#i just keep thinking of an mmo with a fantasy setting but you play as tiny people like the minish pretty much

[luxiiien]

God I wish I could develop a game soo sososo baddddd but it's so damn hard I just don't have what it takes to program something so complicated. I could barely get through an ue inventory tutorial and all I could do was copy it exactly because I didn't even understand how it all worked 😭 I keep dreaming of this perfect life sim exploration mmo kinda thing and I wish I could make it real!!!!!!!

[pyreo]

I've never thought about this in the 11 years I've played but I just realised gw2 must look.. pretty zany to outsiders? It didn't even occur to me. I'm really glad it's in a low fantasy setting that allows for pretty much anything and I think it's inkeeping with the focus on player creativity in an MMO to have that kind of range.

Like I know the overall aesthetic can get wacky but because that's so fitting for a multiplayer game... it's never occured to me that anything looks odd.

Like, here's a screenshot of me, someone's bird, and some lovely folks from the last pride march

Like real pride marches, being over the top and loud is the point. We have the tools to do that, even in regular gameplay. I think it's fascinating that nothing about this feels out of place. Magic in this universe does practically anything you want it to. Technology varies from nonexistent to far beyond real life. There's a massive range but everything feels kind of.... justified?

Some people will wear fantasy armour and keep everything on a theme. Some people are going to group transform into giant frogs and some people are going to cosplay as Johnny Bravo. It happens. The game doesn't mind. It doesn't shy away from people being incredibly weird. I remember the devs recalling a decision they had to make about letting players jump on top of a plot-important table where NPCs sat for serious discussions. The decision was they they shouldn't stop people from doing that if they wanted to.

The openness of the setting means these are all things that could exist. People reanimate corpses here for the hell of it. The weapons are magic and can be literally anything. The mounts are all creatures that have been tamed, or vehicles someone could have invented. Even the living plushie mounts are lore-compliant because... magic.

But on top of this, this game has one of the most sincere stories of anything I've ever played? Whether it's to your taste or not, I don't think you could deny how much care goes into it. From terminal conditions to villains having tantrums over childish insecurities to symbolic anticapitalism to racial superiority rallies, it has treated its topics with dead-solid respect. It does not undercut its serious moments - but it allows you the privilege if you'd like.

Maybe it's the balance of being so immersed in that that's stopped me from thinking any of this looks silly. The players can be silly, sure. Maybe there's a kind of game-and-player suspension of disbelief. We tell our story, and you have your freedom, and for the most part they won't intersect (except for the infamous Wynne cutscene).

In the MMO space there's other ways to approach this. You've got ESO which holds back very tightly to its high fantasy setting. That's for people with different tastes who don't want anything aesthetic-breaking in their game, and they have to cut back the player freedom to get it while trying to introduce a steady stream of new armours that can't be too interesting. They have magic, but don't go too far. It also means you get deals begging you to come to the cash shop to buy, like, rags. Fun rags for your character!

Then inbetween those two there's 'your name has to be lore compliant but fuck it, flying convertible'

[yutwili33]

FFXIV NA - Bullying and Harassment in Duties

(DISCLAIMER: Before anyone assumes worst case, I am NOT referring to the entire community of NA, just some experiences I have had over the years of my play time.)

I have to ask... exactly WHAT do you gain from bullying and harassing your fellow players? what do you gain from belittling someone's ability to perform a mechanic properly? what do you gain from harassing a healer over their inability to heal? what do you gain from punishing a tank who forgets to turn on their tank stance?

There is nothing to gain... absolutely nothing to gain from telling someone "You're a bad healer" for all you know, said healer could have already been having a bad day in real life and it could be affecting their in-game performance.

There is nothing to gain from belittling fellow players "you're a dumbass" "you should just quit playing" "skill issue" "just do your job" while they may already have it rough or are just learning their way. Everybody, myself included, began as a learning player.

We can't expect everyone to know what to do, some players are rusty at their roles and skills because they were unable to log in for a long period of time. You do not know what goes on in their real lives outside of the MMO, and it is not your place to judge them. Not everyone has the same income to be able to keep their subscription, and not everyone is able to have free time to play. However... it is equally as bad for someone with elitist behavior to tell someone HOW they should do their roles or skill sets. You do not tell someone "This is the only way to do this part" "You're not pulling enough mobs for me, I'll bring them to you" or even "I'm the only one that can do this, you don't know how I do it"

Stop comparing Final Fantasy XIV to other MMOs as well, they are not all built the same, that is just one being narrow-minded.

It is all... nonsense... some of these harassers have mentor crowns on their names, others think they're big shot and can compete with everyone because they feel intimidated by a skilled player.

Leave the competitiveness and intimidation on the PvP field, not in duties were you have to WORK AS A TEAM...

[christiansorrell]

RPG Read-through: .dungeon//remastered

For a while on Twitter, I've been doing read-through threads where I post my thoughts as I'm reading through a game for the first time. I recently did the same with Snow's .dungeon//remastered, a TTRPG where you are players logging in to a dead/dying MMO and exploring the digital fantasy world. I'm adapting those thoughts here for a proper Tumblr post! Enjoy!

First up, credits! Good folks who do good work in my experience. Also, we get the first of what seems to be a common through-line here that I enjoy: an online fandom bent to this all being a sort of GameFAQ style guide for an in-universe game.

My initial impression from most of the interior spreads I've seen just flipping through it is that I really love the style and layout. I think black and white layouts are underrated generally, but it really pops here with the pixelated text/symbols and the old school GUIs.

It's interesting to have these kind of "no bigotry" rules you see in many games couched within an in-universe framing. I think this more personal angle actually makes them land better for me than they typically do in games.

Of course, the author is still powerless to stop the players (just like with any instance of these rules, and all game rules in general tbh) BUT this is worldbuilding too, and it gives me a greater sense for the kind of in-universe fandom that's risen up around .dungeon.

Similarly, here's the game's unique version of safety tools - an in-game help menu that reworks things like lines/veils, x-card and more into the game world itself. I really like this.

Once again, the art in this is just great. I love the Fez-like runes/symbols. My ARG brain wants to know if there's a hidden message here.

I was surprised it was jumping right into the starter adventure, Tutorial Town, but I quickly found out that this is character creation AND a starting area/adventure all wrapped into one, video game-style, and that's so cool.

Each room of the starting area introduces a step of character creation. It's interesting that stats are based on real-world (not you the player at the table real-world but your PC at the "real-world" computer playing the game) ability. Your game knowledge, response time, etc.

As a long time Dota player, I also just really enjoy that the saving throw-like stat here is TILT. I have tilted many times and known many of my teammates to tilt regularly. Just fun to see that phrasing in a TTRPG.

There's more of the in-universe real-world player here than I expected coming in. Definitely has some really intriguing potential. I do wonder though if the intent is to be playing a "real-world" level character or if you are "playing" as yourself at that layer. Both would work.

Monster statblocks. Easy to parse and straightforward to run as the GM (tho at time the layout does have one two many things laid on top of one another that can make them hard to read at first glance - like where "GOBLIN" is here):

Health here is SYNC, and it's shared across the whole party - I'm interested to see how that full mechanic plays out and how it may affect play.

Reaction rolls. I'm surprised to see them given the video game setting, cus mobs in MMOs just always attack you. I've gone back and forth on it with my video game-inspired TTRPG. Don't think it's a bad choice, just one that means the game world is more than a usual video game.

So you have your real-world level Job (based on your characters' out of game job) and your in-game "Role" which follow the classic "holy trinity" of MMO design:

PCs and monsters can team up to attack and can forego damage for stunts - potentially fun/interesting moments happening from that. Monsters deal dmg to SYNC but only per type is interesting, means a crowd of one-enemy is more a long trickle of damage than an overwhelming burst.

Not knowing the ramifications of SYNC damage yet, I'm not sure what the Risk v Reward looks like for Respawns but it's intriguing. Letting your avatar die to keep the party in a stronger position overall (but being able to re-join after a fight) is definitely unique.

This is another fun room (and I like that other than saying late 90s/early 2000s it leaves appearance options open). I am not sure where to find the starting origins tho (they aren't on this spread and there's no page reference). Sadly, the PDF isn't bookmarked either, it seems.

This feels like a smart roadblock to place in player's paths early on. It's unlikely they'll have a lockpick at this point so really, it's about getting players into that creative mindset. What is in the room for you to exploit? What gear do you have you can use in a new way?

Might seem basic, especially to the OSR-experienced out there, but you'd be surprised how many players don't have experience with thinking more freeformly about the game in this way. No fault to them, most trad games condition you to use your PC's abilities/skills as a menu.

Another cool interaction between the layers of the game here (tho I do wish they all played more off of something more than just the tarot card being in the real-world layer). Still wondering if most folks play as themselves or as a real-world level PC.

This is interesting. I wonder if there is going to be a real-world layer to play or if this is meant to be the amount your party can heal between sessions of play (like when the actual real you stops playing in actual real life - this meta layer stuff is tricky to communicate).

I like this - a very short and sweet travel system.

I continue to love this art. Also, this tease here around dual-wielding requiring the discovery of new Roles out in the game world somewhere first is really enticing (I added the highlighter there btw).

This is fun - there are both in-game NPCs and PUGs which are other real-world players' in-game avatars. That extra layer to those types of NPCs is really fun and them running the gamut of fully out-of-character chatting to being hardcore RPers is fun to consider.

Whenever it leans into the digital world aspects, I'm super into it. Very much my kinda thing. I do wonder though how often players can swap their Roles. I don't believe I've seen that said yet - my inclination would be once on the fly (like Final Fantasy's Job systems).

