#i still suck at the qtes in this game

[april-ryan]

got salim and jason both killed when jason went back to save him and i was inconsolable. immediately after finishing the game i had to go back to scene select and make sure i saved them this time

[ageless-aislynn]

Updated 100% shelf, woo-hoo! Dear Esther is now complete and I'm onto the next game...

Okay, let me keep it real for you: I suuuuuuck at Quick Time events. Like suuuuuuuuuuuuck. I didn't realize there were going to be that many in this game so I hope all of the characters are prepared to die a lot and in terrible ways because I can't figure out what to do quickly enough to save them. Sorry, gang. 😬🤷‍♀️

I'm still pretty early in the game so I might restart. Or I might just plan on making this an "everybody dies" type run until I get better at the QTEs. We'll see! I'm still enjoying what I've seen so far, though I spent a lot of time trying to keep Laura from, you know, going into the woods in the dark to see what that noise was.

Laura: "So I'll just go check that out."

Me: *turns her around so she stays where she was*

Laura: "Sooooo. I'm going to check out that spooky noise in the woods now."

Me: "Nope. You're standing here in the headlights, ready to leave as soon as that dude gets the car working again."

Laura: "I'm. Going. To. Go. Now. Into. THE DARK WOODS ALONE."

Me: 😑

Me: "Fine, but I suck at QTEs so I hope you like hitting your head, falling down and being murdered a lot."

I'm a professional gamer, folks. Don't try this at home. 😂😂😂

[rubylarkspur22]

I'm gonna say it, and I'm gonna elaborate.

Dark Spyro and Dark Cynder should've been mini bosses, if not full on bosses, in Dawn of the Dragon.

The idea has been poking at my brain since I first saw this video. Specifically a comment thread about the idea of Dark Spyro being a boss fight in Dawn of the Dragon. And I love it.

The main counter to this, however, is the co-op gameplay.

Obviously, Cynder needs to win this boss fight for the game to continue. So in 2 Player Mode, what about the player in control of Spyro? Cynder's player automatically has the win condition, so it would be unfair.

This is where Dark Cynder comes in! Basically switch the roles, then it doesn't feel as unfair. You could probably replace the first phase of the Malefor fight with a Dark Cynder boss fight?

So, here's basically my(very rough) ideas for these respective fights!

Both fights have one or two phases. So not as long as Malefor, but longer than elite enemies.

Spyro

Ignitus sacrifices himself, Spyro goes Dark in his grief despite Cynder's attempts to calm him down. Cynder steps back, and the cutscene ends with a wide shot of the two dragons about the face off. Or a focus on a very worried/scared Cynder.

There's a few parts to this fight.

One is, obviously, actually hitting Spyro. In single player, it's similar to the elemental dragon in the Eternal Night, in that Spyro will indicate certain elements. Both to warn you what he's using, as well as indicate which of Cynder's elements will be most effective against him(i.e Fire vs Wind, Poison vs Electricity, as ideas). In multiplayer, you have Spyro's indicator.

The second objective is dodging any attacks that get launched Cynder's way by Spyro. Hence the element indication in single player.

And third? Similar to keeping the gates closed on the Warfang level, Cynder has to keep Spyro from flying into the flames. So there's the occasional QTE between attacks to pull him away. In multiplayer, there would be a cooldown for Spyro's player to try and fly off if they want.

Amidst the battling, Cynder and Spyro both have various dialogues triggered by reaching certain points on the health bar. Cynder, pleading with Spyro to snap out of it, maybe even screaming at him to get a grip and not make Ignitus' sacrifice in vain.

Once the boss battle health bar is depleted(won't impact the normal health bar, because that would suck), we go to the cutscenes again. This time, Cynder successfully talks Spyro down, and immediately goes to comfort him and offer comfort.

Cynder

We then proceed with the rest of the game until the cutscene with Malefor, where he recorrupts Cynder and has her attack Spyro. Malefor ascends into the sky, remaining close. For whatever reason. I dunno, I'm writing this at midnight and my brain is not braining. The end of the cutscene is Spyro getting to his feet and dropping into a fighting stance.

Cynder's fight only has the two objectives, don't lose all your health, and deplete Cynder's(again, won't impact her regular health).

This time, Cynder is silent. Meanwhile, Spyro is calling out to her, telling her to fight it. That she's stronger than this, and that he's not sure he can beat Malefor without her. And he adds that she's been his biggest anchor this whole time, especially after Ignitus died, and he feels horrible for letting Malefor take control over her again.

Once Cynder's health bar is depleted, she collapses to the ground, and we jump to the cutscene. Spyro, once again, pleads with Cynder to come back to herself. She closes her eyes and shakes her head, seeming to switch between trying to attack and trying to step back from Spyro. But he keeps approaching, still reaching out to her, and willing to put himself at risk to save her again. Cynder lunges, seemingly to attack, and Spyro braces for it, knowing he left himself open. Instead, Cynder is revealed to have gone back to normal, and hugging/nuzzling Spyro. With a voice that's clearly bordering on crying, she thanks Spyro for not giving up on her. The two turn to Malefor, and take to the sky, where he brings the snake charms back, and we continue with the Malefor boss fight. The end of the cutscene is Spyro looking at Cynder, and asks her if she's ready to end this. Cynder smiled, and tells him she's looking forward to some payback, then they chase after Malefor.

[teecupangel]

If we're gonna keep putting Desmond in as The Isekai Protagonist then we should whole hog and add in the iconic System or Gamer System 'gift' so many other Isekai/Tensei Protags seem to get like it's the New Age Syphilis.

But with my own little twist I once proposed when I was more into KHR (Katekyo Hitman Reborn!) fandom though it never really caught on. Desmond's Gamer System functions like some other games instead of the usual adventure RPG. Maybe its one, maybe its some, maybe its all of them- either way, it's certainly not something like Pokemon or the Final Fantasy series.

Instead, it's like an idle game, a match 3, a rhythm game, or a merge game. Hell, the one time he got a bingo game; he won Mega Bingo, almost got brained by the giant chest full of gold and jewels, and then it never appeared before him again.

He did like the idle cat games though. (The cats were very cute. A bit hard to explain all the cats though.)

“New Age Syphilis” lollol. Yeah, let’s give Desmond the geek-syphilis. XD

Okay, okay, okay.

