#i did not hate that game but i think my biggest gripe is that it had all the edges filed off

[lith-myathar]

.

[danielnelsen]

gotta be real, im very sorry guys, but ive gotta take a break from haterism, im actually enjoying most of this lore lmao

[redjennies]

me talking to Martin Bauer in Act III:

[mysterylilycheeta]

ONYX STORM REVIEW:

After 2 days of catching up on all the work I had postponed for the sake of reading OS, and organising my thoughts, I'm here with my spoiler free review of Onyx Storm. Please remember that these are my personal thoughts and opinions and you're free to agree or disagree based on your views

Rating: 3.25 stars

The Good:

The absolute lack of miscommunication between Xaden and Violet: This book is a gift for all those people who were annoyed to their wit's end by the repetitive stupid fights between Xaden and Violet in Iron Flame. They trust each other, communicate with each other and don't get mad about secrets. I was so pleasantly surprised

Ridoc: Ridoc went through such amazing character development, he easily became one of my favourite characters in the story. We saw him as only the comic relief friend till now but man, he shows such badassery in this book while still being his clown self. And, let's not forget his favourite dick jokes!

The Dragons: Anyone who knows me knows my favourite part about the series is Tairn and the other dragons. Love seeing my grumpy dad dragon, he's such a mood. We also have our sassy teenager Andarna to give him grief. I love all the moments Tairn started boasting about his lineage and his feat: he's such a dork!

Dain and Cat: I never truly hated Dain because I knew from Fourth Wing itself he never intentionally wanted to harm Violet. My only gripe with him was about breaking her trust and looking through her memories without her consent. But man, does he redeem himself. Needless to say, Dain is on my "need to protect" list. I really hated Cat in Iron Flame because she was such a stereotypical cringey evil ex and the way she attacked Violet was so crass and below the belt. She still has some shitty moments in the beginning of the book but she gets a lot better so much so that I want good things to happen to her in the next books. RY did a great job writing these two

Jealous Xaden: My o my was it a treat to see Xaden so jealous. RY fed us with those entertaining af moments. Read the book and you'll find out what I mean

Aaric: I was intrigued by Aaric in book 2 but he stepped up the game so much in this book. He is an amazing character and I'll throw hands if RY even tries to harm him in any way, istg.

The Bad:

Very mediocre worldbuilding: This might be just a timing issue, but the last fantasy book I read was the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson, and every fantasy fan knows the kind of world-building Sanderson does. Onyx Storm tries to introduce us to new places beside the continent, but it is not well done. We spend half the book in the Isle Kingdoms, yet they're not even mentioned on the map. They talk about routes to get to the kingdoms, but how am I supposed to follow them if you won't even mention them on the maps? Every Island has a god it worships and things go according to that but I think we could've had a little more information about them beforehand instead of being presented basic info right before we arrive at the next island. "We're going to said island, this is the god they believe in, here's a five point bullet lost of their customs"- NO, THAT'S NOT HOW YOU DO IT! Like I said, it might be because my last book was by Sanderson so my expectations were higher but the world felt so lacking.

Lack of Glossary: A glossary should be a must in every fantasy book, especially if you're branching out and diving deeper into worldbuilding. We are introduced to gods, islands, uprisings and groups of people we haven't even heard of before and we get hardly one or two lines about them in a chapter and then they are mentioned again 2 chapters later and we're supposed to follow. There were so many new names in OS, it was difficult to keep track of them after a while. I still don't completely understand who the Krovlan people were and what was their deal.

Lack of Basgiath: My favourite book in the series till now has been Fourth Wing and one of the biggest reasons for that was Basgiath. I loved that place and the way it felt an actual character in the story. That Basgiath charm is missing in this book. Basgiath is the biggest strength of this series, it's the reason why FW was so successful, the war college and it's deadly atmosphere, the challenges, the interpersonal relations, it was entertaining af. However as the series is progressing, it's turning into another typical romantasy involving young adults leading revolutions, making alliances, fighting wars etc. I started reading Fourth Wing because of it's setting and yet with each new book, we spend less and less time in Basgiath and it's just dampening my mood.

No real surprises: Let me be brutally honest- this book felt like a filler. Of course there are a few shocking moments with new information but it hardly hit the mark like the previous two books. There were no moments that essentially packed a punch. It's just a bunch of random sidequests to gain alliances which didn't up feeling all that meaningful because of worldbuilding problems. It also seemed like fanservice because of a lot of reasons but I won't mention them as they can be accounted as minor spoilers. Some characters died but it didn't feel impactful at all. It seemed more like Ry was just filling up the death quota because we can't have a book where no one dies

Violet and Xaden: Okay so here's the thing, I like both of them as characters and I think they make a good pair. However, I didn't ever truly feel the romance and this has been a problem since Fourth Wing. They have a shit ton of lusty moments but hardly any soft romantic domestic moments that make the relationship feel organic. I have always been disappointed by the lack of proper romantic development between these two. The problem in this book however is the dialogue- they felt so cheesy and downright cringe at times. Maybe show more and say less?? The way they keep saying nothing else matters as much and I know people are feral for how Xaden and Violet are ready to throw off the entire rebellion for each other but it irks me so much. Xaden, you are leading these people and you have accepted that responsibility. Stop endangering the lives of people you swore to protect because Violet might be in danger. She has other people to support her. Violet, don't get mad when people tell you your needs and wants will come second to Xaden's duty towards the people. He is their leader, he has to make those sacrifices, If you think that's unfair then find someone else to fill his position. You can't have the leadership position yet be each other's top priority. It might seem unfair but that is the right thing to do. I really don't feel like the two of them are fit to lead people. Agree with @thequietesthing's review about Violet's god level power feeling over dramatic and out of character at times.

The Ending: If any of you have talked to me about the book in the last few days, you'll know I'm frustrated af with the ending. It doesn't exactly feel like a well done cliffhanger, it's just plain messy. A bunch of unanswered questions to keep the reader confused and hooked for the next book but it just ruined the whole book for me. I have no issues with cliffhangers but the book should feel complete. The way Onyx Storm ended, it feels there were at least two more chapters that got deleted. It's just all over the place.

