#good game. 10/10. sometimes playable

[jacqcrisis]

Hmm, I've never done the tiefling party without sleeping with Astarion and I've already done Gale's Act 1 romance, so what happens when Al goes to sleep?

Oh well that's kind of cute if odd phrasing, but I dig it-

The scream I scumpt.

Alfonso. My man.

[indierpgnewsletter]

Playing Rabbits in an RPG from 1976

(This continues our 2024 series, 10 Games From The First 10 Years. First published in the Indie RPG Newsletter)

It is genuinely surprising to me that in 1976, within two years of D&D coming out, someone published a game about being rabbits. It makes a little more sense when you realize that it was inspired by Watership Down and the designers were, I believe, zoologists or something similar. But having read it, the premise is the least interesting part of this game. It has so many fascinating little ideas.

Bunnies & Burrows is a game about rabbits … but these aren’t just rabbits, they fight, explore, gamble, study herbs, see the future, parley with beetles, find love, have children – and the list goes on. The end result are characters that ironically feel more human than you’d imagine.

As I play more games, I learn about games, sure, but I’m also learning a lot about myself. And a rule of thumb has slowly emerged: I want to play games that lead to interesting, surprising, unique things being said by the players. I’ve sometimes phrased it as “people want to say cool shit at the table”. I’m people.

Bunnies & Burrows starts with D&D as a jumping off point – there’s that old, familiar rolling 3d6 down the line to get your stats. But that’s more or less where the similarities end. You have rules for fighting but it’s not D&D combat – this game is often described as having “the first martial arts system” but what this means is that fighting is mostly weapon-less and involves declaring actions that flow into each other as patterns or c-c-combos. Basically, some actions set up other actions – you can’t Rip into another rabbit unless you already pulled off a Bite & Hold in the last turn. Some actions like Run aren’t possible if you’ve just done a Pin or a Rip in the previous turn and so on. I didn’t actually get to play out a fight but these rules got me grinning.

And the whole thing is like that. The study and application of herbs is meant to be a little puzzle where through trial-and-error and dice rolls, you slowly figure out what’s good for you and what isn’t. The languages and persuasion rules mean that certain characters can become envoys to other species. Because a language can mean the difference between things turning violent and a peaceful negotiation between rabbits and a mother scorpion that has accidentally wandered into their warren.

Don’t get me wrong. Most of these little pieces are eccentric and inelegant – always more convoluted than you’d like but still a major leap forward in playability because in the end, it’s a d100 roll under a target number. All the fiddliness – and there’s a lot of it – lies in the absolutely esoteric ways this game invents for calculating that target number. But I find it easy to forgive this in an old game, especially when the most interesting part of the game doesn’t lie in the mechanics but the negative space the rules seem to create.

The donut hole in the centre of this game – fruitful void? uncrowded centre? – is the question: What is rabbit society like? This is a setting question – or rather, a system of relation question – that is never asked but it must be answered. The mechanics have some opinions. For example, every player picks a profession when they make a character – Empath, Seer, Storyteller, Scout, and so on. Some of this comes from Watership Down, which can, of course, be your ready-made answer – it’s the unstated but obvious setting sourcebook for this game. But if you don’t go down that route, you’ve got a juicy problem: What do we value? What do we despise?

[thelakesuite]

The Rusty Lake Story in Bitchass Baby Terms

this is ALL off the top of my head (and i haven't experienced like 10% of it maybe?) so i might be wrong but i don't care right now

the lake itself isn't, like, that well established 'cause it's a mystery game or something so we don't need full exposition. it's some deity-like thing as old as the mammoths (not canon) that eats time. or rather memories that are stored in lil cubes. and it gives its zookeepers immortality so they can keep feeding it. they call themselves the Rulers of the Lake but we all know the truth. 'immortality', or rather enlightenment, is represented by you becoming your fursona and living maybe an extra century. mr. owl's looking for a new heir pretty quick in the process but we'll get to that.

corrupted souls are kinda a byproduct of all this. truly the lake's farts. when a person dies horribly, when their memories get extracted wrong, or when the plot demands it, they become corrupted. corrupted souls still talk, and some of them are even sensible (like your mom oooooh), but generally they're jumpscare beasts or wet little puppies. sometimes both. yes you can get corrupted when you're enlightened, and right now it's the more likely outcome actually. there's a whole 'elixir of immortality' that gets harped on, where one drinker gets corrupted and the other gets enlightened, but that is literally only a thing for roots and a little bit of cave so don't worry about it too much. unless you're making dramatic fanart in which case leverage that shit.

cubes come up a lot in cube escape, believe it or not! black ones are bad memories, white ones are good memories, blue ones are connected to the past in a way that's somehow not a memory, gold ones are connected to the future, red ones only exist in my fangame that ellesian recently unearthed, and green ones are jello yum. also suck it anyone who told me pre-tpw the gold cube thing was unestablished. anyway. it was a big thing mr.'s owl and crow were working on, creating a golden cube (presumably to extend their own lives) as seen in cave, but then one just kinda appears in the past within when albert does electric jujitsu. jury is still out on that.

onto the actual narrative i think.

in paradise, you're mr. owl pre-owling (1790-something). the lake's current suckass servants are your family who tried to sacrifice you to it way back, but your mom took your place for mom reasons. now mom's corrupted and guiding you to... well, to get sacrificed for real this time. but with your powers combined (yes mr. owl was two people, no it is never addressed) you get enlightened and tell your family to fuck off 'cause you're building a hotel on that island now. you also get a tease in the secret ending that dale and laura will do a similar fusion dance to be the lake's next suckass. we've been waiting 6 years for that to happen.

in roots, two alchemist brothers get that elixir shit going (1860-1935). one of them becomes mr. crow, while the other becomes a playable character for a game. and corrupted. you rope your whole bloodline into this, harvesting their body parts (usually after they die from other means, but you totally caused most of their deaths) for a reincarnation ritual involving a magic seed (that also only exists for this game). this is where the best characters come from because rusty lake actually wanted to tell a story with this game. you reincarnate into a woman! don't think about the implications.

in samsara room, the inside scoop of reincarnation is fuckin' weird, dude (1935). the original was made before rusty lake began, so it's not truly part of the narrative, but it got folded in for the fifth anniversary.

in hotel, you do not get the backstory of the third bird man (1890ish). instead, you get to kill mr. owl's family again, but one-on-one as animal people. how did they become animal people? fuck you that's how! mr. owl probably did it on purpose to spite them with shit sandwiches and bullets to the brain. oh, also, there might be an evil twin of mr. rabbit that shows up later.

in arles, you're vincent van gogh. that's it. he's not relevant. but it is funny seing the death date of paul gauguin in the timeline docs.

we're talking about the past within later but the 'past' segment takes place around here. 1926 iirc?

in birthday, your parents get shot (1939). you're going to be an important detective, dale, but like right now you're getting traumatized. or rather you're experiencing that memory, then doing blue cube magic to fix it and have your grandpa shoot evil mr. rabbit instead. is your grandpa actually mr. crow? no. shut up about it now.

in underground blossom, your mom gets abducted (1935-1972 maybe). okay, well, not you. this is the laura backstory metaphor game but you're actually playing as the third bird man who is both her stepdad and her pet. and her grandpa albert takes her mom rose for his own nefarious reincarnation schemes maybe probably. rose is surprisingly okay with it but characters rarely put up a fight with the plot anyway. laura's a lonely kid, starts dating robert, picks up art to soothe her nightmares, gets murked, then reaches some kind of epiphany that we just train ride away from before finding out what actually happens. she's your daughter, damnit, you should support her transcendence. not enlightenment importantly. also, no, laura's life didn't literally happen at train stops, it's just a vehicle. not even a pun don't fucking laugh i see you snickering.

