#except with more attacking on the minions' part and less exploding

[akaluan]

Misfits AU: Werewolf!Erich Pt6

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | ????

((I had... so much problem with this bit, and I really don’t like it still, but... whatever, time to post it. I hope y’all can enjoy it?))

Ichigo chewed on his lip and tried to gather his nerve to allow the change to take him all over again. He didn’t /want/ to try, didn’t want to suffer through the disorientation all over again, but… but maybe this time it wouldn’t be like that. Rerugen’s change hadn’t seemed to affect him terribly, and now Ichigo thought he knew /why/—

(He still didn’t want to.)

Rerugen waited patiently for him to decide, leaving the decision in Ichigo’s hands yet again.

It was the lack of expectation that helped him gather his confidence, along with the hope of never having to face the same sort of disorientation again.

Ichigo closed his eyes and concentrated, turning his attention inward. Rerugen was right, it /was/ easy to figure out how to trigger the change. The urge was there lurking just within reach. He reached—

Power /rushed/ through his body—

(He should not fight. He should. Not. Fight.)

(Let the power do what it /wanted/—)

He knew what to look for. Knew how Rerugen’s power had felt—

His senses faded and swirled together in a blur, a cacophony of sensation that /snapped/ into abrupt focus a heartbeat later. Ichigo shook his head and stumbled into Uryuu’s legs.

“Alright?” Uryuu asked softly, braced to take Ichigo’s weight. He reached down and sank his hand into Ichigo’s ruff, fingers scratching the back of his head. “That seemed smoother.”

Ichigo nodded and leaned further into Uryuu, relaxing into the touch and taking the time to gather himself. It was still strange to observe the world from such a different height but at least this time he didn’t feel like the world was writhing beneath his paws.

Rerugen was watching him, head cocked to one side and ears standing at attention, mouth slightly open and his tail wagging. He seemed… pleased, Ichigo supposed, and content to sit and wait.

“Want me to call you back?” Uryuu asked after giving Ichigo time to orient.

Ichigo considered the offer then /whuffed/ in agreement. It had been easier, but Rerugen was right; more practice would only make it easier still. Now that he had the feel of it he was certain he could master what Rerugen had shown him and eliminate the last of his disorientation.

Uryuu reluctantly untangled his hand from Ichigo’s ruff and murmured, “Kurosaki Ichigo.”

Fade. Blur. Cacophony and /snap/—

Ichigo shuddered and took an unsteady breath, pressing his suddenly-human shoulder into Uryuu’s waist and bowing his head. Uryuu’s hand settled back on his head, a grounding touch that helped settle his mind back into his body. “That was… easier,” he admitted with a glance up at Rerugen who had turned his head to the side, giving him the illusion of privacy. “I… think I have it.”

Before Uryuu could respond, Ichigo mentally reached /down-and-in/—

Fade. Blur. /Snap/—

He /whuffed/ in excitement and stood to give himself a good shake, body for once feeling /natural/ moments after his change. Uryuu’s fingers tightened in his ruff as soon as he stilled and he turned to stare up at his pack-brother in question, head cocked and ears pricked forward.

“I shouldn’t be surprised,” Uryuu told him with the faintest of smiles. His tone was both relieved and pleased, making Ichigo stand straighter, pleased to have pleased Uryuu. “You always were adept at learning when you saw the way.”

Ichigo took a couple of steps away from Uryuu’s support, pleased when he neither stumbled nor swayed. His wolf-shape was almost /comfortable/ without the lingering disorientation and nausea he’d grown resigned to. Everything was still a bit too sharp, a bit too /loud/, but… spending time in this form would fix that. He’d not given himself the chance to really practice as a wolf, especially when so many moons interfered with school or sleep, but now…

Maybe he could learn now.

Rerugen approached slowly, ears upright and tail wagging. He was… happy?

Ichigo tilted his head and stared at the wolf-shaped man, trying to understand Rerugen’s intent. Ichigo was almost certain Rerugen was happy — dogs wagged their tails when pleased, didn’t they? And the upright ears were… close to the way Yoruichi’s ears would perk up when she was happy, so… maybe that was similar.

He’d gotten used to reading /Yoruichi’s/ body language as a cat, but he could already tell that Rerugen didn’t use the same set. Did that mean that /Ichigo’s/ body language was confusing the man as well? And without being able to speak…

Ichigo shook himself again, trying to discard the dizzying questions. They’d manage.

Rerugen /whuffed/ in something like amusement and closed the gap between them, still moving cautiously. His scent was… /warm/ was the best word Ichigo could find for it, like Uryuu’s had been from the very start and the rest of his pack had become in short order.

Rerugen smelled like a /friend/.

(Why already? He knew why Uryuu had clung so close so quick, but Rerugen—)

(Ah.)

Ichigo relaxed, content with his read on Rerugen at last. They weren’t going to be betrayed, or ridiculed, or anything of the sort; Rerugen was desperate for even the illusion of a larger pack, and underneath it all he was as genuine in his interest in teaching as he’d sounded.

He swayed in place when Rerugen nudged his flank and gave an exasperated /whoof/ when he shot Ichigo a — playful? Probably playful — look.

Rerugen did it again but harder, his eyes gleaming with mischief.

“Making friends?” Uryuu asked in amusement.

Ichigo growled playfully at Uryuu then snapped at Rerugen in exasperation when the man did it again. Except that only seemed to encourage him because he darted back a few paces, stretched out his forelegs in something akin to a bow, then barreled right back in.

He yelped and twisted away from the unexpected charge, barely avoiding being knocked flying as he ducked behind Uryuu’s legs and shot Rerugen a sour look.

Uryuu laughed and dug his fingers into Ichigo’s ruff once again. “I think he wants to play,” Uryuu suggested with a hint of disbelief, then laughed again as Rerugen’s ears perked forward and he bobbed his head in imitation of a human nod.

/Play?/ Ichigo wanted to protest. He wasn’t— they didn’t— there was no time for /playing/. He needed to learn—

Rerugen took advantage of his hesitation. Darted around Uryuu’s legs. Sent Ichigo sprawling with a shoulder-check. Leaned in and /snapped/ his jaws inches from Ichigo’s throat—

His confusion cleared. He twisted. Scrambled up. Knocked Rerugen aside and /over/—

Rerugen eeled away like he was made of shadows instead of flesh. Snapped his jaws in Ichigo’s face and turned to /run/.

Recovering his balance took Ichigo longer than he liked, limbs tangling up and brain refusing to cooperate. But the instant he had sorted himself out he bolted after the other wolf.

/This/ was the sort of practice he needed!

[jcmorrigan]

001 - Tales of Zestiria?

Favorite character: It's a tough call between Maltran and Symonne, and Lunarre is trailing right behind both. I tend to call them the "Heldalf Squad," but make no mistake, Heldalf himself isn't part of it. I just like his swagalicious minions. The dry and sarcastic political manipulator, the sadistic and wordy theater nerd, and the flamboyant cannibal who hates everything. Yes. LOVE. But I have to give a shout to my boy Dezel on the hero side! Angsty/stoic characters are very hit-or-miss with me, but Dezel is the flavor I love - obvious soft spots and quirks, and slowly he builds from being antisocial to showing how big his heart is. When he stops the woman from leaping off the Guinevere tower...that's one of my favorite scenes in the entire game, because you can see when the switch flips, when he realizes that he CANNOT stay aloof any longer when there's a stranger's life on the line. He's still a grump about it but a compassionate grump.

Least Favorite character: Heldalf. His backstory is really clever, and I like the curse on him. But he himself just feels like Ganondorf but more boring. I kinda hate that he's so vanilla when his three lieutenants are in my arsenal of pet villains from the vastness of fiction. Also shout-out to Chancellor BART in the opening Ladylake act, because I distinctly remember liveblogging this to a friend, and I played Zestiria *after* Berseria (I'd loved Berseria and that's why I eventually sought out Zestiria) so here I am just comparing up the corrupt church in Ladylake to the Abbey's suave rogues gallery like "Yeah no BART has nothing on Lady Teresa Linares." Thankfully BART was never seen again.

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): DezeRose, SorMik, Symonne x Coco Atarashi (The World Ends With You), Alisha Diphda x Sergei Strelka, and...I swear you have to bear with me here...Zaveid x Anna (Frozen). I also kinda wanna note a couple ships I'm on the fence about for my other favies - those being Maltran x Ebony Maw (Marvel Cinematic Universe or Marvel Ultimate Alliance) and Lunarre x Arkham (Devil May Cry).

Character I find most attractive: Dezel. It is a scientific fact that guys with pointy teeth are just hotter.

Character I would marry: Maybe Dezel, maybe Sergei. I wouldn't want to take them from those I see as their wifeys, but at the same time, they are husband goals, both of them.

Character I would be best friends with: Catch me clinging to Maltran's train and she drags me along annoyedly as I yell "PLEEEEAAASE LET ME HANG OUT WITH YOU GUYS" and Lunarre is losing it laughing while Symonne rolls her eyes

a random thought: So I toyed around with basically every accessory I picked up, and I decided to put the sideburns on Rose because fuck gender roles. Well then I just got used to seeing her with facial hair in every cutscene where her 3D model was used, and now I headcanon that she does get it. Maybe nonclassical CAH intersex? Like, I don't necessarily see her as trans (but I support everyone who hc's her as such) but moreso "a cis woman, but I grow this stupid damn facial hair like a dude and I don't get why." And this is why you shouldn't let me play with customizable accessories on RPG characters because I can and will abuse my privilege to headcanon.

An unpopular opinion: That this is actually a very good game. Listen, I think I get it - the initial marketing promised something far different. And that's disappointing. But coming back to it several years after its release, after the release of its PREQUEL, when I never had that hype building up...it actually exceeded my expectations. I held off from it for a while because I thought Eizen's fate would make me too sad, but that didn't end up the case at all. I actually had just come off playing a more recently-released triple-A game that was hyped up for years, and I completed it to my satisfaction in 20 hours. $80 for 20 hours. Zestiria gave me my money's worth in comparison; it took me about 60, and I loved just how MUCH story it had to offer me. I honestly like Rose better than Alisha anyway (Rose was one of the biggest aspects that interested me about playing it in the first place). I've also seen complaints that the characters weren't well-developed enough? Which I just kinda take to mean "They didn't angst enough." Listen. There are PLENTY of games out there if you want angst and sad stories. I don't really like sad stories in my games. I like adventures where the party is a goofy foundfam that jokes around with each other and helps each other work through shitty situations, and that's EXACTLY what I got. (And Berseria really worked on me too because it kinda started at the bottom of the angst barrel, then worked its way up through "The edgy and tortured protag has gained a party of idiots and oh noooooo she's learning friendship and happiness.") Dezel's death is one of the few game deaths that just made me SATISFIED to watch instead of depressed because of the closure he got and the themes tied into his final moments and sacrifice. I loved going on this adventure, I loved the idiots who I went on it with, and I loved seeing what Glenwood had to offer me in world design the further I explored.

my canon OTP: There's not much for canon romance in this game, come to think of it. Just subtext and some flirting. So I'm blanking on if there actually were any canon couples at all.

