#i haven’t fully fleshed out the lore so idk

[karamell-sweetz]

i am back with more fairies. FAIRYKASA!

[coffeegnomee]

Pentar…. Is hiding something. Without being obvious about it, he’s just as much of a grinder as Zam. Over 800 achievements and 3.1 mil jumps is no small feat. And in his first real Minecraft base he had a fully fleshed out trading hall.

Like have you seen Planet’s trading halls? They’re bed pits and there’s no zombification. Pentar casually figured out how to grind gear and he put the time in.

Then there’s his sneakiness. I knew the moment he joined Gucci Gang that his heart wasn’t in it. I think he was on 5 hearts or something on his stream the day before, and he clearly was on 10 for the initiation meeting given how long it took Bacon to kill him, and then he was Way too okay with killing Jumper and he asked about giving her stuff back. Then on his next stream he was on 5 hearts again. Like clearly something was up between him and her.

It’s crazy to see Jumper confirmed that in the book at the grave. 

And then he got back on the team for the Captain Sparklez event and I for one completely believed he was genuinely rejoining. He's sweet sweet Pentar, how could you not trust him.

And then he hit the unironic betrayal. 

But it was weird; like how Spoke sometimes is when he joins teams or infiltrates the underdog team so that they have a more even chance in the conflict. Like idk if anyone else agrees, but Spoke crushed it in managing the wormhole and (at least by day 2) made both sides have buffs and nerfs so the final moments were really close. He could have just steamrolled them, but he made sure it lasted until the final minutes.

Pentar reminds me of Spoke in that way. Like he understands the value of evening the playing field for content (Zam does this too), but in the Lore he will never mention it. He will just actively say everything he can to oppose that concept. 

Which I think why he sometimes makes zero sense in the lore. Because it’s an out of lore reason why he does what he does.

But then he like blows up his base before Zam can do it, seemingly for the petty reason of not giving Zam the satisfaction. So I really have no idea.

And then he’s just like casually really really really good at pvp despite saying he never practices.

He's simultaneously innocence and incompetence personified and also cunning and devious.

What will season 6 look like with a new player who is potentially the intersection of Zam and Spoke? What will he do when he is on from day one? Day one will change things I think. Because he knew nobody going in to his first day except Jumper and he immediately stole Mintue's hearts and did a video on that so of course the three of them ended up teaming. But now he knows everyone.

Idk if I’m giving Pentar too much credit, but after a full season (or rather half I guess) with him I still haven’t pinned down his personality traits and that’s so interesting. I can’t wait to see his pov of this whole conflict and I’m so excited to see him grow on Lifesteal.

[the-elders-realm]

hmmm… welcome…

may you consider yourself lucky

More stuff under

Fate speaks like this

Death speaks like this

Life speaks like this

Magic speaks like this

Soul speaks like this

(yes, no other colors will be used unless intense emotions follow)

all go by any pronouns, Death and life lean heavily towards male. Fate leans heavily towards female

All lore:

the five have their most powerful toy(s) up in hierarchy, which Iris/Gemini are in the top. Meaning they are the five’s favorite.

To move up the hierarchy you must kill others and endure task or acts of service. There’s the council of the top seven who haven’t been murder (has to go in a fair trial where both opponents agree to a battle(which is considered a big honor) in years. Iris and Gemini lead everything are considered leaders and are well respected.

soul has recently returned to the main four and they are quite protective, even if there is no need. The five still think some of their siblings are out there.

more stuff to be added cause I haven’t fully fleshed this back story out

they are not from the realm, so they are not in full power, the other gods are. (Aka I’m saying there’s more then one god, just different levels and shit idk-)

[polarized-here]

POLAR I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR OCS AND SEE THEIR CONCEPT ART‼️ please I need food, I need to eat your art sjdhhsjdhsj /lh

GRAHH FINE SINCE YOU ASKED… my lore. Sorry this is so late gngahgahshsjsh… you literally caught me as dinner came home. Like. Oops… crazy… right after I knocked out shekhrkdbddmbd anyway! :)

Under the cut because it may or may not be a long thing, with most plot points just being little ideas—no fully fleshed story, just, erm. Ideas I like.

Update. It’s long. Also tumblr is so glitchy rn it kept making this saved post disappear and then reappear in my asks after I exited the app and opened it again what the fuck 😭😭

So, in this world, a majority of the population do. Not. Have powers, having them is seen as a blessing, But… It's a dystopian themed world—where these powers are incredibly monitored and regulated by the government—with some being minor, and some being full on changes to the physical body and how they manifest. (ie. My excuse for drawing anthros… or kemonomimi… shushhhh/also allows me to just dump all of my ocs which you may have seen before, in one little world and play with them like they’re my puppets :( I love them sm!! One of them sora is from DND they hold a special place in my heart...)

But again, having these powers is seen as a blessing from a God of some sort—and a curse, as while they’re regulated by the national government heavily, some individuals still manage to slip by, or cause harm to the general public, so from this, they (the gov) took advantage of this to instill a system of ‘heroes’ and ‘villains’ there’s a few ‘vigilantes’ but most either become heroes (through turning themselves in and doing plenty of community service work, and discussing a contract with some government representatives—most who become heroes are never the same. They always have a look in their eyes, as if valor to help their nation has blinded them), but some may become villains.

Heroes are those who just have a license and have signed a contract with the government—most get these contracts renewed or take a small few month break in between contract renewals. They’re unable to use their powers in these circumstances, unless it’s out of self defense. Civilians can too (those not heroes, are regulated by the government heavily, and choose not to pursue it. But it’s like US NAVAL contracts too. you can join programs in the gov that give you supplemental access and benefits to college/pay it off, etc etc etc. like the national guard but more celebritized), but they (civilians) need to find a GOOD lawyer. There’s so many laws that heroes are naturally given a smalllllll pass over, that it’s just best to run away, or be a hero in that small instance.

(This has sm mha influence. As sad as it is, that show influenced me sm. Got me into trying art. Fr fr/on digital. PLA is just where it improved a weeee bit).

OKAYYY ENOUGH AGOUT THE SET UP!! THE CHARACTERS… I’m so sorry idk why I’m rambling this much, I’m not even hyperfixated on my own OCs. Like what the fuck.

