#i upgrade it as i get more items i don't want to have a huge empty gallery

[jonathanrook]

finally purged my gallery of the my lovely seahorses so the nightcrawlers can sit pretty where they belong<3

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

The PledgeManager has launched!

Thank you for bearing with us. We’re happy to say that, as promised, the PledgeManager has officially launched!

In case you missed it, we detailed earlier this week that the publication of the graphic novel has been pushed back from its original July 2024 estimate into Spring 2025 - you can read the full update here. We also want to take a moment to say that we have seen the outpouring of love and support on Kickstarter, and across various platforms, wishing Colleen well in her recovery and the time needed for the graphic novel - a huge thank you from all of the team for your understanding and patience, and for the genuine community and care we’ve seen these past few days. We appreciate you all.

PledgeManager

With this in mind, we think it’s important to underline: though PledgeManager has launched, you do not need to pay for your shipping fees immediately.

The PledgeManager is there for those who missed the campaign to order the graphic novel, and indeed for any backers who would like to upgrade, get some other add-ons, or the new items. You, as a pre-existing backer, should receive an email with information via Kickstarter and/or PledgeManager to inform you that this is now open to you - note, these are sent in waves of smaller batches, so if you don't get yours immediately, don't panic! It will likely take between 12-18 hours to process all the backers.

You are, of course, welcome to pay your shipping right away if you'd like, however we completely understand that you may want to wait until closer to the fulfilment time, or when more solid dates are confirmed, before actioning this.

For this stage, we have compiled a quick FAQ below covering some key questions:

Will the whole project be moving from Kickstarter to PledgeManager? No. This is just for the fulfilment side and logistics - all updates will still remain here.  

Do PledgeManager backers get everything that Kickstarter backers do? No. While the remaining tiers will be made available for those who missed it, with certain stretch goals (e.g. additions to the book, loot boxes, etc), Kickstarter backers have a number of exclusives such as the Good Omens HQ discount code for when the store launches, and the backers only events.  

My PledgeManager address will be different to what is listed on my Kickstarter. Is that fine? Yes. We are handling all logistics through PledgeManager and, as such, that is the only place where we will need your address. If you move or need to change any details, that will be the place to do so.  

Can I change my address? Yes. You can update your address until we are at the shipping stage. We will keep this option open for as long as possible to ensure maximum flexibility around this.  

How are shipping fees calculated? It is based on both weight and the country it is being sent to. We have been working over the past months to streamline processes and bring the costs down from their original starting point.  

Do I have to pay just now? You do not need to pay immediately, but payment will need to be made prior to your items being shipped. You now have a bigger window during which you can make payment. As above, we will keep updating you on the progression of the publication schedule, should you be waiting for firmer dates before doing so.  

What about taxes and import duty? UK: VAT is included in the costs UK backers pay, there should be no extra tax charges. US: We believe (but cannot guarantee) that imports under $800USD in value should not attract import duty, those pledges above may be taxed at import. EU & REST OF THE WORLD: If taxes or duties apply to your pledge, these will need to be paid at time of import into your country. We’ve spent months trying to integrate the costs at this stage, but in having the project open across the globe, it has proven too complex to be able to fully refine and cover all instances and locations, and we’ve been advised that this is the best route forward.  We know a lot of international backers, particularly in the EU – for example – will already be used to this process, and we will keep you all updated on any developments on this front. For all of our backers, we are working hard to make labelling and declaring all of the contents of your pledges as transparent as possible, in order to make taxing and importing as easy and affordable as possible.  

I want to buy the new items, but am waiting to pay shipping. Are they limited? The pins, mugs, notebooks - all the new items specifically added to the PledgeManager are not limited and will be available regardless of whether you get them now, or months down the road. The only limited items are the remaining tiers that have moved over from the Kickstarter (e.g. the Obsidian Tier) that were limited to begin with, and a very limited run of the Alien Parking ticket. Everything else is fully available, in perpetuity.  

Will you be adding extra items to the PledgeManager? No. What is there at launch is all we plan to include at this point - any new items afterwards will instead originate via the Good Omens HQ store.  

Will Kickstarter backers get items first? Yes. We will have a staggered approach for fulfilment: Kickstarter backers, then PledgeManager, then everything that is moving to the Good Omens HQ store will subsequently be made available.

You can also view the more general PledgeManager FAQ at terrypratchett.com.

