.M. Lee because I guess we’re finally going to Ha’rar? There’s been a lot of false alarms but I think Naia is actually, really, and truly going to Ha’rar?

Last times on book: Kylan, Naia, and Tavra have traveled to the Tomb of Relics with the help of Amri the Grottan to find the magic firca of Gyr the Song-Teller. Unfortunately, it’s broken. This particular source of hope lost, they finally agree to do what Tavra wants to do and go to Ha’rar.

Chapter 20

Amri gets to travel on the surface, Kylan discovers a startling thing

The group of Gelfs reach the cave-in urLii had told them about.

Amri goes to squeeze through the rocks first, since he has the most experience navigating dangerous rocks. And since they don’t know how steady the boulders are and whether the wrong pressure or sound could make them shift and squish the whole party.

They picked their way silently and delicately, weaving through the spaces between the rocks. There was no way urLii could have made it, and in some places Kylan thought even he might not be able to squeeze through. With some scrapes and a lot of patience, in time they finally stumbled out of the rubble.

Oof. Sounds tense.

Was this really a better idea than going a longer way that didn’t require squeezing through a pile of rocks? Really? I know Kylan was sick of being in the dark but this was the better option?

Anyway, they exit onto a grass covered ledge and the world is so beautiful, the world is so damn beautiful. There’s a wood-filled valley right in front of them and the sky is early evening amber.

A beautiful sight that you’d love to take a moment to drink in.

Amri is still lurking in the cave mouth, squinting at the beautiful vista.

“It’s so bright,” he said. “I’ve only left the caves at night before. Snuck out, I mean.”

Naia frowned. “The Brothers are setting. It’ll be twice as bright tomorrow during the day.”

“Maybe my eyes will adjust,” Amri said. He pulled the hood of his cloak on, so far that it covered most of his face. Draped in the black cloth as if he might bring the shadows of Grot with him, he emerged from the caves. Even with the hood on, he held his hands out for balance. Naia took one and put it on her shoulder.

Awww new friends!

And, yeah, Deet had a problem with the brightness on the surface too. Had to wear a blindfold for a while but her eyes did adjust, possibly because it would be harder for her to puppet emote if her eyes were covered the whole show.

Naia suggests that maybe they could travel at night to help Amri but Tavra vetoes.

“We will travel at all hours to make up the time we’ve lost,” Tavra declared. “Starting now.”

Geez, Tavra.

They set out and Naia has to help Amri walk but they eventually learn to match strides.

Kylan could see that Amri’s cheeks were pink where they were visible beneath his hood.

Hmmmm exertion or shiptease?? Definitely exertion. Guy is having a difficult time.

Once Tavra is satisfied that everyone is moving at an acceptable pace, she takes to scouting ahead of the other three and adjusting their path.

Geez, she’s tireless.

But before long they can see the Black River in the distance.

Sigh. I remember the Black River. Good times back in chapter 7. Wow, right before they met Tavra again! And now she’s taking them back there. What a full circle journey.

“The air is so dry,” Amri remarked. “And there are so many noises! I feel like I can hear the whole world from here.”

“I thought it was dry, too, when I left the swamp. You’ll get used to it!”

After the suns set, Amri was able to pull his hood back. He marveled at every tree and rock, and especially was enamored with the sky. Though he could see, he kept his hand on Naia’s shoulder so he could walk with his head tilted back, staring upward in awe.

“This is why I used to come to the surface. The sky! Oh, look! The Sisters!”

Hey. Amri is endearing as heck. I love this underground elf.

And I’m living for his journey of discovery.

Kylan tries to let Amri’s excitement infect his own worldview but he’s still too down on finding the firca broken. He tries considering what urLii said about weaver and woven “but he was tired of trying to find the best in everything and exhausted from hoping and hoping and being let down.”

=(

So since his insistence on going to visit Aughra and looking for the firca were both such disappointments, Kylan decides that Tavra is the real protagonist and he “was just a minor character in her story now, and he would do as she directed.”

Kind of a meta take on things but if anyone would think it, it’d be Song Teller Kylan.

During a period when Tavra is scouting up ahead, the three reach a landing and all decide to just take a breather. Amri especially who comments that he’s getting blisters. And, yeah, that’ll happen if you walk around all day without shoes, which Amri has been doing because they left without Amri picking up any traveling supplies.

He starts rubbing some salve on his feet.

“What is that?” Naia asked, wrinkling her nose. “It smells like maggots and slime!”

“Yes! Though it is some other things, too. Do you want some? It’s one of my concoctions.”

“No! Absolutely not.”

Hee.

Argot did mention that Amri was an alchemist.

Kylan declares that they should probably rest. They agreed to follow Tavra without further detours but they didn’t agree to make the trip in one night. They just can’t match her pace.

Naia and Amri agree so Kylan goes off ahead to let Tavra know. Which is mighty nice of him. It was his idea so he’s going to take the brunt of Tavra’s annoyance.

Kylan isn’t trying to be sneaky, and is even walking conspicuously because he values not getting stabbed after surprising someone with a sword, but manages to do a sneak anyway.

He overhears Tavra talking to someone in the woods. And even though there’s any number of good explanations for who she could be talking to, Kylan’s gut tells him to be sneak.