in seasons, you set up a really interesting plotline that gets utterly countered by everything that came after (1960's-80's). it's just laura time in there, and she uncorrupts herself, thank you very much. the series has been struggling with how laura gets her corrupted self to 1980-whatever, and so far only one other game's even taken place after 1972. and that game's the past within which also counters every other plotline. sigh. maybe we're not smart enough for these puzzle games. at least harvey's cute and bird-shaped. key point that's impossible to fuck up is that laura dies in 1972, and it's unclear whether it was a murder or suicide. that's why we get a detective.

in harvey's box and the lake, uh i don't know really (1969). these are early games that are basically spinoffs of seasons. they help with the overarching stuff but aren't much for the narrative at this point. also they suck

in case 23, dale starts investigating laura's death and gets wrapped up in the lake stuff (1972). it was supposed to be just another murder case, but he got too into it and it got too into him, so he gets teleported to the lake chapel and ferried off to. somewhere idk. he goes into an elevator that takes him down memory lane to the lake floor.

in the mill, mr. crow is really trying to clean house before dale gets here (1972). this is where laura gets her ass corrupted by mr. crow, and we find out how the lake eats memories or whatever. it's supposed to overlap with case 23 and it almost succeeds. whatever skrunk is still there is forgiveable, this was the flash era after all.

in theatre, dale learns about ripoff hinduism, goads a man into suicide, and abandons his darling toilet fetus son (1971). it's like birthday again, where this is a memory we're seeing, but that is a light distinction. robert kills himself at the bar, and we take his memories for legal reasons. there's some sixfold wheel we learn about that doesn't matter much.

in the cave, mr. crow still cleans house before dale gets to the Magic Memory Machine (1972). mr. owl's kinda sorta dying, and dale's been elected his son or something. gotta get his mindmeats. you read a textbook about cubes, pilot a submarine to the lakefloor, put dale and laura in a surrogate fusion dance machine, then give dale the golden cube it makes before sending him up the elevator again. hotel did imply something serious was gonna happen when he gets to the top, but that was eight years ago. the devs probably forgot and fell too in love with albert vanderboom in the meantime.

in the white door, robert unkills himself and gets wrong psychiatry (1972). as it turns out, mr. owl has a front business running a for-profit psych ward to extract totally good and healthy memories from people. this one is an actual factual spinoff but is kinda relevant for the greater rusty lake metropolitan area.

in paradox, fuuuuuuuck who knows maaaan, isn't it all just a metaphor? (1972). there's a consensus that none of the stuff that happens in paradox actually happens, and that it's all in dale's head while he's in the Magic Memory Machine from cave. even though there's five different endings, he kinda walks away at the end, which might be the worst ending of the lot. the information's solid though; mr. owl spells out the whole heir thing, there's bits of backstory for dale and laura everywhere. also the movie's sick.

in the past within, albert becomes a mechanical engineer for the sole purpose of making plot armor (1926/1984). yeah, remember that guy from roots? the voodoo murderer who got third-hand alchemy information to make up for his lack of pussy? yeah, he invented a time machine decades ago. and he enlisted his daughter to talk to her past/future self to grow him back to life in 1984. with a gold cube that he somehow got. and somehow his scar is genetically coded in him. and we don't see his wiggly lineart dick. what does he do in 1984? trap his daughter in a time loop then who the fuck knows. he's stuck in his jumpscare beast ways from being corrupted for so long. how did he get corrupted when he was literally buried in the ground and salvaged bones from? next game!

there's an ARG that i never saw a thing of because i hated it, best kept memory. from what i gathered, it was another front scheme for memory harvesting, except in the 2000's. does that mean it's enlightened dale/laura doing this one, since mr. owl presumably passed on the title then turned into a fish? i'd like to know too!

also, a chapter of underground blossom i haven't completed, and a paper-based game coming out within the next two years or whatever. i don't know how much they'll clear up.

toodles!

[fireemblems24]

Azure Gleam - Special Chapters

Spoilers for the special chapters below.

SHEZ VS BYLETH

I didn't get the special chapter for SB or GW. SB, I just straight up did not care. GW, I tried, but it involved an "escort Claude" part and he just sat there and didn't move forward, and I didn't care enough to bother with the chapter a second time.

Shez sounds like Arval. Did Arval take Shez over? I'm guessing to go after Sothis?

Oh, cut scene! Shez vs Byleth again.

Byleth holding his own against Arval!Shez. Good to see. Shez is trying to hold Arval back though.

So . . . if we kick out Arval out in these chapters, does Shez loose their abilities/special class, because no :(((((

Felix, Dedue, and Dimitri are worrying about Shez and Byleth (also, awesome to see all my favs). Rodrigue has news about what happened.

Scouts report that Byleth and Shez are fighting. Felix accuses that Dimitri suspected this.

Dimitri tells how Shez worried that TWSITD would take over her. And Dimitri's promise to kill Shez to stop her from killing others.

Oh, we cut straight to the battle and have to defeat Shez. Makes sense. I'm guessing do it before Byleth dies?

My Shez is, eh, a bit stronger than Byleth, so I'm a bit worried. But Dimitri's such an overkill at this point, he's just going to blaze through this chapter like he did the last one.

It's weird not having Shez among my playable characters. I'm using Jeralt instead of Shez for my missing 8th person because he's the highest level (and I can't use Byleth either so).

Edelgard is around somewhere? Claude showed up to hunt her down.

My Byleth is like 10 levels below Shez. It's not going well.

Atrocity is one hell of a drug. Took Shez out.

Defeating Solon feels good. Got a cut scene too. He just ran away though. Wait, Arval/Shez killed Solon? Ohhh, like Solon killed Kyrona. A sacrifice is needed to open Zaharas. Karma I guess.

Claude and Dimitri talking is kinda cool. And weird Edelgard showed up. It's so amusing to me that they wrote themselves into such a corner with Edelgard they just yeeted her brain lamo.

ZAHRAS

Arval is talking to Arval.

Dark Arval created Normal Arval because Dark Arval wanted typical TWSITD nonsense, domination, restore the world to TWSITD, etc . . .

And in the most shocking twist, Normal Arval is programmed to kill Sothis, so therefore Byleth, and while Arval took over Shez.

Oh, Shez woke up! And Claude's there with Dimitri.

So they all got sent to this Zahras place.

Shez doesn't have a lot of memory of what just happened, and tells Claude and Dimitri about Arval, who's gone though.

Now they have to find a way out of this mess.

Dimitri found Edelgard. Since there's like 4 people, no one plans on fighting each other until they get out. Then it's time to kill people.

So Edelgard doesn't remember what happened and got some spell cast on her by TWSITD.

Claude cheerily tells her what a fuck up her country is lamo.

There's this mini map with the 3 lords just standing there, chilling, in this dark abyss place. It's pretty funny looking.

All my other units are gone, but I expected that. Dimitri's my most overpowered unit anyways.

DIMITRI & CLAUDE

Is this like some kind of support?

So AG Claude wants to get rid of the central church and kill Rhea. Like, I'm down for removing any sort of political power from a religious institution, but this fixation on Rhea is weird.

Lamo, is this game serious? Did it really just blame nobility and arrange marriage on Rhea?? OMG.

I knew Claude went completely dodo bird in this game, but he somehow became even more of an idiot?

I'm kind of impressed lol.

He drank the Edelgard koolaide.

Dimitri's like, well, as long as you just dislike the church and not Faerghus.