Non-canon OTP: DezeRose! Which maybe can be considered almost-canon based on the amount of subtext, but still. It's adorable. (And it's the exact same dynamic as EiRoku except M/F and a thousand years later. I need these four to double date...the dual-wielding goofs with their edgy, grumpy Reapers...)

most badass character: Rose! Not only able to wield the Shepherd's Armatization powers, but also to be a dang good assassin on her own, able to hold her own against Heldalf before she even had her eyes opened to seraphim! Though a shout-out goes to Edna because her armatization was my favorite to play with. There's something just satisfying about bashing the enemy in front of you with a pair of GIANT FISTS

pairing I am not a fan of: RoseAli. To be honest, it was at one point something I kinda enjoyed as a third-tier ship for Rose (Dezel first, then Lailah in second). But then...Alisha's Story. I didn't actually purchase it, thank goodness, just watched it on YouTube, and it was the most grating addition that anyone could've made to this game. First of all, I can sum up the issues with Alisha's Story by reminding everyone that it canonized a secret entrance to Camlann that was much easier to get to and wasn't protected by Muse's sacrifice. But the real thing that hurt to watch was how far down they had to knock Rose and Alisha's friendship to get them to rebuild from scratch. Rose claiming she was never Alisha's friend because she's grieving Sorey? The two of them getting into a PHYSICAL FISTFIGHT over it? Nope nope nope. That's not my Rose. Even less my Rose is that whole scene where she...you know...pounces on Alisha to dress her in the silly noblewoman's dress, and it's framed like...let's just say it's really uncomfortable to watch if you don't know the punchline is just a silly outfit. Even though Alisha's Story isn't canon in my head, it still really killed any buzz I had for RoseAli. I will also say I'm not a big fan of Eizavie - first of all, EiRoku or bust in this house, and second, I have a little bit of a hard time seeing Zaveid as mlm due to how much he goes on and on about The Ladies(TM). (Though I could see Eizen as having a tiny crush on him, though. Just like "Oh no he's hot but he's connected to Aifread's disappearance help")

character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): Mostly just in Alisha's Story. I was mad about the aforementioned Rose stuff, but also...like...they undid Lunarre's original cathartic death, they did so to team him back up with Symonne and then do a whole fakeout that they had Maltran with them too, but Maltran is just an illusion and immediately after this, Lunarre and Symonne just decide "Yeah, we're not gonna work together anymore, have a nice life." Why does Maltran need to stay dead if LUNARRE somehow survived EXPLODING? And just...look to next question for more clarification:

favourite friendship: I just want to imagine that Maltran, Lunarre, and Symonne were weird evil friends. The kind who'd take artistic selfies and caption them "Murder and mayhem with my besties!". Maybe they even had a sibling dynamic. They were all pretty dang jaded, so I like to think they sat around sometimes talking about the things in this world that did them wrong. The reasons they were drawn to Heldalf. Heldalf himself wouldn't have cared, he would've kicked them around like disposable tools, but the three of them were too entrenched in his dogma to see it. Maybe if they met up again after he was off the board...then they'd sing a different tune. Realize they're all three better than this, and now they're gonna do things THEIR way, because remember when they made a three-point attack on Glenwood and Sorey was barely able to keep up with them wrecking Lastonbell AND Pendrago AND Glaivend? Remember when Lunarre and Symonne had each other's backs the night Dezel died? Now they can do what they want on their terms! And I just - I have many MANY feelings about these three.

character I want to adopt or be adopted by: Okay silly self-insert time but the thing is, Archibald Snatcher (The Boxtrolls) and Roman Torchwick (RWBY) are my two favorite parental f/o's (and also my OTP to end all OTPs), and I have this thing about how they'd be PERFECT crime dads to Symonne in particular because she's like a little, more theatrical Neopolitan. So there's a universe in my head where Symonne is basically already my little sister, and I look out for her - well, okay, she's a seraph with powerful Artes and I am a powerless mortal so really she looks out for me because "I suppose SOMEONE has to make sure you don't die" and I am grateful to her for it.

[slusheeduck]

Binding Resolution

[Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3]

Chapter 4

              The walk to the village is a decent one, but much easier than the last time you went to the manor. After all, there’s no ice blocks, no spirit boxes, no broken bridge to vault over; you and the Prince just walk down a pretty path, carefully tying off the Dwellers’ letters as you go. (You do take a moment to look for Snatcher’s future house, but all you see is a giant tree. You wonder how he manages to hollow it if he’s a ghost, then wonder if it’ll ever actually need to be hollowed if you manage to save him. Not…that you’re 100% sure you will, but it pays to be positive.)

              “Penny for your thoughts, kiddo?” the Prince asks abruptly, managing to tie off his last letter and tuck it under his arm. “Do you even have pennies where you’re from?”

              You stare at him. You’ve never heard of a “penny” in your entire life.

              “I didn’t think so. Besides, you’ve got an awfully expressive face anyway, so I bet I can guess.” He holds out his hand, offering to take the letter you’ve been struggling with for the past few minutes. “You’re wondering why I’m with Vanessa when she gets…like that.”

              You stay quiet, waiting for him to continue. You’re sure he will; he’s not Snatcher, but he’s still Snatcher (if that makes sense? You’re not sure it does, and you’re glad you don’t have to explain it.) And, of course, he does.

              “Well, clearly I’m staying for the inevitable glut of power I’ll have when I’m crowned king.” You roll your eyes, and he smiles. “Good, you’re catching on. But yeah, that’s a joke. I don’t even want to be king over the whole land or anything; I’m more than happy with my forest. Here, let’s switch. You hold the finished letters, I tie the rest.” You swap loads; you can barely see over all the letters stacked in your arms.

As you struggle to keep a hold of the letters, you freeze as you feel your hat plucked from your head. The last time this happened in Subcon, you had exploding potions and minions chucked at you. Just as your heart starts to race, though, you feel something else plopped down on your head—much smaller and a little heavier. Carefully, you reach up one hand to touch it—metal. Did the Prince put his crown on you? You look up, and judging by the way he’s adjusting your hat on his head, you think he did.

              “What? I’m a sucker for a good hat. And I thought every little girl dreams of being a princess, which you are so long as you wear that.”

              You roll your eyes again.

              “Not into princesses, huh? Well, too bad. As long as you’re on my turf, what I say goes. And I say I get to wear your hat until we finish delivering the mail.”

              You smirk and tap the crown on your head. The Prince stops, then sighs.

              “I did say you were a princess with that on, didn’t I? And I could concede that and give you your hat back. Or I could remind you that you have stubby little arms that are currently full of an entire village’s worth of letters, and you wouldn’t be able to get it back if you tried.”

              Unfortunately, he has a point. You can’t reach your umbrella with all these letters in your arms, and dropping them might get them squished. And that’d just be mean. You sigh, adjusting the crown. Yeah, he’s definitely still Snatcher without being Snatcher.

              Except this one, weirdly, feels like an actual friend, not just a contractually obliged one.

              “Annnyway,” he says, tying off the last letter and tossing it at the first house you pass, “you want to know about me and Vanessa, and there’s no more hats to steal, so I guess I gotta quit stalling. Just chuck the letters at the houses you see, by the way, they’ll get them.”

You nod and start tossing the letters; you’ve done this before, so your aim is amazing.

“The truth is…I wasn’t her first pick. I wasn’t even a pick, as far as I know. She had some…childhood sweetheart or something. They were engaged, and then he just up and disappeared. Left her completely devastated. But the future queen has to get married, right? So her mom arranges a back-up with the next highest ranking unmarried man in the land, and that’s me.” He chuckles as he tosses a letter at a nearby Dweller, waving as they thank him profusely. “Let me tell ya, kiddo, nothing’s weirder than coming home from school for the summer and finding out you have a fiancée. Anyway, I expected for us to be one of those usual arranged marriage situations—you don’t actually care that much about each other, but you get along well enough to run a country. But then we met and…” He looks up at the sky, letting out a long breath. “I can’t explain it. Meeting her eyes was like…like someone had just plugged a socket into me. The whole world lit up. And then we got to talking and…look, you just…you caught her at a really bad time. Because she is so loving and headstrong and passionate. And…part of the problem is that her passion gets a little…intense.”

              You frown. Again, you’re no relationship expert, but freaking out over having someone love bacon seems a little more than “intense.” The Prince quickly shakes his head.

              “Look, when things are good between us, they are so, so good. She’s absolutely who I want to spend the rest of my life with. I just…wish she was a little less jealous.” He tosses another letter to a Dweller, smiling as they hop up and down in excitement. “And thinking about what’ll happen to the forest when it’s in her control…” He shakes his head. “Jeez, what am I doing? You don’t want to hear about all this relationship junk, you’re just a kid.”

              You’re about to tell him that actually you are very interested in this particular relationship junk, because it might give you an idea of how to keep things from going sour. But instead, the Prince crouches down beside you and points up to a tree with a little door at the very top.

              “Instead, let’s talk about that last letter you got. I bet you your hat that you can’t get it all the way up there.”

              You should turn the conversation back around. But…that’d mean turning down a challenge, and you’re very competitive. You’ll bring it up after you get your hat back.

              You scramble up the tree easy as anything—in fact, it’s a little shorter than it is in the present, so you don’t even need a grappling hook. You get right on up to the door and gently slip the letter through the mail slot. You turn around to give the Prince the smuggest face you can.

              You really, really need to start paying more attention in Subcon. Because that turn shifts your footing just a tad, and the branch your standing on isn’t quite as thick as you think it is. And down you go.

              “Kid!”

              Lucky for you, you still have your backpack, and falling from high places is something you’re very used to now. Whipping out your umbrella and opening it is second nature by this point, and the last fourth of your fall is spent floating down gently before lightly landing on your feet in front of the Prince, who looks like he’s the one who had a thirty-foot fall. He lets out a nervous laugh and shakes his head.

              “Real…real efficient way of getting down, kid. Also real efficient way of giving the people around you heart attacks.”

              As he regains his composure, you hold out your hand in a silent demand for your hat.

              “What? Oh, the bet.” He shakes his head, then takes off the hat. He pauses, looking it over before smirking. “You know, private bets aren’t legally binding. So technically, I don’t have to give you anything.” As you open your mouth to argue, he chuckles and holds out your hat. “Lucky for you, I’m a man of my word. And besides, if you can look death right in the eyes like that, you deserve it.”

              You take the hat with a relieved sigh, popping it back on your head as the Prince picks his crown up from the ground. He dusts it off, then nods back up toward the path.

              “Well, our work’s done here, so it’s time to head back, I’d say.” He grins, tapping your hat before leading the way back to the path. “We make a pretty good team, don’t we, kiddo?”

              You smile as you follow him. Before your time jump, you would have never said that. Ever! But now…well, now, you kinda do make a good team, huh?

              All the more reason to keep him from becoming Snatcher in the future.

~

              The walk back to the Manor is a leisurely one, and the Prince chatters the whole way about where you could spend the night now that Vanessa’s back in her room.

              “We have a parlor with a pool table…maybe we could pop a mattress on it? You’re tiny enough that it should be pretty comfortable. Or maybe a little cot in the piano room? Oh, don’t worry, no one in the house plays, so it’s not like you’ll get woken up by it or anything. Ugh, I wanted to renovate the dungeon into a guest room—oh, yeah, we have a dungeon. Of course I don’t use it, that’s barbaric.—but the budget this year just was not having it. I guess if you don’t mind sleeping in a cell it’d be doable…”

              You’re not really listening. Instead, you’re considering your options. You still have that Time Piece in your bag, so you really can go forward at any time. And you have to, eventually—and you have to clean up the Time Rifts, and putting it off will just mean you have to do it later. But…at your core, you’re a fixer. You fixed up Rumbi. You fixed up your ship. Some birds even yelled at you about fixing the Bird Awards! So something in you just won’t let you leave until you fix whatever goes wrong here.

              But who knows how long it could be before then? Staying an extra couple days is doable, but what if they don’t break up for years? No one told you what could happen if someone chooses to stay in the past.

              You look up at the Prince, still chattering. Still alive and happy and genuinely nice, even with his weird, Snatcher-y sense of humor.

              Could you really live with yourself if you let him become what he does in the future? He’ll lose everything, and now you’ll lose a friend.

              You can’t do that. You have to stay.

              “Oh! The attic! I’m sure we have some old bed things up there, and it’s actually pretty cozy once you dust a little. When we get inside, I’ll…” The Prince suddenly trails off and slows his pace. You look up at him curiously, then up ahead.

              The manor’s in view, and standing on the porch is Queen Vanessa. Her arms are crossed, her entire body is rigid, and the air seems to have a chill in it as she stares hard at the two of you, obviously furious. The Prince holds out his hand, stopping you as he watches her. His face is composed, but his dark eyes are darting around at nothing in particular; it looks like he’s strategizing.

              The air is horribly tense. You think both of them are waiting for the other to move first, so for several minutes, they simply stand and stare at each other across the courtyard. Finally, the Prince inhales deeply, then lets out a long, slow breath. He takes a smooth step in front of you, and you can hear the put-on smile in his voice as he says, “Darling!”

              “You were supposed to be here when I woke up.”

              You shiver. This isn’t like her explosion at brunch. Her voice is quiet, full of rage but so quiet. It nearly sounds the way she did as she chased you through the manor.

