#i need to do the dlc on my own save file so i can get the master cycle its on my dads save file

[funsizedcrow]

you know at first i found the fuse mechanic in totk kind of clunky and weird to use but now im playing botw for the first time in like a year and im realizing how much i took for granted that elemental arrows literally grow on trees in totk.

[rallamajoop]

Resident Evil 7 and Mia's secrets

(Oh, did you think I was done talking about Mia? Not even close! >D)

Coming into this fandom late, I was surprised that popular fanon has it that Mia never does come clean to Ethan, post-RE7. Sure, RE8 depends on Mia not having told Ethan he died in Dulvey, but that has nothing to do with her own past with the Connections (and far more to do with Ethan's own denial, but that's a whole other thing).

Myself, I’d taken it as given that the scene where Ethan learns the truth must have just happened off-screen. Because, disappointing as that omission is, the whole damn game is leading up to it.

And having replayed RE7 lately, I realised there'd be no better way to explain my take than to catalog every time the game spells out to us that Ethan knows Mia’s keeping secrets and wants answers, and that Mia herself wants to come clean.

Heck, it’s just about the very first thing we learn about them.

“Ethan... You were right. I did lie to you. I shouldn’t have, but…”

Ethan's not actually stupid, and Mia's secrecy has obviously strained their marriage for some time. And as soon as Ethan finds her, he’s asking questions.

Here, he’s mostly asking who did this to you; it's way too early for real answers. But then Eveline takes control, shit goes down, and next we see her, it’s in her recorded message from the “Mia” video tape.

“There’s so much you need to know.”

When Ethan finds Mia again under the old house, he’s angry and has every right to be, and he doesn’t pull any punches.

“I always wanted to tell you…”

But Mia’s memory’s still a mess, and Lucas interrupts. Ethan’s next chance to ask questions comes in the boat, and he wastes no time.

“You had something to do with this, didn’t you?”

Mia’s a little more defensive here, but she’s not lying about the holes in her memory. The game’s gearing up for the big reveal anyway, and the writers aren’t about to let her spoil it early.

If you choose Zoe instead of Mia, Ethan spends the boat ride asking all the same questions, only louder.

“I knew Mia was hiding something.”

But in the end, what do we get?

Whoever you choose, Ethan only gets a few brief moments with Mia after she frees him from Eveline’s mould, and no explanations are offered. But if you do pick Mia, then we end with Ethan flying away with her in the helicopter, saying only, “Mia's back and she wants to start over,” and I’m left going, wait, what? Haven’t we skipped something here?

In defence of the fanon consensus that Ethan never finds out the truth, that does seem to be the ‘canonical’ intent ‒ at least inasmuch as there's this one throwaway bit about Mia not wanting Ethan to know buried in a bonus text file only available with this one overpriced DLC for RE8. That’s it, that’s as much explicit recognition as this thing ever gets, one way or the other. And fucking hell, but that's a let down.

Even if we assume that Mia’s desire to come clean goes away once her memory comes back, why would Ethan just stop asking? He’s been asking questions the whole damn game – was clearly asking questions long before the game began! Knowing that Eveline was controlling people doesn’t explain what Mia had to do with it all. Now he’s suddenly all, ‘killed the bad guy, saved the girl, everything’s fine’? Was all that ‘a door closed’ bullshit supposed to be him accepting he’d never get answers? Why?

There are workable ways to spin Ethan never finding out. You could suggest he just accepts that Mia’s memory is gone (hell, for all we actually see of the ending, Mia genuinely might have lost her memory again after Eveline sucked her back into the mould). After all the trauma Ethan’s been through, you could also suggest he’s gone directly into denial, refusing to face anything that might threaten his ‘happy ending’ with Mia. You could even suggest that that bit with Eveline saying 'I can make him love you' is her actively wiping Ethan's suspicions away. There's some lovely, subtle horror in any of these possibilities ‒ I would genuinely love to see all of them explored in fic! But none of them actually come through in the ending we get, and that omission is the single biggest issue that makes that conclusion to RE7 unsatisfying to me.

The whole damn game has been building up to the big confrontation where Ethan finds out the truth and (eventually, if not immediately) finds a way to forgive Mia, so we can still have our happy ending. As much OTT hate as Mia gets, the game is consistent in portraying her as someone who is painfully aware of how bad she’s fucked up, regrets it, and is committed to doing everything she can to protect the man she loves from the fallout of her mistakes.

I cannot overstate how willing Mia is to die to save Ethan, from the very moment she realises she's infected. She does die to save him if you choose Zoe over her. It's so much of why I ship them do hard.

But most frustrating of all, denying Mia the chance to come clean denies her any chance to explain herself. How did she get involved with the Connections? Did she know from the outset who she was working for? Did she genuinely buy into the idea they were finding ways to win wars without losing soldiers on battlefield, that the human casualties of all their work was worth it? If not, why did she keep working there? Was she slowly frog-boiled down to the deep end, did they have dirt on her, did she fear they might kill her if she tried to leave? What excuses did she make to herself as the months or years went on?

It's possible Mia’s the kind of hypocrite who doesn’t care about the human casualties of her employer, just as long as she and hers are okay, but nothing we see from her sells me on that interpretation. And even if she ever was, it's even harder to believe she's still that person after all she's been through.

It aggravates me that the games never gave us answers, not just because I want explanations that cast Mia in a sympathetic light, but because not giving us answers leaves this huge hole in her character. I'd even take explanations that cast her in an unsympathetic light, as long as it all ties together.

It irritates me even more because, even if Capcom wasn’t up for giving Ethan and Mia the big emotional confrontation they deserved, the solution was so simple: let Ethan find Mia’s diary on his way out of the ship. The whole goddamn franchise is filled with diaries and documents where characters lay out their backstories and motivations in ludicrous detail – why does Mia never get one? Just give us a handful of entries dated over the years, laying out her own feelings and anxieties about the job she’s doing. It would’ve been so easy!

It irritates me nearly as much that, even in the few corners of this fandom sympathetic to Mia, no-one seems to be very interested in answering these questions in fic or shared headcanons (and if there are examples out there I don't know about, please do link me to them!) How much did Mia know about what she was getting into when she started working for the Connections? Was it the job she kept telling herself was just until she could find something better, only for that ‘something better’ to never come along? Did she have stains on her record that made it hard to find another job? How much of her lying was a misguided attempt to protect Ethan, and how much was simply about protecting herself? There's so much to explore here!

This is also where I mention that I've already put my money where my mouth on this one, and written up my own take on Mia's backstory, and how Ethan might have found out the truth. You don't have to agree with my version, of course ‒ I mean it when I say I'd love to see other people's ideas too. Heck, I'd even be up for versions where Ethan ultimately can't forgive her, just as long as people come at it from the angle of looking at Mia as a character, not just a one-dimensional-villain.

But of course, I'd still prefer to think about versions where these two do find a way to make it work. It takes a lot to make me ship het this hard, but these two stealth-badasses have pulled it off with style.

[mayorwhiskers2]

High School Save file is HERE

But also Here (SFS) -download link

or here (Patreon) - free to public

CC free Save File centered around teens and high school. Modeled after the American Midwest Public school experience.

This save file features complete neighborhoods and sim families living in houses planned and furnished around them. (All family's and homes built by me, see examples on my gallery ID: MayorWhiskers2) Club systems, established relationships, friend groups, Customized NPCs, and more! Set in Willow Creek, Newcrest, and Copperdale (special thanks to SRSLYSIMS for their blank save file to use as a base to keep the file size smaller and the game running smooth)

CC free? Yes, but It does take a lot of packs (clothing or home items might need replaced if you are missing some). Used DLC includes: All expansions minus For Rent. All game packs minus Journey to Batuu. All stuff packs Minus Home Chef Hustle, Fitness, Bowling Night, Spooky, Cool Kitchen, Perfect Patio, Luxury Party. A few Kits are used: Grunge Revival, Book Nook, and Basement Treasures the most prominent.

Mods? Optional. You don't have to use any mods if you do not want to but if you have MCCC I recommend turning Relationship Culling off in your settings to explore the established in-game relationships between NPCs, and I love and recommend Auto Shorter Teens mod by Menaceman44 (but you also don't have to- install in your mods folder before you launch the game if you use it because I already have the teens shortened that aren't inherently tall all will just be normal height without it.)

Also features interactive community lots (some with clubs tied to them so keep an eye out for teens hanging out around them). An Empty lot in Willow creek you can customize or grow a legacy on, and a starter house option in Newcrest.

What can you do in this as a teen in this save file? Survive the exams. Get your music skills up so you can try to join an existing garage band! Try to take over the Populars (club) and rule the school. Hang out with the goth kids in the cemetery at night- but watch out for ghosts! Throw a banging party or go to one already taking place under the local music store. Shop till you drop at the mall. Graffiti buildings all over Simnation. Get expelled. The list goes on and on!

Share your own plays or families made for this save with hashtag #SimsHSsavefile

[phone-kisser]

A large collection of small rants about games/series/franchises that have changed my life

Why so serious. So anyway howdy my freaky fellows, today I'm gonna be doing 4-5 sentence (Probably more. Do I even know myself?) rants about games/series/franchises that have changed my life. You know this. You read the title. Obviously. Unless you didn't. Then you're stupid. Stupid dummy dum-dum.

Kidding, love you all thank you for all the support it genuinely means the world to me and oh god I'm rambling just stop talking

[CLEARS THROAT AGGRESSIVELY]

So we're gonna start with a game that I stumbled upon accidentally and has made a huge mark on my life and honestly my personality as well.

DIALTOWN:

WOWZERS, THIS GAME WAS INCREDIBLE. I didn't even MEAN to find it, I was looking for DDLC and I searched 'dating sim' on steam and it popped up. I thought "fuck it, I'm buyin' it" and now here I am. I spent half of my summer staying up until morning just trying to get all of the endings and achievements, and holy shit was it worth it. That game made me laugh and sob and scream into my pillow all in the span of 5 minutes. Chapter three was incredible, the emotions you can convey without even seeing facial expressions is honestly so awesome to me. Norm is a HUGE comfort character for me. (I GOT HIM IN THE SOULMATE QUIZ‼️) I'm so excited for the DLC to come out, and hopefully I'll get the Mingus plushie and any more that get re-released or any new ones!

Next is another game (or game trilogy, I suppose) that I didn't really mean to come by. Luckily I have a stupid brother that introduces me to things I never thought I'd enjoy.

DAYSHIFT AT FREDDY'S:

Wow, would you look at that, another game series by the hound himself! Now, I didn't have a computer until about half a year ago. Got one for my birthday. I found out about this game LONG before Dialtown. So it took me a while to actually play the game. But I had seen fanart, playthroughs, analysis...es? And a lot more. I was obsessed with davesport for months before I even got to play the game. But when I finally did play it, I was SO excited, and for good reason. This game got me into FNaF fangames, and introduced me to my weird thing for phone men. The third game made me sob my eyes out the first time I played it through the good ending. Yet another example of a game that had me giggling one moment and bawling the next. WHY DO YOU WISH FOR ME TO SUFFER, DOGGO??/silly (ily man. keep doin the do.)

Up next is THE original.

FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S:

Wow. Now THIS is a game that left a mark on me. Got me into indie horror. I first played the game with my brother when I was like 6 I think?? It scared the piss outta me then, but over the years I learned to love it. I damn sure made a lot of cringe fanart when I was like 10..... But hey, it was fun. I kinda miss those times, even if I was seen as extremely weird for it. Thanks for years of fun, Scott. Couldn't have made it through life in my household without you.

Up next is my ALL TIME FAVORITE SIDE-SCROLLER.

CUPHEAD:

I love this game SO much. I first watched my dad play it on his computer, and he let me make my own save file! I wasn't very good for a long time, and I'll be honest, I'm still not exactly a professional. But it's fun, and practice makes perfect, right? I always chose Mugman, while my brother chose Cuphead. We would pretend we were the characters, and it was one of the only times I ever used to bond with him. Thanks for bringing me and my goober brother closer together, Cuphead.

MINECRAFT:

This game at least deserves a sentence or two. It's still one of my favorite games to play when I need to relax. I love making worlds with my siblings and building silly stuff with them.

ANIMAL CROSSING:

I spent weeks on this game. Probably even months. Maybe even a year or two. I don't play it as much anymore, but I still like to visit my island and see how my little villagers are doin every once in a while. Still pissed that I could never find Raymond, though. I tried so many times to find that silly little cat. I still do every so often. I'll get you eventually, Raymond. Mark my words.....

Moving on from games now. Let's talk about TELEVISION!

GRAVITY FALLS:

Wow. Just wow. What is there to even say? I love this show so very much. It makes me cry every time without fail. The fandom has its bad sides, but overall I love being apart of it. The Stan twins are my beloved babies and I will never let them go.

RISE OF THE TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES:

Now THIS is a show that left a HUGE mark on me. Hell, I even changed my name to Donnie for almost a year... I don't like to think about this phase. But this show is amazing, it was the reason I'm friends with a lot of my friends to this day. It deserves to get a re-run, even more seasons. Top tier show, would recommend.

EDDSWORLD:

This show HEAVILY influenced my artstyle and a lot of my general humor. I've been obsessed with it off and on for a few years now, and it's a great show. It's silly and fun, and it's ALSO a reason I'm friends with a few of my best friends.

That's it for now, folks!! Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

I might do another one of these, depends on how I feel about it. Hope you enjoyed my yaptastic yapping session.

Have a great morning, afternoon, evening or night!!! Love you all!!!!!

[shinovii]

Question: What do these...

have in common with...

these?

Initially this was gonna be a simple topic on my mind to ramble about, but I guess with the latest words from a soft gaming executive hitting the community in 2024 I now have more of a need to talk about this than ever. It's funny how gaming over the past couple decades went from something rather simple and expressive to complicated and, admittedly, dull in some areas. Wait did I say funny, I meant "completely baffling" and the worst of it, imo anyways, comes from this pretty egregious push towards a digital only future we're seeing, with no consideration for physical media, storage space, possible alternative formats to use, or even us gamers wanting to actually possess and own our games. Yeah we live in an age where media is offered to us in such convenient ways, but with gaming it is a whole other beast entirely and as such it requires a different way of thinking in regards to convenience. Thinking that needs to address some of the issues I have with what's presented to us nowadays, starting with...

