#i have so many stories like this it's unreal how much roleplaying has impacted my life ooc

[cderiva]

the internet is wild because fifteen years ago i joined a forum and didn't read the rules bc i thought i was too cool for that and one of the moderators eventually noticed it and told me off and gave me a temporary ban. we ended up becoming very good friend. over a decade later she called me saying she liked my work and asking if i wanted to document a civil disobedience action. i said yes. then she kept calling m and got the chance to shoot alongside actual photojournalist veterans with absolute insane cameras as their work equipment while i stood there with my 500€ camera i got on sale. anyway, all of this to say that the only reason why i have my photos with my name published in a newspaper is because fifteen years ago i didn't read the rules of a forum.

[stompsite]

So I Played FFXV

In most of my articles, I start out by presenting a problem. Maybe a lot of gamers hate zombies, and I want to write about a zombie game I love, so I present the problem of the zombie game, explaining in detail why I’m sympathetic to the concerns of people who hate zombie games, before explaining how the zombie game I love gets around that problem.

I do this because we’re rarely wrong about our feelings, but we’re often wrong about why. If I wrote “here’s a good zombie game,” no one would want to read that if they don’t like zombie games. By writing “this is why zombie games bore you and here’s how zombie games can excite you,” I appeal to a broader audience.

This brings me to Final Fantasy XV, a game one of my backers asked me to cover.

Good games writing often happens when an expert explains the ins and outs of a genre they know well to an audience they assume are quite intelligent but aren’t as familiar with the subject as they are. When I wrote about walking sims last year, I sat down and I went “okay, a lot of you are bored with walking sims. Why is that?” My editor’s boss didn’t seem to like it that much, insisting that the walking sim didn’t need any defending (even though The Chinese Room, developers of walking sims, had just shut down, and Tacoma, a walking sim with magazine covers, had sold a mere 10,000 copies). But I think people have strong feelings about things and they want to understand those feelings, so having an expert help them out without talking down to them is wonderful.

A little bit of history.

I may be an expert on video games, but I am most assuredly not an expert on JRPGs.

Unlike most people, I didn’t grow up with video game consoles. I saw a meme posted the other day saying “you can’t argue with me about games unless your first console was a Genesis or NES.” Mine was an Xbox 360, but I’ve been playing computer games for a great deal longer. Since Japan didn’t make many computer games (oh, sure, Final Fantasy VII was developed for Windows 95, but I don’t recall seeing it amidst the Diablo 2, Planescape Torment, and Half-Life boxes at CompUSA back in the day), JRPGs were never really a part of my gaming diet.

It’s not to say that JRPGs weren’t appealing. When my wisdom teeth were pulled, my mom brought our little 13” portable TV into my room and let me watch movies. I stumbled upon UHF channel 53, which broadcast a pirated version of TechTV, which was, at the time, airing Anime Unleashed, a block of awesome anime shows like Last Exile and Crest of the Stars. Most anime I’d seen up to that point was the stuff we got on kid’s shows, like Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokemon. Digimon aside, most of it was garbage. Watching Boogiepop Phantom or Serial Experiments Lain during late nights on this stupid little black and white TV was something else entirely.

Since then, I’ve loved good anime aesthetics, so you’d think that JRPGs would be my jam. I thought so too, which is why I started talking to friends about them, but every time I did, my friends would talk about what confusing bullshit they were--especially, at the time, Final Fantasy X. “...but Final Fantasy VIII is better!” they’d tell me, and of course I’d ask them about that, and they’d tell me even more confusing bullshit. Plus, the whole turn-based gameplay thing was a huge turnoff. I got into other games, like Age of Empires and Unreal Tournament. They were more interesting. Games like Max Payne had way better stories than Final Fantasy VIII, that’s for sure.

Once, someone got me into Earthbound on an emulator, and I fell in love with it, until someone kidnapped zippy--I think she has a ‘real’ canon name but I don’t know what it is and I don’t want to know--and I couldn’t beat any of the fights because I didn’t understand the concept of grinding. Over the years, I tried other JRPGs, because the premise and the art sounded cool, but I bounced off the gameplay or the presentation time and time again. The closest I got to loving a JRPG was Dragon’s Dogma, and that was more of an open world sandbox game than any kind of RPG.

This brings me to another point.

JRPGs aren’t RPGs.

People usually protest when I make this point. Either I’m wrong or it doesn’t matter, they say, but I think it does matter because I’m a game designer, and understanding the specifics of genre is a really useful skill for a game designer to have. When I look at the JRPG, I see a lot of very specific elements that make them stand apart. If I say “I want to make an RPG,” chances are, I will not make something like a JRPG. If I say “I want to make a JRPG,” I will. The mechanics are distinct and interesting and worth examining on their own; no JRPG in existence could ever stand up to even a half-decent RPG if we judged it by RPG terms. The roleplaying just isn’t there.

