#happy that event was so okay and that cutscene slapped

[rubikor]

you can take your mora

[yeluki]

for the fandom thing, genshin impact

okok here we go

the first character i fell in love with:

romantically, it was actually venti. I remember meeting him in the first archon quest and just becoming obsessed with him. it was just venti this, venti that. it was like really bad actually- but if we're talking about character character (personality, backstory, etc.) , i think it was albedo. he just seemed so mysterious and intriguing, and i was so hyped for the snowstorm event quest, and the destroy mondstadt part of his story quest scared the actual fuck out of my soul

the character i never expected to love as much as i do now:

*screeches in kokomi*

but like seriously,, i actually didn't really like kokomi at first. i much preferred her beta design as "mimi," and was really sad to see the changes. it also pissed me off that she just left us after appearing in a cutscene for 0.2 seconds without saying a word. but after her story quest i actually realized that i kin her, and i just fell in love w/ her afterward. she just so beautiful and unique,,, y'know? her kit also deserved so much better -_____-

the character everyone else loves that I don't:

kaeya. i'm so so so so sorry, but i don't see the appeal. like,, he's just too flirty and untrustworthy, so he's not my type at all. two other honorable mentions are childe and zhongli,, i don't know why exactly but i just really don't see the appeal-- too tall, maybe?? who knows.

the character i love that everyone else hates/doesn't notice much:

no one really hates a character in genshin,, so i'll say one that isn't noticed a lot/doesn't have lots of content. the first one, obviously, is cyno,, but apart from that/more realistically speaking,, i'll say ningguang and xingqiu!! i rarely see any content out for them and i'm like,, what?? how?? they're both so amazing?? ningguang is just absolutely gorgeous and i'm so happy there's a skin for her,, and xingqiu is so playful and shit and i love it. the chongyun pranks are hilarious too.

a character i used to love but don't love any longer:

hmmm,, probably chongyun. i used to be obsessed with him,, (his birthday art was adorable), but now he's just too much of a basic bitch to me (he's still okay though :>!!),, i legit can't. i hate how he infuses attacks w/ cryo too,, it's just so fucking annoying.

the character i would totally smooch:

okay so y'all already know #1 is gonna be cyno so we'll leave it at that.

but apart from him, imma do one male and one female to make it fair because YES.

for female,, ugh. i'm torn between ei and yae. i'm so so so sorry,, but the lack of content for them both is so sad. they're both so hot, cute, pretty, and just downright amazing all the time. sara is 100% up there too. all inazuman women, in fact. they're just so amazingly beautiful and i wanna smooch 'em all.

as for males, hmm... probably itto or kazuha. they're so different yet so perfect?? himbo + maple leaf = abbie's dream

the character i'd want to be like:

yun jin. literally no one else. she's so devoted yet knows how to take care of herself, and is so passionate about what she does. there's depth to her character which i absolutely love,, and she's so relatable and yet you know she's better than you. she's the definition of perfection.

the character i'd slap:

no one. i love them all sm <333

but i mean... probably childe. kaeya too,, he's just very very slappable to me.

a pairing that i love:

i love this question so we're doing a lesbian, gay, and het ship.

for lets go lesbians,,,, beiguang.. it's just so fucking amazing. they are the definition of perfection,, and i love them. mihoyo make this canon plz

for go go gays,, xingyun.. i know lots and lots of people ship this one,, but cmon.. you literally have to. but benrazor is up there as well,, they're just too adorable.

for het ships,, hmm.. i don't really know. most of the ships are character x MC which i don't really like.. i feel like bedo and sucrose would be cute but it doesn't feel right. jeanluc doesn't sit right w/ me either,, because jean kinda looks up to diluc i feel??? chillumi would be okay i guess. same with aether and amber. it's ok. there just aren't that many viable het ships rn.

a pairing that i hate:

for lets go lesbians,,, i don't really know. i feel like ei and sara doesn't really work. rosaria and barbara is off the table,, i hate that one. i don't really like keqing x ningguang either,,because beiguang exists. it's just kinda not really good either.

for go go gays, 100% childe x zhongli. please don't come at me,, i just reeeally don't like this one. ka3luc is absolutely disgusting, and zhongven is even worse for me. just no.