Video games back then were pretty small in comparison to the massively large scale stuff we've seen these past couple generations, with every gen growing further and further to reach this point. However with that came this rapid race to pushing out not just the biggest of games, but the most visually stunning games as well...sort of. While there have been plenty of games that went for gorgeous stylized looks and graphical effects there have been way more games that aimed for graphics so realistic and lifelike, it resulted in detailed effects and textures that likely took up a ton of file space. Listen, I don't mind if a game looks great, but if the game's high resolution graphics and such are why it ends up with anywhere over 100GB of data to store then clearly we have a problem. I get it, 4K and 8K resolutions are indeed a thing, but to be honest it is not that much of a necessity in the grand scheme.

The overwhelming file size isn't just cause of graphics either, lack of optimization is just as prevalent and boy does it show. Okay sure, devs have to work under a deadline, gotta get as much of those release day sales as possible, but if optimizing a game to scale down the file size and keep it looking good and performing smoothly is a hassle, then maybe something has to give in order to make it easier to manage. Ya gotta know what's best to prioritize if you want the gaming experience feel fun for the player and save space for more, ya know?

Remember how simple storing game data was, where all you had to worry about was simply having a memory card was all you needed to keep your progress and you had the choice to buy or rent a game to pop in your system? That's what my question earlier was about, stuff like SD cards, flash drives, SSDs and HDDs all store data like the memory cards of old, however there is one difference: the latter mostly stored save data and occasionally DLC for some consoles, the former can fully store games.

After the 7th Generation there definitely was a push towards being able to play games digitally but imo it always felt sloppily done even to this day, unless you played on PC where everything had a designated file directory you could set up of course. For consoles sure you only had to buy an SD card or SSD for extra storage, but it didn’t practically feel like a requirement until games started taking up more and more space. Add onto that the save data, update patches and loads of DLC, and you're piling on more and more files to keep track of with every game you get. That hits even more when you realize that the you fill up more space buying digitally than physically, though nowadays that applies more to Nintendo Switch owners since Playstation and Xbox have treated physical copies like glorified installer discs since the 8th Generation.

Speaking of installer discs I should probably talk about the physical side of gaming, since now there's more of a prevalent discussion amongst the gaming community going on. I've always wondered why out of all the Big 3 in gaming, it was Nintendo that kept it mostly right on what format to use for games and how to store it, especially now. They had cartridges down to a science from the NES to the N64 (the handheld scene was well done too), their disc based systems were touch and go with the Wii being their best one, and when it came to the Switch they didn't follow the trend at all and went "cartridges are fine enough for what we're doing," kudos. I say all this because, for the most part anyway, all of the base game that gets released on Switch is in the cartridge, leaving you extra room for DLC and some digital games that may not take as much space in your storage. That's something I appreciated way more than one would think, as it let me pick and choose what games were worth buying physically and what won't eat up my SD card space, something I feel is greatly missing elsewhere to be honest.

Granted I know cartridges are probably more expensive to manufacture but it's clear the gaming industry wants to shy away from DVD/Blu-Rays as the years go by, however I do wish there was some consideration for not just cartridges, but other physical ways to store games and reduce all the clutter. SD cards are as abundant as can be and come in various capacities, I wouldn't think it'd be too hard to make great use of that and solely store games and DLC in em (shoot Sony themselves toyed with SD card-sized cartridges with the Vita before, they could've tried that format again without the Vita's failures weighing em down). A single SSD could potentially store those 100s of gigabytes that one game had and they're just as readily available to produce too, imagine a system that contained a slot for you to plug one in that had the game ready to boot anytime and could store any extra content.

The options are right there and they'd be great logical next steps in how to sell physical copies of video games, or any media for that matter, but man it's crazy how unnoticed they've gone. I just wish it were given some thought and considered at least.

I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would dare say that gamers need to feel comfortable not owning their games, that is perhaps the biggest slap in the face to anybody who picks up a controller old and new. For decades it was pretty much an unspoken agreement between the gaming industry and the gaming community that we buy their games and thus we owned em until we either traded it, gave it away or sold it simple as that, but nowadays (since this past decade even) the industry has gotten bold. Between scummy business practices, horrible business mindsets and finding any which way they can to screw people over, it's disrespecting to the very essence of why we play video games.

Now I'm not gonna trash the very notion of digital gaming as a whole, it's here to stay and has been for a long time, but I cannot and will not accept it being the only way we play games when having the options and balance of choosing between it and physical titles in a better format is a perfectly fine way to go whenever we wanna buy a game.

The more limitations and restrictions you place on gaming and the more shenanigans you cause the more likely people are to relent against the industry, and when people relent well...

Hey, a service issue is a service issue is all I'm saying, there are definitely people out there who won't mind the high seas if push comes to shove.

[dragontamer05]

Whenever I hear anything about people either wanting a new console release or whatever in regards to the Switch I just hnng, I mean I’m glad you’ve got the money to want and be able to purchase anytime new one is popped out but I’m happy with what I got.

Now I get it, new console means likely updated/upgraded hardware which means increased performance and all that so I’m not saying its bad for a new one to be a released or that Nintendo shouldn’t eventually have something new but my main concern- as is often what happens with new consoles are released is

- Will the old Switch games work on it / could I still run any new games released after on my old console even if it means having a slightly lowered performance rate?

Because lets be real consoles are expensive, not to mention the fact that they’ve now merged the home and hand held console to one which brings its own problems personally. Now for the switch they did eventually release the Switch Lite - which the fact that they chose to release it and people bought it (I’ve got one and so does my sister) and I think it did pretty well I think kinda proves that while people love having a plugged in console to play on their T.V

there are people who either can’t afford or simply don’t want that and just want and enjoy the portability of hand held gaming.

Look I’ve got a Wii have enjoyed playing games on the T.V. but I also like my DS and having gaming I take on the go and personally anyway if I had a Home console type version of the Switch the hooks up to the T.V I can’t imagine ever daring to take that with me on travel (especially cause doesn’t it need to be docked to charge where as even if its not the best choice I can technically charge my Switch lite with my phone charger)

The only thing I’d want from the new switch is let me idk some how Copy? share? my Switch profile with another while still keeping it on my original device. or at the very least idk share game file data.

Look I don’t know how that would or even if it could be programmed to work like that only that right now you can which is kinda a downer because lets say I did want and could by a Switch right now or maybe let’s say I got the special Pokemon SV one or I got really lucky someone gifted me one or won a contest whatever

With everything saved to the Switches memory now all my games now that I have sure I can still play them but it would be all fresh new saves, I wouldn’t be able to carry over my old saves without like removing them off my current switch- I have no idea if like saving stuff to a memory card and just swapping out would work though I assume not.

If such a thing could be programmed I’m not even saying you have to be able to do it an infinite amount of times. I’m just saying keep they already available transfer option of data off one device to another but also what if even if it was just like a one time deal or idk I’d imagine there’d be some other condition attached to it or something instead of transferring everything off it would copy whatever current data you have on there and basically paste on to the new one.

Maybe you can only do it once or because its copying your already existing data it won’t necessarily automatically update with any new changes you’ve made-in terms of downloads n stuff (on what’s basically viewed as your main console where it copied from) so to keep up to date you just have to synch up the two consoles now and then like regular save data might be fine but if say a game had some kind of patch /update to it or you bought and downloaded some new dlc on the main console if you want to share it to your profile on the secondary you gotta sync it up.

Basically how you sync an old phone up to a new one if you want to keep the stuff that was saved there. But like it doesn’t like wipe the old phone clean of that data either (unless you choose to like factory reset afterwards)

At minimum being able to do that would mean being able to back all your saves and things up on another console and not just SD cards or the cloud- which not all games use anyway.

--

Tbh the only other thing I’d want out of a new console change the controllers I can’t even say specifically in what way but I look at them and all I can wonder is exactly how user friendly are they for left handed people? Now the switch light for the most part I’ve never had too much trouble with so maybe it wouldn’t be to bad or I’ve just been lucky with the games I’ve played so uh hey any other Left handers out there that’s got a plain ol regular switch or a pro I guess- you know not a Switch Lite pls share your experiences would love to here.

(in the tags, reply or just reblog and comment whatever floats your boat)

--

[eucalyptus-gl0bulus]

as someone who went to the effort of recreating the world champion winning team from MY OWN games, the effort required for a normal person to do any of that without even taking in the time to plan a team is just absurd.

His amoongus was 0atk so i bred for that. Easiest mon on the team.

the flutter mane was 0atk so i spent time getting one with 0atk (recluse and shiny!)

He had an urshifu-R and landorus-T. You could not get EITHER in SV natively until indigo disk made kubfu real

Urshifu: I had to make a new user for pokemon shield and grab a pokemon from dynamax adventures, power through the isle of armor for long enough to get a kubfu and then transfer the pokemon that was on every team in the tourney and costing $135AUD PLUS POKEMON HOME to get into Violet. I already had the privilege of owning Both Pokemon versions this gen ($180) and one game+DLC for the last generation (a further $135, we are over 300 fucking dollars for a team) and this only took me a solid like 5 hours to get the kubfu. you can get the scrolls as key items if you have one in your boxes (porto marinada)

Landorus: It didnt wanna show in the dynamax adventures, and if you caught legendaries in there it didnt improve your odds. Thank. Fuck. I wasn't going for a Cresselia in that because 4 perfect IVs means you only get 2 chances for imperfect ones and Cres needed both of those specific IVs to be 0.

Iron Hands: I honestly just went wild catching the bastards in Area Zero for a raid one a while back and then I went BACK into A0 to catch another one. This and Flutter Mane are mutually exclusive mons, because if you can catch one without a union circle from the other game, you can't catch the other.

Chien Pao: I haven't even caught my Violet CP yet, i just poke-homed the one from scarlet.

I should also let you know how I got the EV/IV/Nature spreads, shouldn't i? I had to take a rental team (YR7557) of the champ's team, and in the team preview, i had to screenshot their individual summary pages because the rental preview doesn't show it. I then put them into Showdown's damage calculator until the numbers matched. I had their stats with the summaries, because TPCI will let you know their level (50, set), stats, nature, moves, tera, and abilities but won't pencil you in on their EV/IV spreads, which allows you to reverse engineer them with the calculator. His JermaSUS has 31 speed IVs, a +def-atk nature and 0Spe EVs, and that threw me off.

Now that I have the pokemon, and the EVs and IVs (bottle cap the ones that arent meant to be 0), i had the pleasure of using vitamins to get to the nearest 10 rounded down of the EVs and then manually get the rest. This step only took me a full day.

Here's Flutter Mane's spread (0ATK IV)

HP 139 Attack 54 Defense 93 Sp. Atk 172 Sp. Def 156 Speed 193

This is 68/0/140/132/4/164 on the ev spreads

I then had to grab Tera Shards, because despite having made the save file on new year's, I didn't have nearly enough, because his team had 3 tera waters. I had to re-tera both landoT and shifu to their secondary types because earlier gen pokemon always take their primary type for default tera. The tourney AND the teambuilding both happened before the DLC and glittering charm came out too, so i had to painstakingly get like 7 of them per raid. Praise be to the Terarium's 15-20 shard spawns and the glittering charm.

After getting the right moves on everything (of which i had to go farm for more protect TMs, praise be to 10BP protect TM in the blueberry, because that's run on half the pokemon in vgc, and after all the move relearning and TM compensating (and replacing Urshifu-R's protect with detect because i was thinking about how short vgc games are compared to the risk of imprison farigiraf, something the teambuilder clearly didn't have the free time to think of), i had to use PP ups on everything.

Game freak doesn't let you buy PP maxes, even in the DLC, so I was stuck having to use brainpower to mindlessly mash A for 72 entire fucking PPUPs because you can't just use 12 on a pokemon in one go to instantly PP max it, you have to select the pokemon, select the move, then press A and then do that whole process 3 times per move, for four moves, on 6 pokemon.

That wasn't even like the money grinding I did in my sleep either, because at least that money grinding can be done with one button being mashed by a turbo controller so i could have a life (look at the lava lamp) and that's half an hour I'm not getting back.

Did you know that not all delibird presents locations have all the items? Safety goggles is only in the levincia one.

It took this much effort, this much free time, and this much pain (but the latter two were because of a broken arm i had while doing it, i had a custom controller mapping for one handed)

Youtuber im a blisey has a series where he recreates the world championship winning teams (but for this specific tournament he made a team that Youtuber/Worlds competitor Freezai requested) and that alone can go to show how fucking insane it is to make a team , and believe it or not, when you ignore the Pay2Win garbage of Regulation D, was actually LESS PAINFUL than earlier gens.

People were used to regulation C throughout the circuit, and then right before worlds, the most important tournament, they changed to regulation D, and the rules that had been in place since 2013's X and Y that prohibited you from using pokemon that didn't have the current gen's origin mark were axed, was something wacky that made everyone scramble. Worlds finals was a month after that regulation change, so people had to adapt to this P2W dick move real quick or be severely crippled going into the most important tournament of their lives.

the unadulterated pain of amoongus falling the fuck off the moment regulation E came out because ogerpon doesnt get spored and is really good, so i've made a personal battle team that replaces it with someone else's tornadus from like a decade ago that I had to berry reset because reset mochi is a bitch to get and i can just check the markets for berries and then turn into a tailwind setter

TL;DR The Pokemon Company made worlds this year especially bullshitty by giving people no time to look at the meta, strategize, or make counter-meta picks, made everything less accessible for anyone who wasn't a completely brainrot level diehard fan to get and I cannot blame anyone for genning their competitive team for worlds. Every second you waste getting pokemon in a way you can verify as legit is a second you're not practicing with that team and learning its faults.

For proof I actually made the fucking team, your rental code is VJHS49.

