#i love liveblogging games when i play them so i thought it would be fun to make a blog for that...

[tineymang]

♡ hey i'm mango/scout/tiney!! (any are fine, but they are listed in order of preference!) ♡ my pronouns are they/them, bun/buns/bunself and bip/beep/boopself!

♡ this is basically just a general main blog where I reblog posts i like and post my art + other creative things :] i do usually categorize the things i reblog (like tagging the media, etc.) but if you need anything specific to be tagged please let me know!

♡ as of right now, i only have one side blog which i'm actively using. i'll update this later if there's more! star-charm (a sideblog for things like liveblogging!)

♡ tags i use for my original posts: my junk: catch-all tag for everything i post! mang doodles: tag for art! mang crafts: tag for crafty things like sewing! mang posts: tag for textposts! mang says stuff: um. to be honest i can't really remember what this was for. i think it was for answering asks? team epic squad moment: tag for talking about my pmd:eos team, team epic squad!

♡ if you're reading this i hope you have a good day today :]

[brineffxiv]

Hi!

Er.. So. Dawntrail is imminent. I have been meaning to make this post for some time? But I procrastinated. I sort-of hoped that I would be able to catch up to my huge backlog of posts? Ah, but I suppose I should confess, I finished the game!

I loved it. It was awesome. Incredible. I cried so much.

Yeah. Kind of a poor excuse for a "liveblog" at this point, eh? So, when we last spoke... I got to the end of Elpis, and then that biiig cutscene happened. And I couldn't manage to articulate how I felt about it. Like. The first time I saw it, I was so upset and cried through the whole thing. I loved it. I hated it. I was so very angry with Venat. But I couldn't put it into words why. In the end, I was very glad I'd taken screenshots of it, and could go back through it and see it slowly, because my initial impression of what happened, turned out to not be what actually happened when I looked at it again?

I am still angry with Venat. But not necessarily for what she did in the moment, more, a collection of her actions and her overwhelming need to be in control at all times. Her mistakes were made long before the sundering, and I think at the time she did the best she reasonably could. Unfortunately, her best wasn't good enough.

BUT! These are all conclusions I should save for that post.

Which I still would like to write.

That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about. See, like I said, I finished the game. But. I kept taking screenshots all the while, expecting to write posts. I had just hoped to have caught up before this point. Because as I understand it, Dawntrail will bring with it a significant graphical upgrade. And then it's not really possible to pretend that this is still a "live" blog, yeah?

And I mean, regardless, pretending it's all still "live" wouldn't be fair to you all. That'd be telling lies. And that's bad.

So how do you feel about this? When I get to writing posts I will still call them a liveblog, and I will try to write them in the mindset I was in when I first played through them. But we all know that it's not truly live.

The other option is I can just... not write the posts and quit the liveblog.

I don't know. Up to you to decide, I suppose. Do you even want to see the rest of it?

Anyway. So what happened was, I stalled out on writing that post, but I really wanted to keep playing. So I thought I'd play just a little... And, well, you know what happens with "just a little" - before I knew it I was in Ultima Thule facing down the Endsinger. And I still couldn't finish that damn post.

I did a lot of fun stuff after finishing the game!

I did all of Eureka! I cleared the Baldesion Arsenal enough times to complete 4 sets of gear and 4 Relic Weapons! I even did calls and led some of the runs through BA! It was a lot of fun! (I did it through the ABBA discord, which, while there are some lovely people there, upper management are assholes and I would not recommend sticking around long term. Use them and lose them is what I'm saying)

Then I went and did Bozja! I ran Delubrum Reginae Savage (with the Lego Steppers discord. Very well managed run. Full stars) and got my Cerberus mount. I hate Bozja! I'm not going back there! You can't make me!

I joined a raiding static and cleared EX6 when it was current! Then we cleared EX7! Then last Monday we cleared P9S! Such fun!

I joined a second raiding static! I was asked to leave the second raiding static! Because I am not very good at raiding!

Hmm... what else did I do? I maxxed out my Island Sanctuary. I got all my Blue Mage spells and completed the Masked Carnivale. I even got my umbrella! And I completed all my Splendorous Tools! I have 25 fish left to catch in the game!

I won a Medium house and decorated it. If you want to come see it some time, it's on Marilith, Mist, Ward 17 Plot 29. I filled it with secrets. And a little shrine to my favorite character (It's Emet-Selch, of course it is).

I even built a personal FC with my alt and am experimenting with subs and airships!

Speaking of alts. I may have made too many.

I did the raids (and cried), I did the tribal quests (and cried). I did a lot of crying! But it was good. It was worth it! I love this game!

I am so looking forward to Dawntrail (and I hope you are too!).

[an-honest-puck]

Prompocalypse (Ep. 16) highlights and viewing notes because I don’t have the time to liveblog while watching but I do have thoughts that I will complete some other time lol

spoilers ahoy!!!

nothing like the power of a teen girl/tiefling's catty sarcasm to completely undermine a villain's monologue (shoutout to the d20 sound crew for the perfect music and timing on that one!!)

Gorgug learns about a new way of disarming people: kissing them

"Stop outing students!"

"I'M GAY NOW WOO"

Lou turning his adding-up-dice-humming into the first notes of 'Amazing Grace' that Zac immediately picks up on and starts swaying along

Brennan's gentle "yeah" when Siobhan admits to having a question that will be bad for the party, but also that she wants to play the game right

even more spoilery spoilers below!

Lou giving Siobhan a thumbs up after the above question

the fact that Goldenrod finds the need to justify to a bunch of teenagers that he's attacking this student because he's just an evil demon and not because said student is gay

Riz yelling "HOMOPHOBE!" at an honest-to-goodness dragon

"To be clear, I am very socially liberal; I am fiscally conservative!" + everyone's reaction to that (shoutout to Zac's very judgemental head tilt XD)

Brennan saying "I am a libertarian!" in Goldenrod's 'teacher' voice and then growling it again straight afterwards, as if Goldenrod just remembered he was a big-ass dragon XD

not Beardsley's "So convenient for you!" lmaoooo

Goldenrod: What? Everyone should be free to do what they want. I should be free to collect gold and destroy, and you should be free to try and run away! This is a cultured political philosophy!

Ally/Kristen: I'm down from hearing that [and not from his actual attack XD]

Brennan: *describing the gnarly metal music Gorgug's listening to*

Zac: *drops his dice*

"Ooh, beignets!"

the little grin on Brennan's face when he rolls the dice and then A WILD JAWBONE APPEARS!!!!!!!!!!

Jawbone hugs!!!!!! 😭

Jawbone: Y'understand me?

Adaine: No!

Jawbone's monologue about panic attacks which is too much to unpack here and is basically a whole post in and of itself

Brennan: *mentions Tracker*

Ally/Kristen: Tracker!

Jawbone: I CAME HERE TO FUCK SHIT UP and help children

"Jawbone rules! I'm so glad we helped get his life together"

Introducing, Jawbone: Not a Healer, but a healer of the mind and the soul uwu

Adaine (but mostly Siobhan lol): I would love to do an arcana check... on this absolute fucking unit

Adaine just double flipping off an honest-to-goodness dragon

Kalvaxus: Aren't you supposed to be some kind of high-falutin' elf?

Adaine: I'm a child. You are attacking a bunch of children, you coward.

Fig: Be careful, Adaine; he has a taste for the young ones

Adaine: I have a mental illness and that's fine!

Kalvaxus: Alright, let's not turn this into a fucking PSA after-school special bullshit

Emily's big brain idea to seal Kalvaxus to be the next lunchlad and promote Gilear to be the new VP

Lou's sick-of-Brennan's-shit "Is it [Kalvaxus's] turn?"

Kalvaxus, an honest-to-goodness dragon and the Emperor of the Red Waste: Teens are so mean!

Kristen, mockingly: "Stop making fun of me!"

Adaine: Yeah well at least we're not ugly!

Adaine's happy bobbing!!!!! :DD

"This medicine is great! :D"

Gorgug's Nat 20 (!!!) to summon GORTHOLAX!!!!!

"IT'S TIME TO SHRED, BABY!!!"

Penelope, dying: All I wanted to be- was queen :'((

Kristen: We know!!

Beardsley trying to figure out how to flip someone the middle finger when they only have 4 digits

Riz/Murph, despondent that he can't roll anything higher than a ten. Everyone else: "You can!"

"Should've gotten silver fillings, bitch!!"

"Man, when I grow up, I wanna be a guidance counsellor!" - Adaine

Fabian's "a-HA!"

the strangest bit of improv when the tables are turned and Siobhan makes Brennan improv something coming out of her character's Jacket of Useful Things ("I open up my Jacket of Useful Things and I say 'I need something that will beat Kalvaxus' and I put my hand in a pocket and I pull out...?) only for Brennan to pull out the whole goddamn lore for the jacket XD

Ally: Can I roll for a nat 20 and then be alive?

Brennan's famous last words: Uh, sure, go for it.

Ally/Kristen: This is to the corn god. I know I left for a while but-

[Brennan.exe has stopped functioning]

Brennan: *flabbergasted and now rapidly figuring out how the fuck to figure this out*

Riz/Murph: Praise be to Helio!!!

Fabian/Lou: He-li-o! He-li-o!