then for het ships,, bennett and barbara. just no for me. mona and scara too, and lumaether. just gross, they're siblings. i don't really like lumine/aether x anyone either,, but w/ a few exceptions. most of all, jean x kaeya or lisa/amber x kaeya. i hate those

[ozziedawn]

Alright let’s talk about the pokemon games

I’ve got a lot of conflicting feelings. my immediate reaction to the chibi art style of bdsp was one of shock and disgust. it wasn’t at all what i, and i feel comfortable saying we as pokemon fans, wanted. it felt like a slap in the face. it felt like massive disrespect. it felt like game freak knew they could get away with anything, because people are going to buy pokemon games no matter what. this led me on a spiral of conjecturing in what other ways the game would horrendously disappoint me. i went through the five stages of grief, and settled on “okay, i’ll wait until we know more about to pass any more judgement.”

then i watched the trailer again.

The art style sucks, y’all.

It feels totally inappropriate in tone for sinnoh, given the whole “villain who wants to bind space and time to create a world without spirit” bit. It takes away one of the biggest things i was looking forward to in d/p remakes in the idea of d/p characters getting to be as expressive as gen 7/8 characters. the lighting and shading looks pretty bad on a technical level. the h a n d s. god seriously. look at chibi dawn’s hands. cursed.

but it’s also early in development. so i’m just gonna hope that they clean up the graphics and give us cutscenes with the full models when Important Things Happen (game freak if you make me watch these plastic funko pop chibi models play out the events of spear pillar i will never forgive you), and hope that they meet my other wishlist criteria:

-The National Dex (given that the original game has the national dex featuring poke radar and swarm encounters, this feels essential to me in terms of faithfully recreating the postgame)

-Home connectivity (this feels almost certain to me in some form, given that it’s the same studio, but only time will tell what degree of connectivity it has)

-Compatibility with past-gen pokemon (one of the best things about oras was bringing my pokemon from emerald to new hoenn, and i’d really like to do the same for new sinnoh)

-Compatibility with Sw/Sh, including a patch for Sw/Sh that introduces the pokemon from BD/SP not in Sw/Sh now (this is the least seemingly likely but probably my most wanted feature)

All of which is to say, please just let me poke radar for a mareep and trade an ampharos into sw/sh. if that’s possible, i’ll be happy with these games.

anyway legends: arceus looks cool huh

[smugsharkrat]

Finished the episode yesterday, so of course it’s time for My Thoughts™ (and boy do I have a lot)

Obviously, SPOILERS AHEAD

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this episode. Many things in the writing felt rushed, which I guess I’m willing to write off as a consequence of the layoffs.

The first thing I noticed was the interaction with other characters fell a little short, at least in my opinion. Most episodes give us plenty of options to talk to the characters throughout each instance, and the first instance especially just threw us back into the action without any chances to pause and talk. I’m getting to see all my favorite characters again after several months, and it’s like “NOPE! They don’t matter! Go fight a dragon!” It wasn’t as bad further into the episode, but it still left me wanting more in that department.

And I have to say, Aurene’s return, while not a bad plot point, I felt was not great in its timing and delivery. We all figured she’d probably come back, and the logic behind it made sense, but to end the last episode with her death and leaving us with this big emotional hit, then take it all back right at the beginning of this episode... I have to say it kind of felt like a slap in the face. ANet spent a lot of time dwelling on the emotional impact of her death. Caithe’s quiet heartbreak, Taimi’s sobbing and wailing, not to mention the Requiem short stories that really drove all those emotions home. Then we come right back to the story and none of that matters anymore because Aurene’s okay and we gotta kill Kralk. I think having the characters try to continue the fight without her for a while before she comes back, or just having the death and return happen in the same episode would have been a better way to go about it.

I’m also really not sure how to feel about the final instance, with Kralkatorik speaking with Aurene like a beloved grandchild and only his torment being the reason for him being an asshole. I’m just... not sure. There are things I like about the concept, but it also the whole scene doesn’t totally mesh with other plot points. And there are some themes there that don’t really sit well with me.