Kylan crouches and creeps forward to pick up the conversation.

And he hears her apologizing “Forgive me, Lord. I know. We are back on track. I won’t let you down.”

He can’t see anyone else with her in the darkness but he hears the reply.

“You have already let us down. We took a great risk in entrusting the Drenchen boy to you, and what did you do? Lost him! We regret our trust. We regret it dearly!”

!!!!!!!?

I KNEW SOMETHING WAS AMISS

I mean, its been getting increasingly obvious. BUT I KNEW IT.

The patchy story about how Tavra and Gurjin got away from the castle! I knew it!

The unseen person Tavra is speaking to asks if anyone suspects but Tavra says no. They haven’t said anything and she can sense when they dreamfast.

.... Hmmmm. Dreamfast sensing.

“This body won’t last, my lord. It is beginning to fail. I need a new one if I’m to continue.”

“Then you should not have allowed Gelfling to waste so much time! Bahhhh... take the Spriton or the Grottan. Or kill them, if it is easier. We do not care.”

“The Spriton is so weak! I would rather have the Drenchen -- ”

“Lay one of those prickly little legs on the Drenchen and we’ll crush you ourself!”

!!!!!!!!!!! definitely a spider oh no tavra is definitely a spider and Spider-Tavra wants to take Naia oooooooooh noooo

I knew it and I don’t like it!

Granted, it’s been getting more and more obvious that something was up and I had the show to give me clues.

STILL THO oh nooo

Kylan accidentally cracks a twig by Arthur clenching his fist apparently, letting Spider-Tavra know someone is out there. She assumes that someone is coming vs someone is lurking which is a tiny bright side of the bad situation.

(Fun note but Tavra twists her ears about trying to pinpoint the sound so that’s another fun body language Gelfling can do. I can’t do that.)

But Kylan freezes, not knowing what to do. Does he confront her here? No, she could kick his ass. Does he run to warn the others? No, she could kick all their asses. Does he try to dreamfast? Dangit, he can’t do that from a distance!

She had nearly reached his location. In moments, she would pass by close enough to touch. urLii said one could be the weaver or the woven. Were there really only two choices? Or was there a third?

He gathered his courage and steeled himself.

I’ll be both.

So what does best boy Kylan do? Instead of just running into Spider-Tavra, he trips into her to build up her disdain of him and claims that he came to find her but lost the path.

And then when she asks where the others are:

“Amri had to stop. I came to get you to let you know we’re making camp back up the trail. I hope that’s all right...”

“No! It’s not all right. We don’t have time. Where are they?”

And then she storms off ahead to yell and maybe threaten them with her sword into walking again.

I still feel a little bad for Spider-Tavra’s inability to herd these cats. Imagine you have an evil plan that keeps getting thwarted because your targets keep chasing shiny sidequests.

Following behind Tavra, Kylan puts together some of the clues to realize that this isn’t Tavra. She had said ‘this body’ instead of ‘my body’ when talking to her unseen master. The DO NOT TRUST HER dream-etched into the rocks but covered in spider webs. That S on the firca box.

It seems like someone was trying to warn them but weirdly the most likely candidate for that was Tavra herself.

Weird weird situation.

But a mystery he doesn’t have time to poke at because he needs a plan for what to do about the imposter.

No wonder the Skeksis haven’t shown themselves in person — they’ve known where we were every step of the way!

Spyders

Aughra does them one better than that on the show, heh heh

Although, hmm I wonder when the crystal bats get invented.

Kylan realizes that only he was going to be able to fix this. Which I’m pretty sure isn’t what he meant when he wanted something only he could do.

But there was no time to feel sorry for himself. He had to decide what he was, not what he wasn’t — and what he knew, not what he didn’t. In the last moments before they returned to the campsite, he raced to recall everything that had happened up until then, searching for any seed that might be able to grow into a solution. The song he’d made up for Rian. The blue mouth. Aughra’s observatory and the destroyed firca, urLii’s words, and the Spriton tapestry.

Then he had it, and afforded himself a taste of hope.

This would be a confrontation of a different kind.

Kylan just had a How Far We’ve Come AMV moment play out in his head.

I wonder what his plan is! And I wonder who Spider-Tavra was talking to! And I wonder whether Spider-Tavra is the final boss since there’s still eighty some pages left. There’s definitely a final feel to Kylan having to draw his experiences of the whole journey together but the first book didn’t draw out the confrontation against skekMal nine chapters.

Point being: I’m hype

[eljackinton]

Final Thoughts on Greedfall

Greedfall popped up on my radar last year when people began mentioning that it had been a while since we had last seen a Bioware style RPG. In recent years story heavy RPGs have tended to come in two varieties: Massive open worlds, or Baldur's Gate style throwbacks.

It wasn't long before people started talking about Greedfall for another reason: It's rather insensitive take on colonialism. In both instances enthusiasm for Greedfall was tempered. It was a worthy effort to try and rival something like Dragon Age, but it had too many problems to succeed.

Still, with no Dragon Age or Mass Effect game currently on the horizon, and nobody else trying to contribute to the genre in that way, I knew I was going to find myself playing Greedfall eventually.