Judging JRPGs by their own standards lets us see these wonderful games for what they really are. JRPGs are not RPGs from Japan. They’re not even RPGs. Once, when I made this argument, a guy fought back by arguing that a game wasn’t an RPG unless it had a party (Witcher 3 doesn’t), a bestiary (pretty sure New Vegas hasn’t got one), was turn-based (quick, someone tell Dragon Age!), and had a linear narrative (hahahahahahaha!).

“But you’re playing a role!”

Playing a role means following a script, which is what you do in any game without choice and consequence. Roleplay is a specific kind of improvisational acting that’s about creating and defining your relationship with the world around you. Dragon Age: Origins is a roleplaying game: you can be a dwarf commoner or a human noble or whatever, and your various choices will have major impacts on your relationships. You can define the person that you are. They are tabula rasa.

In every JRPG I’ve ever seen, you are a specific character with a specific personality, and while you may have some choices--Noctis in FFXV can choose to let the crew pull over and take a group photo whenever Prompto asks him too--those choices have little impact on the overall narrative or Noctis’ relationships with the characters around him. Lunafreya will always love him, Gladiolus will always get mad at him when Ignis loses his vision, etc.

Different kinds of games.

Pillars of Eternity, which isn’t a great game, but one I enjoyed well enough, let me set my character’s stats prior to playing the game. I defined my character as a rogue with great mechanical skills and dexterity. In Final Fantasy XV, when you level up… you can’t really control how your character’s stats changed.

None of this is bad! It’s just different, like the difference between a third person shooter and a first person shooter. First person shooting lets you focus on the environment and your interactions with it, but third person shooters tend to focus on your character. They have their own unique strengths. You can’t judge a first person shooter by third person standards and vice versa. The same is true with JRPGs and RPGs. They are different games. And that’s good.

The Game:

When it comes to Final Fantasy XV, this is the foundation I have. I’m vaguely turned off by all the stories I’ve heard, I love the aesthetics of most of them, and the gameplay is something I feel is wholly distinct from other games.

Final Fantasy XV appealed to me because it had real-time action combat instead of being a heavily menu-focused turn-based affair.

So, here’s the deal: you’re Prompto, a prince, who is on his way to meet the object--and really, she is treated like an object in this game--of his arranged marriage, Lunafreya, who’s the princess of a rival kingdom, I guess? Except the wiki says she’s a captive of Niflheim, but she seems to get along well with her brother, who is in charge of the armies of Niflheim, so… like… yeah, I don’t really know what’s going on there.

The wiki also says she’s the “main heroine” of the game, even though she barely has any screen time at all. She has magical powers that cures people of some weird plague that’s making nights last longer, except that the nights are still getting longer and more people are succumbing to the plague, so she’s really bad at her job.

Honestly, she’s just there to look pretty and say things like “Noct, please hurry.” Then she dies. Then one time her ghost shows up and uses force powers to save the crew by removing plot armor that was only put there so she could show up to remove it.

She is not emotionally important to you.

This isn’t like Alan Wake, a game that reveals over time the complex nature of Alan’s relationship and just how wonderful of a person Alice Wake is. In that game, Alan was motivated by guilt, and you, as a player, could connect to him because you got to see all of this unfold. You wanted to help Alan find Alice not because “Alice is Alan’s wife,” but because you saw that these two wonderful, flawed people loved and cared for each other and deserved happiness.

Lunafreya is a pantomime of a love interest, but there’s never any real love there, so there’s no urgency to actually chase her down, no sense of loss when she dies. It’s not all her fault though (I mean, duh, it’s Square’s fault). Noct is equally culpable. He’s just… kinda empty. He’s a shell who occasionally feels things when the script calls for it (ur dad died, be sad, ur gf died, be sad), but who doesn’t feel like a real person. I don’t really care about anything Noct wants. I just kind of do the objectives because they’re what’s next.

I spent my whole life being told that JRPG stories were the best that video games had to offer, and… look, being completely honest here, Final Fantasy XV is the JRPG plot as described to me--incomprehensible, pointless, and horribly paced, doing grandiose things because the developers want to do grandiose things, never earning a second of the awe it expects you to have.

“Yup,” I found myself thinking when I finished it, “this is exactly like every JRPG that has ever been described to me except Earthbound.”

Earthbound is great.