We will keep PledgeManager and logistical notes present in all the monthly updates going forward, but felt this warranted a dedicated one-off. 

These are available as part of the PledgeManager. Another beauty from our pin designer, Carl Sutton.

Thanks again for your patience. Back in the April monthly update.

In short: :)

The Good Omens Pledge Manager has launched:

those who missed the Graphic Novel Kickstarter: Now you can order the Graphic novel, not all things that were in the original Kicstarter are available but there is stil a lot of options and fuckton of lovely ineffable add-ons! :)<3

those who participated inthe original GO GN Kickstarter: you should an email (Dunmanifestin needs more information to fulfill your reward) with a link that logs you (if not log manually) into the pledgemanager and lets you edit the order (add new add ons) (yep, my wallet weeps :D<3)

The addons:

I mean... how can one resist for example these I do not know... :D

[dynamightimagines]

simple request. Picture kaminari with a stoic Bf kind of like Todoroki. this is like season 3 and its pretty much the bf asking Kaminari for help decorating his room and making it feel more comfortable. His heart totally skips a beat when his bf says they want his help and no one else.

YESYES HIHI I LOVE THISSSS i hope i do it ok !!

Bedroom Boyfs (Kaminari x Stoic! Male! Reader)

When the dorms were implemented, everyone was excited.

More hangouts with friends! More parties! The opportunity of secret sleepovers that Aizawa totally doesn't know about but doesn't care enough to shut down!

But for now, the hard work of making the dorms to each their own was underway, everyone working hard to bring their beloved items to the rooms, Uraraka helping float any heavier items.

You however, had always had the same room style since you were little, your parents just upgrading the furniture as needed as you grew older. No posters, figures, art, nothing.

Seeing everyone else bringing the items that showed their personality made you feel a bit awkward, having nothing to really bring besides clothes and school necessities since the dorms came pre-equipped with beds, desks, and shelves. One suitcase was all you had.

"Hey!" You hear coming from the doorway to the dorms, just behind you. "Need help bringing anything in?"

Kaminari was holding some type of video game console, the wires of the controllers dangling in his arms.

"No, not really." You pushed out the arm holding onto the handle of the suitcase. "This is all I have."

Kaminari made a face, eyes widening in surprise and confusion as he looked at the one bag you had. "Seriously? That's it?" The one bag you carried looking so insignificant to all the bags and boxes everyone else was hauling.

"Yeah," you shifted the bag in your hands. "I never really collected anything, kinda just focused on school mostly."

Your boyfriend looked shocked, no pun intended. He shifted the things he was carrying into one arm, reaching out and grabbing your suitcase from your hands. "Well, I'm still gonna be ever the gentleman, and take it to your dorm!"

You told him where your dorm was located on the floor and followed him to the door.

"Hey, we're only like two doors away from each other! That's awesome!" Kaminari did a little dance as you located your key and unlocked the door.

Inside was equipped with the basics. A bed, desk, dresser, and chair as is standard for all the dorms. Basic curtains blocked a sliding door to a small patio.

"It's similar to my room at home." You walked in, looking at the simplicity of the room.

"Really?" Denki set your suitcase down by the dresser. "This is it?"

You shrugged, turning back to him. "I guess. Never really was good at decorating."

"Well, we can get help!" Kaminari walked over and slapped a hand on your shoulder. "I know some people here are pretty good at decorating! Let's ask them!"

You two left the room, popping into random rooms to see who had the nicest ones and to ask for decorating advice.

"Okay, so Midoriya is a no go, all he sees fit for a room is anything related to All Might." You two had settled into the main living room, sitting on the couch. " Jiro's room looked really cool so maybe her? It was a bit maximalist though, so maybe Tsuyu? Her room was cute!"

"I want your help."

"Huh?"

Kaminari turned towards you, head tilted, encouraging you to continue.

"I thought about it," You fiddled with your hands, looking down at them. "I'm not comfortable with them creating my living space, I don't know them very well. I want you to do it. You know me, you know what I like, and I trust you."

Denki's face lit up like a christmas tree, small zaps surrounding him. A huge smile grew on his face and he felt like he could run out of breath at any moment.

You only trusted him? You only wanted him to help you create a space that's private for only you?

"Of course, only if you want to." You were looking back at him, your face stoic yet a small hint of apprehension in your eyes, worried for if he might reject your request.