If we’re going for other genres, my first thought is the scourged of the land, the anti-christ of the modern gaming world:

Loot-boxes/Gacha-mechanics

And it’s the worst kind. The kind that does not give pity ‘roll’ or have the ‘if you roll 300 times, you can pick one of these choices because goddamn your rng sucks wtf???’.

And that’s not even the genre, no, no, no.

That’s the “REWARD”.

Even if Desmond clears something via idle game, match 3, etc, he still has to do a gacha roll to get his reward.

And, to make it more annoying for him, the world he is in right now, everything has different game mechanics and it’s a whiplash at times. Sometimes, it feels more like minigames which is fine. The idle cat game is really just Desmond relaxing for the day and playing with cats.

But then, there are instances where Desmond gets a headache because…

Car chase? Boom! Racing game controls and gameplay!

About to assassinate someone? QTEs! QTEs everywhere!

Desmond gets his own land? He suddenly has game notifications and tutorials for town-building mechanics.

There’s supposed to be some kind of monster infestations? Welp. Desmond, your town-building mechanics just got pushed for tower-defense mechanics. Oh, and the shit you can build? You guessed it! GACHA ROLLS!

Want to fuck with Desmond even more?

The tutorials are just pages and pages of what he can do like someone from Koei-Tecmo made the damn thing.

You know what would be funny?

If Desmond realizes that some of the rewards he gets from the gacha rolls are his ancestors, they’re the highest USSR/6Stars reward with a probability of 3%. Goodbye slacker life, it’s time for Desmond to grind for those Isu shards just to get some sweet, sweet rolls.

(Nobody tell him that there are also Holiday alts that have a possibility of 1%)

……………………

It would be funny (in the worst possible way) if Desmond gets a final notification just when he has a very cozy life in this world and it’s:

“Thank you for playing [REDACTED]. Due to lack of interest, [REDACTED] will be ending its live-services at exactly 180 days. All data will be deleted and there are no plans to create backups. Thank you for understanding.”

And now the final arc of Desmond’s story in this world begins:

Desmond needs to find a way to create a private server from inside the game. XD

[skaruresonic]

under a cut for extremely vindictive pettiness (nothing to do with Sonic)

The comments in Silent Hill 2 remake trailer reaction videos are revealing to me the evil that lurks within my heart because I am taking such delightful Schadenfreude in the stans' salty tears.

Noooo, you can't criticize the bad graphics, they're still developing the game (never mind they've been working on this for two years). Okay the game has QTEs which are completely out-of-place for this kind of game but the combat wasn't that bad, guys, ur just being a hater.

oh, what's that? the remakes' graphics suck ass? are you saying that Bloober Team has all the newest tech at their disposal and still can't make the game look good? gee, I wonder why. I wonder why the graphics aren't up to snuff, considering all that pontificating you did on how they automatically should make the original look like Pong by comparison. guess that's the sound of your "Team Silent were limited by technical constraints" arguments being, shock and awe, the utter ahistorical revisionist ad hoc bull shit they always were. and now the whole world can see you're full of shit, and you're huffing denial to cope.

My favorite part was when someone asked the OP of a criticism video, "Do you want this project to fail?"

Yes, in fact. I want it to crash and burn so badly that Konami never attempts to butcher the originals ever again. What part of this do you not understand.

I'm getting sick of my favorite franchises getting rebooted by people who have neither respect for the source material nor any clue what they're doing, and would rather those games die off than have their corpses bastardized for profit.

It's incredibly fucked-up of me but I am going to delight in watching the remake crash and burn just to watch the "technical limitations" crowd contort themselves into pretzels in order to pretend that the suckage is Good, Actually, Shut Up.

If Konami can't dazzle me with the lightning in the bottle they once had, I can at least roast some marshmallows on the flames.

[softpsycho]

Watched a walkthrough of New Tales from the Borderlands.

In summary I think Gearbox is trying to single-handedly cure my autism by making my special interest as bad as possible.

Introduces really interesting characters that seem like they're going to be reoccurring because they have like, names and personality traits and rapport with the main cast to then only have less than 10 minutes of screen time, you could probably make an entire main-line Borderlands game just about them and it'd be better than Borderlands 3

Vaultlanders is literally a joke-y waste of time where you mash the A button. It is non-optional.

A lot of pointless QTEs (to quote the streamer I was watching; "I had to press the A button three times to open this chest")

Button mashing QTEs are kind of a thing of the past and it seems ironic to have a physically disabled character in the game and then not have an accessibility options that would turn this feature off like other games do

Anu and Octavius are really annoying, I don't like them. I get Rhys being a fish out of water is a big crux of TFTBL but it gets kind of old navigating a borderlands game as someone who is appalled by murder and violence, and both of these characters share the trait of "sucking at everything and being kind of lame" without like, exaggerating

The game seems really disinterested with the plot it sets up, the tediore invasion and Anu trying to finish her wormhole gun are thrown away and ignored pretty immediately until the writers feel like bringing it back up. It doesn't feel like the characters actually have a narrative and move along the plot, the plot just occurs when the writers want to insert conflict or give them a macguffin to use. And with it being a tight 5-episode game 2 or even 3 of those episodes are wholly unrelated to the main plot, instead being about... starting up a business...? while the tediore invasion is still ongoing?

It feels like a lot of stuff was cut from time that characters then reference later, which I'd forgive if a huge chunk of the game wasn't pointless filler/it feeling like writers would just insert things arbitrarily to begin with

There are very few walking around, point n click style adventure segments in contrast to just doing QTEs and dialogue options, I lost absolutely nothing by just watching a series of videos vs. actually playing the game.

The last section of gameplay has a bit literally identical in concept to the last section of gameplay in Detroit: Become Human

The game ends on an NFT joke

A lot of taco-related humor in the year 2023.

There's a pretty important scene where they just forgot Dahl and Vladof existed but this might partially be because they didn't have time to or didn't want to make two new character models

It creates new lore with major ramifications before immediately throwing away said lore without elaboration

You open a vault in episode 2

This entire spin-off game is based on a few lines of joke-y dialogue in borderlands 3 and that's how it feels.

THINGS I ACTUALLY LIKED:

Fran is definitely the best character in the main cast, she has more than two character traits, she has a backstory that actually has affect on how her story goes and the only smidgen of character development is thrown her way. She is capable and her disability is written in a very grounded way that doesn't sideline her but also doesn't handwave things away with scifi tech.