Final Fantasy XV makes the mistake of assuming that because it looks epic, it is epic, but since it earns nothing, it isn’t epic at all. It’s a hodgepodge of ideas. Maybe other JRPGs do a better job, but based on every other JRPG I’ve played, like Xenoblade Chronicles and Suikoden, it’s just not a very compelling game.

So it may surprise you to know that I liked it a great deal.

Brotherhood.

In my film education, we talked a great deal about the idea of the “male as default.” A lot of this is rooted in idiotic Freudian psychology (especially all the Lacan stuff), so it’s as bunk as astrology, even when it sounds good, but let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater here: all media has a perspective, and most media’s perspective assumes the male perspective as the neutral one.

American film does this too: it assumes everything is seen through American eyes. Most Hollywood movies are very, very American-as-default things, but that doesn’t mean they’re American movies. I’m not just talking geography, I’m talking assumptions about customs, camera angles, lighting, and so on. Russian film (European films too, but especially Russian film) tends to focus on specific body parts, using juxtaposition in editing to create specific senses about things. American films tend to favor wider shots, creating those same moods through things like motion and staging.

A film from another country can feel like it came from a different mind than the Hollywood monolith…

...and yet…

...there are very few genuinely American films out there. This is partly because most American films are built for export to other countries, so rather than focusing on specifically American subject matter, they focus on more universal things like drama and romance. Since America is so good at exporting American film, and many other cultures imitate the stylings of American films (because learning from successful things is how you succeed, after all), we end up with a very dominant American culture that has very little to actually say about America. In fact, lots of what America is tends to get lost in the shuffle.

If you’re lucky, you get filmmakers like Terrence Malick, who make films that are really about America and being American, but the significance of this is lost because people look at it and go “why do you make American films? All films are American!” But there is something specific there. Something interesting.

Maleness is the same way. It’s the assumed default in a lot of narratives, but because of this, very little attention is given to it. I once walked into the USAF museum while the XB-70 Valkyrie was in one of the hangars and didn’t see it because it was so big I thought it was the ceiling. Maleness in fiction is like that; it’s rarely examined closely because it’s too busy being big.

Here are two men. They are friends. The end.

We rarely look at how men bond, how they perceive each other, how they fight, how they talk and think because we’re too busy writing stories about the basic, empty characters who travel from point A to point B and the adventures they have along the way.

Oh, sure, sometimes you have people interrogating maleness, but they’re really only doing it to say “look what’s bad about being a man,” because they assume that male-as-default means we already see male-as-good, when really, male-as-default is male-as-nonspecifity. The beauty of maleness is rarely ever explored.

Somehow, despite all its narrative shortcomings, Final Fantasy XV excels at its understanding of maleness.

I think a big part of this is the road trip nature of the game. Sure, they’re ostensibly on the run and simultaneously on their way to a wedding, but that doesn’t prevent The Boys from having a good time. Each boy has a specific personality that is brought out in interesting ways; Ignis cares a stickler for safety and rules, Prompto is energetic and mischievous, Gladiolus is strong and confident and protective of those who are not. Noctis is basically an empty shell, but when he’s interacting with The Boys, there are still good moments to be found.

As you drive through the world, fighting monsters and helping friends, you learn more about these boys and the things they care about. Gladiolus is self-conscious about seeming too caring, but he cares so deeply, especially about his little sister Iris. He recognizes her crush on Noctis and even tricks Noctis into giving her flowers, knowing it would make Iris’ day. Prompto’s lower-class upbringing means he’s tremendously insecure about his relationship with the other boys. They’re not aware of how awkward he feels in the presence of people much wealthier and more important than he is, and when he makes it known, they do everything they can to assure him that he’s their brother and they wouldn’t have it any other way.

There’s something else that I’ve never been able to put into words. It’s a feeling I have occasionally, and one I cherish. When interacting with most men, there’s a degree of camaraderie, like, hey, we’re all on the same team, we’re cheering alongside each other, that kind of thing. There’s a whole second language that men are only capable of employing with other men that’s completely nonverbal, but not all men are comfortable using it with each other right away.

There comes a point in a male relationship where everything just sort of clicks. That guy over there is just a man you know, but that guy over there, you and him are mates and you’d fuckin die for each other if you had to. When you do things together, there’s a sense of rightness and appropriateness to it all. If your best friend asks you to help him carry some groceries in from the car, it’s different than if you help your next door neighbor who you don’t really know all that well.

I’m sure other, better writers have written about this sense of brotherhood. When I’m playing Destiny with a matchmade team and we roll an enemy squad into a mercy rule defeat, it feels good. When my friends and I trigger the mercy rule against the same thing, it’s like, heck yeah, these are the men who mean the most to me in this fuckin world and I am so lucky to have them with me.

