#hes the only non dlc student missing

[dannyknowscomics]

Magenta Isle Part 2

(Please Enjoy This Non-Canon What If For Pokémon Scarlet and Violet DLC)

Things are tense you and your two Allie’s are surrounded by the expedition crew, you locked eyes with there leader

Professor Turo or Professor Sada (For the sake of imagination there outfits are more explorer like and not scientist)

While Nemona and the frazzled Arven take down the grunts, your left to battle Turo/Sada

There team is only two Pokémon but there levels will be high 60’s

Salamance & Mabosstiff / Gallade & Mabosstiff

Upon defeating them, they’ll demand the know what children are doing in such a dangerous place, when mentioning Jacq ,The Professor becomes confused as Jacq is only a kid how on earth could he possibly be a Professor now?

They demand to see him and give him a piece of there mind for doing something so stupid as to bring students to such a dangerous place

Arven attempts to speak to the Professor but there dismissive of him and his impertinence, Arven stays behind and tells you he’s just going to find the new herbs and he’ll meet back up with you later.

Nemona fearing that our trip will be cut short as soon as the two Professors meet runs off to find new Pokémon to battle and apologizes for giving you the boring job

You and Turo/Sada arrive back where you arrived…..but soemthing is off the freighter is missing as is Jacq?

The Professor tells you not to worry, things like this happen on the Isle, it has to do with the strange energy around it.

Things disappear and reappear, The Professor brings you to there base camp and offers to let you stay with there crew until such a time they can find Jacq

While searching around it is apparent the expedition teams gear is very old and obsolete, when discussing it with NPC they don’t seem to notice and insist that it is the most up to date model

The Professor than calls you into there tent and shows the mission board

They explain the untold story of Heath and how after publishing his work and becoming a laughing stock he was convinced the answer to what happened to him in Area Zero could be found here

The Professor asks for your help in locating a Pokémon said to be the Guardian Of The Isle

They mark the location on your Rotom Phone (while being amazed that you have a device powered by a Pokémon!?)

You eventually find your way to where the Guardian Of The Isle is said to roam and are then attacked

The guardian is very strong but your team should be able to defeat it…..until something happens, it terastallizing, but with a unique Tera Crown

The battle starts again, this time your Pokémon’s moves don’t effect the Guadian

As your first Pokémon is defeated The Professor shows up and uses Salamance/Gallade to save you

They then throw a Master Ball at the Guardian, but it glows with green energy before disappearing.

The Professor is frustrated and explains that [•••••] must have woken up again

Your obviously confused and the Professor explains that The Guardian isn’t a real Pokémon like all paradox Pokémon it was created via human imagination brought to life by

[•••••]

The Professor says the Pokémon brings dreams to life but the danger is that the longer someone remains in its field that more than lose touch with reality and begin to go crazy.

They explain that when [•••••] awakens whatever it created seems to vanish, but also it sometimes takes things that are real too

The Professor assures your they’ll help you find Jacq

When you return to there tent they collapse in there bed

They laugh about how this has been the longest year of there life, they explain to you a year ago they left there Wife/Husband with there son to explore The Isle.

As they drift to sleep you realize this expedition team has been here for 15 years…….

Will You Be Able to Save The Expedition Team?

Will You Find Jacq!?

Will Arven Finally Make The Perfect Sandwich!?

And What on Earth is The Mysterious Egg!?

Find out When I Drop Part 3

[moeblob]

So where’s Ignatz in FEH....... gimme the dear final Deer........... 

[emblemxeno]

I hate to be the person but is it ok to ask why you dislike Sylvain and the ship Sylvix (Sylvain/Felix) as a whole?

My opinion on Sylvain fluctuates a lot, lol. I have a somewhat better opinion of him currently ever since starting my playthrough of 3H with the Japanese voices and it's less... tiring to here him talk, if that makes sense. Like, Joe Brogie is a great actor but there's something about his performance as Sylvain that's very whiny and manipulative and textbook "frat douchebag" sounding to me, which makes Sylvain's actual sincere moments miss the mark for me. Idk if it was the direction he was given, but that's how I feel.

I have little understanding of how tone changes affects how a person comes off in the Japanese language, but to me, the difference between Sylvain's "Carefree Philanderer" facade and his "pretty smart guy who thinks the world sucks and that his life was fucked over" personality is much clearer with his JP voice. Or at the very least, the way his JP actor speaks actually makes me feel for him a little.

On the whole though, the very basis of Sylvain's character is very hard to sell to me since "Girls only want me for my Crest and my family's wealth and not for who I am as a person" is something I roll my eyes at as a poor person just trying to survive irl, nor can I believe it in a setting where most of 3H's crest/marriage issues negatively affect women. It's just kind of sloppy to me. Though another issue that I had is how he doesn't really get consequences for treating women poorly, but I kind of retract that now since he does in a meta way, i.e. he only has like... 4 paired endings? The least out of all non-dlc student characters.

My issue with Sylvix is that it's kind of... boring? Maybe not the word, but their supports don't really do anything that other supports of theirs don't. Sylvain does the "protecting someone when others think I'm a carefree jerk" in Byleth's support and his "I'm better than you think I am" aspect in like, all of his supports. Felix has his "I'm gonna act like a stubborn brat to you because I think I have you all figured out until you prove me wrong" schtick in most of his other supports too.

There's nothing that their canon relationship does that any other ship they can have does differently. And their love-dovey "I almost wanna hug you bro no homo" "Ah bro remember when we'd promised we'd die together no homo" A+ rank doesn't really salvage it for me to be honest.

And I can also admit part of it is lingering resentment for how it's one of the most popular non-Byleth ships in fandom at the moment, when again, I think there are other relationships they have that do similar things on top of romances that I feel are done better as a whole. Another part is that neither or them physically appeal to me either lol. Then again, most of the male cast in 3H isn't physically appealing to me.

[gascon-en-exil]

Bottom Ten Three Houses Characters

I decided after a while that I couldn’t fulfill an anon request to do a top 10 list for the whole series, because it would overlap too much with ones I’ve already done - lord privilege is a thing that exists, and I’ve ranked those before - and because it’s really difficult to compare so many characters (~600 if we’re being thorough) across so many different games.  Instead I decided to go negative with it, although around 2/3rds of these ought to be totally uncontroversial at least in my corner of the fandom. Starting from the one I dislike least:

(Dis)honorable Mention: Anna, for putting in such a lackluster showing that she doesn’t deserve a spot on this list despite technically being in the playable cast. It’s not only the lack of supports, although that hurts, but also how obvious it is that the writers have no new material for her. Anna’s gimmick worked fined when she was an NPC and perhaps for the space of a single game as a playable character, and Fates originated the meta idea of making her paid DLC so you have to shell out real money to use her, but that’s the extent of her here too. As a unit she’s far from spectacular, and her paralogue isn’t even good for much but a ton of (mostly mediocre) drops and a tiny bit of context for that Pallardó guy from non-CF Chapter 13. Here’s a revolutionary idea: for the next original FE it might be good to have Anna back to being only a wacky dimension-hopping NPC shopkeeper.

#10 Constance - It pains me that she’s on this list, more than anyone else by far. I really wanted to like Constance, and at first glance she’s right up my alley as a haughty impoverished aristocrat coping awkwardly with her diminished status. I like the dark flier class she’s built around, and her default personality is an even louder pre-timeskip Ferdinand whom you know I love. However, it’s that “default personality” bit that sours me on her, because she’s got two of them. What could have been an interesting take on Constance’s struggles with identity and self-esteem in the wake of her family’s disgrace is presented in such an over-the-top comedic manner that it’s impossible to take her very seriously. It’s more reminiscent of FE13′s Noire than anything, and at least she has the excuse of a mother who performed dark magic experiments on her and fractured her psyche. Constance also supports Jeritza and yet somehow they do no more than lightly allude to their personality issues which is as much a missed opportunity as you can get with such a terrible character (see below), opting instead to try softening Jeritza with his fondness for roses. Lovely.

#9 Leonie - Fandom exaggerates her Jeralt fixation, although it does pop up at the worst times (see: her Byleth support right after his death). As I’m not very concerned with Byleth’s nonexistent feelings though this placement more comes down to general indifference. Leonie feels completely disconnected from the rest of the Deer, and although she’s a supposed reflection of the house’s more egalitarian bent there’s nothing connecting her to the politics or larger culture of the Alliance until you learn about her student loan debt. She really is best understood as a Jeralt fangirl first and foremost, which is why perhaps the most surprising thing about her is when reality comes knocking in her endings and it turns out she picked up her mentor’s vices as well. Jeralt himself would be even further down this list were he playable, but as he isn’t I’ll have to settle for side-eyeing all of his adoring fans. Which brings me to....