Anyways! A key note is that having bright colored hair is a key identification that you probably have powers that haven’t manifested yet, and the hair is always a bright color, unless, you’re Astor!

He’s got so much trauma *slaps roof of car.* You can fit so much trauma in this one bad boy. And despite it all he remains a good person. Dawg. You have more strength then I’d ever have. But igggg the want and need to help people because you were hurt and want to make a change does seem motivation enough… anyways. They’re so marysue coreee

The main character & a small-time vigilante going to the new school that’s just been set up. His hair only really turns those bright colors when she’s using their powers—but in the ref it’s just for convenience sake. She has so many skeletons in her closet, that they can’t risk being caught. But they love helping people too much. They’re a bit altruistic.

Here’s their vigilante suit ref :)

For ease of mind, they always have a small bit of static on their hands—both to stun new people meeting them. To make the air feel charged with thunder and electricity—a warning to her presence, and because it means their hair stays that color. No matter the charge. His eyes stay the same color though. Again. These are some old doodles from last year of some characters. Notably, that I also revamped. Heroes, villains, and vigilantes stories always hold a special place in my heart,,,

Next up is Anzu! Silly goober!!! Please give him head pats!!!! He loves it!!! This is Astor’s only… real friend. Since Astor likes his solitude. But tolerates Anzu’s silly behavior. Utter dichotomy between them!!! <333 I haven’t decided if they’d get together or nah, but! <3333

Yeah, this guy (and Astor) both have autism (I didn’t even realize that him liking trains was an autistic stereotype… oops. Mb gang. But like. Seriously. Ywah didn’t mean anything by it. I’m autistic myself and I’m possibly pursuing physics or engineering 💪💪 I think it’s alr if I project onto a character I made 🔥🔥🙏)

Yes, he’s based on the irl dinosaur. Yes, he’s autistic, hear me out. I just put lots of things together. And he just ended up with major tism 🔥🙏

And finally, a hero I designed :) I changed her a weeee bit. But she’s mostly the same sand manipulation :) villains dislike her since she puts sand in their shoes. Her big container is full of sand and stuff. She doesn’t have a weakness other then she needs to be a bit concentrated on making her sand creations—but they’re like second nature to her because of how long she’s been a hero. She’s an antagonist only because she’s trying to take Nexus in. She sees how sweet she can be to the native cats (from a distance. Never touching them, and she never knows why, they look at the native cats, longing to pet them but always stops) so she wants to take him in and make a case for him to join the government’s hero program.

Arizona! But her hero name is Sahara yk… Yeagh…. Anyways :) I love her lots. She does mean well. But she’s also blindly faithful in the government, or will see its problems and will deflect or try to be better to make things right. But she always holds rules above anything else. Even if she cares about someone who’s breaking them, a lot, so yeah… totally not talking about the mentor and mentee relationship between her and Nexus… where she pushes her morals aside just to listen to him seldom talk about his intrepid interests.

If Nexus didn’t have those powers—in her opinion—she would’ve made an excellent leader in whatever field he’d want to pursue. And she knows he’s got something up with them—some history. And that breaks her heart a little seeing how much pure joy Nexus gets at being able to try new things, like new foods, or try out purely common things that should be normal to a kid like herself.

Very much love found families and going to the extreme for them :33

ANYWAYS!!! Those are the main 3. I have some others I’ll show. But yk. They look a wee bit different + have names labeling them and the key parts of them. I don’t think tumblr would like me dropping all their refs :,)

Actually :O hold on, their refs are here. Trust

I’m so smart for pasting them all here. Trust anyways. Those are my pookies, so sorry this took so long.. erm I like them a lot. Oh yeah, I made a comic with them for art class. Yeagh. They were mostly changed for ease of drawing but yeah. I did not want to do it but I had not wanted to do this 🚬🚬

But yeah, pookies…. Sorry you probably didn’t want this comprehensive lore about them grrr

[yourlocalabstraction]

your soul design is so yumilicious I need all the details now on my dinner plate

fr tho I want to know all the soul design lore how did you create such a creature /vpos

OKOKOHHHHHHOKOK BUCKLE IN. YOU’RE GONNA GET THE FULL DESIGN PROCESS

I struggled the most with Soul ngl. I couldn’t really think of anything I could add that would differentiate him from the fanon standard. I’m a lil upset I couldn’t think of something more original, but nonetheless he turned out quite lovely !!!

I started with the color picking. I was very insistent on making everyone’s colors proportional to eachother. The main colors should have (about) the same saturation/brightness, contrasting colors that are the exact opposite hue of the main color, respective black/grey/white values (soul’s ‘grey’ color is more teal bc color theory but yea), shit like that i guess. The final palette is on the right, it’s what I use today.

Soul never got fully fleshed out concept sheets like the other two. I guess my brain just filled in the rest of the gaps without having to draw them. (I apologize for never finishing these btw. It’s been months man. I hope the blorbo doodles in the corner make up for it) The second image was done a lot later than the first btw. Idk if that matters but I’m bringing it up anyway.

His fit inspo came mostly from Pinterest. I just compiled a bunch of shit I think he’d wear. Plus a majestic cape because it makes him look plenty more epic.

OK MOVING ON. I decided that his main gimmick would be my take on his shaded side. The idea was to make it represent dissonance, and how it affects Soul. The shadow is basically just this fuckin void. It has no physical form, and you can just stick your hand in there if you’d like (he sometimes stores the trident there). However I wouldn’t recommend it. The feeling is indescribable, but very uncomfortable. The void has a life of it’s own in a way. It does not stay confined within the Soul’s physical form (or in my case, his lineart). When conflict is at a high, like, tridential regicide level high, the void will get very close to fully overtaking him. It only fully disappears once true concord is reached, and starts reforming when the next cycle starts.