And if these various layers weren't enough, .dungeon also features in-game collectible cards that are sort of enchantments and buffs. I wonder if my real-world level character can spend real money to buy Bytes to buy more packs from a merchant in town? lol

I won't spoil/detail too many more of these but these kind of fun (and common to video games but rarely seen when thinking of the world of a game or the intended way to play) moments are really appealing. Also, this game has Goons in it. Oh no.

Now I'm thinking the intention is the "real-world" level of play should be the real actual you, the person playing .dungeon the TTRPG (as opposed to a real-world level character still within the fiction of the game) since stuff like this would be tricky to track. Cool item!

Tutorial Island is cool, a good blend of char creation, intro to what the game is, and just a fun adventure with a session or more of play to it. I'd have to run/play this to really see but I find the Sync being tied to essentially your real-world session length interesting.

This stuff is cool and leans into that meta/fan-level play that only comes out of these big community-driven games, both MMOs but also things like Dark Souls.

A lot of these kind of possible secrets come as comments in the text, possibly just to inspire the GM and to get players interested in ways that the table can build out on their own over time. So far, I don't see some of the more esoteric secrets to be laid out (which I like).

The rest of the book, as far as I've seen, is lots of resources, gear tables, monsters, etc. to build out the game after player's leave Tutorial Island. The game world here has that anything goes Final Fantasy bent to it. There's swords & wagons, but laser guns & skateboards too.

The setting here is also explicitly queer (mostly seen so far in the "real-world" PUGs) and includes things like sex workers and other elements that it maybe could not have had but that would certainly lessen the richness of its world, the fandom presented throughout, etc.

The spellcasting uses the in-game money as mana points essentially. That's a cool way to limit spellcasting and motivate player's, especially spellcasters, to get out there and make some $$$.

Okay, here's the real-world explanation I was waiting for (after the in-game gear lists and such). This is cool - it's fun to have a real-life layer to this and to have the game's world support that sort of dropping in and out, doing things outside of a full party session, etc.

I know a lot of folks do this with ongoing campaigns anyway, but this is one of those fun things to include here to build that in as an expectation in play. You have your raid nights with friends and you have your little solo sessions after work where you sell your loot.

Now, the rest is a nice collection of random dungeon, NPC, settlement, hexfill tables and more. Everything you'd expect from an OSR-like ruleset but occasionally with some fun added meta-layers.

Players getting a quest from an in-game Moderator and then being able to become a Mod themselves is a really fun idea and something I could envision becoming a long-term goal for one or more players at a table. The threat of encountering an Admin is scary as well!

To finish it up, we've got a cool AASCII-style character sheet, complete with MingLiU-ExtB font (my beloved)!

And that's .dungeon//remastered! I really enjoyed reading this, and I think it has a strong core that's really enhanced by its real-world interaction layer. Gonna put this on "Play Soon" list. There are some smart rules in particular I'll likely steal for a future project.

.dungeon//remastered is available digitally NOW with, I believe, physical copies coming soon. I backed the Kickstarter to get this digital version. CHECK IT OUT HERE!

[mylordshesacactus]

OC ask Ihz 1,2, 6, 11,13,15!

Does your OC have a voice claim, if so who?

She doesn't! Outside of, you know. Not Whoever Blizzard Normally Gets To Do Troll Voices, Yikes TM.

If she WERE voiced, it would be by someone with a low, raspy voice, using their natural accent.

Who's your OCs best friend? How did they become best friends?

Thorn, she bought him off his abusive owner ;)

Outside of her animals, honestly, Ihz's best friend is her cousin Vazkri. They grew up together--Vaz is just enough older that they weren't really peers or playmates, but they're similar enough in age that they became close friends as adults. They have wildly divergent personalities, and very different lives; but they trust each other implicitly and will always turn to one another first in a crisis.

If your OC is in a fantasy setting, what profession would they be in the modern day?

Either a farrier or, like, an owner-operator long-haul trucker who drives with her rescue pit bull in the passenger seat (and has spent a small fortune on custom safety harnesses for him).

Modern AU Ihz known mostly for responding to supervisors trying to throw their weight around by letting them scream themselves lightheaded and then going "I'm a Teamster." and then continuing to do things the safe way.

(She has Beverly on speed dial.)

What was your inspiration for your OC?

I wanted to play An NPC (TM), both for fun and also because I'd had the thought that it might MASSIVELY improve immersion if I had a character who had a REASON to go on, and be approached for, fetch quests.

Hence: IHZ! It's not annoying or immersion-breaking for her to be sent on stupid fetch quests while the world ends, because she's not An Adventuring Champion who could be doing something better with her time. The fetch quests ARE her job, and the plot that keeps happening to her is the unwanted interruption.

It also really just...enhances the experience, honestly, when you play a mid-rank character. I think most MMOs would be significantly stronger, narratively, if they would lean into that--you're clearly NOT Azeroth's Greatest Goddamn Champion because there are a bajillion of us, so why treat it that way? You can have your power fantasy without being Azeroth's most special little princess man. Rinda, Talet-and-Vel, Vaz, Levaden, Ihz--they feel like PART of the world, not the artificial center, which is why it's so easy for me to slot them into fic.

So, yeah! Ihz is there because I wanted a character who could interact with the plot from a very specific perspective, without feeling jarringly artificial, and where sidequests would feel more organic and compelling. And I got her!

Does your OC have a rival? How did it start?

Uh, I think her primary rival is [checks notes] Garrosh Hellscream??? This would be news to him, as he was completely unaware she existed at any point.

Ihz's true interpersonal rival is whoever wrote the regulations on approved tack choices for the Horde military.

Will your OC ever retire? Do you see them making it?

In order to answer that question, Blizzard would have to have any kind of coherent presentation of trollish lifespans at all.

I think Ihz will always have SOMETHING she's doing to keep herself busy. If she gets to the point where she can't physically do the mail route anymore she'll pivot--really WILL become a farrier (not exactly a physically undemanding job, but the physical requirements are different) or a stablemaster or a horse tamer or a warg trainer or something. Raise dogs in the Barrens.

There's no reason she won't make it. If she doesn't, though, it'll be because she called the wrong bluff. Though, knowing Ihz--she wouldn't call it a mistake. She's only that bold when there's someone she's protecting, so she'd know the risks and decide she had to try.

[aotopmha]

It's been a year since I made my FFXIV account.

This might just be the one subscription service I got the most value out of ever outside of basic utilities.

This game has offered me hours upon hours of fun.

And I still have so much left to do a year in.

For example, I've only leveled 6 of the 22 classes (also haven't touched Blue Mage).

I haven't touched Savages and Ultimates at all (this one's on shaky ground in general because of the necessary time commitment).

I haven't touched Deep Dungeons at all.

I haven't even completed all Extremes.

I'm still working on my first relic weapon, as well.

And every expansion still has countless side quests to do.

And the only things holding me back are other games that I love and exhaustion; in general, time, really.

While I was doing my dailies today, I had a realisation that I love the game on so many levels, it'd be difficult to make it so bad I would quit.

I've seen a bunch of people feel alienated from the game because of Dawntrail's story, but even if I have my issues with it, I still think it came together nicely by the end (and 7.1 is a nice continuation of it), but above all, I just really love other aspects of DT, as well.

I love going around the zones, I love the battle encounters, I love the graphics update.

I suppose making an expansion which has both bad story and bad gameplay would be closest to get me to stop playing; there is a possible scenario where they fumble both encounter design and story so bad I wouldn't be able to find anything good in them.

You never know.

But I think every time this team has had the foundation set, they've made gold.

The slower ARR is followed by HW.

The slower StB is followed by ShB/EW.

There is a set-up/pay-off pattern I see within the complete picture that I often see other people bring up as well.

The foundation set by ARR, HW and StB is part of what made ShB and EW so good.

Not all parts were great (in fact, as much as I am painting HW in a positive light, I think it in particular was much more flawed than people usually view it as), but the complete whole is one of my favourite fantasy stories ever because it did what mattered the most so well.

I mean, I suppose another way to "ruin" the story would be to irrevocably destroy what came before with new reveals, but once again, they just earned my trust so well with ShB and EW, I really do have faith they'll do another story (and game) rivaling them once all of the pieces are in place.

I really do think they have an interesting seed in place they can expand into something truly great.

But above all, I never thought an MMO would become one of my favourite games ever.

But it did.

I never thought I would like a battle system nor encounter design within an MMO as much as I do in this one.

Even after beating many of the Extremes on min ilvl, I still want to go back and do them again to teach and help people get through them.

Now, do I think it should not have any of those low points at all?

Yes, that definitely would be the ideal.

I could've done without the several detours before facing Titan or a lot of the Ruby Sea story or a good chunk of Labyrinthos and Bestways Burrow or the terrible retcon for the end of ARR in HW.

But I'm happy that for every bit of bad pacing or any irrelevant detour, we get long-term plot points like saving Gabu, the mystery of the Ascians, the liberation of Ala Mhigo, Omega, the dragons, the Reflections, the evolving story of Garlemald or even Niddhog's eyes and the journey those go through.

So, I think we're truly in trouble with the game's story when the long-term set up isn't paid off properly.

And we're truly in trouble with the game's gameplay when the team can no longer make content that is extremely replayable and fun to master.

Or probably if they at any point decide to go the path of least resistence and start making timesink mechanics like mandatory dailies.

It's the elements relating to player freedom that keep it going, I think.

[anneapocalypse]

Thoughts Before Endwalker

As I'm about to start Endwalker, I thought it was high time I actually write up some closing thoughts on Shadowbringers, and since I really haven't done this for any of the other expansions, this has turned into a general "thoughts so far" kind of post! And also long. This is not any kind of an essay, just a big long thoughts dump. Spoilers for everything through the end of the Shadowbringers patches.

