#got many a thoughts about this game

[discoshhtick]

now that I've let it simmer a few days, god I'm so frustrated with how rushed baldurs gate act3 felt.

Like the first and second acts felt so balanced and well paced and then you enter the third act and it just feels like a wild goose race to finish everything as fast as possible. I did every single side story and mission that the game had to offer, but I felt like act3 was over before it even got to start.

Also that epilogue? It felt like they just rushed to quickly push out something to end the game on something.

I still love this game, already planning on a durge run and replaying act3 as my first character with some different choices, but man what could've been if they gave the last act as much love as the earlier ones

[eggsploded]

heiress eternal

[front-facing-pokemon]

[imadhatt3r]

Am I insane or are Joker and Akechi low-key equivalent to Adam and Eve in the 3rd semester

- Maruki's palace has some heavy "Garden of Eden" themes, with it essentially being a paradise where people live free of suffering and strife but also in a kind of blissful ignorance of themselves. The highest structure is LITERALLY named Eden, with a garden and an apple tree with a snake and everything. Maruki oversees everything as God, one who gave this wonderful place and unburdened lives to people.

- 3rd semester Akechi was born out of Joker's cognition thanks to Maruki, just like how Eve was born out of Adam's rib; There's also the fact that Joker wanted Akechi alive again so that they might try starting their relationship over and due to his regret over how their relationship ended up- which parellels Adam's desire for a companion. Joker and Akechi are the only two people in Maruki's reality who feel that something's not right (at least at first), making them truly uniquely cognicient beings, kind of like how Adam and Eve were uniquely intelligent among all the other life in Eden (given that they could talk and were chosen to be the caretakers of all other creation).

- In the bible, it was Eve who convinced Adam to eat the apple and gain awareness; In the game, it's Akechi who manages to convince Joker about the truth of what's actually going on around them.

- Once Adam eats the apple, he and Eve are banished from Eden by God, forcing them and all the other humans in the future to live on Earth, where they have to suffer from hunger, illness, pain, and all the other things they never felt while in Heaven. Joker and Akechi go after Maruki with all the other phantom thieves- their consciousness allowed them to disobey their "God" and destroy his reality, causing them and all humanity to return to the original world, where they have to suffer from heartache and other emotions they were free of in his "Paradise". Not to mention that they themselves will suffer too- Joker will have to live without Akechi, mourning the relationship they could have, while Akechi will literally stop existing. If they obeyed, they could still both exist together (even if it would be in a way they don't want).

- Adam and Eve are, of course, positioned as a "pair of opposites", given that Abrahamic religions see men and women as opposite "forces". Almost every aspect of Joker and Akechi mirrors eachother, from designs through personalities to places they occupy in their lives. There's also the fact that Adam and Eve were sort of destined for eachother, made for eachother by God, just like how Joker and Akechi were destined by gods to be rivals and opposites.

- "Rebellion" in general is one of the main themes of the game, and Adam and Eve can be seen as humanity's first rebels by going against their creator (or at least that's one possible interpretation). Joker and Akechi are P5's protagonist and deuteragonist, the two main thematic characters of the game; Them being united together AS A DUO (unlike during the Shido situation, where they had the same goal but mostly worked separately) against a shared God-like opponent who is trying to take away their free will is kind of like if God wanted to take Adam and Eve back and wipe their minds, and Adam and Eve fought together like hell to stay free.

- This is really minor, but there is a Mementos dialogue about Akechi eating a single apple for lunch every day... 👀

[rederiss]

Thinking about Jeremy Knox for too long makes me sad. Don’t get me wrong, Jean makes me sad as well, but there seems to be a heavy emphasis on Jean’s trauma compared to Jeremy’s as if he didn’t tell us he was taken advantage of by someone 5 years older than him when he was 18 years old AND got found out/outed that same time.

The way he told this to Jean, I don’t think he realizes he was taken advantage of by this 23 year old. He said it so “Yeah this happened, and it’s my fault that Noah died because of it. I was the problem” (and the whole feeling guilty for that is a whole other post). Like bro, you were dealing with so much at 17/18 years old between the car accident, getting addicted to drugs, dealing with a depressed brother, AND being gay in… (does math) 2003? That 23 year old saw how vulnerable you are and preyed on you. You can tell because he basically lured Jeremy with drugs. Like bro…

Jeremy Knox, do you realize that you were taken advantage of? Do you? I gotta know.