Also, the mask !!!!! Throughout cacophony, Soul is having a huge fucking identity crisis and shit. He doesn’t really have a physical organ like the other two. He doesn’t know why he’s here, or what he did to deserve this, or why nothing he’s trying works, and just. What is he if he’s failing at his main purpose???? I think because of this, he doesn’t like showing his face around the other two. He needs to assert is power, and thinks that showing his face will make him come of softer and less of someone to obey, if that makes sense. He only really takes it off when he’s alone in his room or pocket dimension (still trying to decide if they have a mock ‘apartment’, or ever did at one point). But once he has the character arc in Two Wuv, it permanently comes off !!! Wahoo!!!!!!! If only the next cycle weren’t to start, resetting his newfound self image to its previous state !!!!!!!!!!

Ok this is getting long im putting a read more thing

This image was very helpful for designing the tine shapes!! Guess which one is Soul’s !!!!!! (Spoiler alert, im pretty sure its either the 2nd or 6th ones in the 2nd row. However i genuinely dont remember. This may not even be the right image)

Soul also has a strange tie with eyes. If the halves have pissed him off to the point of no return, he does this fuckin analog horror stare that freaks the shit out of them (although heart cant see he remembers it very well. Plus, he just k n o w s that extra eye is there). I haven’t really played around with this, but I like the idea of a freakishly absurd amount of eyes hidden within the shadow. I should maybe like. Draw that sometime.

Also, expect a Soil patch update in the future!! I’d like to make his fangs more deranged, and maybe add an earth pattern to the cape. Right now, he has no symbols on him that represent him in the astronomy metaphor.

Uhhhh i hoped this helped??? If i missed anything you were hoping to know about, do let me know !!!!!!!

[bijouxs]

meta tag game

thank you for the tag @nya-is-typing!!

rules: infodump any cool meta about your wip! this can be anything you like: lore, worldbuilding, character development, metaphors, themes, symbolism, etc. just any cool details about your wip that makes it what it is

WIP IN QUESTION: jackdaw

i'll touch on the infamous academy in question w/ some mentions of world building of a world i haven’t fully fleshed out yet :0

keep reading for content below!

DAPT Academy

The academy — Deerfoot Academy for Powered Training — is the nation’s most critically-acclaimed and easily the most heralded training facility that doubles as an education hub for every up and coming powered individual that’s usually coming out of post-18 study. 

It was founded by Alessandar Deerfoot, the city’s longest-standing mayor before his retirement a few years back. His recent death was a shock to many, and only a few weeks before Callisto’s arrival. 

It was a venture, at least 6 decades back, between the conservative government at the time, and various affluent and aristocratic investors with more than enough money to spend on both their future bloodline success and the city’s future. Selfishly, obviously.

The investors change over the years, a sort of secret society without so much the secret, but one of the the most intriguing — as per their donation records — to note is the Fairchild Family. 

A lot of high-ranking heroes work prominently in the city where the main DAPT campus is based in. Therefore, a good chunk of them hold ranks within the academy as instructors, tutors and everything in-between. The reason for that is the city is the capital, and the statistics released in the past three years determined that the majority of nefarious and ne'er-do-well villains get the most up to no good there! So there’s ease of access whilst scheduled in to train the students or holding seminars, as well as safeguarding the next generation.

Whilst facilities like these (because Deerfoot is not alone, there are at least five well known academies across the country!) are mostly received well, there’s a good chunk of the population that argues that exploiting newly-turned adults into the government’s personal registered army is morally corrupt. This is actually a key point in the nation’s political battle between the two opposing parties, because superpowered individuals are so tied to modern society in this world!!!

There is a barrier of magick installed within the main entrance gates and the territory perimeter by the current Headmistress and Chairwoman of DAPT. With her powered tied to something akin to an eidetic memory, the barrier recognises students and other people relevant to the academy that she is aware of. The magick can ebb and flow depending on whether her bonds are held up, and because of that she is at the forefront of every student acceptance meeting, every hiring of instructors, down to the wire because her magick has to register them as people of importance. (Trouble can arise when unscheduled journalists come snooping about.)

TAGGING: some new mutuals to do this!! don’t feel pressured / sorry if you’ve been tagged already </3 @breadcrumbs, @pamsdrabbles, @momjeanss, @aelenko & @dreadwvlfscript​!!

i'll tag this?!?!?!?! idk if i should. idk i worked hard on it she’s a lil kewt i will

jackdaw taglist: @sprigofbasil / @mxxnwrites / @nistrada / @spillme / @flawless-sins / @writingbyjillian / @viciousvenganza / @viawrites-andacts / @ezrathings / @nsanelyawkward / @alicewestwater / @aetherwrites / @melpomeny / @ultimatecryptid / @sunwornpages / @eatingjupiter / @semblanche / @ljscrawls / @chloeswords / @isherwoodj / @alexsidereus / @writerlywonders / @elaichichais / @svpphicwrites / @avi-burton-writing / @ryns-ramblings / @kitblogsthings / @ravens-and-rivers

general: @ryns-ramblings, @ljscrawls, @kowlazovdi, @chloeswords, @avi-burton-writing, @pamsdrabbles, @kitblogsthings, @aetherwrites, @elaichichais, @tarttisms, @radiomacbeth

let me know if you would like to be added or removed!!

[zigsexual]

Hey! I see you have good story telling recs for like video games and stuff and I just got a ps4, is there anything you recommend? I have wolf among us and Detroit become human on my list THATS all I have so far

omg girl u have come to the RIGHT place ! story-based games are my shit ok... im gonna start by doing a lil self-plug which is that i’m streaming one i really love called firewatch tonight (at 7pm PST hehe) on my twitch so we can start with that one. its such a pretty game and has a really touching story. but that aside, non-exhaustive list below:

the last of us — i havent played the second one yet, but both 1&2 are playstation exclusive i believe and the first one is probably one of the greatest games ever made. better than most movies i’ve watched story-wise; i fell in love with the characters and i doubt anyone could play this without shedding a few tears.

the walking dead by telltale — same studio that made the wolf among us (which i fucking love also), and all four seasons of this game are a masterpiece. clementine is probably my all time favorite video game character, and there were some side characters who i really sobbed over during the course of the game. plus all the characters you play as are characters of color so there’s a specific attention to diverse viewpoints there!