It's interesting for Dimitri to acknowledge that his personal beliefs and his beliefs as a king are sometimes at war.

He also lays out why Claude's plan is an awful idea. Meaning, all the death and suffering he'll cause.

It's just a classic, Claude is too rash - Dimitri is too cautious.

Claude tells Dimitri that he's too good for him. And that they could've been friends if kingly stuff didn't get in the way.

It's overall a fine support, except this absurd idea that the church is solely responsible for stuff human nature always comes up with, and I think it's more a symptom of a huge flaw in the Fodlan games as a whole than anything else.

DIMITRI & EDELGARD

Dimitri finds it hard to talk to Edelgard because of all the people she's caused the death of. But way more polite.

Edelgard doesn't feel that way. Which, not surprised. She doesn't really care too much about the people who've died like he does.

Lamo, she also is way less polite and is like "you don't want to talk to the tyrant who's gotten everyone killed." See, though, it's acknowledgements like this that make me like this game more. She knows that's what she looks like to everyone not in Adrestia.

Dimitri gets annoyed with her for placing words in his mouth. And good for him. That's always annoying.

Edelgard is less confident than Dimitri that he has no regrets of his actions and carefully considered all of them.

Oh, good, Dimitri asks about Patricia. But Edelgard doesn't know what happened either. So, still no answers about her.

Dimitri wants to just end the conversation. I am loving how much he really doesn't want to talk to her. It's so different from Claude who he was curious about.

She falls down because dark magic place does it's thing, then helps her stand up, and they get a picture, which is cool.

It reminds her of when she fell once and took the help without thinking about it. Now she thinks about it.

Dimitri remembers helping a girl up.

I see where this is going, but it's funny such a mundane thing will trigger important memories, lamo.

Edelgard is like, yeah, knowing you, you probably helped a lot of people get up who fell down.

I'm living for these supports acknowledging that Dimitri's a way better person than the other two lol.

He's like, naw, it was you. Edelgard keeps insisting it wasn't her.

He calls her El at the end.

Is this the same support in SB? It works for AG, but man, this asshole just killed Sylvain (and Annette, and Gilbert, and Ingrid, and Rodrigue, and tons of other people from Faerghus simply bc she wants that land back), so I'd be furious seeing it there.

In AG, though, it makes sense.

BACK TO THE CHAPTER

Dimitri's the only one who asks about Shez's wellbeing. Does their dialogue change in different routes?

Oh, cool, I had some access to stuff like the blacksmith, which makes no sense, but ok.

Bad Arval showed up behind Shez, but she alludes it.

Arval says none can escape. But I doubt it.

Dimitri's like, that's bullshit, bc there's no way they'd build this without a way out, and if they can get out, so can we.

And then Dimitri's proved right when Arval says he'll leave, alone.

Ok, I learned this other Arval's name, but I am not going to spell all of that.

So like, after this, do they all just go back to war? Because if they do . . . lol.

They let you use all the 3 lords, but I'll probably only use Shez and Dimitri. Neither Edelgard nor Claude impressed me much when I started this game (and at the time I started, I liked Claude a lot more than I do now).

Oh, so a dark Hubert, Hilda, and Felix showed up. A bit sad it wasn't Dedue, though. I feel like he deserved to be the BL rep even if Felix is more popular. But maybe it was for variety? Like Dedue is another axe like Hilda, but then switch Claude's people out.

At the same time, Felix makes sense, esp in Hopes. He and Dimitri are practically married lol.

Dimitri's like, that's not Felix. He wouldn't get mad at me for doing this and not avenging people. He's not wrong.

Ohhh, not they're fighting phantom versions of themselves.

They had some throwaway lines explaining why Edelgard is normal now.

Lamo, Edelgard doesn't trust herself.

Meanwhile . . . Dimitri . . . is like, really excited about this. Because he gets to kill a version of himself. :((((

Claude's line wasn't as interesting as the other two. I know. Shocking. /s

Dimitri wants to thank Arval for letting him fight and kill himself. I cannot with this man.

Evil Claude just about totaled regular Claude. Edelgard isn't scratched though.

Edelgard and Claude were way more normal about reactions to fighting themselves lol.

I had to make Claude an adjunct. He was nearly dead. It's actually surprising how much worse he is than Edelgard. (Dimitri's not fair to rate against them since he's more built out and not dropped into this map for a one-time battle).

Ok, he summoned more dudes to protect him, and one was a Shez copy the other Dedue. So Dedue got credit too. So now I'm less conflicted about Felix making an appearance.

Shez is upset at fighting herself.

Dimitri feels awful about fighting the shades this time. He's only motivated by all the people he's kept alive in real life.

I defeated Epimedes. That seemed too easy.

Cut scene fight between Shez and Epi. It's pretty badass looking in the dark magic place with falling rocks everywhere. Like, in a cheesy but just roll with it way.

Shez wins. Arval pops back up and they almost hold hands. Arval's never felt more alone :( Honestly, kinda sad things end badly for them. So not recruiting Byleth gives Arval a better ending? Will Arval not be there in the final map before the final battle?

They escaped!

Dimitri's like "it felt like a strange fever dream" and honestly, not a bad way to describe it.

They lost Edelgard and are we back to the normal stuff? Oh, no Shez asks to go back to the search for her and the others. Claude wants to get back to his people too.

Ok, so moving onto the final chapter now.

xxx

[thefirstknife]

Getting real sick of a certain subset of Destiny players complaining that it’s a baby game and crying to Bungie to nerf exotics and abilities when their ENTIRE POINT IS TO BE STRONG in specific ways as if they are being locked into using them.

IF YOU WANT AN EXTRA CHALLENGE STOP BEING SUCH A DPS GOBLIN AND JUST EQUIP SOMETHING THATS NOT TOP TIER META AND STOP COMPLAINING JESUS FUCKING CHRIST

MOOD. Go off.

It's incredibly annoying to me. They always use the argument of "the game should FORCE me to do things, I should not SELF-IMPOSE challenges." And like. ? I'm sorry but what? It's a video game for a big audience, it's here to be playable and accessible to the widest possible playerbase. There are plenty of ways to make the game difficult for yourself, so knock yourself out if that's your thing, but don't force others into it.

Like, I enjoy hard content, I regularly at least attempt day 1 raids, I do master raids, GMs, solo and solo flawless content and all that. But only when I want to. Sometimes I don't and I don't want to suffer in a patrol zone or struggle in a seasonal activity I'm doing for the story. The majority of the players don't want that. Designing games for the professional gamers only has NEVER been a good idea and never will be. Fifty streamers can't sustain a video game. It needs casual players who will want to come back to the game instead of feeling defeated.

One of the reasons I really enjoy helping others is because I know that casual players tend to struggle in stuff that's basic activity for me. I've seen people unable to get through a strike. I've sat for 10 minutes rezing someone who couldn't do the jump in a seasonal activity. I want those people to be able to play basic content without feeling frustrated and I want them to know that there are people out there who will help them out.

And this doesn't apply just to basic content, although it should start with that. I think all dungeons and raids and everything should be things that all players can complete. Fine, doing a master raid with all challenges should be tough, but it should be achievable with time and practice, not impossible. What a lot of these "pros" want is just completely divorced from reality.

It takes days and days of practice every time a new master raid is out for me and my team (all with thousands of hours of playtime) to get comfortable to finally finish it. We're far from casual players and it still takes a lot of time to be able to finish hard content. Making it even harder is insane to me. Like, if something is so hard that my team full of people, each with 5000+ hours of playtime and a coordinated team that's been raiding together for years now can't finish it, that means it's absolutely impossible for probably 90% of the playerbase. That's wild to me. Raids and GMs should have more people playing them. If master raids are too easy for you, Mr. I-Play-Destiny-For-A-Living, that's on you buddy. Unequip the super god tier god roll meta guns and loadouts or play something else.