Shinies are more about the journey it takes to get them and the experience of the hunt, so people cheating them in just robs them of that. You've mixed up the work of getting a shiny with the literal over a week of my life that i had a broken arm and lots of free time as a result that it takes to get a team that might be faulty by the time you've actually gotten it. It's so fucking goofy in the first place and it was even worse this time around. I stand with the people who cheated in their teams.

You're not just wrong, you're stupid.

/

Genned Pokémon

Genning Pokémon is just like pretending to be handicapped at the Special Olympics. Because you're taking all the fairness out of the game. But I know now that even if you do win with genned Pokémon, you're really not a winner. You're just a pussy. You're just a big fat pussy, and if you gen Pokémon, the only decent thing to do is come forward and say, "Remove me from the record books, because I am a big, stinky pussy-Pokémon-genning jackass."

[katyspersonal]

Looked at some models myself

Hey guyes! Remember how I complained about wanting to become an old lady? Well, I have good news for you (and myself)....

LOOOOOOOOK!!!!!!

Okay this IS pretty cool! I was able to borrow that one save-editing program thanks to a friend (and the fact that code can be reused two times) so I was looking through some models, I wanna see more and figure some other stuff too, but... jees, seeing this for myself on the BIG screen is so much better than taking low-res pause captures from low-res youtube videos fsjdfh

This set comes in one piece, as only chest piece, but covers everything including head, and attempt to wear actual head/legs/arms pieces causes clipping.

I also found out that Adella’s dagger IS a weapon that can be equipped, sort of! I found out by looking at the page with Hex IDs for weapons, and it was right up there ( x ). So yes, I tried this one too.

Turned out that it does have strong attack animation AND charge attack programmed, however, they do not deal any damage. I’ve tried several times, and nope. Adella, apparently, only uses the L1 attack with it, that is rather slow and repeats her slowly staggering to stab us - you can see the damage it is dealing is rather low, actually. So, yeah, unfortunately, not effective weapon at all... It swings way faster if you use L1 after R1, but, again, doesn’t deal damage to any enemy!

Also it IS bigger than I thought it was o:

There are also these REALLY strange looking untextured black arm pieces for some reason. Don’t even know what to use them with, because they clip through other clothes. Was also really upset to find out that I could NOT, in fact, wear Mico’s cut content handcuffs or Garden of Eyes’ head.

Again, this is just soooooo much better up close and seen by myself!

Her clothes pieces also have actual icons, and even reasonable defence stats, which is so neat? Don’t know what else it is supposed to mean other than these were intended to be possible to loot and wear, but... yeah

I was editing a save file using IDs found by that cool person Sanadsk / Omega Fantasy, ones for armors are specifically revealed in this document ( x ), but there are also IDs for stuff like weapons and items ( x ). Interestingly, there are still no Hex IDs for weapons from DLC anywhere I could find... But I think that’s even to the better, because everyone must experience getting Rakuyo by themselves jhfdshjfdshfd I think I will just gather them on my own later, by keeping track of placing a weapon with known ID, recording where it is in the save file, and then equipping a DLC one on its place and writing down the number. It is really easy, just need to play until that point now because my progress was lost due to having to switch account on one possible for online :s ....but when I finish with that, I will NOT share Rakuyo’s ID with the public, because everyone should fight Shark Giants, ahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!

By the way, a myth got debunked!

I thought Annalise had a low-res ring on her hand, but turned out that it was just a clipping issue in her fingers, that applies to both hands! D: Yeah, there is a chest piece that, rather than just giving her dress, changes entire player’s model to Annalise! With ridiculously blueishly pale skin, long demelanized hair and... no face, apparently...

So yeah, I want to find out more stuff, such as how to replace one NPC with another to take a closer look and freeze enemies/bosses in non-hostile positions, I have some ideas on how that could possibly be pulled off! This thing is also convenient if you really need to look at something but you messed a questline (like how I had to start a new game to see Henryk’s armour because I accidentally aggroed Eileen early т.т). And of course I am going to save-edit dungeons! I can’t explain it well, it just... being able to see and capture things by myself feels so much better than relying on videos and screenshots found online?

However, one thing annoyed me! Like, I don’t know if the version of Save Wizard get to use is somehow ‘wrong’, or things are JUST like this, but there was one irritating thing that only occured to me a bit late?

Basically, imagine that you want to look at Adella’s dagger close, so what you want to do, is, obviously, to replace a Hex ID for weapon you already have in your equipment with Hex ID for it! For example, unleveled Hunter’s Axe! We can see ( x ) that Hex ID for Hunter’s Axe is 004C4B40 ! So what do you wanna do when you see 100500 lines of shit like this?

Naturally, just hit search for 004C4B40! But for some reason, the search instead glows blue at 40 4B 4C 00 instead! And yeah, you probably figured by now what is wrong here, but I didn’t get it at first? I kept searching and trying to find what was wrong, and then gave up and replaced 404B4C00 with the normal ID for Adella’s dagger - 000DBBA0 . And... I got jackshit. Just empty item.

But then I did realise that the weird numbers and letters search gives me do, in fact, make sense...... This ABSOLUTE MOTHERFUCKER, for some reason, wrote Hex IDs in inverted order! And not as in, ‘write the same line backwards’, no! Instead, the ID consists out of 8 symbols but they are paired, so you have to write PAIRS in reverse order, but not reverse the order of the letters themselves! So the correct way to insert Adella’s dagger would be to write 00 0D BB A0 as A0 BB 0D 00!

BUT HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT?????? AAAAAAA!!!!!!

Again, I don’t know, maybe it is on me, I just thought it was painfully obvious how to use this program and I didn’t expect something to be odd, especially with Hex IDs already known to the public - why not write them in ‘correct’ order then? But yeah, the riddle was solved, and I get how it works a bit better now. This is really satisfying that I can DROWN in references now, but I’ll need to take my time with this thing, because with some stuff I still dunno what to do. For example, I saw people edit where Doll is by replacing her ID with ID of like... some cut content model such as King or Beltran, to take a closer look, but for that I do need ID for the Doll first. :thinking_emoji:

I will find out I guess, this thing is simpler when you get around intuitively knowing where is what code.

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers: June 6th, 2021

I’m back with more ask responses! You can also check our Frequently Asked Question sheet if there’s something you’re wondering that’s not answered here.

FAQ   Also, if you prefer to just see the main posts without all the asks/reblogs, feel free to follow our side account instead: GB Patch Updates Blog

Thank you for the patience with these questions  ♡

Hey in very beginning of step 3 in the scene where Mr.Holden had a thought dancing on the tip of his tongue but he kept it to himself after MC and Cove were being cute (idk if it makes a difference but this is when they're dating)... Can we know what he was thinking/ wanted to say? It's been bugging me lol 

He would’ve gone into a “look how much you’ve grown”, “your dad is so proud of you”, “I’m so glad things worked out with the MC”, and etc spiel, haha. But he resisted the urge to fawn on his baby boy, at least for that scene.

If we planned to move away for college/future plans in step 3, is it implied that MC and Cove would have a long distance relationship for sure? Could MC have convinced Cove to come with them? How is the dynamic of their relationship going to be addressed in Step 4, if that makes sense? 

Cove is willing to follow the MC where they went after everything is settled for them there, and if they’re sure they want him to come! You’ll get to decide how things shook out during those transitional years just by making choices about it during the opening prologue of Step 4.

Hi! First off, how does it feel to have created one of the best games when it comes to inclusion for lbtq+ peeps? I've never felt as validated with my identity and sexuality when playing a game and I'm seemingly not alone ♥ Second, and this might be a little too specific, but what kinds of drinks does Cove like as well as dislike? Thank you, you're the best ♥

Thank you for very much! It’s really nice to hear the game felt inclusive. Cove likes regular water and fruit juices/smoothies most! He dislikes coffee and cola, and he’s not super into most teas either.

Hi, may i ask what gb patch stands for? Specifically the gb part lol

It stands for my old, silly username I used in places like Neopets as a kid, aha. The company name wasn’t super thought out since it was originally just me making VNs as a hobby. Luckily, “GB Patch” kind of seems like it could mean something reasonable, so I didn’t have to rebrand when it did become a more serious, commercial group.

If we chose to not propose to cove in the step 3 dlc would he propose or would the mc propose in step 4 or the wedding dlc? 

Yeah, you or Cove can propose in Step 4 if you’re not already engaged! The Wedding DLC takes place after the engagement so the proposal scenes aren’t there.

will you guys announce if the early access for the new game is out on patreon ? 

When beta builds of Step 4 or whatever start coming out on the Patreon we will mention it here on social media too.

Heyy I just had a quick question about Baxter if that’s okay :)?

I saw in an ask+answer that it’s possible to casually date Baxter In step 3, but what leads up to that? I have the step 3 dlc and I’ve tried playing them In a different orders and ways but it doesn’t seem to get anywhere ^^;

The Step 3 DLC is Cove-based because he’s the default guy. There’s a separate Baxter romance DLC that’s not out yet. That’s where you can get him to date you. I’m sorry for the confusion!

Will we ever get any LI's or side characters with physical disabilities or deformities? I think your games would be a great place to have them in since they're always so accepting and safe! 

Yeah, we do hope to have representation for that in future projects ^^. Thank you for the confidence in us.

Is it possible to get Cove to take the bed and MC to sleep on the floor? 

Not in Step 3, I’m afraid.

So, I have played the prologue of Our Life countless times and I haven't gotten the [Your Life] achievement, why is that? 

Steam sometimes isn’t connected properly when an achievement unlocks and so it remains locked on your account. If that happens, unfortunately getting the scene again won’t unlock it. The achievement becomes inaccessible because the game thinks you already have it. Playing with the same Steam account on a different device or fully deleting your game data (more than the only the save files) are the only work arounds we’ve found.

Since when you talk with Jeremy in step 3 it's mentioned he goes on dates with someone (which assume is JB because who else would take this boy on dates) that makes him happy, does that sort of make JB and Jeremy the canon relationship in the first game?

The default for XOXO Droplets is that JB casually goes on dates with each of the jerks! Shiloh would’ve been harsher if Jeremy was the only guy getting her attention, haha. But the player can change that default by dating just one person the whole game for their own story and who she ends up with for real has no default.

Hi, hello! Huge OL fan, thank you so much for the wholesome content, it was very much needed during these times. Managed to get several people to join team Cove, so that's very exciting, I always have people to fawn over him with. I have a little question and I'm sorry if it was asked before, but does it ever come up in the game what Cove has told his mom about us? (who knows, with so many options, one can miss it) Or, alternatively, will it come up in the Step 4 DLC? 

Thank you very much for sharing the game with people <3. It’s really great to hear people are liking it. Right now that doesn’t come up in game. Kyra is willing to keep her mouth shut and Cove isn’t gonna have that conversation either. At least not when he’s younger, but yes, perhaps when he’s a fully grown big boy in Step 4 you can ask him about it.

I’ve been thinking about this ever since it has been confirmed that there would be two love interests for OL2, would there be the possibility of forming a polyamorous relationship with both love interests? I’m sorry if you answered this previously, I’m just curious. 

We are considering it, but it’s not a guarantee yet. It’d be really great to have but it’d add so many extra alterations that’d need to made, aha.

Hello! You mentioned how Cove would be uncomfortable with kids at 23, but how old would he be when he’s comfortable with having/adopting kids? (Same goes for the other LI’s.) btw, love your game!! 

He’d want to be at least 25, but even older would be good. Derek would want to have kids when he and his partner could reasonably support them, the age itself wouldn’t matter. If they were doing good at 22 and wanted kids, he’d be up for it. Or they could wait until their 30s or whatever. Baxter is also more of a “when it feels right” guy rather than having a specific age requirement. Cove is just especially wary of being a young parent because of his own parents. I’m happy you like the game!

does step 4 immediately play after you press "end summer" in step 3? or is there another button/transition (like the story text thingy) before the epilogue begins? what happens after the epilogue? roll credits? 😂 

Step 4 will have transition section always and there will be an extra button, if you own the Derek or Baxter DLC. By default the Cove-based version of Step 4 just plays once Step 3 is over. However, having the other guys’ storylines will mean you get to pick which version of Step 4 plays; Cove Step 4 (the basic one), Derek Step 4, or Baxter Step 4.

Happy pride, thank you for all you do for us🥰

I have a quick question though, I recently got a MacBook after my old windows computer broke, and now steam says I cannot download it, but it has no issues with other games, what can I do to download it?? I’m sorry if my English is bad

Happy pride month! Unfortunately, Our Life isn’t available for Mac on Steam right now. To be an approval application Apple requires having special notarization and we as a small group haven’t gotten that. Itch doesn’t care and lets us release the game for Mac there anyway, Steam does care so we’re locked out of putting the Mac build up on their storefront. Feel free to email us and we can try to help the situation out further!

support@gbpatchgames.com

Hello! I was jus wondering if the Baxter and Derek DLCs are still happening? I haven’t heard anything about them on here or patreon in a while so I just wanted to make sure ^^

They’re still coming and we just released a new sprite sketch on the Patreon for the Derek DLC c:. But right now Step 4 is still much more of a priority. Once that’s closer to being done we’ll focus way more on sharing previews for the other guys.

is it possible to tell cove you love him (platonically) at step 3 fondness/selecting him as basically family? i just love the mc and liz sibling interactions and it got me wondering about it (especially if you've selected that option)

You and Cove can be as close as family, but there’s not a specific scene in Step 3 where you say “I love you” in a family context. But there’s always Step 4~

do you intend on ever adding a collectors mode to Our Life? Like a way to collect achievements and CGs for the gallery without it effecting any save files? 

We weren’t considering it before. But if a lot of players would find that helpful, we could start thinking on that!

Sorry if it's a silly question haha, but (in crush/love) is Cove really aware of how cute and cuddly he seems to MC? If so, what does he think or do about it? Or does he just ignore it? 

He isn’t particular aware. Cove never truly stops being surprised that the MC is interested in/attracted to him, haha.

Would you say that the alone ending of xoxo droplets is worth playing again to get? 

Nope, haha. The goal is to make friends/get a boyfriend and so the alone ending is kind of the bad ending for the game. Though there is a consolation prize if you get it by accident.