#8 Alois - Remember that dating sim Dream Daddy that people were talking about a few years ago? The one that willfully misunderstands what the term “daddy” means in gay male spaces to write fluffy dad joke-laden romances intended for a presumably not-gay audience? Alois is the spirit of that game personified as an FE character, which is not something I ever would have thought to know that I didn’t want. He’s got some funny lines here and there, but that’s the most you can say about him when otherwise he’s just passable midgame filler (of a unit type each house including the Wolves already has one of) standing in Jeralt’s imitation Greil shadow. I don’t even mind the platonic S support all that much because it’s still only Byleth, but it occurs to me that just about the only thing that would have made Alois memorable would be if his S support was romantic but he remained married to his wife. I can’t think of a time when this series has allowed the player to indulge in adultery, so even if it had been limited to an option for f!Byleth it would have been a fascinating option.

#7 Cyril - This isn’t about his devotion to Rhea, which is fully understandable given his circumstances. Nor is it about his performance as a unit which in my experience at least is actually rather good for a Donnel/Mozu-style villager archetype. No, what gets me is that he’s a self-righteous workaholic which makes for quite the grating personality trait. I understand that he finds meaning in his work and that he’s got some entertaining supports calling other characters to task for their terrible work ethics or ignorance of the lives of commoners (VW should have really dug more into his back-and-forth with Claude), but the lectures on not interrupting him or telling Byleth to get back to work are as tiresome as they are frequent. It’s petty I know, but one can only hope he grows out of it eventually. At least he doesn’t wear a pot on his head....

#6 Mercedes - Like Constance, she’s the type of character I wanted to like from the start. She’s pious pseudo-Catholic clergy, with a quirky thing with ghosts and some quiet lesbianism with her BFF that I can take or leave but that I know some people really enjoy (and also she’s bi-for-Byleth, but no one talks about that). Unfortunately as I touched on when talking about Marianne in my Top 10 characters list, Mercedes’s appealing points are sharply contrasted against her more annoying ones. The breathy voice acting I can mostly get used to, but her backstory is unnecessarily convoluted - three families and two flavors of evil adoptive father - and as is also true of Constance her association with Jeritza drags her down a fair bit. To this day I still have no idea what we’re meant to make of the Lamine siblings’ dynamic, but Mercedes’s eagerness to overlook her brother’s crimes and unrepentant bloodlust so she can coo over what a sweet boy he is deep down say some pretty odd things about her personal moral code. Maybe it was implied all along with the paranormal fascination that she’s not as orthodox as she appears to be, but the dissonance is real especially in CF where she gets a support line with Jeritza that tries to woobify him and affirms how much she loves him...and meanwhile in monastery exploration she’s wringing her hands over how much she hates the idea of fighting Faerghus and the church. There’s no through line here, and as justification for characters siding with Edelgard go this one is pretty flimsy.

#5 Gilbert - Similar to Cyril, I don’t dislike Gilbert for the reasons that most of the fandom does. Yes, he’s a crappy father, but as I’m pretty indifferent to Annette and to father-child bonding in general I can appreciate the fresh spin he places on the archetype of the devoted knight. In short, he’s a knight who wasn’t devoted and ran away from his duty, and his arc in AM is all about making up for his past failures both to his family and to his liege. This is an angle to knighthood FE doesn’t delve into often, and it makes him an explicit foil of Dedue as explored in their supports. The reason that Gilbert is on this list though in fact has more to do with that opposition, because I am painfully aware that had AM not killed off Dedue by default in service of self-insert romance Gilbert would not have had to be scripted as Dedue’s replacement both as a unit and as a retainer figure. It’s not his “fault” of course, insofar as one can ever blame fictional characters for the actions of their writers, but whenever I’m running AM and have to take those randomized supply run quests from Gilbert instead of the route’s actual retainer I’m reminded of how we were robbed of power couple Dimidue (in AM anyway - CF of all routes delivers on this point). Gilbert could have been father of the year to Annette and freely given Byleth his (grand)daddy dick and it still wouldn’t overwrite the fundamental problem that Byleth screwed over all three AM-exclusive characters in different ways. As to that, well...look at #1.

#4 Raphael - It’s hard to describe just how much wasted potential there is to this guy. Along with Ignatz and Leonie he could have illustrated the greater social mobility of the Alliance and the increased opportunities non-nobles enjoy there, but all three are mostly side characters. He’s repeatedly positive in the face of tragedy and remains motivated by his love for his remaining family, but 90% of his dialogue revolves around either eating or training to the point that he’s arguably the closest FE16 comes to gimmick character writing (something almost every FE is guilty of, but that has come under heavy scrutiny in recent years because of how much Awakening and Fates used it). He has a sweet friendship with Ignatz with even a bit of chemistry that sits in good company with the kind of simply affability he has with almost everyone he supports, but they have a no homo ending involving one of the game’s eternally offscreen characters. He supports Dimitri, but the bara content is thin on the ground and their line stands out as easily the least substantial of the house leaders’ cross-house supports. Even as a unit he’s lackluster, in the same repetitive category as Alois with nothing that makes him really stand out from the other axe-and-brawling guys. Highest HP growth in the game...whee. I’ve seen arguments that Raphael’s simplicity is the source of his charm, and while I can sort of see that he feels like he belongs in a game like the GBA or Tellius titles where characters have a much smaller amount of overall content to their name. In a game like Three Houses the sheer torrent of lines about food and training wear thin quickly.

#3 Bernadetta - see #8 here. To sum up, she’s annoying, her sex appeal falls flat with me and is frankly just kind of confusing, it bugs me that a significant portion of the Ferdibert fandom headcanons her as Hubert’s bestie when the man clearly does not do besties, and the most positive thing I can think to say about is that based on her habit of befriending known murderers among other things she might be a bit of a sociopath. That’s not very flattering, but at least it’s somewhat interesting. Oh yeah, and Edelgard setting her on fire at the Gronder rematch is good for a meme although I suppose that isn’t technically attributable to Bernadetta.

#2 Jeritza - Jeritza sucks. Everyone, apart from the small number of fans into Bylitza for some reason, is aware that he sucks. He’s a bloodthirsty serial killer we’re meant to like because he killed his father to protect his sister and also because he likes ice cream and kittens...and because he’s clearly mentally ill in some way and Edelgard is weaponizing his illness for her war which means all the murder is okay, I guess. Jeritza is like FE7 Karel if he was somewhat important to the plot and that instead of a redemption arc between games he got Karla and some other characters swearing that he’s really sweet deep down and also he can romance the male self-insert - yay. I love the line of thinking sometimes espoused in anti circles that M/M Bylitza is the only non-Problematic™ Byleth ship because he’s their only gay romantic S rank partner who’s not one of their students, a loli, or Rhea who is obviously the most evil character in the game. As I’ve mentioned above Jeritza also makes other characters he supports worse by association, although he’s not quite as bad in that regard as #1. Do I even need to bring up the painfully affected voice acting? It’s ironic that the vocal director for the English localization turns in unquestionably the worst performance among the named cast, and I have to assume he picked the role for himself solely because he sounds like an imposing Death Knight and not because his voice is at all suited to the troubled twunk underneath the armor. Just about the only thing that would have salvaged Jeritza for me would be if he and Hubert got to have an epic competition to determine once and for all which of them is more evil. Hubert would wipe the floor with this poser.

#1 Byleth - see here at the bottom. They fail as a self-insert, they fail to be a properly realized character even more than previous Avatars, they damage other characterizations and arcs all over the place, and Three Houses overall would have been vastly improved if they didn’t exist or at least weren’t the PoV character. In that previous post I listed just two reasons why I still prefer Byleth to Robin as an Avatar, one being that their significance to the plot is set up before the game even begins and the other being that their lack of a voice makes f!Byleth a less obtrusive presence when it came time for me to have her S rank all the guys to fill out the support log...not enough to where I could treat her as a self-insert, but any amount helps. I do however have to add a third small bit of praise for Byleth, in that they apparently drive antis up the wall for the most asinine of reasons which is always entertaining to witness. I recall when this game’s school setting was first revealed that everyone in the fandom nodded their heads and made the easy prediction that there would be teacher/student sex because that’s just how FE rolls, but somehow still there’s outrage over it. Even so, Byleth is horrible by every significant parameter, and it’s a shame we’ll only be able to imagine what FE16 would have been like had the developers not felt the need to write the whole thing around an Avatar.

[damoselcastel]

Ashen Wolves, part 2

I’ve definitely spent too much time doing other things and can’t quite call this liveblog blind anymore, but oh well. Onto the worldbuilding(?) that the new area provides in this DLC.

The entire conceit of “an Undergound House, the Ashen Wolves” is more than a little bizarre cause it kinda comes to nothing..? Like, we don’t Tutor or have class sessions during the DLC, so Aelfric asking Byleth to teach the kids is uh, window dressing at best?? Even weirder knowing that the DLC characters in a main route just straight up join an Aboveground house, so... the writers where just really desperate to explain the Academy uniforms???