"No, of course!" He jumped in his seat, scooting closer to you and grabbing both of your hands, clasping them in his. "I can totally help you find some things for your room! This is will be fun!"

As soon as you guys were given approval to leave the dorms by Aizawa a lot of people headed out, either to grab things for the dorms or simply walk the area to get a feel for their new living space. You two took the time to head to the shopping district.

"So what should we get?" Kaminari walked next to you, shoulders bumping from time to time. "Posters? a cute carpet? A pet?!"

You gave a slight small, huffing a little. "I doubt Aizawa wants us to get a pet."

"Yeah," Denki, sighed, slouching a little. "A cat would be super awesome, though."

"I don't want much. Just a few little things would be nice."

"Okay, keep it simple! Got it!"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You two got back to the dorms right before curfew, saying small hellos to a few others that were returning as well.

"We didn't get a lot, but everything we got is super awesome!" Kaminari shook the two bags he was carrying. "You're room is gonna be uber cool!" You two got to work setting up immediately, and it didn't take long since you went for a basic approach.

By the time you were done the room was perfect. The desk now had a few little trinkets such as a cute fake flower, a holder for your stationary, and a clock. You got new bedding, your favorite color, same with curtains. Denki helped pick out a nice accent run and you relented to him picking out just one simple poster.

"It looks amazing!" Denki flopped down on your bed, feeling the new comforter. "This blanket is a ton more comfy then the ones they provided, I need to get one too!"

You sat down next to him, taking in the room.

"This is nice." You put your hand on his, causing him to stop petting your new blankets. "I really appreciate this, Kaminari. I wouldn't have even known what to pick out. You did amazing, I really appreciate it."

Denki blushed, flashing his signature smile at you before he jumped up.

"I got one more thing for you!"

He rummaged in a bag that you thought was just full of the tags and wrapping of the things you bought, before pulling out one more item.

"I knew you would say no if I asked you if you wanted it but I got it anyways!"

He held up a plush (your favorite animal), waving it around like a parent would entertain a child. "it's so cute! It reminded me of you."

He handed you the toy and sat back down with you, resting his head on your shoulder. "I think it makes your room complete."

You looked down at the stuffed animal you now held, feeling the material and looking into its beady eyes. It was perfect.

"Thank you." You turned your head to Kaminari, placing a small kiss on his forehead. He jolted up straight.

"Of- of course!" He leaned closer to you, eyes shining with happiness. "I love you."

"I love you too."

Kaminari didn't realize it, but that stuffed toy became one of your most prized possessions, cheering you on as you studied and being a silent protector as you held it at night, falling asleep to the memories it brought with it.

EEEEEEEE I am no good at this,,,,, sorry!!! I love Kaminari vvvv underrated boy!!

[marina-the-witch]

SotE Spoilers (Just in case)

After finishing SotE a week or two ago and reflecting on the experience I wanted to share my issues with the DLC. I'll leave out if a boss frustrated me for whatever reason outside of my first point, as I feel like that will definitely improve with reruns or at least solidify my opinions, but it's not like a couple bad bosses are a major issue for me anyway. With that said, here's what bothers me about SotE: -Bad hitboxes and weird timings on some bosses, this definitely did not feel like something I just need to learn like e.g. Messmer's or Rellana's long combo strings. Gaius and the Golden Hippo were especially bad in the hitbox department, Putrescent Knight and Scadutree Avatar meanwhile had some REAL dodgy timings, and Radahn's cross slash feels entirely undodgeable. Bayle, while he is a favorite of mine, also definitely had timings I felt were really tight considering his HP, but I've been hearing a lot of people say he isn't as hard and his tight openings feel designed with Igon in mind so I imagine that will improve on reruns. -There really isn't much of a reason or incentive to explore for me, while the new cookbooks and spells are cool that's moreso questline or enemy drops, most overworld item pick-ups are just upgrade mats i can literally just buy and especially the amount of gloveworts bothers me, there's enough of them in basegame to max every wortwhile summon anyway and I personally don't use summons to begin with. -Adding to the previous point, there's a lot of stretches of land that just feel so empty, the most notable example are definitely the abyssal woods, an area you can't just run through really should have more in it in my opinion, but all the other overworld areas could use a lot more too. I also really don't get why the dungeons feel almost hidden away, but that's not a huge deal since they're at least all unique. -Scadutree blessing is a cool and interesting idea on paper, but for one I feel like 50 is a bit of a bloated value to collect all of them and their scaling is a bit op after the latest patch. That does kinda balance out though since it means I can collect like half of them and still be fine, but I still think the system is a bit messy. -The new selection of minibosses is pretty poor, Furnace Golems are ass, Death Knights and Ghostflame Dragons are cool at least, the rest is kind of boring and the amount of annoying NPC fights kinda bothers me (also the Gank Squad at the end is horrible)