BUT! I don’t want to sound like I’m totally negative about the whole episode. There are a lot of things I liked. The map is excellent, and I felt like they did a really good job tying the map events to the story. Some maps have fallen short in that respect, where you just kind of ignore whatever is going on in favor of finishing the episode. This map drew me in a little more and I participated in more events and did more exploring than I usually do before continuing to each section of the story. The map itself is gorgeous and unsettling and fascinating all at once. A lot of brilliant ideas went into it.

I also really enjoyed how the episode ended. Aurene finally becoming an elder dragon, giving us something to celebrate and closure on a lot of things, but also just a few lingering questions of “what now?” to leave us with lots more opportunity for story. Also, Taimi’s happy bounce in the last cutscene gives me life.

The skyscales are also a cool addition. I obviously don’t have the mount unlocked yet, but I like the mechanics for the most part. Being able to hover and do more fine-tuned maneuvers in the air is cool. Though I sometimes get annoyed with the wall-clinging thing. Especially when I’m trying to land on a horizontal surface, and the skyscale goes “Nah, I’mma grab it instead.” But overall a cool mount. I can’t wait to unlock it.

I do have one more thought about the episode that I’m going to put in a separate post because I’ve rambled on long enough, and this thought really needs its own dedicated space. So hang on to your butts.

[cinnbar-bun]

WILDCARD: Mysmes as gbf units (what element, what weapon they'd use, what race they'd be and so on)

*rubs hands together* I was MADE for this

Zen: Light element- I’m kinda gonna base this on his outfit for when he played Zorro. He’d be kind of mysterious but over-dramatic- he’d introduce himself as an aspiring actor, flirt with Danchou for a bit and be all ‘hehe obviously the god’s regret making me this handsome’. He has a rapier on his side and Vyrn roasts him literally every second like ‘yo dodo bird do you even fight bro????’ and Zen gets SO offended. His fate episode has him basically chatting your ear off and you’re like ‘why is he even in my crew-he’s as chaotic as Aoidos???’ But as you level him up he is the sweetest thing ever and his v-day+ white day cutscenes would be the absolute cutest things ever!!! He’d be so suave you’d have a heart attack!!

Rarity: I’d go off on a limb here and say maybe r or Sr, since he’s the “easy” route, he’d prolly be one of the easiest to get. I’d also say he’d be a fan favorite real quick, so he gets an sr summer skin and sr event character, maybe an outfit or two as well. 

Skills: Based on his personality, I think he’d be one that can charm enemies with a cheesy skill name like ‘dazzling skin’ or ‘blinding smile’. Also based on his rather hot-headed personality, he’d prolly be someone with ‘hostility-up’. I’d even say when you get him to level 45 and earn his last skill, he’d have a skill that heals or takes hits for you, the MC. 

Weapon: Rapier, as said before. I think he’d call it ‘Zorro’ or something else that’s entirely stupid. When you summon his weapon, it’d be called ‘radiant rapier’. 

Yoosung- Wind element. He’s an absolute cutie and would prolly be a hermit in the forest chatting it up with his animal buddies and you gotta drag his butt outside while he screams about the sun. His whole character arc is him getting utterly ROASTED by Vyrn and literally everyone because of how much of a NEET he is. Lyria and Danchou try to reintegrate him into society and trust people more. He starts off as ‘happy’ in his fate episode, gets melancholic in his skill episode, then becomes truly happy in a cross episode with another character. 

Rarity: Sr. Unfortunately he’s not as popular as most, so he probably gets an event unit at most besides his original. I think he’d eventually be recognized as being a great character and may get a summon stone though. 

Skills: I think he’d be a healer/buffer to the crew. So he’d be healing with a skill called “Superman Yoosung to the rescue!!” and then a buff for wind characters like “NERF THIS WIND LOLOL!!!” And then his last skill will be a really sentimental one like “I’ve become stronger now” and it places a defense shield on him and ally. 

Weapon: Staff. He’s a healer, but his sprite has like a bird and deer somewhere. If you were to summon him, it’d be called “Staff of Life”. 

Jaehee- Is a tired woman who you bump into because she’s busy trying to deal with Jumin’s shit. She apologizes quickly and Lyria is like “OMG BUT WE NEED TO HELP HER!!!!’ So her whole character arc is you helping her she should achieve her dreams and then suddenly she’s like ‘yeah LEMME QUIT AND START A CAFE!!!’ She becomes great friends with Sandalphon becuase they both bleed coffee and are done with everyone, but have a soft spot for the captain, and have massive crushes on their white haired besties (i mean whaaaaat). 