Is there any possible situation which would ever prompt Pran to bake for his girlfriend? Like I know it's unlikely I mean even if JB broke her leg somehow I'm pretty sure he'd still be like "I considered baking you a cake and doing the frosting the way I think looks interesting but you don't deserve a cake, no one does." right but also ahhh it would be super nice if some day he just surprised her with baked goods one day out of nowhere. JB would be so shocked it would be cute. So is there any possible situation where that could/would be a thing that he would do? 

He might bake out of spite, like if he felt he had to prove her wrong on something. Or if JB used some good reverse psychology on him. Or he might do it in a relatively nice way if he could make his GF so shocked by the kind gesture that his amusement with that overrode his insistence on not being sweet. Pran is very difficult in high school, aha.

Is the "one route (where) it can be seen that Everett will drop his seemingly eternal waging with Jeremy pretty easily and can start getting along without thinking much on it" the Lucas route? I'm curious! 

Yep! Everett will side with Jeremy if it’s between him and Lucas.

Hi I hope you guys are having a great day :) I just had to ask how Cliff would feel about Cove's partner/fiancé Mc calling them dad whether it be accidental or otherwise and secondly I also wanted to ask how he would feel about being asked to be the one to give the mc away at their wedding. 

He would be very touched and excited! I hope you have a good day too :D

Hello! I saw an ask relating to whether Cliff "moves on" after Cove's grown up and stuff (and he stays single), but what about Kyra? Will she be with anyone else or will she stay single? 

She does start dating again, but she takes it slow.

Hi! I absolutely love the art for characters in OL and I wonder is this fine to draw my MC in same drawing style and upload online later? Is this something artists would be okay with? Thank you! 

Yeah, you can certainly do that C:

Hey there!

I wonder if I'm just being stupid here.. Is Step 4 a DLC? And if so, where can I find it? I can't seem to find it on Steam :< Thank you!

Step 4 is a free epilogue! It’s not done yet, but once it is finished you’ll just update your game file and Step 4 will be there after Step 3 ends.

hi! are step 4 and the wedding dlc two different things?

They are. Step 4 is a free epilogue that’ll be a default part of the game once it’s done, the wedding DLC is an optional paid expansion that takes place after Step 4.

Why did Baxter not receive a step 2 sprite seeing how he shows up later

Sprites are time consuming to draw and take money out of the budget that could’ve gone to other things. His tiny appearance in Step 2 wasn’t worth all the effort to make a sprite, aha.

I just realized, what happens if if you get the patreon exclusive moment but at a later date, when you don't have the membership anymore, it's updated (like a bugs fix update for example)? Would you have to get the membership again? 

You would have to get the membership again to redownload the build. But there’s very little chance there’s going to be an update once it’s been out for over a month. If a build gets released with errors, players catch/report them within the first few days. So by the time the first subscription period ends, any problems that were noticeable would already have been fixed. And we’re certainly not gonna be adding new content to it once it’s been released for a long time. There’s no need to worry about missing out on something worthwhile in the future if you cancel your membership. It’s being made with the idea in mind that many players are gonna be getting it and then going.

Hello! Wanted to ask about gaming choice in step 3? Once upon a playthorugh I got the option to buy Cove a bracelet for his graduation present. I played the same basic character again and that option wasn't there anymore. I'm not sure where I went wrong. My Cove wears a bracelet on each hand and my MC is into fashion and jewelry. Do I need to put an earring on him or? Sorry, love your game so much. 

He also needs to have liked bracelets in Step 2 for that to be considered a good gift option for him. Sorry for the confusion! I’m happy you love the game :)

Is Step 4 being released at the same time as the Wedding DLC or will the first come before the latter? Thank you! 

I’m not sure. Ideally they’ll come out at the same time, but the wedding DLC has a lot of art to get done and we may have to release it after Step 4.

Can mc still get confession from Cove at the end of step 3 even if mc casually dates Baxter in step 3? Such as in crush mode? 

I don’t think so. Maybe that’ll change, but generally there’s differences to the Step 3 ending if you were dating Baxter and those differences likely will conflict with getting the Cove confession.

For the patreon moments/dlcs, will it be available for all tiers? 

It’ll be available for tier 2 (Fans) and up!

[lazzledazzler]

Lazzle's Rune Factory 5 Review

Alright so here are my thoughts and experiences with RF5! This is a big boy so buckle in earthmates...

Obviously this review will contain spoilers, read at your own risk.

Initial thoughts upon playing...

Great opening! I enjoyed the jazz music~ I did feel like it leaned a bit more towards the male player though. It definitely feels like a rune factory game. It's familiar, and controls are easy to get accustomed to for the most part. The mold is there and rf5 doesn't stray too far from its predecessors which is comforting for veterans. That being said, I'm not going to pull any punches and will critique this game harshly. Keep in mind as updates for the game are released not all things discussed in this review will be as relevant overtime!

Let's hear some thoughts on...

The story/plot. The plot is enjoyable overall. I'm not crazy about the whole Seed organization thing but it was a neat idea. They address the Sechs Territory and it is confirmed that the game takes place some decades after RF4. But by the end of it, I didn't feel like I really accomplished anything because it felt like I barely did anything really. Also they left a lot of stuff unanswered. I'm not even sure I understood the message they were sending, if they were trying to send a message at all. The main story is too short, and it doesn't involve enough of the townsfolk. You're basically doing everything yourself in secret the whole time and the townsfolk barely know what's actually going on. Out of the love interests, Lucas plays the largest part in the story, followed by Priscilla and Scarlett. The story feels targeted at male audiences--at least that's how I felt. You, the player, have a larger role in the game, much like in RF3 and I was glad to see this. As of right now there are only two arcs. Praying for DLC 3rd arc...!

Protagonists. The latest protagonists to join the crew of Earthmates are...decent. Their designs are nothing special unfortunately, though I appreciate Alice's more than Ares's. Appearance-wise they lack personality and creativity. Personality wise I am pleasantly surprised with how sociable they are. They're not exactly quick witted and sassy like Lest/Frey were in rf4, or as endearing as Micah in rf3, but they have a certain realness to them that makes their reactions to things believable. I'm certain Xseed will see to making them a bit more sarcastic in their localizing efforts, so let's all look forward to that. Overall though, while I appreciate their mannerisms, they don't really measure up to all the previous amnesiacs we've grown to love over the decades.

Characters. Overall I enjoy all the characters introduced in Rune Factory 5! I feel like there is someone for everyone in this game on some level. The voice acting was pretty good for every character. The designs are very much Rune factory. Like OG runefa, compared to rf4 ( 4 kind of strayed from their usual style) which I like. Characters still have their own signature quirks that you find endearing. Although I would have liked to see more variety? Like we've had mermaids, univir, half monsters, vampires, etc in previous titles but rf5 only gives us the usual (half) elf, dwarf, and then a succubus (physically she doesn't have unique features aside from the ears and heart eyes), and some were-people. I was hoping for something more unique to really give that classic runefa vibe.

Dungeons/Battles. I'm pretty split on this one. On the one hand, the dungeons have more depth due to the 3D aspects. They've included more contraptions that are very fun to see even if they aren't executed that well. So I'm grateful for that. On the other hand, the dungeons are insanely short imo. It doesn't take long at all to get to the boss. The puzzles are also pretty subpar and few compared to RF4. Fighting monsters is similar to the other games. You can lock on now but I only use it when I'm trying to use my Seed Circle. The lock on feature is actually counter-intuitive and makes it harder to dodge. Weapon mechanics have shifted a bit. There’s a feature that makes you invincible to damage if you time the R button dash correctly. Axes and Hammers are significantly slower than in older games? Like. I thought I was in slow motion it was so slow. Lances are also harder to use as well? I'm questioning my sanity here. I don't know if it's a bug or intentional either.

Farming. Not much has changed from previous games mechanics wise. They added new types of special crops which is neat. The camera view changes to overhead when you go near your fields though, and it can make you dizzy/uncomfortable. It actually makes it a bit difficult to see at times so I wish there was a way to adjust the angle. If you are tilling corn or dried weeds to improve the soil, you need to place them separately if you don't want to use the entire stack. Otherwise, it will till the entire stack on the land if you place them all down at once. The flower shop is unlocked late in the story. Weird thing to do considering you need flowers to make medicine. Not to mention the fact that you wont have access to the fertilizer that increases defense against typhoons? During typhoon season? Thinking emoji...

The town. I have to say Rigbarth's design is poor compared to Sharance, Selphia, etc. It's too big and it takes too long to get around. Everything is too spaced out and there aren't enough warp points to make it easier on players. I don't want to walk an entire mile up a hill to talk to one person and then walk all the way down to the beach to speak to another. It doesn’t really feel like a ‘town’.

OST/BGM. Music was good, though nothing really stood out to me where I'd go "damn this slaps" or something. I think they might've had some old soundtracks from rf2 or something because it felt really nostalgic at times.

We need an exterminator. (Bugs Bugs Bugs)

Marvelous, I don't know how to tell you this buuut...your customers are NOT your testers. When you release a game, you need to make sure it's not littered with glitches because customers don't enjoy dealing with them and will drop the game!

Here are some of the types of glitches I encountered:

Crashing. Game would randomly crash or freeze and close at any moment. Sooooo frustrating! Sometimes you get lucky with the autosave feature, but the autosave only activates every morning at 6am in your room and then when you warp to a dungeon level/floor. So when you're in the middle of your daily tasks in town and it crashes, you have to start all over. Marveloussss no one enjoys losing their progress in a game I promise you that much.

Lag. The dialogue bar is seriously slow, especially after loading your file. Crafting/Cooking screen lags. When you press the Y button to skip through dialogue it lags like hell. Pretty much after every time you load the game will lag, the audio will lag if you're in a battle, everything is just. so. slow.

Repeating dialogue. So if you close your game entirely (or if it crashes) naturally you'll reload your file to continue where you left off. There's a bug that will cause all NPCs to repeat the last dialogue that occurred from whatever plot related thing you did last. So for example, if the last thing you did in the story was unlock Ludmilla, everyone in town will naturally have some dialogue about her. But even after seeing all this dialogue and even saving, if the game is closed and reloaded you'll have to read all that dialogue again from townsfolk. It got really annoying after a while.

Monster taming. One time I tamed a monster but once I named it and hit 'ok' the monster never showed up in my barns? Just. gone. Okaaaay then...? Additionally, I expanded one of my monster barns but all of the monsters I tamed wouldn't appear in the added room. You get 4 monsters for each room but the monsters I tamed would show up in the original room. Meaning I had like 7 monsters in one room! I tried to bring them into the newly added room but they would just warp back to the other room. Sad.

Pond Glitch. I fished in the pond located in Sasayaki Forest and left the fish I caught but didn't want laying around the water's edge. If you leave fish around the pond's edge and go to sleep, the next morning you will be teleported to the pond and trigger the fairy dialogue as if you had thrown all of the fish into the pond??? So the dialogue of her telling you she wants 'X item, not this!' will trigger over and over for all of the fish you left at the water's edge. RIP.

Party member Bug. I had Martin in my party and I made him leave. Then when I went into my monster barns to get a monster pal to join me instead it showed me Martin's portrait???? Also I've encountered a bug where I can no longer ask anyone to join my party for some unknown reason. The R &L button prompt was just gone when I reloaded.

Errors. When cooking or crafting, the dialogue box shows up sometimes...

Typos. Random average typo here and there. Not a real biggie but there is one instance where the heroine will use the japanese male pronoun "boku" instead of "watashi" which really convinced me that this game was completely intended for men lol.

Let's talk about Pros

The good stuff. The stuff that makes you all warm and fuzzy inside.

Plot Advancing. Now I'm gonna put this as a pro because I'm certain the average player will enjoy this even though I do not. There are now markers on the map to show you where to go to advance the plot. This is all well and dandy, but it also made the story less appealing for me because you don't need to go around town and speak to residents for clues or assistance to advance anything in the story.

3D Graphics The 3D models are all amazing. The interior designs of the houses/buildings are also incredibly detailed and realistic.

Collecting items. Now there's a feature that will allow you to collect items into your inventory just by walking over them. This is pretty neat and welcome for the most part. Once the item is sparkling, you can walk over it and it'll go into your rucksack automatically. This also makes lumbering and mining go much faster. Yay!

The miraculous L pocket. Now you can customize the categories that appear in your L pocket by going to the rucksack tab in the menu. This is a super neat feature that makes things easier on players who want to manage their items in a format that suits them.

Weapon/Tool Toggling. You can now toggle between your equipped weapon and tool by pressing the left or right buttons on the trackpad.

Collecting lumber/material stone. Oh lord this is probably the most welcome improvement moving forward from the previous game. You can now put all of the lumber and material stone from your inventory into its storage at once. This also applies to fodder for tamed monsters. Well done Hakama.

Autosave. This feature is a welcome addition to the series. The game will save your data every morning and every time you enter a dungeon. Autosave has really saved my ass a few times when I made a huge error in judgement so I'm incredibly grateful for this feature. And it doesn't save over your actual save file--there's a separate autosave file at the very top. So if you messed up something but already saved on your main file, you can still salvage your mistake by reloading the autosave! I just wish it activated a bit more often sometimes.

Warping. Now we can warp to each level in a dungeon as well as certain places on the map in town. It's pretty convenient for the most part.

Increased party members. Now you can have up to 3 members in your party! Hooray! Party members act more intelligently than in older games. Scarlett can use the Seed circle to assist you in fights. I think she also tosses healing potions at you occasionally. So far, no one has tossed a dish at me if I haven't eaten like Kiel and Clorica did in rf4. But I have been hit by a failed dish (from reinhardt?) and a healing potion (from scarlett). Scarlett, Priscilla, and Reinhardt are the most helpful when dungeon crawling in my experience. Some of them however, (looking at you Doug) don't shut the hell up with their one line of dialogue they have and repeat it constantly.