That was the review guys. I'll still wait for the next book to get published but my excitement has gone down quite a lot. I was expecting more of a Harry Potter style story where the main still occurs in the school/college itself but it seems like that isn't gonna be the case. I honestly believe this series should've been just 3 books instead of 5 but oh well, what can we say. Really agree with @justallihere and @justascrollingghost. We have almost the same complaints with the books lol P.S: The best surprise in this book: Broccoli, the kitten

[a-bad-case-of-the-stephs]

OOH WAIT been meaning to ask this bc I know ppl have lots of varying opinions on the matter:

Batgirl: Convergence

How do we feel about it, Re: Steph?

It's been a long time since I most recently reread it so I can't really summon too many thoughts on it- I remember doubting that Steph would've quit being a vigilante in the dome, even if I liked her nursing career, I liked her roommates dynamic with Cass, and I liked a couple of Steph's jokes and bits (yelling at killer moth that he's wasting her time, singing "We Are The Champions" when she knocked out catman). I also remember loving how Steph was drawn but that's just cause I'm way biased towards Rick Leonardi's art.

Would love to hear your take on it though, bc I've heard people say they love how it depicts Steph, or they hate how it depicts Steph, or they're indifferent, etc etc. curious for your thoughts

Okay I won’t lie I hadn’t read Convergence Batgirl before receiving this ask, because I didn’t know about Convergence Batgirl. I’m not going to get into it bc no one cares but the way I started reading comics was a little stupid insane, so I’ve read a LOT but there is a chance any book which wasn’t published in an ongoing or which I couldn’t find out about by reading ongoings I just might not having heard of.

All this to say: glad to know about it now! Thank you for asking me about it! I’ve read it twice now but my review and opinions might change with time and as I think about it more. Also this is really really fucking long, hope you don’t mind.

I had a pretty similar take to you abt Steph’s nursing career. I really liked Steph being a nurse, it felt like a good choice for Steph. But I also had similar and pretty major gripe with it: I just can’t see Steph giving up Batgirl to be a nurse unless it’s an evolution of her character. We all know Steph is stubborn as fuck and I can’t see her abandoning the mantle of Batgirl with anything less than an absolute decisiveness about how she could best help people. It would never be a backing down, as Convergence seems to portray it as. I just can’t see Steph quitting being Batgirl the way she does in Convergence, because of nebulous reasons which never really get explained, and especially given her Batgirl 2009 progression.

I was a fan of the moment Steph mentions her pregnancy. Steph mentions her pregnancy/her baby two times I can think of in the entire time between the aftermath of her giving birth and the new 52: when she talks to Cass on the rooftop and when is dying at the end of War Games. Two is not a lot of times. Would more mentions make the arc somehow better written? No. Would it benefit Steph’s character? Maybe, maybe not. Do I think it says something that DC has the balls to do a horribly executed teen pregnancy arc but not the balls to meaningfully acknowledge that choice again as consequential to Steph’s character? Yeah.

I think especially given how much time has passed for Steph and how much she’s grown as a character, her thinking about her pregnancy and especially how it’s shown as something that she uses to help her help people, is pretty well executed and intriguing to me. Again especially so because we get so little reflection about the pregnancy from Steph normally.

One little nitpick about it though. Steph reassures the pregnant teenager she’s aiding with birth that the amount of pain as she pushes is ‘normal’ and reassures her that Steph gets it. The dialogue doesn’t make as much sense if Steph had a c-section, which she did. It’s not like the biggest issue, just something small. (I’m like the Cinemasins of stephanie brown aren’t I? Damn.)

I was also very curious about the gendering of the baby, it’s something Steph does during War Games as well, referring to the baby as a girl despite specifically choosing when she gave birth not to know the gender of her baby. Even her dream sequence in Robin #65 is very very careful with language, the baby never is gendered. Once I feel like I can chalk up to author error, but if it’s occurred twice now I feel comfortable assigning an in-world explanation for this. I’m thinking it’s projection, just how Steph sees her baby and thinks about ‘her’. The dream sequence and her own twisty way she combined her own childhood with her baby’s potential one and plain old intuition combine and cause Steph to start thinking of her baby as a baby girl post pregnancy. She isn’t trying to think about it. She actually spend a good deal of time trying not to think about her baby, especially at first, about its eye color or where it’s sleeping at night or its gender. But inevitably thinking about her baby as a girl just trickles into her brain, until she doesn’t think twice about it and she refers to her baby as a girl even in the rare conversation, even while knowing she made that choice to not really ever know. (Okay tangent over)

Steph as an animal lover is interesting to me, as an extension of her defender of voiceless / victims shtick I think it works for her, but on the other hand it makes me think of the panel where she kicks this evil goose and then I laugh. I genuinely can’t think of any other notable moments of Steph and an animal interacting, besides the evil goose and the other brainwashed animals in the Robin 80 Page Giant. But sure, Steph as an animal lover is cute. No gripes with that. I like the description of her eyes as cow-like, that was fun to me.

Unfortunately Cass’s characterization felt off to me. I liked that they lived together, that was cute, but Cass didn’t really seem like herself. I don’t think she made a single expression the whole book. Also they gave her blue eyes which is crazy to me.

I did find it really funny when Steph jokingly refers to Cass as honey. I thought it might’ve been a Future State esque situation again where DC lets them be a (plausibly deniable) couple ONLY in alternate universes to the main continuity. Obvs not how it ended up playing out in Convergence, but still funny to me.

I wasn’t a fan of how much Steph devalues her own skill. I felt like a solid chunk of Steph’s internal narration was downplaying her abilities and doubting herself. It’s in character, don’t get me wrong, specifically in any pre batgirl2009 story. But it felt super out of place in a story which takes place after Batgirl 2009 has occurred. Because bg2009 serves as such a huge self confidence and self worth glow up for Steph, it felt like a huge step back for her. It’s one thing if it was just about her being out of practice, but it went beyond that. I can also see Steph having periods of lower self esteem and regression to old feelings about her self worth, but it feels like we’re missing an inciting incident for that. I would say her quitting Batgirl is the obvious answer, but the issue is I don’t think Convergence does a good enough job justifying that choice either, so I feel like I need an emotional inciting incident to explain Steph’s choice to quit Batgirl as well.