Final Fantasy XV does its darndest to put this in the mechanics. The boys res each other during battle. They all have unique combo moves that play off each other. The battle barks are all designed to make you feel like… hell yeah, these are my bros, we kick ass together.

How many games just have two dudes talkin about dude things together? How many games are like “yeah, bro, let’s go running in the sand and whoever outruns the other is the winner!” How many games get that great banter is affectionate? How many games are willing to have a bunch of dudes who love each other and will die for each other whose relationships deteriorate over time but they come back from them stronger than ever?

There are a lot of stories about men in games, but very few stories about being a man.

Final Fantasy XV might be the best of ‘em.

And it’s still… dumb and flawed at times. I think I would’ve liked a more interesting protagonist and central conflict. I think the game is at its best when you’re cruising around a big, open world, humming about chocobos. I think Square had the opportunity to make a huge, incredible game about an adventure and they wasted it on a game that gets progressively linear (in a bad way) over time. I mentally checked out by the end of the game. I didn’t care that some random giant dude showed up, I beat the shit out of him, and then I had to fight a couple more dudes just like him, and then after beating them into submission too… we, uh, killed the guy who was stalking us the whole game? Why would I connect with random giant ghost kings when I spent the entire game playing alongside my brothers? Instead they get knocked out and fall asleep on the floor and I have the ending I was always destined to have.

Man, fuck destiny.

The game is great when it’s being personal, but it sucks when it’s trying to do all this other stuff. There are no affectionate moments between Noctis and Lunafreya. Mister Badguy, whose name I forgot and don’t feel like looking up because fuck that guy, he was boring, has to exposit his backstory (i was gonna be king but then i didn’t get to be king so i decided to have my revenge in like 2000 years’ time! mwahahaha!!! here is my entire personal history!) instead of just being interesting on a dramatic level.

It’s bad when it’s trying to be a grandiose RPG. It’s great when it’s doing something I can’t think of any other game doing before. I think you should play the first 8 or 9 chapters of the game. I think everyone should. That’s where the fun lies.

What about the gameplay?

The gameplay is kind of neat. Some stuff doesn’t feel nearly as good as other modern open-world games (like, uh, driving, which is kinda terrible and inconsistent about when it lets you drive, and interrupts your drive in really annoying ways at night, but the attention given to things like “needing to fill up with gas” is really cool).

Other stuff is clearly channeling How JRPGs Work, which is cool. The way the game gives you XP or deals with magic and abilities feels Very Classically JRPG. But it’s all wrapped up in a real-time action game that’s nowhere near as satisfying as Dragon’s Dogma or Ninja Gaiden or something. I’m not saying it has to be, but holding down a button and watching your character autoattack isn’t very fun. Zipping around with your teleport power is totally awesome though.

Magic is super strong and I probably should’ve used it more, but I was never really in love with crafting it. The leveling grid is kinda cool, but I have no idea how, when I did nearly every quest in the game, someone is supposed to unlock some of those skills. It just doesn’t seem possible considering the game’s content.

Quest design isn’t great; most of it’s just random fetch quests. The open world itself is nice most of the time, especially when you have a chocobo, but because the game’s so invested in making you feel like you’re on a road trip, you end up doing a lot of driving which a more generous fast travel system would have avoided, which means you end up seeing a lot of the same places over and over again, which kinda kills the whole road trip vibe.

And So it Ends.

There’s DLC. I never did that. I kinda soured on the whole epic journey by the end because of how boring the solo stuff was, and the DLC appears to be all solo stuff. Sorry, but the overall narrative and the gameplay just isn’t there. That’s not what makes FFXV good. The camaraderie is. The vibes are. Listening to the sizzle of ignis’ cooking or watching a huge monster fly in from above. There are so many incredible moments in this game. It’s too bad the narrative and the combat couldn’t keep up.

I think FFXV benefits and suffers from being a big 3D real-time game. A lot of classic JRPGs are 2D affairs where you have to communicate everything purely through text boxes. FFXV has the benefit of voice and physical performance, adding a huge layer of nuance and personality to its characters, their wants, and needs. But because it’s a big, bombastic 3D game, it can’t help itself, and wastes time with boring, endless set pieces that look cool but do little else.

Could I recommend it? I dunno.

But it kinda makes me want to try other JRPGs, even though there’s really nothing else like it out there.

[angelsandemons]

So it’s offically been about a year since I started this blog. I joined this fandom near the end of the show, so I’ve seen a lot of people come and go, but BOY did I not expect to get this fair. Even if things are slowing down now, I have an unreal 959 followers, several of whom are still active. And I plan to continue to be one of them, I ain’t going anywhere.  I’ve met SO many lovely people over the past year, I couldn’t possible begin to cover it all in a single post.