Let me be clear, I absolutely think RPG fans out there should play Greedfall. Problems or not, I have to applaud Spiders for at least attempting to make a game nobody outside Bioware (or even in Bioware these days) is trying to make. I'd absolutely be up for seeing a sequel, and I hope some modest success can put pressure on EA to let Bioware get back to regular releases again, or encourage other studios to try something similar.

With that out of the way, I want to talk about what I liked and what I didn't, but first, we have to talk about...

Greedfall's one big problem.

Greedfall is a story about colonialism that has nothing to say about colonialism. It takes place in a fantasy world where an island is sort of, but not quite, being colonised like the Americas were. The game skirts the line between how much it resembles this. The natives of the island are not Native Americans, but they're not not Native Americans either. The game wants to ask the difficult questions about expansion and coexistence, but then wraps it all up with mealy-mouthed 'can't we all just get along' platitudes.

Greedfall's idea of colonialism is about as complex as Disney's Pocahontas. It's a world where bad things only happen because of bad individuals. It it wasn't for the craven or immoral there would be peace on the island. Colonialism is capable of being benign.  The game constantly pushes this idea at you, and makes it super obvious that when the time comes to nominate who will be the next high king, the candidate who wants to drive the colonists off the island is treated as one of the bad choices (or 'less good' if you're being charitable.)

Despite the name being Greed-fall, greed and the nature of it are barely explored. The colonists are on the island searching for a cure for a plague. The Bridge Alliance is driven by scientistic discovery, Theleme is driven by religious conviction. The faction the player represents, The Congregation of Merchants, is probably the one most motivated by monetary gain, but they, ironically, feature so thinly in the plot that they might as well not be there.

Over the last few years, culture and society has began to look at colonialism with a more critical eye. The fact that Greedfall failed to consider this shows both a profound lack of imagination and ambition. Better writers than I have already discussed whether this makes the game mildly insensitive or outright offensive, but it's undeniable that it's a problem and it's a dead weight at its core.

What I liked

- The gameplay and game feel was all great. Combat felt smooth. Magic and technical abilities never felt redundant and always added a new dimension to the fights. Firearms felt powerful but never overpowered. There was never a point in the game where I felt overwhelmed.

- There was no 'busywork' sidequests dragging the flow of the game down. There is exactly one 'collectathon' side quest and it's short and easy to ignore. You manage to see all of the world simply by following the quests, meaning it's hard to miss anything significant.

- Collecting resources goes seamlessly with travel and you always have an abundance of resources for crafting and alchemy, which is as easy as 'do you have all the components.' No multi-part crafting or blueprints required.

- The writing and the dialogue was all really steller. At critical points in the game I got really drawn in and could feel the weight of the steaks.

- The characters were a joy to hang around with, chat to, and discover their past. The romance was heartfelt. The side quests were all interesting and cool.

- The visuals were beautiful and parts of the game really made me want to go off and explore.

- Great soundtrack.

- I liked how you could only learn so many abilities over the course of the game. This is a character system where you're either going to be a specialist or a jack of all trades. I don't like it when RPGs essentially give you enough skill points to unlock everything because it just robs the player character of their own unique flavour.

What I didn't like

- The pacing was a real mess. We spend far too long in the starting port that it kills all momentum. The whole story lacks direction for most of it, and any semblance of a plot only really begins two thirds of the way through the game, This was a game that really struggled to make me want to find out what happens next. This is particularly weird given how well the actual dialogue is written.

- The world-building is also implemented poorly. There are whole chunks of the world and backstory that are not elaborated upon. The factions all lack depth and dimension. The game fails to utilise the companions as a means to flesh out the factions they come from. It's hard to appreciate a 'new world' when we don't really know anything about the old one.

- The story brings up ideas and does nothing with them. The fact that (spoilers) the player characters is revealed to be the child of a native adds nothing to the story. The reveal that there was a secret former colony on the island adds nothing to the story (spoilers end.)

- There's not enough variety of environments. Every sub-map blurs into another after a while, even the cities from supposedly vastly different nations have identical architecture styles. It's a crazy big mistake that the HQ of every faction is just the same building template with the textures swapped.

- You can't really impress a personality upon the player character. The game really needed some dialogue choices that added 'sarcastic' or 'frustrated' options. While there are choices the player can make, the personality of the plater character is pretty much set in stone.

- There really wasn't enough content to justify the romances. It basically boils down to about three or four conversations. There's no chance to flirt, or have a bit of back and forth. You just complete the companion quest and then 'romance now?' A missed opportunity.

So all in all, Greedfall is not a prefect game. It's got a lot of problems and a big one in particular, but, again, I applaud the effort. I'd like to see a sequel, and I'd like to see more studios taking chances like this.

[monstersdownthepath]

Spiritual Spotlight: Irez, Lady of Inscribed Wonder

Neutral Good Agathion Empyreal Lord of Cards, Scribes, and Spells

Domains: Good, Luck, Magic, Rune Subdomains: Agathion, Fate, Language, Wards

Chronicles of the Righteous, pg. 15

Obedience: Neatly inscribe six identical pairs of runes on 12 separate cards or squares of paper. Shuffle the cards facedown and draw two. Alternatively, carefully shuffle a Harrow deck for the majority of an hour, then draw two cards. Benefit: If the drawn cards match (or the Harrow cards have matching suits), gain a +4 sacred bonus on saves against spells cast from two schools of magic of your choice. On a mismatch, gain a +4 sacred bonus on saves against spells cast from scrolls.