And ofc, another excuse they make is "if I don't use meta, I am not going to win a raid race!" Then don't. Idk. Let me play you the tiniest violin. This affects literally nobody except a grand total of 50 people. Run your meta in day 1, and play with random shit otherwise. Play raids with all white weapons. Play without mods. Play without a HUD. Do things solo only. I don't know, make up a way to spice things up for yourself. I'm not interested in that and neither are 99% of the players out there. The game is genuinely hard enough for the majority of the players. On top of that, I am here to feel like a powerful space fantasy superhero. I am NOT here to die to dregs in patrol zones. If there's ONE thing that I know for a fact that put people off from Lightfall (as in this year of Destiny), it's the difficulty changes. They're annoying, frustrating and for some a barrier to entry more than anything else.

[godofclosure]

TOA Anniversary Munday!!

I, too, have stolen this from Neffi. I’m sorry you keep getting robbed crime has truly become such an epidemic in TOA it’s a shame really. Will no one keep our streets safe 😔 (if it wasn’t obvious that was a joke ty neffi)

Name: Metal

Pronouns: She/Her

Birthday (no year): 10/6

Where are you from? What is your time zone? PST! (So like 3 hours ahead of TOA time), AMERICA RAAAAHHHHHHH‼️‼️🔥🔥🔥🗣️🗣️🗣️🦅🦅💥💥

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How long is your roleplay experience? That. Is complicated. Not entirely sure but let’s just go with 3 years i think.

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? Okay so like looking back I was totally roleplaying with friends in elementary school via text but like we didn’t call it that so that didnt even register until I’d already been in TOA for a year so idk if that counts

How were you introduced to TOA? Mindlessly scrolling the Fire Emblem Three Houses tag and for some reason some random acceptance post caught my attention and then I couldn’t stop thinking about it

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Do you have any pets? One dog, two cats!! Do not ask for pictures you will never stop receiving them this is for your own good

What is your favorite time of year and why? (Season, holiday, general period) Winter because the bugs are dead and I can live without fear!!! (+ I live in some weird climate vortex where the temperature never gets lower than 60 or higher than 80 so I don’t have to deal with whatever temperature nonsense is going on everywhere else)

What is your IRL occupation? Student x2 😔

Some interests and things you like/enjoy? Hatsune Miku has me in a death grip. My world is a shrine to her being. So is yours. So is everyone. Hatsune Miku is all. The world is hers. SEKAAAIIIII DE—

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? Genshin, pjsk, pokemon, sometimes I stare longingly at persona 3 but I haven’t had time to actually play it yet, whatever random farming game has decided to trap me in my room for the next month straight

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: Fire and Torchic :)

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How did you get into Fire Emblem? I’m ashamed to say I’m one of the smash players who was confused by the random anime men 😔 at some point mentioned it to a friend while playing and he was like “oh the mobile game is a good starting point” and forced me to download it which started the spiral (my disappointment when I learned Sakura is not actually a cat and it was just a Halloween alt was immeasurable)

What Fire Emblem games have you played? Three Houses, Heroes, Fates (all three), Awakening, Engage (+I own Shadows of Valentia but I haven’t opened it I’m sorry I’m a fake fan)

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games: First: Heroes 😔 but if that doesn’t count then Birthright, Favorite: Three Houses

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series! No particular order: Edelgard, Plumeria, Líf, Yuri, Kagetsu

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! Ashe. I have no idea why. I do not feel this way now I forget he exists frequently sorry buddy

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: First: Chrom (accident, wanted Henry), Now: Chrom (on purpose)- Fates: First: Jakob, Now: Kaden- Three Houses: First: Ashe, Now: Yuri- Engage: Kagetsu. And I’d do it again. Love that guy.

Favorite Fire Emblem class? Dark Flier

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? I want to say “random village npc that lives a peaceful life and doesn’t get involved in the war” but every school I’ve ever been to has had the stupid house system so I cannot deny the truth. I am random academy phase npc that dies on the first mission.

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? Realistically Golden Deer but my heart lies with you beagles

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? Boons: Reason & Riding, Banes: Faith & Gauntlets, Budding Talent: Heavy Armor

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? Probably Firene if only because I would die in any other climate

-

How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔 letters. It took me months to understand why everyone kept talking about toasters

Current TOA muses: Elise and Embla!!

Past TOA muses? Constance, Sothis, Kaden, Kagetsu

Who was your first TOA muse? If you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again? Constance, but I don’t see that happening. The more I looked into her character the more I made connections to stuff irl that I felt like I didn’t have the right to talk about and that fear of accidentally offending someone slowly killed her off

Do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? I have three moods: “blonde girl that dyes her hair purple sometimes”, “hyperactive man”, and “what”

Do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could? Plumeria my beloved writing you would make me so uncomfortable which is technically IC but I can’t put myself through that I’m sorry girl I’m not strong enough 

What kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? I like the silly. I do very much enjoy the drama of course also though. Haha emotional pain :)

Do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man I hope I get to write this one day”? TOAAAAA!!!! DROP AN ASKR MUSE, AND MY LIFE, IS YOURS. (No pressure to anyone though of course!)

Favorite TOA-related memories? So many. Too many. Cannot list them all here this is long enough as is. I love you TOA :)

Normal size text, small text, no preference? Small text is too much effort for me but I don’t ever notice the difference unless it’s right next to normal text tbh

Got any potential muse delusions to share? 😉 He lurks. Every day he grows stronger. I don’t know how long I can fight off his return. He has a sword and he is strong and he knows it. Also Metodey for some reason??

[optimismxmagicism]

TOA Anniversary Munday

(TY for the template Neffi!)

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

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

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

Name: Queen

Pronouns: She/Her

Birthday (no year): October 18th

Where are you from? What is your time zone? Netherlands, CEST

How long is your roleplay experience? Uhhh about 10 years now I'd say?

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? Gamefaqs had a thread where you could create your own Fire Emblem Fates character. I joined out of curiosity when i was like 13 or so and things just kinds went from there.

How were you introduced to TOA? Rosie, my online big sis, sometimes shared snippets of her experiences with me. I got curious and the rest is history.

Do you have any pets? I have an elderly doggy named Beef :)

What is your favorite time of year and why? (Season, holiday, general period) Winter, definitely. I'm a cold over heat kinda girlie and I like the early nights and cold weather. Perfect for soup!

What is your IRL occupation? IT support service worker and Maid Cafe waitress during the weekends.

Some interests and things you like/enjoy? I'm big into cooking, gardening and cleaning.

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? Final Fantasy, Genshin Impact, Persona, Danganronpa, Pokemon, Tales of, Uchikoshi games, just to name a few. Also big into Otomes and BL games.

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: Fairy! Favorite is probably Sylveon and Vivillon.

Tell us some funfacts and trivia about yourself! - I am an auntie to 3 adorable little nephews. Love babysitting them :) - Truly I am a girly girly girl. I love pink and cute things and all that goodness. Always have firmly believed that femininity is strength and anyone who disagreed with me has been ground to dust under my heels :) - I used to have a YT channel where I uploaded my own vocaloid covers. I stopped though because I lost interest and the videos gained little traction.

How did you get into Fire Emblem? *Deep sigh* Ike x Marth Yaoi during the Smash Bros Brawl days.... This was before I knew anything about either character and just thought they looked cute together.