However...

There are some members of this fandom that have made an especially big impact on me. You guys have been a joy, an inspiration, and a pleasure to interact with both IC and OOC, so I want to say a few words about each of you now in one big, disgustingly mushy post.

What Dying Fandom? I Don’t See A Dying Fandom Look At These

@mynameisdopper: Compared to many on this list, I’ve known you for a relatively short time, but I already feel as close to you as I do most of my long-time friends. I love talking with you almost every day IC and OOC, I love the thought and insight you give your characters, including ones in other fandoms like @conniethejam and @rosefquartz, and I love the skill you put into your replies. And even despite that innate talent, you NEVER stop striving to improve. You also have a sense of humor that matches mine almost exactly, and that’s something I’ve learned not to take for granted over the years. But most of all, you have a heart of gold, all jokes aside, and I know you are going to do great things. I know you already have.

@pine-dexter: I still can’t believe it took me so long to find you, but every moment since has been a treat. I love hearing your take on Ford, I love exploring post-show scenarios and post-show AUs with you, and I love indulging extensively in our trashy ship together, be it via IM RP or simply exchanging horrible fanfics we’ve found. And of course, on the occasion we DO get to thread together, that’s always a pleasure. We need to do it more.

@llamanorthwest: You might be the youngest member in this section (not in terms of your actual biological age, but in regards to how long I’ve known you), but I’ve gotta say: I had high hopes for you because of our mutual friends, and you STILL surpassed them. Your take on Pacifica is really interesting, and your writing for her is a CONSISTENT joy. I’m still over the moon that you were willing to explore the LTOLOXA AU with me, and that you seem to get just what I’m going for with Bill.  Not to mention I love the art you draw for it, it gives me life. I can’t wait to RP more with you in the future. 

@widdleolgideongleeful​ as well as @leavethattomabel​: Your Gideon is top notch in all the ways, and you’ve gone above and beyond the source material in a way all roleplayers should aspire to. You’ve kept him IC while still adding a unique flare of your own, and it never fails to entertain. Your passion is contagious, and constantly fuels my drive to continue improving and exploring my own character in new and exciting ways. The same is true for your Mabel, but I’ve gotta say, like to be REAL honest with you here...your Mabel has taught me something else too. This is gonna sound kinda mean (hey you already knew I was a bitch), but the other big lesson your Mabel has taught me is to never judge a book by its cover. When I first came across your Mabel blog, I was THAT roleplayer: I saw your layout, I saw your huge icons, and I thought “this is someone who only kind of knows what they are doing, but ehh I guess I’ll give it a shot”. In time, of course, I discovered you were an EXCEPTIONAL roleplayer, and most if not all your design choices were very purposeful, especially on your blog layout. And rightfully so: I mean it DOES look like a blog Mabel would make. Finally, portrayals aside, you are often a joy to discuss things OOCly with, be it GF related or something in RL, you always carry that unique insight with you in whatever you do.

@flannelandchill​: Wendy can be a surprisingly hard character to nail down, if only because she’s very much portrayed from Dipper’s perspective in the show, and that’s an obviously skewed view. But when I read your writing for her, I don’t JUST see the super cool redhead (though that certainly is still there), I see the side of Wendy only briefly shown in canon: a girl who is stressed just like the rest of us. And I love, love, LOVE how you work those two together so seamlessly. I look forward to all our interactions, always, and your appreciation for my portrayal never goes unnoticed. Please continue to stroke my ego.

@captivatinginnocence​: From the very beginning, I could hear Mabel’s voice in your writing loud and clear. You have a masterful command of her tone and characterization, and you carry that to places I’ve never seen other Mabel RPers go. Seriously, do you know ANYONE else who explores her later years in life to the extent you do? As if that wasn’t enough, you are an AMAZING artist, and a very generous one too. I treasure each and every “doodle” you send my way, and love the care and effort you put into every aspect of your character. It’s always a pleasure to write with you, even if I might take a while to reply sometimes. Same goes for OOC convos about life too! And I’m super thrilled that you’ve decided to dip your toes into the SU fandom with @fantomshards recently too, bringing all that skill with you.

Dormant In Activity But Not In My Heart

@stanfordsixerpines: As my first Ford on this blog, you will always have a special place in my heart. Back when I still had a lot of shame about this billford ship, you were ready and willing to jump in the deep end with me, and never looked back. I love everything we’ve done together, and look forward to anything we might do again in the future.