BONUS EPISODE UNLOCKED, BABYYYYYY

[lookingforcactus]

Live action Yu Yu Hakusho liveblog: ep 1

This is so much fun. Nostalgia time. 13 year old me is LIVING

Warning for like whole ep 1 spoilers and all

Yusuke and Botan look great which I already knew going in from the gifset that informed me this show exists lol, but it's delightful, bc the characters in this show aren't necessarily the easiest to translate to live action

Botan is adorable. Her hair is adorable. And I'm delighted to see that Yusuke's hair is the Correct amount of Poufy

Plot twist: Kuwabara hot. He looks great actually. Translated nonliterally compared to Yusuke but v well. The actor is selling me on it too, fun casting

Kuwabara was always hard for me to watch in the original bc he set off my vicarious embarrassment soo hard. Glad they're less committed to making him the constant source of painful comedic relief here lol

KOENMA PACIFIER REVEAL I LOVE IT

Laughed out loud for real tbh

Idk if I'm a little disappointed he's not a baby but like live action would make that ridic hard to do in a lot of ways so I don't blame them at all. He's in his adult form which makes sense. Still damn glad they kept the pacifier it is RUINING his dignity and I love it

I also don't blame them for cutting the flying oar effects. A lil sad but the initial transition to Reikai looked great so they're forgiven

Yusuke. "No thanks." I knew it was coming and the delivery still made me laugh out loud. Just dropped it in there. Yusuke I love you please see a therapist

Fight scenes are v creative and p epic

Seriously they do a really good job of making Yusuke's fighting style as a human believable, fun to watch, and effective. He rly does come off as just kind of a natural fighting genius (with practice ofc)

Sakyo in ep 1? Weird but I'm not opposed. The wavy hair is kinda freaking me out though ngl. Smoothness was just such his THING in the show it's distracting

Really liked Yusuke's mom's introduction (not that it was flattering to her as a character) but I wish they'd done more with her in the rest of the ep. Her power hug at the end is great tho

Show's slowing down a bit but it's fine I'm still having fun, the nostalgia power will get me through basically whatever

NO PUU!!!! This is tragic but I Do understand this as an adaptation choice. Reluctantly. Tragic tho.

Bug under guy's face effect EPICALLY creepy

That said I keep watching the motion of him and the other demons in this ep and thinking about Hayao Miyazaki said about the disgusting cruelty of using effects technology to make the scary scary inhuman monsters just fucking. look and move like disabled ppl

Seriously I keep seeing flashes of the appearance and movements of people I know with developmental disabilities (particularly this one guy I know with cerebral palsy but also I've worked in care work for disabled adults and just kind of a lot of people in general) and. I hate this. Especially as a person who DOES have a (nonvisible) developmental disability myself. This is such a rising trend in horror/sff/fantasy tv/movies/video games and I hate everything about it. Hayao Miyazaki was right this kind of attitude and shit really is "an insult to life itself"

Anyway fight scene cool

I love Keiko btw. Her crying and blaming herself! Her face when Yusuke comes back! Also Yusuke "I'm not gonna die just bc you talked shit" pffft jackass (affectionate)

DEMON CREW CAMEO AT THE END

Kurama looks pretty good. Goki actually looks wayyyy better than he did in the anime imho, which I did not see coming.

Effects on Kurama and Hiei's fighting looks surprisingly great. They pulled off the rose whip way better than I thought they would, and did some great wirework with Hiei's speed and fighting style

That said....Hiei...oof. That hair was always gonna be a Challenge but I think their ambition here did uh. not play off rip. Hopefully it'll look better later on

[lem-argentum]

HIHI UM BEFORE I MAKE ANY DT POSTS here’s all of the commentary i had from doing the post-ew quests a few months ago :’>!!! JUST FOR CHRONOLOGICAL CONSISTENCY IN MY LIVEBLOG TAG….. THESE PATCHES WEREN’T MY FAVORITE BUT I HAD FUN 💛💛💛

I LOVE ZERO I LIKE HER SO MUCH AND SHE IS SO APLATONIC TO ME. 💛✨💛✨💛 even though they go the ‘ooo realizing the meaning of friendship~~’ route with her — she’s apl. i believe this in my heart. <33 (the line where a kid goes “you don’t know what a friend is???” and she goes “what. you Do?” <333)

this game honestly does fanservice so rarely that when the es.tinien working out scene came up i was likeWHAT????????????? . i feel like i dodged a bullet that they decided to do this with him instead of th.ancred or something because it would’ve been so over for me.

i enjoyed the ru.bicante and bar.bariccia fights a lot >:D!!!! ESPECIALLY THE LATTER I THOUGHT HER MECHANICS WERE REALLY FUN AND CHALLENGING, IT WAS THE FIRST TIME I HAD TO LOOK UP A VIDEO GUIDE BECAUSE THE TEXT ONES WERE TOO COMPLICATED HFNSKN. <33

^*WHO* GAVE HIM PERMISSION TO SAY THIS STUPID GAY SENTIMENTAL LINE. I WAS *NOT* PREPARED FOR HIM TO GIVE THAT ANSWER I WAS SO WHFKZHKEJFKD ??????!!?!/!/? !!!!!!!!!!

^AND THIS PART OF HIS CODEX ENTRY. OW!!!!!!!!!!!

THFNE QUESTS ON THE FIRST. AA HHHHHHHH .WAA AAHHHHH. WAAAAH (<-shadow.bringers fan.) so emotional about it. seeing everyone doing well and being excited to see me and talking about my friends and cheering us on :’). weh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND THE R.YNE AND ZERO MOMENTS. AAHH TvT <333!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

^THIS EXCHANGE. I COULD CRYYYYYY SHE’S SO CUTE. MY DAUGHTER. EHEHFKNWMW <333

i liked gol.bez’s story.. and v.rtra and az.daja were so sweet i felt for them. waugh. </3 void quests good!!!!!!

GAIA SHOWING UP MADE ME SMILE TOO. I ASSUME SHE’S ONLY THERE IF YOU’VE DONE THE EDEN RAIDS…?? IN WHICH CASE, YAY. I LOVE U EDEN <3 ^^

kr.ile’s pictomancer outfit is SOOO CUTE. I LOVE HER AND AM SO GLAD SHE’S GETTING STORY FOCUS. (and hashtag ff.vi win, relm mention) <3333

the themes raha represents touch me more than any other character and whenever she turns towards me to say something one-on-one i’m immediately like Okkkk you’re about to try to make me cry. okay. sure. thankyou. 💛

THAN & URI BEING MYSTERIOUS WHILE ALSO GOING TO THE SAME DESTINATION IS SO. HELP. because rudy would ABSOLUTELY ask if he could invite them along or at the VERY LEAST tell them about it + how much he’ll miss them, assuming him and than would be together by now. SO THEY’D HAVE TO EITHER LIE TO RUDY OR DELIBERATELY AVOID HIM WHICH ARE BOTH SO WNFKDJFKD. idk we’ll see where the canon writing goes later or whatever. <3

and non-story related thoughts from when i was playing:!!!!

i got rudy the cool pvp background for his reaper portrait and INSTANTLY when i did a roulette someone complimented it. immediate payoff. thank u red mage in bardam’s mettle <3

i had the sweetest leveling roulette experience in vanaspati where the healer + other dps were both new and i had only done it once, we all died on the second boss except for the paladin so we were all just cheering her on & emoting at her in the chat from outside the arena EHEDFN <33. and then on the third boss it was just me and her who survived so we did it together and ough :’). she kept casting clemency + cover on me to keep me alive and i made sure to keep her in crest of time returned-range and awwh it was so fun . we won and all cheered about it afterwards ehehe <)!!!!!!!!!! <3333

so many of the songs in this game use motifs from other ones and i’m only just now noticing most of them and i’m losing my mind about it . i swear every time i start humming along to one i go WAAAAIT A SECOND…………. (the tomorrow and tomorrow lyrics are in the background of the crystarium night theme. the sharlayan themes use stuff from flow. WHERE IN TIMEE ALL SHALL AS HOPEE BE REBORNNNN. AAHHHHH)

^on a similar note, i’ve been seeing the end.walker title screen this entire time and never thought anything of it but now whenever i open it i’m like TALES OF LOSSSSS AND FIIIIIIRE AND FAIIIIITHHHHHHH 🎶🎶🎶 <333

I LEVELED ASTROLOGIAN TO LVL80 SO I DID THE SHB HEALER ROLE QUESTS AND IM SO WWWAAAHHMFKDNFK. ARDBERTTTTTT. and GIOTT. IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE NPCS EVER NOW I KNEW I WOULD LIKE HER AND SHE IS SO AWESOME AND SHE SHOULD BE IN MORE QUESTS. THANKS. I MISS HER ALREADY. <3 THIS IS MY BELOVED DWARF WHO MAKES FUN OF ME AND HITS THINGS WITH HAMMERS <3333

i want to do all the shb role quests because AGHGH WARRIORS OF DARKNESS/!!!/!!!! but i do *not* want to level a tank class ever TwT. but that + magic dps i will do eventually….. for shadow.bringers………. 💛💛💛

[serenne-grace]

about me!

hellooo! I'm Seren and this year I'm starting the pokemon gym challenge in Sinnoh! I use she/her pronouns and I'm a sandgem town trainer!!! I just got my first gym badge and I thought it would be fun to blog about my pokemon journey! if you're also a sinnohian maybe I'll see you on my journey 👀

this is my team so far i love all of them n I will probably gush about them in a later post hehe

rules ✧ background ✧ pokémon

OOC: hi i'm tuna (they/them), the blog admin and player of Seren! I deleted my old blog with an older Seren since I think liveblogging as her doing her pokemon gym challenges would be fun + i really wanted to try play a nuzlocke run and document it!

This blog is a sort of fusion of irl pokeblogging and queued playthrough documentation with my art sometimes. this is a sideblog, I like and follow from @atherea

I am not a minor, however Seren is so no weird stuff when interacting please

I will stick pretty close to mainline canon stuff, so I won't be interacting with faller blogs or blogs outside of the modern pokemon era, sorry! Sentient Pokémon blogs are ok but Seren would think it's a gimmick blog or something. asks are open for interact, accepting pelipper mail as long as its not inappropriate/Pokémon gifts. magic anons are off. further blog rules can be seen here

Current game: Platinum Nuzlocke

[blackjackkent]

Hi there! I’ve been reading your playthroughs and love them a lot! It’s inspired me to want to try smth similar with my game, but I’ve been having a really hard time coming up with a character, as opposed to a generic self insert. Your PCs are so great and distinct, how do you go about creating them?