life is strange — i would hope you’d have played this already if you like story games, but if not, go play the original game ASAP (LiS2 is alright, but the first one is what really shines) and you can also play the prequel before the storm. beautiful atmosphere, attention to detail, gameplay mechanics, etc. good good shit

dragon age — HELLO my fave shit omg, again not to self-plug but i’m gonna be doing a stream series of this and starting with an intro to the lore for beginners because there is serious worldbuilding for these games and the storylines are immaculate. there’s three so far and including the various DLC you will be entertained for weeks if not months.

mass effect — made by the same studio as dragon age, essentially it’s dragon age in space. same great characters, worldbuilding, plotlines, etc. just... ignore andromeda and only play the main three ME games.

uncharted — i will fucking die for naughty dog games omg so they also made the last of us plus all 4 uncharted games and these ones are SO much fun. much less emotional turmoil, think indiana jones in the present day with an extra serving of wisecracking banter and there you go. really excellent fully fleshed out female characters as well. nathan drake is a treasure.

until dawn — more of a horror game but has weirdly excellent actors (hello rami malek???) and a super cool/creepy story with not so much focus on combat (more QTE based) which helps when you’re just there to be entertained. i love this game, i’m not a huge horror person myself but it’s just so good and your choices really impact the outcome.

oxenfree — deeply underrated game with some of my favorite voice acting ever, such a gorgeous art style, and an incredible and resonant story. so much lore to unpack here too, this game was really made with so much love (like there is deadass a morse code message hidden in the beat of the main song that leads to an irl mystery... google that shit its so cool) and it has major replay value. lots of choices to make and they all impact the ending in a ton of ways.

pillars of eternity — i actually liked the second one more than the first one and i enjoyed them both a lot so that’s saying something! you can play on easy mode and ignore the fighting and there’s tons of quests and choices to make and an interesting story/mystery to uncover. plus in the second one you get a pirate ship.

divinity original sin 2 — played this recently and it’s definitely more of a combat game, but as with POE you can just play on the easiest setting lol and then explore the game for its world and storyline. similar to POE in that it’s quest-based as well, the characters are super well done, and it’s all voice-acted which is nice.

star wars knights of the old republic (aka KOTOR) — listen this game is old as hell and looks like ass but its so good. idk what else to say i mean its literally like 20 years old and people are still playing it. there’s a ton of mods you can download to make it look better, but the storyline and the plot twist hold up as one of the all time greats. i’ve replayed it and the sequel multiple times. even if you don’t like star wars, worth it.

stardew valley — HELLO THIS GAME IS SO CUTE its essentially just harvest moon and yes it’s pixel graphics but it’s so charming and the characters are very enchanting. there’s not a ton of story but it’s still worth a play as it’s just very soothing and earnest. i’ve logged like 200+ hours in this game lmao

hopefully you haven’t heard of all of these already!! i love all of these games and i love sharing story-based recs because there aren’t a lot of them out there. if anyone knows of any other good ones please drop ur thoughts in the replies!

[queerturnofphrase]

i find it interesting that so many people are talking about cyberpunk 2077 not being punk but i’m seeing barely anyone talking about whether it’s (good) cyberpunk. perhaps that’s just because more people are familiar with the former than the latter, idk. i haven’t played (yet) but i have read some reviews and criticisms that indicate it’s not good cyberpunk, that it’s using it as an aesthetic (which imo is awkwardly executed at times in the promotional materials) without actually fully fleshing out a cyberpunk world or telling a story that truly fits the genre. that’s more disappointing to me than bugs, personally. bugs can get fixed, bugs will get fixed. but they won’t add in more lore and worldbuilding (into the base game, at least) and the story won’t be rewritten.

[regrettablemeasure]

Cyberpunk 2077 non-spoiler review

Anyways here’s my writeup about my least favorite parts of 2077 for people who are interested in seeing if it’s for them. Both going to talk about content as well as gameplay. This is for PC version, too, because I know last gen consoles are suffering terribly rn and I wouldn’t recommend the game if you’re not going to be playing on PC. At least not until it’s on sale or the issues have been resolved. It really, really shouldn’t have been released on last gen consoles at all in my opinion - or at least should’ve been released on consoles LATER.

If you like Saints Row, GTA, Mass Effect, Shadowrun, or the Cyberpunk genre in general - I definitely think this is something you might want to take a peek at! I wasn’t anticipating the game until about a month or two before release - so maybe that’s why I’m having a blast - but It’s one of my favorite stories from the past decade as far as sci-fi goes. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it, and It’s really impressed me. I can’t even go into detail about all the things I LOVE because I really want folks to experience it themselves. Just know there’s a very intricately detailed world, all the characters are memorable and insanely well realized and complex, and the story is great fun. Also made me cry like 5 times. It’s become one of my FAVORITE games very quickly.

I’d also recommend Neon Arcade if you want someone who’s been covering the game for quite a while, including the technical and game industry aspect. He does well to go into some detail and even though he’s a fan, I’ve found him to be largely unbiased. I’m not going to go into industry politics here because I feel that’s up for everyone to decide on their own terms.

No spoilers, things to keep in mind, content warnings, etc. below!

CONTENT WARNINGS and issues with plot/story

this setting is dark. very dark. if you struggle stomaching things like dystopian landscapes, body horror, physical, mental and sexual abuse, corporate and gang violence, abuse of children, harsh language, and concepts that mess with the perception of reality - this game might not be for you. It’s a very mature setting, and I don’t mean that in the Adult Swim kind of way. I mean it in the ‘oh shit, it went there’ way. In my opinion I haven’t run across anything in it that was handled distastefully when it dipped into the depressing, but dark and gritty isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and I wanted to give a disclaimer.

The game’s universe in advertising and working for the lower class also exploits sex/sex work quite a bit. This is part of the lore itself because in this universe everyone’s become desensitized to sex and violence to the point that marketing embraces it and makes it ridiculous. I feel it’s very obvious that it doesn’t condone this message and is instead a commentary on consumerism - but people still might be uncomfortable seeing a lot of suggestive stuff all over the place regardless. 

Women in game are naked more often than men - even though there is nudity for both. This is likely a mix of appealing to the Gamer Boy demographic (even though the story does NOT actually), or the fact that media is way more cool with seeing naked women than seeing full frontal nudity on men. They probably had to tone some of it down to avoid going above an M rating. 