@hillbillyisms​ as well as @stan-punches​, @soosquestion​, and a bunch of others honestly and every single one is worth a follow becasue this mun writes em: You are perhaps the oldest friend have on here, considering I met you back when I first started on Tumblr in the Legend of Korra fandom, and we are still in occasional contact. We’ve always been so in sync, to the point that the LoK fandom legit thought we were the same person for a while, and I still feel that connection with you now. Although you might not think yourself a success story, I have and will always see you as a victor over the massive shitstorm life has thrown at her, someone who came out a writer in all the ways, despite all the odds. And you continue fighting every day, all the while never falling short in the quality you produce, even if it has understandable lulls in output. You’re always worth the wait, and I’ll always be here ready to pick up where we left off.

@sweatersandsprinkles​: We’ve RPed quite a bit in my post-show verses, and have always talked very extensively OOC about new and exciting possibilities. I love the relationship our muses have formed with each other, and I love the darker directions you are willing to take those interactions without sacrificing the fluff. You are a constant reminder that one doesn’t HAVE to choose between cute and dark, you can have a weird medium. And isn’t that what RPing Bill is all about?

@illusionare​: Unicorn, most of your muses I know of are just as much a majestic bastard as your name implies (except for Mickey Mouse wtf), but YOU are a SWEETHEART. You are one of the few users on this website I would honestly unironically call senpai. You’ve been an inspiration to me ever since I followed you on @desbearer, and you continue to be as you come out of every hardship in your life a little brighter than you were when you went in. Both in real life struggles and roleplay ventures, you constantly make me think “well if she can do it, why not me?” You are an unapologetic meme, artist, and writer – a true gift to us all. Never forget that. And even though your Bill might be on the inactive list here, the little interaction we DID have helped me get over one of my biggest irrational fears: interacting with other quality Bill Ciphers. And we both know you have an unwavering dedication to your murder bear, so that’s pretty awesome.

The Cross-Fandom Treasures I Never Expected

@sandsofchaos​: Never did I ever think I’d find such a perfect match for Bill, dare I say MORE perfect than my in-fantom OTP.  I mean go figure it’s chaos herself, right? I don’t think I’ve ever had this deep a relationship with another muse outside the fandom I roleplay in, and I love every second of it.  As a mun, you are probably the other one on this list I can unironically call senpai, because I really truly look up to just about everything you do. Your writing is top notch ALL the time, and your dedication to your character despite an obvious lack of fandom is a constant reminder to me that all you need is a vision and a passion. In real life too, you’re an inspiration to me; whatever you might think of yourself, I see you as a successful woman I hope to be as I continue my life, and it’s a blessing to see first hand that I don’t need to give up roleplaying to do that.

@yellingmetatron​: We don’t talk AS much OOC, but you still need to be on this list because your character absolutely floors me, both in concept and execution. Like with Eris, this is a relationship I never would have dreamed of my Bill muse having, but it just fits SO WELL. Your dedication is inspiring, and again, even though we haven’t talked a great deal OOC, you’ve privately helped me work through some pretty difficult questions early on regarding my portrayal of Bill, and I’m forever grateful for that.

@familiarfortunefox: I’ve asked it before and I’ll ask it again: how do you make a quality RP blog for a fandomless wolf with no powers or special abilities, except maybe speech? It’s such a mundane concept, a lost cause, and yet you’ve tackled it anyway with great success. And the fact that you revived it just to RP with my human Bill? I’m still not over it. You’re also the first blog in literally YEARS that I have actively enjoy the autoplay for, so kudos for your taste there. I know I’ve been slacking on our roleplays, but know that you are in my thoughts nonetheless.

@thecaptainofcrunch​: Technically this is the same mun as the afore mentioned Dipper, but since I have a specific unholy cross-fandom ship with this FUCKING CEREAL MASCOT, I felt the need to mention it here. You are a meme Dean, a fucking meme, and I hate you for getting me to ship this. 

Now these were just some super special people that have had a special impact on me and/or this blog in particular.  This ISN’T an all-inclusive list of roleplayers I love and adore. But as you can see, this thing has already gotten PRETTY freaking long, so just know that if you aren’t on here, I still love you.

Although...

There are some RECENT arrivals I want to give a quick shout-out to because I got my eyes on you. I know what quality l👀ks like when I see it. Call me.

@tadsthename, @mystcriiious, @bruiiser​

And that’s about it! Oh, but one more thing: although this isn’t someone I’ve RPed with on this blog very much, she IS a big part of the reason I finally checked out Gravity Falls at all a little over a year ago, so a quick shoutout to @marelapis as well. 