A single sheet of paper cut to twelve pieces and a bit of ink a day is basically nothing for an adventurer, making this one of the simplest, cheapest, and easiest Obediences to commit to among all of Pathfinder’s myriad deities. If anyone raises an eyebrow (such as if you’re the only Good character among Evil, or if you’re somewhere Evil), you can claim to be practicing your calligraphy. Or, you know, just your memorization skills. A game of chance. Testing your luck. Any number of things!

Having a good old Harrow deck makes this Obedience so easy to do that it’s effectively a non-issue, though it does require the one-time investment of at least 100gp (or a small sidequest) to obtain a full Harrow deck. This Obedience is adorable through and through! And that BENEFIT, though! Having a +4 to resist two entire schools of magic is HUGE, and the ability to pick and choose which ones you gain is INCREDIBLY powerful when compared to benefits which usually give you resistance to a single school you cannot choose. If you have methods of gauging what sorts of spells your enemies will use, all the better! You can also safely call Necromancy, Enchantment, or Transmutation as your schools and have additional protection from most common Save-or-Sucks.

Mmmbut it does have one rather significant downside: There’s a very large chance it will be useless throughout the day. Only your first attempt at a match determines what your benefit is during the day, and mucking that up essentially lands you with a blank feat. Yes, yes, there IS a small chance that your enemy will lash out at you with a scroll, but I’ve personally never experienced an enemy who used scrolls offensively rather than simply gearing all their spell slots for combat and using scrolls to shore up their defense or escape. It’s rare you’ll ever have to make a save against a scroll, making the benefit essentially nonexistent. Hell of a coin flip, if you ask me.

Boons are gained slowly, typically achieved once you reach 12, 16, and 20 Hit Dice. Followers of the Empyreal Lords, however, can enter the Mystery Cultist Prestige Class at level 8, which grants them their Boons much quicker! Entered as early as possible, you gain the Boons at levels 10, 13, and 16 instead. Mystery Cultists MUST take the Celestial Obedience feat, NOT Deific Obedience.

Empyreal Lords do not grant the typical Evangelist/Exalted/Sentinel spread (and cannot enter those classes), instead having only one set of Boons granted to their followers regardless of their class.

Boon 1: Calligrapher's Talent. Gain Divine Favor 3/day, Augury 2/day, or Glyph of Warding 1/day.

If you’re a martial type character, Divine Favor is a spell that’s always nice to have. It lasts only a minute but grants a +3 luck bonus to attack and damage rolls, with luck bonuses being valuable due to their rarity and the fact they stack with everything. Due to their rarity, it’s unlikely enemies will be able to cancel them out, too! The biggest problem, however, is that it still only lasts for 1 minute and takes a standard action to apply, so you’ve got a very small window in which to use it before combat begins.

Which makes Augury and Glyph of Warding good for their own reasons. Augury is... not a very good spell, possessing a 1/5 chance of failing outright and giving only vague answers about events occurring within 30 minutes. However, if you have a minute to spare and you’re in a situation where you need the universe’s (the DM) guidance, it’s a decent way to get an answer to guide you down a path you can take Right Now Immediately, long-term consequences be damned. If you’re stuck and unsure where to go, it’ll point in A direction.

Glyph of Warding as a non-caster is more or less just a quick blast of damage, but without the need for its material components, you can scrawl Glyphs on every surface in your home base to your hearts content... provided you have a home base. While many campaigns nowadays have locations a party can return to, most adventurers are nomadic by nature, and a Glyph is less useful in those cases. Despite this, the Glyph’s ability to sort through creatures by alignment or creature type and even maintain the ability to detect the invisible, means that using it as an especially deadly alarm or ward against infiltrating fiends is but one of its functions.

Boon 2: Divine Inscription. 3/day when using a scroll to cast a spell that deals hit point damage, you can change half the spell’s damage to holy damage. If you lack the ability to cast a particular spell from a scroll, you may attempt a Use Magic Device check with a bonus equal to your HD plus your Charisma modifier (or your regular Use Magic Device bonus, whichever is better).

Unless you find yourself up against misguided Good creatures, this ability allows you to bypass all forms of Resistance and Immunity a creature may have to whatever form of energy you’re blasting them with. Holy damage is not an officially recognized damage type, but unholy damage IS described several times as “dealing no damage to Evil creatures or creatures with the Evil subtype, but dealing double damage to Good creatures or creatures with the Good subtype.” If your DM agrees that holy and unholy damage work in the same way, that means your scroll spells deal 150% damage to Evil creatures, which makes this ability crushing if used on high-damage spells that are already difficult to resist or dodge, such as Fireball, Disintegrate, or Heal/Harm.

Even if your DM rejects the double-damage interpretation, it still means half of the spell becomes impossible to resist, which is still decent and lets you pry just a bit more use out of your scroll-based offense... Which, as I mentioned before, is not what most casters will be doing with their scrolls. Most casters I know (myself included) spend their time on emergency defensive or healing scrolls, with offensive magic left to their spell slots. This ability gears you towards using offensive scrolls, which cost time and money to produce or procure, and thus this power wanes in use if you don’t actively keep creating scrolls (or ask the DM nicely to include more of them in the loot piles), draining party resources.