Seed Circle. This neat feature allows you to capture monsters. By charging it and releasing you can capture monsters for the bounty system or add them to your party temporarily. If you throw it without charging it, you can stun monsters in place momentarily or grab things from far away. When stunning monsters, it can also give you the monster's drop item occasionally. Unfortunately it uses a lot of RP so it can be difficult at times.

Combo attacks. This is a neat feature that I appreciate and use often for boss fights. They do some serious damage so it's good to save them for the bosses. The actual cutscenes aren't that impressive, and feel kind of subpar when you get down to it but I think it's a start in the right direction.

Farm Dragons. I'm listing this as a pro although I really just see it as a new feature. Farm dragons have fields on their backs that you can place monster barns on and farm on. Giving them certain crystals will give your fields boosts in certain criteria, like length of growth, soil quality, you get it. I personally don't use the crystals because I couldn't give a shit lmao I have men and women to woo here. But if you're into this kinda thing then it's a pro.

Storage. When opening your storage box, fridge, etc. you can actually hit the R & L buttons to switch between ALL of your other storages. Looooove thissss. Great addition. So much faster to put items away in their respective places.

Crafting/Forging. Now we can also use the R & L buttons to alternate between the different weapon types/accessory/gear types instead of having to exit the menu and going back in each time you want to make something different.

Cooking. More recipes have been added. Yay!

Days are longer now. More time to get shit doneeeee ayyyy

Fishing. They've added many more fish to the game! Now the player will shout something when you get a bite, making it easier for you to hit B at the right moment. Nice. Also if you fail or press B too early, the fish doesn't vanish most of the time. Also nice. There is now a feature to fish with another person's assistance. Once a day you can investigate the sign near the fishing station and someone might offer to lend you a hand. Press the B button at the right moments on the slider and you can get a rare fish that can't be caught normally.

Monsters. New types of monsters! Love the designs. Even the monsters that are the same but just have different skins are really neat. They look great in the 3D format too. You can even ride with up to two people on certain monsters! Some bosses had awesome designs while others...were bad.

New Types of Furniture. The carpenter store has a wide arrange of furniture you can buy for your home. It also has wallpapers and stuff which is really neat. Though unfortunately you can't even sit on some of the furniture so that's a shame.

Events. Now there is a system where events are triggered by approaching an icon on the map. This is probably an improvement to RF4's randomized system, though personally I found it annoying because it meant that I had to see the events before I could just enter a building normally. Sometimes I just wanted to get shit done and not have to read through walls of text for someone's love event when I just want to buy something.

Voiced Lines. The protagonist seems to have more voiced lines, as do other characters. Good!

Let's talk about Cons

Not including glitches. Oh boy. So many cons. Where do I start?

Dialogue. Probably the most notable con in the entire game. The dialogue is drastically minimal in comparison to previous games, especially rf4. There is probably a quarter of the amount of dialogue compared to rf4's insane amount of content if not less. Townsfolk repeat themselves. Often. Too often. Am I playing Harvest Moon? Originally I thought it was because the dialogue is randomized, but I think it's actually because more dialogue is unlocked as you raise townspeople's FP. Despite this, there's no linear build up where you start off as acquaintances and eventually become very close like in rf4 because of how sporadic the LP/FP is. Townsfolk don't even talk to each other. One of the greatest perks about runefa is the conversations townsfolk can have with one another. Residents randomly gathering in small groups to talk about anything. Previously you could add someone to your party and sometimes a dialogue will occur if you speak to the right person at the right time with that person in your party. This is nonexistent now. The only time they do this in rf5 is during the festivals. But, it will only trigger if you have unlocked all the characters in each marriageable lineup and they can't be in your party. The residents will talk about one another but that's pretty much it outside of town events. They got rid of all the minor dialogue that occurs too. Trying to sleep in someone's bed while they're right there? They wont comment. Inspecting objects in stores while the shopkeeper is present? Wont say anything. Take a character with you to a dungeon/boss fight? Their lips are sealed. Where's my sense of community? :(

FP/LP This ties into the dialogue issue. The rate at which LP/FP increases is sporadic as hell. You can go from 1FP/LP to 4FP/LP just by giving a gift sometimes. I wouldn't even speak to people and their affinity increased by like triple for no reason. Then it increases by like 2% for the longest time. Argh!!!

Graphics. I don't consider myself very picky when it comes to graphics. I don't really mind that the foliage and scenery are at the level of a ps2 game at best. I tried playing on my television initially, but the lag and camera operability was too much so I fully switched (haha puns) to handheld. One thing that sucked is that I literally cannot tell the difference between medicinal herbs, antidote grasses, and green grasses without the captions because the graphics are so indistinguishable. So when you're trying to pick up multiples of those items by holding the A button, you're just randomly walking over anything green in the hopes that you'll get the right ones...

Lack of Sound Effects. Something I noticed is they got rid of the sound effects that will play when you complete a puzzle or add someone to your party. When you try to brush a monster there's no sound for the '♪' they make when you successfully brush them. So it was hard for me to tell if I had actually brushed them or not. I was a bit saddened by the lack of cute sounds.

Too much free range. From the very beginning of the game, you're allowed to go pretty much wherever you want when leaving town. It was too easy to stumble into high enemy level territory without knowing, so when I was like level 5 so I got KO'd immediately.

Artwork. The portraits seem to be lower in quality somehow. Runefa has always had shitty portrait art imo but this time it's even worse. Many character's eyes looked fucked up. Though the 3D models are insanely good for mostly every character except Terry. Terry's 3D model looks Terryfying and I prefer his portrait.

Festivals. They've added some new festivals. Some I enjoy. Some not so much. They changed the format of the eating contest. It's horrible. Good luck with that one.

L pocket + R button? They got rid of the feature that lets you skip to the other end of your items when opening the L pocket by pressing R button. I really liked that feature because it made it faster to reach my items so I was bummed that they got rid of it.

Gotta go fast. Now when you speak to someone, it doesn't 'stop time' as you might say it did in previous games. So people are still moving about as you speak to someone, making it harder to catch up to people! Annoying!!!

Catch and release? Not in my farming simulator! Say goodbye to being able to toss a fish you caught back into the water. In fact, say goodbye to tossing anything you don't want anymore into the water. Now you just have an army of fish flopping on the ground around you. And with the auto pick up feature, they're probably going to end up in your inventory anyways once you try to move. There are still certain ponds with fairies that you can toss stuff into, but you'll have to deal with the fairy harping at you for giving her something she doesn't want.

Shop Hours. Oh god. The shop owners don't even open their stores at the correct hours? It says open at 9am. If you speak to them they won't open their store until like 9:07??? But Priscilla and Lucy will show up to work their part-time jobs at around 8:30am and you can buy stuff through them before 9am. So the actual shop owners (for the bread shop and general store) are pointless usually. Additionally, if the store is empty (but open) you can no longer add a shopkeeper into your party and then enter their store with them to buy things from them. Why. Just why. When you want to buy something that only a specific person sells (Only Hina sells fish, only Heinz sells misc items) you have to wait for them to finally decide to work in their own store. Wonderful.

Monster Item drops. Maybe I'm crazy but the monster drops are seriously a lot harder to get than in previous games. Especially boss drops. It's almost impossible to get the rare drops now. I don't even want to try anymore. And as far as I know, the only place to buy monster items is through Heinz, but his items are actually misc. items, not specifically monster drops. So you'll be lucky to check his store (whenever tf he decides to actually work) for any monster items you might want instead of farming for the drops. Sighs.

Difficulty. This game is too easy. There is little to no challenge whatsoever. I had to increase the difficulty setting to hard mode and it was still too easy. I beat it at level 139, never once did I need to grind or level. In fact, your character levels up way too quickly for the pace of the story. I had zero trouble with any of the bosses and even the final boss was a breeze. Quite sad. Though because I am not new to the franchise, it's likely that newcomers would have some trouble in the later parts of the story.

Fishing cons. Idk how you fck up fishing but they sure did. You have to stand further back now because the pole is so long that you'll miss the fish you're aiming for. In fact, it's seriously hard to aim period. You'll end up recasting more often than not. Fish come in the various sizes but they don't seem to have the darker or faded characteristics that can indicate whether it's a rare fish or not. The graphics make it hard to tell. The pros that i've already mentioned are welcomed but it doesn't negate the fact that I do not enjoy fishing like I did in previous games.

Mining/Lumbering Cons. You can no longer strike three times consecutively when mining/lumbering. This sucks lol. Even when you upgrade your axe or hammer, powering up the tool does nothing for getting wood and material stone--it only expands the area of your strike. So it takes longer to get wood/stone from stumps and rocks now since you have to strike the full 9 times but it's not too bad. It's also harder to aim now as well so that's also unfortunate.

Seasonal Fields? Kiss them goodbye! That's right, there are no seasonal fields in rf5 because devs are insane! You instead have the farm dragons that seem to look seasonal based on the fact that they are designed after elements like earth, water, and fire. But no, these dragons are simply extra fields for you to use. Here's a spoiler: you're not going to use those fields. You're just not. They're kinda useless unless you're obsessed with farming. Now you have to grow your crops out of season like the sad farmer that you are.

Farming cons. Seeds no longer tell you how long it takes to grow the crop. Why. As of June 29th, they fixed this with an update. But I still had to play the whole game without it so fuck you marvelous. The joystick is really sensitive? So when you're trying to use a fertilizer or something on your field you're likely to place it on the wrong 4x4 tile, wasting your fertilizer. So it’s best to hold down the R button when farming. Also the crops look uglie as hell.

Sleeping and warping cutscenes. Just like in rf4 there's a cutscene when you go to sleep that can be skipped easily by pressing A. In rf5, there's a cutscene to sleep and a cutscene when waking up. It takes a bit more than a second to skip these scenes so it gets annoying after a while. Warping is this new feature that replaces our beloved escape spell. Overall I appreciate the feature but I hate it for two reasons. One: there's an annoying ass cutscene for it each time you use it that could be much shorter. And Two: townsfolk now use warp even when inside the town. In previous games, someone exiting your party in town would just manually run to wherever they need to be. So you could easily chase after them if you need to talk to them or give them something. Now, party members use warp regardless of where you are at the time. So say you have someone at 7 hearts and you want to try confessing to them. You would have them join your party, save your game, and then have them leave your party and immediately speak to them and confess before they can run off. If it doesn't work you reload until it does. In RF5 this wouldn't work anymore because they will warp. Now you would have to save, run around town trying to find this person and hope they accept the confession. Otherwise you'll have to play hide and seek again because reloading your file will randomize the resident's locations (if they are not working in a shop)!!!! I often just waited until a festival day because then they will be at the plaza for most of the day and it has a warp point there.

Crafting/Forging/Cooking. They've removed the feature where you can press Y on the ingredients in the menu to add more of that particular item. I miss this feature :'(

Lacks incentive. There is no trophy room from my knowledge. The final dungeon that is meant to be like the sharance maze/rune prana isn't that hard to beat for skilled players and is only 20 floors. After you beat the main story and this dungeon there's not much else to do really.

Request Board. Unlike in rf4, you need to make sure you have accepted requests before you complete them or else it will not count. Previously, you could complete all sorts of tasks and Eliza would still recognize your work even if you accept their request after the fact. ie, shipping goods, harvesting crops, etc. So make sure you don't harvest your special crops before accepting the request it's for!

Return of the "Loli" Dragons... Yeah you read that right. We got more dragons in children's(???) bodies with skimpy clothes. I don't know anymore????¿¿¿

Can't marry the Milfs or Dilfs. Tragic.

Still no homo. Grow up Marvelous.

Reverse Proposal? Reverse Uno card-- Laid low by the patriarchy. You now have to buy the double bed and craft an engagement ring to propose to your man if you're playing as Alice. Marvelous this isn't what we meant when we said we wanted equal rightsssssss This can be seen as a pro if you're a softhearted babey who doesn't like rejecting bachelors' proposals because you feel bad :'( But this is a con for me because I don't want to spend money and materials on a double bed dammit!!!

Misc. Still can't stack dishes or fish. There's no green elemental fairy???All the other elemental ones are there except the green one? why??? Still can't tame the giant Wooly. Some bosses that have insanely awesome designs cannot be tamed and makes me wanna eat glass.

Let's talk about Love~

Relationships. We want them. And half of us only play these games for them. I've only played as the female heroine so far but I'll be updating this review as soon as I finish with the bachelorettes as the male hero.

Confessions

As usual, we must raise the love points of our beloved to 7 hearts before we can attempt to date them. However unlike in rf4, if you fail at a confession once, you will need to raise the LP up an entire level before you can try again with any chance of success. It's imperative you save before attempting a confession now.

Love Events

Each love interest has two love events that must be seen before you can date them. They're reminiscent of older game's style but I felt they could have been a biiiit more interactive or so? Or involved the town a bit more for some of them.

Dating

Once you get your honey to be your bf/gf, you get to choose the nicknames as usual. Then you can go on dates. The first three (non-festival) dates are actually events. You need to see all three events to get married.

Marriage Event

The final event you need to clear before you can marry your sweetie. In my honest opinion, so far for the boys, these events were rather disappointing. They lacked the drama and angst that sort of 'test' the love between the two when compared to rf4. Also this is a huge con for me personally and a minor spoiler but there are no special cutscenes at the end of the marriage event like in rf4. Instead, the cutscene takes place during your actual wedding. I was saddened by this because it took away the depth from the marriage events and the actual character? As it is just a cut and paste type of thing instead of an original cutscene for each person. They lack individualism this way. Also it kinda felt like a way for devs to avoid gay relationships and cut corners :^/....sus.

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes...

Children!!!!!! This is actually one of the coolest additions in the game. Just like in rf3, you can have up to 3 children again! Your first child will resemble you, and you will have the option to choose its gender as well as its personality. There are 6 different children, (3 boys and 3 girls), all with different hairstyles, mannerisms, and seiyuus. Your answers will determine which child you get. A year after your first child is born, you will get the option to have a second child. You'll end up with twins, both resembling your partner. You won't get to choose the genders (it will be a boy and girl) but you will get to choose the personalities once more. The children all have canon names too and each kid is incredibly cute. And of course, you're still able to take your kid with you in your party~ ...Though you can only take one kid with you at a time.