Anyway, the explorable portion of “the Abyss” (who named this place, a 13 year old boy desperate to be cool??) is only a fraction of the size of Garreg Mach, maybe 1/4 as big... which is more than fine cause I find running around GM to largely be a waste of time (boy, I miss FE9′s base set up). The game-mechanically relevant areas are the Augur and pagan alter (funny how easy this statue is mistake for Sothis), and Aelfric is signposted as Relevant To Story from the get go... though in the latter’s case, just like with Jeralt I just can’t buy what the game’s trying to shovel with all the random NPCs singing his praises. I’ve barely seen the guy, but what role he’ll play is OBVIOUS maybe especially clear since he won’t shut up about the Avatar’s (dead) mom.

Also maybe because these NPCs are hard to take seriously in general:

However, I can’t quite get over how all the character dialogue is supposed to sell this place where outsiders down on their luck go when there’s no other place left for them, and yet the rooms with beds, ect, are tidily portioned with like two in there at most. I’ve seen more desperate/cramped living quarters in modern day big cities, how is this supposed to be some sort of criminal underworld shanty town?? Speaking of, I really how how the Abyss + Windmire does this, putting the criminal underground LITERALLY underground- like c’mon, show us a slum! It’s not hard, locate it against Garreg Mach’s outer wall, it doesn’t even have to be that big!

Also I find it bizarre how Constance and the lot seem to be so convinced the Church is Out To Get Them, when there’s a Church official there, running the place, with y’know Church permission and sanctions on Church-owned ground. If anything it feels like the concept of Sanctuary (aka Asylum) is being invoked to provide a safe-haven (though dumbly since “there are no laws” is a terrible approach anywhere). Like... I know [spoilers] but knowing that just makes the core Ashen Wolves feel all the more gullible and lacking in perspective. But I suppose all of Student Phase is guilty of trying to paint The Church in the typical JRPG evil lighting when the truth casts a different shadow.

Also also I find the whole “outsiders with no where left to go” a bizarre reason to be stuck in this hole, mostly because the listed:

Rapheal is sorta what’s left for a merchant family destroyed by nobles. Mercedes Byleth support involves an elder who may or may not being oign senile and presumably lives within or around the Monastery. Orphans we KNOW the Church takes in regularly, like after Remire and even before there’s a ton of munchkins underfoot in the Monastery (as there should be). Foreigners, well Shamir was accepted despite explicitly having fought for an enemy nation when she’d arrived on Fodlan’s shores, surely a struggling non-combatant Almyran might have a chance getting asylum? And I mean Aboveground, where you’d have to import food and all the necessities from anyway...

But as absurd as I find this setting and the DLC intro in general, I gotta admit the four DLC characters are pretty charming spoiled myself on their main-game supports. There are a lot of highly “uh” moments, like Hapi’s “curse”, but Balthus’ connection to the Gonerils and the additions of other native PoC Foldan cultures I find to be quite good additions. While the DLC’s writing is choked full of contradictions, some bits are good expansion for what the main game lacked... Although the fact that more than half of this DLC’s bookend battlemap storytelling is wasted on “and random Mercs appear, FIGHT” instead of more concrete build towards the finale I have to consider a waste. Because this sucker is only 7 chapters and they’re already NOT talking about the stuff I WANTED to know more about (Morphis, the past with Serios and Co) which, boo.

[soloragoldsun]

Pride Month Recommendations- Days 9-18

No, I didn’t forget this! I just haven’t had the strength to do long-ass posts of this nature. Hopefully, things will be better when I switch shifts at the end of the month.

Anyway, I’m going to go through my Steam Library for this list...

9. Angels with Scaly Wings by Radical Phi is a dating sim/mystery/sci-fi game where you can romance a dragon. As you can probably imagine, it is an ideal game for me. You are an ambassador from a dying Earth who has been sent through a portal to a world populated by sentient dragons. There, you uncover a series of murders and get close to certain dragons while trying to save their world and yours. The characters are very in-depth with largely tragic backstories. Get ready for some feels. Your character is referred to by they/them pronouns, leaving their gender open to your interpretation. You can develop a relationship with all five dragons, regardless. It’s a wonderful game with great worldbuilding and incredible characters!

10. Coming Out on Top by Obscurasoft is a game that I willingly purchased TWICE. The first time was when it was still in development, which I almost never do. Even when it was incomplete, I got an amazing experience from it! When I lost access to my old email and the game came out on Steam, I bought the completed version. The premise is simple in theory: You are a college senior who has just come out as gay, and can romance one of several guys over the course of the game. What makes this game stand out is the likeable characters, the zany settings you can find yourself in, and the hilarious dialogue! Each romance is unique, and even the non-romanceable side characters are memorable. It has good sex scenes, if that’s what you’re into, and you can even customize things like facial hair on your character and the bachelors. There are even mini-dates you can go on if you don’t feel like playing a whole route. This game has it all, and you can easily get several hours of gameplay out of it. I mean, did I mention that I willingly paid for it TWICE?

11. Dragon Age: Origins by Bioware was a gamechanger for me, literally, as it heightened my standards when it came to games in general. To this day, it remains on my top five list of greatest games of all time. You play as a character who eventually becomes a Grey Warden, whose purpose is to defeat creatures known as Darkspawn and stop a Blight that is descending upon your homeland. How you go about that fight, who you choose as allies, and your overall actions in the world are up to you. You can play out one of several backstories for your character, customize your class, and, of course, romance one of four characters. Two of the romanceable characters, Leliana and Zevran, are bisexual. In later games, you get even more romance options, but I feel that Origins is the best game overall. I could play it again and again, and have done so several times. Also, it’s on Steam, which means you can buy it and all DLCs without dealing with the annoying Origin platform.

12. Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator by Game Grumps has been talked about so much, I almost feel like I don’t need to. I will anyway. It’s a game where you play as a single dad who moves into an area that, conveniently, also has a bunch of single dads. As the title suggests, you get to date the dads you meet over the course of the game. This game is awesome because, among other aspects, it’s super inclusive. You can decide whether your dadsona is trans or not, whether your daughter is adopted, whether your previous spouse was a man or woman... The characters themselves are wonderfully-developed and three-dimensional. There are also many Dad Jokes. Also, Damian is best dad.

13. Gone Home by Fullbright is another game that is often talked about in LGBTQ circles. It’s an exploration game where you return home to an empty house and learn by going through different rooms, reading letters, and finding items, the story of your character’s family, particularly your sister. I love games that force you to explore and work for the whole storyline, because it feels so much more fulfilling when it all plays out. Gone Home does this brilliantly! I will say that it’s a short game for the price, so I’d recommend waiting for a sale.

14. Life is Strange by DONTNOD Entertainment is one of the greatest games I have ever played, period. I will never be able to say enough good things about it. You play as Max Caulfield, a photographer who has recently moved back to her hometown to attend the prestigious Blackwell Academy. There, she reunites with her estranged best friend, Chloe Price, falls into a mystery surrounding a missing student, and learns that she has the ability to rewind time. It’s a game where choices in the first episode will impact what happens in the fifth. All of the characters are memorable. You will absolutely fall in love with Arcadia Bay and get sucked into the mystery surrounding it. I played this game over the course of three days when I first bought it, because I just couldn’t stop. It remains one of the most emotional experiences I’ve ever had. As for LGBTQ aspects, both Max and Chloe are bisexual, and you can play Max as having feelings for Chloe and/or her friend Warren.

15. miraclr- Divine Dating Sim by Woodsy Studio is a fun little game about falling in love with an angel via group chat. Your character has been chosen to communicate with the seraphim (and Lucifer) concerning the implementation of the first miracle Earth has seen in ages. Most of the game involves chatting with the angels, deciding on a miracle, and entering private group chats to develop your relationship with the angels. You get to choose your pronouns, and Gabriel goes by they/them pronouns. I’ve only played one route, but it was pretty cute! The one annoying aspect is the fact that it’s modeled after a mobile game and sets chats for certain times. You can easily bypass that, however, by choosing to power through or rewind.

16. Nekojishi by Team Nekojishi is...a mixed bag, if I’m going to be honest. The likeability of the characters fluctuates a lot, and the True Ending had A LOT of issues for me. Still, I played the thing for nine whole hours! It’s a game about Liao, a college student and aspiring dancer whose third eye is suddenly opened, giving him the ability to see gods and spirits. Among these spirits are Guardian Tiger, a family guardian spirit who wants Liao to return to his family’s temple and use his abilities there, Clouded Leopard, who wants Liao to become a go-between for him and his worshipers, and Leopard Cat, who has possessed one of Liao’s classmates in order to convince him to create a temple for an earth god he’s connected to. Obviously, Liao isn’t so keen to abandon his own life in order to fulfill any of these wishes, but the spirits decide to remain by his side until he makes a choice. You can romance one or all of the characters, leading to different endings which, again, vary in quality. Still, the art and music are great, there are many tidbits on Taiwanese folklore, and it’s free! If you’re into gay beastmen and folklore, this is a good game to check out.