LOU13 is also a good character, a bit 2-dimensional but his concept of being a 100% accurate but needing his target to say their full name first was a fun concept and I wish the player could utilize that more than twice.

The world building on promethea is actually really good and the first episode had me hooked by convincing me it wasn't going to water down the insanity and violence Pandora was known for by too much. I really liked the designs and personalities of the side characters introduced and I was excited to see them more (I did not get to) it does also lightly touch on the aftermath of the Cult of the Vault after Borderlands 3.

This entry passes the insanely low bar of not treating people with dwarfism as sub-human

They kitbashed the chubby bunny statues from wonderlands into creatures that burp weed drug gas and that's pretty hot

A lot of milfs in this one. Like, 3 or 4.

Un-retcons eridium so it's rare again and not something you can find just lying around

The tediore soldiers talk like gay softboy furry roleplayers and that's oddly endearing

Things I'm Neutral??? About??

Athena taking over hyperion offscreen?? apparently??

Rhys was kinda whiny and didn't do much in his appearance

The skins are alright I guess but are kinda unnecessary in a short episodic game, so does the money system, like it's pretty unlikely you'll ever run out of money and the amount of money you can pick up is really insignificant so like, boohoo you can't get every skin in the game in one playthrough I guess?? Not like you'd want to anyway. At least it doesn't nickle-and-dime you for colors like Wonderlands does.

Tediore-made assault rifles and very frequent use of laser projectiles on guns that don't even look like they'd fire lasers

[derekscorner]

Witchy Timed Ramblings

I dont even know where to begin

Bayonetta 3 was such a mixed experience. One that was ultimately proven to be negative and frustrating by the time I was done. I know many, both casual and shipper alike, have issues with the Cereza-Luka ending but that proved to be lower on my list of complaints.

I hated Demon Slave as a mechanic. It was fine at first but the game did it’s damnedest to make you use it around every corner which angered me greatly. I still ignored it when I could in favor of normal combat but that option wasn’t as readily available as you’d expect.

And yes, I know ignoring that core new gimmick will make the game more frustrating. When I say I was frustrated it was for things I couldn’t seemingly help.

The things that proved the most frustrating was camera, the abundance of mini-game bosses, and Jeanne’s levels. Camera itself worked perfectly fine and was zoomed out a bit too far at times at it’s worst. The issue I had camera wise was enemies. It felt like I got hit out of eye-shot more far too often...which made no sense given how the camera operated fine.

Between that random sniping and being forced to use the clunky Demon Slave system I felt like I died a lot or was just annoyed by what I was doing. I want to play Bayonetta not a demon that’s far slower and limited in moveset and I definitely dont want to control this demon when Bayonetta herself can’t move only to get sniped off screen.

I am by no means a good Bayonetta or action game player. I get mad at Bayo 1 & 2 as well but I at least realize my deaths in those games are my own fault. The only thing that feels unfair in those earlier titles is Bayo 1′s sudden QTE segments.

And while many hated Bayo 2′s umbran climax mechanic they could still choose to play without it since they could use the magic meter for torture attacks instead. It didn’t really impact a desire to ignore it since both mechanics used the same meter for different gameplay gimmicks.

In other words Bayonetta 3 forced me to do things that I did not find fun in the slightest. My deaths or damage didn’t feel like my own fault.

Mini-games Galore

Then there was the Jeanne missions and the over abundant mini-game boss battles or mission segments.

Jeanne’s missions aren’t overly offensive just not fun. It felt like the director got drunk, binged Totally Spies, and threw Jeanne into that fever dream. I already have to swap between Viola and Bayonetta during missions so I do not know why Jeanne couldn’t have proper missions. She’s so fun to play when unlocked in older titles.

Luckily she only had four missions so it was a disappointment at best. The thing that ground my gears nearly as much as the Demon Slave gimmick was the number of gimmicky events in Bayonetta’s story.

Nearly every boss was some sort of mini-game event. They ranged from painful to boring. The worst one by far, Sin Gomorrah, was used twice. I can’t begin to describe to you how painfully slow those Gomorrah battles are.

The only one that moderately fine for me was Baal. I suck at rhythm games, dislike them even, but this was amusing at least. Baal’s humanoid appearance and personality got me to enjoy it despite how bad I am at such games.

The moment demonic hands reach up from hell with glow sticks I actually laughed. That’s the kind of silliness I’d expect from Bayonetta. Despite that I wouldn’t want to play it too often but it was a welcome moment in a set that didn’t hit with me.

I spent more time playing something besides Bayonetta herself I felt. When I did get to play Bayonetta I felt some levels went on far too long. Worlds were too big at times as well. (I hated the Egypt world with a passion, forty fucking minutes...)

World Maps

Finally, the most mixed aspect for me was the maps. I do honestly feel that missions go on far too long but it was something I both liked and hated.

I grew up on adventure titles so I’m 25yrs hardwired to explore a level. One reason I loved Sonic Adventure 1 more than 2 was due to the existence of a hub world.

In that sense I love the island of Thule and left sadden I get so little time on it. I wanted to see more of the Umbra and Lumen history there. I also love the feel and aesthetics of Gunnigap. (or however it’s spelled)

I initially loved finding things in the levels but it gets tiring quickly. The very fact that Bayonetta, a game about hack n slash combat, needs a marker button to remind you of where you’re supposed to go feels wrong.

The sheer scale of it all makes my complaints about the camera prior feel contradictory but that’s just how mixed it made me feel. I think the levels just went on a tad too long with too many nooks to look into.

I will end this small section on a random note; Thule really made me want to know the Lumen/Umbran history there. Did they visit other worlds? Did they just watch? Did they leave due to the war? So many fun questions!

Resolution

I suppose I should wrap this up. It became far longer than I expected due to Viola and Lore. (I had to break this up into three posts linked below)

Ultimately the game proved frustrating to play and unless I can skip the mini-game boss battles I wont touch the game again.

My only other impressions weren’t even complaints. Like the graphical style. It doesn’t suck yet everyone either appears slimy or rubbery for some reason.