              “I’m sorry, my love, I honestly thought you’d sleep longer. We had a little bit of a snafu ourselves, but we…”

              “You BROKE your PROMISE.”

              The Prince’s show of cheeriness drops, and he starts to step back before glancing back to see you. He swallows, then lifts his head.

              “I know. And I am so sorry, Vanessa. I’ll do what I can to make it up to you.”

              You peek around the Prince’s legs to look at Vanessa. For one moment, her eyes lock onto you. They’re still blue, but there’s so much rage and hatred in them that you’re just as frightened as you were when you met the blood red ones in the manor. It takes every bit of bravery you have not to immediately hide behind him again, but you don’t want her to think you’re afraid of her. Even if you really, really are.

              Finally, her gaze shifts back to the Prince’s. Then, through her teeth, she hisses, “Talk to me in the parlor. Alone.”

              He nods. “Of course, my princess.” He stays put as she turns and sweeps back inside, then lets out a sigh as he hits his forehead with the heel of his hand.

              “Stupid. I should know she never sleeps well after a trip,” he whispers to himself, then sighs before crouching down beside you. “Listen, kid, when we get inside, why don’t you go look for a room you like? The parlor…isn’t the best anyway.” He stands up and taps on your hat. “And put this in a safe place. Never know when someone’s gonna snatch it off ya.”

              The two of you walk into the manor. You can’t help but notice the Prince looks a little sick, but he quickly shakes it off and puts on a composed face. You wonder if that’s a royal thing or a grown-up thing, and you kind of hope it’s the first one, because you can’t ever imagine pretending like nothing’s wrong when clearly there’s a lot wrong. He glances down, noticing you’re still there.

              “Go on, kid, shoo. I’ll catch up with you in a bit.”

              You nod, starting to slowly walk toward the stairs. When you reach the bottom one, he finally goes into the parlor and shuts the door. You, of course, run back to the door as quickly as possible. The keyhole’s too small to see out of, but if you press your ear to it, you can hear everything crystal clear.

              “You lied to me.”

              “I didn’t lie, my love, it was a mistake.”

              “And how many more mistakes am I going to have to endure, hm? Am I going to have to listen to excuses like this when we’re married? Am I going to…going to have to constantly worry about where you are?”

              “Vanessa, I told you where I was. If you were really worried, you could have come out to the village with the two of us.”

              Vanessa muttered something you couldn’t quite make out, but given the noise the Prince makes, it can’t be all that good.

              “You cannot be serious.”

              “I am.”

              “For God’s sake, Vanessa, she’s a child.”

              “She has ruined this entire surprise I had for you! WE were supposed to spend the day together! WE are the ones getting married, but you’ve spent every waking moment with HER instead of ME!”

              “She’s lost!” the Prince snaps. “You should have seen her when she showed up, the poor thing could barely walk. She still hasn’t said a word this whole time she’s been here.” He huffs. “I’m just trying to get her back home.”

              “Oh, so playing mailman with her today was getting her home? Setting up brunch for her was getting her home?”

              “My god, am I not allowed to distract a little girl from getting scared?”

              “Not like this!” Vanessa shrieks. She takes a few deep breaths, then adds in a very low voice, “I want her gone. Immediately.”

              “Don’t be ridiculous, Vanessa.”

              “I am very serious. I want her out of here as quickly as possible, and I don’t want you seeing her ever again.”

              You feel your heart start to race. This is bad. This is really, horribly bad. If the Prince kicks you out, then it’s all over—he’s going to end up as Snatcher. Maybe he’ll say no. Maybe he’ll break up with her! Anything to buy you a little more time to fix things.

              You hear him let out an irritated sigh. “No. This is stupid. I love you, Vanessa, and I’m sorry that your surprise hasn’t worked out the way you planned. I’m sorry I broke my promise, and I will do anything to make it up to you. But getting this worked up over a lost little girl…it’s a new low for you.”

              You let out a sigh of relief. He did it, he stood up to her. You have some extra time.

              But then you hear a giggle. A not very nice sounding one.

              “Ohhh, my prince, my prince. You remember what happened with my last fiancé?”

              “I’m not like him. I’ll stay.”

              “He said the same thing. And then he disappeared.”

              “I’m not like him, Vanessa.”

              “You’ve heard the rumors, haven’t you? About how he might have disappeared. About how it might not have been his choice to be hardly more than a memory now?”

              This time, the Prince’s voice falters as he repeats, “I-I’ll stay.”

              “Oh, yes you will. I know you will, my princey-wincy.” Her voice lowers to a whisper, so quiet you have to mash your entire face against the door to hear. “But don’t test me like this. Rumors are just rumors, but I’d hate for you to find out if any of it was true.”

              There’s a very, very long silence that follows. You hear a small “smack,” like a kiss on the cheek, and Vanessa sweetly asks, “Well?”

               Another silence. Then, the Prince takes a long, shaking breath. “I’ll get her out of here. Right away.”

              “There we go. That’s all I ask for, my love. And now we’ll have the whole night to ourselves, just the two of us!”

              You lean against the door, feeling your heart sink in your chest. This is so much worse than you thought. Is fixing it even possible at this point?

              No. You can still do this. Anything is fixable.

              It has to be. [Chapter 5]

[thecomicsnexus]

Uncanny X-Men #38-39, 41-42. November, 1967 - March, 1968. By Roy Thomas, Don Heck, George Tuska, Vince Colletta and George Bell.

The X-Men have arrived too late to try and stop the Mutant Master and his Factor Three organization from preparing to trigger events that the terrorist organization hopes will start World War III, the first part of their world domination plan. Having arrived in Mutant Master's control room, they find the room empty with only a video screen of the Mutant Master mocking them of his impending victory. Acting on one of Beast's hunches, the X-Men flee the base inside one of Factor Three's flying saucers just before the base explodes. As they fly away from the explosion, the X-Men begin planning on how to prevent Mutant Master from triggering another World War.

Meanwhile, at another one of their headquarters hidden in the United States, Changeling begins to question Mutant Master's authority and planning when he brings up the fact that the Mutant Master left behind functional saucer ships at their old base. However, Mutant Master reasserts his authority over Changeling by showing his powerful weapons and reiterates his plot to take over the world. With Blob and Vanisher preparing for the first phase of their plan, the Mutant Master once more reasserts his domination over Changeling.

The X-Men have returned to Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters and have begun planning their attempt at foiling Factor Three's plot. Dividing the group into two and taking the remaining Factor Three saucers on their mission, Marvel Girl, Angel and Beast go to the USSR while Cyclops and Iceman head to stop the plot against the United States.

The three X-Men arrive in Russia in order to prevent a bomb that has been planted at a meeting of high ranking Russian officials. However, their arrival is spotted by Russian military soldiers who open fire upon Angel, Marvel Girl and Beast. Beast orders Angel and Marvel Girl to go on while he handles the soldiers and they enter the government building where the meeting is taking place. However, their path is barred inside by the Vanisher and Blob who are waiting there to stop the X-Men from interfering with their plot.

Back at Factor Three's headquarters, a revived Professor X tries to rationalize with the Changeling, telling the already doubting mutant that a nuclear war would make the planet harmful to both humans and mutants alike. Put further into doubt by these words, the Changeling is still loyal to the Mutant Master and strikes Xavier for daring to speak out against their plot. However, when the Changeling threatens to execute the Professor, the Mutant Master prevents him from doing so.

Elsewhere, Cyclops and Iceman visit the military base that Factor Three intends to gas and try to explain the situation to the commanding Colonel on site. However, the Colonel finds the story hard to believe, with no time to waste the two X-Men decide that there is no other choice but fight their way to the weapon and disarm it. This causes a clash with the military, which Cyclops and Iceman are able to keep at bay with their mutant powers.

Finally, back in Russia, the other X-Men are attacked by Blob and Vanisher who are armed with high tech weapons. While Blob is disarmed by Angel, who also takes out the Factor Three minions that accompanied them, when Vanisher attempts to use his gas gun on Angel, Marvel Girl uses her telekinetic powers to knock Vanisher out and redirect the knock-out gas into Blob's face knocking him out as well. However, the Russian soldiers catch up to Marvel Girl and the Angel and hold them at gun point accusing them of being assassins. Not listening to the X-Men's story, they find themselves locked in a cell with the Beast (who was also captured) and their foes.

Monitoring the situation, the Mutant Master is happy to see that everything is going on schedule.

With his goal of nuclear Armageddon close at hand, the Mutant Master monitors the X-Men. Cyclops and Iceman were stopped in America fighting the US military in an attempt to stop a gas attack, while Beast, Marvel Girl and Angel are held prisoner in a Russian prison when attempting to stop a bomb plot.

In the States, Cyclops and Iceman fight their way through the military opposition to enter the building where the nerve gas has been planted. Deducing that it has been put into the ventilation system, Cyclops orders Iceman to freeze it solid, preventing the gas from being released. However, they are attacked by Mastermind and Unus, who catch them off guard. While in Russia, Marvel Girl uses her telekinetic powers to pull one of the guards close enough to their cell for Beast to knock him out and take his keys. Freeing themselves the X-Men disrupt a meeting of Russian military officials in order to stop a bomb planted in their meeting table, however the Blob (who was also in the same cell as them) has revived and appeared to oppose the X-Men from succeeding in their task.

Back in the States, Cyclops and Iceman continue to battle Unus and Mastermind. While the two evil mutants have the upper hand, Cyclops and Iceman turn the tables when Cyclops causes a dense fog when he melts some of Iceman's ice formations with his optic blast. Unable to see their foes and with the military fast approaching, the two evil doers flee the scene, as do the two X-Men who escape in their stolen Factor Three flying saucer. The military arrive to find the room empty and their base undamaged. As Cyclops and Iceman flee the scene, they consider their mission accomplished.

While back in Russia, the X-Men are in a Mexican stand-off with the Blob who holds the briefcase filled with explosives in front of the X-Men. The Blob boasts how the bomb can have no effect on him, however Marvel Girl psyches the Blob out, putting enough doubt in the Mutant Master being truthful about the strength of the bomb to cause the Blob to flee the scene in fear, dropping the bomb. Angel quickly grabs it and flies up as high as possible tossing the bomb away where it detonates safely, causing no harm to anyone. While the Russian military officials decide if they should re-imprison the X-Men or not, the three mutant heroes flee the scene.

The two teams of X-Men begin tracking the location of Factor Three. At the terrorist organization’s secret Midwestern hideout, the Mutant Master curses the X-Men for their victory, and begins to wonder where Changeling had gone, however he dismisses his second in command’s absence, and focuses on destroying the X-Men when they arrive.

The first to arrive are Cyclops and Iceman who are confronted by Vanisher, Unus, Mastermind and Blob. However they are only briefly outnumbered when Angel, Marvel Girl and Beast arrive on the scene shortly after. Before the two factions can begin fighting, Professor Xavier, recently freed tries to explain to the other Factor Three conspirators that Mutant Master has betrayed them by keeping the X-Men alive (by using the oblivo-ray instead of outright killing them and leaving the flying saucers to allow them to escape their European base before it self-destructed.) Realizing that Xavier is getting close to the truth behind his intentions, the Mutant Master then orders his androids to attack everyone, including his fellow Factor Three conspirators.

Elsewhere in the complex, Banshee revives finding that he too has been freed by parties unknown. Banshee then joins the battle and uses his sonic scream against Mutant Master, seemingly destroying his body. However, it turns out that his humanoid form was merely a disguise, and that Mutant Master is really an alien from another world. Claiming that it's from the planet Sirius. As it is battered by both Banshee and Unus, the creature explains it was attempting to exploit mutants in a bid to take over the Earth for its masters. Unwilling to accept defeat, the alien Mutant Master instead chooses death. During the course of the final battle, another Charles Xavier appears, and as it turns out the "Charles" who warned Factor Three and the X-Men about Mutant Master's hidden motives was Changeling, who was revealed to be a shape shifter.

With Mutant Master dead and his plot to take over the Earth ended, the remaining members of Factor Three and the X-Men agree to part company. Just as they escape in the remaining saucer crafts, the Professor tells Cyclops this cooperation between mutants against a common foe gives hope for the future.