And I trust I don't have to say this to my own followers at least, but just for the record: please do not tell me anything about Endwalker here, even if you think it's minor, even if you want to hint at something I'll like. I know very little and I'm looking forward to watching it all unfold.

How it started!

It's been a year and change since I started playing this game in the fall of 2022. I didn't actually expect to play very far (I only picked it up in the first place because I was helping a friend set it up! I swore I would never play an MMO! I hated multiplayer games!) and I certainly didn't ever expect to get as deep into it as I have! ARR is very handholdy for new players, which was exactly what I needed to enjoy playing and keep playing. I love the story and the characters and the world and while I do enjoy the solo aspects of the game very much, I've also ended up really actively enjoying playing with other people! I enjoy dungeons. I enjoy raids. I run roulettes more or less every day. Free Company life hasn't always been smooth sailing (long story I won't get into here), but it's also brought me a lot of fun times and some new friends, as well as seeing me step into an active leadership role and not hate it. Who am I? 😂 I don't know! It's not that I've never tried to step out of my comfort zone before when it comes to games and hobbies, it's just that most of those experiences haven't been good and I've ultimately walked away from them. I don't know why this has been different, but it has. It's challenged me to tackle and let go of a lot of old insecurities, which I'm glad for (and grateful to friends who've been patient with me along the way). It's also just been a really good time, and continues to be.

How it's gone! (ARR through Stormblood)

So here I am, in 2024, about to start the last current expansion! Shadowbringers is easily my favorite expansion thus far, but I have really enjoyed the whole ride.

I enjoyed all of ARR, because while I don't think it has the strongest writing and certainly not the strongest characterization, it's really more a very long introduction to the world and its major players and conflicts, and while slow-moving, it does serve that function, and for someone brand-new to MMOs like me, slow was okay. It gave me time to get my bearings and learn the game.

I did really love Heavensward. It hits on several aspects of Fantasy Politics that I enjoy (generations-long war, class politics, structural reform), and postwar Ishgard, while maybe still a little rosy, still doesn't shy away from the growing pains of social change. Also the dragons were cool. I loved Haurchefant a lot, and was heartbroken by his death even as I knew it was coming; I also wouldn't change it. I think his death was meaningful and the natural culmination of his character. A Knight lives to serve. I think Haurchefant was always going to go out sacrificing himself for someone else. If it hadn't been the Vault, it would have been somewhere else. He was a delight and I miss him dearly, but it was a good narrative beat and one I wouldn't change.

Ysayle, on the other hand, I really don't think needed to die. She undergoes a fascinating character arc in Heavensward which I think the writing really drops the ball on at the end. Ideally, I think Ysayle coming to terms with her missteps while continuing to fight for what she believes in would be fantastic. She could have been a meaningful figure in Ishgard's reforms, and she would have made a great Scion. Her death also simply isn't treated with the same reverence as Haurchefant's, and I think that's sad. Heavensward has a bit of a Women Problem, in that it really doesn't give us a lot of female characters who are central to the plot, in contrast to a lot of great and memorable male characters. And the one who is most central dies with a lot less fanfare than WoL BFF Haurchefant. (And I'm not knocking Haurchefant, whom I love dearly, or Aymeric or Estinien! The imbalance is just very noticeable and I wish it wasn't so.)

Stormblood tends to get a bad rap among FFXIV's expansions. It's so common to hear people say it's their least favorite, it wasn't as good as Heavensward, etc. It came up recently in a server I'm in, where a newer player said they were having a bit of content fatigue after Heavensward, and having heard that Stormblood wasn't very good, they were considering buying a story skip. Other responses were, not outright negative, but mostly lukewarm, and I felt like I was the only one who really came out for Stormblood's story. First of all, I don't agree that it's not as good as Heavensward! I grant you that not everyone is as enamored of Fantasy Politics as I am, but as mentioned above, Heavensward is also very political, so I don't really think that's the big difference. Stormblood is maybe a bit grittier in its depiction of war, and that's something I like about it; it's really about the horrors of imperialism and the cost of resistance, and it doesn't pull its punches on that.

Ironically where it does pull its punches is with character deaths, heroes and villains alike. It does feel a little like someone thought they might have hit us too hard in Heavensward, given that we haven't had a lot of major character deaths stick since. I'm not complaining about Gosetsu's return, as I liked him very much and was very happy he lived. I will grumble a little about Zenos, though I'll go easy because I know a lot of people like him. 😛 He just doesn't do much for me. Yotsuyu was a great villain, and I was really dubious when they brought her back, but was pleasantly surprised with how her story ended, to the point that I'm willing to eat a lot of what I said about memory loss as a plot device. They did well with it, and her ultimate death did feel appropriate. Yotsuyu was never going to have a redemption arc, because she didn't want to be redeemed.

It was very refreshing in Stormblood to have more female characters taking essential roles in the plot. Colorism issues aside, I do really like Lyse as a character, and I also loved seeing Yugiri and Alisaie taking prominent roles, especially Alisaie who really hadn't gotten to be in the main plot much before. Rolling around with the three of them was a blast. Raubahn is also a favorite of mine, so seeing him play a major role in Ala Mhigo's liberation and get some character development was excellent. I'm happy that he's stayed involved with the Resistance in the time since.

I also just think Stormblood's new areas are absolutely beautiful. Kugane and the Azim Steppe are particular faves, but I just think they did a great job with the environments and I loved exploring them, including the underwater bits! Eorzea and Ishgard are so European-inspired, and I really enjoyed seeing Asian cultural influences in a fantasy setting. It is after all a Japanese game!

Just this week I finished the reconstruction of the Doman Enclave. As a player who's joined the game more recently, it's always bittersweet to learn about game elements that were temporal and are now lost to time, like the evolution of Mor Dhona during the ARR patches, or the Ishgardian Restoration in the Firmament. I can go hang out in the Firmament and craft and do fêtes and custom deliveries, but I'll never get to see the Firmament being built. It was done when I got there, which for me was after completing 3.3, very soon after completing the main story of Heavensward. The Doman Enclave goes in the other direction. It is a solo experience by necessity, but it's an experience that every new player can have: making their donations every week and watching the Enclave grow. Such things are always a trade-off for an MMO, but between the two, I would definitely choose the one that doesn't lock new players out of the experience.

And to give one last shout-out to Stormblood, I think it's pretty essential setup for what's happening when Shadowbringers begins. It's not just that the Scions are dropping like flies, it's that this is happening on the brink of a full-scale Garlean invasion. Said invasion is also critical to the bad future that G'raha is ultimately trying to prevent. The state and history of Garlemald is inextricably tied to the Ascians who are tied up in all of this. Stormblood is arguably more important to the events of Shadowbringers than Heavensward is, though Heavensward is also not unimportant, both with the continued presence of Estinien (reluctantly so if we believe him 😉), and with the involvement of Tiamat in the Shadowbringers patches. It's all connected!

How it's going! (Shadowbringers)

Urianger is, unsurprisingly, a big part of why I love Shadowbringers so much, as he gets some wonderful character development there and actually gets to be in the plot! But it's not only him—I like how character-driven Shadowbringers is overall, how much the major characters are driving the story and not merely reacting to events. ARR was largely driven by the world itself; the expansions are where the story starts to become character-driven. The driving forces of Heavensward's are much bigger than the main characters, but Haurchefant and Ysayle and Aymeric and Estinien bring a personal face to the conflict and a reason for us to be invested in it. Stormblood's emotional core is Lyse, Yugiri, Gosetsu, and their collective drive to liberate their homelands from Garlean occupation.

Shadowbringers, to me, really brought all of that home. It's not only character-driven but it brings a much more personal touch, I think, to the Scions themselves, with the major players being characters we've known since ARR but now get to know in a deeper way. I've always liked Y'shtola as a character but never felt I really connected with her, and Shadowbringers changed that, even as her story in Shadowbringers is in many ways about her isolation from the others, her (sometimes justified) mistrust and the way she closes herself off even to the people closest to her. Yet there is a deep caring beneath Y'shtola's prickliness as well, which we see in her leadership of the Night's Blessed, the new family she is willing to risk her life for. She's complex and difficult, sometimes angry and stubborn, and we all know I love that in a fictional woman. I really gained a deeper appreciation for her as a character here.

I've said my piece on Minfilia already, so I'll try not to repeat myself too much. I will say that Thancred is the main character I have the hardest time with in Shadowbringers. I appreciated the additional character development given to him at first, but as the story made Minfilia's death more and more all about him to the exclusion of everyone else, the more I started to kind of resent it. It really gets under my skin how he treats Ryne for like, the entire time until Minfilia Prime's final departure. The narrative kind of treats it like oh, he just has a hard time expressing how he really feels! and honestly I don't fully agree with that framing. I think Thancred's cold and harsh attitude toward Ryne does reflect how he really feels at that time—namely, he's angry and lonely and upset for valid reasons, but he's taking them out on a teenager who's fully dependent on him for her survival, to the point that she admits she thinks he hates her. His legitimate pain doesn't justify that to me, and it really kinda chaps my ass how everyone just agrees that he's the one with the most claim to call Ryne family, when Urianger was far kinder, gentler, and more comforting to Ryne than Thancred ever was. And Urianger was in pain too. He also regrets what happened to Minfilia, and his part in it. He was carrying a terrible secret that he couldn't tell his closest friends, which put one of those friends' life in danger. He just owned his feelings, instead of taking them out on a scared kid. I know my bias is obvious, and I swear I don't hate Thancred 😛 but I really didn't like his behavior here and I wasn't really satisfied with the way the narrative handled it.