I thought it was a strange choice to say that Steph and Tim became a couple In the nebulous post bg2009 but pre-convergence-Dome period of time. I like the terms they were in Red Robin and Batgirl (2009) with the slightly sour but playful banter of exes who know eachother too well. This portrayal felt much less grounded in their history. The romantic throughline also came out of left field to me, given we didn’t find out that Steph and Tim had even gotten back together only to have broken up again until the second issue.

I will say I love the way Kwitney brings the realistic toll a crime fighting lifestyle would have taken on Steph and Tim into the story. It rarely gets explored, and I love when scars or long term injuries get acknowledged. Also kind of a sweet scene despite it all.

On the topic of Steph and Tim in Convergence Batgirl, I really liked this panel.

Something about this really speaks to me. I have to think on how it works w Steph’s character more, but I really do like this for her. And also the ref to Tim and Steph’s first date w the swing set is cute.

The thing with Convergence: Batgirl is that it’s asking a question about Stephanie Brown. By making her the champion for Gotham, and constantly comparing her to those better suited for the role, the comic pushes this question over and over again; Why is Steph ‘special’? Why her?

It’s a specific question abt why she would be chosen to be the champion, but it’s also a more general one which investigates the nature of Steph as a character. It’s a question she’s been leveled a lot as she’s been alternatively valued or devalued over time.

Kwitney comes to one main answer: Steph is good because Steph is resourceful and unpredictable. It’s Steph’s creativity and willingness to talk things out and pursue nonviolent solutions which allows her to best killer moth, (did the dome turn him back to a normal guy you think? Pretty sure he was still a Huge Moth Monster last we saw him) subdue the stampeding crowd of Gothamites, and convince Catman to surrender in order to win the challenge.

While this answer works, I don’t think it’s quite right. In fact, I think Batgirl Convergence accidentally refutes and reverses the real thing that makes Stephanie Brown ‘special’: her indomitable perseverance and will.

Steph gives up Batgirl, which is not portrayed as a choice to evolve into a role she feels she could help more people as, but as a kind of ‘giving up’ that ultimately turned out for the best.

Steph seems to give in to Tim, at first expressing anger over being dumped by being ghosted, because Tim no longer wanted to date her when she wasn’t Batgirl, and then seemingly giving in to his desire to rekindle their relationship without even discussing the situation again or expressing her feelings of betrayal. Those feelings aren’t resolved, they are abandoned.

And Steph wins as a champion, the genesis for Convergence’s investigation into what makes her a worthy vigilante, by convincing Catman to give up, stating that if he didn’t, she would. Does she actually give up in the fight? No. But the language of ‘giving up’ as Steph’s only path to victory in a game about what makes her valuable is so intriguing to me.

For the record, I don’t think Stephanie in Convergence Batgirl is constantly quitting, or somehow not stubborn. She perseveres, yes, but I do think there is a strong irony in these big story beats in Convergence revolving around Steph doing the very opposite: giving up.

And while Steph is certainly resourceful, and certainly unpredictable, her strongest point to me will always be the fact that she never does give up, no matter what the odds, no matter what she’s told. So in that way, I do think Convergence Batgirl fails. It asks this question about what makes Steph a worthy vigilante and then refutes the best answer entirely. Because of that, to me, it fails to explain what makes Steph special, it fails to answer the key question it asks to a standard I’d agree with.

Side note, I don’t know why Steph can never get writers who have written for her before. I find that unfortunate. That being said, I do think Kwitney did a solid job of understanding Steph’s character. Not perfect, but to me it’s clear she tried to ground Stephanie in her past.

I feel I might be more critical if I didn’t have new52 Steph Brown to stack it up against. At least this is a pre flashpoint story where I know her history as a character is pretty much intact. This world, even if elements are different, feels familiar.

Overall, it was a nice read despite its flaws. I think it messes up some important things about Steph’s character, but it also gets quite a few things right. My opinion might change with more time though. Thanks again for the ask, I’m curious as to what you think if you wanna weigh in!

[lafaiette]

Do you also feel like there is an ungodly amount of trash talk about Solas? Which would be fine but there really aren’t very many options to defend him????

That’s my biggest gripe so far. Like I feel like they are taking the choice away from me by making me be antagonistic towards a character that I don’t want to be antagonistic to in a game that is supposedly about CHOICE.

Sorry Lafiatte I’ve been feeling spicy about it lol.

OMG YES (under the cut because spoilers)

Everyone detests him, Harding is angry with him even before Varric gets stabbed, all insist what he did was terrible, that he was always distant and prickly, when we know this wasn't exactly true - he didn't want to grow attached to people in DAI for obvious reasons, yes, but he was always kind with his companions and the people in need. He always approved when the Inquisitor performed a kind action (like leaving flowers on a tomb) or said something nice.

If you use the outside camera when the Inquisitor first arrives in Redcliffe, you can see Solas kneeling down to help some hurt people on the road. That's who Solas was, not the cold person everyone (especially Harding) describes.

Also, no one wants to understand his POV - I think I have seen only Davrin "defend" him in one occasion, and Rook can sometimes say something positive about him ("He's lending us his help", "He's been nice so far" etc.), but it's really, really frustrating. Also, the constant repetition of the theme of regret - sometimes the dialogue seems written for 5 years old children playing a Pokemon game.

It's like the devs wanted the new players to hate him, and the old fans who never liked him to finally have the chance to say how much they can't stand him. Meanwhile the players who genuinely liked him, friendly Inquisitors and romanced Lavellans, are swept under the rug.

"Oh... you like Solas? Damn... good for you, I guess..."

I'm glad some people are liking it, but I can't see any love for the fans and the setting in this game, only fatigue and hurry. Understandable, after ten years of development hell, but damn, I'm sad.

[friendlybowlofsoup]

Another Update

Hello Friends,

I have a rather long (but optimistic!) update to share with you all today. As many of you are probably tired of reading these kind of posts, I have a TL;DR here, but I did want to share what has been on my mind in that past half-year that I haven't been here.

It has been rough, and busy as always, but I think I'm finally facing myself and my project for the first time in a very long time.

TL;DR (it's actually long, I have a lot to say (*_ _)人)

I soul-searched and decided to stop compromising on my own feelings with regards to this project. I gave in to everything I wanted to do.