[swampthingking]

andrew’s definitely gotten in trouble with his pr manager for tweeting things along the lines of:

“no mania inducing medication will compare to the euphoria i will feel the day donald trump drops dead”

[euelios]

oh no auden, everyone screams. don’t put babyfic in the czech medieval life simulator!

i put my mirrored sunglasses on and do a kickflip into traffic. how bout i do anyway?

(wip wmonday. snippet smonday. i don’t want to write my thesis. let’s get it)

[gracefireheart]

Even more Sea Grunkles adventures where Stan and Ford, out in the middle of the ocean, suddenly get teleported somewhere. Where do they get teleported to? Why, to some sort of interdimensional game show, of course! An interdimensional game show where- for this episode- all the contestants are Ford from different dimensions!

However, all the other Fords that are there have something in common that our Ford (aka 46'\) doesn't share with them, which is the fact that he's the only Stanford there with a Stanley. Not just that Stan is physically there with him, but also that he's the only Ford with a Stan that is alive.

The first alternate Ford they spot was wearing the same sci-fi gear he did back when he was in the portal. A Ford that never got to return back home again. Bill is the one that ends up telling this Ford how his "useless spare of a twin" ended up kicking the bucket before the portal could be opened again and finally start their party takeover.

The second alternate Ford they spot is basically the "A Better World" Ford. The dimension where Stan did as Ford had originally asked of him ("Take this book, get on a boat, and sail as far away as you can! To the edge of the Earth! Bury it where no one can find it!"), Ford eventually was able to be rid of Bill, then tried to get back in contact with Stan again, only to find out he's dead.

The third alternate Ford they spot wore the same tan coat Ford wore after Stan managed to bring him back home, but looked worse for wear. In this Ford's timeline, when Weirdmageddon started, Stan was the one that got kidnapped instead of Ford, which eventually lead to Bill killing Stan during one of the torture sessions. Stan ain't as durable as Ford "Can take five-hundred volts (probably more than once) without dying" Pines.

And the last alternate Ford they spot looked... even worse for wear than the previous one. When this Ford went to the mailbox to figure out Stan's address to send the postcard to, the mailbox writes back the name of a graveyard. After asking more questions, it pretty much confirmed that Stan was dead, leading to Ford having to deal with Bill all on his own.

So now, Stan and Ford has to work together in order to win and get out of the-- Oh wait, the game show host suddenly poofs Stan to their side- inside a big bird cage- the moment they spot him. They can't let one of the Fords have an advantage over the other ones, can they?

No, instead, they raise the stakes a little; Whoever won the game show would not only get the original price (a regular wish that doesn't mess with time), but also receive Stanley! So now, our Ford has to do all in his power to win the game show over the other Fords, while Stan tries over and over again to escape the bird cage and get to his Ford.

[maythedreadwolftakeyou]

perhaps my most #cancelable videogame take i can post on this website is i think that the kind of people who say that anyone who picks the "morally wrong" or "mean" options in video game dialogue should, as a player, feel bad about their own choices/morals in real life. is that those people are just another flavor of the kind of dudes who play Disco Elysium and get mad for not being rewarded for picking the facist options. both of these groups are reducing games to "a thing I want to agree with me and everyone else who doesn't either suffers or does not have the option to play a character who behaves otherwise" rather than "a medium where you get to (or even Have to) explore different kinds of characters in order to experience the full depth of the story and characters in it."

When I want to pick options in a game that are mean, negative, arrogant, or ignorant, it's because I want to explore what would push a character into becoming that kind of person. Sometimes I want to see how the NPC characters who I-The-Player like/agree with react to someone who is fundamentally different from them. I think it's GOOD actually when the narrative allows you to push limits and especially when it has the option to then punish you for it in some way, such as losing options/routes later on, or companions straight up abandoning you for your choices. It DOES often make me deeply, viscerally uncomfortable to make choices in a game that are so counter to my own, but it means I get to experience that discomfort in an isolated environment and also think about what it means, what would push the character or even yes a real person into actually feeling those things. And I get to play with what ways the narrative could challenge them/make them grow over the course of the game--or on the other side, it can let me make a character who does start off more open/accepting but let the events of the narrative push them into being more reactively closed-minded instead.