The story is amazing, but sometimes it dumps a lot onto you at once. It’s one of those sci-fi stories that you have to really be following the names, faces, and concepts continually to get it all down. There’s a lot of betrayal, background players, etc. I think by the mid-way point I’d mostly had it, but It’s pretty dense. However it’s still amazing. You might just need two playthroughs before every tiny detail clicks - because there’s a LOT of details. 

Honestly I think it would help to read up on the lore first so you’re not going ‘what’ constantly. But people have seemed to manage fine without that also! Neon Arcade has a really nice series of videos (like 2 or 3) that get you up to speed with the universe. It also helps you decide if the tone is right for you. 

I think the main story should’ve been longer, also. I don’t mind a 20 hr story, especially in a massive RPG, but It feels like they really struggled to cram as much into that time frame as possible. It skirts the edge of being nice and concise, snappy, and tight - and needing just a few more moments to take a breath and wait a second. This is helped if you do a lot of side quests.

The straight male romance option, River, is INCREDIBLY well written but he doesn’t tie into the main plot in any way whatsoever. It’s very strange and feels like they either ran out of time with him, or slapped together a romance with him at the last second. All the other romances at least know what’s going on with V’s story - meanwhile River has no idea, and you can never tell him. He’s an amazing guy though and I highly recommend his questline. He appears in ACT 2.

In general I’d say not to bother with the romances. There are only 4 total, and while the romancible characters on their own are really well written, the romances themselves are just kinda meh. One romance you don’t even meet until act 3. I don’t think they should’ve been included in the game at all, because they definitely don’t feel as fleshed out as everything else. 

CDPR also sometimes forget that women players or gay men exist. Panam and Judy have a lot more content than River and Kerry for example. I don’t think this is intentional, they just have a large fanbase of dudebros. It only shows in the romance content and the nudity thing though.

Johnny, Takemura, and Claire should’ve been romances and I will fight to the death on that. 

There are gay and trans characters in the game and their stories don’t revolve around their sexualities. It’s very Fallout: New Vegas in it’s approach to characters: IE. you’re going to love them. All of them. 

V’s gender isn’t locked to their body type or their genitals- but to to their voice. I don’t think it’s the best solution they could’ve used but given how the game is heavily voice acted I assume that was what they had to work with. 

Some of the romances are locked to both cis voices AND body types (not genitals if I recall but body shapes). That’s disappointing but I assume it was because of scripted scene issues and/or ignorance on the dev’s part considering the LGBT NPCS are so AMAZINGLY done. There’s no homophobic or transphobic language in the game - though there are gendered curse words and insults if that bothers you. 

Some characters MAY suffer from ‘bilingual people don’t talk like that’ syndrome. But it can be hard to say for sure given that translators exist in this universe and the way they operate aren’t fully described. It’s only momentarily distracting, not enough to take away from how charming the NPCs are.

The endings are really good don’t get me wrong but I want fix it fic :(. All of the endings out of like 6 (?) in the game are bittersweet. 

Both gender V’s are very good but female V’s voice acting is out of this world. If you don’t know what voice to go with/are neutral I’d highly recommend female V. Male V is charming and good but he feels much more monotone compared to female V. 

V has their own personality. To some this won’t be a detractor - but a lot of people thought they’d be making absolutely everything from the ground up. V is more of a commander shepard or geralt than a skyrim or d&d pc, if that makes sense. You can customize and influence them to a HUGE degree, some aspects of V will always be the same.

Streetkid is the most boring background - at least for it’s introduction/prologue.

GAMEPLAY/TECHNICAL

If you can run your game on ultra, don’t. It actually looks best with a mix of high and medium settings. Unless you have a beast that has ray-tracing - then by all means use ray tracing and see how absolutely insanely good it looks.

There are color blind modes for the UI, but not for some of the AI/Netrunning segments in cutscenes. Idk how much this will effect folks with colorblindness but those segments are thankfully short. 

There was an issue with braindances being an epilepsy trigger because for some reason they decided to mirror the flashing pattern after real epilepsy tests - probably because it ‘looks cool’. I don’t have epilepsy but it even hurt my eyes and gave me a headache. Massive oversight and really goddamn weird. Thankfully this was fixed.

There is no driving AI. Like at all. If you leave your car in the street the traffic is just going to pile up behind it. It’s one of the very few immersion breaking things I’ve encountered.

Sometimes when an NPC is driving with you in the car, they’ll drive on the curb and/or run into people. It’s kind of funny but can occasionally result in something weird. Feels very GTA  - but nothing excruciating. 

The camera angle feels a little too low in first person mode when driving on cars. You get used to it though. 

The police in this game feel slapped on and I hope they improve it. Right now if you commit a crime, you can never tell what will actually trigger it. And if you just run away a few blocks the police forget about it. 

Bikes are just way more fun to ride than the cars are. 

You CANNOT respec your character after you make them. Ever. it sucks. Go in with an idea ahead of time what you wanna do - it’s better than being a jack of all trades.

as of now you also CANNOT change their appearance after you exit the character creator. This, also, sucks. Make sure you REALLY like your V or you’re gonna be replaying the openings over and over like I did. 

Photomode on PC is the N key. Had to look it up. The mode itself is great though

Shooting and Mele fighting feel pretty standard. I don’t have a lot of shooter experience besides Bethesda games so anything feels better than that to me. So far I’ve enjoyed stealth and mele the best, but that’s just my own taste! The combat and driving aren’t groundbreaking by any means, but they’re still very fun. I look forward to running at people with swords or mantis blades, and zipping around the city on a motorcycle to see the sights. The story, lore, and interesting quests and characters are the real draw here.

I haven’t encountered any game breaking bugs in 80-ish hours of play time. One or two T-poses, a few overlays not loading or floating objects - but nothing terrible. Again, my experience is with Bethesda games. This is all usually fixed by either opening your inventory and closing it again, or exiting out and reloading your save. 

The C button is mapped for crouching AND skipping dialogue by default. That’s terrible. Change it in the settings to be HOLDING C skips dialogue and you’ll be gucci.

There’s apparently a crafting system. I have never been inclined to touch it. But I also play on easy like a pleb so IDK how it all scales otherwise.