So is RF5 good?

Yeah it's a fun game! My theory is that Marvelous forced the devs to release the game earlier than they were ready for, and that's why it's so lacking. But that doesn't mean it's not worth playing! I'd rate it 3.5/5 stars hehe. Not nearly as good as RF4 (full stop 5/5), or RF3 (4/5) but enjoyable nonetheless. I wouldn't recommend it as a first game to play from the series for newcomers though, I feel it's best for vets who can overlook all the cons thanks to loyalty and nostalgia. By the time it’s released in the West, the bugs should all be dealt with too.

So! Definitely buy this game! We want the series to continue and we want RF6 to be better than this--and hopefully Marvelous will make sure of that next time. If you're not a picky person I think you'll enjoy rf5 a lot. If you're like me and have high standards then, well, still pick it up and let it run its course. Then dust off rf4sp and cleanse your gaming palette >;^)

[sapphim]

I was asked a question about modding the audio in lines of dialogue in Awakening, and the asker requested a private response, but the thought of that information disappearing into the ask void when I think there are probably aspects of the answer that others may find useful makes me cringe, so I'm also going to save the bulk of the response under the cut for posterity.

Related, if the anon who asked me (a few months ago now, I think?) about extracting audio from DA2 is reading this, I do intend to reply eventually. It's just that the method I currently use for extracting audio was cobbled together over months of trial and error so I don't actually recall how that mess works without doing a lot of poking around to refresh my memory 😂

Also I want to highlight this specifically outside the cut:

DAO modding information is harder to come by than it used to be, but the best places to search for it these days are the toolset wiki, the nexus forums, and the fextralife mirror of the bsn forums. The fextralife search function is garbo tho so append site:fextralife.com to a google search instead.

You can use Aezay FSB Extractor to extract the audio files. The sound banks are in Dragon Age\addins\dao_prc_ep_1\module\audio. If you were modding the base game rather than a DLC then I believe you could use FMOD and the source files to edit and rebuild the original soundbanks? I've never done so myself but I'm pretty sure I've seen mods that have used that technique.

Since Awakening has no source released it might be trickier, though. You might be able to find a tool that can replace audio in the compiled soundbanks. If such a tool exists, that would be the most straightforward method, essentially just like the method above but bypassing the need for the source. You might also see if the method described in anshela's DA2 new audio tutorial can be adapted for the task.

Otherwise, you can add audio to the game by creating your own soundbanks, but it will be more effort to get the game to play your new audio instead of the original lines. You can create soundbanks directly through FMOD, I think. I don't know how to do so lol. I make new conversations with my modded voice over in the toolset conversation editor and just use whatever the toolset exports bc I don't want to learn another program lol.

Hopefully it won't come down to that, but pts. 1, 2, and 4 of my dialogue modding tutorial series should be a good starting place to figure out what parts of the dialogue files would need to be edited to change the audio. If you keep the same string reference for your modded audio as the original lines, just changing the name of the soundbank for the dialogue line should be enough to achieve the desired result. But like, really hope it doesn't come down to that.

[sorry-rosie]

I keep seeing mentions of drama in Mia’s tags but I do not see it? Being a person who stalks Mia’s tag for fan art and content often. Something about blaming Chris or Mia for Village’s events. 

I’m going to go into my thoughts on the matter anyways since it comes up a lot from what I read online, spoilers obviously under the cut. Probably going to be a long one.

For one Chris was a little sloppy with his plan and honestly he needs to use his words more as a professional, I do think Mia is justified in yelling at him. And who cares if she yells? Leon and Piers (possibly more) have been cranky with him over less. She’s a momma bear looking for her husband and child. She is allowed to be justifiably angry with the person who in the present had obligation to protect her family, even if she did bad things in the past. Because the BSAA did promise. She gave up her privacy and both her and Ethan are presumed missing, so they probably have very little freedoms in their daily lives.

But to blame him for the events is ultimately incorrect, I do agree, and I don’t think Mia herself was blaming him for literally everything, just mad since he promised them safety. And a theme of 7′s last DLC is how Ethan always kept his promises. Perhaps she had too high expectations for Chris. I wouldn’t say she’s incorrect for that either, I mean, Chris’s accomplishments in the series are huge. Heisenberg is very aware of them and I’m sure Mia would be too. He had founded the BSAA after all, so it’s not a leap in logic for her to expect him to keep them safe, keep the deal they made with her. So that’s why Mia acts this way in the prison scene and why I could see people blaming him somewhat. He is the experienced military man in a position of power in this situation.

However, in the end we have to keep in mind the BSAA is probably infiltrated by the Connections. Even he was blind to the BSAA’s plans so I do not blame him much personally, the Baker file DLC makes clear that the BSAA and Miranda were in the same league. I guess we’ll just have to see where that plotline goes on that front, but there’s our villains, clear as day.

On the other hand Mia has been out of work in bioterrorism for what’s going to be a decade in a few years and has suffered the wrath of the consequences of her actions directly in 7. Besides that, the BSAA had promised her immunity, Ethan had forgiven her, and while you may think she’s undeserving of it, in the end she doesn’t have to prove that she has redeemed herself. Because if that were the case, no one would ever be satisfied, and frankly the law doesn’t work that way. Grand gesture redemptions scream artificiality, so she’s doing about the best she could do by making Ethan happy at the very least and living a new life. All the while wrestling her own trauma inflicted from 3 years of living at the Baker estate. 

She’s done bad things. But she just isn’t guilty for 8, in fact she’s barely even in the game. It feels so out of left field to blame her for everything that ever happens. Blame her for 7, sure, but it’s so weird here. While you could be upset about her lying to Ethan about his condition, I can see why she did it. They are already in extreme danger from the Connections with or without Rose, I can imagine, since they are living in Europe without any say. 

While it’s questionable her decision to have a kid, she’s trying to balance safeguarding Ethan from the truth that might get them targeted by both the BSAA and the Connections while trying to make him happy. Happiness for him might include a child. In both 7 and 8 their relationship provides a lot of fill-in-the-blanks for players, which I don’t mind because it lends itself for some more subtle story-telling elements, but oh man do some of these hot takes seem the farthest from what was intended by the developers. 

To be honest, Ethan’s opinion on Mia is the only one that really matters. He still loves her even in death, is sorry, even, for dying. He could’ve left her after 7. By my calculations, they had about a 2 year period after 7 where they were childfree, not expecting either. So to assume he was trapped is very untrue in addition.

Whether or not you personally forgive Mia is irrelevant. You could think whatever you like. And of course, Chris isn’t really blamable either in this game. Potentially there could’ve been little things that might’ve saved Ethan. There’s no guarantees however, and Ethan is quite reckless and ballsy when it comes to protecting his family, so I can’t imagine him going strictly by one of Chris’s plans either. In the end I think Mia and Chris did all they could.

But anyways, as for Mia’s morality, I like her because she does bad things. It’s okay to like bad, messy, complicated characters. No need to defend them, or erase what makes them, well, them. Because that’s life, and morally pure characters are often boring and unrealistic, AND Ethan/Mia’s dynamic of Ethan being more perfect husband material while Mia’s so flawed gives me life. That’s the point of them. 

Psst, by the way Capcom, don’t you think Mia would be a really good horror protagonist since she has a lot of baggage. How about some more psychological horror like people loved in Beneviento’s house? You do like money right? 

I’m kidding, but I do think more people would like her character anyways if she had more content and the developers weren’t so scared of using her. Not everyone has to like her, but just wanted to give my opinions real quick since I’m one of the few people who really likes her on here.

[slade-neko]

Saw this video game tag thing pop up on my dash a few days ago. Wanted to do it.

1. First game you played obsessively? Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, I believe I was 5yo. Still waiting on that FF7 Remake treatment.

2. A game that has influenced you creatively? Writing, drawing, etc. Well if I play a game and like it, then I'll create sims of it. Does that count?

3. Who did you play with as a kid? My brother from the day I was born.

4. Who do you play with now? My brother FROM THE DAY I WAS BORN.

5. Ever use cheat codes? I wasn't lying when I made this post. {link}

6. Ever buy strategy guides? Yes! Mainly to look at the artwork though. (Don't need no guide!)

7. Any games you have multiple copies of? Lots of games, most being Left 4 Dead with 6 copies (3 Xbox 360, 1 PC case, 2 PC digitally.) What can I say, its a GOOD GAME!

8. Rarest/Most expensive game in your collection? Gold cartridge Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time (maybe that's rare?)

9. Most regrettable purchase? I don't regret my purchases, but I have received games I have never played like Cubix (PS2) no clue where that game came from, but I have it somehow. Madagascar (Xbox 360) came with my Xbox 360, never opened it from its case. And Monsters Inc. Scream Arena (Gamecube) or something... it was a gift.

10. Ever go to a midnight game release or stand in line for hours? No, because then I'd have to interact with people.

11. Have you ever made new friends from playing video games? I'm only friends with people BECAUSE of video games, so yes.

12. Ever get picked on for liking games? No, that'd be ridiculous.

13. A game you’ve never played that everyone else has? Probably a lot, I'd say Call of Duty, but I technically played CoD 1, 2, and 4. The campaign mode was alright, but I don't really care for CoD games at ALL.

14. Favorite game music? Koji Kondo and Grant Kirkhope are two BIG ones.

15. If it was a requirement to get a game related tattoo, what would you pick? Triforce is the most basic option, but I'd rather not get a tattoo.

16. Favorite game to play with your friends IRL? Super Smash Bros. Brawl with hacks, but that was over a decade ago.

17. Ever lose a friend over a game? No, that'd be ridiculous.

18. Would you date someone that hates gaming? No, that'd be RIDICULOUS.

19. Favorite handheld console? PSP. 3DS is great, but PSP Monster Hunter has ALL of my portable gaming memories. Like playing in school after End of Grade tests with my friend.

20. Game that you know like the back of your hand? Sims 4 I like to think I know everything about Left 4 Dead. Quite a bit about Monster Hunter, more so of a series though than a specific game.

21. Game that you didn’t like or understand as a kid but love now? I'd say Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. I loved it as a kid, but had a lot of complex pen & paper RPG mechanics that I never understood. I understand a lot more of it now, but its still complex as all heck. I just know you hit things, they die.

22. Do you wear game related clothing/accessories? That's the only thing I wear.

23. The game that you’ve logged the most hours into? Not sure so I'll list a few. Sims 4, Smash Bros. Brawl, Monster Hunter (its a series though), or Left 4 Dead

24. First Pokemon game? Leaf Green

25. Were you ever an arcade game player? No, don't like paying to play.

26. Ever form any gaming rivalries? No.

27. Game that makes you rage? I don't get mad at games, but I had a custom modded Hard Eight mutation in Left 4 Dead that is absolute bullsh*t!

28. Ever play in a tournament? No, because then I'd have to interact with people.

29. What is your gaming set up? A giant wall of video game consoles spanning from NES to Switch, 4 TVs, but I sit at a desk with a PC.

30. How many consoles do you own? "I own every console that's ever existed." - I Don't Play Games When I Play Games (My STRENTH) original song by Smooth McGroove BUT no seriously I own 32 consoles including handhelds.

31. Does the 3DS and/or Virtual Boy hurt your eyes or give you headaches? Yes. 3DS gave me headaches though I only really played with the 3D feature in Ocarina of Time 3D. I think my eyes broke because I couldn't get my 3D to work very well after.

32. Did you ever play a game based on your favorite show/cartoon/movie/comic? Sure I play games based on a lot of things. Literally any anime game. If I had to pick Dragon Ball Xenoverse is kinda like a dream Dragon Ball game. Oh, Attack on Titan 2 is pretty neat too!

33. Did you ever have any bootleg games or plug-n-play games? Some SEGA plug-n-play thing once. Played it like once and now its lost to time (or my closet.)

34. Do either of your parents play video games? Yes. Mom and Dad played NES Super Mario Bros. My Dad went HARD at that game until he saved the Princess. Then he quit forever.

35. Ever work in a game store? Or do you have a favorite game shop? "Hi. Welcome to Gamestop!"I never want to hear that again, but it was my main store until I went full digital/ online orders.

36. Have you ever shed actual blood, sweat or tears over a game? No, I don't tend to get upset or emotional, but Bill dying in Left 4 Dead made me pretty pissed.

37. Have you played E.T. for the Atari 2600? Do you think that’s the worst game ever, or do you have another nomination? Never played it. I don't really play "bad" games, but maybe Sims 4.

38. A game you’re ashamed to admit that you like? The Sims 4

39. A sequel that you would die for them to make? Dragon's Dogma 2 WHICH I think is actually in development, so I'd have to say Fallout New Vegas 2. C'mon Bethesda you cowards, hand the keys back over to Obsidian so they can make another good Fallout game!

40. What to you think of virtual reality headsets or motion controls? Two part question, two answers. VR Headset to immerse in world, yes. Motion Controls, no.

41. A genre that you just can’t get into? MOBAs and MMOs. I don't like paying to keep playing.

42. Maybe it wasn’t your first game, but what was the game that started you on your path to nerdiness? Nintendo 64 opened me up to what video games could be as a kid. Sad to say my parents' NES didn't really do that for me. And years later Fallout 3 was a big game changer for me too.

43. Ever play games when you really should have been concentrating on something else? Every day of my LIFE.

44. Arcade machine that has consumed the most of your quarters? None. I'd rather emulate.

45. How are you at Mario Kart? Pretty dang good. 3-STARS MARIO KART WII, BABY!

46. Do you like relaxing games like Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon? Yes, both of those. I preferred when Animal Crossing had more character to it. New Horizons looks so pretty, but feels so bland compared to classic AC.

47. Do you like competitive games? No. Not really. Usually amongst friends or if I can get competitive against AI Bots. I love my machine bot friends cause they don't cry like 10 year olds when they lose.

48. How long does it take your to customize your player character? Too long. I've seriously restarted games because I wasn't happy with my character's appearance.

49. In games where you can pick your class, do you always tend to go for the same type of character? Yes, I am always the magic man, my brother is always brute warrior, and my friend is the ranger.