Plot changes, which means some character changes, which means some of the demo is outdated.

GotRM will be switching over to Twine.

----

OH MAN DID I SUFFER THE LAST FEW MONTHS

After my previous update, I hunkered down and really analyzed how I wanted to proceed with GotRM as a project. Because even prior to that post, I had already been going through long periods of hiatuses (which you are all aware of), and while I didn't lie about school taking up my time, I was also harboring a growing dissatisfaction with my own writing that really killed my progress for a long time.

So after everything had settled, I sat down and forced myself to peel apart my work. I know I said I would answer asks, but I uninstalled all of my social media and put aside this blog to focus. I made a note of all the things I liked and didn't like, and I made a list of things I wanted to change or improve on. The biggest point was that I also looked at my efficiency during actual writing sessions: how much of my time was spent writing vs. fighting with code? How could I change that?

And after a lot of deliberation, I figured there were a few things I had to change from the ground up, summed up in four points:

My working style was super incompatible with grad school. I can't spend 20-30 minutes scrolling up and down CSIDE checking code or looking for narratives while also jumping between chapters to make sure events line up. As this story grows, the more difficult it becomes to keep track of all the branches, so I needed an alternative working method, which I am adhering to now, and it prioritizes efficiency.

I hated the way I was tracking and coding stats in-game. I have griped so much about coding stats, and I have adhered to such a rigid style that I really felt trapped whenever I was confronted with balancing them out. So I'm throwing that to the wind and redoing how I utilize and convey them. Player-side, this decision doesn't change much since I never fully utilized stats in the demo anyway, and the stats page with indicators will still exist, but I'm getting rid of stat bars and how I treat stat checks.

The story I want to write now is different from the one I started out with. I've known for a while that GotRM was becoming far more than the tiny, wishful novella that I wrote as a teenager. I held onto that old story for a long time, but there's just so much I want to change that I realized I'd been clinging to a story I no longer enjoyed writing. So I spent the majority of the last few months rewriting GotRM from scratch. I redid some worldbuilding, I changed a lot of plot points, and I fixed a lot of characters' backstories accordingly. This meant scrapping stuff from even the demo, but that turned out to not be the biggest issue because:

I wanted to branch away from ChoiceScript. Honestly, I never really cared about getting officially published, but the camaraderie in the forums and on Tumblr were why I committed to CS and CoG. However, ultimately, I really want the functionality that other tools can offer GotRM, and so after a long internal debate, I will be switching over to Twine. Fortunately, since I was rewriting everything anyways, this has been relatively painless, and passage mapping has made everything so much neater. I am trying my best to make it up to chapter 2 before I release the new demo, so please look forwards to that!

And so yes, I am still here, chugging along.

I love this game and this story: it's been my creative escape for as long as I could remember, and you can imagine how frustrated I was when I realized I was starting to dread working on it.

I am forever learning more about myself and my writing style, and this is simply more of that journey. Thank you everyone for sticking around, for joining the discord, and for checking up on me--that I have all of you has truly been a dream.

Hopefully more updates to come soon! I understand that there may be questions about these new changes, so please ask away! I will (try) to release some asks that I've been working on in the drafts too, but I will wait until at least tomorrow to release them so that this post doesn't get drowned out immediately.

And as always, with a lot of love,

FriendlyBowlofSoup (Mei)

[dragonwysper]

Just finished Mouthwashing, after hearing all sorts of snippets of fandom drama about it. I'd stayed away from all that because I didn't have the context, but now I do! So I'm blasting you all with my thoughts.

Long post. Be prepared. Spoilers for Mouthwashing and CW for in-depth discussion of SA below.

So the biggest aspect of the drama side of the fandom that I've been seeing is how the game handled Anya's rape. Some people think it was devastating and properly showed the awfulness of Jimmy, and feel Anya's trauma was portrayed accurately and handled well. Others think Anya was somewhat one-dimensional; she was given a stereotypically female-specific trauma to match the different pain/traumas of the other crew members, and feel the subject wasn't given enough weight and respect.

After having played the game (while also going into it with the knowledge and expectation that it would be about SA), I can see both sides. Though I think my thoughts on everything come from some core details.

Firstly, the core theme of the game is not SA. It's karma. Jimmy is a terrible person who doesn't care about the pain he inflicts on others, as long as he gains something from it. The game follows him as he destroys the people around him, and treats them like fodder to fuel his own goals. We see all of this catch up to him in the end, and he's sortof divinely punished, or overcome with guilt, or whatever it is, because of it. Each person's harm is unique and everybody has their own micro-themes, but the core theme of the game is overwhelmingly karma.

Essentially, this is not a game about SA. This is a game about a terrible person getting what's coming to him.

Secondly, rape as shock content is a common gripe regarding mostly horror movies. It's a quick and easy way to create motivation, so much so that it's turned into its own subgenre of 'rape and revenge' plots. Think I Spit On Your Grave style movies. The other side of the same coin is objectifying the victim, which creates an exploitative feel. The act of the rape itself, and furthermore the shock of it, is more important than the victim and their feelings and trauma. Rape is detached from the lasting harm it causes, and is more something to justify getting up in arms about something/someone rather than a trauma.

And while we do see some of Anya's trauma from SA, Mouthwashing by and large is not meant to be a commentary on SA specifically. Again, it's about how terrible of a person Jimmy is, which makes the SA, at least in part, a tool to make the player hate him.

Ultimately, if Mouthwashing was changed to where Anya faced a different form of harm from Jimmy, instead of SA, it would still be just about the same game. You could still make a convincing game with karma and bad people getting their comeuppance as the core theme. And that I think is the most important realization to have about the subject.

Anya's SA was the first trauma, and the details of the aftermath are what kickstarted the plot, but it was, intentionally or not, a tool to make you hate Jimmy. Because the game isn't about Anya and her trauma. It's about Jimmy and his karma.

I think Mouthwashing is fascinating, and that theme of karma is not something I see done well very often. I think the style of the plot and all the little details that expound upon the micro-themes of the game are extremely well done. And I think it did handle its themes of SA better than a lot of content that discusses it. But it's not perfect, and it falls short of really digging into the true weight of it. It's not a game that makes any real progress on the portrayal of sexual trauma in media. It's cleaner and less graphic than 'rape and revenge' stories, but it ultimately still relies on exploiting the shock of rape to serve a 'bigger' plot.