Or fairies. They were thrown in so randomly and then used as excuse to give Luka and Viola devil triggers. It’s not even offensive it’s just fucking there...at least the Bayonetta Origins seems interesting thanks to the introduction of Fairies and their “twilight magic”.

I’m not interested in Bayonetta 4 with Viola there. I’d like a proper game about her with her actual mother and father but not what they’ve done here. Hell, I’d be more game for a title that focus’ on Jeanne.

Imagine a remake of Bayonetta 1 or a game similar but now Jeanne’s the star etc. The Multiverse is there so do something actually interesting...anyway I’m tired. Bye now~

============

For the rest of the Witchy Timez Ramblings go here: https://derekscorner.tumblr.com/tagged/Witchy-Timed

[re4make]

7, 9, 16, 17 and 20 for the ask game~

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them? it’s really hard to not use re8 characters when it was the game i got back into the fandom on (rip) but the re8 fans are so unbelievably annoying that the easy answer is any of the lords, specifically dimitrescu. they didn’t mean anything to me rly anyway, but fandom just made me hate seeing them on principle, yknow? and the same can definitely be said of wesker, like, he was THE resi villain that i grew up with and while i didn’t LIKE him, he was still the top villain. i remember fighting him for the first time in re5 and how, like, monumental it felt, and now i can’t look at him without thinking of the person who called him “canonically queer” and all his other insane apologists =_=

9. worst part of canon the fact that they used that bullshit “X was infected with Y so now she doesn’t age/ages slowly!” thing not once but TWICE? they should explode for that. because they’re only using it to keep two of their early 20s female characters pretty and it’s gross. jill and sherry deserve better than this (as do claire and rebecca but that's another can of worms)

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc) why are there so many yandere fans…. if i had a dollar for every yandere fic writer i’ve had to block i’d be rich. and it’s for any male resi character you can possibly imagine, though i think most popular are leon and ethan, ad it never ever makes any sense. it’s just such a bizarre characterization

17. there should be more of this type of fic/art more blood and guts and zombie limbs and mutations 😤 i feel like i don’t see a lot of it but this is a franchise about zombies and mutations and infectious diseases, we need more blood!!

20. part of canon you found tedious or boring i think everyone is in agreement that QTEs fucking suck and should be abolished forever. i also think re6 is so fucking long and some of it can be tedious BUT as long as you have a good co-op partner it’s never boring. ALSO THE FUCKIN… the gigante fight on the jeep in re5 oh my god why did they do that

[ask game: https://re4make.tumblr.com/post/716309733429149696]

[iwonderwh0]

Half AU idea half shitpost, all big brain: Wishing for more Gun!Kara might be a fandom staple, but it's an even bigger shame we never could get bby!Terminator Mode Alice in dbh. If anybody's every watched the first Kick-Ass movie or M3gan (a horror comedy scifi film about an growing-selfaware AI android made as a child's toy/companion that the lead inventor gave instructions to basically take over parenting for her), yes I know that Alice doing some M3gan style ham kills would be a completely different genre but god it would've been interesting if Kara's (or rather, the Player as Kara) incompetence in fights would usually be compensated by Alice stepping up could've been taken further (Alice can canonically kill Todd w/ the gun to save Kara! She can stab Luther when he's pursuing them through the house if Kara sucks at her QTEs! I can't remember if there are more, but those were the two that I remember most!). Take it to the conclusion, let Alice be Kara's (the player's) temporary plot armor if you need Kara to live to a certain point regardless of Player choice, or hell make an entirely separate branchline of Alice doing the plot alone if Kara is still permadeathable in Stormy Night) Alice is the one who knows the most about what the fuck is going on throughout most of the plot!

Now I wish Alice had been a playable protagonist while simultaneously having Kara also be playable, an utter nightmare for a choice game lol, this is your fault thanks. Also I really like your Android!Alice defense squad posts! <3

ALICE CAN STAB LUTHER???? Damn!

You're right, it'd be really different game and it'll loose the aspect of "sall helpless child to protecc" but yeh, I'd also prefer the gameplay being split between the two of them

And more innocently looking alice with death weapons is definitely a mood

[theggning]

Hello! I was the anon who asked Sapphire-Weapon about how RE6 was originally recieved. You offered to tell me about your own opinions on the subject, if you remember. If you like, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I rewatched some scenes and I still... hate it. The script and overall story were awful imo. It's cringey but without the RE charm, lol. And I'm still mad about how watered down and silly they've made Ada in that game. It was cool to play as her, but the whole "everyone important is just in love with her or wants to be her" was so blaringly stupid and lazy. I felt it really took away from her character, tbh. She should've zipped up and thrown a bomb down. Just explode the lot of 'em and go home to a girlfriend. Would've highfived her for that. (All jokes, lol!!). And Jake... his arc really lacked effort and it's a pity because I really enjoyed him as a character. He could've had a great opportunity with his development but... nah. A little insight as an OG fan about what you loved and hated would be great!

/rolls up sleeves

I consider RE6 one of (no longer #1 but one of) the greatest disappointments I've ever had in a video game that I was otherwise really, really hype for. So BOY am I down to unload talk about it.

Honestly the thing I hated the most about RE6 is the level design. It's really a shame, because the gameplay/controls are actually really fun. I love the increased focus on melee. Mercenaries mode in that game is a blast. But unfortunately, the campaign design is so fucking miserable and such a slog you could not pay me to play through the whole thing again.

The average level design in RE6 goes like this:

Hallway full of enemies

Telegraphed set piece w/ QTEs

Hallway full of enemies

Explosion

Hallway full of enemies

Telegraphed set piece w/ QTEs

The boss monster you defeated 7 times already STILL ISN'T DEAD and pops out to chase you some more

Explosion, launching our heroes into:

a hallway full of enemies!!!!!

I remember this being particularly bad in Chris' campaign, but it's a problem in ALL of them. There's no atmosphere, very few moments of quiet, no interesting rooms or details to look at. You know how in REmake/RE0 and the more recent remakes and especially in RE4R you can look around the environment and see fun little details, objects? How the rooms look lived in and like this was a real place once? There's almost none of this in RE6. The places you walk through don't look real. That marketplace doesn't look like anyone's ever done business in it. The spa level doesn't look like a real spa. It's a hallway full of enemies that leads you to your next explosion.