Probably my least favorite part of Shadowbringers was Vauthry. I just do not like "fat" as shorthand for "evil" and I think there could have been better ways to design him that didn't fall back on that trope. Even Dulia-Chai, a very lovable character in the end whomst we stan, does fall into some fatphobic tropes, and it's unfortunate that in a game without much body diversity (not to single out FFXIV, that's a problem for games generally), we only got fat character models as signifiers for "rich person" (yeah, I get that "fat cat" is the joke, it's just not a good joke) and "repulsive, evil abomination." No love!

On a lighter note, the return of G'raha Tia as the Crystal Exarch was simply wonderful. G'raha was very cute and fun during the Crystal Tower story but his presence was quite short-lived, so we didn't fully get to know him then. I think it's pretty easy to guess that it's him under the hood; he has a distinctive voice and lip shape and also the tower is right there. So the question becomes why he is hiding his identity, what his true motives are, and that's all intriguing! The fact that his plan hinges on his pretending to be the villain at the end and he utterly fails at convincing anyone is… deeply charming. But one of the things I love most about him is the kindness he extends to the people of Norvrandt. Even though his primary mission is the salvation of the Source, he gets attached to these people, offers up the resources of the Crystal Tower freely to improve their lives, helps build a home and sanctuary, fights for the First and becomes deeply invested in their survival as well. He has a huge heart, and I love him. I'm delighted that he gets to return and join the Scions at the end, and it's already been a lot of fun to have him along on the patch quests.

And of course, Urianger my love. 💜 He really shines in this story and every scene with him was a delight, even when I was climbing the walls needing to know what he was hiding. He gets so much good character development in Shadowbringers I could go on for hours about it, but I did especially love the Echo scene where you see G'raha asking him to lie—and you see how much he doesn't want to do it. Urianger's really been on a long arc ever since Moenbryda's death, and I don't think that arc is over yet, but my biggest worry for him as the cracks started to form in his story was that we'd find he hadn't changed, and was lying here for the same reasons he did in the Heavensward patches, and as easily. And that's not the case at all. He hated doing it before, and he really doesn't want to do it again, but G'raha's reasoning is just too strong for him to refuse. I brought it up recently but I think Shadowbringers reveals an Urianger who despite his long isolation really doesn't want to be alone, and does want his friends' understanding and approval and their trust. The look he gives the Warrior of Light if they say they trust him, and then the way he submits himself to their judgment when things go wrong while begging to be allowed to help fix things… god. I love him. And I'll stop there for now, since I'm sure I'll have a lot more to say about him in the future. ;)

Emet-Selch is a fascinating villain, certainly the most interesting Ascian we've seen so far, and the one who finally turns what have been fairly two-dimensional powerful bad guys into a truly motivated and complex faction. My favorite villains are always the ones who believe they're the hero, and there are a lot of parallels between Emet-Selch and Solas from Dragon Age: Inquisition which will be obvious to anyone who's played both games. FFXIV being a more linear story afford the player a lot less choice in how they respond to their villains true motives and history, but there's definitely still an expectation that we will sympathize somewhat with Emet-Selch, and recognize the tragedy of what happened to his people.

Ardbert's ghost, too, was a welcome addition to the story. Between his presence and the role quests (which were 100% worth doing in their entirety), I felt like we finally got to actually know the Warriors of Darkness against which we briefly clashed back in the Heavensward patches, and I really felt the pathos of their story, all they fought for and lost, but also their friendship and how they cared for one another.

Shadowbringers is beautiful in so many ways. The design of the Crystarium is gorgeous. Il Mheg is probably my favorite location in the game so far. Eulmore is a fascinating dark mirror of Limsa Lominsa. The way the game takes the idea of "a world being swallowed by light" and interprets that visually is so stunning. The sky over Lakeland arrests you immediately upon arrival, and the crystallization of the Flood of Light where it was halted at the edged of Amh Araeng is a chilling reminder of how much the First has already lost. The music has also been a highlight for me! I really adore the Shadowbringers music, and it has prompted me to go about collecting orchestrion rolls more deliberately than I had before.

The more I sit and write about how much I loved this expansion, the more I think of, so while I could definitely go on, I think I'll wrap it up there. 🙂

Onward to Endwalker. I'm not making any predictions this time, because I have done my absolute damnedest to stay unspoiled for this one and I know very little about what's coming other than what the locations are, what's been revealed in the Shadowbringers patches, and that it's the end of the big story arc we've been on since ARR. I'm extremely excited.

[crossroadsdimension]

Reply from @metalmewtwo-kxb on this post Sincere question because I've never played FF games before, but is the gameplay that fun to do? Is it more item grindy, or is it like... more quests and story? Solely grinding for continued gameplay is what turned me off of recent pokemon games, so I'm actually sorta looking for other things that might be better 😅

Good questions! And I'd say that FF14 is very fun, since I've been playing it for the last two and a half years or so.

I'm going to preface the rest of this by saying Final Fantasy 14 specifically is an MMORPG, which means that occasional grinding is a given with this game. NOT for the main story (or "MSQ" for short), since that gives you enough experience to carry you through from start to finish. Some additional content requires grinding (the areas Eureka and Bozja, mainly, as well as grinding levels for additional jobs), but that additional content is not required.

FF14 as a whole is quest heavy, story heavy, and dialogue heavy, but there is a fair amount of combat. There are dungeons and boss fights you have to run for the sake of the story, but generally you only have to run them once for the sake of the plot. They can be run repeatedly for additional bonuses, like gear upgrades, music to be used in certain places, and later, little minion pets (they don't do anything, just look cute) and mounts. But again, that's all optional.

Now, the gameplay itself....I'm gonna have to put the rest of this under the cut because this is getting long.

FF14 has you start with one chosen job at the beginning of the game. You build up your number of skills over the course of leveling up, giving you the time needed to get used to each of your new skills. Like other MMOs, you have a choice between tank jobs, healer jobs, and damage-dealing jobs. The neat thing is that you can pick up all the jobs available on one character. The game is designed with this in mind, so if you don't like the job you start with, you can pick something different later.

For example, I went with Thaumaturge, which advances into Black Mage, and I've stuck with that because exploding things with fireballs is just far too much fun. Playing a job that wants to stay still while casting spells is a little difficult when boss fights require you to move frequently, but I've made it work! Maybe not to the level of efficiency as other players, but I don't really care about that too much.

The combat works this way: there are skills that are "on global cooldown" (meaning you have to wait 2.5 seconds before you can use it again,) and "off-global cooldown" (that have longer wait times). When you start the game, you don't have a lot of skills, so it feels slow when you fight, but the more you level up and the more skills you get, the more complicated fighting can become. I and other players have learned how to "weave" these two kinds of skills together in order to keep damage and/or healing moving, depending on the job type. It took me a bit to get used to, since I'm used to turn-based styles, but I think I've got a good handle on it!

Combat isn't the only type of job available, either -- there are crafting and gathering jobs as well, to make gear and other items that players might want. Like, say, housing items. Or more of those cute minions. Or glamour items to make your armor look stylish. And there's a mini-game attached to these which is also pretty fun!

The "grinding" aspect of FF14 comes about when you want to level multiple jobs. And there are multiple options for that, since the MSQ only has enough XP for one job. The FATE system that I was talking about grinding, for example, is optional side content that is constantly available. Easy XP when you're waiting for queue to pop for dungeon roulette runs...or the PvP system, which has its own set of combat skills separate from the rest of the game.

There's a repeatable quest system too, called "leves," but those are mostly used for crafting/gathering nowadays instead of the combat jobs.

If you want to give the game a try, I can promise that the game's story and music is all fantastic, and there's a free trial that's available on PS4/5, PC, and most recently Xbox. Play up to Level 70 out of 100, get access to the base game and two following expansions (A Realm Reborn, Heavensward, and Stormblood). If you don't want to play it, there's plenty of people who have recorded playthroughs online. Playframe is an easy one to find on YouTube, for example!

I'll be honest, I'm keeping any storyline stuff to a minimum because as much as I want to get more people into the game, if I gush too long I'll give spoilers and there are some surprises that just. Need to be experienced. But needless to say, the story is fantastic and intricate and can make you think some very deep thoughts the further into the game you go. The plot starts very simple -- almost deceptively so -- with your character becoming the Warrior of Light through deeds done and big boss battles fought. And everything progresses from there....

If you don't want to play an MMO, but do want to play an FF game and don't want to worry too much about level-grinding, I've been playing through the Pixel Remasters of FF1-6. The settings for these turn-based RPGs allows you to boost your XP and gold (or gil) gain, completely cutting out any need to grind. I've played FF1-4 so far, and I've started FF5, and I've enjoyed the experience! Especially since FF14, the game that I started with, has references from every single other FF game in the series. So I'm getting the references in reverse!

If you want something more recent that has a Devil May Cry-esque play style, FF16 could be right up your alley. The game also has difficulty settings to make it easier if you're not prepared to handle that kind of play style. The experience given in that game is enough to get you to where you need to for the sake of the plot, too, so I wouldn't have to worry about grinding in FF16.

As for the other games...well, I don't have much experience in the Final Fantasy anthology as a whole, sad to say. I'd love to get more experience, but that's going to take a while.

[marcilled]

According to the votes on that poll, at least 70% of you want to hear about my FFXIV ocs (meanwhile, only 12% think i should sleep. so i'm awake still, typing this.) I'll ramble about them under the cut, but for the ~7% that said they don't know what ffxiv is, I ended up rambling quite a bit about what ffxiv even is, and why I personally enjoy it/what i recommend for anyone who's interested in it. (I made it easy to skip over if you don't care to read about that, though)

Gonna put this under a readmore since it got really long;

Cassern Qestir! my main girlie. she/it pronouns. lesbian .

she's the warrior of light. if you don't know what that means; it's the protagonist. if you still need more context:

(skip to the blue text if you don't want to read me explain ffxiv and why i think it's worth playing, i didn't expect to ramble this much about it...)

