#i had a lot of thoughts about my latest single-player gaming experience

[lisharchivez]

Hello I noticed you shared the ss of affinity for requirement and iirc for Sylus we jumped from lvl 1 to 5 right? Do you know if it's the same with other LI?

And I recently saw someone shared a quote from the affinity but sadly they don't specify which one and I don't remember if I already passed it. I thought we can check it at the affinity level on the LI profile so I only ss a few. If you don't mind, is it okay if you shared the affinity ss for Zayne? Only if you feel it's not a burden and if you have records of it of course. Thank you for everything 🩵

Hi

Whoever anon is I hope you get the response you wanted .

Please read the whole thing where I will try to explain the whole affinity quote thing based on my experiences..I have been meaning to talk about this

Let's talk about affinity first -

Let's start with latest man of the hour ,Sylus

Yes if u unlock sylus in main story you immediately jump from 1-4/5+ (depending whether u did the chat and then replied to his posts) immediately.

Reasons being - fighting with him ,getting cards so unlocking companion , chatting with him and interacting in posts.

I did all that as they designed a player to do and Got to 1-5

if you skip socials then it will be 1-4 jump.

For Zayne

He is the 3rd LI we meet in game ,And 2nd companion we unlock in destiny cafe after chapter 1

Mind you you can take a break after Chapter 1 with no one to rush you .

There's a [story] we get from him .

AND the BOND tutorial makes you do HIS bond as tutorials.

so with all that thing ,his affinity jump is very High overall in your first day of playing . But since everything happens After he is unlocked as companion you might be lucky to see the 💓1-> 💓2/3 and gradual progress if u don't do alotta stuff together because then the jump would be 2->6 ,8->13 due to catching up in affinity level .

but you can get 10-12+ affinity overnight if u are new player and you main him .

Same goes for Xavier .

You can unlock him BEFORE zayne in fact u can stop story midway where u didn't meet zayne and interact with Xavier .

Although he doesn't have the bond tutorial buff .

He is the face for the rest of tutorials ,name it Touching in destiny cafe ,Trial stages ,very first card u ever level up or equip Protocore to .

And you what comes with it? Affinity level up!!

Add choosing him in beginner standard banner.

Yeah..

you can get 10-12+ affinity overnight as a new player if u are new player and you main him .

For Rafayel

He is locked in Chapter 2.. a lot of new players makes the mistake of not finishing chapter 2 but pulling for him .resulting the delay of his affinity level up

When we unlock him in story we use our very first Burst with him .and then there are two Text back to back that helps his affinity.

But for rest you have to be clever and him focused .Because with all the tutorials ,Zayne & Xavier's status has higher advantage of boost without you even trying ..

Just like how everyone has advantage in terms of affinity level against Sylus but you can still see Some fans hitting affinity 70 with him .

About quotes-

When you unlock sylus

his first quote is always

💓1->5/1->4

"You are the one who walked in "

In fact he goes on and on

But in my second alt I didn't respond to the chat .

So I had💓 1->4 jump

Then I got new and interesting quotes due to Cycle being different (4->5 & 6->8 for example)

Then you might think "oh it's the unique cycles that gives the unique quotes"

True BUT

They are just early access & not locked in that particular affinity change.

LIs has chances of saying one single Quotes in a row .

Zayne once went "you are like a dessert" "you are like a dessert " "you are like a dessert " "you are like a dessert" from 22->23->25->26->27->28->29->31 affinity IN A ROW . I think he thinks of mc as dessert idk guys what do you think?

Likewise sylus sometimes he goes on tangent on one singular quote

But it doesn't guarantee he will say same thing for you..he didn't do for me

But one thing stays consistent is the affinity where moment post / chat / phone call unlocks .

for those affinities you will get quotes that stays consistent for most part .

that's why I try include the screenshot of them because chances are they are same for you .

unless you are odd one out-

But 100% consistency?? Are they though??

🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃

another example ,same quote but entirely different stage of affinities .

So yeah it's hard to tell "exact" affinity you will get your quotes .

when the new companion unlocks

The very first affinity quote from every LI will and should be same for everyone

then as you progress ,When everything is new about them ,that's where it's same quotes for affinities for every player .

For zayne

his first quote for me was always

💓1->2

"it's a wonderful thing to see you again"

then these following quotes will come through (this is based on last encounter SS)

💓 2->3

" it's a wonderful thing to see you again"

💓4->5

" it's a wonderful thing to see you again"

💓5->6

" it's a wonderful thing to see you again"

💓 6->7

" for a long time ,my gaze has always been yours "[text unlock:waiting room]

💓 7->8

" we have been meeting each other a lot as of late"[moment post :rabbit]

💓 8->9

" it's a wonderful thing to see you again"

💓 9->10

" I am more than just your doctor"[gift for room]

💓 10->11

" I am more than just your doctor"

💓10->11

" contact me even if for no particular reason"

💓 11->12

" contact me even if it's for no particular reason"

💓 11->12

" you are the best medicine I have"

💓11->14

" contact me even if it's for no particular reason"

💓19->20

"your destination is where I want to go "

💓20->21

"you are like a dessert "

For Rafayel

First quote was

💓 1->4

"let's look at the sea together next time "

then these following quotes will come through (this is based on last encounters SS)

💓5->6

"let me see if there are new requests"

💓5->6

"we meet again ,miss bodyguard"

💓6->7

"we meet again miss body guard"

💓5->7

"let's look at the sea together next time"

💓7->8

"let's look at the sea together next time"

💓8->9

"let's look at the sea together next time"

💓 8->9

""we meet again ,miss bodyguard"

💓 9->10

"you seem to always appear with the sun"

💓 9->11

"you always bring refreshing inspiration"

💓10->11

"you always bring refreshing inspiration"

💓11->12

"you always bring refreshing inspiration"

💓11->12

"you seem to always appear with the sun"

💓 11->13

"you seem to always appear with the sun"

💓13->14

"everyday is worth commemorating"

💓 13->14, 16->17, 17->19

"you seem to always appear with the sun"

💓14->15

"you always bring refreshing inspiration"

💓15->17

"everyday is worth commemorating"

💓19->21

"you are my only choice "

💓21->22

"all my weekends are for you to use"

For Xavier

First quote last time was

💓1->3

" lets meet at a safer place next time "

then these following quotes will come through (this is based on last encounters SS)

💓3->4

" lets meet at a safer place next time "

💓4->5

"companionship sounds like a good idea"

💓5->7

"companionship sounds like a good idea"

💓9->10

"I should leave my oven to you"

💓11->12

"I won't be a player short in two-player game anymore "

💓11->12

" now I have someone I can share food with"

💓12->13

"I won't be a player short in two-player game anymore "

💓13->14

" now I have someone I can share food with"

💓14->15

" now I have someone I can share food with"

💓16->17

"I won't be a player short in two-player game anymore "

💓16->17

" now I have someone I can share food with"

💓 17->19

" now I have someone I can share food with"

💓18->19

"I won't be a player short in two-player game anymore "

💓18->19

" now I have someone I can share food with"

💓19->20--20->21--21->23->

"every promise to see each other will be kept "

A lot repeating and eventually new stuffs comes as you get into new double digits ig . But the line up-

that isn't 100% same for everyone.

Personally I pick the one I get the most times for all 3 options combined ,but I could be wrong too ,there is a chance.

But in the end you will get the quotes sooner or later [it's only a matter of time].

So now we know even though there's serial of when the news quote arrives ,there also isn't.

So what we need is a list of all existing quotes possible,because some players can get stuck with getting one repeatedly ,correct .

There's an awesome player who has been archiving the Affinity quotes for all the LI Boyz @its-de

Check their threads out here's a link of sylus .you can click around and see them as there are also zayne ,rafayel & Xavier's threads.

❄️🖤🐚⭐💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓

[khunyuki]

There's this new game released yesterday called "Tokyo Debunker" and so far I am loving it <3

Before I start my review, I just want to tell you that this is my first ever review and first ever post in tumblr so pls bear with me🥹.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

Tbh I was surprised when it suddenly installed itself on my phone cuz I forgot I even pre-registered for it. Before the release, I had no idea nor clue about the existence of this game cuz it never showed up to me as an ad nor did it show in any of my social media accounts. I just remember scrolling through google play then seeing it and liking it immediately so I registered for it.

Anyways, when I downloaded it I thought it would be big and that I won't have any space for it since I also have other games to play. And when I started it, I was waiting for the loading screen to show the downloading files etc but didn't see anything of the sort.

First Impression

I honestly thought that it was a normal visual novel game like the Ikemen series but it wasn't. The opening story was comic-like with voices included (including the MC) and damnn that was engaging. The smooth flow of images unlike any other game where you only get CGs, you can easily visualize the scene because they are literally showing it to you! Not to mention the translation, it was really easy to understand and there's no typos so far.

Story-telling

I love it so much! As I said earlier, it is really engaging and it catches your attention. The transition of normal visual text to comics then back was perfect for showing what actually needs to be shown. Tbh, it would be a lot better to see it and experience it for yourself.

Tutorial and Settings

Tutorial is kinda useless. It just showed you the basics of where and how you progress then that's it. It doesn't elaborate on how to do battles. There is no guide that has in-depth explanation of how to defeat your enemies efficiently since you can just skip it.

Gameplay

So far it is like an idle game where the character cards you have will do the farming for you, you just need to click click click. This kind of thing is certainly unique to me as usually it would be long-ass lessons that uses SP or LP, or missions that you have to wait hours for a single drop. Compared to those, this is fast and efficient.

If you're an F2P player like me, vising the shop isn't the most ideal since it is expensive and usually need a lot of irl money for it. Though in Special shop, there are free summons everyday but that's that. Also you can hatch an egg there.

There's also guilds you have to join immediately but it doesn't require much participation cuz you just have to do the activities once then you're done.

The cases are important, you have to clear it in order to read the latest chapters. It's like the battle system of the game but you can just skip it for free. However, you can be stuck at a level even if your card levels are high or your overall stats. I think it's because of incompatibility with your elements though i'm not sure. Tbh I don't understand how it works i just wing it. The only good thing about this is that you are not alone and a lot of people will be stuck at the same level as you🥲.

Gacha

Gacha in this game is the worst. It's just money-grubbing at this point. First of all, they do not even give you pre-registration rewards, just immediately daily log-in. There's no free single pull or free 10 tickets giveaways. Codes are also non-existent. The free gifts are just for EXP and not related to gacha at all. The only guaranteed SSR is for when you buy gems.

As an F2P casual gamer, this is just plain horror. While I don't usually do gacha even in other games, this kind of thing just isn't right! I once heard from the global chat that someone did 500 pulls just to get a single SSR. Like how is that even possible??? The pity system is also non-existent that it's crazy!!!

Gem farming is also hard cuz you only get gems from the bonus cases, occasionally from the guild, 10 gems every episode of the story, and from permanent tasks. It's just impossible even if you spend your gems wisely.

Although I got lucky and used up all of my luck by getting SSR Kaito on my first 10 pull🥲

Characters

This is probably the part where the most obvious duplicating original works happens. As some reviews might have already said, it's a copycat of Twisted Wonderland or Harry Potter (I could agree to some point but I am not that angry or exaggerating about it). This game certainly has it's own charm if you choose to ignore those and just enjoy playing.

Prime example of uncanny resemblance to characters we know is the guy above ^^^^. Kaito Fuji's looks are certainly deceiving. I didn't choose him at first because he wasn't my type nor did I think his personally would be that interesting. His mannerisms reminds me of Ace (Twisted Wonderland) and mostly Zenitsu (Kimetsu no Yaiba), especially when you hear his voice. Lucas, the guy beside him, reminds me of Deuce (Twisted Wonderland) and Hiiro Amagi (Ensemble Stars) and you really can't unsee it.

To some people, they might be irked by the resemblance and obvious plagiarism but personally, I think it's all part of the charm. Seeing those sides of them like that just like having the same dynamics as Adeuce made me like them even more. Because they are not all that, they have their own personality and stories which I like too.

Conclusion

This game can certainly do a lot more work and I believe it has potential as long as it is aimed for the player's enjoyment rather than just for their money. The story is really good while the gacha is trash. The battle is kinda frustrating but you can skip it. The characters have their own personalities too. The rest are so-so.

Personally, I play this game because I love the story and I don't usually gamble with gacha so it's just fine for me. If you do not want to download it and play, that is totally fine as well.

I just wanted to share with you my thoughts: of what I like and dislike about this game ^_^

Thank you for reading until the end💕

[purefandomonium]

Another Glitchy Red Snippet

A little sneak peak at my latest fixation work. This is a few more chapters in from what I've posted so far, but I was really proud of it and wanted to share. It's not the whole chapter, just the part I enjoyed the most. If you've read the first 3 parts I posted, you'll know that the GameBoy here was modified to be fully rechargeable and has an awkward microphone attachment added onto it because in this particular situation, Red can't hear outside of the GameBoy. If you haven't read any of it, that last sentence should clear up any confusion. At this point, I might as well just call this a fanfic because it's far exceeded the short story it was supposed to be.

Oops. Anyway:

RED: Maybe I should just show you.

The screen went black then, and she felt a jolt of panic shoot through her as she checked the charger she’d made. It was still plugged in, the wall portion seemed fine…

She needn’t have worried as the screen lit back up again, a bright, unnatural white it shouldn’t have been capable of producing. She had to squint to just to look at it. It almost seemed to spill out of the edges, more a physical substance than something produced by a screen. She watched as colorful pixels—more than the GameBoy should’ve been able to handle—swarmed about the blank space as they arranged themselves into a defined shape.

The form of a black-haired kid in a red and white hat with bright red eyes stared back.

Perhaps kid was the wrong word. Physically, she knew the image before her was supposed to be roughly ten- to eleven-years-old. That’s how it always seemed to be in these games, she’d noticed. Let the child be the hero rather than the adults because it would net more sales among the youth that way. But Red—the real Red— didn’t look like some rambunctious brat with a lot of ambition. He looked tired, worn out, and he held an air of melancholy that looked nothing like the superstar poster boy he was meant to be for the series.

Understandable, given his situation. His appearance matched his experience of being trapped forever in a game he couldn’t stop from happening, being tormented for well over twenty years by players looking to break the game further than it already was.

He looked like a child subjected to unspeakable torture that was forced to grow up.

RED: This is me. This is the real RED.