17. Night in the Woods by Infinite Fall is another game that played with my emotions. Like, it got so real, I needed to take frequent breaks during my first playthrough. You play as Mae Borowski, a college dropout returning to her hometown for reasons unknown to the player for most of the game. Falling into her former, aimless life, Mae reconnects with her friends while learning of the darker secrets of Possum Springs. Mae is pansexual, and two of her friends, Gregg and Angus, are in a relationship that is further explored if you choose to get closer to Gregg over the course of the game. This game delves into heavy subjects like depression, helplessness, the slow death of a town, and growing apart from the people you once knew.

18. I’m ending this list with a game everyone should know about: Stardew Valley by Concerned Ape. This is the peak of all farming simulation games! You play as a character who inherits a farm from their grandfather and moves there to escape their meaningless office job. Once there, you can develop your farm, fight monsters, explore, and befriend the townsfolk. Whether you play as a male or female, the romance options are all open. You can marry, have kids, and raise a family together. All of the characters have great events, but my favorite has to be my goth boi Sebastian.

Phew... Remind me not to let this go for nine days again. That took awhile... Anyway, I hope you find something you like. See you tomorrow!

[7classyantiquestores]

Mass Effect Series TPK

One of my recent playthroughs of Mass Effect was dedicated to the goal of “kill as many teammates as possible while still making it to the end of ME3 and still technically winning the game”. I used the Genesis DLC to kill Wrex and the Virmire casualty Kaiden, as well as a combo of skipping every possible side quest and a surprisingly complex strategy to kill all but two teammates in ME2, allowing Shepard to live to ME3. In this case I left Thane and Miranda alive. In addition to the loss of those characters who can die in the last game (Thane, Miranda, and the Virmire survivor Ashley), I’ve found a lot of really interesting tidbits by having the majority of the major side characters gone. 

ME3 Results

Unsurprisingly, the overall story dynamic is a lot less for having over two-thirds of the cast removed. Side missions lack the additional motivations, and scenes normally filled by reminiscing or long-standing character interaction are replaced with cut and dry, down to business cut-scenes. 

Surprisingly, almost no dialogue references the staggering losses from the last game. The occasional comment is made by other squad mates who knew them, but not much from Shepard. 

This is a great way to really appreciate and love the cast. You never know what a good thing you have until they’re all dead. I cheered out loud when the normal team lineup came up on my other file. You’ll be surprised, you even miss the boring or annoying ones. 

Team composition is much more challenging, with only EDI, James, and Liara available as squad mates. These three can only be killed with low enough EMS on the final run, and EDI in the Destroy ending also.

In Priority: Palavan, no replacement is given for Garrus, and no squad mate is sent back to the Normandy when it experiences trouble. Some of Garrus’ dialogue in the first half of the mission is given to the Turian general. Additionally, Liara will comment wondering where Garrus would be if he were here...probably in the thick of it. 

In Grissom Academy: Emergency Evacuation, Jack is replaced as the students’ leader by Jason Prangley, who proves himself to be a surprisingly capable biotic and leader. Making it all the sadder when he is shot after saving Rodriguez at the end of the mission. You also are able to hear additional dialogue. Rodriguez, having just killed for the first time, will ask a hard question of Shepard when you first encounter the students in Orion Hall. 

In Priority: Sur’Kesh, Wreav remains as the Wrex stand-in, creating a slightly more hostile, slightly less controlled environment for the talks. On Sur’Kesh itself, STG agent Paddok Wiks takes Mordin’s place quite completely, having been the spy, helping Shepard evacuate Bakara, and coming aboard to work on the genophage cure. Interesting that Mordin wasn’t the only Salarian motivated enough to make a change in the Krogan situation. Wiks also has his own take on why helping the Krogan is the right choice and some altered dialogue due to his surprisingly different character. 

In Attican Traverse: Krogan Team, Grunt is replaced by Urdnot Dagg. Dagg is an older Krogan, chosen for his post as a feared and respected soldier, and shows himself an enthusiastic fighter, even jealous of Shepard for earning the Reapers’ attention as enemies. Actually a great one-off character. Unlike Grunt, however, he is impossible to save, overcome by Ravagers while buying Shepard time to escape. 

In Priority: Tuchanka, most of the story will proceed the same. Paddok Wiks successfully synthesizes a cure and discovers the sabotage if you don’t tell him. Apparently someone else wouldn’t have gotten it wrong. That said, without Maelon’s data, Eve dies. Lacking both Eve and Wrex, it makes more sense not to cure the genophage, since all fingers then point to a Krogan revenge streak. Paddok is relatively easy to persuade to that end, and the conversation about it provides an interesting point of view on the subject as well. 

In Priority: Citadel II, Thane still saved the Salarian councilor, since he was one of my two survivors of ME2 (as he dies here). However, after skipping most of the side quests and interactions, you can be forced into killing the Virmire survivor in the facedown at the end of the mission. This unlocks some new dialogue with both Liara and with Joker and EDI, reminiscing and questioning over the loss. 

In Gellix: Science Lab (the ex-Cerberus scientists), Dr. Webber drags the injured scientist out at the beginning, and it’s a little harder for you to convince Brynn you’re not Cerberus. A mix between Brynn and random scientists pick up Jacob’s important lines and actions. Same events besides. Pretty dry overall. 

In Lesuss: Monastery (Ardat-Yakshi), it proceeds mostly the same, just excluding Samara’s scenes. Difference being a line from Falere referencing her death, and different dialogue with the same at the mission end, though Falere still ends up staying at the Monastery and Rila still ends up dying. 

In Priority: Geth Dreadnought, Admiral Xen will accompany you in Tali’s place. This leads to some altered dialogue and points of view on the proceedings, and Xen is actually quite funny. Legion is replaced by “Geth VI”, who is a disappointingly exact copy of Legion in every way except lacking the experiences with Shepard and company. The Geth Fighter Squadron mission is also the same, just lacking the one clip with Legion meeting Shepard. 

In Priority: Rannoch, the first part goes as usual until the final scene. Having conveniently crash-landed on Rannoch, Admiral Raan replaces Tali in the Geth-Quarian showdown. Without Tali or Legion present, it is impossible to call off the Quarian forces after allowing the Geth upgrade, leading to the destruction of the Quarian fleet. Raan also shoots herself. It kinda sucks. 

Priority: Thessia is, surprisingly, no different. Guess they really know how to protect plot important characters. 

In Priority: Horizon, most proceeds the same until the end. A non-ME2-loyal, unwarned, unaided Miranda will be mortally injured by Kai Leng and ultimately die after the confrontation with her father. However, Oriana is still able to be freed, and shares a touching farewell with her sister prior to Miranda’s death. Miranda then entrusts her safety to Shepard. There’s also a sad conversation with Joker afterwards where he lists many of the friends you’ve had die so far, asking how long before it’s just “you and me against the whole Reaper fleet?” Not long, Joker, not long. 

The Citadel DLC felt the losses more than anything else so far, but the core crew (unkillable to this point) means the story is just the same. It’s still funny and charming, although it’s painfully obvious that it was written for a much larger crew. Sadly, although not unexpectedly considering it’s a DLC, no references are made to lost teammates through the entire run. 

In the first leg of Citadel missions, Liara comes in as the first companion, taking the “nice outfit” line, James shows up to grenade launcher the enemy shuttle instead of Wrex (and later is smugly proud at his chance to rescue Shep), and EDI is the only extra squadmate Joker brings in. In the casino follow-on, I brought James, triggering an amusing scene where he and Brooks flirt and walk in arm-in-arm, making Shepard third wheel.

In Citadel Archives, we see a sad attempt to keep all three teams, with my chosen two squadmates in Team Shepard, Brooks and the third squadmate in Team Mako, and in Team Hammerhead comes...Cortez (granted, decked in some sick battle armor) along with some random marine lady???, who only appears in the background from time to time to convince you Cortez isn’t alone, but doesn’t appear in cutscenes. They really stretched so they didn’t have to have new dialogue for less teams. 

In Citadel: Party, I did energetic/quiet/quiet. Luckily with James, Cortez, Joker, EDI, Traynor, and Liara, the even numbers mean there’s always someone for each person to talk to. First part is much the same conversations as with a full group, just thinner crowd and less dialogue. The second part you can see Joker and Traynor jokingly argue over EDI, after which they agree to never speak of it again, while Cortez unsuccessfully offers to make EDI a drink, and Liara and James have the obligatory SR-1 vs SR-2 talk downstairs. In the final part, Traynor tries to temper EDI and Glyph’s attempt to make curry, Cortez and Joker argue over who’s the better pilot, and James and Liara play poker. The photo is funny, since they could definitely have all fit on the couch, but game mechanics mean you get Cortez and James awkwardly standing in the back alone while the others sit down. At the end, since my Shep was unromanced, Joker delivers the farewell and “good ride” speech, which is sweet. 