I like that we have invented a medium where you can play a game multiple times and experience it differently depending on the character you play as. Books and TV and movies are all static--the greatest draw of games to me is the ones that are responsive, that can tell a slightly different story every time--when other characters in the game respond differently to you because of it, or some paths open up and others don't. And so yes it did disappointment me when a franchise that previously had these elements, Dragon Age, did not include them in the most recent installment. I don't think games should have options where you get to just hit a button to say something racist with no consequences or exploration into why a character would do that. but like, if i can only ever play a game as an upstanding person who is morally right all the time in basically the same flavor for every dialogue. I only get to truly play that game Once, you know? And I only get to see the way the companions react to someone they like and trust. And never really go deeper than that.

So like... I just sit and think about the scenes you can get in Inquisition. with Cassandra breaking down, because she fears she placed a would-be tyrant at the head of a powerful organization--that she searched and searched and chose wrong. Of Varric who is desperate to convince you not to become a monster, like the last person he feels betrayed him. Vivienne intentionally pissing you off because she wants to see how far you'll go when angered, how much she has to worry about your reactions. They say so much about the companions, what they fear most, and where they will draw the line. And especially in Inquisition, at these crisis points--you don't have to double down. Your character can have a come-to-Andraste moment where they go "woah... is that really how people see me? is this what i want?" and I think that kind of option can do way more for encouraging actual players to examine the choices they make in stories, more than locking the player into supportive, non-aggressive options does.

now. do i think all games execute these flavors well? no. writers and devs will have their own biases and blind spots, even if they are otherwise well-intentioned. and I don't think the ends of the scale need to extend from "absolute angel" to "horrible bigot", because the real complexity of course lies in the middle. I am not asking for games to let me be bigoted at every turn, what I want is games that let me make the protagonist deeply flawed in one or more ways--fearfully closed-minded to things outside their upbringing, or afraid of change to the status quo, or who want to advance their own aims regardless of consequences to others. I actually agree that the game was correct not to include any options for disrespecting Taash and their personal journey for example, but I do wish... idk maybe that we could have had a scene where if for instance the player character avoided outside-world missions relating to clearing away blight, they could confront us on how this might devastate the natural world and its creatures like dragons, and push us into trying to resolve it. Or in the other direction, if you spend the (currently meaningless) time giving money to background NPCs begging in the cities, Neve could could have a special cutscene thanking you for your attention to people otherwise beneath notice. You know?

And of course not every game can do this, I can write those sentences up there that represent hundreds of hours of dev time, of course they can't do it all. But the prior games usually did have at least a little of this, and that was enough to make me really fall in love. I KNOW the tumultuous development cycle, restarts from scratch, interference from higher-ups all contributed to why Veilguard was unable to hit those same marks this time. And we probably won't ever know how much of the loss of options/reactivity was intention vs a side effect of these things. But I wish people wouldn't frame players who miss these aspects as insane/morally corrupt. When for most of us it's because we genuinely enjoy challenging and exploring these aspects of reality in fiction in a way entirely unlike what we actually support in real life. i fully acknowledge not everyone desires to play this way. and that's fine!!! i am glad people can enjoy doing a "good" run each time that brings them joy. but for me it really limits the potential bounds of my enjoyment i guess. I like media that is complicated and messy and makes me think, and extra so when I get to see how playing that way impacts the greater story around it.

[theunconcernedembalmer]

Purple sop purple sop purple so

[hells-okayest-dad]

I've been thinking a lot about "Jean Moreau came back to himself in pieces" not only being the first line of a scene or a chapter or even of The Sunshine Court, but the first line of the whole trilogy. I feel like it's really setting the tone for what this is going to be and what Jean's life is going to look like. Evermore has stripped him of everything he was and now he is learning to build himself back up, he's discovering who he is again and I'm very excited to see what that looks like for him.

Some things that I, personally, would love to see him (re)develop

Jean is funny. He makes a few jokes in TSC. They're all very sarcastic and rude, but I think he could also not be a dick about it if he tried. I want him to tell a joke and make someone (Jeremy) laugh and realize that that feels really good. (Similarly, I like to think that he was very good at Doing The Voices when he read to Elodie, but I have no idea how this would come up.)

Jean likes being outside. The cool breeze and open roads are on his list. I think he would like hiking and someone could show him a cool rock and he would pretend not to be into it but he would keep it.

I want him to have a solo hobby so he can learn to be okay on his own. I think he'd like reading because it's very distracting but something he could do with his hands would also be good. (He already knows/once knew how to sew at least a little. Let him recreationally stab fabric.)