Final Fantasy XIV is a MMORPG by Square Enix. Most other final fantasy games aren't MMOs, but this one is. That means it's a multiplayer game with RPG elements. It's also heavily story-driven. While you might hear people complain about the story at times- and I'd be one of them- it manages to really leave an impression in spite of any contrivances, awkward writing, or plotholes. That's due to the fact that the player character is... well, whoever you want them to be.

Your WoL (Warrior of Light), the player character, is the protagonist of the story. And it really must be emphasized... They are so, so fully the protagonist, it's hard for other protagonists to even compare to the protagonist energy the warrior of light has. That might seem... dull or uninteresting to some, but eh, it's not like you can please everyone- the point is for you to get into character, and if that doesn't interest you, then hopefully the other characters in the story will. Personally I love this aspect- I've made the WoL my own oc with a really, really detailed backstory. Which brings me to my next point;

The Worldbuilding... The worldbuilding is probably the strongest point of ffxiv, aside from the STELLAR soundtrack it boasts. The worldbuilding is incredibly detailed, and is there to encourage roleplaying, as well as to help the plot along (tho, really, it works best as a means to encourage roleplay). I suppose I should be more specific here; it's the setting that's really the key point here- the world, the cities, each and every river and valley... But also the time period, the history, etc etc etc... There's a lot of material to work with, and I suppose you'll just have to believe me that it's really quite in-depth (if you're interested in that depth! totally fine not to engage with it, too.)

All of this isn't... going to grab or interest everyone, certainly, but eh, I've accepted that at this point lol. Don't force yourself to keep playing it if it isn't grabbing you, but for me, I started playing it for the social aspect- doing something in the game with friends, socializing in the game, making new friends through it... it's been great for that. What I didn't expect is how much the story would grab me.

FFXIV's story is very slow to start, but gradually builds on the humble roots of your adventurer until you're literally saving the entire universe. It's very, very gradual, and this slow pace might turn people off as well. Especially if you hear people say "it really gets good at heavensward!" "shadowbringers is unforgetable!" "just wait til next expansion--" these sorts of things are common to hear, but it's the same as touting that a game gets good "after the first 20 hours of gameplay", it's poison. Just try it out and see how you feel about how it plays. If the style of doing quests is interesting to you, if the combat feels engaging or shallow. etc. hey wait this was supposed to be about my ocs. ok i'll finish talking about the story and then get back to my ocs.

Anyhow. The story is really shallow at first, it's true. Even within the whole base game itself, (A Realm Reborn, aka 2.0), it can be a bit dull and contrived, and boy oh boy is the voice acting completely awful... It's rough around the edges. But if you're like me, you can really appreciate a series that starts out rough around the edges, and slowly evolves over time from humble beginnings into an epic tale that really blows away your expectations... It's about growing with the narrative, to me. If that sounds interesting to you, maybe you'll like it. I certainly did. In fact, ffxiv might be like... top 10 games to me, in terms of how its story affected me personally. Particularly the shadowbringers and endwalker expansions. But you can't skip all the way there, either- the context of everything that happened before it is crucial to understanding where you're at once you get to those expansions. The more you skip, the more lost you'll likely be. Take your time. Don't rush. And ignore anyone who tells you "it gets really good at (x) part!!!", it's a great way to set yourself up for disappointment if you end up not personally connecting with a certain plotline or character moment. I think, the thing that makes ffxiv really special... is.. it's YOUR story. The story of you- your warrior of light. And the parts that are going to connect for YOU, and for your warrior of light, are not necessarily the same as what connects for anyone else. You may end up loving the slow, humble beginnings of ARR, and feel alienated by all the saving-the-world stuff that comes later. Who knows! It's what you make of it. That's kind of the beauty of it. Now, I could talk all day about how I personally connected to shadowbringers and endwalker, (and some smaller moments, scenes, & questlines from earlier in the game), but you didn't come here for all this, you came here to read about my ocs. SORRY.

I'm done talking about FFXIV as a game now. It's time to ramble about my OCs.

FFXIV is really great for making OCs, if you like its setting. Square Enix doesn't like when you talk about it, but there's a pretty big modding scene that lets you customize your characters way beyond what the vanilla game allows for. This is often used for horny purposes, but more interesting to me personally is the gender euphoria I get from seeing my own body reflected in my own character. I gave Cassern wider shoulders, made her taller than any other au ra woman can be in vanilla, and gave her the horns that are typically only on male character models. She is so transgender. i love cassern.

Cassern Qestir is the warrior of light, meaning she's the protagonist that goes on to save everyone and everything. But at the start of her story, she's a budding new adventurer, completely new to Eorzea- her home is far to the east, in the Azim Steppe, where most Xaela Au Ra hail from. It started out casting spells, but picked up ninjitsu along the way, and quickly became one of the most skilled shinobi there is.

(she kills fascists lol)

she's also pretty socially awkward, in spite of her unparalleled combat capabilities... it lacked a lot of confidence early on in the story, too, but over time it got a lot of character development, and gained confidence. my little beepo. i have a lot of photos of it, but I don't want to make this TOO long... plus, it's difficult to give a spoiler-free overview of her character that's still approachable to people that don't know anything about the game. I suppose I could talk about her backstory, because most of my writing for her actually happens before the main game... but, eh, I'd still need to introduce a lot of settings and topics that wouldn't make sense if you haven't played before. tricky to do. maybe I'll attempt that one of these days. Anyhow... onto my next oc...

This is Samga Mol! they/them. bi.

Samga is a touchy, standoffish Xaela dragoon. (Dragoon means they fight with a lance- it's one of the many jobs in the game, like Ninja is. I'd need another long tangent to explain that in full.) Samga was actually close friends with Cassern in their youth, having also grown up on the Azim Steppe- but the two of them haven't spoken in years... I wonder what happened between them?

They're very edgy, as dragoons often are- but they also have a softer, gentler side that they don't often let show... They also get grumpy if you say they're cute. (Which is just even cuter, by the way.) They actually have a soft spot for animals, particularly chocobos.

But shhh, don't tell anyone you saw them like this... they have a reputation to uphold, you know. Tough, menacing dragoon that kills in the name of dragonkind and all that. Most feared heretic in all of Ishgard, strikes fear into the hearts of the temple knights... Wait, weren't they from the Azim Steppe? How did that happen?? Hmm, I wonder...

---

I have a lot more OCs, but most of them don't have cohesive designs and intricate backstories like Cassern and Samga do- and more often than not, mostly exist just to add more depth to the story between the two of them. There's a few others I have, like this mad scientist catgirl named Dr. Frankie. I'm still working on her. She's completely unrelated to Cassern and Samga's story;

stay tuned if you enjoy morally dubious scientist women with an ephemeral grasp on social etiquette. i'm already obsessed with this little freak, i just need to develop her a bit more before i start showing her off all the time. she also has an ... "assistant" that i'm excited to design. more on that later.

Anyhow, this was a really, really brief overview of my ocs, and I have SO many more thoughts on them, that I post about with much more frequency over on @azimsteppe ... when I remember to... (I usually use twitter for ffxiv stuff, but I'm sure you're all familiar with how that website is faring these days...) just be aware that there are spoilers on that blog, and although i try to tag them, you'll likely run into some spoilery stuff if you browse there long enough.

please let me know what you think!! it always makes me happy hearing what people think of my ocs and what interests them about them... :] and!! big thank you for reading all of this!! it was a lot of fun just to ramble lol, my ocs mean a lot to me. so i'm glad it interests at least some of you. take care!!

[francostrider]

Are Players Too Award-Focused?

So, let’s skip the usual preamble and just dive in. What is award-focused? Well, presumably, it is a mercenary attitude in videogaming where a player will not do something unless a tangible award is at the other end. This could be at the end of a quest, or a long arduous set of events that leads to an award. Or it could simply be killing an NPC because they got good stuff, if you are a complete psychopath.

This has come up in MMO circles a number of times. Namely, the “Josh Strife Says” video on MMO Doomscrolling. In this stream, Josh makes the point for level scaling players in MMO, down scaling them, in order for them to participate with lower level friends without outright carrying the whole task. His friend, Callum Upton, states that there is no award or purpose to that. That there is no tangible award, and therefore players won’t do that. He also argues that it has the other effect of making a player’s level “meaningless”. The “award” he argues is being able to one shot any enemy in a given area.

So, to counter point Callum’s argument, the level objectively is not meaningless. To give an example, Guild Wars 2 does level you DOWN to an area in raw stat points and numbers. However, you still carry the abilities and manuevers to you unlocked via leveling up. In Elder Scrolls Online, everyone is basically at the same base power range, but, again, your abilities and tricks and other things you have unlocked makes leveling up meaningful.

Second counter point, bulldozing enemies is, frankly, kind of boring. You have all these abilities for spell interruption, defense debuffs, buffs for yourself, speed and so on. But those become utterly pointless if you’re one shotting enemies. Therefore, you’re “award” is just boring gameplay where nothing challenges you. A good RPG, in my mind, is strategic, requiring you to think, not just plow through.

Side note: I do respect Callum Upton. He is a game designer with experience I likely will never have and he is one of many people doing good work calling out the crypto-bros for their collective bullshit. I recommend his channel wholeheartedly.