What Fire Emblem games have you played? All of them except for Gen 2 of Genealogy (glitches killed that run) as well as Thracia. I'll get to them someday...

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games: My First game was Shadow Dragon. My favorite is a tie between Sacred Stones and Three Houses

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series! Ashe, Ewan, Nils, Nina, Dimitri

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! Wolf. This was because I was still young and just entered my "started liking boys that weren't squeaky clean" phase.

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳 Dimitri.. If you know me you know I'm down horrendous. Sorry kwdjwkdj. Chrom and Xander are also hot.

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: Chrom forever and always. - Fates: Tsubaki was my first. Nowadays its Xander, Jakob or Shigure. - Three Houses: Dimitri. Its always Dimitri. If I play BL and I don't choose Dimitri I have been killed and replaced. - Engage: Diamant was my first! I also really liked Kagetsu and Amber.

Favorite Fire Emblem class? Dancer!

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? I'd be the cleric that needs to be babied at first but gives cracked heals later on. High magic/speed/resistance, low Strength/Defense.

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? (Black Eagles, Blue Lions, Golden Deer, Church of Seiros, Those Who Slither in the Dark, unaffiliated civilian, other - for example Almyran) Blue Lions baybeeeeeeee

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? Boons: Faith Reason Authority - Banes: Axes, Brawling, Heavy Armor

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? (Firene, the Kingdom of Abundance; Brodia, the Kingdom of Might; Elusia, the Kingdom of Knowledge; Solm, the Queendom of Freedom; Lythos, the holy land of the Divine Dragon; Gradlon, the desolate land of the Fell Dragon) Wherever Kagetsu's from.

How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔(separate letters, to-ah, other?) To-ah.

Current TOA muses: Ewan, Nils, Byleth M

Past TOA muses? Uhhh from the top of my head: Saleh, Rolf, Nina, Takumi, Male Corrin.

Who was your first TOA muse? If you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again? Ewan was my first! I don't think I'll be dropping him for a long time as he's just become so special to me :)

Do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? Characters that put up a front of being easygoing or simple, but have a lot of inner troubles they hide from others. Those that like to make others happy.

Do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could? Very masculine types. Manly Men or Muscle Himbos are characters I greatly enjoy but just don't like to write.

What kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? I like writing scenes where characters bond with each other, either over an earnest heart to heart or silly shenanigans.

Do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man I hope I get to write this one day”? I would love to write a scene where the mask just fully crumbles and the entire truth is revealed about my muses deepest feelings. Also for Byleth specifically I'd love to write post timeskip scenes where he's in touch with his emotions and takes on the role of Archbishop.

Favorite TOA-related memories? A specific one was Andrei's turnaround on Ewan during the halloween candy game. It was one of the first major bonds Ewan would end up developing.

Present or past tense? I Try to say I'm past tense mostly but sometimes I jumble things up a little.

Normal size text, small text, no preference? I've started trying small text recently, but I'd say I have no real preference.

Got any potential muse delusions to share? 😉 Nope! I think I'm set for now. There is one character that, If the opportunity ever arises I'd want to get but not right now.

[bratfied]

Windy City Roleplay

#Bratfied Fivem Servers

- - - The server is nice, and the community is great sometimes but can be very helpful sometimes (Not Always). Few admins can be bia, admins below Lead Amin should learn how to not pick and choose. The Server is still in beta, so please don't be surprised that the server to going down a lot, developers are fixing situations and really fast making the server a workable and playable place for New users and returning users. But I Can Say Windy City is amazing, V3 Is very fun and very different from V2, I have been here since the first time the server went up and there are a lot of things that have changed. Very impressed with the owners and developers. Shoutout to the Mang team and developer team for making the server look just like Chicago.

💜 ─── Server overview;

Roleplay Experience:

Roleplay from males: Can improve, less trolling; more being serious. It's very rare to see non-Staff teams that roleplay correctly, but there are a few people that are not staff that can roleplay correctly, but I can say. I love how they're kicking noobs out, including banning them! Great work. 7.6/10

Roleplay from females: Females can improve... 8.9/10

How Serious is the server?: The server can be serious if the community wants to be serious. But I have seen a lot of players be serious, few can be nooby, but It's not as bad as V2. 9.8/10

Faction Roleplay: I believe, a few factions are overpowered and love talking sh** to random people they don't know, must improve... gang members don't randomly check for someone inrl when the other party hasn't done anything. So if you join this server be alerted, a lot of faction roleplay can be nooby, But when the staff team is involved in Faction's is very a great place to roleplay, there are a few people that are not nooby into factions that are not staff, kinda rare. 6.9/10

Whitelisted Jobs/Business: Never actually had a job in the game myself, but I saw a lot of great ownership and leadership with the whitelisted Jobs, discord is organized; promotion is well-made following with their promotion flyers, can't wait for Jobs to open up. 10/10

Server's Staff Team:

The owners: The management team can be fair, Annoying, Cap & Zarty . Has a very awesome leadership on this server, they worked hard and made a very creative map I had never seen on a server before. If there was anything I believe these three people should change is the Staff team, A few of them are fair but a lot of them are not fair to other people, it's a pick-and-choose favoritism thing.

Lead Admins: lead admins are almost like what management does, but they are active in helping other people around, few of them are fair; few are not. But I will say my favorite Lead Admin that gives out great verdicts and amazing explanations is: Billion, Qac & Rey. These three leads are an amazing choice for the team and the community. They're willing to help at all costs!

Staff on Forums: Like I said, there are staff friends of friends with someone and do favoritism some are not and actually here to work, but one thing I can say is, that they do answer forum questions/reports/ bands quickly, also Whitelisted applications, It won't take more than 24 hours to view it.

Requirements To Join Windy City Roleplay:

Gaming PC/Good Wi-Fi/GTA & FIVEM Computer Requirements.

Must-Have a Forums account and pay for a whitelist in the Upgrades section

Must understand the simple rules of roleplaying on the server.

(ps. Be sure to learn all the basics about roleplay before paying for the whitelist, if you know all the rules you can purchase prio, it helps you up in Q, without it, you will be in a Q for a very long time, a lot of people are interested in the server)

SERVER JOIN INFORMATION:

Discord: Here

Forums: Here

Twitter: Here

[ganonfan1995]

Sometimes I feel a bit at odds with LoZ fandom, but only because of how old it is and how much it's constantly changing.

I generally love to engage with the lore, and I love to play with the characters and setting...But good god is it exhausting.

I genuinely feel like my exposure to OOT and WW early on as my only point of reference for years have greatly shaped the way I look at games as a whole...So at times it can be super frustrating to communicate with fans who jumped on between the SS and BOTW era.

There are unique generational gaps in this fandom that I haven't observed before in other spaces. In part because playing older LoZ titles is just not possible for a large portion of new fans, but also because LoZ has always had a "current" game that doesn't require the player to have knowledge of previous games.

Each game can be a stand alone as much as they can be a piece of a larger picture.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately as totk draws closer and closer. It's impossible not to run into a popular theory or a speculation that I find incredibly misplaced. And even harder to remember that the basis for these theories comes from the lack of exposure to the rest of the series.

I feel like SS takes up waaaay too much space when it comes to current lore. But also when it's one of the only other newer LoZ games playable on modern consoles for the last 10+ years, it's only natural that it would.

HD remakes and reboots are great, Nintendo needs to be releasing the entire LoZ franchise for switch like yesterday.

I see so many ppl talk about Ganondorf incorrectly or from a post SS point of reference...but really I am just begging y'all to play WW....preferably immediately after OOT as a sequel if you can. (not TP, because he really was 2 dimensional and bland in that game. Even if he is daddy to me.)