It's late, I'm tired, and I'm struggling to properly word what I'm feeling, but hopefully my interpretation of nuance comes through.

[thickness-protection-program]

The thing about the last of us to me is, at the end of the day is that it reprimands the player for doing actions the game wants you to do. The game tells you it is bad that you wanted to kill these people. You are a bad person for doing these violent acts. When Most decisions are made for you in cutscenes.

I also think alot of it has to do with the lying in the trailers for me, the trailers made it seem like one kind of game and in reality it was not..

Not even touching the whole israeli thing with the creator, the story is a complete mess.

Ellie is cool though and I love her gameplay

Yeah even though i love Ellie as a character I didn't like what she was doing in part 2 but that was the point. So fair enough. My biggest gripe was that, yes you can sympathize with someone you dislike or even hate, but after Abby did THAT we don't have a reason to sympathize with her. The whole first story Joel is a morally grey character too but his and Ellie's journey is so impactful you just can't help but root for their success. I don't hate Abby but I'm like??? Is this it?? I'm supposed to root for you just bc you saved a kid from being killed? Throughout the whole game it's explicitly shown she's ok with torture and murder for her own gain (she's not above killing pregnant people??) and she never really undergoes character development. This all makes half the game a chore to play

[moonpaw]

Would you be willing to explain why you don't like insurgence and xenoberse? I also keep seeing them recommended, but I'm currently playing uranium.

insurgence seems to be an over the top edgy game that's just super not in my wheelhouse

xenoverse because i did play through that one and its just. so goddamn lackluster. the plot and gameplay was constantly pissing me off 😭 though i think my main issue was that i was pretty excited going into the game because i watched as several people overhyped it, calling the story fantastic and the best thing ever and then i played it and it was just... not.

it was ALRIGHT. i guess. but eurgh. my biggest issue is the other playable character (that you don't choose) only showing up like a handful of times (i think literally can be counted on one goddamn hand) and is heavily shoving a romance in your face from the moment you meet them. which whatever, ok, sure. except. if you choose to play as a girl, the boy option, LOOKS VERY MUCH LIKE YOUR DAD. and it just made the whole thing SUPER uncomfortable to me to the point i had to restart the whole game over to choose to be a boy instead because at least the girl doesn't look like either parent even though i still very much hated the whole forced romance crush thing. but hey. at least it didn't feel like i was being flirted on by a younger version of your dad 😭

also the gameplay itself was just. really felt like it was all glitter and hype and then felt like ass trying to actually play and make sense of from a plot perspective

and then my next gripe is your dad and this one is end of game spoiler territory

the game is focused on finding your dad who got kidnapped at the beginning of the game (10 years ago) except oops! nope! he's the leader of the villain gang! also he's SILVER FROM THE CANON SERIES (with your mom being leaf!)

and him being the leader of the big bads just. GOES AGAINST HIS WHOLE CHARACTER?? hello. hello. hello. i still had the whole elite 4 or whatever post game there was but finding out it was silver just. made me stop playing it pissed me off soooooo much

[spitblaze]

Look Octopath Traveler 1 is a game that has left a very strong impression on me and one I love dearly and one that I'm well aware is gonna bounce off of some people. That's fine, not everything is for everyone, but instead of hearing 'this why this game sucks' from someone who doesn't like the game I'd rather you hear 'here's what I love about it' from someone who does, especially because of how much of my enjoyment is found in the parts that some people hate.

So, mechanically speaking- Octopath Traveller is REALLY fun, but you need to actually engage with it. For some people, combat in turn based rpgs is just overleveling and then mashing 'a' until you win. You can't really do that with Octopath- much like a lot of my other favorite RPGs, you NEED to employ strategy in order to succeed. You will of course eventually reach the point where you can breeze through enemies, and the level progression of 1 is PAINFULLY slow at times, but that just makes it all the more important to think strategically.

Narratively, it's not like...the deepest thing in the world. That's fine, not every RPG needs to be operating on a million levels of narrative depth. I wouldn’t call it 'shallow' either, but the meaning found in any given narrative is fully subjective. What REALLY captivated me was the characters. Their personalities are very distinct, and if you're the kind of person who likes to fill in the gaps yourself, there's ample room to do that. The lack of meaningful narrative interparty connection in 1 is frustrating and off-putting to a lot of people. And I get it! That's easily one of my biggest gripes with 1 narratively, with such effort put into character writing and not even implying that things connect until the post-game secret superboss. But, like I said- if you're the kind of person who likes filling in the gaps yourself, it gives you MORE than enough to imagine their interactions and their lives outside of what we see. The hole doesn't feel like a staring, gaping flaw to me and a lot of others- it feels like it’s inviting you in, to use your imagination and consider narratives between characters that the game doesn't provide itself.

And like...I get that that's not everyone's bag. If you prefer narratives with less of those gaps, Octopath 2 is an upgrade over 1 in like...every conceivable way. I still love 1 dearly, but like in the same way that even though Pokémon Emerald is my favorite I more than recognize that it's FAR from the series peak. If the mechanics of Octopath put you off too...honestly,.play Live A Live. That's the game it's inspired by, and the team that made Octopath did the remake of it. And if you're like me and love the room to use your imagination that Octopath 1 has...might I recommend the Etrian Odyssey series?