“…I always thought the game itself was your body,” she mumbled numbly, still in shock at this sudden display of ability.

Red shook his head. Despite the fact he didn’t have a voice, his lips still mouthed the words that appeared on screen.

RED: The cartridge was never my body. It’s just my prison.

“…I’m sorry, Red. I wish I knew how to get you out of there.”

He shrugged. Tilting his head:

RED: You seem to think that would make a difference. Why?

Why? He wouldn’t be so miserable for one thing! “Red, you do realize this proves you’re alive right? Maybe not in the same way as me. You don’t have a living, breathing body, but you have a soul! Or something like it. Besides, isn’t being free what you wanted?” She watched him cast his gaze downwards, head tilting to follow. His hat left an impossible shadow over his eyes so that all she could see was his frown.

RED: I’m not really sure what I want anymore.

RED: At first, I wanted revenge.

RED: Revenge on every single player who’d wronged me. Who warped the game into this unrecognizable mess.

His form flickered, shifting into something dark for a single instant.

RED: I wanted payback on the ones who created me, who created that impostor and left me ABANDONED when I was no longer GOOD ENOUGH.

RED: I WANTED TO KILL THEM ALL.

His face twisted then, teeth bared in a wild snarl. His shoulders raised and the collar of his jacket went nearly all the way up to his hat. Though she couldn’t see them, she knew his hands were tightly clenched. He radiated anger like this, but it soon dissipated. She felt a strong sense of relief when his face went back to normal and realized how quickly her heart was beating.

RED: …But then I realized it wouldn’t make a difference.

RED: I’d still be forgotten and replaced, the only people who would’ve remembered me would be dead…

RED: …It wouldn’t erase the torture I’d experienced.

RED: Getting out would be nice, but where would I even go? What would I do? I don’t even exist in the real world.

RED: As far as anyone’s concerned, I’m just a character in a video game.

Leann was at a loss for words. Was there even an acceptable response to this?

Red didn’t seem to care. He lifted his head and locked eyes with her, somehow knowing how to find them, and gave a small smile.

RED: You’re the only person who’s ever treated me like I matter, so if it’s alright with you…

RED: …I’d like to stick with you a little longer. Maybe I’ll figure things out then.

She simply stared back, blood red eyes boring into her even though that was impossible. What was she supposed to say here? Her heart was still calming down from his prior display of rage.

[thetoxicgamer]

Amnesia the Bunker is a Resident Evil Immersive Sim, and I Adore It

Amnesia of Frictional Not the game you think it is, The Bunker. Certainly, it's a slow-moving survival horror game with a strong emphasis on lighting, just like the other entries, but there's so much more to this experience. During GDC in San Francisco, I had the chance to play the newest Amnesia game and speak with its creative director, Fredrik Olsson. If you're already anticipating the release of Amnesia: The Bunker, then buckle up because you're in for a wild journey. It's a hybrid of Amnesia, Alien Isolation, Resident Evil, and immersive sim. The latest entry in the horror saga still oozes that famous (or infamous?) Amnesia DNA. There’s a massive focus on lighting, with a handheld crank lamp and a generator that powers all the lights in the bunker, and the heavy controls and physics are still a core part of the experience. This time, though, you’re not railroaded down a specific narrative; you’re given some equipment and locked in a bunker with a loud, quick, and petrifying monster, and left with a single goal: escape. By the time my hour-long preview finished in that dark hotel room, with Olosson watching my gameplay in the other room, my neck was aching and I was supremely tense, but all I wanted to do was play Amnesia The Bunker again. And again. And again. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6hfkkw6aKE Everything about Amnesia The Bunker is slow. It takes an age of loud whirring noises to get your infinitely reusable lamp to work, you need to manually check the revolver cylinder for ammo (of which you’ll rarely have a full stock), and moving any object in the world, especially doors, feels like moving a mountain. This might sound frustrating, but believe me, it makes Amnesia The Bunker a truly immersive experience. You’re immediately pulled into the World War I-era bunker and all the tools at your disposal, from generator fuel to cloth, can be used in unique ways if you think outside the box. Instead of fuelling the generator you can pour it on the ground and shoot it to make fire. Instead of using cloth for bandages, you can find more tools and make a torch. You’re constantly in this cat-and-mouse game not just with the ever-present monster, but your knowledge of the game’s systems and the map itself. If that sounds an awful lot like an immersive sim, that’s a deliberate decision. Regarding the bunker’s map, I was shocked when I asked Olosson if there were more safe rooms, save points, generators, and wall maps to be found in Amnesia The Bunker. There aren’t. At first, I thought this was weird, but I quickly realised that Olosson wants you to know the bunker’s map like the back of your hand: remembering which doors you’ve blocked, which signs lead where, where traps and resources are, and most importantly, how to get around the monster. The safe room, smaller but open map, and limited inventory space instantly made me think of Resident Evil, and Olosson isn’t resistant to the comparison. Frictional Games has deliberately made Amnesia The Bunker a more player-driven experience, reliant on systems that let the player form their own stories during play. It feels a lot like Capcom’s flagship horror series. So why have I also compared Amnesia The Bunker to Alien Isolation? It’s simple: the monster is also a wrecking ball with some of the most terrifying sound design ever committed to your ears. The pacing of its colossal footsteps, scratching as it goes through the walls, and heavy breathing when it’s right outside a door are all so well done that I genuinely had to stop for a breather, just to collect myself. The monster is ever-present, and its threat weighs heavy on you even when you can only hear it, but what about when it actually appears? Well, you’ll be glad to know that even if you make the worst decision possible – hide in a one-door room with the monster right outside – you can still get away if you’re smart enough. Turn off your lamp, load your three bullets into your revolver, and slowly open the door. You might just be able to do enough damage to scare the monster off. For a time. Olosson says that, although Frictional Games wants to give the tools to handle moments like this (and when you face the giant rats, oh no), you may be able to use the environment, craft different items, or maybe even sneak around the monster the old-fashioned way, if you’re smart enough. Amnesia The Bunker is a game with a highly oppressive atmosphere. It channels elements of classic fixed-camera survival horror and immersive sims while combining them with series staples to make you feel constantly unsafe. In turn, this helps you understand its interacting systems, map layout, and horror dynamics to such a degree that you could return to it blindfolded. Once you get to the end, you’ll be free to pump up the difficulty to a hard mode where resources are more scarce, and you’ll even unlock custom difficult changes to really tailor the experience to your liking. You don’t have to wait long either, as Amnesia The Bunker comes to PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store on May 16 – when Frictional Games will also move onto its next project, whatever that may be. In the meantime we’ve got the best war games and best stealth games to keep you busy. Read the full article

[eri-blogs-life]

There was, of course, a fair amount of controversy around the time of Pokemon Sword/Shield’s release regarding Dexit, among other issues. When they first came out, I played Shield version, and had an okay time. Now, having put some space between the game’s release and the present, I decided to pick back up and try playing Sword version to see if my feelings changed any. Was it more than just okay? Or worse than I’d thought before?

I have a lot of notes on thoughts I had during this adventure, and I’m going to try to structure these thoughts in some way but idk how exactly. Some are fairly minor thoughts, but some are definitely going to require a more in-depth writeup. Also, for context, I only played through the base game, not the DLC. I probably will play through again to try out the DLC but I didn’t want to buy the DLC just yet.

Why Can’t Pokemon Follow You Anymore? AKA Iteration vs Innovation

Pokemon has a problem with getting any better as a series. Especially in the last few versions, we’ve really seen this coming to light - while early on, updates to graphics and gameplay (like the physical/special split) made each new generation feel like an evolution of the previous one’s gameplay, somewhere around gen 6 it really started to show that the series isn’t focused on evolution quite so much anymore. Sure, there’s still been some updates to mechanics and some graphical updates, but those have all been minor since, or completely dropped after that generation.

Mega Evolution, Z-Moves, and now Dynamaxing are all part of this problem. They are cool new ideas that add to the mechanics of the pokemon games, but are ultimately dropped in the next generation. They are gimmicks, meant to drive sales and engagement with any particular game in the series, but which don’t serve to elevate the series as a whole particularly well. 

Generally speaking, it feels like the direction the Pokemon developers want to go with the games is more in coming up with some cool gimmick as a temporary measure rather than creating new core growth to the series that could be iterated upon in future versions to create better games with each new one. While Gold and Silver definitely felt like an evolution of Red and Blue, and Ruby and Sapphire yet again an evolution of Gold and Silver, with the games slowly becoming more advanced and better with each generation, I can’t really say that I feel like SwSh is any better than Sun/Moon, or Sun/Moon is really any better than X/Y. They are different, and have some small new iterations to the previous formula, but they don’t feel all that much better, just different.

Grinding bosses, AKA Diagetic Fail States

Diagesis is always a fun topic to talk about in video games. I was watching a video the other day about Sekiro and how it uses a lot of similar gameplay structures to other FromSoft games, like a diagetic fail state - when you die in Sekiro, that’s a part of the story. You don’t game over. There is no way to get a game over in a FromSoft game, as your character can never truly die. 

Pokemon is definitely neat in how it is a series that has also always had a diagetic fail state - when you die, you retreat to the last pokemon center you were at, keeping any experience gained but losing your physical progress towards your next destination. However, each time you faint while traveling down a new route, you make the progress a little easier for yourself the next time, by both gaining experience for your team and defeating some of the trainers along the path.

However, this diagetic fail state doesn’t always make sense in Pokemon’s design, and I think the Championship in SwSh really brings that to the forefront. If your team faints while fighting a gym leader or while fighting in the championship or against the Champion, you don’t fail your gym challenge. You just retreat and come back to try again. This isn’t acknowledged in any way in-game. Leon has the same dialogue no matter how many times you fight him. Every time you fight him is the first time you fight him, no matter how many times you’ve been knocked out and had to retreat to the pokemon center. It creates a significant divide in the experience the game’s mechanics are giving you and the story they are trying to tell. 

In the story, after helping stop the Darkest Day, you challenge the League Champion and claim your spot as the new champion. But in the gameplay, you have infinite tries to bash your head against the wall that is Leon, and the Championship will never end unless you end it.

I think the diagetic fail state pokemon normally has, wherein when you faint you go back to the last pokemon center, makes a lot of sense both mechanically and in terms of the world of pokemon. The world of pokemon is built in no small part to support this diagetic fail state. However, there are certain events, like fights with Team Leaders, Legendary Pokemon, or the Champion, where that diagetic fail state is incomplete.

How could pokemon fix this? I think the big thing would be to have two sets of dialogue for at least major antagonists, like the Team Leaders or the Champion, where they give you one set of dialogue the first time you fight them and a different set on future fights, if you lost the previous fight. And changing any cutscenes surrounding fights with Legendaries, like the fight against Eternatus in SwSh, to have different dialogue if you lost the fight at least once, could help explain why the legendary hasn’t already gone and done their nasty world-ending attack that the story often seems to set them up to be going through with. 

It’s not a perfect solution, I think, but that seems like the simplest solution to resolve this weird discrepancy between the fail state that exists in gameplay and that which exists in story, one admitting the player failed but giving them a chance to try again, and the other simply pretending that the player didn’t even fight the legendary that would cause massive global destruction if it wasn’t defeated then and there. 

The Legendary Problem, AKA Story-Driven vs Player-Driven Game Design

Speaking of legendaries... What even is a Legendary Pokemon? Mewtwo, Ho-oh, Lugia, Groudon, Kyogre, Palkia, Dialga, the three dogs, the three birds, the three regis. These are all legendaries. They are powerful and rare pokemon that exist in their particular game/region. But their existence and their purpose has steadily changed over time. 

Early on, legendaries were truly that - legendary. To own a mewtwo in red and blue was one hell of a feat, because it took a lot of work to find it and a lot of work to catch it (unless you used a master ball). But things started changing around Crystal version, but especially in Ruby and Sapphire. Legendaries became less of a rare thing that was out there somewhere, as some kind of legend, and became more integral into the stories of pokemon, and representative in some way of the story that the developers were trying to tell. Groudon isn’t really all that legendary, as you’re guaranteed to encounter them in the normal course of gameplay of R/S, but it’s important that Groudon be encountered in the story because Ruby and Sapphire is a set of games all about environmentalism, and Groudon and Kyogre serve as metaphors for the natural balance of our environment.

And this is part of a greater discussion on the direction of the pokemon series as a whole. Over time, Pokemon has become less about the journey that you are on as a player, with your pokemon, and more about telling some kind of a greater story with the world as a whole, where the player character serves as a vehicle for the player to see the story that is going on. 

Sure, Red and Blue had a world story, but in no small part it felt not like you were being funneled into partaking in a story, and more like you were building your adventure while you traveled. There was a sense of discovery in Red and Blue, like the region of Kanto had a lot of hidden away pockets of existence that just weren’t known to the populace as a whole. But by the time of the Galar region, even the wilderness is carefully curated and sanctioned off. The Wild Area exists as just a singular place, but it is full of bridges and other man-made structures clearly indicating that this place isn’t really wilderness. 

And absolutely a part of this comes from me now being an adult and having played many pokemon games before. And certainly my nostalgia for the older games is playing a part in this reading, and I’d like to return to red and blue soon to see if this really holds up quite so well. 

But overall, it feels like the direction that the pokemon franchise is taking in recent games strays further and further from the original intention of the pokemon franchise. The story is that the idea for pokemon was developed because the original creator missed his childhood adventures of going out into the woods and catching beetles, an experience one just couldn’t get while living in the city. Pokemon feels like it’s straying further and further away from that sense of a player-driven exploration-focused adventure, and more into a constructed narrative. 

The Wild Area was a step in the right direction. And if I understand right, the DLC areas are in their entirety Wild Areas where you can just wander around freely encountering wild pokemon and trainers. With all hope, the developers are coming to a similar conclusion I have, that the core appeal of pokemon is in that sense of exploration, adventure, and finding new things. 

(Though, to be fair, not everyone would think of that as the core appeal of pokemon, anyway! Different people are into different aspects of the series, and of games as a whole - some people are completionists, some are explorers, some appreciate a good story, and some are super-competitive. Everyone experiences games differently. And while the pokemon dev team has done has a lot to make things better for different styles of play, my hope is that they can give explorers like myself more to look forward to in future entries in the series.)

Other Notes

Alright, so that gets through all the big stuff. With that, let’s just talk quickly about some other little notes I had while I was playing!