The mirror reflections can be a little bit weird, at least on my end. They always end up a teeny bit grainy despite my computer being able to run everything on Ultra Max. You can still get good screens out of it though!

So many people text me to sell me cars and I want them to stop. Please. also the texting menu is abysmal. The rest is ok tho

It’s pretty clear when you’re going to go into a ‘cutscene’. all cutscenes are rendered in-engine BUT you often will be talking to other characters at a specific angle or setting. The game locks you into this usually by having you sit down. It works for me - after all we do a lot of sitting- but it IS very obvious that it’s a way for the game to get you in the frame it wants to display.

That’s all I can think of rn! If you’re interested but wanted to get a slightly better idea of whats going on, I hope this helps. I’m really enjoying it and despite my issues it’s exceeding my expectations. I’m going to be thinking about and replaying this game for quite a while. 

[ryuukenden4]

So I beat the FFVII Remake.

I want to share my thoughts here because I have MANY.

🛑🚧*Obviously, spoilers below*🚧🛑

So overall, this game is amazing! The graphics are amazing, the characters are more fleshed out, the environment is gorgeous! The stuff that they did to recreate the original was awesome, especially the reactor scenes and the pillar.

Some of the changes I was okay with. The new characters are cool (except Kyrie). I liked Leslie and Roche, and I didn't feel like they were detracting anything from the story. I also didn't mind the Whispers AT FIRST (I'll get to the later).

There are a few changes though that really aren't sitting well with me. Idk why but they just really make me worried about the direction the "remake" is gonna go. And don't even call me a purist for the original game, I haven't even beaten it all the way through. I was only at Costa del Sol when the remake came because I was too busy to play through the first disc. (I know quite a bit of the lore too, but not all the little details that could be subjected to changes)

Anyway, let's start with the Whispers. I thought they were a cool concept. My original prediction was that they were like grim reapers and circled about those who would die (Biggs, Jessie, Aerith, etc) as a warning. But then it got revealed by Red that they are the Arbiters of Fate??? Like, what??? Why did they just add this insanely complicated aspect to the game? I don't even fully understand what happened in Chapter 18. Did we change the future of FFVII or is it preserved? I know they showed what seemed to be Zack alive at the end, but I just don't think so. (although I almost cried when he showed up onscreen because that's my baby ;w;)

I get that the developers wanted to make some new changes to keep even the original fans on their toes, but this one just felt...like a slap in the face? I swear if the major plot points from the original don't play out, I'm gonna be super disappointed. *cough a certain death cough* I love Aerith, but her death is a huge part of not only Cloud's development, but the plot's too. And it's supposed to give the player even more of a reason to want to go murder clown on Sephiroth.

Speaking of shocking the player and a certain smoldering villain, I'll talk about my biggest gripe of the game: Sephiroth.

If you know ANYTHING about my blog it's that I have an unhealthy obsession with the One Winged Angel. Seeing him in the remake was a dream come true, and he looks BADASS. But as I played CHP 18 and finished the game, I felt...cheated. Like one of the biggest things about Sephy was that in the original, you NEVER saw him murder Shinra. You certainly didn't see him 10 times before that either. He was supposed to be this whisper (hahaha puns) in the mind of Cloud until what he had done reared its head in the form of dead President Shinra. You never actually saw him until Cloud's memories of Nibelheim came up when arriving at Kalm.

I felt like putting him so frequently throughout the game was a disservice to his character. He doesnt have the same creeping terror vibe he did in the original. He is FULLY there as the bad guy and, ahem, YOU EVEN FIGHT HIM???? YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO FIGHT HIM IN THE FIRST AREA.

Chapter 18 was a shitshow, but that was by far the worst. I'll admit, in the moment I was awestruck and super happy I was fighting him. One Winged Angel started playing and I was losing my shit over it. Then his one wing came out and I lost it more. But after I beat the game and reflected on it, I realized how much I didn't like it. You aren't supposed to fight Sephiroth then. You aren't supposed to know his goal. In fact, the Sephiroth we see through much of the original is Jenova herself in disguise. So why is that changing? Unless it really is Jenova. That would explain Sephiroth's strange attitude this whole time. That's another thing, I feel like they made him EXTREMELY cocky. Like, he always had a little sass and self-assurance, but he just felt like a playground bully more than a fully developed antagonist. Always taunting Cloud and baiting him rather than carrying out his plans in secret like originally. (The teasing comes later, but this is supposed to be Jenova who doesn't know Cloud!)

I'm honestly kinda scared how the following games are gonna play out. I hope they don't do some "alternate timeline" scenarios in which the original's plot gets completely changed. That would defeat the whole purpose of us fans crying for a remake. We just wanted the original but better quality. WHY, SQUARE ENIX????

But then again, I'm willing to give it another shot and see how they continue on. Who knows, maybe it will play out as normal and all this stuff was to put fans of the original on edge and worry because they're trying to make us feel like playing the game all over and not knowing what will happen.

Whatever happens, I'm excited to see it and I'm hopefully Square won't disappoint the fanbase. Let's hope we get the ending the same as the original (or close) and see Cloud and Sephiroth's story wrapped up with a nice little bow. :)

[docholligay]

An unnecessarily lengthy ode to the deadlock disaster children

Decided I had to submit this instead of comment endlessly on your post… because I just love Ashe and McCree so much more than I could have ever predicted?? I would feel about characters from this game?? You already know this but you did ask for reasons, so I’m gonna give them to ya.

I was drawn to Ashe when I first picked up the game because I tend to prefer longer ranged weapons and also because I took one look at her and said ‘i choose you, criminal lesbian.’ I didn’t even watch Reunion for a little while, but I was/still am so into her weapon-focused kit and the challenge that learning to play her even relatively well has posed (I still run out of bullets and boop myself off ledges more than I care to admit). So for Ashe far more than McCree, there’s a gameplay element to her that does actually factor into loving her as a character. 

I wanted to play McCree a lot when I first got the game, because cowboy, and because me (the prism of my experience of rural life has affected a lot of what I see in mcCree and is probably a solid chunk of the reason I was able to write him into a character I liked) but his gameplay was just too hard and I didn’t love him like I did Tracer, so there was no reason for me to continue. 