[subspaceskater]

Do you have any celeste mod recs? My friend finished Farewell a while back and I feel like she'd enjoy chewing on some more fun level designs.

yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay i love questions. i'm gonna go through some basic stuff before i get into my personal recs.

so if she hasn't done any modding at all then the first step is installing the modloader. it has all the information you'll need on now to do that https://everestapi.github.io/

don't worry about downloading dependencies when you get the mods, when you launch the game through the modloader it'll go through and download all the dependencies you're missing.

then go here to find map mods. there's all kinds of other mods on the site but those are to be applied per taste so i shan't recommend them. https://gamebanana.com/mods/cats/6800?

what i did at first was just kind of sort it by most downloaded or most liked and then just read the descriptions for the top ones and downloaded whatever i liked the sound of. there's a lot of good mods out there and the scene is just getting bigger and bigger!

there's also the celeste modding central youtube which has trailers for things and is a good way to find mods that maybe came out recently https://www.youtube.com/@CelesteModdingCentral

another thing to do is just like pay attention to difficulty levels on the mods.

beginner levels are usually a-side to early b-side difficulty

intermediate are late b-side, most c-sides, and some of farewell

advanced are around or higher than the difficulty of the hardest farewell and c-side maps and will often introduce mechanics that arent in the vanilla game but aren't too difficult to perform if you've already cleared farewell

expert is above all vanilla difficulty and will introduce mechanics that are hard to do! lots of scary shit here. but very cool looking maps. i havent really finished any expert mods but i've been able to clear a few rooms in the ones i've tried/the ones in collabs.

grandmaster is above everything else. this is where you go when you're bored of expert or really wanna do sicko shit. it's cool.

however it's also important i think to play maps that are below the difficulty level you can complete. because a lot of them are fun! and cute! and just because you can clear it in one try with no deaths doesnt mean you won't enjoy the experience. a lot of them have really cute custom art or music or custom mechanics and they're completely worth it.

now i'll put my actual recs under a cut

of course i'll just start by saying the 2020 spring collab is maybe the most well known mod because it is so fucking good. this is a great place to start and a great place to just have a big mod with a bunch of maps in it that you can complete without digging for a ton of things.

the strawberry jam collab, secret santa 2022, and secret santa 2023 are also all really good. the second two have lots of in jokes between modders that i dont really get because i only really play mods without being involved with the scene but that doesn't detract from them being fun to play.

i will say that my biggest gripe with collab packs is that sometimes there will just be a level in one that i hate. never like a bad level but just something that is antithetical to what I enjoy in a map! and it feels a little bad to be like "no i'm not fucking doing this" and just ignore one map in a floor and then not be able to do the big combination map at the end. but it's fine. maybe you aren't as whiny of a bitch as i am.

glyph is a huge one that a lot of people love. it has a bunch of really cool stuff. cannot recommend glyph enough. it has its own b-sides.

into the jungle is a custom campaign the ramps up in difficulty starting from where 7-A was.

rupture is really good. short intermediate mod with 16 rooms.

lucy's summit is a fun beginner difficulty summit remix. (a kind of mod that just sticks to vanilla level theming.)

cosmic sands is a short intermediate map with some fun mechanics i enjoyed a lot

sentimental is a 10 room intermediate map with some cool secrets

and nutty noon :) kirby.

that's probably enough recommendations.

[yesiknowlahee]

I have A LOT of thoughts on Dawntrail. Do not open this if you haven't finished it.

Seriously if you go below the cut and haven't finished, it's your fault. I tagged it. I warned you up top. Warned. Extra warned. W A R N E D for spoilers.

Okay so let's begin.

My RUNNING MAJOR, ABSOLUTELY BIGGEST GRIPE is that the game plays Show and Tell. And I would like to *do*

The biggest one is that- so this expansion we are a side character. Very rarely do the events circle around us, we are pretty consistently supporting someone else. And that is FINE. I am more than okay with that. BUT it means that we do miss out on seeing and experiencing certain things.

An example is catching the Llama at level 90. A quest Wuk Lamat goes on off screen. I would've loved to have gone either with her, or played as her, and had the opportunity to try it for myself. I think that would've given us an opportunity to appreciate her journey as a character more, and been more engaging than the cutscene we got. And realistically, we could've had both.

Another point at which I would've LOVED to have seen or interacted with, was finding out a trade agreement had been made with Radz at Han, and the dragons coming in, and generally, the defense of Tuliyollal during the second invasion. Literally getting to interact with any of that. I would've been fine if that had been a VERY long duty or two consecutive duties, just to experience that aspect a little more.

Inb4 "but development time, they can only do so much" I am not willing to give concessions to this big a company with some of the most popular games in the world. They have had concession and patience from me for four years. Now, I am going to have critiques.

Another point at which I would've liked to DO rather than being shown- the train scene when we're shooting at things. COME ON. GIVE ME A LITTLE POINT AND SHOOT MINI GAME. Cutscenes are cool, but I want to play with what you're showing me and feel immersed.

Finally, as someone who is an omnicrafter at 90, that is acknowledged all of ONCE. I realize not everyone is, but a lot of us are. It would be INCREDIBLY cool if they gave us a temporarily optional quest in which we got to help repair the ini'hana float, like a custom delivery. Or something that they found to be within reason. Just, a little more to let me interact with the classes I have at hand. It would be a really great opportunity to immerse me as a player. Same goes for when we're cooking. I'm glad I got to help but maybe a little mini game would be nice.

Overall I unfortunately feel our questing is a bit of a stale slog.

If you've read this far, you're probably thinking,

"Okay you're bitching, so what did you like???"

The cultures. I thought it was absolutely beautiful and wonderful, the first half of the expansion- I had an amazing time. I LOVED the journey we went on with Wuk Lamat. I liked trading with the Pelu Pelu. I loved ini'hana. I got to develop a love for the people with Wuk Lamat, and I really appreciated that. Tural was wonderful. I had a lot of fun in the first Dungeon. I didn't hate the others, but because I loved the beauty of the Turali aesthetics so much, I felt disappointed the further we got into Alexandrian sci-fi vibes, and when we went to Shaaloani. The game even acknowledged we'd seen this before. It wasn't really fresh. And while it laid important groundwork, I feel it could've been more interesting.

Meeting versions of people from across reflections feels a little lazy to me.

Other things I take issue with, the game is *too* formulaic at this point. The expansions follow the same formula. The dungeons. They bring the same characters from different worlds back from across expansions. Come on. Deviate. Please.

This is our THIRD FINAL BOSS IN A ROW where the final dungeon is their memories. And we go through a world of their lost people for the final zone. Come on. C O M E ON. It was cool for Emet. I tolerated it for Sad Bird. I cannot do another glowing white girl that numerous problems coalesce around. (No I am not implying that Emet is ShBs Token glowing white girl, that is Ryne. Who is just *Minfilia again* )

And in us getting that key and them setting us up for interdimensional fusion, I fear that we may be on the precipice for more laziness. And that is really disappointing to me.