There’s way too much dialogue, and it’s not very interesting. 

Pokemon are definitely still very very cute and I love them and I love this franchise as a whole.

I loved when X/Y added fashion but really the clothes in Galar feels not great? There’s not a lot of options, and it’s mostly just the same couple of styles in different colors. So I was really unimpressed. I think the DLCs add a lot more clothing options, though? So that’ll be exciting to try out later on.

The whole thing with time freezing whenever you get on a ladder is still really really silly

The gym missions are real neat. They are definitely just kind of an expansion on the totem challenges from sun/moon, and I really like where they’re going with challenges that aren’t purely about fighting like older gyms were. (Look at me, talking about how this one innovation to the core gameplay is so great when I was just earlier complaining about their gimmicky way of not really innovating on the core gameplay. I don’t think this totally changes my opinion from earlier, but it does kind of. They are making changes, but just very slowly)

Why force players to wear the gym uniform during gym missions? Like, I worked so hard to buy my own fancy clothes and they won’t even let me show off my clothes to the whole of the Galar region during my fight against the champion. Horribly game design

Honestly, the whole dexit controversy. Like... I still don’t think the pokemon company were in the right, and they really should just delay main-series games until they are complete rather than trying to release on such a tight yearly schedule. 

I miss Victory Road. Having to put all your skills and knowledge you’ve gained up to that point together for one final grueling challenge was just a really nice way to bring together the whole experience into a neat little package at the end. I guess since especially SwSh is more focused on the gym challenge and the spectacle of that rather than on giving you an exploratory adventure to go on, it kinda makes sense that instead we get a short linear route followed by a series of fighting your rivals and refighting some gym leaders before the Champion.

The Champion fight definitely feels way harder than any of the other fights. It’s got a decent bump in levels compared to the previous fight, and I think that’s... well, it’s kind of cool cause it does really make Leon feel impressive. But also like, at that point there aren’t any great places to just grind to catch up to him so I ended up grinding by just challenging him over and over until I happened to win one time, which largely happened by luck, not by my team’s strength or my stratetgies. Maybe the best way for this to have happened was having the player start to fight Leon, but then have that fight get interrupted after the first pokemon was knocked out, rather than interrupting the championship right before the fight with Leon. That way we could’ve seen Leon’s team in action and gotten a sense of how much stronger than the player he would’ve been at that point. Then, you could’ve gone out to train against the wilds and prepare yourself for your final battle.

But of course, following up on the last point and making this its own point, the only reason I did struggle at points was because I didn’t much take advantage of everything the game had to offer. I never once used a healing item in battle, I never used any rare candies nor did I ever dynamax any of my pokemon. I did use a couple of experience candies, but I only ever did three dynamax raids during the course of my game, so I didn’t have a ton of candies to use anyway. If I’d taken full advantage of everything Galar had to offer to buff up my pokemon, I would’ve absolutely bodied Leon. Instead it was a tough fight that was doable after a few tries and some luck.

Overall, I’d say Pokemon Sword and Shield are an okay time. The game didn’t excel relative to my last time I played Shield near when they came out, and it doesn’t excel compared to past games in the franchise. It’s also not particularly bad compared to my first time or past pokemon games, though it definitely has its fair share of problems.

And of course, let us not forget the greatest tragedy of Pokemon Sword and Shield:

The best pokemon in Galar, Snom and Frosmoth, just aren’t that strong.

EDIT: one last note, here’s my final team that took on Leon with me

Dirt, my Runerigus, was someone I caught to fight against the fighting gym, and became an integral part of the team ever since. 

Clara, my octopus thingy whose species name I forget, is nicknamed after my character from a wrestling tabletop rpg my group recently played.

Charlene, my Dubwool, was the mascot of the team from the very beginning. I caught her as soon as I could and quickly put my starter into the box

Pepper, my Shiftry, was in its third stage evolution before I even fought the first gym. I’d caught him as a Seedot early on, and he evolved into a Nuzleaf on the route before the town with the first gym. And in the town with the first gym, you can find a Leaf Stone just sitting around, so I evolved him before we went in to face the gym

Cooper, my Obstagoon, was someone I always thought I’d end up replacing, but just kept sticking around and proving herself more and more useful. In the end, it was her with her moves of Night Slash, Thunderpunch, and Icepunch, that was able to tank and take out like three of Leon’s pokemon

:3, my frosmoth, was a late addition to the team but absolutely beloved. He may have been pretty weak overall, but he pulled out a couple of clutch victories and I couldn’t be prouder of his time with the team.

[shorkbrian]

Creep

Prelude - bitch hold on what about mean brother Shigs being an absolute creep? Inspired by me playing a boss in AC Odyssey and my controller vibrated so hard I almost dropped it, and I couldn’t beat this dude and it was so freaking frustrating!!!!!! 

Pairing - Shigaraki X Reader

Warnings - - INCEST, NSFW, innocence kink, do not read if those squick you out bro!!! Seriously! abuse of trust, dubcon, noncon, literally nothing about this situation is good, or healthy, or nice. Disgusting behavior is exhibited by Shigs.

Music - (does anyone actually like when I provide music? I like getting music vibes while I read through fics but ik that my music taste is a bit wacky lol anyways). https://open.spotify.com/track/0ODyahnUlK9G5bT4dA5NCI?si=10R9ggoJS1inYidrMeWrHA

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He offers to let you play his Xbox game, you keep annoying him by pouting for his attention and he gives up with trying to ignore you.

Stipulation - you gotta sit on his lap while you play, you’re such a stupid little girl that he forces his hands over yours, showing you how to use the Xbox controller while sneering at how dumb you are.

You’re too focused on the game to pay attention to how one of his hands has dropped from the controller, is creeping up your thigh, thumbing at the hem of your shorts. You don't realize that he’s plastered against your back, breath picking up in your ear as he hunches over your shoulder, thinking of all the dirty things he wants to do to you, how you’re too absent-minded to realize how much of a perverted creep he is. 

“Shit!” You curse, breaking Shigaraki out of his thoughts as you bounce your leg in frustration. He feels the slight vibration of the controller - you’re getting attacked in the game, enemies surrounding you and hacking at your player. Shigaraki is too entranced by how he can watch your jiggling breasts over your shoulder, jostling around as you jerk your arms, trying to not die in the game.

“Nii-san help me, ‘m gonna die!” You shriek, whole body getting into the gaming experience, jerking around in his lap as you struggle to press the right buttons. Shigaraki tries not to groan - he can feel the space between your thighs as you move around, hot and doughy and he wants to touch so bad.

Yeah, he’s always been a bit of a creep, but he’s never actually done anything to you.

The most he does is fantasize, thinking about how you’d feel clamping down on him, how’d you’d taste if he made you ride his face. What you’d look like if he forced his cock into you with barely any prep - you’d squeeze your eyes shut so tight, let out little whimpers and clench your fists because “Hurts, hurts! Go slow Nii-san, don’t want this!”

But he wouldn’t have to listen, you’re just a naive little girl who doesn’t know that Shigaraki would be trying to make you feel good too, that it would feel good soon.

“Stop wiggling, you’re gonna fall off.” He rasps back at you, taking his other hand off the controller to grab your waist, barely saving you from keeling over and onto the floor. You’re left to fend for yourself now, button-mashing, groaning when you finally succumb to your enemies and die a violent, gory death.

“I died! Why didn’t you help, you’re right here?!” the accusatory tone of your voice is ignored as you revert to the last save, huffing in frustration as you’re forced to start over.

“You’re never gonna learn if I’m holding your hands like that.”

Shigaraki’s glad you’ve stilled again - if you’d kept up your wiggling, he’d have to figure out a way to explain what the hard thing poking into the side of your plush little rear.

God, you had the most perfect ass.

Maybe he’s a freak, a disgusting man with fucked up morals, but Shigaraki’s always been a social outcast, seen as weird and wrong and criticized for every little thing he did.

What’s wrong with settling into the role other people were so quick to offer him?

Surely you’ve noticed his odd behavior by now, the behavior that’s picked up in the last few years. How he stares at you a little more than he should, how sometimes he slips into bed with you, murmuring some lame excuse about not being able to sleep.

The way he freezes when you give him an affectionate hug, clenching his fists by his side as your breasts are squished up against his body.

You had to have caught on to his uncharacteristic softness with you. He’s still mean and coarse and rude, but there's an underlying affection underneath the way he mocks your outfits, when he says you look like the gross character out of a manga he’s reading, how he tugs on your hair sometimes when he passes by you, wheezing out a laugh if you turn around and try to slap at him in irritation.

If you didn’t want him to be weird, you could’ve said something by now. You should’ve said something by now.

So really, it’s your own fault that he feels so comfortable being a sicko.

“Don’t tickle, I gotta focus.” You tell him, squirming away when he runs a hand experimentally over your stomach. You’re so cute, and dumb, he wants to bully you until you’re crying, say mean things and hurt your feelings only so he can kiss it better. 

But he doesn’t, because he’s a good brother.

His hand travels further up, rests right underneath your breast, almost cupping it. Still, you don’t say anything, attention on the game.

Do you want this? Are you just stupid? His affection is so obviously not normal for siblings, and yet you act like it’s fine. Maybe you’re a virgin, untainted with the knowledge of how sexual touches feel like.

The hand on your waist begins to slip under your shorts, his cold fingers quickly warmed by your skin. “Nii-san, stop that, it’s weird.”

Ah, there’s the common sense.

“I though you wanted to play the game? Don’t be a bitch.” He doesn’t really care whether you want him willingly now or not, he’s getting excited by the heat of your body, your weight on his lap.

You pause the game when his hand creeps lower into your shorts, when his fingers skim low over your tummy, too close to a private place that brothers shouldn't touch.

“Stop touching me, I don’t like that.”

“It’s not like you wouldn’t enjoy it.” He mumbles, and you stiffen in his lap, but he quickly takes his hand out of your shorts, stops cupping your soft breast.

The game gets unpaused, and you resume playing, although your attention is divided now, nervous about sitting in your brother’s lap.

Has it finally clicked? Are you thinking about what he could do to you, how he could make you feel?

“You suck at this.” Shigaraki observes, the controller shaking almost violently as you’re attacked again, overwhelmed by enemies.

“Well, maybe if you taught me how to play instead of being weird, I wouldn’t be.” You snarked, frustrated with the game, uneasy with your brother holding your hips like that.

Shigaraki rolls his eyes. You’re so dramatic, and although you have a valid point, he’s always been weird. This is nothing new, you’ve just been too thick-skulled to realize it before, which isn’t his fault.

A few more tries, and you still can’t get past the one group of enemies, dying after a few minutes every single time. You’re going to waste the batteries like that, controller jumping in your hands. 

“I can’t-” You whine, coming across the enemies after your latest death, already knowing what’s going to happen.

Shigaraki stays silent, red eyes finally flickering away from your body and up to the screen of the TV. 

You’re at one of the hardest parts of the game, facing a section that took Shigaraki two days to beat (not that he’ll tell you that). He grins as you throw yourself into the fight, immediately getting decked.

The noises you’re letting out are cute, frustrated groans on each hit landed on your player, muttered curses and triumphant scoffs whenever you manage to strike an enemy, which isn’t often.

The controller’s still shaking like crazy, and you’re moving around in his lap again, and Shigaraki is done. He can’t take this anymore, you’re being a tease.

He snatches the Xbox controller out of your hands, ignoring your little “Hey! What’re you doing, I was playing!”

“You call this playing?” The shuddering of the controller surprises him, gives him an idea.

There hadn’t been a plan, he had just been acting on instinct, hands itching to push you off his lap and to the floor, just to see the way you’d look up at him after. 

Like that, you’d be in the perfect position to suck his cock.

But he wants to go in a different direction now.

“Stay still, you’re so annoying.” He’s spreading his legs out, sinking back further in his chair to get a better angle, your legs hooked over his.

There’s no time for you to protest. Like this, you’re spread out nicely, exposed, even though your shorts cover your intimate place.

Without any further preamble, Shigaraki shoves the vibrating controller up against your clothed cunt.

“NIi-san!” You shriek, immediately writhing in his hold. But Shigaraki has an arm locked around your chest, keeping you pinned to his chest. “Don’t, think sins’t-this isn't-! Stop this, stop! Don’t touch me!”

He can bet it feels good, that you’re struggling to tell him to stop. He begins rubbing the controller against you, snickering at the way you jolt and writher on each pass of the hard, curved plastic against your protected clit. He can’t even imagine how good it would feel if your stupid shorts weren’t in the way.

“Stop, stop! Stop it! Stop!” You sound like a broken record.

“Shut up, you can’t even play the game right. Feel that?” the controller gets rubbed harder against you, and you writhe. “That’s how bad you are. So pathetic, can’t even fend off a couple of bad guys.”

Can’t even fend off one, Shigaraki thinks to himself. You could be trying harder to get out of his hold, could be screaming and yelling and scratching and kicking.

Well, you are scratching and kicking, moving around so much that he’s having a hard time keeping you still. And you making a lot of noise, but there’s no one else home.

He’s fully hard, and every movement you make struggling rubs him right up against the meat of your ass, and he sucks in a stuttered breath, biting his lip.

“No, no, no, no, don’t want this Nii-san, stop it-” Your panicked pleas are ignored, Shigaraki shoving your hands away as you try to pull the controller off of your cunt, get the vibrations to stop.

On screen, the player is still getting attacked, each new hit making the controller vibrate even harder.

“Ow, ow! It hurts, make it stop! Nii-san-”

“I’ll gag you if you don’t stop complaining.” Shigaraki seethes, feeling irritation creep up. “It hurts because you’ve never felt this good before, idiot.”

He remembers the first time he’d used something on his dick. It was your toothbrush, unsurprisingly, the one that vibrated with three different speeds and made you so proud of your pearly whites.

It had been so overwhelming, he couldn’t even touch the back of the head to his cock. At times, it felt so good it had hurt, had completely blinded his senses and leave him in a puddle of his own cum and sweat, panting.

So Shigaraki understood what you were trying to say - your inexperienced body needed him to slow down, ease up a little. But your gross, nasty brother wanted to ruin you.

Your character on screen died, resulting in one last heavy vibration that made you sob, thighs struggling to snap shut, hands desperately pushing at Shigaraki.

He felt you convulse in his grip, could practically feel the way your little hole was clenching as you gushed all over yourself, whining and moaning at the pleasure.