50. If you were a game designer, what masterpiece would you create? I don't really know. Honestly, I'd rather mod already good games to make them better than create something completely new.

51. Have you ever played a game for so long that you forgot to eat or sleep? No, that'd be ridiculous. But I've had a friend fall asleep playing games at my house 3 different times and currently dozes off during our Minecraft sessions. So, maybe that's not a completely ridiculous thing after all.

52. A game that you begged your parents for as a kid? Kirby 64 apparently. My brother tells me we had to count out pennies to buy it. I must've been too young with no recollection, but I believe it.

53. What’s your opinion on DLC these days? It's good if its not in the game's files from the beginning and is actually developed AFTER launch... and pre-order bonuses should be standard DLC a month or two later. Some games have content lost to time because of that pre-order bullsh*t.

54. Do you give in to Steam sales? Of course. If you want a game and its on sale then why not? I typically wait just for Steam sales to get games.

55. Did you ever make someone you hated in the Sims and did mean stuff to them? No? I typically make people and characters I like in Sims. I've made villains like Dio, but he's an anime villain and I don't really HATE him despite the horrible things he's done.

56. Did you ever play Roller Coaster Tycoon and kill off your guests? No. Never played that game.

57. Did you ever play a game to 100% or get all of the achievements? I try to for all the games I really like.

58. If you can only play 3 games for the rest of your life, which ones do you pick? The Sims 4, Skyrim, & Fallout: New Vegas. Mods make them live forever. Left 4 Dead and Monster Hunter are good choices too.

59. Do you play any cell phone games? Those aren't games.

60. Do you know the Konami Code? No? But I'll take a guess. Is it make an IP and forget it exists?

61. Do you trade in your games or keep them forever? Keep forever... even the bad ones.

62. Ever buy a console specifically to play one game? PS4 Pro for Monster Hunter World. It was basically for early access since the PC version was being developed and releasing after PS4, but I don't like waiting.

63. Ever go to a gaming convention or tournament? Sort of. Been to anime cons and walked into the gaming tournament rooms only to walk out less than 10 minutes later.

64. Ever make a TV or monitor purchase based on what would be best for gaming? No, but I'm going to be doing that soon, hopefully.

65. Ever have a Game Genie, Game Shark or Action Replay? Did it ever mess up your game’s save file? GameShark for N64, PS2, Gameboy, and Action Replay for Gamecube, DS, 3DS. And no not really, I would cheat responsibly... but there was this one time at school my friend and I borrowed another friend's Gameboy game, loaded it up with my Gameshark, tried playing, it crashed, loaded it back up, save file corrupted... we just stared at each other jaws dropped, "Here's your game back, dude. Make sure you don't play it til you get back home!"

66. Did you ever have have an old Nokia with Snake on it? No, but I remember seeing them on billboards in the game DRIV3R on PS2.

67. Do you have a happy gaming-related childhood memory you want to share? Every game I play is filled with happy memories (mostly.)

68. Ever save up a ton of tickets in an arcade to get something cool? These tiger plushes. My brother got white and I got orange. They were the coolest. Got a butt load of tickets from some jackpot spinning light game thing as I was good at the timing with repeated jackpot hits.

69. In your opinion, best game ever made? I've played quite a few masterpiece games, but to pick one, I'd say Fallout: New Vegas

70. Very first game you ever beat? Super Mario 64. I was a mere child on a Sunday morning and ate celebratory pancakes made by my Dad.

Wow, that was long... I get the feeling this was supposed to be a "send me ask with numbers" thing, but answering all at once is more fun.

[stampiearts]

Animal Crossing Sona OC!

I've used the name "King" in every animal crossing save file ever since I got my hands on my own town- so I finally made a OC based on him! He's a lion + leopard mix because... well I couldn't quite choose one over the other, i'm a huge big cat fan!

That's not all for this post though, I'm still in a drawing mood and I'm not sure of what to draw... so I'm taking Animal Crossing requests! Just send me an ask and your favorite character, I'll try to do them all! I'll even take OC requests, as long as they're an animal! I'm not comfortable drawing humans quite yet, I'm still practicing. I am not doing NSFW, Ships, or anything complex. These are just messy sketches that may or may not be colored!

More info on my AC experiences and pictures under the cut!

I've been an animal crossing fan since the game cube, I was playing that when I was very young and living in Nevada! Of course... I was very young, so the town has the charming name of... "nvdu". Yeah, good try there little me, not quite on the mark

I've now become a huge animal crossing fan, I have every main line game! And I still have that charming old town of nvdu... and the nightmare fuel Chow is STILL living in it!! PLEASE HE GAVE ME SO MANY NIGHTMARES AS A KID AND HES STILL THERE AND CREEPY AS EVER BHBDHAJBFADJH (But... i'm kinda sad they closed his mouth in newer games, even if he's creepy they took away a piece of him >:(!! )

I'm very glad for the DLC in new horizons, I'm seriously a HUGE designer and that game is so pretty! Wardell and Niko are so charming, I love the little pointless interactions! It's a shame the actual villagers are so bland though :( Here's an incredibly peaceful home I designed for Juilan, having K.K. Dub on low while space noises play in the background is very peaceful, try it!

To end off this post, here's that picture I took of Sherb, as well as a few other pictures!

Stay strong, take a relaxing walk; or a relaxing bath; take care of yourself, you are wonderful and a treasure in this world. You can do it, it might not be much, but I believe in you! Please eat something, even if it's a small snack, and get some sleep tonight. If you need someone to listen to you, my asks and dms are always open. I may not be great at advice, but i'm a great listener. We're helping each other here, you get someone to listen to you, no matter how bad, and I get experience to become a therapist. Please get help if you need it, please stay strong, and please keep going, even if it seems like there's no point!

[flydotnet]

Bad Things Happen Bingo! The event where you send me requests according to this marvelous card! (Red cross is the completed prompt, character headshots are prompts I’ve already filled). 

Give him some of your hatred. He's too nice for his own good.

I haven't touched this card in... some time, man. You know what I havn't also touched in years? Kingdom Hearts. Legit, I think the last time I had thought about it aside from a "man, Vector to teh Heavens rocks" was in 2018 where I decided my flat needed a Funko Pop figure of KH2 Sora (don't ask - I'm not sure myself of why. I think it was because I found it funny. I could probably stab someone with that bitch). And then Smash Ultimate did its thing, I got to taunt my friend who really didn't want Sora in (she was in the Phoenix Wright for Smash camp, I wasn't in any but hey I'll take the spiky haired doofus with the big key and the giant shoes any day). That Smash DLC got me thinking about KH again, and as I always do, I just cycle back to my childhood, the very first playthrough I've ever watched: French Kingdom Hearts 2, posted on Dailymotion in like 2008. I still have a ton of nostalgia for this game, to the point I hesitated buying a PS4 just to buy the port of the game and all of the other stuff and finally actually maybe see what KH3 was all about. Haven't done that yet. Woops. Anyway, yeah, this fic. I didn't think I've ever end up writing for KH due to its honestly confusing lore for my short attention span, but I had an itch I really wanted to scratch. There's one fic out there who did the job back in 2016-17, but hasn't been updated since, so I took the matter in my own hands and ended up making something different entirely. Woops. I kinda rewathed some of the KH2 endgame cutscenes and boss fights to refresh my memory but that's it, everything else is mostly based on memories and spending way too much time on TV Tropes. Are people in-character? Maybe? I hope? That'd be good. It was really fun, though. I'm not sure if I'll ever get back to that fandom (there's perhaps... one fandom of mine that's even older than this and that I've never touched again since I was 7, if you can believe it; and maybe I'd like to touch that fandom again one of those days). I took the prompt very liberatly (too much, as always), so now I really hope it somehow still fits the bingo square. If not... file this one under "Raspy Breathing", I guess?

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Hierarchy of Needs

Summary: He's exhausted, he's breathless and he wants nothing more than to go home with his friends; but he knows better than putting his own needs above those of a time-sensitive mission to save the world.

Fandom: Kingdom Hearts (II, more specifically)

Wordcount: 3.6K words

Event hosted by @badthingshappenbingo​

AO3 version available here. (As always, recommanded)

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The air is tense around them and setting heavily inside his chest, burning its way through his airways if he takes in too sharp of an inhale. It’s not anything new, come to think of it (some worlds just are like that, here to kill you without meaning to if you move too quickly inside of them – and if he’s aware of one thing, it’s how fast he goes)… it’s just far stronger around here, for some reason.

Maybe it’s because they’re in the World That Never Was that the air is so much heavier than usual. The place reeks of an alien aura, as if it doesn’t even belong to the same system where everyone else was born and lives in. Maybe it’s because he knows time isn’t on their side – it’s never been but, usually, he’s too busy helping people out and fighting off whatever menace there is to realize just how badly the clock’s been ticking.

Now that they’re in the final place, that he had to fight someone in the centre of his mind (…or something like that. Donald and Goofy looked at him funny when he asked what happened, only to realize the stained glass he’d fought the figure on was oddly familiar in that way only fragments of dream feel like), that the dark streets of the empty city surround their trio, he’s never felt the heaviness of time more.

 He suspects it to be just an effect on his mind, just like the battle on the stained-glass platform, just like the strange dreams he had had ever since he was a child. Sometimes, your mind plays tricks on you and it’s effective enough for you to believe it to be a reality or, even more viciously, external. Stress can cause you to think up pretty weird stuff, doesn’t it? They’re fighting for the sake of every world out there, of course his mind would be pressing him into being more effective. They’re all counting on him, don’t they?

There are all sorts of people who count on him: friends he hasn’t seen in such a long time that he’s afraid he’s forgetting their features, friends he made along the way, friends he’ll make someday, friends that will never be. Innocents and criminals alike, those who can defend themselves and those who can’t for whatever reason. Those who are aware of the wonderful worlds out there and those who’ll never be. So many people are counting on them, counting on him that it’s dizzying – and yet he does it, usually with a smile, because his mission is a rightful one and he can’t let anyone down.

 Maybe, however, it’s just not him for once, because Donald and Goofy really have been staring at him funny for the past few, uh… days? Time’s been a blurry thing to be honest. It’s bound to happen when you hop from world to world, rushing to solve as many issues as possible before they can do too much damage, saving as many lives as possible even when you know you’re helping the enemy by saving these lives (and he’ll never forgive himself for that).

His companions have already cast some doubt on him. How many times has he heard some sort of “I’ll cover you, Sora!” over the past few days? He may not be the lightest bulb out there; he still knows his friends enough to easily notice when they’re subtly trying to convey him something. To be fair, perhaps the heaviness of the air and that of their duties has made it so he could’ve noticed it before. It’s not like he pays much attention to what he gets told on the battlefield, just makes sure to get rid of every wave of enemies sent their way…

 You know, maybe the heavy air is just inside his mind. Maybe Donald and Goofy really aren’t the ones who react weirdly to the place, maybe it’s just him. It wouldn’t be the first time he was treated like a special case by the rules of the universe. He’s, as far as he knows, the only Heartless to have ever come back to their original human form without becoming a complete monster in the process of losing their heart.

It’s not that it’s his burden to carry that bothers him about it: it’s that the timing is ill-fitting. He has to rush ahead full-stop now, stop Organisation XIII, stop Xemnas, stop the artificial Kingdom Hearts or whatever, find Kairi, find Riku – has to save people and put bad guys in their place, and yet he coughs when he screams too loudly and gets dizzy when he dashes too far ahead. Not that he’d let that slow him down no matter how many times it tries to slow him down: there is too much at stake and too little time to take care of it.

 It’s because he knows how important this is that, no matter how many times the Kingdom Key feels heavier in his hand and no matter how much damage he takes in battles, he picks it back up again, stifles a cough, puts on his best smirk and marches on without much of an actual complaint.

He picks the fight back up, swallows the heavy air and the foul taste in his mouth, and continues fighting because that’s the minimum required from him – all he really wants is to find his friends and go home, but for now, he’ll pretend like he’s the saviour of the world and push through the heavy air.

  It’s… it’s been a lot of things to internalize for such a short time – hours, barely.

Kairi is here, she’s fine, she’s fighting to the best of her abilities. She’s changed a lot since he last saw her, obviously, but that’s not for the worst, far from it. He just didn’t know how to react to all of the change when he hadn’t seen her for so long. The longer hair suits her, so does the Keyblade. He’s just so glad she’s still here, that this isn’t yet another dream flaunting at him what he wants the most. She seemed as shaken as he was to reunite.

Riku’s still alive, thank the skies or whomever rules over the worlds. He has taken the shape of their former greatest enemy, but it’s still him, still his good ol’ friend with him he’s had ups and downs, and Sora broke down when he realized it was indeed Riku and nobody else. Kairi had to help, of course, because Riku was about to leave once again because, to him, he doesn’t deserve to be redeemed or whatever. Sora, of course, doesn’t buy a word of it – doesn’t mean Riku does, doesn’t mean it won’t take some will, but Riku is alive, he’ll be fine, he’ll recover from the darkness. He doesn’t have to be scared anymore (which one?).

Roxas is – was – his Nobody; he had forgotten he had even been a Heartless at some point before someone spelt it out for him. He wonders if Roxas even still exists somewhere inside of him or if he vanished the moment they reunited. To say he wasn’t even conscious for that… it felt like the waste of a life, no matter how much he tries to convince himself that it had to be done, that Roxas was only a part of him. If Roxas is the hooded figure from that weird battle on the stained glass platform, then he had the rights to be resentful about losing his autonomy.

 It’s been a lot over a couple hours at best and the air hasn’t lightened up. If anything, it’s gotten worse.

 They’re still in The World That Never Was, after all. Even worse, they’re now in Organisation XIII’s lair, the last step to cutting whatever plan Xemnas has come up with short and save everyone from imminent doom. The air can’t have gotten any lighter because the pressure on everyone’s shoulders keeps increasing as time ticks away, eats at the worlds’ strength, as the artificial heart-shaped moon high in the pitch-black sky grows.