In Priority: Cerberus Headquarters, a unit called Legion Assassin appears, since I handed Legion over to Cerberus in ME2, but he’s easy to fight, and everything is the same besides. 

And finally, we get to Priority: Earth. 

For the most part, the story proceeds as intended. Like all other major missions before, all the vital characters for this mission live until this point. But here’s the breakdown on how it went:

Corez dies, having not talked with him. Victus and Wreav make their appearances for their respective peoples, and a Geth Prime is present in the war room to brief on the Geth status, lacking Tali or Legion. No one sounds particularly optimistic. Without Eve, Wreav sounds like he’s already making preparations for war on the galaxy, but also drops hints that the Genophage cure isn’t working. The three remaining companions can be engaged as usual, with no additional lines. 

When the time comes for the final push, James and Liara are knocked out by the truck while dashing for the beam, and then Shepard can only watch horrified as a direct hit from Harbinger takes them out. Climbing up to the Citadel and using the Destroy ending removes EDI, the Geth, and the Reapers. The low EMS rating means that most all life is vaporized from the surface of Earth, the Normandy catches fire and is severely damaged when the Crucible wave hits it, and no one is seen exiting it after it crashes. 

Hackett’s speech at the end, while admitting the victory, also shows multiple scenes of the destruction, and expresses some concerns about the future of the galaxy.

“We knew this war would test us. We knew the chances of victory were slim at best. But we are victorious. The Reapers are defeated. We deployed every strategy, fought every battle, sent every soldier and hero to the brink. We held nothing back. Now, it's up to the survivors to rebuild, to start again. I only hope the lessons learned in this war don't die along with those of us who fought to win it.”

Our final death tally:

Wrex and Kaiden killed in Mass Effect. 

All companions except for Miranda and Thane, as well as Dr. Chakwas and Kelley killed in Mass Effect 2. 

In Mass Effect 3...

Lost Eve and faked the Genophage cure, ensuring the failure of the Krogan people.

Thane killed, Miranda killed, and kill Ashley.

Sided with the Geth, causing the obliteration of the Quarian people.

Lost Cortez, Liara, and James at the end. 

Destroy ending kicked the Geth and EDI.

Low EMS vaporized most of Earth and left the rest of the Normandy crew ostensibly dead.

And last but not least, Shepard down.

Complete TPK.

My review: 

All in all, fun and surprisingly challenging to achieve, and resulted in many interesting differences from the typical route. On the impressive side, the game can self-correct solidly enough to carry the same story after losing nearly the entire cast. On the disappointing side, with only one or two exceptions, the story self-corrects so well that it hardly acknowledges your many losses. But overall, worth a playthrough! And, most importantly, I succeeded at the world’s most depressing Citadel party. 

My work here is done. 

[burnouts3s3]

Jump Force, a review

(Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit unprofessional blog post written by an unprofessional blog poster. All purported facts and statement are little more than the subjective, biased opinion of said blog poster. In other words, don’t take anything I say too seriously.) Just the facts 'Cause you're in a Hurry! Publisher: Bandai Namco Developer: Spike Chunsoft Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP): 59.99 USD How much I paid: 99.99 USD for the Ultimate Edition. Bundle Includes: 3 Days Early access. Lobby Vehicles to ‘ride around in’ that’s purely cosmetic. Season Pass that unlocks 9 DLC characters to be announced and released at a later date. Rated: T for Mild Blood, Suggestive Themes and Violence Number of Playable Characters: 43. 4 Original characters. 39 Characters from Established franchises. Number of Stages: 7. Each Stage has a transition that changes when a character hits an opponent with a specific attack. Can I play offline: Yes. Controller Support: Yes. It was compatible with my Rock-Candy Xbox 360 controller.  Keyboard and Mouse controls are available but are very awkward and the game was clearly designed with a controller in mind.   How long I played: 18 Hours. 10 Hours to beat the story mode while watching the Cutscenes. UNSKIPPABLE cutscenes. 7 Hours just messing around and playing online matches. Microtransactions: 39.99 Season Pass that unlocks 9 DLC characters to be announced at a later date. Dual Audio: No. Only Japanese Audio with Subs available. What I played on: My PC. Performance Issues: For the most part, I got ‘mostly’ 60 FPS when I was playing online or running around. However, the FPS dips when there’s a cutscene playing to the mid 40’s even the high 30’s. Too bad however beautiful the particle effects are can’t adjust the wooden facial animations and stiff body movements. 3 Crashes within my playtime. My Personal Biases: I’ve followed the saga of Son Goku and friends. I’ve watched Naruto Uzumaki become the Hokage. I’ve watched Yusuke Urameshi journey from boy to man. I’ve watched Gon, Killua and Kullapika go on their various hunting expeditions. I’ve watched Yugi Moto become the king of games. And I’ve watched Light Yagami become defeated by his own hubris. In other words, I’ve been waiting for this game a ‘very’ long time, and have played previous games such as JStars Victory Vs. My Verdict: As much fun as it is seeing characters like Fist of the North Star’s Kenshiro beat the pulp out of My Hero Academia’s Deku, the limited roster, worn out gameplay from the Naruto Shippuden and Dragonball Xenoverse games, the laughable animation, idiotic story mode and the ever anti-consumer practices of Bandai Namco are bogging this game down. If you’re a fan of Shounen Jump, you’ll sure to have fun. But, if you’re patient or you want more characters consider picking up Jump Ultimate Stars or JStars Victory Vs and wait for a sale. Jump Force, a review

In celebration for 50 years, Weekly Shounen Jump has announced a new crossover game. Made with collaboration between Publisher Bandai Namco and Developer Spike Chunsoft, “Jump Force” arrives to bring together various characters found in Shueisha’s long running publication.

Can the game live up to the vast legacy it has inherited? Let’s find out in this review of “Jump Force”!

The Umbra cubes, cosmic cubes capable of granting those great power, have spread throughout the world. Thanks to the villain, Kane, and his lovely assistant, Galena, he has recruited the villains from Shounen Jump and replicated them. All the meanwhile, normal citizens have become “Venoms”, possessed by evil impulses. But just as Frieza fires a laser beam, ending your life, Trunks comes in, uses and Umbra cube and grants you great power to help combat evil.

Jump Force is an Arena fighting game similar to games such as Dragonball Xenoverse or Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm. Players pick between 3 characters and attempt to lower their opponent’s (shared) healthbar to zero. In addition to physical attacks, they can spend the abilities gauge to use a variety of ranged or close up attacks. In addition, whenever players take damage, they fill up the ‘awakening’ bar. Using half an awakening bar will allow players to unleash an ultimate attack, an ability that deals more damage than regular abilities. Using a full awakening bar will ‘transform’ the character to a powered-up state. For example, Goku will transform from his base form to his Super Saiyan form.

The other two characters can be called upon using the left trigger. Simply pressing the trigger will swap the character while holding it down will call them for an assist attack. Unfortunately, you cannot change the order of which characters you switch to and must cycle through said order to access the characters. (For example having a team order of Goku, Vegeta and Piccolo means that Goku cannot switch to Piccolo without switching through Vegeta first). Be careful because if you switch while both characters are on screen and the opponent is able to hit both, you’ll receive double the damage.  

Customizing your character is nothing new for Bandai Namco games such as the various DBZ Xenoverse games and Naruto: Shinobi Striker, but the mechanic remains impressive here. Allowing you a vast customization between characters allows different playstyles and gives your individual avatar the ability to learn various techniques such as Vegeta’s Galick Gun or Yusuke’s Spirit Gun. However, certain techniques, such as anything related to Jotaro or Yugi are unable to be learned by your Avatar character.

Similarly, the defense system returns. Using the mobility meter, characters can dash towards or away from the opponent or teleport out of a combo behind the enemy. Most of the time, using the guard button will block most attacks. But, characters can either grab the blocking opponent or hold down either the smash or heavy smash button to break through the opponent’s guard.

While most of the characters play similar to one another, some of the characters have slight variations. For example, similar to his manga counterpart, Sanji will be unable to deal damage to female characters. Similarly, when Gon connets with an opponent with his Ultimate attack, he will become unplayable for the duration of the match.

Learning said techniques can be used by spending the in-game currency which allows you to easily unlock abilities, skills that aid in battle such as boosting attack power or various costumes for your avatar. In-game currency can be earned by either playing through the story or playing online.

The Story will not win any awards unless the Razzies suddenly announce a video game category. It’s a pastiche of clichés, tired tropes and nonsense as players slog through another world ending plot with stupid villains, stupid twists and characters acting like morons. For some reason, Light Yagami figures out the twist that even the dumbest of us can figure out 5 seconds in. Not helping matters are the rest of the characters acting like complete idiots with Sanji being the focus for some reason.

Say what you will about the current state of fanfiction, bad fanfiction is at least INTERESTING.