-Some weapon classes still feel super undercooked. I honestly don't mind the new classes only having a small handful as it reduces the bloat of useless enemy drop weps you had in basegame and replaces them with solid infusable weapons, but whips, bows and etc actually feeling functional would have been nice With all that said I still love SotE and there's way more positives than these few negatives that i feel are more or less fairly objective. I have other personal gripes with the narrative and some other things but that's another can of worms.

[jack-kellys]

welcome to: rizz's extensive uksies notes, which will discuss differences in characterization, sure, but also more important things like staging, scenic and dance changes, and directorial choices (i do talk about the principal characters at the bottom so i'll forgive you for skipping down there if you wanna). i haven't looked at anyone else's posts since i didn't want them to influence my thoughts, but i'll be whipping out the third-of-the-way-through stage management degree for this shit so buckle up. spoilers/major reveals will be in this post, and this post (among all the others relating to major reveals/moments in this version) will be tagged with #newsies spoilers!!!

lets get into it, starting with the reason this show was able to be as much of an experience as it was: the space.

i think it's very important context to this version of newsies that the troubadour theater, previously, had been housing an immersive peaky blinders (popular tv show) experience. this review gives a pretty good idea of what immersive theater is, and it is... a big feat. it's more of an experience than theater, and that same goal was at the heart of the way newsies is done, too, which worked so well. both are historical fictions and are based on real things that happened, which makes it kind of easier to involve an audience imo and lets them believe what's going on.

the stage is a sort of round thrust-style in the shape of what i'm guessing is a flash/flashbulb in reference to obviously the pics we have of the strike and how "big photos attract readers" (aka the audience in this case :)). as yall know from the photos its got the same tower/skeletal setup as bway...to an extent. for bway, that's tbh all they have, but by losing the proscenium stage and moving into a space with so much more free reign, there didn't have to be one big scenic element, and it didn't have to be the only thing to steal the show. like the "big moment" for bway is when the three towers track forward in once and for all, and there's like....at least three different moments just like that in uksies and they don't even need the towers for any of them! because they didn't rely on one thing, they did so many things, and they did them everywhere. to the walls, to the aisles, to the landings, to the air, this show made sure it used every definition of the word 'space' to its fullest. initially it sounds distracting, but making sure they're all around us and making sure that ensemble characters are able to be on their own without the principals near them really humanizes the ensemble as a group of real kids who fr went on strike. i'll come back to humanizing stuff in a bit, but since we've been talking about the theater space, lemme talk abt these scenic elements because damn...

there was a slide jack used a couple times through a hatch door to escape the delanceys thru (with a little >:) wave) and escape the strikebreakers

there were mini trap doors in the stage where items were stored and revealed, and they kind of looked like the grates that sidewalks have/used to have for like rain to drain into in cities <3

there was a rope jack used to swing through and kick a strikebreaker in the face!

the penthouse actually felt like a home rather than literally just a bare bway balcony lmao, like they had mini portraits sticking to a skeletal roof-like overhang that jack probably built on his own, his art was much more obvious and hung up and personalized.

the cart with all the papers on it actually got to be used in staging in really fun ways- it was both chariot and podium for jack and crutchie mainly but they like rode around in it it was cool

medda has a huge lit-up sign for her theater instead of like. an overhang or whatever it is for bway, which is the upgrade she deserves <3

the children's crusade banner wasn't a projection, it actually dropped as a huge literal banner from one of the line sets and jack stood as a shadow behind it with a fist raised >:)

the tables for king of new york weren't the longer bigger ones from bway, it was like actual restaurant-style table for two's like in 92sies!! and they were on wheels, so they had table-ography– this was also possible due to how much more depth, physically, the stage had, like they wouldn't have had room on a proscenium. davey was pushing les around on a table and the kid was just flying around it was super cute and rly well done

speaking of 92sies, remember at the end of their king of new york when the one newsie grabs the ceiling fan and spins around? yeah, uksies does that with these huge practical lights that fly down from above- newsies get to not only hang off of them and do some acrobatics, but they can spin on them, and they not only go insanely fast, but they also are able to go higher the faster they go. seriously one of the most insane displays i've seen in a staged musical of all things, like it felt like a show and not just a musical.