Obviously we have very little canon for her, but I love a lot of what we do have. I love that she’s quick to anger and bossy and pretty selfish and quite good at what she does. I love that she clearly cares about McCree even as she isn’t prepared to ever let go of her grudge against him, that’s the kind of tension and conflict that I am always so into, perhaps in part because I have so much experience with it personally. She’s got high expectations of everyone, probably too high, and she prizes loyalty above all else - feels very relatable to me, tbh. I love her aesthetic and her ridiculous voice acting and I really really really love BOB’s mannerisms and general role in her life.

If and when I am ever tempted to do something with Ashe, I think the most interesting thing to work with would be her sort of spoiled brat mentality, and how that hits up against Actual Cowboy Ethos (I utterly, utterly reject the idea of the Deadlock Gang being a biker gang, at least before Ashe took over. I’ts a boring choice made for aesthetics.) The idea of her having conflict with everyone who taught her everything she knows and completely thinking that SHE’S RIGHT really intrigues me. 

As far as headcanons/my writing of her goes, though, I feel like I’m trying to flesh her out as a character who experiences a lot of growth, but never ends up much closer to perfect or even to good (because I don’t think she’s good, I don’t really have any interest in redeeming her at all, though I think humanizing her or exploring the ways that she can be relatable is interesting). I think one thing they did really well in introducing her (and some of the others, obviously Fareeha is similar) is that she’s a person who’s had an entire life, a childhood and a young adulthood and is now a grown woman. I find that super helpful in thinking about what particular things make her immature when she’s first meeting McCree and starting the gang, and then how she addresses or doesn’t address those things as she gets older and has to adapt. I also like that she’s a criminal, clearly not a good guy character, but also doesn’t at this point have a direct tie to the Big Bad organization of the franchise - I’ve not shared many of my ideas for where my fic series is going, but I like the idea of her flat out refusing any/all offers from Talon to team up for several reasons. Like having Vishkar and Lumerico and even Volskaya as sort of villainous presences, keeping Deadlock and Talon separate helps the world feel less manichean/more realistic to me, so I actually hope there’s not a move to tie everyone together too neatly.

I also have NO desire to see her team up with Talon except maybe in selling Talon weapons or something. BUt that’s business, not teamwork. I see Ashe as left with basically a name of the Deadlock gang, but without anyone but BOB who REALLY has her corner. 

I do wish that the whole 'her parents ignored her entirely’ and 'she’s richer than god’ things had been considered a bit more in relation to one another - it doesn’t make any sense to me at all that her parents would continue to bankroll their at large criminal daughter that they don’t care about at all, for instance. My other major gripe with how she’s been handled is actually about her legendary skins - let her look like herself, Blizzard!! Let her have her white hair and red eyes instead of just blatantly embracing the fact that you made another same face white woman who you will play Barbie with and give her dark hair or blue eyes whenever it’s more convenient. Also make her look her age, damnit. 

You’re completely right and all of this is dumb. But I’m not shocked, tbh. LET OLDER WOMEN LOOK IT!!! LET WOMEN BE OLDER!!! 

ANYWAY, her origin story and Reunion give me a lot to work with. ESPECIALLY because I’m not at all convinced that Reunion is the first time she and McCree have seen each other since he left the gang, or at least I feel very strongly that it shouldn’t be the first time. There are a lot of things about how they both act that I’ve chosen to read as suggesting this is kind of a recurring thing, he shows up and makes her mad and messes with the gang but neither of them will actually hurt the other, and then she has to go back to acting like he’s her nemesis when really he’s the one person who can make her break her own rules about punishing betrayal. I’ve got no particular investment in Blizzard telling their stories that way, but to me it makes a lot more sense than that confrontation being their first meeting after 20 years.

I haven’t decided what I think about McCree and Ashe’s relationship in specific, only in broad strokes, and I chalk a lot of that up to my general reluctance to engage with Ashe and what Blizzard seems to be trying to do with her. I’ll have to come up with something, if only in passing, but yeah, I dunno. 

AND SPEAKING OF MCCREE. He’s so sad, I love him. While I don’t see him joining Talon usually, I definitely agree with you that he just kind of bounces around from group to group and place to place throughout his life, and to me that’s in part because I see him as just kind of taking things as they come at him, but also because he’s so deeply convinced of his own 'badness’ and guilt that, without someone else prompting him like Ashe or Gabe, he’ll just default to running on his own so as not to hurt or disappoint anyone, including himself. But even as he’s convinced that he’s not a truly good man, he still works to do the right thing in the ways he knows how and feels cut out for. And I love that he’s polite, and that he seems largely to be pretty unflappable but is willing to get angry and express that anger when something is important enough to warrant it, and also that he’s a fuckin terrible dresser. 

Yeah, I think McCree is a tumbleweed, and he’s always looking for something, and he never really quite finds it, at least not for a long time, Eventually, in the fullness of time, he becomes a sort of officer for Overwatch, in my world, but even there he feels that he is doing a good and useful thing but does he “fit”? Will he ever be settled like Pharah? Loved like Tracer? Who knows! Not him! He’s just a cat dad doing his best. 

Idk, I was skeptical of getting into a game that wasn’t first-and-foremost narrative driven, but I’ve found that many of the characters are set up in such a way that even though they’re not fully fleshed out, there’s a lot to work with that’s super interesting and fun to me, so Overwatch has been an incredibly pleasant surprise. I love others, too, but these two appeal directly to my two greatest weaknesses when it comes to fictional characters (bitter lesbian who yells and sweet guy who tries really hard to do the right thing even though he fucks up a lot because the world is complicated), and it’s very fortuitous that they’re actually linked to one another within the lore. If my faves were like, Zen and Reyes, for instance, I don’t think I’d be as jazzed about the franchise as I am. But I lucked out with these two losers, and as always I love the way that you’ve written McCree (can’t wait to see what you do with Ashe) so I’ve gladly incorporated fanon into my thoughts and feelings about him, so it’s kind of just been a perfect storm for me, and now here I am writing excessively long submissions to you about why I love them.