Rarity: Sr. She gets an original, but a second sr version where she has finally achieved her dream. It’s a really cute closure to her character, and Jumin doesn’t act so OOC to fill a quota lol. 

Skills: She’d be debuffer/ buffer extraordinaire. Cooldown times shorten, atk goes up, and she has a stackable skill ‘The faster you finish, the faster you can leave!!’ in which her hostility and atk goes up, her def goes down, and she HITS HARD!!! 

Weapon: stack of papers Idk tbh, maybe a tome, but it’s referred to as a staff (call it a gd book jfc Cygames lol). She’d probably earth element and WILL BREAK THE EARTH IN HALF!!!!

Jumin- The rich, stoic prince of a kingdom you end up meeting on accident. He only joins you because you found Elizabeth the 3rd and he was very grateful. So imagine Percival on steroids and that’s Jumin as a GBF character. He’s quick to call bullshit, but every time Vyrn or Zen roasts him it flies over his head/he roasts them back a thousand times harder. His arc is him learning to trust his FEEELINSS!! Also becomes close with Dante and they both philosophically discuss cats like they’re their gods. His V-day and White Day cutscenes will be the EXACT SAME AS SIEGFRIED!! HE’S AWFUL ON V DAY BUT ON WHITE DAY HE’LL BE COMPLIMENTING YOU AND BEING HAWT BUT THEN HE’S LIKE ‘I RESPECT YOU’. DUMB IDIOT STILL DOESN’T KNOW FEELINGS!! 

Rarity: SSR. He’s quickly become a fan favorite and has two ssr versions, his original and maybe a halloween/ christmas version, and then an anniversary skin where he’s wearing a dashing tux and it will say on the description, ‘Can you keep up with me’ or something safdsjgnfljsnjkn I’m dying CYGAMES MM COLLAB WHENST????

Skills: He’s a dark debuffer/ defensive character. He can hit hard but he is more focused on longer battles where survivability is more necessary than him nuking. He’d have a def down for enemies and it’s called ‘I get checks’ and a def up for all allies called ‘Ahh- to be with Elizabeth the 3rd again’ 

Weapon: A beautiful sword/ lance that is very pristine and glorious. It’s gonna have a diamond on it somewhere and it’s gonna be a reference to how his father gave him that pen. 

Also!!! He gets a cross-fate episode with Zen where they both roast each other before actually talking out their feelings and working it out. I can also imagine an episode where he delves more into his distrust of women and why he focuses on his Elizabeth so much. 

707- He’s so god damn chaotic you wonder WHY THE HELL IS HE EVEN ALLOWED??? Okay so you end up meeting him when Rackam is trying to fix the Grandcypher and homeboy shows up, suggests some ideas and him and Rackam go nutso over ships (this version of cars). He has a lot of inside jokes and is very memeable for a GBF character, becoming a notorious part of the April Fools event. His fate episodes start off happy before becoming depressing and you’re like wow why don’t you just run me over with a boat huh???

Rarity: SSR. Super popular and has like…five variants lol. I say he’d be a fire nuker all the time except for one ssr variant, in which it’s a dark version where it was a ‘what if he fell into despair?1!!!!???’ Super depressing story holy cow. He’s got an event sr in there, it’s pretty good. He’s prolly also got a summer, Christmas, or Halloween variant somewhere there. Of course, because of his popularity, he gets skin or two as well. 

Weapon: I imagine him using a fire gun. Like imagine a better Rackam. It’d be called something like, “hacker’s resolve”. 

Skills: Fire nuker. He’s horrible for long distance fights, but he focuses a lot on enmity, hype, and hostility up fights where he needs to hit hard and fast. For sure has a skill called, ‘I’m in’, and “Defender of Justice-707!!’ and after you complete the heart-wrenching skill ep. he gets his final skill called, “god forgive me”. It’s so depressing T-T

Also!! Has a cross-fate with both Yoosung and Unknown where they focus on family and growing past their own background. 