Also, I want him to find the love he once had for Exy. It means something different to him than it once did, but I want him to remember why he once loved it. I want him to have fun playing a game with his friends.

[sandrockers]

Waiting for Evershine be like-

anywho now that I'm alive and free, I can't wait for Evershine AHHH

This is my main governor, June… in sandrock form LMAO

Geez I wonder who she likes- 🐑

[celestriix]

thinking about klavier gavin again because i saw someone say that the fact that he's the only prosecutor in the series who wants to find the truth and isn't insanely obsessed with winning like the other prosecutors makes him really boring

and i understand it to some extent when comparing him to other prosecutors but... Klavier Gavin??? BORING????

after playing aa4 i was OBSESSED with klavier gavin and the untouched potential of this guy

he loses his best friend/bandmate, his brother AND his mentor in the span of like a year?? i think??? which is INSANE.

there's something very tragic about klavier, a person who values finding the truth above all else, finding out that two of the people closest to him betrayed his trust and lied to him and used him for their own means AND ARE MURDERERS.

and then his mentor, a person who taught that seeking the truth is what a lawyer should do, gets murdered by a person who believes that winning in trials is the most important thing above all else WHICH IS THE SAME EXACT THING THAT KRISTOPH VALUED AS WELL !!!

this core belief of finding out the truth that klavier has, leads him to finding out about the things that daryan and kristoph did, and even though they are important to him, people he CARES about, he continues to work with apollo to see that justice is served.

and the fact that we don't get to see anything of klavier getting any closure after the events of aa4 makes me insane

we never get to see much of klavier's feelings on what happened or him fully processing the events of aa4 and that one case in aa5 and it makes me soooo upset. i wish he got more than that little cameo in aa5 and that one tiny flashback appearance in aa6.

in an alternate universe, aa4 got a true sequel that fully explored klavier's character, as well as phoenix's, klavier's, AND apollo's relationship with kristoph, and klavier's relationship with phoenix post-aa4, and also a more thought out? (for the lack of a better word) backstory for apollo, and an exploration of the jury system, and a game that ACTUALLY built upon the foundation that aa4 laid out.

and i am forever upset that we are not in that alternate universe.

[rassicas]

I'm not counting a player character that you made and never thought about further. i mean like. It can be your player character but at least one that has a name (or you intend to name) and some semblance of a story that you've thought about. bonus points if you've been continuously using this character for several years

[mortispoxi]

Seeing Twitter users recommending the People Make Games documentary as a good way to get insight on the issue is so….

I know, I’m always extremely disappointed whenever I come across someone who thinks it’s the end all be all explanations regarding the Studio ZA/UM situation.

Recommending that video always comes with a heavy caveat from me that the person needs to stop around the 40 minute mark since the interviewer shows a very clear bias that’s unbecoming of a journalist.

Regardless, now that more people are finding out about these layoffs, which might take out members of the studio that have been there since the beginning, it could finally help smack some sense into those Twitter users that actually thought, FOR SOME REASON, Rostov, Kurvitz, and Hindpere were lying for shits and giggles rather than seeing what's ACTUALLY going on which is that the investors have a very obvious agenda against the real wronged party. Hopefully this'll also open their eyes to how the People Make Games video fed into this twisted narrative that Kurvitz was somehow at fault/responsible for the theft of his own IP, but that might be asking too much from their concrete brains. Here's hoping though!

[somegrumpynerd]

This little interaction made me so happy! Killer really fought through Dream to give Cross his necklace back

Asjlkhdkgkd I'm so glad you liked it!! I had fun putting a little story into that one ^^

And, because I am normal and don't think about these guys for hours every day, here's some backstory:

When Cross first joined, Killer actually took to him pretty quickly (Dust and Horror did not get warm welcomes). Which is to say he immediately started flocking to Cross to annoy him and compete with him on missions. Cross didn't have the benefit of knowing Killer already to see these were affectionate annoyances, so to him Killer was just some guy who had a problem and wouldn't leave him alone.

During that mission, Nightmare was calling a retreat when he put a hand to his chest and realised the heart locket was gone. Killer saw him looking all around frantically and had a good idea what was lost, since it was the one thing Cross would absolutely not part with since he joined. So, Killer ran back out towards the stars to look for it, because why learn self preservation now. It was the first thing to convince Cross that Killer actually was being (relatively) friendly, despite all the annoyances.

And also, a doodle of the afterwards of that picture

because it's probably the only time he's managed to get Killer to shut up lol