Returning to the X-Mansion, Jean is excited to find that a package had been delivered in their absence, new costumes that she designed, and with Xavier's blessing, the X-Men don their new uniforms. The entire team is happy with their new duds, except for the Beast who is less than enthusiastic about the new outfit, Angel quips about how they could have made him a costume more fitting to his name, complete with fur and tail, everyone but Hank himself get a good laugh out of the joke.

A sub-human creature has attacked a New York City subway train, which coincidentally happens to have Bobby Drake and Hank McCoy on board on yet another date with Zelda and Vera. Sneaking away from their dates and changing into their Iceman and Beast guises, the two X-Men attack the creature, who takes up the name "Grotesk" based on Beast's assessment of the creatures appearance. After a brief battle, Grotesk gets tired of the fight and seals the tunnel which he emerged from, warning the two mutants to beware of him in the future. When Beast and Iceman attempt to follow after the creature, they find that the passageway is sealed tight. Returning to their civilian guises and their dates, Bobby and Hank cut things short so that they can report what they encountered to the Professor.

Meanwhile, Grotesk returns to the caverns below New York City and thinks back to the events that led to his hatred of the human race. He recounts how he was a member of a subterranean race of people ruled by King Krono, whose daughter, Princess Ingar, was the love of Grotesk, who back then was simply Prince Gor-Tok. Their warrior race would rule below for a time until humanities atomic tests would cause volcanic eruptions underground that would wipe out everyone except for Gor-Tok, who mutated into the creature he is today by the lingering radiation. Blaming the surface dwellers for his plight, Gor-Tok decided to get revenge against the surface dwellers by destroying them.

Back at the X-Mansion, the Professor is running Cyclops, Angel and Marvel Girl into a series of tests and is pushes the team hard when they mess up their tests. When Bobby and Hank arrive to tell what's happened but are scolded and deducted two demerits and disallowed to go into the city for a week. Before they can say anything more, the Professor leaves for his study, asking Jean to join him. In private, the Professor and Jean discuss the fact that the X-Men must learn to fight as a tighter unit as much as possible if the Professor's current plans are to work out. Jean asks the Professor to confide in the others, a request the Professor refuses.

As the Professor reads Hank and Bobby's thoughts and learns about Grotesk, he tells his students to go and face this new threat to the Earth. Meanwhile, a series of tremors begin to threaten to destroy the Earth, gaining the attention of leading scientists including Professor Hunt, who learns the truth and tries to warn his colleagues of the danger. The tremors are also felt by Grotesk, who is unaware that one of his own dead civilizations own devices is the source of this disturbance. Blaming it on the surface dwellers, Grotesk begins to ascend to the surface world and face the threat, unaware that the Cyclops and Beast are right now traveling into his tunnels to face him as well. Blasting their way through Grotesk's tunnel, the X-Men find his city deserted. When Angel and Iceman demand to know why they and Marvel Girl were not allowed to accompany Cyclops and Beast, Marvel Girl refuses to provide them answers.

While on the surface, Grotesk has wandered to Professor Hunt's lab where he finds one of his assistants and captures him. Taking the man down to his lair, Grotesk demands that the human show him where the surface dwellers "weapons" are; however his interrogation is interrupted by the arrival of the X-Men.

Angel and Iceman are furious that the Professor has disallowed them to join Cyclops and Beast in battling Grotesk. When they present their displeasure to Jean, she refuses to allow them to go. When the Professor finally exits his study, the other X-Men demand that the Professor let them go, and Charles once more refuses, telling Marvel Girl not to allow them to leave.

While deep below New York City, Cyclops and Beast fight Grotesk and during the fight, one of Scott's optic blasts strikes a machine that causes the cavern to fill with radioactive fog. Detecting the Professor attempting to probe his mind, Grotesk believes that it is Xavier who is responsible for the earth tremors that destroyed his kingdom and he departs to track Charles down. When Cyclops attempts to follow Grotesk through the fog, the Beast pulls him back and warns him against entering the lethal cloud.

When Cyclops and Beast return to the mansion, they also try to seek an audience with the Professor but Jean keeps them at bay, even going so far as to use her telekinetic powers to keep her teammates away. She then tells the X-Men that she has received a mental command from the Professor (the others are upset that they did not receive it also) to come to the Professor's aid.

Grotesk meanwhile has smashed his way into the lab where he has detected the Professor's mental probes and finds what he thinks is the device causing the earthquakes and Dr. Hunt. Throwing Hunt aside to destroy the machine, "Hunt" takes off a fake mask to reveal that he is really Professor X. With the machine attempting to save the world from the earthquakes, and Grotesk's possible tampering likely to cause the destruction of mankind, the Professor keeps Grotesk stunned with his mental powers until the other X-Men arrive. However, not before Grotesk can start the device to send vibrations into the Earth's core.

Angel is the first to arrive with mirrors to reflect light into the light sensitive cavern dwellers eyes. As Cyclops, Beast, Angel and Iceman fight Grotesk, Marvel Girl is ordered to stop the machine, but finds that the lever is jammed in position. As the battle rages, the Professor and Marvel Girl combine their mental powers to bombard the machine, causing its effects on the Earth to slow down. However they are not slowing down fast enough and the Professor (telling Jean to stay back) gets closer to the machine to affect it more effectively. Meanwhile, Grotesk throws Angel into the other X-Men allowing him a chance to break away from the fight and to try to speed up the process of the machine. Pushing the Professor aside, Grotesk slams his fist into the machine. Instead of causing it to complete its job, it instead explodes seemingly killing Grotesk.

Checking the rubble, the X-Men find that their victory has come at a cost; the Professor has been mortally wounded. With his dying words, the Professor explains Grotesk's story, and confesses to his students that he himself was dying of a fatal illness and hence his secrecy. The Professor then passes away, and although the X-Men have saved the Earth they have suffered a most tragic loss.

From Marvel Wikia

This was the first time Xavier died (kind of). And it must have been so remarkable, that it was told over and over to our days. Even right now, it is hard for me to know if Xavier is dead or alive. I assume he is dead, but you never know.

I am also going to assume that Roy Thomas knew Xavier was coming back, as there is a lot of mystery between him and Marvel Girl (and him knowing he would die wouldn’t fit his power set).

Lastly, I like the “new costumes”, perhaps because they are getting closer and closer to the X-Men we know.

I give this set a score of 7

[asuccessfulbusinessman]

In which Businessman Rants about Azmodan changes for your entire dashboard.

According to this, Azmodan’s trait ‘build’ is getting some changes.

To put it simply, Demonic Smite is now baked into the demon dude (that’s good!) but the 25% damage aura they generate is now a talent at level 13 (that’s bad). You might be asking “well isn’t that a fair 1 for 1 swap?” Not really, similarly to Zagara’s infest, the 25% damage aura would help increase pressure from minions, while the (marginally stronger) pushing power of smite is appreciated later in the game. At least now you get the EXP from killing blows during objectives. But this is small potatoes.

The biggest changes are:

Cooldown 30 secs -> 60 secs

Duration 30 secs -> 20 secs

Reminder that Demonic Smite triggers every 7 seconds.

Forced Recruitment Talent (10 seconds lower cooldown, 2 charges): Removed

So yeah, you better make those demon dudes count.

A lot more under the cut-

So, what are we getting out of this? If Zagara’s going from early game bully and split push monster to “no split push allowed” teamfight monster with clunky abilities not made for teamfights, how will Azmodan transistion from choosing whether to passively push from the safety of your team or actively push and help your team with globes?

And what do we do with Azmodan now? Well, you’re going to want to save your passively pushing trait until both teams are fighting over objectives (or, more accurately, just have it ready to use) so you can continue to push as you go in to join them, as the cooldown and lack of damage aura make spamming it in the solo lane fairly weaker.

As for the specifics, I’ll start with heroics...

Black pool has been neutered, no, sorry, tide of sin. No additional charges, 10 second longer cooldown, only 50% (down from 75%) damage bonus that applies to one globe alone (no auto attacks, none of your summons, not your laser, none of your minions which worked great in tandem with the demon 25% aura). Originally, the reworked version was just going to be a 90% boost for one globe, which still doesn’t compare to the versatility of the black pool, but which they had to cut because it was melting people. So, instead of a lower cooldown or any additional functionality, they “balanced” the cut in power by 50% with a free globe! On a heroic that costs 100 mana. And has a 10-second longer cooldown. And can’t save a charge for the team fight while using another to push a lane.

Here’s one of the most well known Azmodan player’s kneejerk reaction to the loss of the pool.

Demonic invasion, in contrast, is now marginally less trash, as the demons explode when they die, meaning using it in a teamfight has its uses, but its use for seiging got weaker because the gremlins will explode after 8 seconds have passed.

Onto basic abilities...

For your laser, you need to make it last the 2.5 second duration, as every talent that works with it, and the bonus damage that replaces the ramp up, occur if the spell lasts the full duration. So, as per usual, be wary of stuns and tracers. There’s also a talent that makes the channel last only 2 seconds, making it a staple for laser builds. The problem? It’s at level 13, which means it directly competes with the 25% damage aura. Cooldown’s also increased, and the mana cost remains the same (if you channeled the full 2.5 seconds. If you lose the channel, you’re spending more mana). Also, no more burning unattended towers until your mana runs out.

What do we do with our lesser demon bitch? Well, it comes with passive AoE, making it actually useful if you can get it in the middle of a lane. Unfortunately, the inability to store charges makes it less useful for bush checking, as well as skillshot tanking. You’ll want to use this AoE damage to set up globes to help stack your Q early in the game. It’s better than it was in the past, but in the past, it was hot garbage.

What do we do with our Q? Stack it, though thankfully, there are talents that can help stack, most notably the level 1 quests. I would say the globe is harder to hit now, and you wont be able to surprise that tracer walking away from you in a straight line because they’ll see it coming. If you’re not stacking, wait for CC to land. Here are the changes to the globe:

Warning splat is now created earlier in the ability cast.

Range decreased from 35 to 30.

Cast time reduced from .75 -> .5625 seconds.

Talents that increase travel time + cast speed, as well as the quest to increase the range of the globe, have been removed.

Maximum bonus damage is +400, double that of seiging wrath at max, but 100 less than the (rarely achieved) max of taste for blood.

To get that last 100 damage, you need Pride, a level 20 non-heroic talent. “After reaching 400 stacks of Annihilation, Globe Of Annihilation’s area is increased by 15% and its damage is increased by 100.” (this bonus damage will not apply to the auto attack build).

Auto attack build?

You heard me right. One look at the seiging monstrosity that is Azmodan and the first thing that comes to your mind is auto attack build. Because build diversity! Except not really. Because the auto attack boosts are tied to landing your Q in close range and your stacks.After looking over the reworked talents myself, I’m thinking that the newly added auto attack (Really a Q) build is the best option. And remember Zagara, the specialist dependant on auto attacks for CDR, and whose trait has synergy with autoattacks? Her auto attack talents are trash-

After taking it all in, I can say that I completely hate this rework. ...personally.

I never played Azmodan to stack Q, Thirst for Blood was a hassle to stack, to the point where I never used it. So, all the benefits the stacking build got? I’m only mildly impressed. While I loved using Zagara to actively splitpush, I loved Azmodan for his ability to passively splitpush, which is all but dead with the removal of forced recruitment, the removal of the damage aura until level 13 (which you can’t use with the laser build because you need the channel to be shorter, or you risk being stunned out of it, or your opponent just walking away) and the painful 60 second cooldown. What is it with Blizzard and making abilites have cooldowns that are far too long for what they do? You need 2 minutes (and the change from losing part of the CDR on auto attacks) to charge up half of what is neccessary for Nydus network now, because Blizzard wanted to make her a monster in teamfights, which they did too well, but they were too proud of their work to scrap the changes, and now Zagara has to be present for every teamfight to be optimal, but she can’t splitpush and warp back to the teamfight when it occurs because she would need 240 seconds worth of Nydus charges to do that.

But I’m digressing. In the video highlighting the Azmodan rework, they mentioned the problem with Azmodan. You picked an ability, and you stuck with it, and never used the alternate. Globe or laser (and laser only worked at low levels). And that was completely true. But now, every Azmodan build is a globe build. Sure, you can pick up the laser talents, but you’re still centered around getting them stacks and the majority of your damage is tied to the globe. Sure, you can pick up the auto attack build, but guess what, you need to land a globe to proc your bonus damage, once again, based off your stacks. Hell they took a versatile heroic ability and turned it into a shitty amp that only benefits the globe. The worst part? Blizzard says it wasn’t their intention to make Azmodan so focused on the globe.