The abundance of scenic and spatial elements leaves a director/choreograoher (because this guy was both, and it is visceral even in the scenes that he's both and it's perfect) with so many options, and fuckin man, did this guy absolutely use all of them to the fullest. i hadn't realized how like....recycled the blocking had been through bway and also touring, because idt they're allowed to really change it. but guys. we'd been watching the same exact movements for years, and NOW THEY'RE ALL NEW!! everything they do, each location of the stage people move to is all different than we've ever seen as a fandom, which is major, because staging is a storytelling device– since if it wasn't, we wouldn't have it. where people are in a space, where people are in relation to others in a space is also huge. the other main thing again is that it isnt a proscenium stage, so it's much easier not to stage people "in a line". think back to the livesies staging for right before the world will know when jack is telling davey about "if your father had a union". picture where they are on the stage in relation to the cart w all the newsies. its in a fucking line, bro.

this show? abused depth beautifully. the stage pictures were extremely memorable, so choreographed, and set the dynamics for scenes so effortlessly. davey is way downstage when jack's trying to convince him to join the strike, so we can see his exact thought process before the final "i guess...you do, mr. president". (speaking of, ryan kopel is genuinely the first davey to actually make that line a weirdly emotional journey?? like davey takes so long to finally say it, like he's getting over the stakes and letting jack's words sit before finally, yes, agreeing.) or when jack has his pre-seize the day monologue (of which i might make an entire post for for personal reasons and i'll link it here if i do), the three scabs are center stage, arranged in this triangle with their backs to each other and their heads down so jack gets to circle them while addressing the stage at large- it just looks so intentional and frankly very pretty to watch since they're all dancers and their posture is so clean. even something to believe in's scene staging is more dynamic because the towers themselves aren't even in a line- they're angled downstage, so even when jack and kath are high up on a more skinny platform there's still depth and an upstage and downstage they can travel on!! it's so thought through. i'll also make a post about more individual moments, but a lot of people have done that so im making the more important post first lmao.

the staging ofc was very intentional, but the transitions were also...like seriously integral to the narrative. idk if you guys know this or not but transitions can make or fuckin break a moment fr and some directors fucking suck at them LMAO but wow. these? the newsies taking on katherine's platform with the same "mornin' miss" air to their movements and kath saying a small 'thank you' to them before she sits for watch what happens, versus the transition into the bottom line where newsies push pulitzer's platform on with heads and backs bowed down, pushing slower, with more effort, like it looks painful when they push on his platform. newsies lifting medda's footlights and sort of "working at the theater" with their movements mirroring dramatic vaudevillian theatre. it was all so fluid and nearly all of it was done by the newsies and none of it was really...hidden, either, and seeing them literally "work" onstage cemented them as "the working boys of the city" really specifically, and in a very special way. like yeah, the invisible workforce, of course they're doing the transitions. beautiful, a+.

among other added elements were the new orchestrations. newsies has never sounded like this before, even excluding the new music they added. there was more base, guitar, and drums, and the tinny trumpet was much more subdued which felt more...realized and less disney, which is for me always welcomed lol. honestly it made the music sound less disney as a whole. very grounded sound overall- ALSO the sound design was so fucking excellent like you walk into the theater and it's the sounds of the city in 1899 and it's so cool...but! yes! there was new music because guess fucking what: every single dance break was extended. every single one. they all of course had new choreo (finallyfinallyfinallyfinally) but also literal new parts to the dance breaks. each by like 3-5 mins. cemented this as a show more so than only a musical which i fucking adored. in a diff post i'll go through each song (though it might. be after i see it again) and talk about the extensions because just....come on director/choreographer!! yes!!

rounding out this post specifically, im gonna nail down some characters and relationships, since honestly they were very different than we've seen before, but there's merit to all of them for real, and i appreciate a shift from how we're used to interpreting them, and honestly i hope it changes our characterizations as a fandom and adds more depth/possibilities!

starting with the romantic hero of the year, jack kelly.