This combines the worst of Mary Sue fanfiction with the most boring and bland cliches possible. I understand orienting the game for Western audiences meant having to borrow notes from the Avengers and Justice League, but the characters expositing non-stop about the predictable plotline isn’t helpful. Worst yet, Developer Spike Chunsoft has forgotten a vital component for any story cutscene, the ability to skip them. So, be prepared to watch as characters drone on and on during the cutscenes figuring out the plot.

Just the same, the artstyle is going to alienate some longtime fans. While using the Unreal engine to render things such as particle effects, fire and energy beams is a delight to behold, said delight is replaced by revulsion watching the stiff character faces barely emote when watching a cutscene. These animations make Mass Effect: Andromeda look like the Witcher 3.

Half the time, the characters don’t even talk. RYUK DOESN’T EVEN HAVE A VOICE! What’s odd is that in the non-essential cutscenes, when the characters barely move and don’t have voices, the writing actually improves. Seeing various characters from different franchises interact with each other, brings a small delight to a mess of a game. Watching Zoro tutor Asta while Kenshin watches on or seeing Deku be a student to Kakashi’s lectures is the stuff of fan dreams. It’s too bad these moments are few and fleeting. And while 42 Characters in a base game is nothing to sneeze at, fans of Shounen Jump crossover games have already called out Developer Spike Chunsoft. While more famous franchises such as Dragonball Z, Naruto and One Piece boast a whopping 6 representatives each, more obscure franchises are either not represented or have a meager 1 character, such as City Hunter’s Ryo Saeba or Fist of the North Star’s Kenshiro. Meanwhile, mainstays from previous Jump crossover games such as Dr. Slump’s Arale, Kochikame’s Ryotsu, Bobobo’s Bobobo, D Grayman’s Allen Walker, Reborn’s Tsuna Sawada and Gintama’s Gintoki are all missing (though there is speculation they would be added later as Downloadable Content locked away with a paywall). And yet… God, it’s just such a fangasm seeing characters from different franchises duke it out with one another. Seeing Jotaro fight with Deku. Seeing Asta cross blades with Dai. Seeing Goku trade blows with Kenshiro is just one of my biggest dreams. There’s a germ of an idea here but it’s botched by piss-poor execution. I’m just so sick of games I would’ve loved missing the mark and not reaching their full potential. Caveat: Shounen Jump, Shueisha and Bandai Namco have a rare opportunity on their hands. Having the ability to have a character as old as Seiya have a fist fight with a modern character like Deku is one of the rare privileges a company can have alongside with Marvel, DC Comics and Nintendo. So, it’s unfortunate when Bandai Namco and Spike Chunsoft drop the ball and start limiting the roster, overpopulating it with familiar franchises instead of obscure ones and start nickeling and diming its customers with stupid DLC policies. Say what you will about the (very) imperfect JStars Victory Vs (which was also developed by Spike Chunsoft and published by Bandai Namco), the one thing that game did right was introduce a plebian like me to series such as Medaka Box, Assassination Classroom, The Disastrous Life of Saiki K, Toriko and Beelzebub. And while I did enjoy the extensive customization and gained a sick sense of pleasure whenever I finish off an opponent with DIO’s Road Roller, part of me couldn’t help but wonder when Kinnikuman is going to get the recognition he deserves. Maybe when Shounen Jump has its 55th anniversary, they can give its vast legacy of characters a game worthy of 50 years. We’ll always have Jump Ultimate Stars on the DS. Verdict: Rental or Wait for a Sale

[lokiarsene]

I usually try to keep my opinions to myself on this blog--or at the very least, in tags where people can scroll past/ignore them at their leisure--but honestly I think the one thing that frustrates me the most about people’s perception of Goro Akechi is that they think he is one sure, solid, cemented character type. That he is this one thing, or that he moves from this point to that. The way I see it, that’s not strictly true. Akechi wouldn’t let himself grow beyond something that wasn’t only unhealthy for him, but not helpful either. He gets in the way of his own growth and progress--he’s the boy who blocked his own shot, and in a lot of ways is like Hamlet. That not only is why he’s so fascinating as a character, it’s why his fate is so frustrating and gutting, and why it’s so difficult for me to deal with.

(As a side bar, that’s always why I loved his relationship with Joker--because it offers him the chance to open up, to give in, to let go and be a little vulnerable, which is everything he needs. It’s a contrast to everything the true villains of the game set him up to be, which was all about taking control from him. Incidentally, that’s everything Joker offers to every S-Link he has in the game [freedom, release], so I fail to see why Akechi should be an exception?)

And it’s not like I blame people for their view of him. Most of the P5 cast we can say start at point A, and end up at point B. Their character growth, even if it’s strange or touch-and-go (or locked behind fuckin’ social stats, goddammit Atlus let me hang out with Makoto and Haru), or a revolving door (Ryuji), happens in a pretty succinct progression. And it’s tempting to view his starting point (a pleasant rival that is the moral opposite of the PT), who then “reveals his true colors” (not quite the case), and all post-Sae palace revelations as being his “end point.” But it isn’t quite a straight line like that. His progression as a character isn’t a line at all, it sort of... bleeds out and is a tangled mess. Like the boy himself.

Akechi’s doesn’t progress from any point at all, because Akechi won’t let himself do that. And that’s not to say he isn’t a developed or deep character--he is--but like I said, he is a lot like Hamlet. Hamlet refuses to let himself progress as a revenge hero, in a revenge play, and philosophizes non-stop in multiple Acts because he can’t not think about his situation. A situation that clearly left a deep impact on him, probably to the point of trauma. Hamlet even over-thinks about his thinking, and tears himself apart for not living up to the only demand of the hero of a revenge play: get some goddamn revenge. And when he finally does do something, he not only does the wrong thing (RIP Polonius), he just barely gets revenge at the very end when it hardly matters anymore, and when he’s already a goner himself.

Akechi’s problem is revenge and inaction as well, but it’s not his refusal to take up that charge and run with it, it’s his inability to put that weight down. Not until the very last scene with him, where we see him actively struggling against accepting what Joker offers, which is a struggle that only happens because it’s clear that that’s what Akechi wants. He wants to set down the weight he’s been shouldering. He wants to grow and move beyond--but he’s terrified.

Akechi has been holding on to external images and depictions of success/safety for years--good student, popular talk show guest, genius ace detective, almost an idol in the public eye--because having to face his internal world and all the hurdles in the way of actual growth and true happiness is too much for him to bear.

So when people try to depict him as this one thing (a liar, first and foremost; an intentionally maliciously manipulative person; someone who isn’t in control of his decisions and choices because of xyz diagnosis they’ve given him), I get confused. Because he absolutely is in control of the one thing he can control: his emotions and who he trusts. That’s actually the core of his problem: control, and having too much of it, to the point where he won’t even let himself move beyond his own defined limitations. He’s strangling himself and doesn’t want to realize that, not until he can barely hold himself together to pretend otherwise anymore.

This doesn’t mean I’m blaming him or anything. I’m saying he’s responsible for all his decisions, good and bad, but I don’t extend that to Shido’s manipulation of him, and I definitely don’t extend it to Yaldabaoth fucking with him as a wild card user. I don’t jive with victim blaming bullshit ever. When I say Akechi’s problem is control, it’s more like how anxiety and perfectionism can control you: it strangles and destroys, but it’s coming from you. Just like only you can heal and move on and grow--that’s why Akechi struggled so much with his natural inclination to accept Joker and the PT in that last confrontation. He wanted to, but he also wouldn’t let himself do it.

And this suffocation is born out of fear. This damned determination to keep himself fixed and focused on his path isn’t intentionally self-destructive--Akechi being his own victim is just the effect, the collateral damage of his decision.

My last thought to add is that I really hope/wish we get some kind of “come to Usagi/Sailor Moon” healing moment with Akechi in either a re-release or DLC, because as it stands right now, Akechi is a fascinating character with brilliant parallels to one of the best, most complex and difficult Shakespeare characters ever written, but he is without his own satisfying conclusion. And maybe that’s the point of Akechi--maybe he’s supposed to create this effect in you, the player, of a missed opportunity--but to be the one character who gets condemned and shafted in a narrative that bends over fuckin’ backwards to give creative, clever, stylish revenge to every other young adult who was wrongly used by shitty adults is just... a terrible choice by shitty adults. It’s not a good look for Atlus, and I have trouble believing that’s all they’ll give us for him.

[gascon-en-exil]

Ugh. I forgot to buy A ranks for the Deer and non-student women before the S rank pick. Chapter 22 of Verdant Wind isn’t that easy to try to rush through anyway unless your army is specifically geared for that. Went with Dorothea as the sole S rank of this route, continuing my pattern of getting all the bi-for-Byleth options first. Now I’m only missing Mercedes, i.e. their one bi option I never see anyone talking about as such, ever. I’ll get her in my Silver Snow run, which will also finish up the last of the inter-house supports, and then...well, there’s f!Byleth’s content, but I don’t know how quickly I’ll get around to her. It’ll probably take the DLC to get me wholly invested in this game again for the foreseeable future. 