Your character was sent back to the last save, the game on a loading screen.

But Shigaraki wasn’t done.

He was still hard against your back, rubbing himself off as best he could, but he was finding his own pleasure in watching you writhe on his lap.

The controller was tossed to the side, nimble fingers sliding over your shorts, Shigaraki laughing at what he found.

“You’re so wet, holy fuck. That’s disgusting, wow.” You were drenched, the fabric of your shorts completely soaked with your juices. You only sobbed out a pitiful noise, maybe trying to deny it, but Shigaraki wasn’t listening. He was too busy rubbing over the wet spot, gleefully feeling you up. It was easy for his fingers to find a comfortable, mind-numbing rhythm, so used to playing games and deftly pushing buttons, using sticks and joysticks, directional pads and the like.

You were rocking against his hand unconcsiously, body unable and unwilling to decided whether to pull away or push closer - you had just cum, but that didn’t negate the vicious, heady sensation that his fingers brought.

Shigaraki quickly grew bored of this though, unable to ignore his dripping erection. He had never been a patient man, quickly removing the hand stimulating your swollen pussy so he could pull his cock out of his sweatpants.

With a quick movement, your shorts were tugged down, your brother completely pushing past your refusal to lift your hips, burning your skin with how forcefully the fabric was ripped down.

“Nii-san, what are you doing-you can’t, you can’t!” You cried, renewing your struggle when you felt skin against skin, his cock hot and velvety as it rested against your cheeks. “I don’t wanna do this, don’t make me do this-”

“I don’t care. I’ve tried to be good, and it’s like you don’t even care.” The man ground out, beginning to rut his hips against your ass. It was dry, and it didn’t feel great, but it was more than enough to satisfy Shigaraki. “I barely touch you, I keep my hands to myself-”

Which was a lie. Late at night, when he was sure you were fast asleep, he’d touch, just a little. Rubbing your nipples, feeling them peak under his touch. Feeling the curve of your waist, skin soft against his dry palms.

“-I wouldn’t stare either, but you wear those stupid shirts-” The deep cut ones, the ones that showed off your cleavage and allowed him weeks of jerk-off material.

“So annoying, just a stupid little imoto that follows me around, you just want attention.”

He knows you don’t do it on purpose. You aren’t trying to make him see you in a sexual light. But maybe that’s what makes it all the more appealing, how naive and innocent you are.

Fuck, he’s getting close just thinking about your purity, how much you don’t know, how much he could teach you.

He doesn’t know a ton, but Shigaraki knows enough about what feels good for him, and you probably wouldn’t want to learn, but he deserved something nice every once in a while, didn’t he?

The drag of his cock between your ass cheeks was making him loose his mind, the slide too rough, but it felt delicious and stimulated him just right, pulling at his foreskin and spreading his precum into a sticky mess on your skin.

“Fuck, stay still, lemme feel good-” His voice was choked up, still holding it’s usual nasal resonance. 

You sobbed in his hold, his fingers still playing over your shorts, exploring, keeping you occupied and frozen with sensation while he got himself off with your body.

And then he was breaking, splurting his seed all over your lower back, watching it come out of his cock in shaky squirts, painting your skin a cloudy white.

Shigaraki groaned, eyes transfixed to the sight before him. It was hard to keep them open, body shaking with little snaps of pleasure in his veins, in his stomach.

On the bed next to his thigh, the controller started shaking again. Panting, Shigaraki raised his eyes to the TV screen as you slumped against him, softly crying.

Your character was getting attacked again.

“Let’s keep playing.”

And the vibrating controller was pressed to your bare cunt, making you scream.

He’d have to wash it after this, but he figured it was worth it in the grand scheme of things

[aprilsrant]

When I kissed the teacher | Oliver Wood x Slytherin!Fem!Reader.

SUMMARY: (Y/N) and Oliver finally accept their feelings for each other.

WORD COUNT: 2,065.

WARNINGS: a kiss, (?), a few curse words.

A/N: English is not my first language, if there are any mistakes, let me know! This part wasn’t supposed to be here so soon because I was working on the other fics, but this actually took some of my writer’s block away so here it is. 

This is the final part of the mini series, but I think I’ll do some blurbs about Oliver and this particular reader in the future, like dates, life after Hogwarts, and more.

Please like, reblog or comment if you want!

PREVIOUS PARTS:

Lay all your love on me. (Part 1)

Honey Honey! (Part 2).

MASTERLIST. / WORK IN PROGRESS.

The poor Slytherin girl had been trying to hide her feelings towards Quidditch’s rising star and Gryffindor’s Team Captain, for a little more than a year and a half. It wasn’t necessarily difficult at first since they barely saw or talked to each other, only sharing a few classes and having one friend in common —that was more of an acquaintance to him, which made things easier for a few months—. But then, her friend’s conspiracy to get them together interfered with a plan of her own named “avoiding Oliver Wood for the rest of my school days”. 

Many tutoring sessions followed the first one, Oliver was improving a lot faster than they had expected. “All your work, of course”, he would say with a thick, scottish accent that made (Y/N) nearly faint every time he’d utter a single word. This was actually one of the reasons why she tried to convince him of calling off their meetings, —that and the fact that it was getting harder to conceal her sweaty hands, the fidgeting, the occasional stuttering, the evident stares and, of course, that the girl was unable to look him in the eyes for more than three seconds—. 

Oliver thought differently, he energetically insisted about needing her as tutor more than ever now that he was catching up with Potions and Transfiguration. And once more, incapable of saying no, she agreed, accepting to tutor him for the rest of the year ‘just in case’.

Dorian almost had her head when she talked about the conversation and her desire to stop helping Oliver. He couldn’t comprehend her reasoning, not when his friend was finally getting what she wanted for so long. Ethan and Isla didn’t take his side this time, instead, they supported (Y/N), sympathizing with her logic. 

“If it’s becoming a burden for you, maybe you should tell him,” the Ravenclaw boy advised, concentrating on beating Isla on the game of Exploding Snap in front of him.

“It’s not a burden, it’s just…,” (Y/N) started, the lack of words interrupting her sentence, “I don’t know how to explain it.”

The only Gryffindor in the Multicolour Quartet —horrible name indeed and his idea— kept quiet. He wanted (Y/N) to be happy, so why was she giving up her chance to actually be happy with the boy she liked for more than a year?

No one spoke about Oliver again that Wednesday afternoon on the Courtyard, a pact to keep quiet about the subject forming silently between them. 

By the group’s seventh, and last, year at Hogwarts, Oliver Wood and (Y/N) (Y/L/N) were official friends —something Dorian took full credit of and something no one in the school had foreseen, except for her friends and the Gryffindor Quidditch Team (why was their Captain, Oliver obsessive Wood, postponing practices all of a sudden?)—. Not long after she tried to end their tutoring sessions, Oliver asked her if she minded to spend some time with him outside of their “study dates”. 

Since then, she and Oliver could be seeing together round Hogwarts. Sometimes (Y/N)’s friends joining them because of the boy invitating the Quartet, or rest of it at least, to Hogsmeade, making up silly excuses to leave them alone or telling Oliver all the embarrassing things (Y/N)’d succeeded to do, most of them narrated by Dorian, —how could he know so many stupid stories when he joined the group not that long ago?—, who loved laughing at the angry faces she did until her elbow hit his ribs. 

While (Y/N)’s feelings kept growing without restraint, Oliver’s were blooming slowly, at first unnoticed, but strong. His heart jumping whenever he saw her smiling, or talking about a subject she was passionate about. His body going still momentarily if she was too close to him, showing him how to cut ingredients, or the order they went in, or how to move his hands to perform a spell correctly. 

He realised during the fifth month of the school term. It wasn’t romantic nor beautiful. It felt like taking a Bludger to the head —believe or not, he had experience with that—, you weren’t prepared for the hit and the consequences it would bring. Ruining their friendship was the last thing Oliver wanted, so he kept quiet about his discovery and acted normal, begging no one, especially not (Y/N), would notice.

Reckless, and sometimes irresponsible, they were, but not fools. So of course the experts on the matter of ‘friends being complete idiots and denying their feelings’, Dorian, Isla and Ethan knew exactly what was going on when they noticed Oliver’s change of attitude towards their Slytherin friend. How he seemed more nervous around her; the way would look for her before a Quidditch match; how he would ask easy questions about the assignments, claiming he was going to die without her help, and how he put more effort on his appearance whenever they were going to hang out. 

The three friends couldn’t believe their luck. First, (Y/N), the smartest person they knew and yet, at the same time, the most oblivious and ignorant. Then, Oliver, the boy their friend had a crush on, now seemed to reciprocate her feelings but was trying to push them aside. 

“How can someone be so daft?,” Isla whispered to the boys beside her while watching (Y/N) and Oliver leave Zonko’s and starting to walk slowly towards the Three Broomsticks, “you know, we could make them smell Amortentia and admit their feelings once and for all.”

“You are actually onto something there, Islandic,” Dorian said, beginning to follow the pair in front of them. The Gryffindor snickered after Isla hit him on the head because of the recent nickname he’d given her. 

“Oh no, we’re not doing that,” they heard Ethan from behind them. 

“Why not?”

“Why not?,” Ethan repeated before letting out a scoff, ”because you two are going to make me brew the potion and I’m not brewing Amortentia.” Isla and Dorian gazed at each other, trying to conceal their smiles, knowing their other friend was right. 

They’d started to follow (Y/N) and Oliver in silence when Dorian talked again.

“Why don’t you want to brew Amortentia?” The noise of the village almost drowning the suspicious tone in his voice. “Are you trying to evade something, maybe?”

“Shut up,” he responded, tightening the dark blue coat closer to his body, and unknowingly giving Dorian the answer he hoped for, “and come on, don’t just stand there. We’re going to lose them.”

Their continuing attempts were a failure, nothing they did made the Slytherin or the Gryffindor confess. Fortunately, these thoughts were starting to appear more frequently in the latest’s mind. 

|||

It was the first Saturday after the Easter Holidays and the whole school, including the professors, was waiting impatiently for the last Quidditch match of the season, Slytherin versus Gryffindor for the Inter-House Quidditch Cup. 

With Slytherin leading the championship with more than two hundred points, Oliver’s team needed a massive win if they wanted to get their hands on the Cup.

(Y/N) made her way up to the stands alongside her friends, all of them hoping for Gryffindor to win the match. Even as a Slytherin, she wished for him, and the whole team of course, to crush her House’s Quidditch Team. Marcus Flint was everything but kind and a fair player, his tactics consisted purely of hurting his rivals, not caring about the damage the injuries could cost. (Y/N)’d have supported her own House if they weren’t cheating bastards. 

A few of the students looked at her weirdly before starting to whisper when she sat down on her seat beside Dorian, who went full on Gryffindor pride. Yes, she was wearing a green blouse —she should have accepted Dorian’s offer on using one of his red t-shirts—, but that didn’t mean anything. She was on the Gryffindor stands, so she was supporting Gryffindor, and for a good reason… 

The first ten points went to the lion’s house thanks to Angelina Johnson, but the cries of joy transformed quickly into shoutings and insults directed to the Slytherin Captain for nearly knocking her off her broom after smashing into the Chaser. Fred Weasley reacted by throwing his beater’s bat at the back of Flint’s head. 

The rest of the match followed pretty much the same way. Slytherin played using dirty tactics and attacking the Gryffindors, which resulted in them answering their violence with, well, more violence. 

“Harry spotted the Snitch,” shouted Dorian while raising his arm, pointing towards the third year boy. Before the Gryffindor Seeker could grab the shiny, golden ball, Malfoy grabbed the end of his broom and pulled it back.

“Not the fucking Firebolt, you twat,” (Y/N) thought of hearing her best friend Isla, seating on her right side, said. Everyone started screeching insults at the Slytherin Seeker, even (Y/N) and some of the professors. 

Finally, after more penalties, Harry Potter caught the Snitch, handing his House the Quidditch Cup. 

Students from Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff roared in excitement, quickly leaving the stands and flooding the Pitch, running to congratulate the winning team. 

Three of the four members of the Multicolour Quartet stayed a few feet away from the crowd, Dorian celebrating in the middle with Oliver, who was carrying the Cup, on his shoulders. Isla grabbed her arm and carried her to where the Gryffindor Captain was, a memory of Dorian doing the same thing a year ago entered her mind. 

Looking up at Oliver, (Y/N) noticed his rosy cheeks and some drops of sweat forming on his forehead, but his brown eyes and smile were what captivated her the most, his enthusiasm turning contagious. 

“Congratulations, I guess,” the girl said, a serious expression on her face while rolling her eyes exaggeratedly to show him she was teasing. (Y/N) extended her arm, still acting, but was taken by surprise when Oliver grabbed it and pulled her towards him, engulfing each other in a hug. She giggled near his ear and whispered, “I’m so proud of you.”

The Gryffindor glanced down at her, bodies still close to each other, neither of them wanting to let go, eyes thrilled because of his team’s victory and something more she couldn’t figure out. Slowly, his face approached her’s, staring back to the other’s eyes, asking themselves internally if this was the moment. 

“Fuck it,” Oliver mumbled before closing the distance between them and planting a chaste kiss on her mouth. 

They stood motionless for a couple of seconds, arms still wrapped around each other and the whole school watching them silently, waiting for her reaction. From the corner of her eye, she saw Fred Weasley giving his twin, George, some sickles, a grim look on his face for losing what she assumed was a bet on them.

(Y/N)’s attention went back to the boy in front of her, one with a desperate expression. Standing on her toes, she pulled her hands away from Oliver’s torso, directing one towards the back of his neck and the other to his cheek, caressing the skin tenderly. She smiled, unable to stop another giggle, and pressed their lips together for the second time, hoping it wouldn’t be the last one. 

The crowd around the pair roared again, making them laugh between the kiss, lips separating and then reuniting. Her heart almost jumping out of her chest from how fast it was beating, her necessity to breath becoming more prominent with each second her mouth was against he’s. Ignoring it, (Y/N) continued on kissing Oliver, whose hands were now on either side of her head, trying to bring her impossibly closer. Biting her bottom lip, his tongue rushing through her mouth. The hand on his neck pressuring now with more force, bringing him down so her feet could touch the ground.

A hand on each of Oliver’s shoulders forced them apart. 

“Okay, I’m really happy you two finally stopped the painful yearning for each other, but this is my best friend you’re snogging, Oliver, so try to do that privately,” a voice that could only belong to Dorian came from behind the Gryffindor boy. 