:O Ahhh, this is such a nice message, thank you! Very touched to hear you've been enjoying my stuff and that it's inspired you as well. c:

Let's see. I think what is most significant about the way I create characters through liveblogging is the idea of focusing on throughlines. In other words, recurring elements carrying through from post to post/event to event. Every time I write about something happening to them, I try to focus on how it can relate back to something else that already happened to them, and how that informs their reaction to the new thing. This helps give them a sense of internal consistency and motivation.

This is particularly significant, I think, with Rakha, since she literally knows nothing besides what she's experienced over the course of the game. So every experience is a step based on what came before it. But even with Hector or my other earlier OCs (or, tbh, even when I'm writing fic about established canon characters), in any given situation I'm always thinking about what makes their response specific to them and not somebody else. What have they gone through, what past reactions have they had, that inform the current moment.

As far as the initial process of creating a jumping off point... I think for the most part I try to combine two simple facts about them to create a unique third thing, and that ends up providing a very personally unique starting point for all the throughline work. (DND with its combination of class and background provides some useful starting points for this out of the box for any new character.)

Examples:

Hector: I knew from the character creator that he was a monk and that he had the Sage background. This gave me a starting point image of a guy whose life consisted of a combination of physical training and intellectual study - which would be a very rigorous life indeed, leading to the combination "third thing" that he didn't really ever leave the monastery and was very new to the adventuring life. This was the jumping off point for all of his early game reactions to things.

Rakha: I knew bc she was Durge she was no thoughts head empty, and in my first post writing her, I had her think very systematically through all the facts of her situation. Taking these two things together made for the "third thing" that she is a very analytical thinker and takes rational interpretation of events to an extreme, which has colored her speech patterns, responses to events, and interactions with other characters.

Caden: I decided in the CC that he was a thief, and the game gave me an initial context of being raised in Candlekeep and being close with Imoen and Gorion. This combined to the "third thing" that he was a good-hearted person who nevertheless did know how to steal things - kind of a goofball who liked pickpocketing and stealing for the fun of it but always gave everything back. This laid groundwork for him turning out to be a generally trusting person often flummoxed by people less generous and more manipulative than himself.

Speaking a little broader and outside the DND context, Elliot Hawke: I knew I wanted him to be a mage, I knew I wanted to play him as more sympathetic to the Templars, and I knew I wanted him to be a red/aggressive Hawke, since my previous DA2 char had been none of those things. So I combined these for the "third thing" (conceptually, not numerically) that he was a somniari, which gave him reason to be scared of his own powers and lash out at the people around him. This informed all of his choices and behavior afterwards.

I sadly can't find the post now but I read someone a while back talking about how you can use this same approach for worldbuiliding as well. (A particular culture of people with only one defining trait is boring. But with two, you combine them to make a third more interesting set of implications about that culture which gives them depth. Etc.)

But yeah, once I've figured out that establishing hook, then I can build on it with every experience they go through. How is their response to that experience colored by the hook/past experiences? How does it fit or contrast with what they've done up to now? How does it add to their store of experiences going forward?

One example off the top of my head, with Rakha: meeting Ethel at the tiefling camp turned out to be a formative experience, because it clashed and contrasted with the established throughline up to that point. Rakha was, as established, very cool and analytical and not emotionally driven, but Ethel was (apparently) kind to her and it woke up an emotional response that was new to her. This made the experience stick out in her mind - and also meant that when she eventually went to Ethel's teahouse, she had a very specific chink in her armor that Ethel could use to convince her to give up her eye. Had she gone straight to the teahouse without the previous combination of experiences, her reaction to Ethel's hag form would have been quite different.

I could probably ramble about this a lot longer (quite entertaining to analyze my own writing like this), but I hope this gives you some ideas to work from and answers your questions to some degree. c: I really appreciate you asking! Cheering you on in your own character creations and would love to hear about what you come up with!

[arcplaysgames]

The Persona 5 Post-Mortem, Part One: What I Didn't Like 8C

I have reread my entire P5 liveblog to refresh my memory of everything that happened in the game, and I've been trying to think about how I feel about P5R and, frankly, whether I like the game. Which is a very basic question, I think, but one I am deeply struggling with, so obviously it's not actually that simple, huh.

The answer I am tentatively settling on is: I think the third semester saves P5R from being an Actually Bad game.

I think that Persona 5 Vanilla is actually… a 5 out of 10 at best, and in my heart it's lower than that. But Royal does so much intense heavy lifting, it alone, separate from the rest of the game and the original campaign, is an 8 out of 10.

That is an enormous discrepancy that I've really never dealt with in a video game before. I think the last game I played that I truly disliked to my bones was Fallout 4. FO4 remains the only game I've ever played were I genuinely and truly wanted a refund of not just my money but my time, the hours I spent in that meaningless, vapid fucking world. Even FO3 gave me some joy of exploration, for fuck's sake.

P5R is not as bad as FO4, but the main campaign is to me an enormous disappointment that…. if I had not been in the throes of a depressive slump and thus needing something to hyperfocus on, I don't know if I would have finished the game. My frequent references to Yusuke saving me from turning off the game were not exaggeration in the least.

So, I think there are two major problems with this game. And I understand that when I did my post-mortem on P4G, I started with my likes and then went to dislikes, but I think for P5R it's correct to reverse that, because my negative feelings far outweigh the positive.

I guess point one is obvious: I think the cast of this game is bad.

I refuse to sugar-coat it. The cast of P5 is just bad, with a few mild exceptions. Even the characters that I like, I enjoy them comparatively to the ones I hate. And I have never hated someone in a Persona game before, not even Joker Mode Yosuke.

The entire cast of this game is much, much flatter than you would expect from a game that is trying so desperately to be stylish and loud and garish. P5R is maximalist to its fucking core. The fusions are executions, item creation is an electric chair, the menus are nightmares of high contrast and bouncing shapes, everything is LOUD LOUD LOUD 24/7 in this game to the point that I, a person I think is fairly skilled at video games and played P4G on Normal and breezed through it, had to lower the difficulty of the game to fucking have fun, because I felt so inundated with stimulus, I was struggling to play the fucking game.

That maximalist spirit just vanishes in the characters, and it's so fucking jarring. All style, no substance.

When I was trying to figure out my thoughts on the characters, the thing I kept coming back to was that P5 has too many main characters in the party. And weirdly, I think I'm right! P3 has seven party members (excluding beloved Koromaru, eight if you count Shinjiro who is in the party for a month). P4 only has seven.

Persona 5 Royal has nine, and I think part of the problem is that to fit all of these characters into the party and the story and to keep the MSQ scene moving at a decent pace, everyone suffers for it and gets flattened. Even the vibrancy of Yusuke vanishes from the game in the final third, where all his interesting tics and quirks are phased out until he's just a guy here to say his lines to move things along. Almost everyone suffers from this, where they are focal points during their introduction arc, and then they just lose all their shine as the story moves on.

This didn't happen in P3 and P4. That's not rose-tinted glasses talking; I JUST played both of those games starting in December. P3 is my true love but P4 is a tremendous example of how the characters continued to be themselves in every scene, even after their introductory chapters ended.

So the poison at the heart of P5R is that the characters are both not as three-dimensional to start with (and there are only a few I would even consider three-dimensional), and from the moment their respective Palaces end, they're on a half life.

This literally might be why I like Haru best, because she's introduced so late in the game that she didn't lose her voice yet by the endgame.

This is all of course at odds with the fact that only a few characters are really good. Futaba probably deserves the most accolades for being clear and present in every scene and always maintaining her uniqueness. Morgana as well, seeing as his arc lasts the entire game and is one of the central mysteries. And Akechi, without whom I think the entire game might have actually failed? Without the complexity and unnerving energy from Akechi, this cast could not sustain the runtime of the game.

AND ON TOP OF ALL OF THAT, it does not help that I actively disliked two of my party members. Makoto has by far the worse introduction of any character in any game I have played and the way the game just did not understand or contend with what she did, the stalking and blackmail and endangering everyone, soured her so completely for me that she never once got party time. I never used her.

But even she was a relief next to fucking Ryuji. Ryuji, the token best friend character who turned into The Teammate Everyone Hates for me. He was a mean, emotionally dense, disrespectful and dehumanizing asshole for the entire fucking game. And I am used to the Best Friend Guy who messes up and grows over the course of the game (see: Junpei and Yosuke) but with Ryuji there is no growth, there is barely acknowledgement of how cruel he is. And the fact he never actually apologized to Morgana for his bullshit in the middle of the game lost me completely on him. Ryuji made me as the player on the other side of the screen uncomfortable. That's…. wild, tbh.

So we have a cast where I can barely stand two characters, I'm ambivalent on three, one I regularly forgot she existed, and three I liked a lot.

That's a fucking mess, y'all. For a Persona game, which is a premium Hangout Game, where so much of the point is the characters? That's a huge problem.

The other games in this franchise like Shin Megami Tensei tend to have characters that are flatter and more allegorical in nature, but that's okay because the focus is on the themes and the writing of the world.

Which leads directly to the other problem with Persona 5.

The writing. On several metrics, the writing is Bad.

On the first point, the fact that this game has an 80 hour runtime if you are lucky, and that's just the vanilla MSQ. It feels like an 80 hour runtime. I felt every goddamn minute of how long this game is.

Structure is the problem here, in my opinion, and it goes hand in hand with the character issue. Just as this game has too many characters, it has too many set-pieces and arcs. To justify Makoto's presence in the game, there is a long, superfluous arc with Kaneshiro that should have just been cut entirely. Kaneshiro is about 10 hours that could just be snipped out of the game with nothing lost thematically or narratively.

And even more that P4 and DEFINITELY more than P3, the game will essentially…. repeat scenes.

As someone who did this entire liveblog with screencaps, I cannot tell you how many times I thought I missed capping a specific line or moment only to find out that it was in a nearly-identical scene a little bit earlier. Sometimes there were three different scenes that conveyed no new information, just restated what the characters knew, and that's just ridiculous. That's truly just too much.