I do appreciate that because Use Magic Device isn’t a class skill for Mystery Cultist (or Cleric, or most Divine casters for that matter), Irez gives you a way to use scrolls that aren’t in your spell list. The way the ability is written implies that the UMD cheat only applies to the 3/day times you use the ability, which in my opinion is a needless restriction that only makes this ability weaker; I’d say you’re allowed to use the bolstered UMD at any time you use a scroll you’d otherwise be unable to.

Boon 3: Lucky Cards. 1/day as a standard action, you can summon 2d6 shimmering cards that trail in your wake. The cards dart around you during combat, intercepting deadly attacks. At your discretion, each card can absorb a single damage die from either a sneak attack or a critical hit that would normally hit you. For example, if you would be hit by a sneak attack dealing an extra 3d6 points of damage and you had two cards remaining, you could reduce the sneak attack damage to 1d6 (these dice are removed before being rolled). Once a card absorbs a damage die, it disappears. Unused cards disappear at the end of each day.

Having a card cape is cool, but what they do is not. Blocking the damage dice of a critical hit is usually less useful than blocking the flat damage they get from enchantments and modifiers, which is where the real beef is more often than not. It CAN also help against natural attacks--which usually rely on larger dice, rather than larger modifiers--but being critically hit in the first place means you’re in for a world of hurt... And you can’t even block all of it. 2d6 averages out to 6~7, and while blocking 7 dice worth of damage SOUNDS nice, there’s no way to know if the incoming 7d6 Sneak Attack would have done 7 damage or 42 and thus you’ll likely end up blowing all of them on the first critical hit or Sneak Attack you would have taken and leaving you with an empty Boon.

And then there’s the utter disappointment with the possibility you’ll roll 2. Perhaps once in a blue moon you’ll get the lucky 12, but you’re just as likely to roll snake-eyes. The ability may as well read “you gain 10 temporary hitpoints” at that point, below par for the 1st level False Life, let alone a final divine Boon.

Yes, it can potentially block a good portion of an otherwise fatal attack, but it only works once and isn’t even guaranteed to stop all of it. At least the aesthetic is cool!

You can read more about Irez here.

[warsofasoiaf]

Have you played Fallout 4? What did you think of it?

Joseph Anderson had a phenomenal video on Fallout 4. Although it is enormous, so be careful. Overall, there were things to like and things not to like about Fallout 4. I’ll start with what I liked first. Throwing a cut in here because it’s long.

Combat in the first-person Fallout games has always been clunky, and enemy AI relatively largely consisted of straight charging or shooting from as maximum range as possible. Difficulty came primarily from enemy quantity, high damage output, or incredibly enemy hitpoints. The last of these has been a particular Bethesda problem in their games, with enemies being incredible damage sponges, making late-game fights a boring slog as you slowly whittle down their health while being impossible to damage in any meaningful capacity. While enemy variations aren’t nearly as high as the game’s fans would have you believe if you conceive of them as AI patterns, the AI activity did have some nice variations. Human enemies used cover, ghouls bobbed and weaved as you shot them, mole rats tried to ambush you. It’s got nothing on games with fully realized combat system, but it does make the combat that you do engage in much more enjoyable. 

All of the random crap you can pick up in a Bethesda game having a purpose is another positive. It is a true nuisance to find out when playing a game that I hit my encumbrance limit only to find out it’s because I’ve picked up a bunch of brooms, bowls, and other garbage accidentally while grabbing coin and other worthwhile treasures. Actually having these things mean an object is worthy mechanically, aside from level design; typewriters are useful as items as opposed to something that shows you that the ruined building you’re in was formerly a newspaper. As crafting is a big portion of the game, having these things provide component parts that you use for crafting on their own creates more utility in these elements of clutter which still require modeling, rendering, placement, etc. Now if you need aluminum, you’ll try to raid something like a cannery because it will have aluminum cans, which is an excellent way to create player-generated initiative. It also reinforces one of the primary themes of the game which is crafting and design, where even the trailers of the game suggest building as a key idea of the game. Certainly sensible for a post-apocalyptic game to focus on building a new society upon the ruins of the older one, and given what the game was trying to do with their four factions mechanic, it’s clear that this was their intent, and good job for trying to ensure that things factor back into their principal intent. 

Deathclaws look properly scary, the animations with Vault Boy were funny, there’s some pretty window dressing. The voice work wasn’t bad, the notable standout being Nick Valentine. The Brotherhood airship was an impressive visual. I had a little fun creating some basic settlements, particularly in Hangman’s Alley where I tried to create a network of suspended buildings and Spectacle Island where I had room to grant every prospective settler a shack. Bethesda clearly looked to create a game with mass market appeal, and I believe the metrics bears out that they succeeded in that regard. The robots in the USS Constitution quest were very funny, the writers were able to make the absolute ridiculousness of the situation work (curse you Weatherby Savings and Loan!) and framed it well as a comedic sidequest, with a final impressive visual if you side with the bots and the ship takes flight.