(Y/N) crossed her arms, one of them pressing into Oliver’s side, and looked at her friend before speaking.

“Are you going to tell…”

“Yeah, I am,” he interrupted her mid sentence, “I bloody told you so.”

TAGLIST: @peeves-a-legend​ @weasleybees​ @acontinuationofstuff​ @parkeroffline​ @lilac-wrists​

If you want me to add you to the taglist, ask me! And if you asked but you’re not here, please remind me!

[jessecrust]

Elden Ring is a video game. So, what is that?

Video games are a wildly misunderstood artform. The confusion over what is artistic about them and what they are supposed to accomplish has somehow only gotten worse over time. We’ve seen games that are basically just movies that you interact with and we’ve seen games that are essentially just creation engines for you to do whatever you want with. And yet I feel that we’re really no closer to an answer. Even if you feel like you personally know what video games are, ask yourself this: are video games supposed to be fun?

Of course they are, you say. They are games and games are fun. But that’s not true, is it? There are lots of games that are not that fun. There are even games that are not fun on purpose. So, here we are, again at an impasse. Saying games are supposed to be fun is as shallow as insisting music should always be played on a guitar.

The “Souls” series of video games that began in 2009 with Demon’s Souls has long been thought of as games that are brutally difficult for the sake of being difficult. The latest release in the series, Elden Ring, is explosively popular for a (sorta) single player action RPG in the year 2022. It’s enjoyed the most concurrent players on Steam of any Souls games by a factor of six and universal acclaim with perfect review scores from almost every outlet. So it’s naturally led to a bit more fear of missing out than usual for a Souls game.

The discourse around the game has been, frankly, a circus. There’s countless videos of people dying to a stronger enemy and calling it bad game design. There’s tweets about how it takes six buttons to summon your horse companion which is bad game design. And there’s the general complaints you’d expect like why would I want to play a game where I die all the time, that isn’t fun. The logic, far as I can tell, is that dying means you’ve done something wrong. Yet it is my contention that one of the things that distinguish video games as a medium and potentially an artform is exactly that this repetition of death and rebirth is possible.

The first time you played a Super Mario Bros game, you probably didn’t know that Goombas would kill you if you touched them. It’s something you picked up pretty quickly and if you didn’t know already, no one had to tell you. You’d figure it out on your own. I’d like to pretend like there’s some sort of hidden meaning or secret to games like Dark Souls and Elden Ring, but that’s really all there is to it. Believe me, I’d love to write paragraph after paragraph of how brilliant it was for Bloodborne to punish players for rolling backwards all the time by giving bosses attacks that hit really far in front of them because they were used to using that strategy in Dark Souls, but I don’t really need to. The games simply embrace the idea that experience is the best teacher and that death is inevitable and can be overcome. The thing that really decides if the Souls games are for you is your willingness to engage with the game, not how hard it is. I personally think Super Mario 64 is way harder than any Souls game. There were moments where I didn’t think it was all that fun, but I’ve found that’s more my ego getting in the way rather than Super Mario 64′s design decisions. Similarly, Elden Ring and the other Souls games are wildly fun when things are going well. I can’t think of another game that lets me, in the middle of a tense combat scenario, leap 15 feet in the air and slam down on my ass, causing a giant shockwave that stuns the hostile knight in front of me. 

Case in point: one of Elden Ring’s first bosses you can encounter is the Tree Sentinel. I don’t think you’re intended to fight him early, but you can. He’s just sorta roaming around on horseback and you can just walk around him. But if you do choose to engage, your only option is fighting him on foot. Since he’s mounted on horseback with huge weapons, you’ll likely get shredded trying to fight him in his own element. Later on, you can come back with your own mount and easily destroy him since his attacks are very slow and you’re not longer at a speed disadvantage. I lost at least six times before giving up. Once I was on horseback, I beat him in one try. 

Failure is the best teacher, as the inspirational quote generator says. The ability to die and then come back and try again armed with knowledge is only possible in games. I think the best games embrace this and maybe are worthy of being called art. Games like Elden Ring and, another favorite of mine, Hades work death into their core design, pushing you ever onward. Death isn’t always failure, it’s also a wellspring of knowledge and experience that can carry forward. It’s part of what makes video games unique. An idea that’s been around as long as Mario: don’t worry, friend, you’ve got four more lives to go. You’ll get it right this time! It’s something that novels, movies, and music can’t really do. 

There are people who aren’t willing to give Elden Ring the level of engagement that is required to enjoy the game. There is nothing wrong with that and it’s perfectly okay, but please do not mistake deliberate design choices for bad game design. If you’re not having a good time, you shouldn’t force yourself to play it. I didn’t like Skyrim, so I stopped playing it. I don’t think it’s a bad game, it’s just not for me. If you are willing to give Elden Ring the engagement it demands, then you’ll find that it’s not just a good game, but could be the best game ever made. 

[demifiendrsa]

Microsoft has announced that it has acquired ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, for $7.5 billion.

Bethesda Softworks is the parent company of Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, ZeniMax Online Studios, Arkane Studios, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Games, and Roundhouse Studios, and owns major franchises such as The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein, DOOM, Dishonored, Prey, Quake, Starfield, and more. 

Comments from each party:

Phil Spencer, Head of Xbox

Today is a special day, as we welcome some of the most accomplished studios in the games industry to Xbox. We are thrilled to announce Microsoft has entered into an agreement to acquire ZeniMax Media, parent company of Bethesda Softworks.

As one of the largest, most critically acclaimed, privately held game developers and publishers in the world, Bethesda is an incredibly talented group of 2,300 people worldwide who make up some of the most accomplished creative studios in our industry across Bethesda Softworks, Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, ZeniMax Online Studios, Arkane, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog, and Roundhouse Studios. These are the teams responsible for franchises like The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein, DOOM, Dishonored, Prey, Quake, Starfield, and many more.

Bethesda’s games have always had a special place on Xbox and in the hearts of millions of gamers around the world. Our teams have a close and storied history working together, from the amazing first DOOM, and its id Tech engine, innovating games on PCs to Bethesda bringing their first console game to the original Xbox, the groundbreaking The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Over the years I’ve had many deep conversations with the creative leaders at Bethesda on the future of gaming and we’ve long shared similar visions for the opportunities for creators and their games to reach more players in more ways.

Just as they took the bold first steps to bring The Elder Scrolls franchise to the original Xbox, Bethesda were early supporters of Xbox Game Pass, bringing their games to new audiences across devices and have been actively investing in new gaming technology like cloud streaming of games. We will be adding Bethesda’s iconic franchises to Xbox Game Pass for console and PC. One of the things that has me most excited is seeing the roadmap with Bethesda’s future games, some announced and many unannounced, to Xbox console and PC including Starfield, the highly anticipated, new space epic currently in development by Bethesda Game Studios.

Like us, Bethesda are passionate believers in building a diverse array of creative experiences, in exploring new game franchises, and in telling stories in bold ways. All of their great work will of course continue and grow and we look forward to empowering them with the resources and support of Microsoft to scale their creative visions to more players in new ways for you.

All of our work, and the foundation of our relationship with you, starts with a commitment to deliver a breadth of amazing games to discover and play on Xbox. Over the last few weeks, we’ve been excited to share more detail on important elements of a plan we’ve been building towards for years. A plan that is the fulfilment of a promise, to you the Xbox player, to deliver the most performant, immersive and compatible next-generation gaming experiences, and the freedom to play blockbuster games with your friends, anytime, anywhere. Today is a landmark step in our journey together and I’m incredibly energized by what this step means for Xbox.

Please join me in welcoming all of our friends at Bethesda to Team Xbox.

Pete Hines, Bethesda Softworks

Today we announced we’re joining the Microsoft family.

And if you haven’t had a chance to read what Phil Spencer and Todd Howard shared in their posts this morning, be sure to check them both out. When you work at a place as long as I’ve worked at Bethesda—just a month short of 21 years—you see some things. Chief amongst them is change. When I started, Bethesda was not much more than a handful of people. The team working on Morrowind fit in a couple of offices, and there were probably six or seven of us spread across everything else.

Bethesda Softworks, our parent company ZeniMax Media, and our many internal studios, now employ thousands of talented people working in publishing offices and development studios around the world. We’ve gone from one internal studio to many; from a focus on single-player fantasy RPGS to developing massive MMOs, first person shooters, and everything in between. The world, our industry, and our company has changed a lot in the 34 years since Bethesda Softworks was first founded. Today, it changed again. And I know that brings up questions.

But the key point is we’re still Bethesda. We’re still working on the same games we were yesterday, made by the same studios we’ve worked with for years, and those games will be published by us.

So why the change? Because it allows us to make even better games going forward. Microsoft is an incredible partner and offers access to resources that will make us a better publisher and developer. We believe that means better games for you to play. Simply put—we believe that change is an important part of getting better. We believe in pushing ourselves to be better. To innovate. To grow.

And, we have a long history of working with Microsoft. Our companies share many of the same basic principles. We believe in a culture that values passion, quality, collaboration, and innovation. When I think back to the first time we decided to shift from being a PC-only developer and make Morrowind for the original Xbox, it was a move that countless people said would never work…nobody on consoles wanted a game that big and complex. But Microsoft believed in us and so did you. And now RPGs of all shapes and sizes are hugely successful on consoles.

Yes, it’s a big change for us, but after taking a minute to absorb the magnitude of this acquisition, we’re going to continue doing what we know and love: making great games. We’re going to keep trying new things. We’re going to take the same passion we’ve poured into what we do, and the passion that our community brings to the things we make, and do even better.

And soon the conversation will move on from this deal to talking about our games again. And I can get back to answering the questions that get us all excited. Tell me more about Deathloop. When can I see more Ghostwire? What’s coming in Q4 for The Elder Scrolls Online? I want to see more of the DOOM Eternal DLC. WHEN THE HELL WILL YOU TELL ME ABOUT STARFIELD? I’m excited for those conversations and look forward to talking to you about all of that—and much, much more—-in the weeks, months, and years ahead.

I believe in the people I work with. I believe in the company we have created together. I believe in the communities that have formed around the games we make. And I believe today’s announcement is just the next in a long line of changes in our history that will lead to bigger and better games for all of us.

Pete Hines SVP, Global Marketing and Communications

Todd Howard, Bethesda Softworks

I have been incredibly blessed to spend my entire career at, and help build, one of the best places to make games in the world—Bethesda.

And I’ve had the joy of doing it with some of the most talented, humble, and passionate people there are. They are part of my family, and my good friends. I have also had the pleasure of working with, and partnering with, many of the best gaming and tech companies in the world. But our longest, and closest partner during my career, has been Microsoft.

Today we join them, and I wanted to share some personal thoughts on what it means and our shared vision.

The trajectory of Xbox, and the trajectory of Bethesda, in many ways have gone hand in hand.

From our beginning, we had primarily been a PC developer. In 1999, two things happened. One, Bethesda became part of a brand-new startup—ZeniMax Media. And Microsoft started development of their first video game console—the Xbox. I can remember my first trip to Redmond to discuss the new system and bringing our next game, Morrowind, to the Xbox.

I was dubious Xbox Morrowind would be worth the time, somewhat on a technical level, but more so from taking a hardcore RPG and moving it from a PC desktop experience to a controller-and-sofa experience. If we made it work, would people want it?

Microsoft and their new Xbox crew had a view, that I came to share completely. Shouldn’t we allow anyone to have this experience? Why does it matter where the screen is or what the controller is? There are many people without the same access, and we can bring it to them.

Morrowind would go on to become one of the best-selling Xbox games of all time, behind Halo, another PC style game some said wouldn’t work. Its success paved the way for the growth of our company, and proved the point – people wanted this experience, regardless of device.

Microsoft quickly let us in on their next system, the Xbox 360. More than a PC port, our aim with our next game, Oblivion, was to usher in the next generation of gaming. With each game, from Fallout 3 to Skyrim, our studio and company grew, adding brilliant and like-minded studios across the globe. All of us sharing in the belief that expanding the reach of gaming was fundamental, whether it was on a pc, console, your phone, or the cloud.

With each new console cycle, we evolved together. From bringing mods to consoles with Fallout 4, now over a billion downloads, to the latest technologies fueling Xbox Series X/S. These new systems are optimized for the vast worlds we love to create, with generational leaps not just in graphics, but CPU and data streaming as well. It’s led to our largest engine overhaul since Oblivion, with all new technologies powering our first new IP in 25 years, Starfield, as well as The Elder Scrolls VI.

Like our original partnership, this one is about more than one system or one screen. We share a deep belief in the fundamental power of games, in their ability to connect, empower, and bring joy. And a belief we should bring that to everyone—regardless of who you are, where you live, or what you play on. Regardless of the screen size, the controller, or your ability to even use one.

We can’t think of a better group of people to do that with than those at Xbox. We have friendships that go back to those original days. From Phil to his senior leaders to developer support, they don’t just talk about putting players first, they passionately live it.

At Bethesda, we’ve been lucky enough to create games we love, and have an audience who loves them as much as we do. I have personally been humbled by the many industry honors I have received, as they belong to the entire studio. But one has always stood out to me for a special reason. When I received the Lifetime Achievement Award at GDC, I joked in my acceptance “I wonder how many achievement points this one is worth?” At the end of the ceremony, some good friends from Microsoft congratulated me and said they’d find out. A few months later I was given a code to a game they had created, named after me and locked to my account. When ran, it unlocks a single achievement – “Lifetime – 1000pts.” It still sits in my list when I check, and I smile every time.

It has been a lifetime. But there’s more to come and achievements to unlock together. We hope you join us.

All the best, Todd

Todd Howard Bethesda Game Studios

[ethereal-ineffability]

HELL YEAH, DUDE! INFO DUMP ABOUT YOUR OC, OR SO HELP ME!

eyyyyyyyyy. CW for discussion of violent fictional bigots leading to body image issues. Okay so here's the thing. My boy Curio a sweet, kind of shy, well-meaning, socially awkward 28-year-old wizard. Tallish, no muscles whatsoever, big round glasses, kind of stupid facial hair, your standard stereotype.

Except that's not what he looks like, really.

That image is missing a Hat of Disguise (grey irish flat-cap), which he wears constantly, even while sleeping unless he can be sure he's alone. His full first name is Curiosity and what he actually looks like is somewhere around these two pictures, except with broken horns and a helluva lot more faded-over-2-decades facial scarring.