On top of that, this game just gives the player way too much time. I didn't fill out every SLink in this game, but that's because I actively chose not to out of disinterest in a few of them. If I wanted to, I think I could have done every one without a guide. I spun my wheels for OVER TWENTY IN-GAME DAYS MULTIPLE TIMES. The pacing is a nightmare.

Another point I mentioned a lot was the technical quality of the writing.

This game is so over-produced, so maximalist, has so many small details, but the actual script as written for the game feels like it was done under crunch. Like, extreme crunch. Original FF7-style crunch.

It's hard to explain what this means, but in P4G, the script was lovingly crafted word by word and everything was incredibly naturalistic and conversational. There was never a moment when I had to refer to the log and reread anything, no point where a conversation lost me.

In P5R, this happened regularly. Awkward phrasings, responses that didn't make sense, repetitive sentence structure, and weird conversational pivots that did actually force me to go back and reread to understand what was being said.

Localizing a game of this scope and budget is a herculean task, and I know the game's English release was delayed. It just was not enough time. I would guess that this game needed at least another month or two to cook, but more than anything, the localization process should have been started a year before it was. The localization needed to be happening concurrently with the final year of development for a text this fucking dense.

It is so weird to see the extreme polish of the presentation of this game and then to just read the text aloud and go "wait, what" numerous times in a single playthrough.

(also this barely feels like its worth mentioning with the other issues but the lack of translation of the textures was unacceptably bad. I had to get a JPN-speaking friend to translate some things for me, and I really genuinely feel like missing out on some of this shit diminished the context of the game. Maruki's place is the most egregious offender but its everywhere.)

And finally, the last writing complaint is that until the Third Semester, this game has nothing to say. The Persona 5 Vanilla version of this game is……. meaningless but masquerading as thoughtful and rebellious.

Which is frankly hugely disappointing because this game does start strong with Joker and the repeated motif of imprisonment and betrayal. In just the first hour, Joker is beat up in an interrogation room, he's falsely accused of assault, his probation officer tells him he deserved it for stepping out of line, and every figure of authority from the principal to the teachers to his fellow students treat him like a murderer. It was a potent start to a game.

And in the end, Yaldaboath is just repeating the same fucking shit that Izanami did in P4G. People? More like SHEEPLE, amiright? People care more about being entertained than the TRUTH, and they want to be shadows/imprisoned.

Blah blah fucking blah. Persona needs to come up with something new to say because this was NOT it, chief, and was just disappointing given the strong start with Joker. I think this game's Big Theme can confidently be boiled down to "phones are like prisons," and its infuriating.

So much superfluous text and so little to say.

Until the Third Semester, anyway.

Next post will be about the things I liked, I promise.

[macgyvertape]

BG3 Act 2 thoughts and liveblog part 1

Yeah act 2 was the point where I just kept my tablet open so I could write down how my character would roleplay things, and this really stopped just a liveblog. Upon reread, I forgot how many people my character killed through dialogue checks, that weren't hard to pass, during this part of the game. To borrow from D2: "I will take what I need. The words in my throat are the weapon in my fist" really does sum up my character.

I went over the mountain pass first. I demanded the goblin fetch his bone after he did that to the animal, “forcing responsibility” my character is worse than whats in the shadows. Fun that Astarion approves of things like this that play to the Dark Urge but are also about striking against abusers

I wiped out the camp then called Kar’niss with Minthara’s lyre then intimidated him when he questioned me. My character is pretending to go along with the cultists right up until they are acceptable targets for attacks, and I turned on Kar’niss during the harper attack

Was not expecting Mol to show up and vouch for me with Jaheira

I got to hug Karlach, it was so emotional. My D!urge character is definitely fond of Karlach and willing to admit that to herself, likes her enough that making Karlach happy and trying to find a third option to Karlach’s dilemma is an influencing decision factor. She’s leaving it to Karlach to choose between death vs going back to the hells and in the meantime really wants to help Karlach live life to the fullest. She would definitely be happy to sleep with Karlach if she wanted that or help her do whatever hedonistic thing she wanted.

Oh so Wyll’s demon patron showed up, I can’t believe he still says he chose right even after my character pointed out he’s everything he accused Karlach of being. D!urge isn’t emotionally invested in Wyll but Karlach is, so she’ll help.

Ok my character definitely doesn’t trust the Dream Guardian but thinks he’s hot in the new outfit, but is really suspicious he’s secretly a mindflayer

I saw the Stange Ox’s thoughts of murder and let it be, if it wants to run from the dark urges, who am my character to say differently

Of course my character sniffed out the truth serum and didn’t drink the wine. It's very easy making consistent character choices that Astarion keeps approving of. Also of course Astarion approves of talking to the cat, he is one

My character does not play chess, good thing she had Astarion and Gale along and just let them help Mol

My character is obviously not going to help the Absolute since she doesn’t want to be a puppet for his cult, anything he wants she doesn’t want him to have. She felt that Dark Urge to let Isobel get killed then thought how the inn would fall and there goes Karlach’s chances of being helped by Dammon, but there was a moment where she was tempted talking to Isobel until she pushed it back since she doesn’t want the D!urge to rule her. 

My character was very flattered that Asatarion said “every step we walk trails blood, killing is an instinct for us. I respect you for that'' especially since Astarion was right there with her doing the killing. My character doesn’t want to turn into a mindflayer but controlling the parasites with Astarion’s plan of a little world domination does sound tempting. Love the idea of him influencing my character into more than just killing the cult 

My character is definitely worried about the butler showed up urging her to kill Isobel

This cool looking guy wants justice for murder victims, my character agreed to help for a reward but also out curiosity since she's a murderer will this guy come after me

Love how Lae’zel is inspired by us killing the undead Drider in 1 turn, yep I’m leading our team to be good at killing

Gave Shadowheart her favorite flower, and told her that she’d give me something in time, since we aren’t so close that my character wouldn’t think of this as an exchange

I let Lae’zel beat me in the fight, but turned her down when she asked me to be hers. I assume that ends the fling so I figure its just a messy relationship that my character feels awkward about

My character’s line in the sand is not extorting a child for money to find their parents, liked the “muster some kindness for once”

Also my character loves the Phalar Aluve sword, all it took was some blood in the underdark and I can buff my allies or hurt enemies around me

Of course I killed the undead brewer with his own brew and was D!urge inspired by it, it was peak my character performing as a bard with my feats, faking the drinking to gain confidence and exploiting an enemy for information

My character has also been running around with Gale nonstop since entering the creche especially since the shadowlands are in her view “weird wizard shit” so he’s designated Moonlantern holder, and I like to think this is the point she finally grows fond of him and his sense of humor and his stories. 

Astarion’s line about pitying the other six stuck with Cazador and how Cazador tortured him, like my character felt really sympathetic listening to that. Cazador was already in the kill list, now its help Astarion kill him extra painfully

My character was surprised Wyll made a pass and it wasn’t just for casual sex, she thinks if Wyll wants a committed relationship there are a lot more morally compatible companions, like Karlach, than her. 

Madeline snitched on people to the Dark Justicars and got them killed in a brutal way and He Who Was wants to torture the souls of murders, seemed the most fitting way was to make her spirit in his body recreate how the people died by stabbing themselves, it seems fair to my character that He Who Was also feels some of the pain if he’s going to be weird about this

My character’s opinion of Shar is dropping with encounters of people like Malus Thorn so she hasn’t been spending much time with Shadowheart. 

Raphael showing up and warning me in his dramatic manner about unleashing a pestilence if a creature makes it out of the tomb I open, my character is definitely on high alert. That Astarion will get his scars translated, adds impetus to not mess around. I then thought this would lock me out of things and left for later

My character did enjoy convincing all the Shar nurses to turn on each other or commit suicide. I killed Sister Lidwin for torturing/kiling Arabella’s parents, figured my character would be happy to avenge them. Used the bard actions to be kind when telling Arabella about her parent’s deaths, and Karlach and Astarion approved which re-emphasises is probably some good positive moral reinforcement for my character

Halsin’s portal was defended by prepping the surrounding area in flammable surfaces and throwing a lot of bombs and fire damage spells

Finally unlocked Halsin as a companion, wish I had figured out how to do this earlier. Oh well, that’s for the next playthrough.

My character is thrilled, she’s super attracted by how buff Halsin is but also finds him really charming. He seems open to causal relationships and she’s impressed that someone who doesn’t had a tadpole joining in to help out and hopefully he can defend himself unlike that poor bard.

The one person my character wishes she could ask for money is Rolan for rescuing him from his own idiocy 

Initial Moonrise tower team is Astarion, Gale, and Halsin. Its an unbalanced team but figured my character would choose along the lines of people who could infiltrate and lie, and would be open to Astarion’s plan of some light world domination plus Halsin who has unfinished business

My character is worried that the cat says she was there before, and wonders how monstrous she was to deliberately step on a cat’s tale. I chose the option “try to remember what was forgotten” and even though it killed the cat I decided to keep that choice for rp purposes, since my past evils aren’t so lost. Want to amp up my character being worried about the loss of control and what monster they were, as well as the fact she’s done risky stuff in this quest to figure out their past or gain more power. 

My character figures whatever monster she might have been the woman mind dominating the knolls to be “better people” is far more fucked up. So of course she influenced the knolls to turn on her, but was surprised and discomforted that they too recognized her

My character gave Araj some of my blood continuing the train of fucking around with sketchy things for power. She spoke up that Astarion was his own person but was like “Astarion why don’t you want to just bite her for this great reward?” since I like to think she’s a little confused on what others will do for power if it isn’t life or death (convincing people about the tadpoles was life or death) and the person hasn’t set firm boundaries. Then when Astarion said he really didn’t want to she was like “don’t do anything you don’t want to”, and when he thanked her, she assumed it was for not trying to persuade him.