To add to the problem here, the chapters are goddamn ALMOST AN HOUR LONG EACH. Unlike RE5, where the subchapters were around 10-30 minutes if you knew what you were doing, when you sit down to play a chapter in RE6 it's gonna take you an entire hour. Even if there were some little fun moments in the levels, I can't remember them and I'm not gonna go back to play them when that fun moment is sandwiched by 45 minutes of awful bullshit.

The story also does absolutely suck. I have never before played a game plot that felt more like two 12-year-olds hopped up on Mountain Dew enthusiastically spitballing fanfic ideas and jamming every single one of them into a story. What's frustrating is that there are glimmers of good ideas all over the place, but they end up falling flat or getting stupid.

I could probably rant and rave about the plot of RE6 for another 4000 words, but since it's been a literal decade since I played the game and I'm fuzzy on the details, I don't want to go too in depth. So I think I'll just throw out some things I liked and disliked for each campaign. That I remember. From when the game came out.

It is also worth mentioning that my friend and I, foolishly, played the campaigns in reverse order because that was shown to be chronologically correct. This was a very bad idea. By the time I got to what most people consider the "best" campaign, I was 80% of the way to my sinking realization that I hated the game.

Jake's Campaign:

THE GOOD:

Sherry! I love grownup Sherry. I like her silly G-virus healing factor. I like the bit where she tells Jake to stop fucking whining about the evil daddy he never met, because Sherry fucking Birkin doesn't need to hear your "woe is me"ing about your evil parents fucking up your life.

The snow level was kind of unique and interesting-looking.

The spa level was kind of unique and interesting-looking.

THE BAD:

Ustanak. I realize we're trying to recapture the magic of Nemesis for the 4th or 5th time here, but when every other goddamn boss in this fucking game comes back 50 times before you kill it, it kind of takes away from the one enemy whose entire gimmick is that exactly. I cannot remember what he looks like at all. Nemesis is iconic, this guy is just big and ugly. The fact that Jake punches him to death with his bare hands is really silly but in kind of the good stupid RE way that I enjoy. It's what this loser deserves.

I'm honestly not a huge fan of Jake in general? He has a good character arc, which is more than I can say for basically anybody else in this game, but he slots right into this godawful edgelord teenage boy catnip character archetype that was absolutely everywhere in the early 2010s in gaming.

The idea of Wesker having a son could be really interesting (even if it makes me think about Wesker fucking, which. ugh) but it's integrated in a really strange way. I frankly do not believe Jake's mother when he says she genuinely loved Wesker and that he was a "good man," a thing that has literally never been demonstrated, ever, in the entire history of this canon. It's really incongruous given everything we know about Wesker, so I'm not sure why they went with that instead of the, honestly, more sensible idea of having Jake be an unauthorized experiment using Wesker's sperm or something.

The bit where Jake, who vocally despises his absent father the entire length of time we know him, suddenly decides to get pissy with Chris for killing him, is incredibly contrived. It feels like it's in there just because they felt like they needed an excuse for Jake to be in conflict with Chris, even when it makes no sense with what we know of Jake's personality.

Chris' Campaign

THE GOOD:

Piers is the best character in this game. He's charming, he's appealing, we can sympathize with him, he and Chris have wonderful chemistry together (platonically or not- I do love me some Nivanfield.) I love what they do with him as a "successor" to Chris, and how he helps Chris through his spiral. I will never stop being furious that they killed him off. Piers deserved better.

I like the broad strokes of Chris' character arc here. Chris becoming an alcoholic and suffering real, visible PTSD from the deaths of his men is both appropriate and a sensible step for his character at this point in the series.

Carla is definitely the best villain in this game. I have some beef with her that I'll discuss in the Ada section but in terms of campaign-specific antagonists, she's both the most compelling and the most dangerous.

THE BAD:

The execution of Chris' arc is possibly the stupidest fucking writing in this entire game. So you're telling me that Chris Redfield, Superstar BSAA Founder and Golden Boy, is somehow able to just disappear from the hospital where he's laid up with head trauma and amnesia? He just, wanders the fuck away and nobody notices? Chris is gone for SIX FUCKING MONTHS and nobody is able to find him in that length of time? Where the hell are Claire or Jill in this scenario? Claire spends 2/3 of her starring games moving heaven and earth to search for her brother. In Revelations, Jill disobeys orders and goes looking for him when he's missing for 12 hours. And neither of them bother looking for him when he goes missing for half a year? If you have ever wondered why Jill or Claire aren't in this game, it's because there's no fucking way to make this stupid plot work if either of them have anything to say about it. So they're apparently just blipped out of existence for the duration of RE6. Oh hey, we found Chris. In Edonia. The same place he went missing six months ago. Guess we were too busy to really look for him that hard. Hey Piers, go drag him kicking and screaming out of the bar. There's some shit going down in China and we need our top guy on the job. What's that? He's still suffering the effects of massive head trauma? He can't remember who the fuck he is? He has no idea who we are or what he's doing? Ehhhhhhhhhhh don't worry about it, stick a uniform on him and throw him into the thick, that oughta jog his memory a bit. This bit is so stupid and irresponsible that I will never again respect the BSAA as anything but cartoonishly incompetent. Head Trauma Amnesiac Chris gets his memory jogged midway through proceedings, and flies off into a frothing, mindless vengeance rage against Ada. In the process he personally gets an entire team of BSAA operatives killed. Again. Two in one game! That's pretty bad even for Chris! It's only via being screamed at by Piers that Chris snaps out of it and goes back to being the respected leader that he's supposed to be just in time to save the world. Chris decides, then and there, that maybe he's no longer in a position to keep doing this. That he should step aside and give a new generation of fighters a chance to fight for what's right. That Piers, who's been levelheaded and focused and brave through all of this turmoil, deserves to be Chris' successor and that he's the hero the world needs now. And then Piers dies horribly, tragically, traumatically, so uh. Never mind that I guess. Making Chris an alcoholic and forcing him to reckon with the deaths of his men is a great idea for a story arc for him. But this contrived-ass prolonged soap opera amnesia drama ain't it, chief. EDIT: Tumblr, in its infinite wisdom, just linked me to a blog post I made in 2013 COMPLETE WITH PICTURES I DREW making fun of this plot point. Please enjoy!

Everybody says this is the campaign with the worst, grindiest, bullet spongiest, Gears of Wariest gameplay and they are correct.