[bosskie]

More Practicing

I would really like to draw some 'proper' traditional art but I don't have enough time for it since well, then I would like draw/paint for 10 hours barely taking any breaks... So, I just focus on this quicker stuff.

But yeah, I really wanted to draw yet another Molluck from a difficult perspective, and I chose that expression because I love his teeth... And while I was looking for my reference frame (Yes, I look at those cutscenes frame by frame.) I noticed new things about Molluck's head... Man, even I have been looking at him so closely for 2½ years I still notice new stuff!

Frankly, I wondered if I would show that previous sketch at all since I tend to think that my sketches ain't worth of seeing but well, I can still show them like this. Yeah, I'm not personally a fan of my own work and see just a messy sketch here, literally too since my hands and desk got messy while doing this... I drew this before I went to sleep (+ improved after waking up) and it helped me to feel better and relax since I felt quite depressed before drawing this... Molluck just helps me so much to keep my head together...

Also I would like to say that I have been wondering the fate of that 2D Molluck game thing I have been doing and well, I think that the best thing would be that I just finish the stuff I have already implemented and move on since I gotta learn other kind of game development tools but also 3D stuff. I'll show you that 2D Molluck game (again) after I have finished that stuff but in a silly way since well, I can imitate Molluck and the Sligs. I still use quite often my Molluck voice to entertain myself... Frankly, I also miss doing those dubs... I'm just too busy to have time (and energy) for that stuff...

Welp, I can do still some creative stuff regularly for my studies since I'm doing another 2D game project thing but I don't know if I'll release it. But I can say that that game is kinda about my own mental health issues and decisions matter in that game. It's not about Molluck, so I'm not gonna really talk about it here but I can say that yes, I'm studying game development stuff (programming, graphics etc.) since I wish to become a game developer. So, this is the biggest reason why I let that particular Molluck game to be but I just change what I do to 3D Molluck stuff (maybe I still do some 2D stuff but using another programming language). I just see inside my head how awesome it would be to do Molluck and his office in 3D! And well, then make it as something playable and/or animated.

Of course, I won't charge for that stuff if I release something in public since I do not own Molluck and I'm doing that stuff just to learn and out of love. I just cannot help myself but I love that Gluk so much... He just means so much to me... He is like the cutest thing for me too...

Yes, this was my reference for that previous sketch, and I just somehow love his face so much here... His expression is just so adorable... Well, I feel like Molluck looks cute to me no matter what expression he has... I just love the way he looks like when he is angry too, though I don't still like him being angry in a sense of that I wish him to feel good.

Oh, and well, I don't know if you saw that OWI's 'Molluck's Majesty' (Molluck dress up thing but with dresses) post but since I saw it I have truly been wondering what like Molluck would look in a dress... Frankly, it would be a somewhat practical outfit for him! Molluck is such a pretty Gluk like he is but man, I'm actually curious to see him in a dress and wearing some pretty jewelry... He could show off his beautiful hands and arms! I'm not sure what kind of dress it would be but maybe pink with pretty details since well, like you might have noticed, I think that pink does suit Molluck. I'm not even a fan of pink myself, so yeah, that's not the reason for it.

Yeah, some Molluck stuff again, kinda to distract myself too since like I have told you, I suffer from self-hatred and depression. Sometimes I think that there's no darkness when Molluck is around (his eyes glow). It really touches me to think that... He is kinda a sign of that there's still light inside me because he is just imagination. I just feel too bad to really think about my 'real' loved ones, what they would think if I, well, did something awful to myself since my ill mind just wishes that they didn't care, makes me feel sorry for them to have me... I have a difficult condition and it has kinda gotten worse despite of the help, even some stuff has gotten better too.

But yeah, Molluck basically gives me life.

[three-dee-ess]

i played attack of the friday monsters to saturday the bonus stage and you know what this game feels like? it's like a game adaptation of a nonexistent movie older than a decade that you keep close to your heart because you watched it so many times as a kid but forgot its name after a few years

then when you randomly scroll through social media, there it is, the childhood movie you love! then you google it to confirm it is the exact thing you cherish and see some adults not filled with whimsy rate it a 4/10

later, you rewatch the movie filled with joy and end it with joy too, what were those losers rating it low thinking? then you read through the wikipedia page to see more info on it and it turns out there's a game adaptation so you go to get it just to see what it's like

you finish it and it's great, not as great as the movie but it didn't cut anything too important out, the graphics are as beautiful as the source material, they even made the fictional game playable, and got the original voice actors

sorry for the essay but i just had to describe this super specific vibe im getting from finishing this game, maybe this is vision is from a past life idk

anyway, i love it! i just wish it was longer because i didn't want to leave this world yet

YES YES YES you get it exactly.

it's part of a series called Boku no natsuyasumi (My summer vacation)

attack of the Friday monsters is actually considered a short title in the series and the first to be translated to English. the only other one to be translated to English is the crayon Shin-chan tie in game 😭 it's really good but admittedly I know nothing about crayon Shin-chan so I might be missing a lot. I have it on the switch, it cost about $60. I think it's wonderful but holy shit sometimes I make bad purchases. I think there might be a steam port? so uh. you know. wait till that goes on sale.

wait post cancellef the second game just got an English patch released oh my god well I know what I'm doing tmmr huge day for me

[dragonchris]

Game Review: Crosscode

Imagine if you were playing an Augmented Reality Multiplayer Online RPG but instead of actually playing an Augmented Reality Multiplayer Online RPG you played as a character who was playing an Augmented Reality Mulitplayer Online RPG? Welcome to Crosscode, an absolute BANGER of a RPG and the single game I’ve been obsessed with for the last two months or so.

Story:

Meet Lea, an amnesiac playing through the Augmented Reality game of Crossworlds to relearn her memories. Through the story, you meet incredibly fun characters and explore a gorgeous futuristic world, uncovering the secrets of your past and figuring out who you are in the present. This game’s got some twists and turns that kept me gripped the whole way through. I wanted to squeeze every dialogue option out of all the characters I met to learn everything about them that I could. Man this game has a story that’s so rich and plentiful I feel like I’m wallowing in a five-star course. I love a good lore-filled game.

Gameplay and Controls:

As Lea, you travel through a 2D RPG, exploring new places, solving puzzles, and fighting monsters to level up! The world is vast and well-designed, the puzzles are immaculate, but one of the most fleshed out parts of this game is its combat system. I’m usually more a puzzle gameplay person than a combat one but man the combat just feels good. The enemies are interesting and varied, you’ve got an extensive amount of control over how to build the character that you want to play, and its super satisfying to go back to earlier levels that you’ve toiled through and just fucking disintegrate every enemy in your path. And there’s accessibility options too, for both the combat aspect of the game and the puzzle aspect!

Sound:

The music is a treat and is very intuitive to the mood of the story and the environment, But also, past that, just the sounds in general are great too. I didn’t realize what a treat it was for certain attacks to sound so nice until I was using them. There are places in the game where the waterfall effects are a bit too loud, but other than that, the game is just really nice to listen to.

Art:

Crosscode’s got a nice pixel style which lends a special charm to the game, almost calling back to older games with its style while making a story about a futuristic gaming environment. The only gripe I have with this style is that, due to its 2D nature, it can be hard to gauge perspective sometimes which can make platforming a bit tricky.

Playable, Replayable, or Unplayable?