Now that this is out of the way, I think that a lot of what Fallout 4 did was not the right move. 

The quest design was particularly atrocious in this regard. Most of the radiant quests boiled them down to a simple formula - go to the dungeon, get to the final room where you need to either kill the boss or get an item from the boss chest, return. In this game though, the main story quests often were boiled down to just this simple formula. You need to find a doodad from a Courser to complete your teleporter? Go to the dungeon, kill the boss, recover the item. The Railroad needs you to help an escaped synth! Do it by going to the dungeon and getting to the final room. This really hampers the enjoyment of games because the expressiveness of the setting and elements of an RPG is often explored through quests. Quests are meant to get you out into the world and give you an objective, but they are also meant to connect you to the people that you’re dealing with. If every quest is boiled down to the same procedure, that hurts the immersion, but the bigger sin is that when you return you have another quest waiting for you. That robs the player of the sense of accomplishment because there is no permanent solution to problems, even for a minute. There is no different end-state for the player to see the transition from one to the other and feel accomplished that they were the ones who did it. Other RPG’s always understood this - a D&D game might have a party save a town investigate an illness dealing with a town, take out an evil druid who has charmed the wildlife into attacking supply and trade shipments, slay goblins who are raiding cattle, there are a lot of possibilities that might even feel samey: if you’re killing charmed dire wolves or goblin cattle thieves, you’re still going to the dungeon and fighting the boss, the usual flair and variation came from encounter design. After you’d do that though, the NPC’s might say “Hey, Mom is feeling better after you cured that disease, she’s starting to walk again,” “Hey, we were able to send a shipment of wine from the vineyards out to the capital, here’s some coin for the shipment as reward for your service,” or even just a simple “Hey, thanks for taking out those cattle thieves.” There’s a sense of accomplishment even if it’s a fleeting “we did a cool thing.” Computer RPG’s are tougher in this regard, part of the sense of accomplishment in tabletop gaming is also with your friends, it’s a shared activity, but usually in that the reward was some experience and character growth and going to new content. There isn’t new content here in Fallout 4 though, because of the samey quest design and lack of progression.

The conversational depth was also ruined, with so much of the voice choices mangled by the system of conversation they designed. By demanding a four-choice system, they limited themselves to always requiring four options which completely mangled interactivity. The previous menu design allowed for as many lines as you wanted, even if the choices were usually beads on a string. The depth and variation, however, are even lower than what could be found in games like Mass Effect 3, and the small word descriptions were often so inaccurate that it created a massive disconnect between myself the player and the Sole Survivor, because they weren’t saying what I thought they would be saying. That prevented me from feeling immersed, because a “Sarcastic” option could be a witty joke or a threat that sounds like it should come out of a bouncer. The character options were already limited, with Nate being a veteran and Nora being a lawyer, but this lack of depth prevents me from feeling the character even moreso than a scripted backstory. You get those in games, but being unable to predict how I’m reacting is something that kills character. 

Bethesda needs to end the “find (x) loved one” as a means to get people motivated to do a quest, or if they don’t want to rid themselves of that tool in their toolbox, they need to do a better job getting me to like them. More linear games can get away with this, but open world games encourage the sort of idle dicking around that doesn’t make any sense for a person who is attempting to find a family member. Morrowind did this much better, where your main task was to be an Imperial agent, and you were encouraged to join other factions and do quests as a means to establish a cover identity and get more acquainted with combat. Folks who didn’t usually ended up going to Hasphat Antabolius and getting their face kicked in by Snowy Granius. Here though, what sort of parent am I if instead of pursuing a lead to find my infant son I’m wandering over east because I saw what looked like a cool ruin, and I need XP to get my next perk (another gripe, perks that are simple percentage increases because they slow down advancement and make combat a slog if you don’t take them, depressing what should be a sense of accomplishment). By making us try to feel close with a character but by refusing to give us the players time with them, there is no sense of bonding. I felt more connection to James in Fallout 3 than I did for Sean, but even then, I felt more connection to him because he was voiced by Liam Neeson than because of any sense of fatherly affection. The same goes for the spouse and baby Sean, I feel little for them because I see them only a little. I know that I should care more, but I also know that I the player don’t because all that I was given is “you should care about them.” You need time to get to know characters in game, along with good writing and voicework. I like Nick because he quoted “The Raven” when seeing the Brotherhood airship and I thought that was excellent writing, I didn’t have any experiences with Sean to give me that same sense of bonding. 