So, let's end this on a few positives. Because I didn't hate dawntrail. But there were a lot of decisions made that I am concerned by or disappointed by.

Gulool Ja, I am his guardian. Wuk Lamat said we're family. Imma be his aunty and we're going places. Love that kid. Enjoyed the motif and discussion of family that stayed at the center of this Latin America centered expansion. That was beautiful and I enjoyed it.

Bakool Jaja. ;)

SEEING THE ADOPTIVE PARENTS AND THE BIRTH PARENTS AND THE CLOSURE THE CHARACTERS GOT AND HOW THEY PROCEEDED WITH THE KNOWLEDGE. OH MY GOD I LOVED THAT. THAT WAS BEAUTIFUL. I CRIED SO MUCH IN LIVING MEMORY. SO. SO. MUCH.

Koana's growth brought me A LOT of joy.

Sena Bryers performance was delightful.

A lot of the character designs were wonderful.

I'm looking forward to further interacting with the world they've built.

They almost made me like Solution Nine. I'm sorry but we cannot keep ending the expansion in Scifi fuck nowhere guys.

Also if you come in to these comments and rts and try to defend ANYTHING with "Well in another final fantasy--" no. Make it stand on its own. A GAME SHOULD STAND ON ITS OWN. ESPECIALLY A MULTI EXPANSION MMO. PEOPLE SHOULD BE ABLE TO ENJOY JUST THE EXPENSIVE ASS MMO. References? YES. GO FOR IT. but no defending bad writing by saying it is a nod to another game. I don't care what you're nodding to. I care that your nod can't stand by itself.

H o p e f u l l y I'll be able to come back to this years from now and be able to appreciate it as a foundation for other expansions, like I do appreciate Shaaloani more *after credits rolled* than I did when I was doing it.

Side note I'm pretty sure my fiancé's colleagues heard me SOBBING over Erenville and Cachiua's goodbye in their meeting this morning. Whoops.

You see how long this post is? I wrote it while the credits rolled. They're STILL rolling.

TL;DR I want to interact with more of the stuff in the immersive world they're creating and I would like them not to do the same thing *over and over* as far as flow and the nature of the final bosses and zones go.

[flares-of-arcadia]

Some messy thoughts on RE7 (with mentions of 8)

just beat RE7. I wish I had paid more attention when it first came out and I watched my brother go through it, because holy shit I fucking loved it

Under a read-more for length

After playing through 7 on my own, it's hard to believe that I didn't really get into the fandom until Village. Or, well, it does track that I saw scary women in 8 and started paying attention... I am nothing if not predictable

And honestly, a big part of why Village sunk it's claws into me is because it's flawed, or at the very least felt like it had a lot of missed potential. All of the antagonists were so interesting, and I felt like they didn't get as much attention as the Bakers did (there are so many things to look at, storytelling in the environment, AND we learned more about them in the DLC). Wanting to fill in those gaps for the 4 Lords and Miranda is what made me so invested in the fandom

(also because I'm really gay)

If you're familiar with my main blog, you might know that my biggest gripe with Village is that we don't get anything between Mia and Miranda. Having now played through 7 (and read literally every file), I feel even more strongly about what was missing. Or, at the very least, what I wanted from it.

Annnnd that's just in terms of story, gameplay is a whole other thing, but I'd want to replay 8 before getting too much into it.

But back to just talking about 7 for a tiny bit longer, as chaotic as my thoughts are:

Loved the soundtrack. Also hated it because, as a horror soundtrack goes, it was Very Effective. Didn't appreciate one of the tracks having some monster noises, tho. That was already a tense section and I hated getting false alarms about whether or not there was a Molded around the corner. And!!! Honestly the version of Go Tell Aunt Rhody didn't need to slap as hard as it does. I'd listen to that shit in my free time

Ethan is an interesting protagonist? I love him, don't get me wrong, but there are a couple kind of quirks that make it hard to interpret him. Most of the time he feels like a silent protagonist, but in cutscenes he's very vocal. It gets weird once the cutscene ends with something dramatic and he immediately shuts up.

Like, after we first reunite with Mia, we reach a dead end, Ethan goes to check another room, and while our back is turned we hear Mia scream. Ethan yells her name, we rush back to the room she was in, and then Ethan just doesn't say anything else. Doesn't call out to her, doesn't say anything about the new pathway, nothing. There are more examples but this was supposed to be quick

I love Mia. She's a badass, she's a liar with temporary amnesia, and she's a Fucking Badass. Seriously wish we had a chance to play as her again in Village. I do kinda wish we got more glimpses into her relationship with Ethan, but hey that's what fanfiction is for

I feel so bad for Eveline. I get that she was beyond the point of saving, but fucking hell, you read the files and you look at the photos (and you think about what we know from 8 about Miranda's role) and she's suddenly very understandable. It's tragic, everything that happened to her, even if she went on to inflict tragedies on others.

Okay I have more thoughts but my thumbs are tired from gaming + immediately typing on my phone. Love y'all byeeeeee

[penguwastaken]

On ‘Danganronpa Togami’ also, I would be of the viewpoint that most of what happened in the present in terms of actual events not merely spoken of was real (unlike the interpretation of certain others) and that the way Borges worked was essentially like a more advanced versions of the vision filters from ‘Black Mirror’, replacing what was seen/heard by Blue Ink with regards to the identities of (some of) the people who were being encountered then being obscured/replaced with others if they seemed to contradict what Blue Ink’s reality (as Byakuya’s biographer) was supposed to be, and what words they were saying. That what can be guaranteed to have been real 100% would be those scenes Borges wouldn’t have had the right context to in order to properly filter it off into something else, like most of the Ultimate Despair encounters, Byakuya calling Junko, the brief Mukuro encounter, Toko showing up and Genocide Jill going into action, etc., as well as any information given by characters in the games (like there being 15 to 108 Togami siblings). One particular fan theory building on this concept that I like being that the real Shinobu who died was the actual decapitator in the island flashbacks, Borges having switched around the identities of the major players in terms of what they did in presenting a facsimile of the past for her to look back upon. And that while the Ultimate Imposter may very well have been one of the many Togami siblings, it didn’t matter anymore to his present goals with Ultimate Despair, the ‘Kazuya’ Orvin made that way basically to see how his original plan might have gone if he hadn’t met Junko. It was a trilogy that seemed to assume one had played the other games/read the other novels, that its readership would understand what certain things would be referring to, even if not explicitly spelled out.