[etechwire-blog]

Kingdom Hearts 3: release date, news and rumors

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Kingdom Hearts 3: release date, news and rumors

It’s been almost 12 years since Kingdom Hearts 2 was released, but the demand for Kingdom Hearts 3 has not faltered. In that 12 years way may have gone through one and a half new console generations and played many spin off titles, but the mainline Kingdom Hearts story has remained in the back of our minds. 

Confirmed by Square Enix in 2013 with an announcement, Kingdom Hearts 3 will continue the story of Sora, Donald and Goofy.

After the initial confirmation and announcement trailer in 201,3 we then got a teaser trailer and some tantalizing details at E3 in 2014 and even more news and a gameplay trailer at E3 2015. Since then news has been fairly thin on the ground but we’ve collected all of the latest news and rumors right here for your perusal.

[Update: With E3 2018 and Square Enix’s very own press conference being right around the corner, we’re expecting to get some big Kingdom Hearts announcements soon. Could this finally be the time for a release date reveal? TechRadar will be attending E3 and reporting live from the show floor so make sure you check back here for the latest news and announcements as they happen.]

Cut to the chase

What is it? The long-anticipated third mainline title in Square Enix’s action roleplaying crossover series, Kingdom Hearts.

When can I play it? 2018

What can I play it on? PS4 and Xbox One

Trailers

There are now six Kingdom Hearts 3 trailers you need to watch if you really want to consider yourself a Keyblade hype master.

The latest comes from Disney’s D23 Expo in Japan. At four minutes long, this new trailer gives fans a look at the brand new Monsters Inc World, starring Boo, Mike and Sully. 

D23 is the place for Kingdom Hearts trailers, as prior to the Japan event we were treated to another trailer announcing a brand new Toy Story world. 

Not long before this at E3 2017 we got the chance to see another gameplay trailer which showed off footage from the game’s Hercules level. 

The second most recent trailer for the game was released at JumpFesta in 2016. The trailer gave an insight into how the game’s combat will work as well as a glimpse at special abilities and the impact the game’s environment will have on fighting.

Prior to this there was another and much more full trailer released at E3 in 2015. In this gameplay trailer fans got a look at what appears to be a new location –  the exterior of Rapunzel’s tower from the film Tangled.

A much shorter trailer was revealed at E3 in 2014, setting the stage for the game’s main story. 

And of course we can’t forget the announcement trailer from all the way back in 2013. There have been lots of trailer haven’t there?

Release date

At D23 in July 2017, it was announced in a fifth trailer that the game would be released in 2018. Though there was no more solid date than this provided it gives fans a window to look forward to. 

In an interview at D23, the game’s director Tetsuya Nomura explained what had taken so long to get the game to this point (bearing in mind Kingdom Hearts 2 was released 12 years ago and 3 was announced all the way back in 2013).

Nomura said that “it hurts” to hear accusations that he’s taking too long, particularly as just after the game’s first year of development the decision to change to Unreal Engine 4 was made over his head. This change, though inevitable, caused extensive delays which weren’t helped by timing and resourcing challenges within Square Enix.

“It’s kind of out of my hands” he said. 

It’s now 2018 and we don’t have any more information on the game’s release date. We’re hoping that might be cleared up at the next D23 event, taking place in Japan in February.

News and features

Story

Kingdom Hearts 3 will see players once more take up the role of Sora as he travels with his closest friends Donald and Goofy across a variety of world themed around and populated by a host of famous Disney and Final Fantasy characters. 

Game director Tetsuya Nomura has confirmed that the game’s story will start straight after the ending of Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance.

This means that the game will follow our trio in their pursuit of the Seven Guardians of Light to prepare for their final showdown against Master Xehanort. All the while, King Mickey and Riku will continue their hunt for the remaining Keyblade wielders.

Does all of this sound like complete gobbledygook to you? Not to worry, if you’d like to catch up on all of the essential story you can do so on PlayStation 4 by playing Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 Remix and Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue.

Not sure you’ve got the time for playing through all of that? Then you could watch the below summary of the franchise timeline created by Game Trailers. It’s still almost an hour long but it’ll do the job. 

New visuals

Kingdom Hearts 3 will adopt a slightly visual style to previous games in the franchise, aiming for more of a brush-like look than photo realism. In an interview with Famitsu (via Kotaku) Tetsuya Nomura was very open about the decision to take a new visual approach, stating that this new direction was an attempt to “Express Disney’s 2D brushwork in 3D.” 

Nomura said this was a look they’d wanted since the first game but “At the time, the [PlayStation 2] didn’t have the processing power to allow us to freely adjust the lighting.” 

The new PlayStation 4 hardware, however, is much more capable and Nomura said it’s possible to get “a real feeling of evolution by just making the standard graphics into HD.” Nomura admitted that it’s a fairly “drastic change” but added that he sees it as “a rich evolution of everything we’ve shown you up to now.”