I think we are supposed to take the ending of the campaign as inspirational. Chris goes back to the BSAA with renewed determination, and we're supposed to find this as noble or heroic. I actually find this ending incredibly fucking sad and tragic. Piers' death is haunting Chris, and he's now taking Piers' faith in him as a mandate. Piers' hero worship and respect for Chris is now being interpreted as "you can't give up-- ever." Chris has resigned himself to fighting this battle for the rest of his life. He can never hand off the reins to a younger generation. He can never retire. He can never heal. He can never stop, and he's now doomed to do this until he dies/Capcom stops dragging his now 50-year-old ass out to star in every single game.

Leon's Campaign

THE GOOD:

The first 20 minutes or so of Leon's campaign is genuinely the best part of the entire game. By the time I got to this point I was already heavily fatigued from the above horseshit so I don't think it hit me like it should have, but the Tall Oaks University section is pretty great.

I like Leon being a mentor of sorts for Helena. It's a role we haven't seen him in before and it's interesting.

THE BAD:

I find the exploitation of Deborah Harper to be really gross. Helena gets blackmailed into starting an outbreak that kills the president for the sake of her sister. By the time we reach Deborah she's already been infected. Which is FINE... but making her a moaning, writhing, voluptuous monster vamping nude around the boss arena in a clear attempt to be sexually appealing to the (presumed male) player feels really icky to me. She could have just been a regular monster? Helena would still have every reason to want revenge on Simmons?

Due to the shitty pacing and structure, Leon and Helena both come off as super incompetent. Helena won't say shit about what's going on, leading us blindly into situation after situation and promising to explain "later." Leon's inability to drive reaches parody status as he crashes like 6 different vehicles in the course of this campaign. Leon and Helena's mere presence is a deathknell for every single person in the vicinity-- every time they encounter a group of civilians, every single one of them dies horribly. If this all happened once or twice then it wouldn't be so egregious, but this whole campaign feels like these two bumblefucks fucking up and getting innocents killed.

What in the FUCK was with the underground Skyrim dungeon section? Why is this area here? Aren't we in fucking Massachusetts???

Derek Simmons is Diet Wesker and he's terrible at it. He's not scary, he's not sinister, he's not even campy fun like Wesker was. He's supposed to be this grand evil mastermind, but he's doing all of this because Ada broke up with him or put in her two weeks notice or whatever? What a fucking loser.

The whole "oh no, a secret illuminati is running the world behind the scenes" plotline. I've been calling these guys the "Failluminati' for so long I can't even remember their real name. Having an omg secret evil organization running everything in your plot is not a plot twist, it's a fucking copout. This is so stupid Capcom has never again mentioned it, with good reason.

Ada's Campaign

THE GOOD:

The one and only actually scary part of the game, the Carla boss fight. Oh my god, is that some psychological horror? In THIS shitshow?

This is my favorite Ada character design. That open jacket is really stylish.

For about 2/3 of the previous campaigns, it looks like they have finally, actually done something interesting with Ada. Oh my god, is Ada an outright villain this time? What's her motivation? Are we finally going to learn who Ada works for and what her goals are? Why is she doing this? Chris has very good reason to be angry at Ada, but Leon's going to defend her just going by his gut? That's juicy! Wow! The boys are fighting!

I think it's extremely funny that Leon never technically finds out about the existence of Carla, so he watches a video of "Ada" hatching out of a fucking egg and assumes that's really her. He never gets corrected on this notion. As far as we know, OG Leon still thinks Ada hatched out of an egg. That's hilarious.

THE BAD;

They didn't do anything with Ada at all actually! The Ada/Carla switcheroo is really obvious once you realize it's happening, and would have been a cool opportunity to actually define something about Ada. Oh no, this evil scientist releasing the C virus on the world is claiming to be Ada? We all know the real Ada would never... um.... well... To me, the frustrating thing about OG Ada is that she isn't really a character. She shows up from time to time to save Leon or be mysterious or be a pair of boobs to look at, but she has no goals. No motivation. We don't know what she's really thinking or why she does things. She's taking orders from... SOMEONE? But we never find out who, and even when we think we know who, it turns out she's betraying them. Ada deals in bioweapons for cash, while also having an apparent soft spot for Leon. She's morally gray, but to no actual end. We can't say that she would or wouldn't do this or that, because nobody knows who Ada is or what she's trying to accomplish, and the script just has her coyly alluding to her alleged "goals" without ever explaining what those are. So yeah, imagine my disappointment when it finally looked like we were going to really get a look at Ada, only to find out that everything she does in this game isn't really her, it's an angry evil scientist who's been cloned to look like her. They have this whole fucking plot set up to do something, ANYTHING with Ada, and she ends exactly where she starts because none of it was her at all. The bit at the end where Ada winks at the camera about her "true employer" and her "real goals" made me literally fucking scream at my TV.

Hey sorry Capcom, I don't actually feel sorry for Carla at all. When you fuck around with bioweapons and cruelly torture people for the sake of your experiments, I don't really shed a tear for you when you get fed into the proverbial woodchipper of your own hubris. Carla is a great villain but I don't feel any sympathy for her whatsoever, and I really don't see why Ada ought to, either. If anything I'd think Ada should be more grossed out and offended that Simmons is THAT obsessed with her.

Okay so my last complaint is actually something that ONLY could have happened in the weeks immediately following the game. You know how AGENT is just, a stupid blank slate character who feels really out of place? That's because he didn't originally exist. He was patched into the game a few weeks after release, I think about the same time they added the ability to play Ada's campaign without finishing the other three first. Originally, you played Ada's campaign solo, as ONLY Ada. It made the psychological horror-y segments around the Carla boss fight a lot scarier and more impactful. There was, however, a slight problem in that RE6 was designed to be co-op from the ground up. Which means the very mechanics of the game are not designed for a solo character. Because recovering from near-death requires a second character to revive you. So for the first few weeks after release, when you played as Ada and got badly injured, you were forced to just sit there and watch her limp around for 20 seconds and die. Get hit by an enemy? Limp around and die. Injured by a trap? Limp around and die. Fail a QTE? Limp around and die. No recourse. No revival. Fall into the red and Ada suffers a slow, prolonged, unskippable death that you cannot escape from. At this point I had spent 40something hours playing the rest of the game, getting increasingly angry at the bad pacing and the worse story, so the extra frustration of Ada's literally broken gameplay in her campaign absolutely drove me over the edge. I managed to beat her campaign before the Agent patch that would have fixed this problem, but by that point I had come to terms with the fact that I absolutely hated RE6 and was deep in my mourning period for my prior anticipation.