But the point I’m trying to illustrate here is the overt focus on some kind of objective award gets in the way of what is supposed to make an MMO fun: Playing with friends in a fantasy world. A friend of mine, once she is done with her dissertation, is planning on getting back into ESO, and I’m excited because it is a game where I already have a character and it does not matter what level she is. I can just do whatever she is doing. Being at max level, with only the Champion Point system giving me anymore buffs, I’m not really looking for a new item anymore. I just want some friends to play with.

And my motivation for going into ESO was never the big weapons or whatever. My goals are thus: 1) Creating a character through look and ability so I can dream up a narrative in my head between him and the main story 2) See the story to its end, 3) Enjoy the combat and some bosses, 4) Do the dungeon raids because they are just good loud fun 5) Check out Tamriel from a time before the “main series”.

Now, I’m NOT saying I’m looking for NO tangible awards. Obviously, I want my equipment to keep up in order to do all those things, but that is a means to an end, not the award I’m shooting for. And little things I would like come up here and there. I wanted my first character, a battlemage take on the Sorcerer class, to have a daedric greatsword. And not just any daedric greatsword: The best I could conjure up. It’s not part of an equipment set, but I cherish that sword because of what it represents: The character’s mastery of sword combat and daedric arts.

Are there better weapons? Probably, if I dig deep enough, there is a more fitting weapon for my build. But the game, for what I’m trying to do, does not require that my numbers are absolute tip top. For me, what is more important, is the look and feel of the character, and part of that is the weapon he uses. For now, I am more interested in how any given story plays out along with the gameplay that comes with it.

But then comes another question: am I still being award focused? After all, I’m expecting SOMETHING on the other end of what I’m doing. I want to play as a hero in a fantasy setting, and I want at least a fitting end to the adventure. I want to see new sites, fun characters and a good note to end a character’s narrative on. I want to see the legendary items and weapons, even if the numbers behind them hold little meaning to me.

I put up with this grind once, redoing dungeons to get the right equipment (the right award) for the Raid Finder during WoW’s Cataclysm expansion. And to be honest, it was the worst part of that whole experience. Dungeons were still fun for the madness that can occur, but it also became infuriating because there were no more sidequests to break them up. Once I GOT to the Raids via the Raid Finder, it was a blast. I threw on my Nightwish playlist and then, during the last Deathwing section, threw on their song “Fantasmic”. There is very little that can top stuffing a giant death dragon into the abyss to symphonic metal. It was such an end, that I knew I could not top it, and so with that, plus my blooming relationship at the time, I decided that was the end of the story. Further experiences in games have veered me away from that game ever since. But my point is that the number crunching award system was a means to see the big ending, not because I needed the Deathwing Axe and it’s accompanying dagger.

(Side note: I lucked out and got both in the same loot role. So not only did I help save the world, I managed to piss off 24 WoW players in the process. It was an objectively complete victory.)

Perhaps it is more a question of what motivates you. If you do not care for number crunching, World of Warcraft is not the game for you. I’ve heard people say that the constant build of numbers is part of the fantasy, and I guess it is not my place to naysay them. I want story completion, character arcs (even if they are just mostly in my head), cool weapons because of what they are and not because of numbers, and nice scenery. Perhaps I am setting/story motivated rather than numbers motivated?

Yet, there is another part of the constant award that does not sit well with me. In short, it is abusive. In length, the constant skinner box design of games abuses award addiction. It encourages the tossing out of relatively new gear for SLIGHTLY newer gear because of a value that the developers just, well, MADE UP. As I have said before, there is literally no mechanical difference between using a level 5 knife in WoW versus a level 30 short sword. The actions will remain the same. The award is not so much a new toy to play with, but a slight variation of the SAME toy. The backstory weapon/armor is meaningless next to its numbers.

The other problem, as illustrated in Folding Idea’s video: Why It's Rude to Suck at Warcraft. Because everyone is so performance focused with their numbers, the world might as well not be there. The design of WoW is so numbers focused that it became more optimal to have the graphical settings as low as possible to not have any distractions. So art assets that a whole team put a lot of work into basically gets tossed out the window because of how the game was designed. The world might as well be a blank page.

And that is what this kind of number crunch boils things down to: A blank page covered in numbers. Why even have the world at all? This is why the constant focus on “objective number awards” disgusts me. The fantasy is gone, and just numbers. The same numbers at your desk at work. The same numbers a bunch of CEO ghouls want you to keep increasing. Just numbers and numbers and numbers, in order to get higher numbers and numbers and numbers.

Forget the actual lore of Azeroth. Forget the characters and motivations. Forget the music. Forget the artwork. Forget story telling. Everything is just numbers.

But here’s the ultimate kicker: Players are enabling this design. It is a constant cycle of addict and drug dealer mentality. There’s a bit of “chicken-and-egg” here: We are told from birth that having more is better. So games are designed that way, and therefore encourage that behavior. And need I go over how toxic their relationship with other players can get, all for the sake of “optimization”? It is a constant pissing contest over made up value. It is an excuse for this award system to keep going.

For players, I encourage that you step back from the usual number crunch, skinner boxes and whatnot and really ask yourself the following questions:

- Why did I play this game in the first place? - Am I still having fun? - Do I understand the greater context?

This is a conversation we need to have, because I suspect the awards have become poison. Poison to us as players, the worlds we play in and the stories we witness.

[del3141]

I’ll go ahead and jump on this small bandwagon here.

ZZT - shareware little ASCII tiles adventure game that included, in its freeware version, a map editor that you could use to make your own levels.  People made a *ton* of stuff, and I downloaded whatever I could from the AOL uploads.  I even uploaded one myself, and started several overly ambitious projects that I never got done past like two screens worth of content.  This game taught me that people will make cool stuff just because they want it out there in the world, and it was cool to see what other people would make.  It also taught me about programming and how I never really wanted to do it for a job.

Telling my parents about it and hearing them talk about how I should leverage those skills to be a programmer or sell content also taught me that I shouldn’t talk about my creative endeavours with my parents.

Scorched Earth - another shareware game, turn-based artillery combat game where you dialed in power and angle of shots and hoped to nail your opponents before they nailed you.  Up to 10 players meant I could have a bunch of friends over to play it (back when I could handle more social interaction than I can now) and if you wanted to get crazy with it, you could set up the whole economy thing and buy special weapons, shields, abilities to change the terrain, all that stuff.  This game taught me that beating other people at a game isn’t really as fun as causing utter chaos and just seeing what the hell came out of it, and maybe if you won too that would be cool, but mostly it’s about causing weird shit to happen and laughing about it with friends.  It also taught me a tiny bit about physics.  Yay science!

Everquest - one of the first huge MMOs, back before WoW was a thing.  There’s no real need to go into much detail about it - it’s an MMORPG.  This was the first game that I could play online that was actually multiplayer, and there were so many people it was kind of astounding.  But the first things I ever did were walk my character around the trees in the wood elf city and think, holy shit, it’s so *huge.*  I had never played anything so utterly vast in scope.  I adored just wandering in places to see what I could find.  This included wandering in places far beyond my char’s level to actually survive in, unfortunately, and I wasn’t very good at the actual gameplay.  But I loved it anyway.  To the detriment of our phone bill and to everyone else in the house and their ability to use the phone or internet, because this was the age of dial-up.

This game taught me about addiction.  It also taught me that normal MMO gameplay loops were not very interesting to me, which helped save me from ever getting sucked down into WoW like many people I know ended up.

Final Fantasy 7 - this one also probably needs no description.  I’d seen bits and pieces of Final Fantasy 6 (3, cuz it was on an SNES cartridge that a friend had) and there were actual TV commercials about it, so I kinda knew what I was getting into, but this game was just cool, and had enough depth to it that I could reliably obsess over it for a very, very long time.  I would fire up the game and just screw around in the final dungeon levelling up magic shit.  I enjoyed the numbers going up, and it never really occurred to me that there wasn’t any real point to making the numbers keep going up.

This game taught me... well, not much, but it had an actual plotline that I never fully grasped until reaching adulthood, and it had numbers going up which tickled my brain.  I also thought Sephiroth was super cool, because I was a teenage male child, and I thought Red XIII was even cooler, because I was and am a furry simp.

Dance Dance Revolution - a game you play on a dance pad and hit arrows in time to the music.  This game grabbed me hard, and I loved playing ever harder songs on it in order to challenge myself and see just how good I could get.  Not great on an underweight asthmatic body, but it was a real thrill.  These days I am overweight and asthmatic so I don’t have nearly the same speed and endurance, but interestingly enough my timing and accuracy has vastly improved, so I can’t reliably hit the 9-footer difficulties anymore but I sure can AA and sometimes AAA the hell out of a 7-footer.

[theearthmagicguy]

*Sits in a lawn chair before folding my hands serenely in my lap.*

I am officially asking you about World of Final Fantasy. Just be warned, I have only played FF7/Remake and FF10.

Okay. OK. That's probably enough, it's probably fine.

So WoFF is a really pretty creature collector that uses the ATB guage in a weird way. It's sorta presented as a cross between the ff10 turn totem and the ff7/8/9 ATB guage. Everyone shares the bar and moves at up it at the sum* of their speed.

I say sum because this game doesn't just handle every fight in a double battles format, it uses The Forbidden Tech: standing on each other's heads. Combining the stats and moves of creatures and sometimes a human of various sizes into a single unit (not fusion, they are one trenchcoat away from getting in a theater). So you could set up a buncha mages to cast fire exponentially better, or intentionally split them to cast fire separately. If they all know it it becomes fira when they're together. Alternatively you can split to divy up punishment if your opponent slaps each of you too hard. Or stack up to to completely nullify 2 to 4 whole elements if you build and raise right.

Keep in mind that hp and ap are tracked separately (ap caps at 4 a piece, 12 when stacked), but buffs last individually, meaning you could use a single target reflect, split, and then cast ultima on yourself or some shit if you're quick with it.