Ketheric Thorm immediately got cooler once I heard his voice and recognized it was JK Simmons. Also oh wow its Fezzerk from Blighted Village windmill so many many hours ago

Lol of course my character didn’t speak up for the goblins, it would blow my cover and they were torturing Barcus Wroot when I met them, and they aren’t going free since they serve the Absolute. My D!urge character did “BEG! CHOKE! DIE!” (I originally chose “I will do this with my own hands, it always feels better” and liked it more for the role playing but it gave no Astarion approval)

I sat in Kethric’s throne and Astarion had the funniest dialogue mocking me. Fitting that I then distracted from my mind being searched for loyalty by focusing on my lust for Astarion

Act 2 in the shadowlands has really been my character growing closer to Gale, where she’s moved beyond being fond of him to actually caring for him which makes not feel awkward about how much he really likes her.  Especially since she hasn’t been persuading him to like her, and hasn't pushed him to go for the power and ambition or to be less loyal to Mystra. She's just agreed with his ambitions since he has (in her view) a good mix of pragmatism and morals, and she thinks he's a loyal type of person so she doesn't need to watch her back. So she encouraged him to do the pixie necromancy and then thought it would be a good time to bring up he doesn’t have to live by Mystra’s doctrine and has a choice about the orb.

Yeah of course even though it made Karlach feel bad my character stood with her and listened to 3 sad stories in exchange for some demon coins, and then told her I was her real friend and my D!urge character actually meant it. (Actually I’ve never used the demon coins to empower her since I forgot about that mechanic till now and I’ve been resource hoarding). 

When Astarion thanked my character back at camp again for not forcing him to bite the Drow she was a bit surprised and of course said she doesn’t want him to do anything he doesn’t want to do. My character mentioned “So why sleep with me? Did you think you'd get something from it?” since of course she recognized he was seducing her back in act 1 before they really knew each other, Astarion responded “Of course I needed protection… and seducing you was easy frankly”. My character genuinely respects him for doing that, manipulating her for his own survival and so she’ll like him considering she regularly uses [persuade] and [intimidate]. Astarion mentions he started to genuinely feel something for her, and she responded that she cares about him; genuinely she likes him the most out of the whole group not just romantically but also in terms of the lengths she would go and the things she would do for him. 

Ideally my character could choose all the options of “what do you want to do” and “we can be together without sleeping together for as long as you need” and “open your mind so he sees you care”, but since I can only pick one I figure Astarion knows my character can lie even in their mind so best just talk to him with words. 

When Gale wanted to speak privately and was melancholy about his future death my character took every opportunity to say that they would find another way, he didn’t have to die, but didn’t mention anything about how he might kill innocents because she would kill those same innocents herself to keep Gale alive. When she met Gale on the cliffs it was really I think the moment she acknowledged she cares about Gale and him living, that she’s turning down an easy way to destroy the Absolute. When Gale said “I consider myself lucky to call you my friend” my character genuinely meant it when she said the feeling was mutual.

Prisoner rescue team is: Astarion, Gale, and Karlach. Of course I get the “not to worry I have a permit” when I exploit Balthazar not being around to contradict me having his permission

After talking with the Warden my character is definitely worried they used to be an Absolute cultist before she lost her memory

In the tower jail I used Astarion to 1 hit ko the eyes, then killed the Warden in her tower in 1 hit with an exploding barrel, then threw the gnomes his tools so he could escape, and we made it to the boat without the other 2 guards catching up

My character wants Barcus to realize he can do better than Wulbren, that Wulbren doesn’t like him but is happy to use his concern

After 3 reloads because a companion triggered a trap in the gauntlet of Shar i just said fuck this I’m looking up a walkthrough, this is giving me flashbacks to The Fade section in DA:O

Astarion was upset my character started chatting with the demon in Shar’s Gauntlet, then was impressed when D!urge talked the demon into killing all the companions then itself. My character didn’t care about Astarion saying thanks, she just wanted to see if Astarion was happy with the demon's death and say it was a pleasure to kill him

My character of course was going to help Astarion kill Cazador, she was happy to kill him all the way back in act 1. As for the ritual for vampire ascendant she has her doubts; how many souls need to be sacrificed and is there some other catch.

I didn’t realize we weren’t supposed to follow the rats to the bottom area; then Shadowheart and Gale were inspired when the swarm turned back into a dude and my character was inspired by killing more than 5 enemies in a round. So worked out all around

My character killed Balthazar before continuing through the gauntlet. That was a hard fight, where Gale having counterspell and lots of special arrows helped

My character decided since the deception is at a dead end killing Balthazar she might as well break into Kethric’s quarters. She thought the undead dog Squire was adorable, but all of her fears of her past reading about “the handpicked captain not found in the wreckage” are becoming worse

In front of the Nightsong my character had finally hit the breaking point of tolerance towards Shadowheart’s worship of Shar, and she did charm (to pass the 30 roll persuasion) Shadowheart to not go through with killing the Nightsong because otherwise it would have been a bloodbath killing Shadowheart to stop her.

This is the first time my character used charm/friends on a companion

Looking up other ways to do this afterwards, I guess it fits into role playing my character that over the course of being in the shadowlands and seeing the proof Shar just uses and twists people while Shadowheart stayed devoted, it had a big negative effect on my character's trust in Shadowheart and her loyalties. So much so she pushed the issue at the first opportunity and didn't tell Shadowheart “do what you want” like some other companions, and didn't wait for Shadowheart to change her mind. There's too much on the line to keep the Inn's protections and to fight Ketheric

[pheonyxian]

Baldur's Gate 3 Sexless Any% Part 3

I think some of my mutuals are using this as an actual way of knowing what BG3 is actually about so I figured I'd use this edition to talk about the plot and npcs a bit. Might slow down or stop these at some point? I thought the original premise was funny but I don't know if it's liveblog an entire 100 hour game funny. Regardless feel free to block the tag I'm adding if you don't want to hear any future rambles. Do love/hate it when a game I didn't intend to like so much gets its grubby mind flayer tentacles wrapped around my brain so hard.

The OC PC: RPing through the game as my OC Ank. I wasn't sure if picking an oc with strong psychic powers would rub against the mind flayer plot but so far it's been a perfect choice. Ank is traditionally a villain but I'm not playing a villain for my first play through, so it's been fun to rp him in a scenario where he's g o o d and his life didn't take a turn for the worse. He's also traditionally blind, but obviously the game isn't set up for that. I was originally just imagining cutscenes playing out differently if sight was involved, but maybe it'll be more interesting to consider him in a pre-blinded state. I'm sure certain repeated actions in the ocular region won't have any u n f o r t u n a t e effects.

Mind Flayers: The setup for the plot is that mind flayers have infected you (and your companions, and a large number of npcs) with mind flayer parasites and you have to remove them before you turn into fully grown mind flayers. Except for some reason you haven't turned yet and you get cool psychic powers with them.

The Guardian: In addition to making your own character at start, you also can character create your "guardian." Everyone I know just hits the randomize button because they've already spent an hour fussing over every detail of their character, but I knew this was coming and already planned my guardian out. And uh, like I said, Ank's traditionally a villain and the only guardian-like character he's ever had is uh... I'm going to be honest with you, if the guardian turns out to be the big bad of the game that's going to be funny as all fuck. I'm sure there's very little chance of that though, it's not like there's anything evil about telling you to s h o v e w o r m s i n t o y o u r s k u l l.

Withers: Withers is more of a mechanic than a character. I do want to know his story though. He's an undead or lich or something who will revive dead characters (for a cost) hire generic undead companions (for a cost, I guess if you want to resign your poor companion's unfortunate fate) and change your cast (for the same cost as undead friends.) I guess money still has use in the afterlife. I haven't had to use his services yet but I've had a lot of close calls and dwindling Revivify scrolls so it's only a matter of time.

Volo: Just Gale but a bard. Not a playable character Bard mind you. At least not yet. I don't know what his deal is. He offered to extract the mind flayer parasites with a pair of needles which I almost agreed to to see if he'd actually poke Ank's eye out.

And updates on companion stories:

Shadowheart: Decided that after a week of traveling and nearly dying together it was appropriate to breach topics again. Pretty sure the game expected me to ask these immediately once the option was available but like I said, we respect boundaries in this house. Anyway, Shadowheart's a cleric of Shar, who by context I'm assuming is bad. The way she put her worship didn't sound that bad, about embracing the darkness as a way of stripping falsehoods, right up until she started talking about toppling governments and killing innocents, so I'm keeping her at a 2/10 for being batshit insane.

Also her magical artifact is required for keeping me alive and she stole it and do we really want the e v i l cleric to have that kind of p o w e r over M E?

Lae'zel: Lae'zel sits at the very strange crossroad of honorable and completely ruthless. She's totally fine with killing your enemies but you have to do it the right way, and b r a i n w o r m s isn't the right way. I'd say the right way is whatever works. 7/10

Gale: All of my attempts to pry into Gale's backstory (boundaries? what boundaries?) were foiled by poor dice rolls so no updates on his dark and traumatic past. I did give him two magical artifacts to slurp up because he looked like he was going to die of heat stroke at camp. I've been avoiding spoilers but I had heard that it's hilariously difficult to not accidentally romance Gale due to a bug, and the fact that you can start his romance path without realizing it. Thankfully Ank is smart enough to realize that when you cast spells together that makes the air smell like rosewater it's time to high tail it out of there. 2/10 as smooth as a slip n' slide.

That said, I don't know if it's been patched yet, but according to the internet there's like a 50/50 chance the game thinks we've already banged. Tbd on that one. Sexless any% is slowly turning into Oops! Fucked Everyone thanks purely on technicalities.

Astarion: Based on the way people talk about him I genuinely thought the pompous personality was just a facade and that he'll eventually tip his hand and reveal he's been evil this entire time. But honestly based the bits of backstory he's (refreshingly, compared to the rest of these idiots) given out I think he's just the guy who, once given the keys to power, will drive right off sanity road. Regardless, he used to serve an abusive vampire lord so I guess we're going vampire hunting in the future. 10/10 bad influence gay best friend who tells you to chug and shove parasites up your eyes.