Anyway, that's my tragic beef with RE6. Is it as bad as people say? Oh yeah. I think so. Is it as bad as I remember? Probably.... maybe? Does it deserve a second look from my initial impressions at launch? Yeah, probably. But the sting of that first playthrough still haunts me and I don't know that I'm ever going to sit through it again. I'd rather just take the lore notes and the little plot details that I did enjoy and run with those than force myself through the rest of the slog again.

I like how I said I was gonna be brief but then I ended up probably typing 4000 words about the plot anyway. AH WELL.

[dlasta]

Just finished Until Dawn with two survivors (pathetic:). Interesting story, fun game in general, but those changes they made later for The Quarry really paid off. We need more games where you can choose an easier mode to just enjoy the game/the story. And get more clothes and shit.

The fast QTEs suck for me. And since I played the Quarry first the controls were the wrong way around and switching from shooting to the QTEs was awkward. For some reason I failed the staying still at the end despite actually being still. Could be the game itself having issues since my ps4 seemed to struggle/make noises a lot and even quit a few times. Not my best gaming effort for sure.:)

(Personal pet peeve: as a ‘cold weather specialist’ I feel the need to stress that cold does not work like that. I buy monsters and whatnot but cold weather has rules. At least dress the poor people right. Or make it a cool reward for surviving the game once through. Like, you get a proper puffa jacket for every character, some dumb hats and gloves. Dress them all up like kindergartners to waddle around in the snow.:)

[guyfmpyear2]

More research

Suck Up! is a a described as a game of 'pranks and passion', where you (a vampire) inhabit a town, and have to prank people to charm them so you can suck their blood, the main selling point though, is that all the npcs are powered by AI, making conversations with them infinitely branching. This seems like an awesome concept, though I don't know how easy it would be for me to add actual AI into my game.

Dead meat:

A newly immersive visual novel, where the npc is a highly advanced AI that in-depth, understands and responds to your actual questions in real time. This is similar to Suck Up!, but instead you are asking this woman about the murder of her husband as she is a key suspect.

Mass effect:

Mass effect and fallout were the key influences when i was thinking about branching dialogue systems, especially including their use of skills in dialogue. this is probably the route I'm going to take on a branching dialogue system, as it is much easier to pull off in our given time frame but still leaves room for innovation like attributes or skill checks.

Also a key part is the logic behind how they structure and layout their wheels. getting the player to subconsciously associate options with general feelings. would it make sense to have our options follow similar general emotions

Telltale games:

Another staple of the narrative genre. they are known for their host of IP's and emergent narrative structure, that gives players an 'in' on the typically rigid and set in stone storytelling of most story games.

this is again done through decisions that you make throughout the game, although the decisions are timed which is something I think I should do in order to add a sense of urgency.

Until Dawn:

another game similar to heavy rain in visual style and gameplay choices, with the storytelling revolving around choices that are sometimes made at a moments notice. the game has the butterfly effect gimmick, where the player is told when you made a decision that will drastically change the outcome of the game. something that our game should have, different endings depending on choices.

as well as having the QTE's.

interestingly it uses the gyro capabilities of the ps4 controller to make the player stay still in tense moments, that way you are truly immersed and your real life actions have consequences in the game

Heavy Rain:

Its not a typical visual novel, but the storytelling is still impeccable

First thing that caught my eye is the Quick Time Events (QTE’s), i dont know how i would actually integrate 3D motion based quick time events into the quite flat and stationary ideas i gave of a visual novel. immediately though i think of adding stakes and a timer

Danganronpa : Trigger Happy Havoc :

You are a student selected to attend a seemingly prestigious high school, until on the first day. the place locks down. not letting anyone leave, and setting the simple task: get away with murdering another student and you earn your freedom.

The gameplay revolves around investigating, and then ‘mock trials’ where the class has to debate on who committed murders. with the player having to play word games to prove their innocence and break apart other students arguments.

[dicapiito]

I regret playing Until Dawn

This game was terrible.

The characters were not that great with the exception of Josh who understandably was in grief and Chris was okay along with Sam who was killed. BTW the QTE fucking sucks. Everytime I stood still the fucking thing moved and needing to button mash in two seconds? Is this PS2 Resident Evil 4 because that’s how bad these controls were

The story itself, if only I could’ve gotten into it when I did successfully hit the buttons, was alright. Reminded me of that John Cusack movie Identity but with a less payoff of a satisfying ending. So some survived which was Emily, Matt and Chris which… meh whatever.

The epilogue wasn’t satisfying either. Sure it would’ve been more satisfying if more survived and if the QTE wasn’t the most shittest QTE controls ever but really…not really

So Hannah and Beth were the zombie vampire whatever ? And there was a main one but no real explanation? Josh did all that and he gets his head smashed by… the villain?

This game wasn’t really coherent story wise and I really am annoyed I played it and glad I played it after playing The Quarry because if I played this first; there’s no damn way I’d even listen to anyone’s recommendation about The Quarry because Until Dawn had a lackluster story that could’ve been eons more interesting but this was designed for button mashers and the motion controls were crap.

2/10 for the cast members and the concept but Until Dawn was a very terrible game and while it says there’s episodes now that I complete it…it’s kinda like…why bother ? The clues or premonitions were only helpful that Mike didn’t lose fingers. Oh and that one of the wolves survived.

[croix-meridies]

I can do a solely gameplay based review of raincode right now since I’m in chapter 4 (of 5)

Under tha cut long and rambly and story spoiler free

I will start with the positives(ish)

The setting is cool the exploration in most of kanai ward is fun and feels fresh throughout the game bc they give you new stuff to explore and look at. The environment also changes as the story proceeds which I like. The main issue is that most of the different districts feel empty past kamasaki.

That’s it that’s the gameplay pros. Here are the cons:

The main issue with raincode is that it isn’t fun to play.