Actually catching mons is another unique thing. Every monster has at least one thing you can do to give you a chance to catch em, and the more you do it the bigger the catch chance. This can vary wildly, and you'll really wanna keep scan on hand. There is no traditional catch consumable, usually you get the one mon until you go through it's skill tree enough to earn the right to catch another of it's kind, regardless of form. God forbid you raise the thing. That also means if you caught a small tonberry, too small to fit into it's robes, filled with the hate of god, and then found a normal tonberry, you can't catch that normal tonberry immediately.

Monsters can freely switch between their forms once you unlock em, as well as variations you can switch to too with their own forms. Their skill trees, stats, and resistances are fairly set in stone, meaning that they're usually purpose built without intervention. But honestly, nobody's ever gonna be obsolete (which I love), and you can modify them by filling the blank spots on their skill tree (think sphere grid but you can put stats OR abilities into the blank spheres). Also all their forms in the variation you have them in share the stat growth from their skill trees, as well as the abilities and blank spot modifications, so you Can get fairly loose with it. Mastering their whole tree across forms lets them learn one of 3 unique things. These can vary a lot, but can't be changed later.

Honestly my 2 big gripes hafta be A) The fact that there was only one save and no ng+ for the longest time (I think there's still just 1 save) and B) The "summons" usually being kinda beans.

See, you can't have anyone else out once you summon, that makes sense. It's like doin an ff10 summon. Except. Every action except defend uses AP. You now have 24, but the cost of moves is ridiculously high to make up for that. And if normal mons felt purpose built, then these guys are MMO restricted in their playstyle. If you used an actual summon like Bahamut, you WILL immediately use your ult for max dps. What else are you gonna do? You can't use items either, and most summons are more durable than the average mon but not That sturdy. The only summon I had that bucked that trend was a behemoth I raised from a lil guy to Hough. Had a ton of health and defense, defending never took AP, and he had a move that got exponentially stronger the lower his health got. He also had the good ol Meteor Counter, which would let you counter by casting meteor two whole times. Because it still costs ap to cast. And he is not a mage.

But uh, yeah. Games good. Games really really fucking good. I don't remember if it does well on pc, maybe look into that before buying it on steam. They do look like fucking funko pops though.

[timearremer]

One of my latest gaming projects is rolling through the Final Fantasy series.

It's cool! Having played 1 and 6 a few years ago, over the last half-year I've been working my way through the first seven games in the series (and a chunk of 14, the current MMO entry). Eventually I do want to play all of the mainline entries, so that puts this somewhere around the halfway mark. Going game-by-game, seeing how the mechanics and iconography of the series evolve and are reinterpreted over time is really compelling.

But 1 is maybe my favorite entry so far. (Though 5 might be better. Tough to say.) It's an NES RPG, so you've got to set expectations accordingly - the interface is awkward, as is often the case with non-action games on NES, and the game is more focused on providing a classic dungeon crawling experience than it is a dramatic storyline.

It rules, though. (Focus on the cool mind flayers in the above image instead of the character names I removed because I named the party after some friends and myself for a stream I was doing.)

FF1 is a game filled with consequential decisions. At the start you decide the makeup of your party, which drastically affects your approach to everything, and from early on you're deciding which party members and which gear to invest in, how to save resources for long treks (which leads to some difficult choices early on - especially when taking on the iconically dangerous marsh cave, the game's first dungeon), how to handle long-term character builds for your party's mages, who can only equip a limited number of spells. (Though it must be said that mages are a little too weak in this game; one of its more unfortunate balance issues.)

The big strength of the game is that it stays consistently interesting. A lot of games in this genre - even some of the stronger ones, which is why I'm generally more of a fan of action games - sometimes have a few too many filler fights that basically just feel like padding. FF1 strikes an excellent balance where your limited resources and the high level of danger of some enemy types - usually each dungeon has a few "red alert" enemies you've got to watch for - keep you continually engaged, with every fight being important, but without the game's difficulty level being overbearing. Furthermore, despite the general perception of RPGs, especially old ones, being grindy, slow-paced games, this game moves at a good clip, never slowing down and at no point ever requiring the player to stop forward progress in order to grind.

It's great as an adventure game, too. The world is fun to explore, and it's satisfying to figure out each point of progress, with just enough nonlinearity to give you choice on which objective to tackle next and to make the process of figuring out how to solve each town's problems fun.

The story is simplistic, but the worldbuilding is pretty strong, handled with a light and deft touch that makes coming to realizations about the game's setting fun - look above to see the "floating castle" you explore near the finale. But the game is more about the narrative that forms in your head over the course of your dungeon crawling adventures than it is about an overt storyline, as later games in the series move towards. (I've liked all of the first seven Final Fantasy games but I do think the series loses something as you go further down the line and get further away from the tense dungeon-crawling fundamentals.)

I'd be remiss to post about Final Fantasy and not mention the music (which, from the games I've played, seems to get better and better as the series' famous former lead composer Nobuo Uematsu develops his skill over time). Matoya's Cave is of course a classic, and the version used in the later pixel remaster release is excellent too.) Other highlights include Town, the first of the series' heart-tugging town themes, and the mysterious, winding Mt. Gulg.

It is worth saying that the later releases of the game aren't as good as the original. The strength of the original is its tautness and, despite some oversights, the deliberate nature of its design, making resource management and decision-making important - but later versions of the game, such as the GBA or pixel remaster versions, defang the difficulty so severely that they become a little too automatic. Since the game doesn't have much in the way of an overt narrative, you aren't left with much if you take out the excitement of taking on dungeons, which is what makes your planning and character-building meaningful, on top of later releases adding endlessly refillable magic and removing the original version's strict inventory limits. Consider those releases like "digest" versions, and, if you find yourself interested in the game, look to the original NES version.

FF1 is one of the cooler RPGs I've played, and it has a particular appeal that even its immediate sequels on NES don't recapture - though they, and the SNES and PS1 entries, have their own unique values that I may have to post about as well. It has a different approach compared to what later RPGs go for, but I think its focus on making a genuine story of struggle and adventure in the player's heart makes for a longer-lasting impression, and it has to be said that the game is more easily accessible than you might expect for an old genre entry - so I'd recommend it to any open-minded RPG fan.

Anyway, here's Badman.

[eorzea80]

As it is Solstice, and as I am wont to [stay up until dawn and worry the heck out of my living spouse, daroga], and wait for some House of Ill Repute to pay out its winnings, I suppose I will weave a yarn. I had always set out for my WoL...if I can call "her" that, to be "the older but wiser [girl]"

[From here on out, I'm going to dispense with qualifiers. While I have a rather casual relationship with gender, my character, despite their obvious Mary/Boy Named Sue qualities uses she/her pronouns. Anything beyond that is for her to figure out in time.] I didn't want her to be a chipper 17-year-old HS senior featured in so many fantasy and sci-fi narratives.

[Please ignore my Sukeban Deka cosplay in the thumbnail].

On the other hand, I didn't think she could carry a hardened Ripley-esque facade. A Merlwyb I am not.

I did want to integrate a few circumstances from my life and reflect the fact that I do have a partner whom I love and respect, but for whom MMO's are kind of a no-go. I want to be able to RP, but avoid some of the complications I've heard about. Please keep in mind that I do not possess the "smells like lore"...ya know, ...lore? I just looked on Amazon for those books and I think I'm going to be sick at the price. I'm just going off of what little I've played over 10 years. Remember, dungeons make me break out in hives, so I only ever got the courage to attempt them in Shadowbringers/Endwalker. [Deep breath] Pryne Caris is the child of researchers on Sharlyan, with family ties to Gridania and Ishgard. As is usually the case, once her mother was with child, she set aside her ambitions in favor of raising her daughter and supporting her husband's research [true story]. Pryne was a quick study. Beyond knowing *of* Y'shtola, who was a few years above her, *of* G'raha, who was a few years below her, and maybe babysitting the Leveilleur twins [THRICE, NEVER AGAIN, true story], Pryne had few academic contacts outside of her year [In theory, Krile should have been a bestie, but I can't find THE LORE to support that]. Nevertheless, she still rose through the the ranks, buoyed by her parents' confidence and competence. It seems to me that she would have sought out the opportunity to become an Archon and possibly been a Student of Baldesion...but a few circumstances intervened. In the years preceding the Seventh Umbral Calamity, Pryne's father began to go mad. As his work became increasingly useless to the cause of Etheirys, he was stripped of his duties and institutionalized in a facility within Labyrinthos. His family, not being current or vested researchers within Sharlyan, were given a choice: Stay in their home and work to subsidize his care, with almost nothing left over for their own needs; or leave and have his care fully funded by the institution. It really wasn't much of a choice. Pryne's research was left behind unfinished; a torch for other students to carry [true story, that's how it works in academia sometimes]. I haven't the foggiest clue what she was specializing in, as she came to her fighting class later in life, but I imagine she was trying to find some woo-woo link between magical and physical classes; something that G'raha may have picked up on as he became our favorite All-Rounder. She and "Ma Mère" left for Gridania, stayed with kinfolk in Central Shroud for a spell, and then splurged on an apartment in the Lily Hills complex. Beside doing academic spec work for Gridanian government and guilds, they established a bar, "Salutations" [Cheers], which is where they turned most of their gil. Within a year, they went from sleeping in a double-bed behind the bar to each having an apartment of their own, one floor apart [true story...you're going to see a lot of those *cough* Mary Sue *cough*] Around the end of their first year in Gridania, as conditions worsened, a regular patron invited her to the Lancers' Guild in town.

"You know, just so you can defend yourself." "I can defend myself just fine, thank you!" "I'm sure you can, but it's much more convincing with a pointy stick!"