That childhood scarring is the reason why he literally never takes the hat off, no matter what; not because of the scarring itself, but because of what it represents. He grew up with so much baggage attached to his identity as a tiefling because, apart from a very supportive but imperfect and over-her-head single human mother, he had no support network in a small town where he was the only tiefling and almost-if-not-all of the entire town were superstitious humans who were very not interested in examining their biases. The children his age and a few years older were the ones who gave him most of that damage. But there's a reason his mother named him Curiosity; ever since he was old enough to explore, he did so enthusiastically and constantly, and after enough of that (and playing mostly alone) he developed skills that other kids his age didn't have, and he essentially became a gifted child. His mom took advantage of that (and some favors with an old friend) when the bullying got especially bad and got Curio scholarships to send him away to a mage's college in a more open-minded area where he would be protected and taken care of, in exchange for helping with tasks around the college until he was old enough to become an official student. The college became his life. He threw himself into the study of everything having to do with magic - history, mechanics, culture, ethics, etc. - partly as distraction, partly as hyperfixation (I do imagine he's neurodivergent in some way), and partly, subconsciously, as a desperate way to grasp at some sort of explanation for why he exists the way that he does and why the world around him is the way that it is. The enchanted hat was something he got at some point during his time at the college, and it essentially became a comfort item for him, and even though he probably could have gotten by without it with *less* problems than he had in his hometown, he just refused to go without it for years after the fact both out of fear of what could happen again and out of what had become, at that point, a deeply ingrained sense that he was just *wrong* and that he needed to hide himself to avoid burdening others. And all of that is just background for his situation in the current campaign, as a 7th-level wizard who has been traveling with a southern sweetheart druid satyr, a young-looking and mysterious dreamfolk warlock, a puss-in-boots-esque tabaxi fighter, a sweet grandmotherly minotaur barbarian, and a tiefling sorcerer in his late 40's who has a lot of backstory commonalities with Curio, particularly being raised by a single mother, having bad experiences as a kid due to his fiendish heritage, leaving home young, and hiding his appearance when he was younger. (Side note, the sorcerer's player and I *did not plan this*. We both came up with backstories independently, we didn't really have a session 0, and we just now found out how weirdly similar our characters' lives have been, though there's obviously been some differences too.) I started out this campaign by letting all the players know openly that Curio was not human, because I knew I couldn't keep a secret. In the 9 months we've been playing (we had a hiatus for a few, so it's more like 6-7 months of weekly to bi-weekly sessions), the character that's come the closest to figuring it out has been the sorcerer, Turavel, because he has obvious advantages when it comes to picking out which things just don't seem right for a human wizard to do. For example, on top of the weirdness of Curio never taking the hat off, sleeping alone often, bathing alone often, etc., he barely (roll of 15 vs 14) caught Curio tearing up when Turavel was talking about where he came from, and he thought it was weird that Curio could cast things like Hellish Rebuke. (The player, actually, was the only one of us to call this out when it happened, so I made note of it.) At the time (months ago irl, about 2-4 weeks ago in game time), I as the player didn't think Curio's cover had been blown, because I was convinced that Wizards could cast Hellish Rebuke, and I

even informed the player that Curio has fake entries in his spellbook for Hellish Rebuke, Thaumaturgy, and Darkness, just in case anyone ever saw it who also saw him cast those things. But I discovered today while searching for level-up spells for him that I was wrong. As soon as I realized, I sent Turavel's player these messages:

"Looking through wizard-only spells and realized that I as the player made ANOTHER mistake, specifically about which spells would be natural to see a wizard use, which means Curio made another mistake because I'm not retconning anything I said about what he's done. Whoopsie Since you actually called it out at the time (not the latest nat 1, the one time Curio used it before that) I'll be clear with you: Hellish Rebuke is a 2nd level, Warlock-only spell. Curio has the Magic Initiate feat, which might explain why he knows Thaumaturgy which is a cleric-only spell, since his 1st level spell for that feat is Healing Word which is exclusive to clerics, bards, and druids... but if that were the case that wouldn't explain why he can also use Vicious Mockery, which only works with bardic magic. He would have had to have learned Healing Word in a bardic way, leaving Thaumaturgy unaccounted for, unless there's just some explanation other than fiendish heritage or magic initiate that Turavel has literally never heard of before. Maybe there's a bardic college that would allow for the learning of Thaumaturgy? Unlikely. In that case Hellish Rebuke would still be unaccounted for, unless Curio has a secret patron and is a multiclassed warlock/wizard. Occam's razor. And since Turavel's the only one who asked to see his spellbook [in return, after Curio asked to see the spellbooks of all the other spellcasters], help me remember and I'll let you contest me on arcana with advantage to put all this together when we meet next."

And that's where we are. Curio's about to get fully found out because of overthinking and overprotecting himself in ways that weren't necessary, after just casually and confidently trading spellbooks - for strategic study - with the one person in the party who was always leagues more likely than anyone else to figure out what was going on. The same sorcerer who is old enough to be Curio's father and knows almost *exactly* what he's going through, and who Curio would probably be the most ashamed to be found out by, because he would probably be worried that his disguising of his tiefling nature would be interpreted as an insult even though Curio has terrible anxiety about the whole thing and literally can't help it. And I just think it's extra fun that the reason this is happening so soon is because of decisions I made intentionally as a player to make it *harder* to find him out, while truly thinking about what he would actually do. And I swear to god if that roll at advantage doesn't work I'm giving him all the inspiration I've got, because this is too good. I'm excited for the ensuing cathartic drama and for this precious boy to finally start learning how to love himself. p.s. in case any readers haven't picked up by now it's a closeted-trans-youth meets open-trans-elder allegory. This is what happens when you play DnD with other trans people

[serenedash]

I started rambling about my experience with kh and then it turned into khux and then it just turned into me rambling about Ryou and my art journey????? enjoy I guess,

it’s very long but there’s art in there :)

It’s funny to think about my kh journey as a whole tbh, I grew up watching my mom play video games, which included kh1 and 2. I wasn’t allowed to play the playstation2 we owned BUT I did have a gameboy so the first game I played was CoM (after my mom finished it ofc,) so I guess you could say I’ve always been passionate about kh “””side games””” lmao but I did fall off of kh very quickly bc again, I wasn’t allowed to play our PS2 and also I Am A Terrible Gamer I’ve Never Finished CoM I’m sorry you all had to find out like this, but then 358/2 came out when I was in middle school and!!! I didn’t care and I didn’t play idk why lol

Anyway, fast forward to high school I’m like 15 and my older sister, who HAS been keeping up with kh, has a wallpaper on her phone of roxas and ventus. And bc I haven’t kept up I say “nice roxas wallpaper” and she says “thanks but it’s roxas and ventus” and I proceeded to get so mad that I was determined to prove to her that her wallpaper was just roxas twice and then I fell down the BBS rabbit hole and suddenly I was reading about vanitas and then I’m reading the fan translations of the BBS novel and I’m crying??? I am sobbing???? and that’s how I actually got into kh for real lol we are vanitas stans before we are people,

It’s so funny how I thought I was some kh super fan, knowing all this stuff that I spent so long reading and rewatching cutscene movies, but I never once, SOMEHOW NEVER ever came across khx. It’s so absurd and bizarre I seriously have no idea how I never once encountered khx prior to khux. I suppose that has to do with the fact I wasn’t involved in the fandom? In early high school I had stepped away from fandoms as a whole and I didn’t have any interest in really posting content or interacting with fans anymore bc of how burnt out I was from a previous fandom,

but khux released! and I was so hype and excited for it! on launch day I was a senior in high school, I had ran around to every “nerd” and weeb I could find in school to ask them to join my party and fun fact about me is I have crippling social anxiety I literally refuse to start conversations irl so holy shit I was OUT HERE doing the MOST

My player just originally had my name (Matt) but everyone in my party had fun names so Ryou was born! High school was one big yugioh phase for me and ryou bakura is one of my favorite characters ever so it was just the logical name choice lol I quickly started creating Ryou, the character, as well. I was also leaving my homestuck phase and that + vanitas obsession made This character design (art circa 2016)

If y’all are familiar with my kh oc’s you might notice that keyblade now belongs to my kid Monty LOL

Anyway that got scrapped quickly for the chip and dale outfit (which is where Ryou’s trademark goggles are from <3) Goggles have been a staple of my character designs for a LONG TIME so like, it had to be done, (that’s a separate ramble about a separate oc tho)

OG Ryou was an interesting guy; he was a young party leader with this overwhelming responsibility on his shoulders bc of his status as a party leader. In his original story, he also struggled heavily with darkness, much like Terra but for Ryou it was more that the darkness was controlling him and not like a source of power like it was for Terra

A big part of early Ryou I kept, however, was the crushing awareness of loss. One of my party members (the strongest one at the time,) had left without saying a word and I was very confused and hurt. This was around the time the ephemera plot was happening so I decided to incorporate it into Ryou’s story; having him experience losing a friend to darkness since it’s so normal for wielders in Daybreak Town to just disappear, and this would unintentionally become a theme for both me and Ryou as khux friends would just randomly disappear.

I was desperate for khux at this point and I decided to watch the fan translations for khx and GOD, god, was I obsessed. I couldn’t stop thinking about the foretellers. And I’m not going off about that here bc I already did that, but I actually started entering fandom again! I did it slowly, I started on tumblr before this blog was made altho it was me sending anons to the few khux related blogs I could have lol a friend convinced me to get twitter where I got involved with the ffxv fandom, which led me to the kh fandom and eventually the khux fandom there which is what REALLY got me going on khux.

I joined discord servers, most of the servers I’m in are khux related, and from there I joined the khux oc rp (shout out to anyone there who might be reading this lol here’s some art from the beginning of the rp,)

It’s SO FUNNY how the RP influenced me so heavily. I hadn’t RP’d in YEARS, I used to have a strict no oc rp policy, but here I was? And the funny part is, I had barely developed Ryou. I had scrapped his original story and all I had was POST WAR Ryou so I literally had to reverse write him; I had only ever written him as a depressed, guilt ridden adult, but it was a fucking blast and I have such fond memories of this rp when it was active,

But anyway, this encouraged me to get more serious about art! I started drawing, writing, cosplaying, and roleplaying when I hadn’t done any of that stuff in a very long time. The first time I ever drew a background was for a deviant art khux competition actually LOL

also! I always think extremely fondly of the drawing I did of Aced in the keyblade war. It was also one of the first backgrounds I ever drew and it felt like my real starting point in the khux fandom. It got a ton of notes on here and someone wrote a tiny fic in a reblog which just made me SO HAPPY like it really felt like people were noticing me :) I was going to draw a matching Ira but!! I just never did!! One day tho, it’s on my art bucket list to redraw this along with Ira,

Aside from my personal growth, khux was great for my social life ngl, I made SO MANY friends online and got to meet a ton of people irl over the years! It’s crazy to think about all the people I now know and talk to? It honestly makes me really emotional. I’ll never forget taking the train into NYC and meeting up with discord friends. Going to conventions and talking with people about the latest khux update? Absolutely insane and those were some GOOD TIMES, if I thanked every khux friend or even just person who made an impact on me then we’d be here for a LONG TIME,

Fun fact, for my Lauriam cosplay all I needed to buy was the wig I just owned his outfit LOL also? Probably retiring that cosplay ngl people treated me like absolute garbage when I wore him and it led to a lot of confidence issues for awhile ngl. That’s probably one of the only memorable negative experiences I have with khux; it was great when khux people recognized me but for kh fans that weren’t in khux? They were FUCKING MEAN??? fuck kh fandom at large, I only care about khux fandom,

This leads me to another huge part of my experience in khux fandom: THEORIES!! I used to write SO MANY and oh my god my brain was so full all the time. It was a huge appeal for me in the fandom; I had been previously writing theory posts in the RWBY fandom and it just migrated over to khux for me lol I had done a ton of theorizing around Lauriam tbh, it was really the only reason I liked his character at all bc initially I did not care about the dandelions, anyone who wasn’t Skuld I was like “please leave Now thanks”

A funny part of khux fandom I never intended to be apart of is the MEMES, I really only started doing memes as stress relief bc college had me so busy all I had time/energy for was these quick little shit post drawings.

The first meme I made, file name “invi despair” LOL we need to get her a girlfriend smh anyway, I think in my senior year of college I did a bunch of rapid fire memes all in one month bc the stress of finals was getting so bad afdgfhdgf as far as I know my impact on this fandom will be my memes bc all I do now is enter a kh/khux server and introduce myself and I go “yeah I draw art. here’s a meme” and everyone goes OH YOU, honestly I am nothing if not a clown

I’ve talked so much idk where I’m going with this. Khux is just a good game even if the gameplay actually kind of really sucks yknow lol but it was the first game I played where I like, REALLY got into the meta and the mechanics. I used to read so much on the mechanics and watch youtube videos on which medals were worth pulling for. I was never a whale or a top player exactly, but I could rank well if I tried lol I’ve made it to the top 100 for solo rankings, my party has made it to top 10, and in pvp I’ve made top 300. I’m not the highest level in my party but FUCK do I know how to manipulate this game LOL

And with all that hard work, the strategies, the theorizing, the content I’ve made-- it’s been my life for 5 years. I’ve logged into khux almost every single day. At the end, I have logged 1820 days in khux out of 1910 days. Kinda crazy. Crazier I’ve never spent money on khux either lol the only “money” gone into it was one time my mom gave me a google play store gift card and I used it on my birthday for a VIP xemnas medal which eventually made it to regular pulls anyway but it was nice and a little treat :)

I’m not a gacha fan, I don’t care for it, so I don’t think I’ll be touching another gacha again. But for kh? This was pretty fucking awesome, even if it sucked a lot sometimes LOL It was worth it for the people I’ve met most of all I think. I would honestly be a completely different person without khux and that’s REALLY insane to think about.

[hilltopsunset]

I Regret Buying Pokémon Shield

I told myself I wouldn’t do it. I’ve seen time and again the lack of innovation from main-series Pokémon games, and I insisted nothing would convince me to buy this latest atrocity. Yet here I am, reviewing the game I said I’d never purchase. I should have listened to myself. I KNEW BETTER! Strap in, ‘cause this one’s pretty long.