Oh, yeah. Not a lot of notable quotes from the Lions at the end, though VW may well be Sylvain at his most philosophical overall which I was not expecting. I wasn’t expecting even more to see Ferdinand try to figure out what triggered Nemesis’s resurrection. He’s so cute when he’s leaning on the fourth wall of this game’s more contrived plot points.

[gascon-en-exil]

FE16 Blue Lions Liveblogging

Chapters 3-4. It takes some time to get used to this game’s pacing, but admittedly a lot of the content is filler that can technically be skipped if you’re not interested or just want to get to the action faster.

Everyone’s in beginner classes. The plan of keeping units in a class until they master it looks like it might not be feasible at higher tiers. I have several already at 10+ where they could promote to immediate classes but nowhere near mastery, and I have to keep in mind that this is not a game with an infinite grind endgame/postgame (at least pre-DLC). Everyone’s about equally useful at what I’ve got them doing, but Ashe is a bit iffy and I’m ignoring Annette’s scattered interests to make her a full mage. Byleth was actually falling behind for a bit, but he just picked up his Prf sword so that ought to make him more useful.

Battalions have their uses, but mostly they’re just minor stats boosts and another button to press in combat. At least they’re low maintenance.

I take back what I said last time about supports growing slowly, because I’ve picked up a ton of them in these two months. Byleth’s first support took me off guard because it happened without my even realizing that I’d initiated it. Sometimes the students just come up and talk at to them during the week.

Also did tea time. Not too hard, pretty dull, and only marginally less weird than face touching. I still maintain that this feature would have better with alcohol, but apparently the Japanese are as prudish as Anglos about that. It also doesn’t feel mechanically very rewarding compared to some of your other uses for activity points.

I’ve got a handful of broken weapons and a bunch of smithing stones, but the forge still hasn’t opened up. I appreciate that you gain access to more monastery features a little each month and not all at once, but this is the only one that I’ve found myself really waiting on.

Speaking of timespans, I believe the school phase lasts twelve in-game months? In which case I’m already a third of the way through it, even with my frequent exploring and need to talk to everyone each month.

Finding lost items and giving gifts is occasionally cute, but doesn’t seem very rewarding. It’s great for the Lions characters since they get more motivation for their studies, but as far as I can tell the other characters only get a small support boost with Byleth that I don’t care about and would probably take forever to get anywhere on that alone besides.

The Death Knight does his best Black Knight impression during Chapter 4, but thankfully he doesn’t move. And I thought beating the fake Desaix in the last battle of FE15 Act 1 was daunting...he does drop a Dark Seal so hypothetically he should be able to be defeated, but I have no idea how without an absurd amount of grinding. 

Story/Character observations

The factional conflicts within the church appear to be wholly political in nature, but I’m left wondering if Rhea’s crusade against the Western church is all that we’re going to see of that. 

So much character exploration for the Lions pivots around Duscur. As much as I enjoy the central players getting to glimpse other aspects of Faerghus through stuff like Lonato’s rebellion is refreshing.

That said, Dimitri/Dedue just does not let up. Dimitri pulls the “like a brother” bit in his C with Byleth but also admits that Dedue was all he had for companionship after the events of Duscur left him without a father and alienated from his childhood friends. Combine that with Dedue’s perpetual wariness about affecting the reputations of anyone who isn’t Dimitri and Ingrid’s hostility toward Dedue’s presence in their house and the subtext just writes itself. It helps that the two of them are together in basically every cutscene and so far have always appeared in the same area when exploring the monastery but for the most recent month, when Dedue’s offer to help with security was rejected by the church on account of his heritage and yet (and this point might be coincidental? I don’t know if they spawn randomly) his earring can be found in the room where he was with Dimitri the preceding month. 

Other support shenanigans: Felix upbraids Sylvain for unknowingly hurting others with his behavior, which is enough to quirk an eyebrow. Ingrid also takes him to task, recounting instances during their youth when Sylvain hit on her elderly grandmother and a scarecrow (NB: from what I’ve seen this is one instance of the text being substantially changed from Japanese, in which he hits on a crossdressing man instead). I get that the intention was to avoid a lazy, transphobic joke, but oddly the English comes off even gayer since I’ve never heard of a female-presenting scarecrow...if you will. Ingrid and Ashe bond over tales of knighthood including one about the King of Lions’s very close friend who gets referenced in the Dimitri/Felix ending and serves as an effective model for how Fódlan history is going to immortalize all this homoeroticism. It’s not mentioned in their C at least, but I got the impression that this is meant to be significant because, as a woman and a commoner respectively, Ingrid and Ashe are outsiders to the usual ranks of knighthood who nonetheless idealize the lifestyle. Mercedes shares her mildly disturbing family history with Byleth, while Annette keeps dropping hints about her missing father and claims Byleth is like her big brother...three conversations before she decides to sleep with him. See, sometimes claiming a sibling-like bond does lead to sex. Awkward considering who I’m planning to have Byleth S rank on this playthrough, however....

Regarding non-student characters, I’ve not yet been given the opportunity to recruit any. This is rather basic information that doesn’t seem to be documented anywhere online yet, so I’m curious to know who becomes available and when.

[burnouts3s3]

Fire Emblem: Three Houses, a review

(Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit unprofessional blog post written by an unprofessional blog poster. All purported facts and statement are little more than the subjective, biased opinion of said blog poster. In other words, don’t take anything I say too seriously.) Just the facts 'Cause you're in a Hurry! Publisher: Nintendo Entertainment Developer: Intelligent Systems and Koei Tecmo Games Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP): 59.99 USD How much I paid: 59.99 USD Rated: T for Teen due to Blood, Suggestive Themes and Violence. Can I play offline: Yes How long I played: 128 Hours to go through all 4 story routes while watching the (skippable) cutscenes. Microtransactions: 24.99 USD for an Expansion Pass, a digital license that allows downloading additional future content for the game. What I played on: My Nintendo Switch Dual Audio: Yes. Both English and Japanese voices are available. Notable Localization Changes: Certain lines were rewritten. Petra, a foreigner from a different land, speaks more like Borat than anything else. Dorothea used innuendos that have been written out. Performance Issues: The game runs well enough, for the most part. I noticed a lot of soft textures and pixilation when the game was in docked mode. In handheld mode, I noticed quite a few dips in framerate. In game movies tend to look choppy and stilted in docked mode. While in the Monastery, I waited at multiple loading screens, certain characters will not pop up until after a few seconds and certain doors into other areas take a couple of seconds to open. Can I play without 2 Joy-con controllers?: No, both controllers are required. My Personal Biases: I’ve been a fan of Fire Emblem since someone recommended me Fire Emblem: Awakening for the 3DS. So far, I’ve enjoyed the modern titles for the work such as Awakening and Fates. I bought Shadows of Valentia, but haven’t gotten around to finishing it. I never played Fire Emblem: Warriors. My Verdict: Trying to make the jump from handheld to console while retaining all the key elements is a bit of an uphill battle for Fire Emblem. While the core mechanic still remains charming, the open world exploration aspect and calendar system don’t exactly mesh well. Still, give it a shot. Buy it. Fire Emblem: Three Houses, A Review