“Yeah, Azmodan has honestly become Globe of Annihilation which was not ever the design for him... Black Pool was never designed to be a “dunk enhancer”, so to speak. It was supposed to be for him to really ramp up his minions and increase his siege potential. But, as the community often does, they took the design and built it to what they wanted it to be.” Except, right now, a lot of people in the community are proclaiming their hatred for this proposed update in unconstructive ways, like myself.

So now, instead of a heroic that can be used to either seige or do a huge chunk of damage, we have a hero based soley around dunks. And there’s the main issue. The character of Azmodan has changed. He could have the fucked up 60% winrate Zagara had after her scaling buffs, but if it meant I had to play him as a shitter K’T (either of em) I just wouldn’t. In the past, Zagara was running around as the active splitpusher, while Azmodan was passively pushing by seiging near his team, and Nazeebo had transistioned from minion farming to becoming a monster in teamfights. Now all three of these heroes are Nazeebo (except Nazeebo gets to keep his decent heroics).

And, I will admit, landing clutch dunks feels great, fuck that one tracer I still remember it you laser juking arse.

But Blizzard’s gotten tunnel vision with this reword, and if there’s one thing you don’t want as Azmodan, it’s tunnel vision.

[skarmorydraws]

Little something I’ve been developing in my spare time over the past few weeks, and has been in development in my head over the past year. I’m proud to have it finally put out on the Internet and hopefully I should have it finished up over the next few weeks if work doesn’t get to me first. Wish me luck, y’all!

Hopefully this should get me back in the mood for kaiju-related artwork in the future, which is pretty awesome. Perhaps I’ll be able to get my writing muse back up and running for Magizoic after this, who knows? ;)

Game pitch details under the cut!

War of the Monsters (c) Incognito Entertainment

During the first War of the Monsters, the greatest irony was that the monsters themselves proved to be the salvation of man and Earth. Destroying each other had caused untold collateral damage, but in the long term they would never again be a menace to our planet… or so it seemed. Unbeknownst to everyone, the Zorgulons which had been stranded on Earth had constructed a series of tachyon beacons hidden in the far corners of the globe, sending out a collective distress signal to their home planet. The signal arrived too late, but the second wave of invaders was mobilized without hesitation. Now, as a full-scale army of extraterrestrial destroyers makes its way to Earth, the monsters from the first War have begun to rise again to meet them… and both sides have brought friends. Lots of them.

NEW MECHANICS:

Fighter jets are a new type of aerial vehicle that perform shooting flybys that can gradually whittle away at a monster’s health. Both GDF and ZA versions exist. They are swift and hard to catch, but can be taken down by any projectile or special; if successfully grabbed, they can also be used as guns. GDF jets will not shoot at GDF-affiliated monsters, and even if they’re intentionally attacked, they will attempt to avoid these monsters at all costs; in contrast, they will always attack ZA-affiliated monsters on sight. ZA jets operate via the opposite logic, avoiding ZA monsters and attacking GDF ones. Neutral monsters are affected unpredictably by the targeting system of both varieties, but if they attack or damage the jets, all jets nearby will attack them. Certain maps will sometimes generate an Air Raid power-up which will summon a squadron of jets to the level in question. Whichever variety is summoned depends on the level.

Certain aerial carriers will now unleash robotic drones that spawn indefinitely until the carriers themselves are destroyed. The drones act like miniature helicopters, attacking any monster that is with the faction opposite to the player monster. Either alien or human drones and carriers can be encountered depending on the level. Their targeting logic is similar to fighter jets, though they’re slower in the air and are instantly destroyed the moment they take any damage.

Many Sea Creatures have been mutated by the fallout from the first War, and any choice among irradiated Sharks, Octopi, Crabs, Jellyfish, Piranhas, and Eels can be found in levels that include part of the ocean. Any of these can be picked up and thrown, the only exception being the Jellyfish which will briefly stun any monster that touches them. Crabs can also come onto land and behave like neutral vehicles, but must be approached from the rear, as they’ll latch onto and damage monsters trying to grab them from the front. Mutant Piranhas will attack and latch onto anything in the same body of water, and will often attack in large numbers, but can be pulled off and thrown like small items once they’ve bitten a monster. Sharks, Crabs, and Eels can be picked up and used as comical bludgeons, and will also latch onto monsters if they’re thrown at them. If an Eel is used to lash at a monster, the target will be shocked as well as take damage. Octopi cannot be used to slap enemies, but they can be used as guns, spraying blasts of scalding water at whatever they’re aimed at. As with water tanks and fire trucks, allied monsters take no damage from these blasts, making them useful for putting out allies on fire. If an Octopus is thrown at an enemy, it will latch onto it and stun it, but deal no damage. Sea creatures will burst into alien goop after being used as bludgeons a few times, or if they’re shaken off by an enemy and dropped onto land (except crabs). If they are thrown or dropped into the water they’ll just keep swimming.

A few levels have a prehistoric theme, and are populated by Dinosaurs to go with it. These include T. rexes, Raptors, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Brontosaurus, and, despite not technically being dinosaurs, Pterodactyls and Plesiosaurs. All Dinosaurs behave like hostile military vehicles, attacking any enemy monsters they come across. T. rexes and Triceratops must be approached from the rear to be picked up lest they respectively bite and gore monsters, and Stegosaurus from the front lest they hurt them with their tail spikes. T. rexes, Raptors, and Plesiosaurs will attempt to latch onto any monster they target (though Plesiosaurs will only attack monsters that are in the same body of water), and Pterodactyls will attempt flybys to rake monsters with their beaks and talons. All Dinosaurs can be picked up and thrown, and all Dinosaurs except Raptors and Pterodactyls can be used as bludgeoning weapons, but the Plesiosaurs in particular can also be used to spray jets of water that can knock back enemy monsters and put out allies on fire. T. rexes, Raptors, and Plesiosaurs will also latch onto enemy monsters if thrown. Brontosaurus, Triceratops, and Stegosaurus will attempt to knock back, knock up, and trip monsters, respectively, but all of them can be lifted two-handed and thrown, though Stegosaurus can also be used as a one-handed bludgeon. All Dinosaurs will explode into goop after a few melee strikes or if thrown off after they latch onto a monster. If dropped they will continue acting as hostile entities. A rare “Pterodactyl” power-up has a chance of appearing on any map or level, which summons a piece of meat in the player’s hands that can be thrown or used as a bludgeon, but only once. Any enemy monster hit by the meat, either at close or long range, will immediately be besieged by a flock of Pterodactyls that swoop in completely out of nowhere; care must be taken as this applies to allied monsters as well! If the meat hits the ground or a surface, the Pterodactyls will wheel in the sky above where it landed and act as an environmental hazard.

Giant Bugs are used by the Zorgulons as shock troops, and many more have been spawned by the fallout of the first War; no matter what, all Bugs are hostile. Certain maps can spawn giant Mantises, Spiders, Hornets, or Ants. Mantises act like miniature versions of Preytor (indeed, they’re spawned by her new short-range special), Spiders act like one of the newcomer monsters and can shoot sticky webbing to temporarily slow players, Hornets can briefly poison monsters with their stings, and Ants swarm monsters en masse, like Piranhas, resulting in an “Infested” status. Being Infested means the affected monster gradually loses health, and at the same time their movements and attacks become more erratic and likely to miss targeted opponents. Bugs can be grabbed and thrown like small items (or used like guns in the case of Spiders), but squish after only one use, and if dropped they continue making the players’ lives a living hell. Bugs are found on most Earth-based levels, but reskinned versions of Mantises and Spiders based on certain skins for two of the playable monsters can also be found on some of the space-based maps.

Monsoon: (Lightning +, Fire -) The sky is darkened by thunderclouds, and massive torrential rain blankets the area. Any ground-floor parts of the map become covered in knee-high water, and deep-water levels become deep enough to dive and swim in. Fires extinguish a lot faster and fire-based attacks deal less damage; by contrast, Lightning attacks deal more damage and gain a greater range. While aquatic monsters benefit from this level, lightning strikes are also a prominent hazard, striking buildings, monsters, or the ground or water. Climbing and flying monsters in particular must gamble between the hazardous water and the risk of being hit by lightning, making maps under the effects Monsoons especially challenging. Ground vehicles and minions are destroyed in the flood.

Hurricane: (Wind +, Poison -) Storm clouds roll in from the horizon, and strong winds start buffeting the entire map. Debris, items, vehicles, and minions that aren’t secured are blown away (power-ups and health/energy spheres aren’t affected), and may hit and damage monsters as if they were thrown. The direction of the wind changes randomly, and any monster that tries to move against the wind will be drastically slowed. Flyers and monsters that inflict Wind damage thrive in Hurricanes due to the high winds sharply increasing flight speed and jump distance as well as Wind attacks being drastically increased in range and power. By contrast, chemical and radioactive fumes are blown away by the wind, meaning Poison attacks and hazards deal less damage.

Acid Rain: (Poison +, Wind -) The sky is covered by sickly dark-green clouds, and lime-green rain starts pouring over the map. This is similar to Monsoon sans lightning, but with one critical difference: the rain is toxic. Monsters that don’t take shelter before the rain falls will take gradual damage over time, and may lose a lot of health until they reach “safe zones” throughout the map. The ground floor of the level will also become covered with deadly acid that damages any monster that steps in it, and also generates a toxic fog that serves as a ground hazard. Poison-resistant monsters are immune to the effects of Acid Rain and gain a boost in power to their ranged and special attacks. By contrast, Wind-element monsters can’t stand inhaling the deadly fumes and take a steep penalty to their ranged and special attacks. As with the Monsoon, ground vehicles and minions are destroyed in the flood.

Drought: (Fire +, Ice -) The clouds in the sky clear up and the sun begins to shine brightly and harshly upon the map. Shallow water quickly evaporates, and even deep water becomes shallow with the exception of the ocean. Fire attacks and hazards as well as explosions deal more damage, fires last much longer, and monsters that have been frozen can free themselves more quickly. Vehicles take no penalties, but minions have their attack speed and damage reduced. Ice-based attacks and hazards also deal less damage. This weather condition can only occur during the daytime.

Blizzard: (Ice +, Lightning -) Winter clouds overtake the sky and icy winds and snow begin to pummel the map. The random one-directional winds are similar to Hurricane, but while they don’t slow monsters’ movement speed as much, they reduce attack speed as well. Patches of snow may cover the ground, though monsters that trudge through them leave a trail of exposed ground as they go (unless they hover naturally and can float over them). However, patches of slippery ice may develop instead in some places, causing monsters that step on them to slip and fall over, slide around randomly without player-controlled movement, and in general find it more difficult to move. Ice-based attacks and freezing deal more damage with their status duration increased, while heat-based attacks deal slightly less damage. Electrical devices have a tendency to freeze up and fail in the cold, however, and Lightning-based attacks deal less damage and suffer a shorter range. Ground vehicles take a harsh penalty in terms of movement speed.

[therobotmonster]

Obscure Enemies of the NES TMNT Game

There is a shocking lack of coverage of the original TMNT NES game, outside of very justified commentary on its unfair difficulty and some poor design decisions (like the dam message).

But the TMNT NES game is unique in that it was very early in the for-kids TMNT canon, and has a lot of wacky concepts that don’t show up anywhere else. I’m not going to be bothering with Mousers and Foot Ninjas and the like, but baddies that are original to the game. 

Unless otherwise noted, the names are my inventions, as only a few enemies got names/descriptions in the manual.

Sewer Bug - Your basic fly-back-and-forth baddie, the Sewer Bug is one of the less interesting entries. Its hard to tell from the sprite, but it is either some kind of mutated wasp or bee or its a robot bug-shaped drone used by the Foot, and either way it meshes well with TMNT.

Stick ‘em Up/the Roof Leaper (official name): From the manual: “Ignorant to the force of gravity this pesty (sic) sewer thug (the product of a horrible chemical spill) pounces about on ceiling pipes, waiting to rain terror from above.” Chemical spill created sewer mutants, now we’re talking. I love the implication that they’re immune to gravity because they don’t know about it.