Wyll: Wyll is a warlock who serves a fiend that forces him to hunt down and kill demons, which sounds like a fine deal until some tricky wordplay came in. After refusing to kill Karlach (Tiefling, not demon) his patron changed him into a Tiefling too. Honestly? Upgrade. 6/10 nice guy but surrounded by more colorful characters.

Karlach: Ok here’s why Karlach is a 10/10 character even without taking sex appeal into consideration. She’s a Tiefling who served in some demonic war against her will and had her heart replaced with an infernal engine that constantly burns her and anyone she touches with searing hot pain. Despite this she has constant big sister energy and her biggest complaint is how touch starved she is. I don’t even care if it comes bundled with a sex scene, Karlach is getting a goddamn hug before the credits roll.

[turnabout-sunflowers]

I’m late as FUCK but I also took a look through your dgs liveblog tag and WHOOH. Congrats on finishing such a life altering game 🥺

What did you think of the game? Any favorite characters? Any ships? And I also happen to talk wayyy too much about this game so if you ever need to yell or scream incoherently my dms are always open! I WILL yell back

Also I am legally obligated to ask what you think of susato. Thank you, and have a nice day/night :)

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! Hope you enjoyed <3 YEAH IT SURE IS LIFE ALTERING OUOUUGGHHH

I'm tentative about talking one on one with people before i really know them just because I am a very awkward and socially anxious person and tend to warm up to people easier in group settings-- however!! i'd love to chat with you! you seem cool i'm just a lil guy who needs to be approached slowly like one would approach a wild cat therefore if you ever wanna chat at me through asks and stuff i love talking to people that way so i'm always down to hear your thoughts or if you ever wanna ask me more stuff <3

WHICH. THANK YOU FOR ASKING ME QUESTIONS BTW. I LOVE QUESTIONS. I LOVE ANSWERING THINGS AND GIVING LONG RAMBLING ANSWERS. IM GONNA GIVE YOU LONG RAMBLING ANSWERS NOW

1] What did you think of the game? I LOVE IT IT'S ONE OF MY TOP TOP FAVOURITE GAMES OF ALL TIME???? IT'S. IT'S. Okay what you need to know about me is 1) I LOVE extremely linear plot-heavy games. I have somehow never played a visual novel before ace attorney despite the type of game I would most enjoy being the ones you're basically just reading instead of playing. 2) I have been super interested in murder mysteries ever since I was very young but NEVER found anything that I felt I could get into before finding ace attorney. mainline AA already filled so many niches there but DGS just completes something in my soul. that's my house. that's my home. i live there. I love it SO much it's so perfect it's everything I've ever wanted in a game, being able to put things together and figure things out as I was playing was SOOOO fun and it was SOOOO . just. GOOD. HJOUOUOUUOGGHH.

2] Any favourite characters? IS IT . CAN I SAY ALL OF THEM??? HFJDKFKD. I have several friends who are still playing DGS and every time they get to literally any character I'm like "that's my blorbo ":3" every time. to all of them. I love all of them they're all my beloved family you couldn't possibly make me choose. Anyway it's Kazuma my favourite is kazuma. JKFDHDFKJKGJFE. Like yes I love all of them completely equally and this is the complete and utter truth however I have been so emotionally attached to Kazuma since several months before I ever even touched the game. I have openly cried on the couch in the dead of night over Kazuma several times. Before I touched the game. I'm dead serious. He means a lot to me <3 However everyone else is an honorable mention and by everyone else i DO mean everyone else. EVERYONE in the main cast + my obscure side character blorbos (haori and inspector hosonaga i love you)

3] Any ships? eehh?? Kind of? I don't really do shipping in the way that fandom does? Usually I'm not as invested in ships much because I care way more about the platonic relationships. so there's a lot of ships that i just kind of shrug and go "yeah, sure! i'll take that as headcanon" and accept it without being invested, and otherwise most other ships i'm just neutral on. when I AM invested in romantic pairs i still am like. completely chill with them not being romantic it's more of just an investment in that pair and their dynamic lol

THAT BEING SAID. Asoryuu. Susahao. Ginasusa. Uhhhh. whatever the ship name for holmes & yuujin is. Those are the ones you'll see me reblogging. I'm either very invested in them or at least have them as my headcanon depending on which it is but! those are them <3 susato polyamory real. everything else is generally just a "eh not for me" or "yea sure why not"

4] Thoughts on Susato My thoughts are uuummm she's me! HSDJKHF. I'm usually pretty quiet about kin stuff on tumblr but. [gestures to my tag masterlist with one of them labelled "kin tag" pretty openly] not necessarily hiding it either lol lol. Hi! She's me <3 I'm her <3 i am incapable of pretending to be a normal average person about dgs. those little guys in there are my family. I mean this so genuinely

That fact that I'm kin with her aside though I think she's a really good character I'm just like. kinnie lens makes character analysis interesting lol. To an outsider's perspective though I suppose she'd technically be my favourite character? I'm gonna write a whole ass fic going over the entirety of the events of the game from susato's point of view just to put all my thoughts somewhere so. FKJDFDLK if that gives you any idea of how frequently i am thinking about her.

Come talk to me about her introductory line in 1-1 that is just "in my darkest hour, with nowhere left to go, she appeared like a bolt of lightning." i'm SUPER fucking normal about it i'll wax poetic about it for hours. honestly i'll wax poetic about ANYTHING re: susato for HOURS because listen. listen. i have the insider knowledge. i have so many thoughts all the time i'm bark bark bark

[iiryebreadii]

I wanna write my thoughts on my playthrough of totk as I go along (cause I love going back and reading them after finishing), so I'm gonna post them on this blog!! If you're sensitive to spoilers like me, make sure to blacklist "#totk liveblog" :)

It got kinda long so I'm putting it under a cut haha

that being said, my beginning thoughts to the opening of the game were basically OMG ZELDA HI ZELDA I MISSED YOU LOVE THE HAIR OMG HI like she was so cute!!! I LOVED getting to walk with her in the opening it made me like actually emotional. Cause you never get to just!! walk with her and talk in botw!! She's SUCH a nerd I loved her info dumping on the ruins. At the same time I was like "girl please stop walking into the ominous red fog I can hear the chanting in the background getting louder ZELDA PLEASE" and the bit where you have to choose to keep going? It's like the game is giving you a false out, like the following events are your fault because you chose to walk forward and investigate

And then there was the craziness of MUMMYDORF being all like "mm pathetic. weak lil baby sword can't do anything lmao rauru was soooo dumb" and he can identify Link and Zelda on sight despite them being entirely new incarnations which I find very interesting

Then SHE FALLS AND LINK JUMPS AFTER HER AND HE DOESNT SAVE HER AND SHE DISAPPEARS AND AJHDJHDJSNKJAK

Also I got really sad about the master sword?? Fi girl I'm so sorry I promise I'll find a way to fix you :'( when you pick her up on the sky island and she's got 1 damage, less than a tree branch, I was just heartbroken. Though it does make me wonder, how much power has the master sword lost over the millennia, for it to be corrupted so thoroughly by Ganondorf's magic?? Maybe we'll get a chance to get her up to full power later in the game? Maybe reforge her somehow?

On the sky island when I was running around, I was convinced I missed the shirt in the beginning. I got the leg wrap things but no weird toga to go with it?? Straight up thought I somehow missed it even though I practically combed every area I walked through lol. My friend was playing with me and he made it their mission to find the shirt HAHA

The new mechanics/powers are so much fun!! After I got ascend, I kept forgetting I had it at first when I got stuck in underground places, and would wander around looking for a ladder or a climbable wall before I would be like "oh yeah I have ascend" lol. Fuse has been really cool! I love using extra long spears, they're so convenient for tough monsters cause I'm still Very Squishy. OH speaking of, I love that the opening addresses why you're back down to three hearts and a single stamina wheel!! once again, link has Almost Perished. But at least he has a sickass prosthetic from a dead guy!

Ultrahand is SO fun, I made myself a little jet when I was exploring the underground of hyrule with some fans, a 'wing' glider thing, and a ramp made of stone walls. It didn't go too terribly far BUT it got me over the Ganon Gunk I was trying to get past, so it was a success in my book!!

Recall is my favorite. I don't use it much yet but zelda gave it to me. So it Must be my favorite. It was a gift from my beloved.

Some other notes on getting back to the surface of hyrule:

PURAH IS FINALLY AN ADULT I'm glad your anti-anti-aging rune worked out for you girl

How long has it been since botw?? Also, how long were Zelda and Link missing??? Long enough for people to have named the Upheaval, and to organize groups for research and combat around it. How long was Link out in that sky cave?? How long did it take for Rauru to heal him/give him his arm??? Not years obviously, but maybe a few days?? Weeks??

Met a rito named Penn, I already know people are gonna be weirdly thirsty about him

The little Korok buddies needing to reach their friends is just. SO cute. Two for one korok seed deal also

Addison, the guy putting up signs for Hudson's construction business, is amazing. I help him with his sign and he's like "THANK YOU TAKE MY MONEY TAKE MY FOOD TAKE MY WIFE TAKE MY CAR I CAN NEVER REPAY YOU FOR THIS". and he does that every time. incredible

I'm still exploring in hateno but. guys. Links house. Zelda LIVES there and there is STILL ONLY ONE BED. I rest my case.

Also the school??? Zelda, who dedicated her life to her duty but had a love of learning, making her duty of restoring hyrule by starting with building a school and being a teacher??? The students call her Ms. Zelda??? brb crying. sobbing my eyes out. good lord.