Yeah, I think it works out nicely when you find a character that the franchise loves too. I did not go into Overwatch expecting Tracer to be my favorite, not even remotely. I expected it would be Widowmaker, actually. But Tracer just got me, something about her sense of goodness without naivete, her courage and her brightness. She’s the hero with the strength to get up and still see that corner of blue in the sky. ANd then go shoot a man to keep it. 

[gyeolsim]

📝 👀 for both of my kids cause i dont want to go through this twice

📝 me (sort of):

lucy said that reagan is a staple of wsc and that is SO true, i think reagan was the second? app we ever got and i was so taken by how it is Exactly what we were looking for. we’ve gotten a lot of excellent, creative characters, but at the risk of playing favorites, what were the odds that the second person who ever applied almost felt like they were reading our minds and hearts and aesthetics?  like the unapologetic, fearless, creative weirdness of it. senior members came and went but reagan has become so intrinsically wsc that losing it would be such a blow to the group and lore and storytelling that we’ve weaved together here. not to be gay casper but i think you’re such a strong character writer and it’s very clear that reagan is such a passion project for you and where you’re pouring a lot of your self-indulgences and that is so fun to interact with.

lucy already said it and i know a lot of people will remark on reagan’s shameless badness, and i feel like my interpretation of reagan is somewhat clouded by misha’s, but the first thing that comes to mind looking past it’s nonchalant, whoopty fricken doo attitude, is someone who desperately wants to fully inhabit and make its own that space it occupies between worlds, and someone who is in that transitional almost teenagehood-allegory period where it is neither here nor there and it doesn’t know still how to make a home out of it, just that it wants and maybe even needs to. reagan is so… like i am SO aware that everyone else is gonna disagree with me lmaooo, DISCLAIMER i’m PROBABLY WRONG, but what truly stands out to me is the virtuousness of that pursuit, not only how charming it is that it is so true and so unapologetic about who it is and how it wants to live its life, but in how little actual moral failing there is in that, because if you advertise it then it really isn’t deceit. fair warnings and all of that. maybe it’s just because i haven’t ever seen reagan do anything truly abhorrent beyond being a dick now and then that i can’t quite picture it being so selfish that it would choose to truly cause pain and harm and death, maybe it’s that i write misha lmao, maybe that is its bad ending and i am too inclined towards kinder storytelling paths. 

either way, i think this all comes from just how unbelievably well you flesh out that arcane, mythical archetype of a blue/orange morality seelie court native. when i think of the fairy court i picture these violet-tinged, glittery, almost eldritch in its incomprehensibility people-shaped beings that we only ever see a glimpse of, a slice of, and you’ve managed to have reagan live there and be affected by its utter unfathomability and made something so painfully human and dare i say, relatable out of it.

OK THIS IS VERY LONG U GET A READMORE

👀  the saddest boy in the world:

when i first read reagan’s app –and i’m not sure you left this intact in the rewrite, btw– there was a line about how it is callous but can sometimes be found secretly helping out a distressed freshman, and even though reagan evolved a lot as a character this is the part that stuck in misha’s… i don’t want to say rose-colored, because misha is not one to kid himself, but hopeful, i guess, perception of it. his optimistic, fiery stubborn kinda dumbass i-want-to-believe-that-everyone-has-a-little-bit-of-goodness-within-themselves perception of it. idk if reagan developed into someone who still helps little kids regardless of the whole [vague hand gesture] eating souls thing, but to retroactively explain misha’s almost naive faith in it i have to say misha must’ve seen it helping a kid the first time he ever laid eyes on it (most likely way back when misha was new and wide-eyed and didn’t speak much english) and, like, the rest is history. ever since then misha’s held the current reagan up to that standard, not in a way that sees it being unkind and finds it lacking, but in a way that makes him decidedly, unquestionably certain that there’s capital G goodness inside of reagan, that there’s a reagan within a reagan that is virtuous and gentle and driven by… god okay, not to open another great parenthesis of Tangent but i feel it is necessary to explain how misha defines goodness to explain his fatal attraction to reagan, and it is this quote by terry pratchett: there is no hope but us. there is no mercy but us, there is no justice, there is just us (…) but we must care, for if we do not care we do not exist. 

so i think all of this is to say that misha has seen reagan capital c Care, with little kids once upon a time and with the Union that one time he and moire managed to rope it into their two-person circle, he can feel it caring even when reagan wants to bury that passion deep within itself and show its, like, who cares whatever i do what i want facade to the world.

and like… this is hard to articulate, but like.. misha’s faith is not blind, misha’s patched up from contradictions himself, it’s not like he doesn’t realize that reagan is a bastard and an asshole and sometimes sincerely enjoys messing with people. he just sees reagan’s contradictions and finds kindship in them, like, a recognition. a hey, it’s you. they come from the same place, they’re made of similar stuff. misha sees reagan and knows that neither of them have had the privilege of soft, full childhoods because of that wobbling, in-between limbo space where they were spawned into the world. even if misha doesn’t know if reagan acknowledges its contradictions or not – he never claimed to be a mind reader– he just doesn’t have an issue with the apparent dichotomy of reagan being a dick and also being a person (a being?) that misha legitimately thinks has the potential to do fucking good.

lmao i feel like im rambling and saying the same thing and i could go ON FOREVER waxing poetry about the intricacies of misha’s feelings for reagan BUT… at least that’s what misha thinks lol. take it with a grain of salt given that misha’s tragique type is Massive Assholes so that certainly clouds his judgment lmao. he can’t resist a leather jacket!!!!!!!!

also when it presents masc it sometimes is kinda hot but misha’s like, surprisingly at peace with that because he wholeheartedly believes reagan when it says it finds him gross, so in a way it’s kind of a healthy, fun experience for misha to feel vaguely crushy towards a completely unattainable person lmao. most of the time misha legit just wants to hang out and have a wholesome, happy fun Good Time with it and he does like challenges so he might not realize he feels a little bit triumphant every time reagan is even slightly pleasant towards him. this is misha’s tiny little bitter person like a sentient espresso.  

THESE TAKE MORE TIME THAN ANTICIPATED so actually wtf dude send me one from calli’s blog for organizational purposes!