Unknown- A very scary dude when you first meet him, who tries to kill you on sight. Lyria…does something and he’s like, ‘I need to get revenge so I’ll stick with you if you let me kill people’. His episodes start off VERY dark and disturbing, but gradually get happier as he becomes more acquainted with the MC. I’d say he’s basically like Azazel where he’s so tsundere about everything and you’re ‘okay brooooo’. His valentines day cutscenes would be absolutely hilarious as he’s like ‘ew why would I take anything you make’ to ‘i dreamt of eating your chocolate again’. His white day scenes would be SOOOOOO worth it tho, he gets you a bouquet of flowers with special meaning and is blushing and tells you to take it before he freaks out. 

Rarity: Originally a water sr, but then got a wind SSR version that represents him growing and becoming ‘Saeran’ again. It’s a super amazing growth that makes everyone weep when they!! see!! the!! baby!! smile!! He prolly has  a Halloween version where he dresses as the phantom again. 

Weapon: Firearms. Tons of guns and explosions. 

Skills: He’s an attacker/debuffer. He can hit hard like his brother but can ACTUALLY TAKE A HIT AND NOT DIE!!! I can imagine he’d have a self heal skill called ‘mint eye elixir’ where he drinks a potion and heals, but if you do it too much he eventually can be knocked out or raise his atk a lot but get killed by getting slapped too hard. He’d have tons of debuffs where he blinds and confuses foes, and his last skill would be called ‘unraveled chains’ where he boosts his atk and def. His SSR version would be a lot different and more focused on buffing everyone up, and he’s so good at it. They’re mostly related to flowers and how he’s grown and changed as a person, and how he finally reached happiness.

V- He is a blind wizard. That’s it. That’s literally how you meet him you go ‘lol there’s no such thing as a-’ and V saves your ass from getting run over by a cart or something. You beg him to join and he’s like ‘well of course I’ll help you wonderful children!!!’ His v-day and white day scenes are absolutely heartbreaking yet so emotional because he talks about his past with Rika yet says how he can finally ‘see’ the light since joining you. His story IS SAD!! SAD!! SAD BOI HOURS AT ALL TIMES!!! A BLIND MAN IS CRYING OVER HOW HIS SINS WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO WASHED AWAY AND HE SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO GET A SECOND CHANCE AND!!! SO SAD!!

Rarity: Water SSR plus a dark sr from an event where he’s in his mint eye clothes. Gets a Halloween skin where he’s dressed as a detective trying to find his happiness and will to live. 

Skills: Self-sacrificing skills that buff everyone up. It’s so sad because he’s so good at buffing everyone and making everyone a tank but you just… dude you wanna talk about it?? Do you want a healer omg man, I’m so sorry. 

Weapon: Blind wizard. He uses a staff, which doubles as his walking staff. 

[rayxnkh3]

Final final thoughts

Wow, okay, so it has been a while since I have posted anything on this blog. Reasons being I beat the game a while ago and I kept forgetting or getting distracted from finishing this final post. I wanted to do a lot of smaller posts detailing every little event from the end of my last post until the end of the game, it is no longer looking like that is going to happen so I am going to quickly wrap up the last components of the game and swiftly get into my final final thoughts.

The Final World - Creepy, interesting, but overall sorta bland and rather dull. Due to its aesthetic and simple mechanics I got very bored with it rather quickly. I like the idea of a world being basically limbo or death (It’s a KH story so there isn’t a straight forward answer) but this one just seems sorta... meh..

The Cutscenes in between game play - Ranged from holy shit amazing (the massive keyblade attack) to ridiculous (donald laser). Overall every cutscene was gorgeous and filled with artistic wonder. Some of the characters did not hold up to their potential, examples being Axel being a terrible fighter and Kairi dying (Remember that rage? Yeah, it’s about this). Other times the characters had tons of heart and felt like either badasses or emotional powerhouses (i cried four times by the end of the game)

The Labyrinth - So having to go and fight every single new member of organization 13 seemed like a daunting task while it was being built up towards the end of the game and I was curious how they were going to pace them out over time. NOPE! Just throw them all together and have fun! While I understand why they did this, it was a rather large let down that such colorful characters get their 5 seconds in the death spotlight and then are gone.