Again, she was a quick study. He tutored her and when her researcher's mind absorbed all he could give, he referred her on to the guild leader; and then on to Coerthas.

"Come back to me when you are a Dragoon. Come back to The Shroud and we will be married."

In her head, the peace of The Sanctum and the fires of Carteneau flash back and forth, strobing, blinding.

"We were both there, side by side, hand in hand, ready to meet our uncertain future. We moved but a finger and one of us vanished."

Like most afflicted with post-Calamity amnesia, Pryne cannot remember the fate of her husband on the fields of Carteneau.

Unlike those afflicted, a new vision has cropped up to take the place of those irradiated memories.

Hydaelyn.

Pryne was not asking for someone to kick her in the pants and out of mourning for her husband. Her mother certainly wasn't going to go there, having barely mourned her own husband's loss as well. Oh, no, no. Our dear Hydaelyn, our Friend From Another End[walker], was there to show us the way out of our grief. Show us = SEND US ON A MESSIANIC QUEST WITH A BUNCH OF OLD CLASSMATES. So now she's here. Saving suicidal bird girls and trying not to see all the similarities between her husband [WHO MIGHT STILL BE OUT THERE] and this five-foot-three flagon of charged Hawaiian Punch. Who may or may not be a former classmate. Who she may or may not have saved from being a giant quartz statue. ----- [I WON THE LOTTERY! I NEVER WIN CRAP! It's kind of a life-changing amount of gil. I have no clue what I'm going to do with it [nothing, I'm doing nothing, I'm saving it for a nest egg and never touching it like in real life].

And now she's back at Salutations, watching careworn former soldiers make terrible jokes on her stand-up stage. Keeping Alisaile from raiding the bar ["Why do I never have this issue with Alphinaud?"]. Keeping gil in the jukebox. Keeping it all from slipping through her fingers a third time.

----- Please be kind to my lore that is not lore. A lot of it is left ambiguous so that I can maybe write my partner in at a later date, if they care to join. Also, because I DON'T HAVE THE LORE BOOKS BUT NOW I KNOW THEY EXIST AND I WANT THEM.

[siderealcity]

ARR is far from bad. ARR is doing a number of amazing things which I think fly under the radar for most people.

Long, rambling post, more under the cut.

First of all, ARR is trying to establish the setting, characters, and stakes for new players, while simultaneously presenting a story about an apocalypse that you narrowly averted to players who were present for 1.0. At first glance to a new player, the MSQ seems like a straightforward play on the generic fantasy adventurer trope. You arrive, new in town, and literally go to the tavern to get your quest. But if you're paying attention, there are numerous indications that you may have done this all before. It's kind of a huge risk for the developers, making the MSQ center around tying off the loose ends of the Dalamud story that relatively few people ever saw or ever will see. But they do it, and they manage to keep it from ever feeling as though you, the new player, are just secondary to a story about Louisoix, or the Alliance leaders, or the Archons. And it makes a very deliberate point of ending 2.0 on a cutscene of the world declaring that things have changed for the better because of what you've done.

Secondly, I think people don't grasp just how much more story-centered ARR is than pretty much any other MMO. Even having a singular main story is not the norm for the genre. But ARR takes it further: everything has a story. Class quests? When every other MMO out there has been removing them? Oh, we got class quests. Unlocking mounts? Little plot event with a cutscene, gated by the MSQ. You even name your chocobo. Crafting? Oh, every single type of crafting has a plot. Several. Several plots. And so do all the gathering activities. The glamour system? Has a quest, and an MSQ prerequisite. Hair stylist? Same deal. How do you use the auction house? Advance the MSQ. It's largely the genre convention at this point that after a while, those quest requirements are removed, so new players can "get to the real game" faster.

But this is the game. And that's why those speed bumps have been left in, even as they've made leveling faster and smoothed out the length of the 2.X MSQ. Because they need to retrain players familiar with how MMOs work to understand that the endgame is not the only game. Everything in FFXIV is the game. The old content remains valid. In most MMOs, the old dungeons just don't get run after an expansion launches. Old expansion areas die. Of course players rush to reach max level, that's the only point at which the game is still alive.

ARR is a weird and sometimes awkward adjustment for players because it is actively trying to teach you to stop playing the game in the way you've been trained to play MMOs.

And did I mention how much worldbuilding it's trying to do? Like, FFXIV is technically part of a franchise, but no two games in that franchise actually share... pretty much anything in terms of IP. There's chocobos, usually? And a guy named Cid. And everything else changes. It can't lean on players being familiar with anything. Not every FF game even has crystals in it. By the time you get to Heavensward, you have context. You've never been to Ishgard before, but you have met Ishgardians. You've fought dragons. You know what beast tribes are, and how they usually get treated. You know what primals and Ascians are. You've heard of Allag, and you know the kind of shit they got up to. You know what a Calamity is, and what the stakes might be if Thordan causes one. Nobody needs to explain to you why it's important that you get your blessing of light back, or why it might be a sign of something terrible that you can't hear Hydaelyn's voice anymore. Heavensward can afford to be laser-focused on a few characters and their personal struggles because we already set up everything else.

So, yeah, it doesn't have to be anybody's favorite part of the story by any stretch, but ARR is not bad. It is doing a lot of work, remarkably well, to make all the story that comes later feel that much better.

p.s. it's been said a hundred times but apparently always needs to be said again: you're free to think ARR is bad (If You Actually Played It) but omg don't go around presenting it like it's the be-all, end-all, undisputed, unbiased, objective truth.

I'm forever glad I played when it came out and didn't have to deal with that shit because I can't imagine what it's like to be told over and over 'the game starts bad but just keep going'.

If people hadn't absolutely loved ARR we wouldn't be here now.

[sakiaii]

Armored x Magic girls ‘title forever work in progress’ 3rd era

this era starts with a story in 4th kingdom. this kingdom differs from other in a way that they don't use magic which is around them but absorb it instead with their bodies being like batteries. magic users will often meditate trying to break their limit. story follows a girl that wants to join a special school, despite them also providing basic education they're also like a clan where those that want to stay can dedicate their lives to their interests. the kingdom has 3 problems and i'll go more into that in dedicated post. their king passed away and the youngest heir is stalling the ceremony (btw his older brother was exiled) spoiler he wants to resolve the issues first so that when he accepts the crown it will be a new beginning for the kingdom. he also wants to join the 3 kingdoms alliance but do to issues they don't want to be seen as policing this kingdom so he needs to deal with this if his kingdom is to truly join the alliance. on rare occasion a really powerful army shows up to save the day flying on the sky like dbz characters with many in the kingdom suspecting it's the secret guard of the soon to be king but they're actually from the alliance and their leader is dun dun dun the younger daughter of 1st era eye patch girl.

and that's why this is the 3rd era even tho there was no transition from 2nd but this stories are happening more then 20 years at least (ok just realized somethings are off maybe even more then 50 lol ) in the future from the 1st era's finale.

me saying how this stories are in the future and now i have to talk about next stories which are set in the past xD

a lot of other stories are about 4th kingdom's past

from it's starting days.

to stories where some women, different face keeps showing up and sacrificing herself in the face of tyranny to inspire next generations. could she be Irene. spoiler or maybe 3rd shadow whose a necromancer, maybe.

there was one with time travel but it had nothing to do with shadow. these are kinda unpolished fantasies.

few forgotten stories had monster hunting groups (inspired by mmo i played where the best gear was red and veterans could still be one shotted in raids if tanks skill was on cooldown xD ) and there was another planet where alien ships from 1st era crashed and whatever was on them changed the eco system and cities are now in spheres as outside is too dangerous.. just realized this one also had hunting groups lol and armored 1st era girl shows up here as apparently raven armor device is also among the crashed ships (umm idk this part didn't always sit well with me)(this story actually got recreated few times and in some versions it was earth and raven died in some version through time travel they meet and future Raven had broken system in left arm that makes you wonder what happened)

few things we find out in 3rd era is how Crimson castle actually had an army of red eyed vampires sleeping in their caskets.

also the 2nd kingdom will be more aware of something stirring up, the ancient vampires were awaken because of that and 1st era ruler girl has twin granddaughters one story could be how one of twins was send to earth as means of protecting just one heir as danger lurks and her mother's family all vampires and as well as you the audience would not know that and think she normal with her family being confused and comedically trying to figure out if that's really the case as it is rude to ask "so what are you?" xD

also there's a girl who can see magic. it's an ability of extinct race but some rare people have the gene. in her story a portal with monsters was opened and her friend kicked her out as it was closing and she stayed to hold them off.

and then the bards get a story of their own. but this are modern so they focus more on singing and in their story the kingdom didn't want to cause panic but there was a dangerous horde so bards organised a festival of concerts to distract but also help with gathered magic and as the magic sight girl who was commander of army sent to deal with hoard saw blue magic on the sky she saw it also meet with the red magic from opposite direction and ordered alarm as she flew in that direction much to everyone's confusion and then defeated looks from the bards and their principal as alarm went off then a wave of magic exploded breaking windows and we see principal holding a shield with her room filled with glass and everything tossed around she approaches the window and as she is looking down at people in the city she hears bells, a dragon and drums and sees in the sky multiple arrivals going in that direction and she herself joins them in the sky seeing flying ships, witches, dragon, 3rd kingdom's aircrafts, flying armies. and everyone gathered in front of a sphere there is banging coming from it as someone steps up and says "you did a good job but we're all here now" "you can rest" and the banging stops and sphere vanishes.

and then the finale happens 🥳

PS: 2nd kingdom had so many secrets did you know that in mountain chain there was another castle and a bunch of young dragons. compared to 2 ancient they're like cats next to lions.