Fire Freak (official name) and Clone: From the Manual: “An ex-pyromaniac from Brookyln, this hot dog takes careful aim before launching fireballs that turn into clones of himself.:” One assumes there was some mutagen involved in Fire Freak’s career change from pyromaniac to Foot Clan stooge. There’s something about “dude made of fire that throws other dudes made of fire at you” that’s very NES era, and I kinda want to see the new TMNT series have a go at updating this guy. 

Mecaturtle (Official Name): From the Manual: “Appearing like your average turtle, this level 3 commander will show his true colors if you do him any harm.” They probably meant “Mechaturtle”, but the manual says “Mecaturtle” and so that’s his name. He’s basically the Terminator wearing an off-color Leonardo suit instead of the usual Austrianwear. Oh, and he’s got swords for hands and shoots missiles. 

I have to wonder if Mecaturtle was a prototype for Metalhead and the other robo-turtles throught the series. The blue Leonardo with orange bands and pads disguise tempts me to figure customization. 

Chansawiac: This guy is an enigma wrapped in a riddle wrapped in standard 80s video game logic. All we know for sure is he loves: 1) Chainsaws, 2) Waving chainsaws wildly while walking back and forth, 3) Purple pants with footies, probably not in that order. He seems to be wearing either a hockey mask, making him a lazy Leatherface/Jason mashup, or a fleshtone Iron Man helmet, which makes him my favorite SDCC cosplayer this year. 

Divebombs: Krang saw the destructive power of a heat-seeking missile and said “That’s good, but can we make it slower and <urrrp> less effective?” His minions then come up with this, a nerf football missile with wings cribbed form a flying machine from Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks. If you get near you, it dives at you like a suicidal hawk. I’d say this was a dumb idea for a weapon, but Krang’s minions literally have rocks in their heads, so I’ll grade on a curve and give this a B, mostly for creativity. 

Rock Soldier: Maybe this golem-guy is supposed to be one of Krang’s rock soldiers? He crouches down into a “sleeping” position where he’s invulnerable only to get up and throw vague crescents of energy at you. Weirdly, there’s a badguy in the NES Wolverine game that had essentially the same shtick, so at least this guy kept working after the Foot let him and the rest of these guys go.

Spydrone: A basic flying robot spy that does damage on impact. Not much to write home about. Unless, of course, you’re a fan of the 1987 Jessica Tandy sci-fi/comedy Batteries Not Included.

Sky Prawn: Some kind of flying mutant bug or crustacean. They might be beetles, or shrimp with claws, or mosquitoes, but no matter what they are, they fly sideways and like to knock you out of the air while you’re making stupidly precise jumps.

Foot Balloon: Part of me really wants to think this was a toy concept that got abandoned. Its a balloon with a mechanical claw holding a bomb. It flies over you with its flapping wings (why?) and drops it, proving once again that the Foot are the leaders in the field of overly complicated explosive delivery systems.

Boomerang Bouncer: As a kid I thought this guy was a sort of sub-Bebop pig mutant, but now he looks more like Vin Diesel wearing red sweatpants and wraparound shades. He hops around like a jackass and throws boomerangs. In the 80s, Big Boomerang had an iron grip on the video game industry, so his inclusion was inevitable. 

Wandering Eyes: They’re eyes with spider-legs, one of the most vulnerable parts of the human body, stripped of its meager defenses and let loose with nothing so much as a mouth. Look at how bloodshot they are. Every piece of dust they touch is burning agony. A normal spider would have been more dangerous but crawling eyes are more about psyching out the enemy than actually hurting them.

Unemployed Mutant Toad: The Turtles are doomed to run into mutant frogs or toads no matter where they go, and this game is no exception. They hop, they hit you with their tongues, pretty straightforward.  Shredder hasn’t seen clear to give these guys clothing and they show no skills, martial arts or otherwise. If you squint, they might be tail-less chameleons, which is at least a bit more unique.

Big FleaKid:  Big fleas have little fleas, Upon their backs to bite 'em, And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so, ad infinitum. Of the many, many enemies that hop in this game, this guy is my favorite. I love his blue colorscheme, his very humanoid-mutant bipedal design, the whole package. I imagine him as being a fast-talking swindler working for the Foot clan to make ends meet.

Wall Crawler: One of Krang’s robot minions, he only shows up toward the end of the game during the wall-crawling stages to crawl at you along the walls. You’d think a Ninja Turtles game would have used the climbable wall throughout the game, but you’d also expect them to make the Dam level playable by human beings. The NES TMNT game knows what its about, however, so neither one of those things happened.

Dimension X Trooper: Ok, Krang can be sensible! We have what is either a robot or a human in armor, decked out with a jetpack and a laser gun. He uses both at the same time, flying and shooting, and compared to some of his coworkers (I’m looking at you, Boomerang Bouncer) he’s an overachiever, if a little simply designed. He shows up in later stages as a general foe and a low-power miniboss. 

Gunbot: He walks, he shoots, he’s like ED209, ET and Robocop had a baby. He’s not thrilling, but at least he mostly makes sense. He walks and shoots, doing the minimum required to get paid as a low-level video game flunky. This is why you’re never going to get promoted, Gunbot.

Whirly N.E.R.D. (Negligibly Effective Robot Drone): They take the place of Sky Prawns in later enemy sets. Essentially a robot scorpion with a helicopter blade attached to its tail in place of a stinger, removing the whole reason one would design a robot to look like a scorpion. If it is a robot, that is. TMNT for the NES doesn’t like you being able to tell the robots from the bugs, but this guy leans a bit more mechanical to my eye.

Dragon Knight: From this point on “mostly making sense” is not in the cards. This towering, probably robotic, warrior breathes fire and walks back and forth, which seems normal enough for a video game, unless you kill him by hitting his body. If you do that, his head will fly off, using the ears on the helmet as wings, and rush back and forth at high speed. I don’t know what raises more questions, him possibly being a robot designed to do this, or him being literally anything else.

Man-O-Bubbles: Ever since Metroid, flying jellyfish have been no surprise in video games. What is a surprise is when they explode into painful bubbles. Not when you kill them, just at random. While this could be a mutant, it seems more like something Krang would have smuggled in from Dimension X.

Kangosaurus-Bot V.4: Ok, so we’ve got a vaguely-Hadrosaurid robot dinosaur or possibly a kangaroo. With no arms. Who fights by jumping around and attacking with its tail. This is obviously one of Krang’s, but what is the goal here? Is this a robot version of some Dimension-X native animal? Is Krang really into Dougal Dixon? Were the comical arms with boxing gloves not ready by the time the Turtles breach the Technodrome? NES TMNT, give me your secrets!

Rock-Roc: This thing is either a hawk that has been trained to drop boulders larger than itself on talking humanoid turtles, or ti is a ROBOT hawk DESIGNED to drop boulders larger than itself on talking humanoid turtles. And its probably the latter, because it doesn’t show up until around the same time the Technodrome does. 

Spidrobyte-Men: We’re taken a triolobyte, a spider, and a person and combined them via the power of the ooze and we get these things. They slide up and down on web-lines from their asses, occasionally spitting bubbles that hurt. I’m betting because of digestive acid. Then again, I can’t even understand this things physiology, and it could just as equally be a mechanical claw on a tow-line that spits painful bubbles and hang out in caves. 

Pill Thug: Ok, this guy is my favorite, so I saved him for last. He’s a pill bug/rolly polly, mutated into a sort of pint-sized Megalon with a dancer’s physique, who either has a really big chin or hings his head open at the mid-section to spit pink tadpoles at our heroes. When not on the attack he rolls around in a ball. Everything about this guy is wacky and fun, and with a little more color and a splash of job-related theme, he could be a serviceable mutant foe for the Turtles in the larger franchise. 

I think I hit everything, minus some of the over-world Foot Vehicles and some basic wall turrets and things, but I have may have missed a few while playing to get screencaps, what with the cursing and all. Even cheating there’s enough one-hit kills to keep things challenging. 

EDIT: I missed two dudes!

The Goo Crew: This melty-looking dude who might be a foot soldier splits into tinier guys when you hit them, and those tinier guys turn into two even smaller guys when hit. I’ve decided he’s a slime creature that splits when hit, and all of his few in-game appearances are subdivisions of a larger whole. Maybe he’s a human foot soldier mutated with a slime mold. 

I missed him the first time through because he’s rare and the places where you do find him he can disappear off the screen edge easily, only to be replaced by one of those shifty unemployed toads when you come back to the area. 

Spiny Anthony: I know most people think he’s a porcupine, but his down-turned snoot says “echidna.” He jumps around in your personal space while occasionally shooting spikes out of his back like porcupines, hedgehogs and echidna’s all don’t. Like the other newly-minted mutants from this game, he doesn’t get clothes, so its hard to tell if he’s supposed to be a fully sapient mutanimal or just a beast, but I lean toward character whenever possible, so Spiny Anthony the Spiny Anteater is on the scene. 

Spiny Anthony and Big FleaKid are already teaming up to pull some scams on the tourists

[mythmirageandmagic]

Problems and Solutions: Designing Cards

The very first things I ever designed were custom Yu-Gi-Oh cards. They were crazy and absolute crap, but it started my love for game design early. As I’ve gotten older I’ve jumped from Yu-Gi-Oh to Magic the Gathering and then Magic the Gathering to Hearthstone, creating custom cards along the way. Its hard not to be taken in by the simple allure of designing a card: Just add a mana cost, stats and a cool effect and bam you’re done. Put it in the game! Of course because its so easy you often get less than stellar results and I always fall prey to thinking too deeply about bad design I see on places like r/customhearthstone. Today I wanted to offer some help to card designers based on mistake I see a lot in custom cards: A card that is a solution to its own problem. Of course if you’re interested in designing cards for more serious titles and not just for fun this advice will help you too so lets jump into it!

This is the card that sparked this discussion. Its got a very simple effect: every turn it spawns one of these Goblin Bomb minions which explodes upon death to deal damage. When the Bomb Maker himself dies he destroys all the bombs. Its important to note too that the idea of summoning Goblin Bombs is a mechanic introduced in the official Hearthstone expansion The Boomsday Project. 

All of these cards are official cards designed and implemented by Heathstone’s developers. So what sets Bomb Maker apart as bad design compared to these cards? Well I think it has to do with the idea of Problems and Solutions. Bomb Maker is a solution to its own problem. 

To explain more in detail, the Goblin Bombs are the “Problem”. They have to die in order to produce the effect of dealing damage, however they have 0 attack meaning you cannot command them to attack and suicide into your opponent’s minions. This is a conundrum also seen in Hearthstone’s set of “Egg” cards which have positive effects upon death but can’t be easily suicided off. So the Problem is a Problem of deck building and synergy. How can I build a deck that allows my Goblin Bombs to die? 

If that’s the Problem then a card is a Solution if it allows the Goblin Bombs to die. In its simplest form a card like this might a card which increase the attack of your minions. Once the Goblin Bomb has >0 attack it can suicide into enemy minions and trigger its effect. There are also cards which specifically trigger the “Deathrattle” effects of cards. Finally, you could use a card that deals damage and target your own Goblin Bomb to kill it. That’s a lot of different Solutions to one Problem! That’s an extremely good thing! the more Solutions you have to a single Problem, the more fun deckbuilding and playing the game becomes because it presents a lot of choice to the player. It allows for moments of creativity and ingenuity. The Solution is the fun part because that is the part the player controls. The Problem is just there to create Solutions.

So this leads me to Bomb Maker. His ability to create a Goblin Bomb every turn is a Problem. You are creating all these Goblin Bombs which are totally useless unless you can make them die. But wait, Bomb Maker is also a Solution because when he dies he destroys all Goblin Bombs! This is bad design because it robs the player of the fun they had shifting through interesting possible Solutions. Its Solution is also extremely boring. Text that reads “Destroy your Goblin Bombs” takes a very literal approach to killing your Goblin Bombs. Part of the fun of Solutions is that they aren’t apparent at first glance. Its a puzzle to think about different ways to solve a Problem. This takes all that fun away by literally and unceremoniously destroying them. 

But here we in Myth, Mirage and Magic we NEVER present evidence of bad game design without providing some kind of solution. Every mistake is made to be learned from and this is no exception. The good news is, redesigning this card is made easier by the nature of Solutions and Problems: simply pick a side. 