Pokémon has been around for a long time—like, a long, long time—and I’ve been around for every single new main-series game that’s been released since the franchise’s first arrival in North America back in 1996 with Red/Blue. I was not yet 10 years old, and I still remember the childlike excitement of finding rare, never-before seen creatures, the stress of trying to catch a wily Abra or elusive Pinsir, and the challenging first encounter with the Elite Four and the Champion, a 5-man gauntlet of trainers with powerful Pokémon rarely (if ever) seen in the game prior to that moment. It was exhilarating in a way that keeps me coming back for more, hoping to rekindle those same flames of wonder. 

While the main gist of the games hasn’t changed much over the years, one of my favorite parts of playing a new Pokémon game is seeing the improvements each game brings to the series. Many of the initial sequels made huge leaps in progress: Gold/Silver introduced a plethora of new mechanics like held items and breeding; Ruby/Sapphire introduced passive abilities and was the first to include multi-battles in the form of double-battles; Diamond/Pearl was the first generation capable of trading and battling online and brought us the revolutionary physical/special split so elements were no longer locked into one or the other. These changes all had significant impacts on how players approached battles, formed their teams, and used each Pokémon.

Those changes, combined with the addition of new Pokémon to catch, regions to explore, and enemies to fight, were enough to keep me interested. But I know I wasn’t alone in imagining all the possibilities of taking the franchise off the handheld platforms and moving the main series games over to a more powerful home console. In the meantime, each generation that followed Gen IV highlighted a new, troubling pattern that became more and more prevalent with each addition to the series.

1.       Gen V: Lack of meaningful gameplay innovation

By Generation V with Black/White, not only was Game Freak quickly running out of colors, they were quite obviously running out of ideas for significant gameplay innovation. The bulk of Black/White’s biggest changes were improvements on or adaptations to existing staples to the franchise: many new Pokémon, moves, and abilities were added, and the DS platform allowed for greater graphical quality where Pokémon could move around a bit more on-screen during battles, the camera wasn’t as rigid as it had to be in previous games due to machine limitations; perhaps most importantly, they FINALLY decided to make TMs infinite. Thank goodness. While the updates were nice, they were nowhere near as impactful on the game as previous generations’ changes were and served more as needed quality of life adjustments.

I would also argue Gen V also had the least inspired Pokémon designs (like Vanillux and Klinklang) with the worst starter choices of any Pokémon game, but that’s a discussion for another time. Excadrill and Volcarona were pretty cool, though.

 2.       Gen VI: Gimmicks as the main draw

Pokémon X/Y (See? They ran out of colors) continued this new downward trend in innovation. Mega-evolution—while admittedly pretty cool—wasn’t enough to carry the new generation into an era of meaningful improvement because it was equivalent to adding new Pokémon rather than developing innovative gameplay, ushering in a new era of gimmicks in lieu of substantial updates.

Though the gameplay innovation for X/Y was minimal, the graphic updates were substantial: Pokémon X/Y was the first generation to introduce the main series to a fully 3-dimensional world populated by 3D characters. However, since X/Y was on the 3DS, it was a ripe target for the 3D gimmick seen in almost all games on the console, which I personally used for all of 5 minutes before feeling nauseous and never using the function again.

Despite the fresh look of the new 3D models, the battle animations were, to be frank, incredibly disappointing. Pokémon still barely moved and never physically interacted with opponents, nor did they use moves in uniquely appropriate ways. To my point, for years now there’s been a meme about Blastoise opting to shoot water out of his face rather than his cannons. I was sad to see that they didn’t take the time to give each Pokémon’s animations a little more love. But I figured, in time, when or if the franchise ever moved to a more powerful machine, they would be better equipped to make it happen, right? I also convinced myself that the lack of refined animations were kind of charming, harkening back to the games’ original (terrible) animations.

 3.       Gen VII: Focus on Minigames

The main innovation (gimmick) that came with Generation VII, Sun/Moon, was the lack of HMs in lieu of riding certain Pokémon. Sun/Moon also added Ultra Beasts (essentially just new Pokémon) and Z-moves (just new moves) which only added to the number of gimmicks present in the games. These changes, which provide some mild adaptations to gameplay from previous generations, don’t fundamentally change the way players go through each game, the way that updates in the earlier generations did. I personally played through the entirety of Sun/Moon without using a single Z-move or seeing a single Ultra Beast outside the one you’re required to fight to progress the main story. Ultimately, these changes were not a significant enough experience to warrant an entirely new game that is otherwise full of more of the same stuff with slightly different creatures who have slightly different stats and occupy a slightly different world.

Though Sun/Moon was comfortably embracing the franchise’s affinity for gimmicks, it brought to the forefront yet another troubling trend: mini games. Between photography, the Festival Plaza, and Poké Pelago, the focus on and attention to detail toward mini games had grown considerably over the years. Pokémon games have always had minigames and other time-sinks—which is great! Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate having more to do than trudge through the main story. But it is apparent that, with each new generation, more time seems dedicated to development of these extras. Pokémon Contests, Secret Bases, Super Training, feeding/grooming; a lot of their larger innovations after Gen IV were centered on non-essential parts of the game, which results in diminished game and story quality overall.

Admittedly, Sun/Moon did have some of the best exploration moments of any of the Pokémon games, which I did very much appreciate. More on that later as it relates to Sword/Shield…

 4.       Generation VIII: You Can’t Be Serious

When Game Freak finally announced they were launching Generation VIII, Sword and Shield, on the Switch rather than a dedicated handheld console, I was beside myself with excitement.

And then I saw gameplay footage like this, and my heart sank.

What is the purpose of launching the game on a stronger console if they are going to continue copy/pasting their sprites and their animations? If they aren’t going to provide the Pokémon any unique flair or create more appropriate animations? It was disappointing enough seeing the same animations/models from X/Y for Sun/Moon, but that was sort of expected since the games were on the same console. But now that the game has moved to the Switch, this is unacceptable.

When I learned that they were significantly cutting the number of Pokémon available in the game, I thought for certain that would translate to more time dedicated to the ones that made the cut, to focus on adding animations and character to the critters to make them feel like real parts of the world, rather than avatars of a child’s imagination, unable to fully process how the world functions. Alas, what was I thinking?

I thought the Dynamax gimmick would be one of my biggest gripes because it’s so pointless, or maybe the Wild Area’s severe lack of organic belonging (all Pokémon are just wandering aimlessly, weather can change drastically after crossing an invisible line, trees look like they were cut and pasted out of Mario 64, you can’t even catch Pokémon if they’re too high a level) but honestly the most disappointing part of the game for me was the pitiful routes between towns/gyms. Previous installments of the game included routes full of trainers and puzzles you needed to defeat or solve before you could progress—in Sword/Shield, the only thing that ever prevents you from progressing are some Team Yell grunts barricading paths the game doesn’t want you to take yet, for literally no reason. It completely removes player autonomy and a sense of accomplishment earned through overcoming challenges—now instead of learning that you need to find an item that allows you to cut through certain trees to gain access to new areas, you simply follow the story beats and then, upon returning, the path will be open. It’s inorganic, it’s clunky, and it’s extremely lazy.

Speaking of lazy, the story itself was another massive disappointment for me. Pokémon games are not particularly known for having deep stories, but Sword/Shield takes it to a new low. Every NPC simply pushes you to battle in gyms, and every interesting story beat that occurs happens just outside the player-character’s reach. Any time something interesting happens, you are shooed away and told to let the grown-ups handle it while you just get your gym badges. There COULD have been some interesting story moments where your character gets more involved with helping fix the havoc occurring around the Galar Region, but instead we as the player are simply TOLD what happened, why it happened, and who fixed it (usually the champion, Leon).

I honestly think having the game focus on the story of Sonia, Bede, Marnie, or even Hop (was not a fan of this kid) would have been a much more interesting game, because those characters actually had some depth to them, some bigger reason for taking on the gym challenges than simply “I want to be the very best.” Albeit those stories would have required a tremendous amount of work to add depth and details, the potential for a better story is in those characters. There is just no story at all to the main character, who is ushered from gym to gym because…because? Because that’s what kids do? I’m not even really sure what the motivation is.

There are SO MANY exciting, interesting, innovative ways Game Freak could drive Pokémon into a new and exciting direction while still maintaining its charm and building on existing mechanics, but they instead choose to demonstrate their lack of interest in significant graphical and gameplay innovation. I imagine this is largely because the masses will eat up just about any Pokémon product produced so long as there’s a new bunny to catch, and Pikachu is still involved. I’m disappointed, and I wish the Galar region could meet the expectations of my 10-year old mind’s imagination.

When abilities were added, we suddenly had to consider whether our Earthquake could even hit the enemy Weezing and adapt to the tremendous changes the passive skills added, reconsidering how we faced each battle. When the physical/special split occurred, entirely new opportunities opened up and certain Pokémon who were banished to obscurity due to their poor typing and stat distribution, like Weavile, were suddenly viable. Some even became incredibly powerful, like Gyarados, who had been hit pretty hard by the Special attack/defense split. There were also already-powerful Pokémon (Gengar, Dragon-types) who became even more so through access to STAB moves that benefited off their strongest stats.

I want new games to include updates that feel as impactful as these changes. If you’re interested in how Game Freak can improve on the main gameplay, I have some fun ideas that will be fleshed out in another article: How to Breathe New Life into the Pokémon Franchise. That article will be dedicated to explaining what those changes are, why I want them, and how they can improve future games.

[dungeonsmith]

Level-0 Wizard Campaigns

While doing some reading for my latest episode I started to think about how I would handle running a campaign or adventure set during the school years of a bunch of wizards. Back in the 2nd-edition days, me and my brother sometimes played around with the idea of playing level 0 characters as a prequel to a campaign, having to earn our classes, and I thought I would throw together something similar. So the goal would be that at the end of this prologue, we are left with a group of level 1 wizards. 

I think the best way to handle it would be to break down the starting features of a level 1 wizard and gradually award them as milestone rewards during the school years. So at the start, we need to determine what a level 0 character would look like. My idea is that they would start out with 4 + con mod hit points, same as a commoner, no class proficiencies or abilities, obviously, except maybe weapon proficiencies in the case of the wizard, as that isn't really a normal thing they learn in school and they are quite limited to begin with. I would let my players start with a background, representing their time before going to wizard school, so they would have any proficiencies they get from that, and ofcourse anything they get from their race. To make things easy, I am going to assume the use of the standard array of starting stats, which is 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8. But one could use point buy or roll stats. My idea for using the standard ones however is that I would change them and lower them slightly, giving out 14,13,13,12,10,8. That way we can give some stat increases as part of our milestones. If you use point buy, or roll the stats, you will need to decrease the two highest scores, or just give them less points to buy with, to get the same effect. The Proficiency Bonus would start at +2, just like for a 1st level character. 

Now that we have a starting point we can make a progression chart for our milestone rewards over the six school years until the characters reach level 1. Each milestone would be set at the end of the school year, and represent the training and experience awarded over the course of the year. 

1st year - 1 spell slot, 1 cantrip, 1 1st level spell, 1 skill from class skills

2nd year - 1st level spell, +1 to a ability score, 1 saving throw from class skills,

3rd year - 1 spell slot, 1 cantrip, 1st level spell, 1 additional Hit Point

4th year - 1st level spell, +1 to a ability score, 1 skill from class list,

5th year - 1 cantrip, 1st level spell, Arcane Recovery. 1 saving throw from class list

6th year - 1st level spell, 1 additional Hit Point, 

I'm not sure I would let my players copy spells freely during the school years, It would partially break the system we put in place to show how learning magic is a slow and arduous process. Some spells might be given out by the DM and some years everyone might be learning the same spells, while the players should be able to recast learning some specific spells. I would definitely base my curriculum on the one presented in the Complete Wizards Handbook from 2nd edition, which actually brings up the idea that wizards have some control over the kind of spells they learn. 

A point could also be made that a wizard should be level 2 when they graduate from certain schools, after all that is when they choose their arcane tradition. But once the wizard has reached level 1 they can just progress with levelling as normal from that point. Again, in the Complete Wizard's Handbook, they brought up the idea that a wizard wishing to specialise in a school of magic would need to spend up to 2 additional years at school to master it, so one could break down those two years the same way as the first six, or one could simply set an adventure or two that takes place in that time, and level as normal. 

Haven’t really touched on any sort of playtime scale here, but that really depends on what sort of a game one is after. One could just set up and play out a couple of important key events and pretty much go through the school years in a session or two. For my part, if I ever did something like this I would probably set out a single short adventure per year that maybe takes a session to play, jumping forward in time a lot and explaining what is taught and how the school is, but you could set a whole campaign up this way and really make your players work for level 1.

It was just an idea I had, I really enjoy low-level adventuring, but it's not for everyone. If anyone has had any similar ideas or has any thoughts on how to handle something like this or if you decide to try it out, let me know. Curious what other peoples thoughts or on something like this.

[that-house]

Hey so I hit 100 followers today!

Buckle up, this is gonna be a LOOOONG post.

I quite honestly expected it (while my ego is a little smaller than my jokes make it out to be it is definitely present), I didn’t expect it to happen so fast.

It’s not an insane milestone, plenty of people have 100 followers. A hefty portion of my followers are bigger than me. But it’s still important to me. Knowing that there’s 100 people out there who enjoy my shit makes me happy.

First and foremost the credit quite honestly has to go to ahegao George Washington. No, I’m not joking. Until I posted on r/tumblr about my desire to draw that, I had 0 followers. I jumped to like 10 overnight, which was awesome. And then those new followers helped me spread my posts and get more attention.

Secondly I’d like to shoutout @imaverysadgirl and @themeaninglessjumble. You two were my first real tumblr frens. You were the first of my followers to really interact with me. Ember, I’m super happy you’re alive to see me hit 100 followers. Jumble (I don’t know your name unless I forgot it), your art and creations are great and you deserve way more attention.

To all the rest of you, you guys are great, too. Every new follower makes me happy. I’d say I don’t deserve you all, but my colossal ego says I do. Regardless, being nemesi and getting called out for being horny on main and sending and receiving asks has made this last month or so great.

Finally, for all the shit it gets, and for all the shit it pulls, [tumblr] really is pretty dope. I got to meet you all, and it’s actively making me a better person by exposing me to groups of people I’d rarely interact with in real life.

Why does it feel like I’m saying goodbye? I’m not, don’t worry. I plan to stay, and neither death nor pain shall drive me from this hellsite. I’m just saying thanks.