he is distinctly a romantic hero in this- not in the perceived lovesick/floaty way. he's a very raw version of himself, and he's almost a loose canon (until he's forced not to be via blackmail). he's staged very intimately with others when talking one-on-one, which i know is a usual jack trait, but at michael's jack's core is "come on, look at me." every moment with those he loves is personal to him, is treasured and valued. a baseline example is crutchie, of course, who he says "look at me" to in the prologue after crutchie gets discouraged with himself. they aren't staged outward toward the audience, because jack doesn't let it– he is in line with crutchie, really looking at him, and making sure crutchie's looking back. he does this with the scabs too, except he gets to move around them because of how that trio is staged (my god that scene looks and is so beautiful..fuck).

but i think this is very exemplified with davey, actually, because what i love about michael's jack is that the emotions he wears on his sleeve aren't only ones of love- it's all passion, which includes anger. jack and davey do not get along initially. the exchange of "well if he's the best then what's he want with me" is kind of charged, which is exciting- davey really is just there for his family, he doesn't need eyes on him, and he wants to shut it down....but it's shutting it down via undermining jack, which is made clear by jack's reaction that that isn't something that happens around here. "cause you got a little brother" really feels like an 'i don't need you,' in how it's said, and any back and forth they have through that scene is an interesting animosity... which changes the moment davey and les are in danger, when snyder appears and they run (they run SO MUCH in this show oh my god, they run everywhere across everything and up and down), and once they run to the theater and jack gets them out of that situation and davey is seriously like. 'who the fuck was that guy, we had to go through that bc of you, that wasn't okay', and the way jack explains who snyder was...for the first time, jack doesnt match davey's animosity and instead just explains, in lieu/as an apology, the details on who snyder is and to steer clear of him. and instead of saying "right" as davey normally does, he says "thanks for the advice", with the staging squared and head-on to jack. and it isnt sarcastic, it's just genuine, and from that moment on, davey gets the "look at me" treatment. and jack even holds the back of davey's head during i think seize the day and lets his hand slide down his shoulder to daveys chest and daveys hand is on jack's shoulder and they're staged square and not outward like the moment is just for them.

jack's emotions are more visceral than they've been, he's very hot-blooded and it just makes everything hit more. the fucking seize the day monologue. poc fans we finally won. michael took so much time with it, making sure each line was heard and intentional and the audience was doing that thing they do at more serious straight plays with the little "mmhs" when they agree with something and like. he just made sure it was taken so seriously, same with the something to believe in scene. "what is this.. about, for you?" just the way michael structures jack's word is so smart and emotional. he also has this sort of break in his speaking voice that reminded me of jerjor actually, but it obv is just the way he acts and a choice for jack, this cracking of the self when he's vulnerable with someone at the expense of himself.

lemme say that again. this jack's voice literally has an emotional crack in it when speaking vulnerably at the expense of himself, which is SO FUCKIGN SPECIFIC GOD I LOVE HIM FSKDFJSDJ FUCK. it's genius. he does it with katherine during "i ain't stupid, i know that... girls like you, don't end up with.. guys like me." oh my god the FUCKING NOISE THE AUDIENCE MADE. oh it was heartbreaking, like it was genuinely crushing. made me tear up for sure, for obvious reasons lmao. michael is the jack i've always wanted- a little vain (he admires himself in a hand mirror during carrying the banner<3), absolutely turbulent, and painfully, horribly aware of his own stakes in this all. and black LMAO I WONNNNNN HAHAH I WON!!

speaking on crutchie next because he is the narrative of this production.

the fandom has sort of strayed away from the jack+crutchie team and fallen into this jack+race team, and this production makes damn sure that doesn't happen. it is so jack and crutchie, all the way, to the end of the fucking line. he is with jack, central, through all of act one's staging and major numbers- by jack's side for carrying the banner, with him on the cart when it spins around center and moves around the stage for world will know, he leads the newsies up to the world's door to make way for jack, les, and davey to enter it, he's included in seize the day choreo moments, he cries out for jack to get away ("jackie, run! run!!" im. i am. a mess) at the end of the brawl when he knows he's in a situation he can't get out of.

he also has this hug with jack and race when he returns from the refuge that nearly made me yell out loud LMAO (me and @roideny grabbing hold of each other in the theater and all), and the three of them have a personal spot of the stage together looking over the paper when davey makes his first appearance- crutchie is just staged very intentionally near anyone with leadership, cementing him as a leader and is certainly no longer jack's kid-brother anymore. any infantilization is really worked on getting completely gone in this production, the effort is apparent likely especially bc the actor (matthew duckett!! sweetheart supreme!!) is disabled himself!