Gameplay

It looks like the action RPG gameplay won’t change too much from previous titles in the franchise, most likely drawing from and improving on that of Kingdom Hearts 2 and perhaps integrating particularly successful elements from the handheld titles. 

It’s been confirmed, though, that Sora will be much more mobile in combat, able to wall run, jump on enemies, and largely take greater advantage of the game’s much larger environments. 

Back in 2013, Nomura said that the combat in Kingdom Hearts 3 will be “pretty frantic”, with NPCs able to join in the three-person party fights as well as “more intricate” enemy AI. 

A couple of interesting new combat features that have been confirmed include Attraction Flow and Keyblade Transformations. 

Attraction Flow attacks are new super moves that will apparently be triggered under certain though unconfirmed battle conditions. These powerful moves based on the Flowmotion moves from Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance are inspired by some of the biggest rides at the Disney theme parks such as the Teacups, Pirate Ship and Thunder Mountain Railroad. 

Keyblade Transformations are fairly self explanatory and will allow Sora’s Keyblade weapons to transform in battle with different effects. 

According to Nomura, Keyblade Transformations will only be unlocked when all missions from one of the game’s worlds are unlocked, with each individual world offering its own unique transformation. 

For example, it was spotted by KH Insider that an Olympus Keyblade was able to cast Zeus’ lightning as well as transform into a Pegasus-drawn chariot. 

New worlds

Disney’s been busy in the years since Kingdom Hearts 2 was first released so as you’d expect, there are going to be a few new worlds to play in. 

Thus far the Kingdom of Corona from Tangled, an as yet untitled world from Big Hero 6, Mount Olympus from Hercules, Twilight Town Mysterious Tower, Toy Story and Monsters inc. worlds have been confirmed as new additions. 

In a recent interview with Famitsu, Nomura lessened the excitement of a brand new Toy Story world slightly by revealing that there will be fewer Disney worlds in this game than in Kingdom Hearts 2.

Kingdom Hearts 2 had 12 worlds in total and thus far we have 7 worlds confirmed for the third game. With Nomura stating that all of the worlds that will feature in the game will be revealed before its release we can expect a few more to be revealed over the next year. How many of these will be brand new worlds and how many will be repeats from previous games is unclear.

At the very least, Nomura has promised that even though there will be fewer worlds, they’ll be much more dense. We have to admit, not every Kingdom Hearts world holds an equal place in our own hearts so we’ll happily take quality over quantity. 

Though Disney has also acquired Marvel and LucasFilm, it’s unlikely their franchises will appear in Kingdom Hearts due to a variety of other license agreement barriers, with Nomura cautioning that “the other associated companies under Disney [are] not something that is as simple as us consulting with Disney Interactive. So, unfortunately, the lineup is kind of considered as different.”

Another playable character?

A report in Official PlayStation UK (scanned by KHInsider) suggests that Kingdom Hearts 3 may feature a playable Riku alongside Sora.

“The latest game in the Disney-meets-Final-Fantasy mash up series is split between two perspectives of best buds Sora and Riku. You will meet a host of new characters whose help you’ll need to stop the evil Master Xehanort from bringing about another Keyblade war. Familiar faces and places return, but there are new worlds to visit inspired by Toy Story, Fantasia and Tangled.”

These aren’t details that have been confirmed by Square Enix about the game yet, so we’re sticking them strictly in the rumor category for now. It could very well be that the information has been mixed up with the similarly named Kingdom Hearts 3D, released on PS4 in 2016. This game had a playable Riku as well as a Fantasia-themed world. 

It may be, however, that the information is accurate. Game director, Nomura, did tell IGN in July 2017 that the team was considering putting another playable character into the game. He just didn’t state that it was Riku. 

Regardless, we’re hoping to see some more Kingdom Hearts 3 information (perhaps even a release date) at the D23 in Japan, taking place in February 2018.

Nintendo Switch?

In a recent interview Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda told Nikkei (via MyNintendo) that the company is focusing on bringing more of its current and future titles to Nintendo’s new console, the Nintendo Switch. 

Though Matsuda makes no direct reference to bringing Kingdom Hearts 3 to the Switch, it does suggest that if such a move is feasible and the hardware limitations aren’t too great, Square Enix will make it happen. 

E3 is the world’s largest exhibition for the games industry, stuffed full of the latest and greatest games and gaming hardware. TechRadar will be reporting live from Los Angeles all week to bring you the very latest from the show floor. Head to our dedicated E3 2018 hub to see all the latest news from the show.