These are 3 version of the original card that fit the theme. The 2.0 and 3.0 versions still have the problem that they are both Problem and Solution, but they are slightly better than the original. That’s because they present a more interesting Solution to the Goblin Bomb problem. Increasing their Attack instead of just destroying them lets you suicide them into enemy minions. However, 3.0 improves on this by giving the Attack bonus to all your minions. This is better because it makes it less obvious the card is meant to synergize with Goblin Bombs and it also means this card can become the solution to multiple problems not just the Goblin Bomb one. Its important to note here that I’m not worrying about balancing these cards at all right now. Balance is a completely separate discussion and you can achieve balance with nearly any effect by just changing the numbers. 

Finally, Bomb Maker 4.0 strips away all elements of a Solution and becomes exclusively a Problem. In this way we can see that reductive design is often the most effective way to achieving interesting cards. 

But what if we wanted to make Bomb Maker exclusively a Solution card? Well one solution is to just retain the “Deathrattle” from the 3.0 card, but there is already a card in Hearthstone with that exact card text so instead I went a bit creative:

Self-Destruct Button uses an effect very similar to the first iteration of the Bomb Maker. However, there is a huge difference this time that makes the design more interesting to play with: this card has 0 attack instead of Bomb Maker which has 3. This means this card cannot attack enemy minions to suicide like Bomb Maker could have. But wait, aren’t we a Problem and a Solution again? Well yes we are, but the key is that we aren’t the Solution to our own Problem. Being a Problem and a Solution is actually interesting design if the Solution doesn’t directly solve the Problem. 

In Hearthstone there are too many examples of these cards to list but you can take a look at the Quest cards introduced to get a better feel for how to do this. These Quest cards are very literal with their Problems because they ask you to do a specific thing. However, once you solve the Problem you’re given a Reward card which can offer a variety of effects. Some Rewards deal with your opponent directly but Rewards like Crystal Core offer secondary problems. Decks that use Crystal Core have to think about ways to solve the Problem of the Quest and then the Problem of how to best utilize the Reward. In a way, reducing your opponent’s life points to 0 is the Ultimate Problem you face in any card game. You could then argue Goblin Bombs are a Solution to that Problem. The key is to offer a Solution to a different Problem not the Problem of your card. This ensures that players always have interesting decisions to make when deck building.

And that concludes the first post of Myth, Mirage and Magic. Content on this Tumblr will not be regular as I am a student dealing with both college work and independent game development projects, but I encourage you to follow me if you’re interested in Game Design content. On here you may call me the Game Design Genie (or Genie for short) or if that sounds incredibly lame (because it is) then you may call me Kanra. 

[realvoidboy-blog]

KingsRoad Bot

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[gamingtipsandtrickshacks]

Revived Kickstarter Game Unsung Story Ending Pre-Production This Month; Reveals Lots of New Details

The story of Unsung Story (no pun intended) is quite painful for fans of the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform. Announced in 2014 promising a grand return of Final Fantasy Tactics creator Yasumi Matsuno in 2015, the project was largely mismanaged by Playdek until Little Orbit stepped in to try and salvage the agonizing project last year.

Luckily, it seems that there may still be a happy ending to this whole mess, as Little Orbit has gone to work following Matsuno-san’s original design, and despite having to start from scratch to remove Playdek’s influence, progress is being shown.

In a Kickstarter update released today, Little Orbit Founder and CEO Matthew Scott announced that pre-production will end in April, which signifies a major development milestone. With the exception of art, everything is now “fairly well mapped out.” The art side is progressing more slowly, and the developer is going to keep working on concepts until they’re spot-on. In fact, the screenshots that you’ll see at the bottom of the post showcase only gameplay, with placeholder assets.

A Twitch stream showing the current build will happen later this month, alongside the first developer blog about the game.

The development team has completed the second draft of the design document, which is over 100-pages long. All of the twenty classes have been created, named, assigned skills and roles. Classes are split into four schools, Technology, Mana, Divine, and Nature. The initial class tree and progression has also been mapped.

So, without further ado, we get to take a look at the classes themselves:

Sellsword: Mercenaries unbound by specialty, Sellswords are useful in several areas, but are masters of none. This is one of two beginning classes, along with the Physician. The Sellsword is used to teach players a few basic mechanics for melee combat, but also touches on some more metagame functionality such as boosts. They use Short Swords & Shields.

Physician: The player begins the game with the Physician unlocked, but it serves to teach them more advanced mechanics, such as ranged attacks, the use of items and cross-class abilities. Even though they start off weak, Physicians are capable of combining their items to create new effects. This becomes especially important in the late-game, where advanced items can only be created by combining two lesser items. They use Slings.

Guardian: Guardians stay at the front of combat, defending key choke points and fortifying their allies from harm. Stalwart warriors that protect those they deem worth protecting (which, incidentally, can include themselves). They use Long Swords and Shields .

Archer: Archers are a simple but effective long-range attacker, capable of striking distant foes with ease. The backbone of any successful army. Archers are able to fire further from high ground, which allows them to out-range opposing Archers. This means the ideal situation for a Archer is to be on high ground, with friendly units fortifying them from melee enemies. They use Longbows.

Plague Weaver: These guys represent a power that humans would sooner choose to forget—rot, disease and decay. They are all about debuffing the opponent’s entire team from anywhere on the map. These debuffs are typically less likely to hit than one that’s focus-cast on a single target, but the added benefit of affecting multiple enemies at once can alleviate the risk.

Elementalist: Elementalists focus on magical power in its most pure and destructive form. They deal lots of damage to single-targets. They use Staves.

Sharpshooter: The Sharpshooter sports a unique tool—known as the Infusion Rifle. They use nearby tiles to infuse their rifle and fire bullets with specific effects.

Necromancer: Necromancers are masters of death, of others and of themselves. They utilize corpses and debuffs. Necromancers can regain Health and Focus from enemy corpses, make them explode and even raise them as minions. They use Scythes.

Spellbreaker: Spellbreakers are powerful anti-magic tanks, capable of absorbing magical damage. They should be paired up to protect allies that are vulnerable to magic attacks, or used to hunt down enemy magic users to end them quickly. They use Two-Handed Maces.

Cavalier: The Cavalier is a “civilized” tank class who focuses on avoiding damage. The rapiers they wield have naturally high weapon evasion stats, allowing them to easily parry incoming blows. They also have some options for moving other units around the battlefield. They use Rapiers.

Scout: The Scout infiltrates enemy lines, sneaking up on a vulnerable backline enemy and finishing them off before the enemy team can react. They’re also capable of stealing equipment, which makes them essential versus powerful units, such as some bosses. Stealing isn’t easy, but results in not only disarming the opponent, but giving the stolen equipment to the player’s party. They use Daggers.

Priest: Priests are zealous wielders of healing magic, able to appreciate the value of life and taking measures to ensure it is preserved. They are backline support casters, keeping their allies healed through combat. They use Rods.

Berserker: Powerful—and possibly insane—the Berserker is a powerhouse in melee combat. They lose their wits as readily as they take lives, so must be guided with a cautious hand. They like to get up close and personal, taking heavy hits and dealing them in return. The Berserker focuses on buffing himself, then using special abilities that benefit from those buffs to deal damage, debilitate foes and keep himself alive. They use One-Handed Axes.

Wildlord: Wildlords are capable of learning the abilities of monsters they encounter and wielding these strange powers to great effect. They focuse on using Monster Skills, which means they have a great variety of skills to use in combat. However, they lack a specific tactical focus, instead serving to fill in holes in the team. They use Glaives.

Saboteur: These guys should rush ahead of their team, place as many traps as possible and then retreating to safety. Once behind allied lines, they can pelt the enemy team with bombs, dealing decent ranged damage in an area. They use Hand Bombs.

Shadow: Shadows are the unspoken and unseen hand of fate. They operate by inflicting themselves with status effects, then passing them on to foes and finishing them off with Killing Blow. They use a Sickle and Chain.

Disciple: A Disciple is able to fight at close range, keeping his allies alive while dealing respectable damage. They have unusual ranges for all of their abilities, and are able to attack two squares away. They use Bo Staves.

Echo Knight: Echo Knights wield an unusual and incongruous power, warping the very fabric of space around themselves and their foes. They are able to move around the battlefield quickly and easily, ensuring they reach the best possible position to hold the enemy back. They use Two-Handed Swords.

Sword Speaker: These guys unite the arts of swordplay and spellcraft. Sword Speakers practice with all swords and have the ability to summon a magic version of any blade they have previously mastered.

Librarian: The Librarian focuses on speeding up the player team and slowing down the enemy team, allowing players to perform devastating attacks with much less risk of missing. If you’ve been following our forum updates, then you’ll know Librarians are part of the lore and are part of the core storyline. They use Tomes.

The development team has also worked on how stats are calculated under the hood, and how level progression influences them. Numbers might change during development, but the equations should be close to final. Below you can read a list of those stats:

Strength: determines physical damage with most weapons.

Intelligence: determines the power of most abilities and some weapons.

Speed: determines how frequently a unit acts.

Agility: partially determines evasion rates and partially determines the damage of Agility Weapons.

Health: determines how much damage a character can take before they’re killed.

Focus: determines how many spells a character can cast before needing to restore their Focus (our version of magic power).

Natural Strength: a character’s starting strength based on several factors.

Natural Intelligence: a character’s starting intelligence based on several factors.

Some work has been done on recruitment, with permadeath in mind (excluding story characters). Each recruitable unit will look different thanks to randomly-generated appearance.

Bubble maps for all levels have been designed, identifying the location, story character requirements, and primary objectives. Grey box layouts for each map are being worked on, which will facilitate playtesting.

For the sake of full disclosure, I, like many others, have backed this project back in 2014. While it’s natural to retain a level of skepticism, it’s obvious to me that Little Orbit is doing what it can to fulfill a promise made by others, with is nothing short of praiseworthy. Hopefully, they will be successful.

[gamingtipsandtrickshacks]

Revived Kickstarter Game Unsung Story Ending Pre-Production This Month; Reveals Lots of New Details

The story of Unsung Story (no pun intended) is quite painful for fans of the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform. Announced in 2014 promising a grand return of Final Fantasy Tactics creator Yasumi Matsuno in 2015, the project was largely mismanaged by Playdek until Little Orbit stepped in to try and salvage the agonizing project last year.

Luckily, it seems that there may still be a happy ending to this whole mess, as Little Orbit has gone to work following Matsuno-san’s original design, and despite having to start from scratch to remove Playdek’s influence, progress is being shown.

In a Kickstarter update released today, Little Orbit Founder and CEO Matthew Scott announced that pre-production will end in April, which signifies a major development milestone. With the exception of art, everything is now “fairly well mapped out.” The art side is progressing more slowly, and the developer is going to keep working on concepts until they’re spot-on. In fact, the screenshots that you’ll see at the bottom of the post showcase only gameplay, with placeholder assets.

A Twitch stream showing the current build will happen later this month, alongside the first developer blog about the game.

The development team has completed the second draft of the design document, which is over 100-pages long. All of the twenty classes have been created, named, assigned skills and roles. Classes are split into four schools, Technology, Mana, Divine, and Nature. The initial class tree and progression has also been mapped.

So, without further ado, we get to take a look at the classes themselves:

Sellsword: Mercenaries unbound by specialty, Sellswords are useful in several areas, but are masters of none. This is one of two beginning classes, along with the Physician. The Sellsword is used to teach players a few basic mechanics for melee combat, but also touches on some more metagame functionality such as boosts. They use Short Swords & Shields.

Physician: The player begins the game with the Physician unlocked, but it serves to teach them more advanced mechanics, such as ranged attacks, the use of items and cross-class abilities. Even though they start off weak, Physicians are capable of combining their items to create new effects. This becomes especially important in the late-game, where advanced items can only be created by combining two lesser items. They use Slings.

Guardian: Guardians stay at the front of combat, defending key choke points and fortifying their allies from harm. Stalwart warriors that protect those they deem worth protecting (which, incidentally, can include themselves). They use Long Swords and Shields .