They’ve also ruined the worldbuilding. The first-person Fallout games have always had a problem with this, with Fallout 3 recycling Super Mutants, the Brotherhood of Steel, and other iconic Fallout things into Washington D.C. Part of this is almost certainly the same reason that The Force Awakens was such a dull rehash of the plot of A New Hope, they wanted to establish some sort of continuity with a new director to not frighten off old fans who they relied on to provide a significant majority of the sales. The problem of course, is that this runs into significant continuity problems, now needing Vault 87 to have a strain of FEV and having a joint Vault-Tec/US Government experiment program there on the East Coast, so we can have Super Mutants. Jackson’s chameleon isn’t native to Washington D.C., but we need to have Deathclaws because they’re the iconic scary Fallout enemy, as opposed to creating something new with the local fauna, which is only made worse because they did do that with the yao guai formed from the American black bear (the black bear doesn’t typically range in the Chesapeake Basin near DC these days, but it’s close enough and given the loss of humans to force them back they could easily return to their old pre-human rangings). Some creatures are functions of the overall setting and can be global, ghouls are the big one here since radiation would be a global thing and fitting considering Fallout is a post-apocalypse specifically destroyed by nuclear war. Others though, are clearly mutated creatures and so they would be more localized. Centaurs and floaters were designed by FEV experiments and collared by Super Mutants, they should really only be around Super Mutants. Radscorpions shouldn’t be around, there would probably be instead be mutated spiders. Making things worse are that the monster designers do develop some excellent enemies when they think about it. Far Harbor has a mutant hermit crab that uses a truck as a shell (a lobster restaurant truck, which is passable enough for a visual joke even if it falls apart when you think about other trucks that they might use) and a monster that uses an angler lure that resembles a crafting component - these are good ideas but the developers needed to awkwardly shoehorn in iconic Fallout things that have no place there. This isn’t to say that I’m in love with a lot of Fallout’s worldbuilding, a lot of the stuff in Fallout 2 I found to be kind of dumb particularly the talking deathclaws, but as the series went on it took objects without meaning. The G.E.C.K in Fallout 3 was pretty much a magic recombinator which makes no sense as a technology in a world devastated by resource collapse, something similar can be said about the Sierra Madre vending machines. 

Fallout 4 though, had a lot of worldbuilding inconsistencies that really took an axe to the setting. The boy in the fridge outlasts the entire Great War, but apparently never needed to eat or drink water. This is, of course, stupid, because ghouls have always been shown to need to eat and drink - Fallout 1′s Necropolis section has a Water Chip but if you take it without finding an alternate source of clean water, the ghouls will die. Ghoul settler NPC’s that flock to your player-crafted towns require food and water. The entire thing was ruined from a complete lack of care, to build a quest where you reunite a lost boy with his still-alive ghoulified parents. I think this one bothers me not simply because of the egregious worldbuilding which isn’t even consistent in the very game it’s written it, but it’s done so frivolously for a boring escort quest. It feels scattershot, and that’s the problem I think with a lot of Fallout 4′s quests. They feel disconnected, like every writer worked in a cubicle without talking to any of the other writers. Same with things like the Lady in the Fog.

Are we done with that? Good, because now we’re going into the parts that I really dislike - the main quest and the factions. These are just awful. The developers took what folks really liked when it came to Fallout 2 and Fallout: New Vegas (Fallout 1 did have interesting factions but they were largely self-contained, more towns than anything else) and completely botched it. New Vegas was the clear inspiration for these factions, with the four faction model of NCR, Legion, House, and Indepenedent meaning that there were four different ways to go forward into the future, so we get three factions that fight each other and a fourth more player friendly faction that roughly resembles the Independent Vegas where you can pick and choose which factions you bring in with you and which you get rid of. Thematically, this fits in with the core of the game, crafting is a big portion of what you do and so crafting what sort of world the Commonwealth would be is simply a logical extension of it. The factions aren’t presented well though. The Railroad are impossibly naive and don’t demonstrate any rougher edges like denying supplies to humans in order to fuel their synth effort, even though such a thing should be evident if the post-apocalypse of the Commonwealth is to be believed. The Institute are sinister murderers and replacers without bringing any of the advanced technology that could provide some benefit such as the gigantic orange gourd that can grow. So much of their kill-and-replace mentality seems to be done for no great overarching purpose. The Minutemen are basically blank, pretty much just a catch-all for the player-built settlements, though the player as the leader of the Minutemen ends up getting bossed around by Preston to the point of the faction rejecting your commands to proceed with the main quest, a significant problem with Bethesda factions where you are the leader but never get any actual sense of leadership. There doesn’t appear to be any addressing of the failures of the previous Minutemen whether that be the previous summit, or new problems such as settlements feuding with each other requiring the general to intervene and mediate. The Brotherhood come the closest to a real faction with advantages and drawbacks if you squint, they are feudal overlords with the firepower to fight Super Mutants and other mutated nasties, but also violently reject ghouls and synths as part of their violent dogma except for seemingly not caring when you bring a companion around or killing ghoul settlers in settlements they control. But even then, we don’t really see the Brotherhood providing protection to the settlements that they demand for food, the typical radiant quest to destroy a pack of feral ghouls or super mutants is directed from a Brotherhood quest giver to a randomly determined location, hardly a good way to illustrate whether or not the Brotherhood is actually protecting settlements that they administer. We see little change in the way of the Commonwealth save that certain factions are alive or not because the game needs to stay active in order to perform radiant quests, so not even the signature ending slideshows can give us the illusion of effects building off of our actions. This is contrary to the theme of building a better world in the Commonwealth because there is no building. 