Also Bolson built the school, but then he left to go on a trip??? Construction grandpa i need you here!!! don't leave!!! But also maybe it's good that you left. I don't want you to be here for the Ganondorf Revival. stay safe king

My horses from my last botw save file are here!! Good to have you guys back :') they don't have their cool armor but I guess I'll just find those sets again :) perhaps new ones also?? (I'm kinda sad I don't have the original save file from my first playthrough; I've replayed a few times but my first playthrough was the one I did all the side quests on, and it had my first really good horse, which was named Mürdur. He was all black, had 5 stars in speed, and was awesome. I fought my first dark beast ganon with him. Maybe I'll look for a similar horse here in totk...)

Horseback combat is AMAZING. I had to fight a huge group of monsters to get through fort hateno and I am still Very Squishy with only 4 hearts and no extra stamina, but I hopped on one of my old botw horses and just did a bunch of ride-by whacks on the monsters and eventually got them all! thank you horseback combat for the bonus damage. god bless

Kinda sad to see all the ancient sheikah tech gone :( I wonder if they'll address where it all went? Did you guys just... re bury it?? Did everything get sucked back into the ground??? Where's the OG sheikah slate?? Obviously we can't have it because then we would have access to the botw runes, which isn't what this game is about, but still!! I like the Purah Pad but I would like to know where it went!

Cave exploration is Very Fun and Underground exploration is terrifying in the best way possible. I found a glow in the dark shirt while I was down there and it has become my default armor piece to wear.

Speaking of armor, Misko the famous treasure hunter being referred to exclusively with they/them pronouns? excellent

Also how did this ancient treasure hunter get their hands on my clothes. those are my outfits homie I had them in the last game.

I haven't gotten to the main bits of the story yet, but the game seems to be pushing me to go to the rito first, so I think that's where I'll go after I finished exploring Hateno

Apparently Impa is just. Out there somewhere? On a hot air balloon??? I saw Cado earlier and he was like "Link you're back!! Impa is floating around out there :)" GIRL WHAT. WHERE.

I need to go check on Teba. why is your son in the trailer but not you. Also Yunobo, cause I didn't see him either

[lakemichigans]

Honestly, there's something so awesome about liveblogging your thoughts when watching a piece of media. Like, even though I'm not watching tlou, and I have never played the game, it's a lot of fun for me to see you posting about it. And same with Supernatural, although that's not liveblogging, and I have in fact seen a little bit of it.

I've been posting my unhinged thoughts about the media I'm watching on my personal blog for a While now, and it's so much fun?!?? Like, most of it is meta analysis of Sad Shit, but some of it is also just random shit posts, and someday I'm going to go back through those tags and see what I was writing and thinking, and it's going to be so much fun.

Anyways, this is to say, I love seeing your tlou takes, and I'm glad you post them. <3

omg i missed this!! i hardly ever get asks on this blog so i forget to check, but this is so sweet!! i love seeing people enjoy things even if i have no idea what the thing they're talking about is, it's fun to just see people get excited & passionate about things 🥺 and i like having a personal blog i can chuck all these thoughts into! also i didn't know you had a personal blog!! if you felt comfortable with it i would love to follow it 💖

[brighteyesredfire]

SUPERGIANT ROUNDUP BASTION / TRANSISTOR / PYRE / HADES

compiling thoughts on games ive played. i may go back and edit these over time bc i like to ramble and maybe ill have a thought later about things to add. woo

🌟 BASTION (2011) | 10/10 4 million stars

THE game of all time. i think i bought and played this when the indie humble bundle (one of the first of its kind) slapped it together with limbo, psychonauts, amnesia and sword and sorcery (i have the art jen zee drew to advertise that on my wall still).

remarkable then and now for being a game i replayed like a madman and loved soooooo muuuuuuuuuch its ridiculous. the art direction will always be very impactful on me i think, jen zee i love ur stuff 4ever <3333333 the music is also still incredible, spike in a rail is iconic as ever, and logan cunningham's voice will always hit perfectly on the ears as rucks. this game was also the first major fandom i was in on this site and it could fit inside one tinychat lol, i have retained alot of the friendships i made from it back then, its an experience i can never untie from the actual game.

ive always liked isometric smash and whack games, most likely due to this games influence on me, but it was also just... one of the first big games i loved as a budding tween, so almost everything about i think with fondess, im recalling how the upgrade areas looked like rn and its making me smile. i made an askblog about a character from this game, we made a physical fanbook that got handed to devs at a con (i think the vid of them reacting to it is now lost to time) its deep bro its deep in my bones.

/ spoilers from here /

bastion's story i still also enjoy as dour as it is, and the choice at the end, between continuing the cycle of apocalyptic doom or build a new future with the remains, its still interesting to me. relive the past before it goes wrong and experience the fresh pain over and over or move on with grave of genocide ringing in your ears and the cunt of an old man on the same floating rock with you. augh!

🌟 TRANSISTOR (2014) | 6/10 stars it is a game and i think that's great

played this game front to back full the day it came out on my mothers computer and cried like a bitch at the end while liveblogging it. to this day i remember the combat being too much for my stupid little brain to comprehend and would get my ass beat constantly but the jen zee art and sword boyfriend and my loyalty to SG kept the brain alive.

MAYBE it would less of a pain in the ass for me to play now but the plotting out before you enforce the combo hurt my brain. i dont think ahead okay. ow. ow.

As with all SG games the art was incredible though they drew from really interesting influences for a sci fi take, and this ost with the addition of a bunch more vocal tracks (due to red being a singer) is sooo good. i have a version of the album of the glitched out versions of the songs ripped from the gameplay, delicious nyam nyam.

/ spoilers from here /

the story is like a traditional tragedy and the first showing of some great supergiant #buryyourgays but i still cry like a baby listening to paper boats so FML !!!!!!!!! i think that song affects me more than setting sail / coming home from bastion actually at this point (time to go find the orchestra pax vid and loop it)

🌟 PYRE (2017) | 9/10 starsies supergiant youve done it again

i liked pyre like 10 steps more than transistor its not even funny 😂 the world has a more fantasy leaning bent... the ensemble cast too.... and the gameplay i love this gameplay i will play ghost spirit basketball all fucking dayyyyyyyyyy also this is alot closer to a visnov than the rest of their games, between the sports parts, this is also probably why i really like it, who doesn't love it when their choices matter and little guys talk to them. visnovs are great.

/ spoilers from here /

i also just favour weirdo fantasy > over weirdo sci fi this is pure personal taste lmao. the environments were fun, the conceit of the game was interesting too. making the choice of who to liberate not only be a factor based on who you like and the story but ALSO the gameplay bc you no longer get to play them.... i remember i kept hedwyn around bc i liked him as a character and also bc he was the all rounder class but i did let him go before the end bc i wanted to give him that chance despite never seeing him again... that sort of experience with a character i love is rareeee, ive not had anything like it since. is it better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all..............wohah.............

i also just love the fake language they came up with for people talking, reading being a big deal here also.... so much about this games worldbuilding i loved it i loved it. i think my only issues would be the amount of forced het in the endings people can get lmao I DONT NEED EVERYONE TO GET HAPPILY STRAIGHT MARRIED SG LMFAO.

🌟 HADES (2020) | 10/10 starsies supergiant youve done it again

i have played this game for 250+ hours and 100 of those were during the entire time it was in early access the brain disease real alive and killing me to this day.

genius of SG i think to stretch their storytelling out to be way longer by putting into a rougelike its such a fun idea and it works so well bc of how finely tuned their gameplay always is. they incentivize the right things and the feel is addictive, you wanna get to the characters bc they're always the best part but the gameplay on the way is like butter, ENDLESS GRIND ENDLESS GRIND. GAME YOU PLAY UNTIL YOU DIE

/ spoilers from here /

i like that this story ended up being a dumb greek family drama, i dont have many more thoughts about that aspect though honestly bc i dont really care about greek gods as a setting and i always enjoy SG's original ideas and worlds alot more behehe. their remixes are no doubt fun though.

there's something to be said about the violent catharsis of being killed over and over to leave family i think, im sure i could write some metaphor here about having to confront hatred in loved ones over a choice about yourself actually just feels like dying over and over (im a poet) especially when you still live with them.

i think i actually for real cried the first time zag met his mother like the music and the va, it was all so tragic and sad, i dont think anything else really met that emotional high for me. i was almost surprised later on how happily the game resolves lol but i dont have any qualms with stories about fucked up families actually fixing their problems, hope for the future or something.. ! not all blood ties have to be burned to cinders, its a nice thing.

thanatos is my girlboss boyfriend also i cannnnnoooooootttttt believe they made him a tsundere sadboy who acts like you broke up with him MINUTE ONE OF MEETING THE MAN IN THE FUCKING GAME WHAT IS WRRRRONG WITYH YOUUUU SG YOU SICK FUCKS. i actually puked in my mouth everytime they talked and i was explicitly seeking it out. god of death and god of blood (life) can you go fuck yourselves ACTUALLY.

thank you for letting me bang him and meg at the same time sg also is making up for their lgbt transgressions if only a bit with this one may the next game be gayer. lovewins or something.