Archer: Archers are a simple but effective long-range attacker, capable of striking distant foes with ease. The backbone of any successful army. Archers are able to fire further from high ground, which allows them to out-range opposing Archers. This means the ideal situation for a Archer is to be on high ground, with friendly units fortifying them from melee enemies. They use Longbows.

Plague Weaver: These guys represent a power that humans would sooner choose to forget—rot, disease and decay. They are all about debuffing the opponent’s entire team from anywhere on the map. These debuffs are typically less likely to hit than one that’s focus-cast on a single target, but the added benefit of affecting multiple enemies at once can alleviate the risk.

Elementalist: Elementalists focus on magical power in its most pure and destructive form. They deal lots of damage to single-targets. They use Staves.

Sharpshooter: The Sharpshooter sports a unique tool—known as the Infusion Rifle. They use nearby tiles to infuse their rifle and fire bullets with specific effects.

Necromancer: Necromancers are masters of death, of others and of themselves. They utilize corpses and debuffs. Necromancers can regain Health and Focus from enemy corpses, make them explode and even raise them as minions. They use Scythes.

Spellbreaker: Spellbreakers are powerful anti-magic tanks, capable of absorbing magical damage. They should be paired up to protect allies that are vulnerable to magic attacks, or used to hunt down enemy magic users to end them quickly. They use Two-Handed Maces.

Cavalier: The Cavalier is a “civilized” tank class who focuses on avoiding damage. The rapiers they wield have naturally high weapon evasion stats, allowing them to easily parry incoming blows. They also have some options for moving other units around the battlefield. They use Rapiers.

Scout: The Scout infiltrates enemy lines, sneaking up on a vulnerable backline enemy and finishing them off before the enemy team can react. They’re also capable of stealing equipment, which makes them essential versus powerful units, such as some bosses. Stealing isn’t easy, but results in not only disarming the opponent, but giving the stolen equipment to the player’s party. They use Daggers.

Priest: Priests are zealous wielders of healing magic, able to appreciate the value of life and taking measures to ensure it is preserved. They are backline support casters, keeping their allies healed through combat. They use Rods.

Berserker: Powerful—and possibly insane—the Berserker is a powerhouse in melee combat. They lose their wits as readily as they take lives, so must be guided with a cautious hand. They like to get up close and personal, taking heavy hits and dealing them in return. The Berserker focuses on buffing himself, then using special abilities that benefit from those buffs to deal damage, debilitate foes and keep himself alive. They use One-Handed Axes.

Wildlord: Wildlords are capable of learning the abilities of monsters they encounter and wielding these strange powers to great effect. They focuse on using Monster Skills, which means they have a great variety of skills to use in combat. However, they lack a specific tactical focus, instead serving to fill in holes in the team. They use Glaives.

Saboteur: These guys should rush ahead of their team, place as many traps as possible and then retreating to safety. Once behind allied lines, they can pelt the enemy team with bombs, dealing decent ranged damage in an area. They use Hand Bombs.

Shadow: Shadows are the unspoken and unseen hand of fate. They operate by inflicting themselves with status effects, then passing them on to foes and finishing them off with Killing Blow. They use a Sickle and Chain.

Disciple: A Disciple is able to fight at close range, keeping his allies alive while dealing respectable damage. They have unusual ranges for all of their abilities, and are able to attack two squares away. They use Bo Staves.

Echo Knight: Echo Knights wield an unusual and incongruous power, warping the very fabric of space around themselves and their foes. They are able to move around the battlefield quickly and easily, ensuring they reach the best possible position to hold the enemy back. They use Two-Handed Swords.

Sword Speaker: These guys unite the arts of swordplay and spellcraft. Sword Speakers practice with all swords and have the ability to summon a magic version of any blade they have previously mastered.

Librarian: The Librarian focuses on speeding up the player team and slowing down the enemy team, allowing players to perform devastating attacks with much less risk of missing. If you’ve been following our forum updates, then you’ll know Librarians are part of the lore and are part of the core storyline. They use Tomes.

The development team has also worked on how stats are calculated under the hood, and how level progression influences them. Numbers might change during development, but the equations should be close to final. Below you can read a list of those stats:

Strength: determines physical damage with most weapons.

Intelligence: determines the power of most abilities and some weapons.

Speed: determines how frequently a unit acts.

Agility: partially determines evasion rates and partially determines the damage of Agility Weapons.

Health: determines how much damage a character can take before they’re killed.

Focus: determines how many spells a character can cast before needing to restore their Focus (our version of magic power).

Natural Strength: a character’s starting strength based on several factors.

Natural Intelligence: a character’s starting intelligence based on several factors.

Some work has been done on recruitment, with permadeath in mind (excluding story characters). Each recruitable unit will look different thanks to randomly-generated appearance.

Bubble maps for all levels have been designed, identifying the location, story character requirements, and primary objectives. Grey box layouts for each map are being worked on, which will facilitate playtesting.

For the sake of full disclosure, I, like many others, have backed this project back in 2014. While it’s natural to retain a level of skepticism, it’s obvious to me that Little Orbit is doing what it can to fulfill a promise made by others, with is nothing short of praiseworthy. Hopefully, they will be successful.

[gamingtipsandtrickshacks]

Revived Kickstarter Game Unsung Story Ending Pre-Production This Month; Reveals Lots of New Details

The story of Unsung Story (no pun intended) is quite painful for fans of the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform. Announced in 2014 promising a grand return of Final Fantasy Tactics creator Yasumi Matsuno in 2015, the project was largely mismanaged by Playdek until Little Orbit stepped in to try and salvage the agonizing project last year.

Luckily, it seems that there may still be a happy ending to this whole mess, as Little Orbit has gone to work following Matsuno-san’s original design, and despite having to start from scratch to remove Playdek’s influence, progress is being shown.

In a Kickstarter update released today, Little Orbit Founder and CEO Matthew Scott announced that pre-production will end in April, which signifies a major development milestone. With the exception of art, everything is now “fairly well mapped out.” The art side is progressing more slowly, and the developer is going to keep working on concepts until they’re spot-on. In fact, the screenshots that you’ll see at the bottom of the post showcase only gameplay, with placeholder assets.

A Twitch stream showing the current build will happen later this month, alongside the first developer blog about the game.

The development team has completed the second draft of the design document, which is over 100-pages long. All of the twenty classes have been created, named, assigned skills and roles. Classes are split into four schools, Technology, Mana, Divine, and Nature. The initial class tree and progression has also been mapped.

So, without further ado, we get to take a look at the classes themselves:

Sellsword: Mercenaries unbound by specialty, Sellswords are useful in several areas, but are masters of none. This is one of two beginning classes, along with the Physician. The Sellsword is used to teach players a few basic mechanics for melee combat, but also touches on some more metagame functionality such as boosts. They use Short Swords & Shields.

Physician: The player begins the game with the Physician unlocked, but it serves to teach them more advanced mechanics, such as ranged attacks, the use of items and cross-class abilities. Even though they start off weak, Physicians are capable of combining their items to create new effects. This becomes especially important in the late-game, where advanced items can only be created by combining two lesser items. They use Slings.

Guardian: Guardians stay at the front of combat, defending key choke points and fortifying their allies from harm. Stalwart warriors that protect those they deem worth protecting (which, incidentally, can include themselves). They use Long Swords and Shields .

Archer: Archers are a simple but effective long-range attacker, capable of striking distant foes with ease. The backbone of any successful army. Archers are able to fire further from high ground, which allows them to out-range opposing Archers. This means the ideal situation for a Archer is to be on high ground, with friendly units fortifying them from melee enemies. They use Longbows.

Plague Weaver: These guys represent a power that humans would sooner choose to forget—rot, disease and decay. They are all about debuffing the opponent’s entire team from anywhere on the map. These debuffs are typically less likely to hit than one that’s focus-cast on a single target, but the added benefit of affecting multiple enemies at once can alleviate the risk.

Elementalist: Elementalists focus on magical power in its most pure and destructive form. They deal lots of damage to single-targets. They use Staves.

Sharpshooter: The Sharpshooter sports a unique tool—known as the Infusion Rifle. They use nearby tiles to infuse their rifle and fire bullets with specific effects.

Necromancer: Necromancers are masters of death, of others and of themselves. They utilize corpses and debuffs. Necromancers can regain Health and Focus from enemy corpses, make them explode and even raise them as minions. They use Scythes.

Spellbreaker: Spellbreakers are powerful anti-magic tanks, capable of absorbing magical damage. They should be paired up to protect allies that are vulnerable to magic attacks, or used to hunt down enemy magic users to end them quickly. They use Two-Handed Maces.

Cavalier: The Cavalier is a “civilized” tank class who focuses on avoiding damage. The rapiers they wield have naturally high weapon evasion stats, allowing them to easily parry incoming blows. They also have some options for moving other units around the battlefield. They use Rapiers.

Scout: The Scout infiltrates enemy lines, sneaking up on a vulnerable backline enemy and finishing them off before the enemy team can react. They’re also capable of stealing equipment, which makes them essential versus powerful units, such as some bosses. Stealing isn’t easy, but results in not only disarming the opponent, but giving the stolen equipment to the player’s party. They use Daggers.

Priest: Priests are zealous wielders of healing magic, able to appreciate the value of life and taking measures to ensure it is preserved. They are backline support casters, keeping their allies healed through combat. They use Rods.

Berserker: Powerful—and possibly insane—the Berserker is a powerhouse in melee combat. They lose their wits as readily as they take lives, so must be guided with a cautious hand. They like to get up close and personal, taking heavy hits and dealing them in return. The Berserker focuses on buffing himself, then using special abilities that benefit from those buffs to deal damage, debilitate foes and keep himself alive. They use One-Handed Axes.

Wildlord: Wildlords are capable of learning the abilities of monsters they encounter and wielding these strange powers to great effect. They focuse on using Monster Skills, which means they have a great variety of skills to use in combat. However, they lack a specific tactical focus, instead serving to fill in holes in the team. They use Glaives.

Saboteur: These guys should rush ahead of their team, place as many traps as possible and then retreating to safety. Once behind allied lines, they can pelt the enemy team with bombs, dealing decent ranged damage in an area. They use Hand Bombs.

Shadow: Shadows are the unspoken and unseen hand of fate. They operate by inflicting themselves with status effects, then passing them on to foes and finishing them off with Killing Blow. They use a Sickle and Chain.

Disciple: A Disciple is able to fight at close range, keeping his allies alive while dealing respectable damage. They have unusual ranges for all of their abilities, and are able to attack two squares away. They use Bo Staves.

Echo Knight: Echo Knights wield an unusual and incongruous power, warping the very fabric of space around themselves and their foes. They are able to move around the battlefield quickly and easily, ensuring they reach the best possible position to hold the enemy back. They use Two-Handed Swords.

Sword Speaker: These guys unite the arts of swordplay and spellcraft. Sword Speakers practice with all swords and have the ability to summon a magic version of any blade they have previously mastered.

Librarian: The Librarian focuses on speeding up the player team and slowing down the enemy team, allowing players to perform devastating attacks with much less risk of missing. If you’ve been following our forum updates, then you’ll know Librarians are part of the lore and are part of the core storyline. They use Tomes.

The development team has also worked on how stats are calculated under the hood, and how level progression influences them. Numbers might change during development, but the equations should be close to final. Below you can read a list of those stats:

Strength: determines physical damage with most weapons.

Intelligence: determines the power of most abilities and some weapons.

Speed: determines how frequently a unit acts.

Agility: partially determines evasion rates and partially determines the damage of Agility Weapons.

Health: determines how much damage a character can take before they’re killed.

Focus: determines how many spells a character can cast before needing to restore their Focus (our version of magic power).

Natural Strength: a character’s starting strength based on several factors.

Natural Intelligence: a character’s starting intelligence based on several factors.

Some work has been done on recruitment, with permadeath in mind (excluding story characters). Each recruitable unit will look different thanks to randomly-generated appearance.

Bubble maps for all levels have been designed, identifying the location, story character requirements, and primary objectives. Grey box layouts for each map are being worked on, which will facilitate playtesting.

For the sake of full disclosure, I, like many others, have backed this project back in 2014. While it’s natural to retain a level of skepticism, it’s obvious to me that Little Orbit is doing what it can to fulfill a promise made by others, with is nothing short of praiseworthy. Hopefully, they will be successful.