After much waiting and the inevitable spin-offs into mobile and musou territory, Fire Emblem finally releases its latest iteration. This time, it comes to the console, the Nintendo Switch. Will Fire Emblem manage to retain the charm it had on portable devices? Let’s find out in this review of “Fire Emblem: Three Houses”! You play the role of “The Professor”, child of the mercenary, Jeralt and newest member of the Church of Seiros. Under the guidance of the Archbishop, Lady Rhea, the Church of Serios guides the land of Fodlan through an age of prosperity. There you can pick between the Three Houses and will teach one of them: Future Empress Edelgard and the Black Ravens, Future King Dimitri and the Blue Lions or Future Duke Claude and the Golden Deer. However, things are far from peaceful as a new threat emerges to shake up the church. While tutoring your students, you must also uncover the mystery surrounding the land and how best to resolve it. Certain elements for previous Fire Emblem titles had to be stripped when making the jump from handheld to console that’s sort of a handheld. The extensive character customization found in Awakening and Fates is gone, as players are limited to playing a male or female avatar. The game’s key feature, support conversations, is still there. Earn enough Support with a student will unlock a conversation with them. You can either talk to them while exploring the monastery or they’ll call you on a free day to celebrate. However, you can only unlock the S Rank / Romance ending by completing the main storyline and getting an epilogue. You cannot just grind support levels and unlock the endings before completing the main campaign like in previous titles. The Three Houses have individual storylines and the leaders of each house have different goals. Edelgard has ambitions and will stop at nothing to achieve them, Dimitri has regrets about the deaths he’s witnessed and it’s changed him and Claude is trying to keep the peace while breaking down the borders. One of the cooler aspects of the game is to recruit or ‘poach’ characters from different houses. If you level up your MC with enough of a stat and Combat Skill, you can recruit another character that’s usually exclusive to another House and into your own. For example, if you have at least 15 Strength and a C rank in Bow skills, you can recruit Bernadetta, a unit usually exclusive to the Black Eagles, into any House you want. However, because of the nature of the game and the branching paths, you will not be able to poach the House Leaders and their bodyguards. For example, no matter how high your stats or combat skills, Edelgard and her loyal friend, Hubert, cannot be recruited to any House other than the Black Eagles. The unit characters themselves are basic stock types: the loyal servant, the shy girl, the loudmouth, anime Edna Krabappel, the big eater, etc. Granted, Fire Emblem always played it fast and loose with stock types but I enjoyed the batch this time around. It also helps that in conversations with other characters, the units have interesting chemistry, as in Petra realizing Caspar’s father killed her father in a previous war, but is willing to look past that or Dorothea, who was born a commoner, putting Lorenz, a snobby noble, in his place.   The feature I was missing the most was the ability to have S class conversations between other members besides the Main Character. In Awakening and Fates, you could have romantic pairings and those pairings would produce new units, a child, to fight alongside them. However, since that feature is gone, you’re stuck with one person. The “A” Rank is considered the romance and will affect the ending titles. Since I achieved the A rank between multiple NPCs with one another, they’re automatically assigned with certain characters. (What’s interesting is that certain A ranks offer platonic endings. I was completely shocked to find an ending where Leonie and Shamir join up in an ending together to form a mercenary group as buddies). I miss seeing different characters romance one another and how said romance would affect a new unit. For example, I liked the Donnel and Maribelle pairing in Fire Emblem: Awakening and seeing their child, Brady, join the fray. So while NPCs romancing each other is still there, the child units are not there (or may possibly appear in a future DLC, but I doubt it). Of the Four Routes, I found the Blue Lions and Dimitri’s the most ‘complete’ or the most scripted and detailed of the bunch. The other routes are fine, (Edelgard and the Black Eagles is pretty interesting), but the Blue Lions route seems like the one done first or the one most detailed. New to the franchise are the use of battalions, troops that can be assigned to units to give benefits. Some battalions can attack without being countered and inflict status effects such as poison or no movement. Other battalions can heal nearby units or give them more mobility. Best of all, units with battalions grouped together can ‘join up’ and unleash a stronger attack. However, certain battalions can only be assigned to specific movement types. So only Pegasus troops can be assigned to Flying units. By upgrading a new combat skill, Authority, Units can access higher levels of Battalions that deal more damage. Be careful. If your unit takes too much damage, Battalions will retreat and you’ll have to replenish them with Gold. Also new to the franchise, Epic Beasts, large monsters that take up multiple squares, multiple health bars and have armor. While your troops do reduced damage, you can ‘break’ the armor, exposing a weak point and allows other characters to deal additional damage to the monster. The game introduces an open world element, in which your character runs around the Monastery and helps NPCs with quests. In the monastery, you can take up quests with award you with Renown. By using Renown, you can repair the statues which grant you bonuses in learning skills. As you complete side quests, help NPCs and complete story missions, you gain Professor Levels which in turn levels up your Activity Levels (the amount of activities you can do in a day) and Battle Levels (how many substantial battles you can do in a day). Higher Activity Levels means you can do more Faculty Training sessions, dining sessions, cooking with specific NPCs and have Tea Parties. Yes, you can have Tea Parties with NPCs to increase their support levels. You select specific topics out of 3 and if you get all three topics correct in a row, you can get a bonus question to answer. This is a great way to increase support with units if you’re tired of grinding in battles. You can also do other tasks such as fish and garden, to earn ingredients to cook with other students to deepen the bond. You can also spend time with students such as eating together, attending choir practice. In addition to teaching your students, you can also level up your own skills by talking with other teachers and getting Faculty training, spending an activity point to earn experience with a certain skill. For example, you can train the faith skill by using faculty training with Manuela and Rhea. To be honest, I found this aspect of the game most tedious. I find fetch quests boring enough without having the story need to rely on them, but running around and looking for individual students to chat up or professors to level up really got on my nerves. Yes, there is a Fast Travel system, but the open world aspect feels wasted on Fetch Quests. The game also introduces a Calendar system, meant to mark time and schedule dates in order to meet with other students. During most weeks, you will do as all professors do and lecture your students to improve their skills, such as sword or axe. You can also assign group tasks for 2 students to pair up and improve their flying, heavy armor or riding skills.   By assigning tasks, the students will devote themselves to learning certain weapon or spell skills throughout the week, so you won’t have to grind skills in battle. You can assign them 2 skills to double up or have them focus on one skill to speed up the progress. As the same time, you can spend energy talking to individual students and teaching them skills. But, students must have motivation to increase their learning. Motivation can be earned by answering students’ questions correctly, giving the students correct gifts or lost items or spending time with them by eating together or cooking together. Any unit can pick up any skill and become any class, but certain units are more proficient at certain abilities than others and will level up a skill faster while leveling up other skills at a slower pace. However, some students have ‘budding skills’ where in if you give them enough personal instruction, they can become proficient in the skill. For example, it’s possible for Dorothea to become a Cleric if she puts in enough points in Faith (White Magic). However, she will level up Faith slowly while she’s more proficient in leveling up Reason (Black magic) quickly. It’s clear on the outset that the game wants to discourage grinding, or at the very least, limit it. While you could spam a low Level mission, eventually units stop gaining experience and you’ll have to take a higher level mission or quest. And since missions or quests usually require spending energy, you’ll be limited on how much you can do per day. Paralogues (side stories that flesh out individual characters) return, but because of the calendar system, they must be completed before a certain date or be lost forever. In addition, certain bonds cannot progress until the paralogue has been completed. However, completing paralogues rewards battalions and unique weapons. Even the support conversations cannot advance until past a certain story point and players will be given messages such as “It will take some time for this bond to develop”. On the same coin, should you neglect a support conversation and unlock it after a major turning point in the game, the game will inform you that “you missed the opportunity to deepen this bond”. It’s almost as though Nintendo wants to replicate the SMT: Persona formula but it feels artificial instead of organic. (If I need to spend a whole week lecturing students, why can’t I go explore the Monastery?) The game also alters promoting a unit’s class or role. In previous games, a unit with a high enough level could use an item, an Advanced Seal, to advance to a higher class and gain boosted stats and bonuses. While Seals are still available, units now must pass certification exams, which allow the chance of failure if a Unit’s skill isn’t advanced enough. For example, Dorothea can take a certification exam to become a Warlock at Level 20 with a B rank in Reason (Black Magic), but has a chance to fail because the requirements suggest an A rank. It's possible to waste a Seal on a character who isn’t ready (though anyone with enough sense will just save and reload and grind until said unit passes the exam). After you finish your 1st campaign, you can import your save into New Game Plus and import the renown you put into the Statues. Better yet, you can take the extra renown and purchase class levels, professor levels and support levels you already unlocked in previous playthroughs. You can also use Renown to lower the cost requirements by unlocking support ranks. For example, using renown to unlock the C Rank for Dorothea (that you had to have earned in a previous playthrough) will lower the cost of recruiting her into another house. In terms of Performance, the game runs alright. I noticed a lot of soft textures and pixilation when the game was in docked mode. In handheld mode, I noticed quite a few dips in framerate. In game movies tend to look choppy and stilted in docked mode. While in the Monastery, I waited at multiple loading screens, certain characters will not pop up until after a few seconds and certain doors into other areas take a couple of seconds to open. Granted, I’m willing to overlook less than stellar performance in service of compelling characters and gameplay and Fire Emblem: Three Houses has plenty of that. The English Dub in the game is top notch. Granted, a lot of localization issues occur (Fans tell me that Petra’s lines were altered to make her fit better and some of Dorothea’s innuendos aren’t in the English version), but I enjoyed it for the most part. Many professional voice actors lend a hand here: David Lodge, Erica Mendez, Veronica Taylor and so on. But it’s Tara Platt who steals the show as Edelgard. Dub watchers often accuse Platt of using the same voice in multiple roles, but she really delievers both emotion and variation between switching between an Edelgard before and after the major plot point. JAPANESE VOICES ARE AVAILABLE IF YOU PREFER IT. CAVEAT: I enjoyed Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and was having a good time rerolling characters and chatting up members of my house. However, I couldn’t help but feel the new elements padded out the game instead of adding to it. Along with the lack of avatar customization that Robin and Corrin had, as well as Romantic conversations between non-MC members and the ability to produce child units, I wasn’t as obsessed with this title as I was Fates and Awakening. (Magic feels particularly unbalanced this time around. Where in previous titles, you had to purchase magic, store it in your inventory and it was capable of breaking as all other weapons. Here, it replenishes after every battle and doesn’t even take up inventory space.) And yet, the New Game Plus import, branching paths and the ability to poach characters from opposing Houses kept me engaged much more than I expected it to. Also, I did enjoy having tea time with Edelgard and Dorothea. Verdict: Buy it!