Special notice must be given to the Nuka-World raiders because they show the big problems with the factions. You can be a Raider in Nuka-World but only after becoming the Overboss, which is fair enough. But you’re already a Minuteman, but the Minutemen don’t activate any kill-on-sight order and Preston still helps you out. The game is so terrified of people losing out on content that they make permanent consequences rare, and when you do something like order an attack, it can be rescinded automatically if one of your companions is there. As an Overboss, you do grunt work in the Commonwealth, and the factions get mad and pissy if you don’t give them things despite even if you only give one section of the park to one of the factions, that’s more than they got from Colter. It’s like they don’t exist until the player shows up, which is exactly how a lot of modern Bethesda character and faction building seems to be. While in most computer games a sort of uneasy status quo is the desired beginning state because it gives the protagonist the chance to make ripples while justifying the existence of a status that allows the player to change it, it has to be applied consistently. 

The main quest itself is silly. There’s a decent twist with Sean becoming Father that sort of works, which would have worked much better if we had actually gotten a chance to bond with him, although the continuity of everything gets wiggy quick. When he said that he looked over the world and saw nothing but despair, I was wondering if they were going to actually bring a big question up and a debate between Father and the Player, the idea of what worth the people on the surface have, but it goes nowhere, it’s a missed opportunity. The main quest is just a means to meet all four factions and it’s a barebones skeleton at best. There are some interesting concepts they try, but what they do often falls flat. They try to establish some sort of empathy for Kellogg in the memory den, but it’s lazy and cheap because he kidnaps a baby and wastes your spouse, a wasted effort of empathy only made worse when you get criticized for not showing any sympathy. Kellogg then shows up in Nick’s memory for one second and then that little story nugget is ignored. The half-baked nature of the story keeps being brought back up, which is a pity because we actually saw them do a competent job in Far Harbor. The Followers of Atom are crazy and they really aren’t sympathetic in any way, but some of the folks inside the sub aren’t so bad that it might prevent you from wanting to detonate the sub, or at least you might think enough that you look for another solution. DiMA did some monstrous things, and if you bring him to justice, the game actually takes the time to evaluate whether or not you helped out Far Harbor, with meaningful consequences being taken if you took the time to do the sidequests which imparts far more meaning to them. 

While there’s a lot of problems that show up in terms of binary completion, the question of whether to replace Tektus and turn the Children of Atom to a more moderate path is a good question, it actually gives a lot more merit to the Institute if they were ever to have been shown to enact the same level of care. That only makes the Fallout problems stand out more, because it shows that they were capable of it but didn’t. This isn’t the only missed opportunity, synths themselves become a big problem. The goal was to create a very paranoid feeling but it was so sorely under-utilized that I never grew suspicious of folks because the game never gave me enough incentive to be suspicious of them. I didn’t think that Bethesda made synths that would give you false information or ambush you because that would have been potentially missed content. The idea of whether you are a synth or not is clearly an attempt to give the game more depth than it is presenting. You’re not a synth, Father’s actions make no sense if you are one, and DiMA attempting to make you think you are is silly because you know you aren’t one.

I think the game would have been much better if they had dropped the notion of Fallout entirely. If they had instead looked to create an open-world post-apocalyptic game focusing on crafting and building towns, perhaps with an eventual goal state of building many towns, establishing transportation networks, and rebuilding a junkyard society as a decent place (or going full Mad Max Bartertown complete with a Thunderdome for players looking for an evil and over-the-top option). That might have been an interesting game for Bethesda to potentially develop a new IP, even contracting with smaller studios for those who wish to tell story-heavy games in the setting. Instead, they applied Fallout like a bad paint job, cobbling together weak RP elements and story that made the game feel like a hydra that couldn’t recognize it was one being with multiple heads, constantly tearing the other parts of itself to ribbons. 

If I wanted to further improve it, I think I would have instead made the spouse a synth. It would require some serious reworking, but I would have made it so that Sean did believe that synths were people, or that they were real enough that the difference was negligible, they had free will. During the initial grab, the Institute took the entire cryopod where Sean was, baby and parent both. They used Sean to create the next generation of synths, but something happened with the parent, and they died during defrost. Sean hates the Institute for what they did, but what happened was truly a medical complication, not malicious in any way. When he learns that the player character is active, he creates a synth programmed to believe they are the spouse. He believes that exposing who he really is to the surviving parent would be traumatic, and as he hears that the player character is thriving, he wants to give them a chance at a normal life, and to alleviate the loss that he had in his life with the loss of his own parents. So the spouse is sent to you, and for a long time, you and the spouse have no idea. You adventure together, you build settlements together, the game encourages you to have a good relationship. It doesn’t have to be hunky dory, and I’d argue it’s actually better if it’s not. Have the spouse be programmed with some rough experiences in the Wasteland, so they’re nervous, skittish, maybe even a little resentful that the player character snoozed their way through everything, but slowly rebuild the relationship. That way, when the quest eventually comes where you find the truth, the player character has to confront that reality. Then when you confront Sean, Sean explains himself and the player is given the choice to forgive him, be understanding but still angry, or be hugely pissed at the manipulation. That’s drama that uses the core theme of what synths are about with the whole kill-and-replace motif the Institute does. There’s a plot twist that batters the player, there’s one that’s just messy and gross and tough to reconcile. There’s one where the conclusion the player comes to is valid because it’s the player themselves deciding what the meaning of it is.

So overall, I see Fallout 4 as a bunch of missed opportunities and clumsy writing wrapped up in the popular shallow open-worlds that triple-A games end up having. 

Thanks for the question, Jackie.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King