What would be your thoughts on the trilogy?

Ignore everything below, my mind has completely changed (lol). Read my updated review instead.

If you want a very short description of my opinion of Danganronpa Togami, it's basically this image.

I can't help but think that maybe if i read the Kagami Family Saga novels or if there were just better full translations, maybe i would have liked Danganronpa Togami more. But the truth is, I REALLY don't like Danganronpa Togami. It's honestly one of the worst media experiences I've ever had 😭

My biggest gripe is that i hate that any flaw with its storytelling can be exempt by just saying "well actually it was all fake and you don't know what's real and what isn't" because that just makes it worth nothing, if the bad stuff can be exempt then so can the good stuff. And it is HEAVILY implied that a majority of the novel is fake, the themes rely on it, it's the main point of the novel. And if they were real, that would make it actual dogshit and also just noncanon because it would contradict Danganronpa 3 and Zero.

I genuinely can't tell if I really like the twist or if I really hate it because it makes so much sense in retrospect but getting to that point was an actual pain to read, and the implications of it are also so baffling.

There's so much god awful stuff in this book like Kazuya and Suzuhiko, the weird recurring incest stuff, Byakuya's really bad and flanderized characterization, and all the absurd stuff that happens like Sakura projecting herself or the despair novel but it's all dismissed by the "it was all made up" thing which is so awesome but so stupid at the same time. If that twist was in literally any other novel I might like it but it's handled so poorly that I end up despising it.

Basically, I don't like this novel. And while parts of it matter, for the most part it can be easily dismissed because most of it was canonically made up.

I shouldn't have to read a completely separate book series to enjoy this. There was no need for all of the gross and poorly handled incest and sexual abuse stuff. Byakuya's characterization just makes him insufferable and his entire motive and actions is kind of gross. And to top it all off, NONE of it mattered. It's not like V3 where the events had an effect on the people involved or changed something, the book literally just describes it as another weekend in Byakuya's life and it's all forgotten and most of it didn't even happen. I sat through all of that for none of it to even matter. Basically what it results is self nullifying nonsense that means literally nothing as none of the events happened.

I'm sorry if you like this trilogy, I just can't find many positives. I went in thinking that maybe the hate for it was unfounded, I wanted to like it. I mean, I think Danganronpa 3 is great, I found redeeming qualities in Danganronpa S and Ultra Despair Girls. So if anyone can find something to like in an unpopular piece of Danganronpa media, it would be me. And honestly volume 1 wasn't even that bad, I remember thinking that it was kinda dumb but harmless. But my experience with Danganronpa Togami can best be described as a decent into madness. I have a lot of issues with it, but that's just my opinion.

[neurotic-sinkhole]

A Crown of Candy is my favorite setting and season Dimension 20 has done so far. The way Calorum was meticulously crafted in both lore and actual mechanics demonstrates complete mastery of GMing. Political intruige is such a fun yet unsettling type of campaign, and in one of my own campaigns I've GM'd, I looked towards the world building Brennan and the Intrepid Heros did in the world as an inspiration.

With that being said, there were parts I wasn't a big fan of.

I only discovered D20 about a year and a half ago, so I wasn't around when A Crown of Candy was coming out. I have no idea what the discourse surrounding the season looked like at the time. But seeing the current Rat Grinders discourse, I can put together the peices of how bad fans at that time could have been.

Now, with ACOC, my personal gripes with the season aren't little scenes I disagree with. I've rewatched the season many, many times- and every. single. time For Candia Pt 1 (second to last episode) makes me genuinely upset. I'm a Survivor fan. I've hatewatched many hours of TV but preservered simply for the sake of completion for a lotta content. But that episode, the decisions made by some of the cast in regaurd to their character's alleginces makes me so angry.

From what I gather, there was a shit ton of hate to Emily based from her portrayal (and i guess just existance?) as Sacharina. While I don't think Sacharina was a perfect character, the choices Emily made as Sacharina were nowhere near as upsetting to me as Murph's as Theo.

((This is spoilers if ya haven't watched yet))

In For Candia Pt 1, there's the whole conversarion between the Momma Poppa lonely twin inner House Rocks family about how Amathar isn't an adulterer. They talk about how he's actually legally King! And they make the decision to tell nobody, not even Theo, because it isn't the time. Because well, there is literally war going on, and also because they're nervous about it weaseling rebellion in the troops and companions they so desperately need to work together- if but just for a few more hours.

Then the swifty thing happens, Sacharina tells Theo, and the exact thing Ruby DIRECTLY MENTIONS being nervous about happens. Theo can't keep the secret and tells people.

Now, I know that within the cannon Theo wouldn't know Ruby said that. Him knowing that is straight up metagaming lol. But what Theo does know, and hears directly from Sacharina's lips, is that SWIFTY found this out. Swifty, the "advisor" to his queen who is a known shit starter and murderer. Theo only checks if the queen is telling the truth- not Swifty, and doesn't think to double check this info.

Theo says he's known Ruby since she's been alive. He's known Amathar for decades. But he'll take the word of a rampaging violent maurader such as Swifty, who he's only known for a series of weeks.

Everybody- the cast, the other characters in game, MURPH HIMSELF- has waxed poetic about the importance of honor to Theo. Yet he forgets it so easily at times that he needs it most and it drives me WILD.

This is probably my biggest complaint with ACOC. And I know this issue does not come from some weird sense of "morality" or just straight up sexism/racism/queerphobic tendancies like a lot of the issues d20 fans come up with. It's a genuine critiqe of a character not based off of their behavior but choices made. It's criticism that garners conversation. I bet there are people who will think I'm wrong, and that's fine! I think you're wrong then too, and that's it. I don't think you're immoral or a bad person for not having a different viewpoint than me. It's interesting in a way that stirs myself and others to delve further into the season I love so much.

Because that's what fandom discourse should look like. That is what disagreements within online spaces should look like. Especially when the events being dissected are about little food people in the dice game.