Sora isn’t even near close to admit to it, but he wishes he could have a full breath of air one of these days, possibly of some that smells like iodine, like home. He misses the sea, the sun, the sand – everything that this pristinely white fortress doesn’t have. They’ll all sleep on the Gummi Ship and nobody complains because that’s all they have – that is, if they even have the time to sleep. It’s not like that factor was ever in their favour, isn’t it?

 No, they don’t, and now Kairi and Riku are the ones who get to notice how his voice rasps when he isn’t careful enough. His focus keeps slipping whenever a noise drills into his headache, echoing in thumps between his temples and putting pressure behind his eyes. It’s a miracle his nose isn’t clogged – thank goodness for that, it’d have made things so much harder than they ever needed to be.

It’s harder to focus on what’s at hand, now that he knows Kairi and Riku are safe and fighting alongside him – or maybe it’s because he’s tired, he wants to smell the iodine air that doesn’t sit on his lungs as he tries to fight his way through the Castle, barely paying attention to what’s actually at stake because his main goal is done: if he didn’t really save them, he’s reunited with his friends, and really, if he’s still running, it’s because he needs to prove to Riku he can do good in this world and because he knows he has other friends who count on him.

 Riku teases him about being out of breath after running pathetically short distances, Sora laughs them off, of course, because that’s the first joke he’s heard his old pal crack in so long it’s a blessing on his ears – and then he erupts into a coughing fit and Riku has stopped even chuckling.

“You’re sure you’re okay?” His friend asks, voice hesitant.

A cynical who cares? People need me running goes through his mind, but dies out before he puts on his best façade. Instead, he’s smiling, pressing a hand against the right side of his chest as he snuffs out a hiss of pain.

“We should continue,” he replies, eternally out of breath. “Xemnas… ain’t waitin’ for us…”

If he isn’t mistaken, he can see Riku cringing at his voice. To be fair, it’s tearing his throat apart to speak.

“Spare it. You’ll need it for when we actually fight Xemnas.”

He nods as he summons his Keyblade again, fiddling with the keychain before finally resuming running. The sooner they’re done, the lighter the air is going to get.

  Sora barely has an idea what’s even happening anymore.

It’s not like he’s not trying – he is, his brain just keeps thinking about everything else! – but everything keeps looping. The air is hot then cold, it keeps grating against him, and it gets heavier with each step and each word. Every room is the same, same colours, same shapes, the only distinctions are whatever happens in them… and then they just jump around a fortress, take down reactors, or something.

The only room with a slightly different flavour (and isn’t a giant machine) is some sort of balcony where he proceeds to bash Xemnas’ head with Riku, Donald and Goofy. Of course, Riku gets to do most of the leeway, and while Sora would have usually remembered about his competitive streak there (Kairi has teased him on it enough time for it to be engraved into his mind for the rest of his life), this time, he just gets to stare into the void for most of the fight, Donald trying to figure out what’s wrong between dispensing two cure spells.

 It doesn’t mean he does nothing and just sits around. He’s just, well… a single hit from Xemnas to the right side of his chest was enough to make him cough up something weird. The pain hasn’t subsided since and the rest of the fight was a chore, but really, when has fighting Organization XIII not been at best a chore and at worst felt like killing someone with an actual heart? (The disconcerting feeling of watching Saïx, a man who took Kairi as his prisoner for way too long and just stared down at him as he was finally showing some sort of limit to his resolve, asking for a heart still lingers, somehow).

He still fights, despite the shortness of breath, despite the shivers wrecking his frame, despite the pain in his chest. He has no choice, everybody depends on him and none of them has the time for his body to stop acting up, for the sweat to stop running rampant and for the air to get more comfortable to breathe in. Jumps around, destroys reactors, makes funny faces at Riku once they’ve been there, done that and he starts being all dark and broody again. (He’s missed the little things like Riku’s laugh).

 The ground shakes, sending him into a dizzy spell he barely recovers from without crashing into it.

 He does get to watch Naminé and Roxas reunite – finally gets to see Roxas with his own two eyes emerge from his body – and Kairi makes him promise they’ll see each other every day so their Nobodies (Naminé is Kairi’s Nobody… right? Otherwise she wouldn’t be doing the same thing as Roxas can, right?). She also asks him if he’s fine, if he doesn’t really want to go home with His Majesty and Donald and Goofy and Riku. She’s insistent enough that it feels like she may carry him to home herself if he doesn’t say yes quickly enough (too bad his throat can’t pronounce much anymore, huh?).

With the way she’s suggesting it, the day isn’t quite over, but she really wants him to go home, her cold hand holding his clammy one, and Riku agrees. If it was any other day, he wouldn’t have hesitated a single second. In fact, even today he’s not hesitating, he’s just taking… a long time to come. His feet hurt and his breath really doesn’t fare much better.

 It’s another dizzy spell that prevents him from entering the dark portal in time to leave before Xemnas, who of course wasn’t dead yet, wreaks havoc once more. Trapped behind, having to watch the portal close, is Riku who was trying to prevent his friend from diving nose first into the floor. As Sora recovers his balance, they both watch a green light far away

It’s not like they’ve got the choice, right? It’s fight or die and, no matter how poorly he feels, that second option is out of the question. Not when he’s with Riku, not when Kairi waits for the both of them at home, not when he still has to thank Naminé, not when he promised every single friend made along the way to visit him again. He can’t let anyone down, can’t let Xemnas win this.

 With Riku’s at the helm of the small spaceship, they follow Xemnas into oblivion to the next phase of the fight for the sake of the worlds, summoning the Kingdom Key again despite how much it wants to slip from his hand.

  He broke his rib, he’s sure of it. He’s absolutely busted a rib, or two, or three, or four – how many ribs does a human have, actually? He’s never learnt that, just learnt what a rib was through breaking one who knows how long ago. Not that he’s preoccupied about how many of those he has broken or bruised out of some other number. It’s not like they’re not, you know, fighting for the sake of the worlds, above their own survival, their way out of this place with no door, no way out.

He’s not sure of what gives him the feeling he’s busted those ribs. It has to be the burning pain sitting in his lungs, on both sides probably, cutting his breath short. It’s like his chest is bruised on the inside and then someone stabs him there as soon as he takes a breath. Sometimes, it’s literal, but most of the time, there’s no weapon even near his abdomen to do so, and instead he gets stabbed in the leg. He doesn’t have the time to dwell on a pesky injury anyway.

 They fight some sort of fallen king, partake in spaceship battles, end up back in a similar platform to earlier where they fight Xemnas two-on-one, no matter how much it doesn’t feel like that – not that his injury and whatever else is making the air painful to inhale would have mattered.

To their luck, they’re both fighting together, toe to toe. Sora isn’t sure of what it is, but something is making it so he doesn’t feel the pain too much. Maybe it’s because he keeps using cure magic on the both of them because Riku doesn’t quite have that in his arsenal of spells. Maybe it’s because, sometimes, when you really have to accomplish something, life is a little more generous with you and grants you more energy.

He still coughs because only the sensation of pain has subsided. Each fit goes deeper than the last, tears his throat even rawer as it does, yet he spits out whatever he has to spit and he continues fighting – reflects lasers, strikes with his weapon, coordinates hits, gets caught by Xemnas and bled dry until Riku saves him. It lasts for what feels like hours, occasionally stopping and hoping Riku is managing on his own because he can barely keep it together, let alone stand, hands covered in sweat and eyes closing on their own.

He still coughs, but he also continues fighting until they’re sure Xemnas can’t fight back, can’t do more harm.

 Their last strike happens when he’s supposed to take an umpteenth breather until his instinct acts before he can really register why it’s kicking. Riku is about to get hit by Xemnas right into the chest, perhaps even through the heart as a last-ditch attempt at getting the upper hand, black particles already emanating from the Nobody. Of course, no matter what he does, Xemnas is bound to disappear and return into the void he came from sooner rather than later, even if he takes out one of them with him as he does.

Sora, however, wants none of that. He’s not fought this far, this hard for Riku to kneel last second; so he launches himself between the two, taking a hit right into the right side of his chest, right under the jacket that flew out of the way at that very moment – the sound of something shattering echoes in the void and searing pain gets a scream out of him. Riku, on the other hand, keeps his calm and manages to gather their hands on the Kingdom Key to hit Xemnas one last time before the searing agony can really register in his friend’s brain.

 They win the battle, save the world, get lost on the way home; yet everything is so black, so blurry, so humidly hot that Sora doesn’t really know what happens when and who says what for most of the journey back from oblivion.

  What greets him isn’t the iodine air of the sea. It’s not his mother’s worried voice because he keeps disappearing from her life and reappearing with too many stories to tell and just as many unfortunate side effects to omit from them. It’s not even the silent purring of the Gummi Ship, the one that gets on your nerves after a while but sounds soothing when you’ve not known the feeling of safety for days on end.

No, instead, it’s a blurry ceiling – and then it hits him. This still isn’t Destiny Island, and it stings a little to realize, but this is one of the closest things to home anyway, this is Radiant Garden.

 Seems like he’s been asleep for some time, since both Riku and Kairi are sleeping on chairs, both in the mot uncomfortable of positions: Kairi has her arms folded on the bed and her back all around, Riku’s head is titled backwards, his arms crossed. Neither of them snore, no matter how extra Riku looks in his sleep with his wide intakes of air.

He’s feeling distant from his own body – a side effect of a fever he forgot he had before he fainted somewhere along the line. His recollection is slow and fuzzy for the most part, but he does know they beat the leader of Organization XIII and Riku must have hauled him back to safer shores after he was unable to move. He sure feels like he’s made out of lead at the moment, not even able to lift up a finger.

 A knock on the door makes him lift his head. He can’t quite speak because even he knows what being voiceless feels like – and if he was dumb enough not to, then the breathing mask over his mouth would give him a severe hint or two. With the fuzz vanishing the pain is coming back – man is he sore, but hey, he can’t not smile at Donald and Goofy poking their heads through the doorway, worry over their faces but still giving him a reassuring smile as they enter the room.

He’s still too tired to do much of anything – and, frankly, seeing his friends sleeping so soundly lulls him – so he gathers all of his energy to give a thumbs up before falling back asleep, finally putting himself before the rest of the world.

[imthepunchlord]

My Hopes for DPP Remakes

February is almost here, and its very, very, very likely we’ll be seeing Diamond Pearl remakes. I am very wary thanks to ORAS (Emerald is my favorite so ORAS was a disappointment) and SwSh just... doesn’t look good. Didn’t look finished and didn’t seem worth the price they’re selling for. 

So DPP, I am very wary for. 

But, my hopes and what I would want, on the off chance it will be really good: 

- Platinum incorporated. Or even, ideally, just release one game, a full on Platinum remake instead of 2 versions. With the price being 60 USD, doesn't really warrant releasing 2 anymore as that gets really pricey. And people can now keep multiple files on the Switch unlike older games. And no Platinum episode. I think I'm the odd one out but, I didn't enjoy the Delta episode at all. 

- Bring back mega evolution and primal evolution, don't bring back dynamaxing. I personally loved mega evolution, it really gave some nice boosts to pokemon who needed it, and it could be made to be more common so its not too OP and they can always tweak like, friendship is supposed to be key here, so maybe have your pokemon for a while and when it reaches a certain level of friendship, it can mega evolve. Though don't give Cynthia Mega Garchomp. There’s also a Primal Dialga that could be used! Dynamaxing I actually don't hear a lot of good things about, and its not one I really like. I do like some of the Giga designs though its weird to me that its not till the dlc that you can Gigamax your pokemon, you gotta catch that Giga form in the wild. 

- Include some Wild Areas. This is a feature I really like from SwSh, though could've been improved upon, like having some pokemon interact with each other, filling up the open world a little more, and giving some more activities to do. And include multiple Wild Areas not just one. Have them be unlockable as you continue your journey. 

- Difficulty settings at the start of the game. These games can mainly be for kids, but they really need to acknowledge that older gamers play as well. 

- Walking and riding pokemon. Particularly being allowed to ride your own pokemon. I'd even be fine if this was saved for Wild Areas exclusively. Let’s Go was fun allowing riding pokemon, but Kanto has a lot of small corridor routes so, I couldn’t really ride my Rapidash or Arcanine to the fullest. And Charizard was limited as I couldn’t fly all over Kanto, just stuck in that one area. 

- Improve on Lucas/Dawn, who were kinda bland in the old games. Improve them like how Wally was improved in ORAS, but don't improve them like how they tried with Brandon/May, they were made annoying with the instance of fRiEnDsHiP. 

- Unlockable legendary/mystical events. I want to play and discover Darkrai or hints of Darkrai and go seeking it out on my own time, whenever I want to. Ideally these discoveries could be made available after a certain badge amount but I'd be fine with it being post game.

- No more Kanto starter. It’s getting a little old seeing Kanto starters being brought in twice. If we have to bring in another set of starters as gifts, how about Jhoto starters? And they can finally get some megas alongside the Sinnoh! 

- Sinnoh regional forms. I’d be suuuper intrigued to see some Sinnoh forms, ideally not Kanto mons. 

- Include more fire types. 

- Let Dawn wear pants. Sinnoh is cold, why is bare legged in this cold region???

- Please don’t shove Lucario in my face. Thanks to XY, I got fed up with that pokemon fast. 

- Be allowed to skip cutscenes/dialogue. 

- New game + that allows nuzlocke runs and randomizers. It can be set up that you can’t trade any of the pokemon you get. Just something fun to do and bring players back to replay, cause personally, I prefer playing the game than the competitive online battling. 

- Make XP Share optional. Allow us the option to turn it off. 

- Change up idle animation. We got the same idle animation 3 generations in a row. Switch it up a little. 

- Accurate sizes. That Wailord hurts to look at, and DistantKingdom on Youtube really shows off what the proper sizes should be. Do a roaming camera cause the over the shoulder look is not working for these games. 

- Be aware that this is a 3D game, not a 2D, cause as DistantKingdom said, Pokemon plays like its still 2D, but its not. If you really want to keep that 2D animation and movement, then go back to 2D. Games like Octopath Traveler prove how pretty the pixel games can be, and they had some really amazing feats with BW and BW2 visially.