God, there is so much in this game to do. It’s worth playing it, it’s worth going back and replaying it. For an indie game, it’s so richly made and there’s so much love put into it that I can’t recommend it enough. If you’re looking into this game, I’d HIGHLY recommend also yoinking the “A New Home” DLC, which offers a whole-ass epilogue chapter. And if you’re not sure if it’s the right game for you, try the free demo out! Man, I love this game. 10/10.

Steam

[scrunkore]

Scrunkore Media "Thread" 2023: Part 6

the scrunko core has burned out, rebooting

63) Cassette Beasts (PC, 2023)

This is a really cool monster tamer RPG, it came up with a really fun type interaction system and there are are excellent designs in it especially with the eldritch-style bosses, that's super fun. Big fan of the setting and its unique vibe too, if you've played the game you'll know what I mean about that. Great indie I enjoyed my time with, though the romance feels tacked on and I thought the ending was just Fine. [4★]

64) Doctor Who, Series 6-10 (TV, 2011-2017)

Moffat's entire tenure with the greatest TV show in Britain, knocked out within the year, and honestly I think it was quite good. Plenty of flaws, like his messy ambitions, how weird he is about women sometimes, and how some episodes just genuinely fucking suck, but you get that with every era of the show really. The highs are damn high, especially with Capaldi's Doctor in episodes like Heaven Sent and The Doctor Falls, and I think that's enough to outweigh the bad. And I feel like series 10 in particular is often overlooked more than it should be, pretty strong one that is. No rating, but I love Doctor Who when it's good.

65) Mad Rat Dead (Switch, 2020)

MAD RAT MONDAY!!!! I played this game because of the soundtrack, which totally bangs and of course you need that in a rhythm game like this one. Fun one it is too, it has options to make it less challenging and the story is unexpectedly pretty cool. I'm not very good at it, but I beat it and I had a fun time doing so. Rats rule. [4★]

66) Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins (Switch, 2021)

This is apparently the only good Doctor Who game still officially playable, and yeah, I can see it. Immersing yourself in a mystery contained within a smartphone featuring an iconic monster and fun appearances from existing characters is pretty cool, though it can be kinda janky and there's not that much to it in the end. Certainly an alright experience though. [3★]

67) F-Zero 99 (Switch, 2023)

My only experience with F-Zero so far, the surprise announcement that jumpscared fans of the series before turning out to be a battle royale type game that's actually... kinda good? Chaotic fun with decently engaging gameplay, it's something you pick up and play for a bit before doing something else but don't play for hours once the honeymoon phase wears off. Sure helps add something to NSO, sure hope it doesn't get taken down in a year. [3.5★]

68) Sonic Superstars (PC, 2023)

A good new Sonic game! From Sonic Team! The series really has been popping off lately, and though some people complained about this one, I genuinely think it stands at least close to the classic titles it's following up from. Levels are fun and creative with the only real bullshit being in the optional postgame (which does kind of suck if you're not good), and though the soundtrack has plenty of duds it's still pretty decent overall. Cool cast of playable characters too, and it's great seeing Fang come back, with the new character Trip also being a fun addition. I don't think this is peak Sonic, but for me it was a good time that I enjoyed for the most part. [4★]

69) Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch, 2023)

Oh 2D Mario is so fucking back, this takes the formula that the "New" series was running with and gives it a super aggressive shake-up and an injection of creativity that it really needed. It has a really nice visual look, actually cool level design that is great to run through, fun powers, and a large roster of playable characters including Daisy finally. Not to mention it sounds good, the music is a great important part of it and the talking flowers in every level are honestly just fun. One of the best platformers on Switch right now, I like it more than Odyssey honestly. [5★]

70) Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon (Movie, 2019)

Bit of a silly watch this was, but in all honesty I'll always be a fan of Aardman's work and this is a pretty fun movie that all ages can enjoy whether they like Shaun the Sheep or not. It's animated as well as you'd expect, does some cute stuff, and honestly I kinda like the music in it too. Just a funny little adventure with that silly sheep and his weird cute alien friend. [3.5★]

71) Suika Game (Switch, 2023)

Suika Game.

72) Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: Booster Course Pass (Switch DLC, 2022-2023)

Dropping a two-year DLC that doubles the track list and adds a bunch of new characters and balance updates to a Mario Kart game we thought was over was a fucking wild thing to do, but Nintendo did it and honestly it worked out quite well. Sure, it's clearly all Tour ports and a lot of them don't look too hot, but for the sheer quantity of it I don't think I can complain too much. They even chose pretty good tracks for the most part, with only a few favourites being left out that I can only assume will be remade in the next game and therefore end up better than ever. I think the game is actually done now, and I think it's probably the best Mario Kart at this point. Not bad at all. [4★]

73) PLUTO (Anime, 2023)

An anime that took ages to get made, and it shows all the polish that much time of production should have you expect (perhaps too much polish with all those unnecessary digital effects). It's a pretty complete adaptation of a much-praised manga about war, robots and consciousness, some strong science fiction with quite good writing based on an old arc from Tezuka's Astro Boy manga. It's pretty tragic how things turn out for most of the characters, but it's so good how it goes about things, and I think it was worth the wait. One of the best Netflix-distributed anime, I'd say. [4.5★]

74) Super Mario RPG (Switch, 2023)

Geno fans have not shut up for years, so how does his game hold up now that it's been polished up into HD? Not bad, honestly. It's a solid RPG experience with simple yet engaging battle gameplay that laid the foundations for other Mario RPG titles to come, and now it's all shiny and stuff. It's a fun journey through a whimsical Mario setting with the quirks you'd come to expect, apparently a pretty faithful remake with only a few new additions and script edits that it sort of needed. I don't think this game is really that special in 2023, but I liked it plenty. Funny that Geno is barely a character though. [4★]

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[sodapaladin]

✨Top 10 Games of 2023✨

It’s time for my annual list. As usual, these are games I played this year, not that came out this year. So despite all the hits this year, don’t expect to see many of them!

10. Fire Emblem Engage

While I was wary of the new character designs and anniversary excuse-story, Engage turned out to be more enjoyable than I expected. Not my favorite Fire Emblem, but a good one nevertheless.

9. Paradise Killer

What *style*! I went and bought this game immediately after my friend showed me the song “Paradise (Stay Forever).” Going in blind was wild. I sure didn’t expect the protagonist to be part of an extra-dimensional cult. I love exploring the vaporwave island.

8. WarioWare: Move It!

A worthy successor to Smooth Moves. While the amount of extra context seems oddly lacking for a WarioWare game, I love all the creative uses for the joycons. With the major exception of Jimmy’s boss minigame, everything works shockingly well.

7. Super Mario RPG

I debated where to place this. On one hand, I don’t feel like the remake added too much. The QoL improvements are nice, but the SNES original is still perfectly playable. It’s also quite short for an RPG, and on the easy side. But it’s just so charming anyway.

6. Darkstalkers 3

AKA Vampire Savior, not to be confused with another game. On the quest to capture the magic Third Strike had for me, this comes pretty close. If only I could find online matches now.

5. Suika Game

I had to see what the hype’s about, and I understood. So simple and cute, yet challenging. A great way to kill a few minutes.

4. Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp

I held off on this for a while, since I have both original games, and it didn’t seem like much was changed. The QoL improvements have been nice, though, such as speeding up the CPU’s turns. Most importantly, it no longer cheats during Fog of War, so you can actually strategize as intended instead of cheesing certain maps.

3. It Takes Two

Playing this co-op game with my brother was a blast. Solving puzzles through teamwork is a satisfying joy, and I’d love to play again as the other character sometime.

2. Vampire Survivors

So addicting. It was hilarious to find out the dev works on slot machines. Now it’s quite clear that they know all the right bells and whistles to set that dopamine off.