[totentnz]

for the alternate love intrest ask game: athras and iron bull? >:)

Send me an OC + an alternate love interest for them and I’ll tell you what I think of the idea

ok let me preface this by saying i have NEVER played the iron bull romance and did i just watch a video to get a grip of it? absolutely (side note: i hated hearing the inquisitors voice again bc athras! does! not! sound! like! that!) but anyway: (this turned into somewhat of a liveblog so i'm putting it under a cut lmao

my initial thoughts before watching it are: i cant see a romance happen, i have never had bull high up on my approval list but they might fuck casually (she would totally peg him) HOWEVER

ok after watching it (and clearly losing my mind and track a few times) the answer is basically the same: romance? no. casual sex? maybe

this was a fun thing to do!! thank you so much for asking bunny 💜💜💜

i have always appreciated it when bull pulls the inquisitor to the side and shows them what the soldiers think of them and athras would appreciate that as well (not that she would ever admit to it)

the tavern scene after the dragon fight? hell to the nah, i enjoy that scene personally but it always frustrated me because athras would not act like any of the options lmao but you know she might take the first sip and after that? who knows! winky face

ok the scene on the battlegrounds? where you hit him with the stick? she'd indulge him at first but would be dismissive towards the end (not good for romance is it?) she understands people deal with their fears differently but that whole scene has a weird (to me) sexual undertone (even before the flirtation) and i don't vibe with that (though "you like it rough huh? only from you" is pretty s tier i gotta admit and athras would like it)

being introduced to the chargers? love that (like many lavellan players it annoys me to hell and back that bull tries to explain the dalish to me, but that's not really his fault) she also appreciates that he took a dalish in after they were cast out (funfact: dalish and athras have the same vallaslin ingame (my hc is that each clan has different ones but dirthamen yes) i also love that interaction with stitches, athras is a self proclaimed potion expert so they would get along (or they would hate each other - her and the guy where you brew potions at the start of the game had a bit of a feud going on bc she thought he didn't know shit about potions) "it's a poltice, ser, you're not supposed to drink it" is ENGRAVED into my memory (ok now im just talking about athras instead of the romance, i apologise lmao)

sidenote: since bull keeps talking about redheads, athras has a sister (also with the inquisition) who is a redhead so that's actually pretty funny to me and i have never thought of it before

SO the dreadnought huh? ofc athras saves the chargers - she's not as loyal to the inquisition as she should be but she never wanted the position as inquisitor anyway (much like she didnt want to be first and eventually keeper to her clan) also hissrad meaning keeper of illusions/ liar and athras having dirthamen (god of secrets) vallaslin??? iconic maybe i do need this romance in my life lmao

god that fucking fight on the battlements?? where bull gets poisoned? another memory that's drilled into my skull, very iconic also that scene made me realise that maybe solas and bull aren't all that different (we know this but sometimes it's good to experience it again)

ok i see we are getting to the actual interesting parts that i never got to see lets gooo OH BOY OH BOY we don't like that one LMAO "you don't know what you are asking for" and him being all dominant? athras is not into that but we will see, we will see 👀

OH NO not legit admitting to manipulate people (i know what he means and this is all flirty but bad vibes bad vibes (don't get me wrong im into it personally but athras sure as shit isn't (yes as a solasmancer i'm putting on my clown makeup right now)))

i do like the setting rules and a safeword interaction though HOWEVER if it ever got to that point athras would laugh in his face ("don't quote the old magic to me, i was there when it was written")

OH I LOVE that dragon tooth thing, that's cute

BRO DID HE JUST-- i like that sneaky romance and so does athras but BOY does she hate pda

CULLEN i remember this from back in the day, athras loves bullying him so this is amazing all of their reactions are so fun i love it I SEE YOU JOSIE BUT YOU ARE TAKEN (by fisara, athras' sister, which makes this even more awkward lmao) OH THE BOSSINESS FROM THE INQUISITOR i am stanning so hard right now

also this fucking portrait has me cackling

NAH BRO NAH BRO not kadan meaning "my heart"

YES YES YES BALCONY SCENE HERE WE COME ok that scene was kinda underwhelming but i guess that scene was always better in my mind

i will never get over the fact that at the end of the game you are actually on the balcony with your LI like AAAA can you imagine my face when replayed it for the cullen romance (i dont wanna talk about it) ??? complete and utter shock

ok that scene was good, the lovebite? the compliments? chefs kiss (though athras wouldnt be into being "marked" like that she's usually the one marking others)

oh god it's trespasser time oh no

oh i always liked the dragon skull scene and i gotta admit it works better with the romance! but again.... athras would be even worse at this than the lets her be

bro not the exchange of "i love yous" in the face of uncertainty!! im gonna combust (once again not athras style, she'd rather leave things unsaid than say them in a situation like that)

god im so glad they didn't show solas in this video, i would have gone insane

he kept the necklace! ofc he did but that's still a good thing :) sure hope he won't betray us or hasn't betrayed us before :)

[artdumpzonedontlookthanky]

SUPERGIANT ROUNDUP BASTION / TRANSISTOR / PYRE / HADES

compiling thoughts on games ive played. i may go back and edit these over time bc i like to ramble and maybe ill have a thought later about things to add. woo

🌟 BASTION (2011) | 10/10 4 million stars

THE game of all time. i think i bought and played this when the indie humble bundle (one of the first of its kind) slapped it together with limbo, psychonauts, amnesia and sword and sorcery (i have the art jen zee drew to advertise that on my wall still).

remarkable then and now for being a game i replayed like a madman and loved soooooo muuuuuuuuuch its ridiculous. the art direction will always be very impactful on me i think, jen zee i love ur stuff 4ever <3333333 the music is also still incredible, spike in a rail is iconic as ever, and logan cunningham's voice will always hit perfectly on the ears as rucks. this game was also the first major fandom i was in on this site and it could fit inside one tinychat lol, i have retained alot of the friendships i made from it back then, its an experience i can never untie from the actual game.

ive always liked isometric smash and whack games, most likely due to this games influence on me, but it was also just... one of the first big games i loved as a budding tween, so almost everything about i think with fondess, im recalling how the upgrade areas looked like rn and its making me smile. i made an askblog about a character from this game, we made a physical fanbook that got handed to devs at a con (i think the vid of them reacting to it is now lost to time) its deep bro its deep in my bones.

/ spoilers from here /

bastion's story i still also enjoy as dour as it is, and the choice at the end, between continuing the cycle of apocalyptic doom or build a new future with the remains, its still interesting to me. relive the past before it goes wrong and experience the fresh pain over and over or move on with grave of genocide ringing in your ears and the cunt of an old man on the same floating rock with you. augh!

🌟 TRANSISTOR (2014) | 6/10 stars it is a game and i think that's great

played this game front to back full the day it came out on my mothers computer and cried like a bitch at the end while liveblogging it. to this day i remember the combat being too much for my stupid little brain to comprehend and would get my ass beat constantly but the jen zee art and sword boyfriend and my loyalty to SG kept the brain alive.

MAYBE it would less of a pain in the ass for me to play now but the plotting out before you enforce the combo hurt my brain. i dont think ahead okay. ow. ow.

As with all SG games the art was incredible though they drew from really interesting influences for a sci fi take, and this ost with the addition of a bunch more vocal tracks (due to red being a singer) is sooo good. i have a version of the album of the glitched out versions of the songs ripped from the gameplay, delicious nyam nyam.

/ spoilers from here /

the story is like a traditional tragedy and the first showing of some great supergiant #buryyourgays but i still cry like a baby listening to paper boats so FML !!!!!!!!! i think that song affects me more than setting sail / coming home from bastion actually at this point (time to go find the orchestra pax vid and loop it)

🌟 PYRE (2017) | 9/10 starsies supergiant youve done it again

i liked pyre like 10 steps more than transistor its not even funny 😂 the world has a more fantasy leaning bent... the ensemble cast too.... and the gameplay i love this gameplay i will play ghost spirit basketball all fucking dayyyyyyyyyy also this is alot closer to a visnov than the rest of their games, between the sports parts, this is also probably why i really like it, who doesn't love it when their choices matter and little guys talk to them. visnovs are great.

/ spoilers from here /

i also just favour weirdo fantasy > over weirdo sci fi this is pure personal taste lmao. the environments were fun, the conceit of the game was interesting too. making the choice of who to liberate not only be a factor based on who you like and the story but ALSO the gameplay bc you no longer get to play them.... i remember i kept hedwyn around bc i liked him as a character and also bc he was the all rounder class but i did let him go before the end bc i wanted to give him that chance despite never seeing him again... that sort of experience with a character i love is rareeee, ive not had anything like it since. is it better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all..............wohah.............

i also just love the fake language they came up with for people talking, reading being a big deal here also.... so much about this games worldbuilding i loved it i loved it. i think my only issues would be the amount of forced het in the endings people can get lmao I DONT NEED EVERYONE TO GET HAPPILY STRAIGHT MARRIED SG LMFAO.

🌟 HADES (2020) | 10/10 starsies supergiant youve done it again

i have played this game for 250+ hours and 100 of those were during the entire time it was in early access the brain disease real alive and killing me to this day.

genius of SG i think to stretch their storytelling out to be way longer by putting into a rougelike its such a fun idea and it works so well bc of how finely tuned their gameplay always is. they incentivize the right things and the feel is addictive, you wanna get to the characters bc they're always the best part but the gameplay on the way is like butter, ENDLESS GRIND ENDLESS GRIND. GAME YOU PLAY UNTIL YOU DIE

/ spoilers from here /

i like that this story ended up being a dumb greek family drama, i dont have many more thoughts about that aspect though honestly bc i dont really care about greek gods as a setting and i always enjoy SG's original ideas and worlds alot more behehe. their remixes are no doubt fun though.

there's something to be said about the violent catharsis of being killed over and over to leave family i think, im sure i could write some metaphor here about having to confront hatred in loved ones over a choice about yourself actually just feels like dying over and over (im a poet) especially when you still live with them.

i think i actually for real cried the first time zag met his mother like the music and the va, it was all so tragic and sad, i dont think anything else really met that emotional high for me. i was almost surprised later on how happily the game resolves lol but i dont have any qualms with stories about fucked up families actually fixing their problems, hope for the future or something.. ! not all blood ties have to be burned to cinders, its a nice thing.

thanatos is my girlboss boyfriend also i cannnnnoooooootttttt believe they made him a tsundere sadboy who acts like you broke up with him MINUTE ONE OF MEETING THE MAN IN THE FUCKING GAME WHAT IS WRRRRONG WITYH YOUUUU SG YOU SICK FUCKS. i actually puked in my mouth everytime they talked and i was explicitly seeking it out. god of death and god of blood (life) can you go fuck yourselves ACTUALLY.

thank you for letting me bang him and meg at the same time sg also is making up for their lgbt transgressions if only a bit with this one may the next game be gayer. lovewins or something.