Xehanort Fight(s) - Long, sometimes very repetitive, and overall pretty good. They could’ve cut out some chunks of it as the constant change in scenes got repetitive (they wouldn’t have if the mechanics significantly changed, but they didn’t) Overall not my favorite fight in the game, and certainly not my favorite final boss fight of any KH game.

Final Final Final Thoughts (I swear, I am going to ramble a lot and then I am done) - Soooooo KH3. I had a ton of fun playing this game. I have been a huge KH fan since the first trailers for KH1 were being released. My gamer tag is my nobody name and I have spent hundreds of hours discussing every minute detail about every game with some of my closest friends. So it’s pretty obvious I love KH.

That being said, this is my least favorite of the three main KH games. While it is clearly the most artistic and the most innovative when it comes to mechanics and levels, it falls short on one of the most important things about a KH (or Squeenix) game, the story.

Each individual level’s story was fun and engaging in some sort of way, but the overarcing story made little to no sense, went almost nowhere given the amount of time they spent on it, and had a very predicatable and unsatisfactory ending. The overarcing story feels very rushed and slapped together for the purposes of just ending Xehanort and Sora’s involvement within the world.

If they had spent more time either in between worlds, took large breaks between worlds, or spent a few more worlds worth of time on the story of Xehanort and Sora than I feel like they could’ve done such a better job. Most other KH stories gave their main story so much more time and effort and it really shows how little they put into it for this game.

For being the third main installment of this series I was really expecting the story to have some sort of massive final struggle and conclusion, but in the end it was the same rehash of the last game’s story with the exception of a different head (which we already knew was there). KH2 built up an entire organization of colorful people, a plan for what they were doing, and how we systematically brought down inch by inch their organization and plan. What did we do in KH3? Uhhh, took down these people in about one world’s worth to stop them from...Unleashing Kingdom Hearts? Again? I barely can even remember why Xehanort wanted to do any of the crap he did and that says a lot about how much time we were given understanding the antagonists motivation and plan.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! RAGE INCOMING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you have been reading my previous post you are probably ready for some rage. Well, here you go. THEY FUCKING DID NOTHING WITH KAIRI!!!! They spent so much time on attempting to make her a badass, they gave her a keyblade, they spent most of the game training her, she constantly babbled on about wanting to save Sora for once. Well, SHE DIDNT! All she did was show up, show her keyblade to the players, AND FUCKING DIE!!!!! Words can’t even express how much this angered me when I saw it happen. Technically I was upset and shocked when it first happened, but it was very quickly followed up with blood curdling rage about how they did NOTHING with her. I love having strong female characters in my stories, they don’t have to be physically strong, but they have to be more than just one dimensional - girl. Kairi’s only purpose was to motivate Sora to go do a thing, that is such a horrible waste of a character.

SO ANOTHER THING! Yes, they brought Kairi back at the end of the game, but they fucking KILLED SORA!?! SO, this is supposed to be a happy feelsy sort of game, right? It’s made by fucking DISNEY! If you give me two cute little kids who grow up together, hang out together, and clearly really really like each other, WHY DON’T THEY GET TO LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER!!!!! *chucks computer*

*deep breaths* Okay, I am done. *mumbles under breath* Fucking ridiculous....

Let’s on a positive note!

KH3 had some of the best combat, mechanics, and graphics that the series has ever seen. Most, if not all, the worlds were immensely enjoyable in one way or another. If you read all of my previous posts it becomes painfully obvious I am a big fan of this game, and I would recommend anyone who has played the previous KH games to play this one as well. Though, don’t get your hopes up too much for it and know that it feels significantly shorter than any of the other KH games. Nitpicks aside, I had fun, and at the end of the day that is the most important part of any game, having fun. Having a positive experience in some way and walking away feeling better for having played the game.

Level of Enjoyment: Still a massive KH fan and can’t wait to see what they come up with next.

*Side Note* If you got all of the way to this note and read all of my previous posts I just wanted to give you a massive thank you!!! Thank you for reading all of my dumb or nerdy rants about this game.

I am trying my hardest to become a game designer myself and hope that one day, you will be playing and enjoying my game. Feel free to critique it as intensely as I just critiqued KH3. Have a great life!!