1. Monster Girls and the Mysterious Adventure 2

It’s incredible when you can feel the amount of love poured into the development of a game. I picked up this solo-dev passion project thinking it’d be a cute little indie game. I didn’t expect it to be my favorite mystery dungeon experience.

Everything from the writing and QoL features show how clearly the dev loves this genre and wants to make the best version of it. The balance is wonky, some of the recruitment requirements are questionably difficult, and the English translation is extremely rough, but I can’t help but be charmed by the whole package anyway. I’ve put in around 50 hours getting to the “final” boss of the story, and there’s still a massive postgame dungeon. I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone, but for fans of mystery dungeon games, absolutely.

[ecargmura]

It Took Me Four Months To Finish Unicorn Overlord (Review)

Long JRPGs usually take about 3 months for me to complete. However, Unicorn Overlord is a rare case where it took me more than three months to complete. Though, to be fair, there were some weeks where I didn’t play the game due to the lack of motivation or just because I was too busy with other things. However, my experience playing this game wasn’t a bad one at all. It was a rather lovely one!

I first stumbled upon Unicorn Overlord after watching a trailer and fell in love with the visual and gameplay. It released near my birthday, so I asked my brother if I could get it as a birthday present. I started the game March 10, 2024 and finished it July 27, 2024. This is the first Vanillaware game I’ve played, by the way.

The story is a bit simplistic as it’s just about reclaiming the throne from a fallen kingdom, but there’s nothing wrong with a simple story, especially for a dense game like this one. I liked the journey from the start to the end because it does feel like it was worth it with the happy ending and what not. I do like that the game wants you to travel to all five nations and collect all of the playable characters. I personally liked Elheim the best.

The gameplay was really good. Perhaps because I’ve played a few tactical RPGs before, so my prior knowledge to them did help me get used to a RTS-style RPG. It’s super smooth. There is a time limit, so it was nice trying to use units and fight against the time. Thank god for the pause system. I guess my only gripe is that sometimes, my strategies don’t work and I have to restart the stage just to rearrange my units. This was very apparent in the boss battle against Alcina where I had to restart the stage three times because of that unexpected twist of her being able to teleport. The final battle against Galerius had me relying on the Internet for good unit combinations—they’re that important for this game.

Speaking of units, there are loads and loads of characters—over 60 to be precise. You can’t use all of them unfortunately as there are only 10 units that can only fit 5 people. The whole reason that there are so many characters is because some units might need certain classes to enhance them. Don’t worry, you can recruit extra units via forts/enlistment. There are both good and bad aspects about this. First, it’s nice to experiments who fits with who but there are so many characters that you sort of lose track and bench some of them. Though, props to each character for having their own unique story.

The other characters can interact with each other, which shows up in Rapports. However, not all characters have rapports with each other, but only with a specific few and some have two or one scenes opposed to those with three scenes. Rapports can be increased during battles or in taverns where making some characters eat together improves their friendship. Once Alain’s relationship with a character reaches three hearts, he can give them the Ring of the Maiden. The game allows you to give it to not only the ladies, but also the men! Yes, Alain can propose to women, men, elves, furries and angels! He’s that versatile. I chose Travis because he’s my favorite character. I do wish that the Ring had a bit more significance outside of the final battle, but it makes sense given the it can take place at any time before the final mission.

I really liked the equipment system because you can customize your characters to adhere to any command you give them too. There are two slots so that a character can control when or how to attack the enemies. 

The voice acting is really great. I didn’t even know the US had that many voice actors now. Back in my day, I usually heard the same people in older JPRGs. I’m glad it’s a growing field because everyone should be able to have a voice they like. I certainly liked a lot of voice actors for this game. The cast has a mix of rising stars, new faces, popular and veteran voice actors in the cast, even for Japanese too. There were some people harking about the medieval way of speaking, but I didn’t mind it. In fact, a game that has a western fantasy style setting shouldn’t be having modern everyday slang because that would be anachronism.

The game is beautiful visually and very dense so you never have anything to run out of when playing. However, it’s not the perfect game. Oh yes, it’s now time for me to tear down the issues that I personally had with the game. Sit back, relax and read on ahead.

First, some features are not opened up right away and you have to go to certain nations to unlock them. The coliseum is only accessible once you meet Amalia and also beat the Drakenhold story arc (correct me if I’m wrong—my memory of the Amalia part is super hazy). Once you reach the top and beat Amalia, she goes super saiyan and becomes even more challenging than freaking Galerius. I didn’t like how the blacksmith wasn’t accessible until you get to Albion. There are some overworld quests that can only be achieved when finding faded journals, but do I know where to find them? No. These sort of things have to be solved with the Internet. I also didn’t like that you have to be careful with what choices you make for some quests as choosing the wrong answer will make you lose your chance to recruit some characters. I couldn’t recruit all of them as I missed Govil.

If you played the game, who did you pick to give the Ring of the Maiden to? What are your thoughts about some aspects of the game? Let me know!

[three3two22]

Some weeks ago I watched all four Hunger Games movies for some reason. You know when something's too mainstream you're like "I'm not gonna watch it >:)" but I guess I had nothing better to do. I wasn't paying good enough attention however so there's not much of value I could say about it, but one thing sure got my attention and that's Primrose, and it's half because she reminded me so much of Cordelia Glenbrook.

Like goddamn she just about stole the show for me because of that. They have similar personalities (gentle and kind), similar looks (blond + braid), similar jobs (medic/healer), similar roles relative to the mc (younger sister that the older sibling is protective of), similar narrative (seems like a damsel in distress but ends up showing a lot of inner strength). I know I have TriStrat in the brain but can anyone blame me for this?

The biggest difference between the two has to be (and this is where I should put a spoiler warning for Mockingjay pt. 2, I guess) that Prim doesn't make it. It really is what sets the bitter tone of the ending despite the success of the war. I really doubt the ending would have felt as empty even if one of the love interests died instead of her. Hell, even if both died it wouldn't have felt so crushing because of how integral Prim was to Katniss's... well, everything.

And you know this made me speculate the alternate scenario where Cordelia similarly doesn't make it. Like, the writers didn't know what to do with her post chapter 14 anyway, so maybe they planned to kill her off before coming up with the genius idea to make her a playable character since she became too much of a badass during ch7-13. Gotta say, if I went for the destroy bridge or dam path in ch13 in my first playthrough, I might have been -- even if for a moment -- truly convinced Cordelia would die after the dramatic turn of events.

And look, that would hurt like hell if that really was the case. But that's the point, right? It would make people empathize with Roland better in terms of his unyielding bitterness towards the war Aesfrost started. Regna and Frani's deaths don't hit that hard -- we understand they were dear to Roland but we don't FEEL it. But Cordelia we've known for 10+ chapters and being unable to save her after coming so close to it must be devastating if that's what happened. Like, that could potentially make me fall into the depths of genuinely indulging myself in the act of crushing Aesfrost for an unspeakable price.

This seems like an okay idea but honestly it hurts too much to even consider this alternate scenario. Maybe it's better for her that way rather than being forgotten post chapter 14, but man, screw that. Sometimes I just want comfort.

To come back to Hunger Games, I really did enjoy Prim. Loved that scene where she dances with Katniss. Siblings, man. I'll be thinking about her for a while. I wouldn't have said the protective/heroic older sibling + fragile/docile younger sibling trope was particularly my favorite -- it has a very "old fashioned" ring to it -- but honestly I've been falling for it ever since TriStrat did it (with quite a bit of subversion, too), and now with Hunger Games I really indulged in it.