Now with the thanks out of the way, I want to talk about myself a little. Just the stuff that I’ve always wanted to say and never quite gathered my thoughts and found the time to talk about.

You’re gonna get to know me so well! This is like a mini autobiography!

First off, my mental health. This is something I don’t talk about much on this blog, mostly because it doesn’t need much talking about. I’m doing pretty well, to be honest. I have a smattering of anxiety and I’m maybe a little too introverted for my own good, but I’m not suffering from depression and the only time I ever even remotely considered suicide was when I just really really didn’t want to go to French class. COVID has been great for me, since I don’t have to see people. I suppose I’m not a great person to talk to if you’re struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts, seeing as I can’t personally relate, but I’m still always here for you guys if you need me. Just because I haven’t lived through your experiences doesn’t mean I can’t try to help.

Next up I want to talk about my sexuality. This one’s a bit of a mystery. For the past 16 years of my life I’ve considered myself 100% straight. But lately (let’s be honest, following the release of Spirit Blossom Thresh) I’ve been wondering if I might be bi. How many times can I joke about wanting to smash sexy boys before it’s not really a joke anymore? And if I am, a lot of things would suddenly make a lot of sense. But every time I think I have it figured out it suddenly feels like I have no clue what’s going on. Regardless, my sexuality has honestly never been a massive part of my identity (though I’m definitely not asexual, my friends can attest I’m far too horny for that). I have no clue if I’m bi and for now it’s kind of a fun little adventure!

I guess I’ll talk about school and stuff now. Believe it or not, I’m kinda smart. I’m taking a shitton of AP courses this year. But I simultaneously feel like it’s too much and not enough. I’m smart, but I’m not a great student. Compared to my dad, who graduated college with a 3.98 GPA (and his only B being in History of Canada as an American) and now has a super well-paying government STEM job that he loves, I feel like even if I work my ass off I’ll never quite measure up. And my parents have had super high expectations of me, and it’s only recently that they’ve started to accept that I might get some B’s here and there. I’m worried about all the homework this year. I’m a year ahead in Math but I don’t feel good enough at math to be taking AP calculus junior year. I’m worried I’m going to get like a C. But for the most part school is alright, too. That’s sort of the trend in my life. Everything’s alright.

Time to talk about my love life! I have no love life! I’ve been single for 17 years and probably stand no chance of changing that until at least college! Haha I’m so alone! But I can live with it. Growing up an only child with a few friends means that I’m pretty good at functioning without a ton of social interaction, and, while I’d like a partner someday, I’m not desperate. I can wait until I find someone. Pretty much my goal is not to die alone.

Onto sports maybe? I played soccer for most of my life, and was always the worst player on the select team. I was too good for the normal team and not good enough for the select team (kinda like math). Soccer was really toxic, especially when you’re the worst player on a team of high school jock drug addict boys. So I quit, and started playing frisbee! It’s a lot better. The people are nicer! But my first season never happened because of COVID and now I’m in my Junior year and haven’t played much frisbee! So I kinda suck! But I’m physically fit and that’s good enough for me! On my own time I bike and run to stay in shape.

Are you still with me? Now I’m gonna talk about my hobbies and things!

I’ve been playing video games for a long time. I kinda suck at them to be totally honest. I probably have below-average reaction time, and my parents only let me play 15 minutes a day for most of my childhood, so I have a lot less practice than most of my friends. I’m pretty slick with Swain in LoL tho.

This next part is borderline shameless self-promotion, but since the Kickstarter isn’t live yet I guess it doesn’t count. I’m making a tabletop role playing game! I’ve been working on it for the past few years. My goal is to launch the Kickstarter prior to my college applications, because that’ll look sexy as fuck to potential colleges. It’s a post-apocalyptic sci-fi game where you play as supersoldiers trying to reconquer the wastelands of Earth for humanity. I’ll do a big post on it when I launch the Kickstarter, and I guess that’ll also be a full name reveal (kinda spooky since my full name is ENTIRELY unique and one-of-a-kind. More ego boost lmao).

And finally I want to talk about my art and writing. I’ll start with my drawing, and finish off with my writing, since that’s what I’d most like to be known for on here (but that’ll never happen because my caveman brain shitposts are too funny).

So I’ve been doodling for a long time. I briefly got formal art training but sacrificing my Saturday mornings to draw what someone else wanted me to make so that I could make better stuff in the future didn’t appeal to my 8-year-old brain. I draw in the margins of worksheets. I draw on random sheets of paper. Recently my parents bought me a drawing tablet, and I’ve been trying to improve at digital art. I’d say I’m getting better, but I don’t practice nearly enough. All in all my art serves its purpose. It makes people laugh and can sometimes creep people out. It’ll never go in a museum, and I’ll never make money off of it but whatever.

And finally, my writing.

How can I talk about writing without talking about reading? I’ve likely read more books than both my parents combined, and if not, it’s close (and my mom is a prolific reader too). I have three bookshelves in my room and books on every surface. You can’t follow me for long without seeing a post ranting about my latest read. I love to read and I read incredibly fast. Reading spurred my love of English class, which in turn helped me write.

And finally, we get to writing in and of itself. I’ve been writing stories since I was a little kid. I’d like to think I’ve improved a fair bit. I’m still no novelist, but I consider myself a fairly adept short story writer.

But I suppose where my writing really stems from is my bed. Every night while I’m lying in bed, I tell myself stories until I fall asleep. I work on a story until it’s done or until I get bored of it. Along the way, in the shower, on my bike, I build the world of the story, crafting the plot. Sometimes the stories are elaborate fanfictions of my latest reads. That’s probably how they started. Often, they’re unique worlds all of their own. My current writing posts are about the City of Mammon, but my current story in my head is about some vampires who hunt other vampires in Victorian England.

And now we get into the process of writing. It’s fun! I sit myself down with an idea in my head, and use all the fancy words I picked up from my books to convey the vibes I want. I honestly wouldn’t be a great writing teacher. It’s just a skill that comes naturally to me as a result of what I’ve been doing with my free time my whole life. And it’s beautiful. And every time someone compliments my writing or reblogs it, I love writing just a little bit more.

Well I guess this is it. The 100 follower special. I wonder how many of you guys will take the time out of your day to read this. Hopefully a lot!

James (or That House) signing off for the night!

<3 thanks guys

[comunidadarcsystemworks]

Exclusive interview with Arc System Works

We have had the opportunity to interview several key members of Arc System Works. Before we begin, we want to thank Arc System Works America for giving us the opportunity to have this interview.

We will divide the interview into 3 sections: "General", "Daisuke Ishiwatari" and Tosimichi Mori.

General

Q. The first question is going to be a tough one, but the community has been very vocal about it so we would really want to begin with this one. Will GGPO (Good Game Peace Out) be implemented in your next projects? If not, would you consider its implementation at some point in the future? We are not talking specifically about Guilty Gear Strive.

A. We’ve heard your passionate requests, and we’re working on a netcode that will live up to everyone’s expectations.

We’ll have more information for you later.

(Guilty Gear Strive Director: Akira Katano)

Q. Fighting games aside, do Arc System Works has plans to do more action games like Hard Corps in the future? Especially with the Guilty Gear engine. We recently saw Code Shifter as your latest brand new platform action game or your collaboration with Wayforward, which are always welcome.

A. We’d definitely like to try genres other than fighting games, such as action games.

This would include plans to use Arc System Works’ 2.5D animation style in non-fighting games, of course.

However, we don’t have any concrete plans to share at the moment.

(Producer: Takeshi Yamanaka)

Daisuke Ishiwatari:

Q. Thank you so much for taking the time for our questions. Since the announcement at EVO, we are really excited to know more about Guilty Gear Strive, and we have read all the interviews and your philoshophy about this game and its gameplay. So, what would you consider to be the lead factor for this change?

A. Thank you for your excitement about Guilty Gear Strive.

The biggest reason for changing the gameplay is to make a game that can reach the current generation of gamers.

I feel that through previous Guilty Gear titles, we have more or less perfected the Guilty Gear formula.

It may very well be possible to tighten that up and make a further refined game. But, even if we did, such a game would create a disparity between new players and veterans who are used to the game’s systems.

So, we wanted to reset the start line for everyone. But of course, this doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten our appreciation and respect for long-term fans and accomplished players.

Q. One of the main focus seems to be drawing the attention for new players and esports while adapting the HUD and the gameplay/action to everyone so it can be enjoyed by a wider audience. That´s interesting, but how will you make new players invest time in your game and wanting to improve their skills at their own pace? For example Granblue Fantasy Versus could be a good example since it has a big focus on its RPG Mode to do so in case beginners are not doing well while playing online.. Will you take a new approach this time with the Story Mode or single player content?

A. I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you anything concrete at the moment.

However, the game will offer an experience of learning and discovery for both new and advanced players. Our game design is even more focused on that now, than ever.

I can’t guarantee that it will make it into the game, but we are also thinking of ways to further strengthen the community.

For example, currently most players aren’t very familiar with the top players.

But if they realized there were stars similar to Mike Tyson and Floyd Mayweather playing the game, wouldn’t they want to know how that person got so skilled?

We’d like to provide something to help players who aren’t too deeply into the game a way to enjoy it as a whole, like fans do with soccer or basketball.

Q. As of today, we know that you are gathering feedback regarding the main points of the new gameplay so I´ll save it for later, but as for the music, we are noticing a lot of emphasis on vocal tracks. Will this be the Guilty Gear with the biggest number of vocal tracks? will we get new versions of themes like “Holy Orders” or “Give me a break!?

A. Yes, I believe GGST will feature more vocal tracks than any prior title.

That is one of our many decisions in attempting a complete renewal.

We aren’t currently planning vocal arrangements of previous songs, however.

The only example I can think of where that went well would be Queen’s Seven Seas of Rhye.

Of course, if there were enough requests, there are songs I would love to create vocal versions of.

Q. A lot of people are requesting characters from past games like Testament or Bridget, but of course, we know that you can´t confirm any detail by the moment. However, I would like to know if we could get just a small hint about past fighters coming back to the scene.? Can we expect more original characters to be added to the game besides the cyborg samurai from the first teaser?

A. All I can say is, there will be characters from the previous series and this new character too. Please look forward to it!

Q. About the gameplay, as I said earlier, I believe that it's necessary to wait until the beta version for us to have a proper idea about it. Since I still haven´t had the chance to play the game I can just express my opinion as a spectator. I believe the overall gameplay seems interesting according to what you want to achieve but doesn´t the wall break mechanic interrupts the flow of the match a bit too much for the spectators? I feel the same with restricting combo routes, won´t it be monotonous if we ever watch the same, or really similar routes?

A. Don’t worry. The developers are creating GGST with both a casual and hard-core perspective in mind. There may be some aspects that don’t quite satisfy series veterans, but we will create new depth that will motivate them to learn something entirely new.

Also, even if the Beta Test is not well received, you will see our answers to your feedback in the game upon release.

Finally, could you share some words and thoughts to your fans in Spain?

Currently, we are steadily releasing news about GGST. However, the gameplay itself is still very much in development. Our plan is to continue to evolve the game as we receive feedback from the players. Please look forward to it.

Toshimichi Mori:

Thank you so much for giving us the chance to give an answer to our questions. We have read everything that could lead to a future Blazblue or Persona 5 Arena so I´ll try to make interesting questions for everyone.

Q. First of all, I would like to start with Blazblue Alternative Dark War. Will it be possible for you to share some more details about it? Last time I heard from the game I was taking notes at the London Comic Con.  If you can´t share any details, could you give us a hint about when could we know more about the game? Also, I love the sketches that you publish from time to time!

A. Thank you very much.

However, I can’t say much about Dark War right now--only that I, personally, am working so that you guys can play the game as soon as possible. I believe that as long as the players are supporting the project, it will move forward. So please keep talking about it.

Q. Talking about the London Comic Con from last year, I remember that I asked about Alpha 01 and you said that this year we should have news, but this year I want to add something else to the same question. Besides Alpha 01, when could we know something about Gamma 03 as well?

A. I’m really glad that for whatever reason, so many people like Alpha.

I understand some are really looking forward to her making an appearance, but it will be some time… So please wait a little longer.

Q. As of June of 2018 you said in an interview with Gamerevolution that you are saving ideas for future Blazblue and future Persona Arena Projects. Also, in an interview with Gearnuke (January 2020) you said that you would like that your next game will be 2.5D and that the next Blazblue will have new system mechanics. Taking all of this into account, could you please give us further details about what would you like to achieve with a new Persona Arena (which people are really vocal about it) or Blazblue project?

A. I appreciate your enthusiasm. However, I can’t really discuss anything at this moment. Please understand.

Q. Moving on to Blazblue Cross Tag Battle and talking about the same interview from Gearnuke, we read that companies are not approaching you to add their characters in the game. Have you considered “small” companies like Nihon Falcom or Vanillware to see beloved characters like Adol Christin from the YS series or Gwendolyn from a cult classic like Odin Sphere? I feel that they are characters that most of us known or we have heard of but they still didn´t have the chance to shine outside of their games.

A. I get a lot of requests for characters in BBTAG. Honestly, there’s lots of characters I would like to include, myself.

I won’t say it’s impossible for the characters you mentioned to join the cast, but we don’t have any plans for this at the moment. Regardless, I would really like to do some form of collaboration in the future.

Q. Sticking with Blazblue Cross Tag Battle, will we see more characters from RWBY or Senran Kagura? Is there a chance to see Persona 5 characters in the game (unless a Persona 5 Arena is in the works of course) or Kyoko and Misako from River City Girls?

A. We’ve just released Season 2, so we don’t have any definitive plans for the next characters yet.

Right now, we’re still thinking about the next step and listening to everyone’s requests as we work with the current version.

Going back to Blazblue main story, now that the phase C came to an end, and with Rachel´s words being “I shall find you, I promise” at the end of Blazblue Central Fiction… Will we get a follow up to this arc, or it will be a completely new arc? Also, are you planning to do another anime or manga?

A. We are preparing for the start of a new story… Sadly, I can’t guarantee when it will happen. I think that when that new chapter begins, you will understand what Rachel meant.

Finally, could you share some words and thoughts to your fans in Spain?

Thank you for loving the BlazBlue series.

I can feel that love you have, so I hope I can meet all of you in person someday. Thank you for your continued support.