What really detracts from the experience is the loading screens. Raincode runs like the sims for some reason. Every section of gameplay, every short cut scene, every time you change areas you are met with a loading screen, some only take a few seconds but most take 30 sec to a minute and a half. I’m playing on switch so maybe it’s just bc the switch can’t handle this but even still.

The billion super long cut scenes ruin the pacing of the game, especially bc the really long loading screens pop up right when an important plot point happens.

So that’s my number one issue with gameplay but not the only one

My next biggest issue is the qte’s

This is the qte video game, I’m surprised supermassive didn’t make it. Almost all of the mini games are based solely upon qte’s, when literally anything else would have been better. The lack of diversity in the gameplay during the actual gameplay portions, horrid. There are so many sections where I was thinking that it should have been story or investigation or honestly a little bit of platforming or shooting might be fun and a cute callback to udg or worlds end club, but no, you get a qte or an even more boring version of the hangman’s gambit.

This leads into what is partial a story issue: the puzzles are so fucking easy. Every single time it’s the obvious answer (which means the answer to the ~mystery~ is obvious as well, but I’ll get into that when I actually finish the game) it’s no fun bc after you finish the first chapter and you figure out how things are going to go for the rest of the chapters you don’t feel compelled to keep playing bc the answer is right there.

The whole mystery labyrinth area (raincodes answer to the class trial in danganronpa) sucks, outside of the physical locations for parts of it. It is mostly running in a straight line between loading screens and answers questions that you already knew like 20 min ago.

Another minor pet peeve of the gameplay is there is no run button, either yumas in a hurry or he isn’t, you can’t rush him.

So those are my major gameplay qualms for raincode, (there’s more but they tie into the story and characters) I have thoughts on the story and characters, (negative ones) but I’ll wait till I actually finish the game before passing final judgment.

[ao3phocion]

While I’m still proud of Christmas 2038, which I wrote in 2018, if I wrote it today it would’ve been so different bc of what OP said here. Hank and Connor would not return to the dpd, no matter how much I enjoy the buddy cop investigating dynamic/trope. It’s not realistic for either of their characters post game.

And for Markus, though I like the journey I took him on, I wouldn’t write it with the peaceful ending anymore. I wanted to explore how the peaceful ending would actually work in a more grounded reality (basically it doesn’t, bc the enemy is always gonna fight dirty for the status quo). The peaceful ending was billed as the ‘good ending’ back then. I never went the revolution route - I sucked at the QTEs and Josh and North always died, which I couldn’t abide. But looking back, that’s bologna. They’re not protesting for better wages or against tax hikes, they’re fighting for their lives to be seen as people and to end slavery.

I’ll cut 2018 me a little slack, bc I was young and naive (and the game punished you for DEVIATING from what David Cage considered ‘good’), but older and wiser 2024 me would’ve written something very different.

i have one big pet peeve with dbh fanfiction. i'm very tolerant of it because its an understandable concession to make in order to like tell a more interesting story and include more of the game's characters. but like connor would NOT go back to the dpd and be a cop i know this in my heart. that boy does NOT enjoy the police. if you still want him to like investigate crimes it makes a lot more sense for him to be a private detective or something

[magic-can]

Finally played Resident Evil 4

So I beat RE4 for the first time recently and I kinda just wanna ramble incoherently about it because WOW what a game. It was absolutely fantastic and absolutely deserves its legacy.

The rest of what I wanna say is below the cut but just know that I do go into some spoilers and also there’s mentions of cults. That’s another thing - don’t play this game if cults are a genuine trigger for you. A cult plays a major role in the plot.

It’s a game I’ve had my eyes on for a while now. Years actually. I never got around to it for a multitude of reasons but now with the upcoming remake and it being only 5 bucks during the Steam winter sale, I decided to finally pick it up.

First off, the visuals have aged impressively well. I’m not one of those goofballs who thinks visuals make or break a game but I will absolutely give praise when devs go the extra mile to give a game a good art style. Yes, RE4 is very clearly a game from the mid 2000s, visually. But it has an art style that still stands out - to me at least.

Then there’s the story. I am very impressed with how this game balances goofy action movie shit with genuine horror without one taking away from the other. I know that’s a part of the magic of RE at this point - campiness combined with genuine horror - but still. This game manages to be both fucking hilarious and absolutely horrifying at the same time which is VERY impressive, even more so given that the game has almost been out for 2 decades.

By far the scariest thing to me about the game were the Los Illuminados. The Las Plagas itself didn’t really freak me out because at the end of the day parasites are just trying to survive. Yeah getting your head esploded and/or turning you into a horrible abomination as the Plaga completely overtook you would suck but you can’t get mad at it. It’s just trying to live. What is fucking horrifying to me is the idea of a cult weaponizing such creatures to indoctrinate people into their ideology and to commit international terrorism. It just made me think of the lengths that cults have historically gone to spread their fucked up ideologies. That felt very real despite some of the insane and at times goofy things that happen in this game.

The knife fight with Krauser was, as a scene itself, fantastic. The quick time events were annoying though. Actually that has to be my biggest complaint with the game, personally - the QTEs - I got used to them and sometimes they were fine that doesn’t mean they aren’t annoying as hell for the most part. I really hope the remake gets rid of at least some of them.

I do wanna say, though, is that I really do not understand the Ashley hate. I thought she was very likable and adorable. Any time I got annoyed during the escort missions with her it was more so at the game itself and not her yelling for help or getting injured. She really isn’t a bad character at all. Also she’s voiced by Carolyn Lawrence. There’s no way I could be annoyed by her.

I do, on the other hand, understand why everyone loves the merchant. He is absolutely wonderful and I adore him. <3

Finally, Leon. Leon himself is an absolute highlight of this game. He is a very likable and endearing guy who, while clearly hardened after the events in Raccoon City, is still very caring and kind. Also he says the dumbest things and I adore it. I knew about some of his goofy one-liners beforehand but I was still grinning ear to ear each time he said one of them. He is legit a great character though - just in general, not exclusive to RE4. He’s definitely my favorite RE character now. Also he’s an absolute babygirl. Ada is also great and I love the messy, complex dynamic between her and Leon.

These are far from my full thoughts and I AM going to yell about this game more on other posts but again this is just me. like. yelling. Anyway, I am VERY excited for the remake. I love the direction they’re taking it in and that it’s going to be very different from the original. Because the original is an amazing game that should not be “replaced”.