another really key thing about this crutchie is how loud he is, in every way he possible could be. his color palette is the most stark right along with jack's, he's wearing overalls which no other newsie has, his speaking voice is almost abrasive- it's not rough, per say, but it's sort of coarse and nasally (he's so new yorker and im in love w it), and very distinct. he's also taller than jack (michael my beloved is 5'9", furthering my jack is 5'9" agenda) and like... most of the other newsies tbh.

this production does not give you a choice but to notice him, does not give you a choice but to look at him, does not allow you to ignore crutchie in any way. it's visually and audibly impossible, and that is spectacularly intentional.

he is also like... sunshiney in a rough-around-the-edges way, in a this-is-all-i-have way. he's so himself, he's abrasive and almost snide in how he talks. very self-aware, but choosing actively to be brighter about it even though you can tell his situation weighs on him. crutchie is genuinely so dynamic in this show and he's amazing to watch, and he is finally, finally, truly shown as equal to the rest of the newsies, and certainly to jack.

this is so specific but the "we have the right to starve, let's just get our papers" line is so decisive of him. like i'm realizing that that line hasn't given him power before, but it does in this show- he can raise a definitive solution to the group without being jack, and i.. don't think anyone else does this, at all, when they're discussing the strike. it's just crutchie who states what he believes they should do. like. that's never been emphasized before thats so fucking cool for him idk

alright davey time woooooo

davey is the king of defensiveness in this and i genuinely fucking love that choice for him. because he is trying to find a 'way out' within the text but also metaphorically within the story before world will know. so like– this production had davey try and contradict every time someone comments on what davey says. he'll start to say "i didn't say-" "that's not what i-" "i didn't mean-" before cutting back into the script's dialogue again, which is SO fascinating. since initially, davey is trying to separate himself from the newsies, so he uses ad-libs like that to break away, but then after world will know, those same ad-libs are used inversely it felt like, like he'd say something in a way that didn't quite fit and he'd try to rephrase so that it did? very interesting to watch.

he also was very nervous to speak in his first appearance when getting his papers, like he was very nervous about speaking in front of wiesel. this davey had sort of trouble finding words in a timely manner, but what he always has are the right ones, which was a good dynamic for he and jack. he does know what to say, and what he says is intentional, he just isn't great at saying it until act two which is so. cool. even in act 2 at the rally he's still finding his footing, and then when he's at pulitzer's office with jack and spot, he's in his own. he's nearly flippant about his words, since he's found his confidence in them through jack uplifting them the whole show. it almost..... like he and jack kind of have a mentor-y relationship? jack really feels like he does show davey the ropes (despite how biting the "well my father taught us [indicating that jack shouldn't lie so easily in front of les] not to lie" is), and davey learns from jack while jack learns from davey.

speaking of les though wow is mans protective as fuck. his arms are always around this kid, he rests his chin on his head really casually and les is so easy with it too like yeah they're brothers asf. and their moments in king of new york are so precious, and they have the center table together at the start of act two.

speaking of act two! can't talk about davey without discussing wwh reprise :). the way he talks to jack in this scene is so confident that jack's "have they busted up your brains or something" feels like it's more about that- davey hasn't spoken against jack since before world will know, and jack isn't used to the dynamic davey is trying to establish. he's so persistent, and urgent, and like... in it. "won the battle, jackie think about it" like this davey wants to win. at every single turn in this show, davey wants what he believes to win. he will speak against anyone, he will try and change his words' meaning ("that's not what i mean-"), and he will persuade whoever just so that he can win. he feels so competitive and it shines in different ways and everything he says really is so argumentative. maybe he's a little quieter, his voice is shyer, but davey isn't shy, and that's made clear. also ryan kopel hugged me at the stage door and i love him and he's so fucking sweet wowowow

ok katherine and we'RE DONE i promise.

staging made absolutely sure to ground her. she was watching a lot of the scenes she wasn't in, like she appeared during world will know in one of the aisles- felt very much like those moments in 92sies when we'd just see denton around takin notes, which i loved. showed her as a very active journalist. she also like... spoke like an american newscaster?? like she had a News voice lowkey? which was a fun choice.

her scene with jack when she's asking him questions is so serious for her and i love it, it really makes sure that she cares about what she's writing and who she's writing for. jack's "we both got a lot riding on you" takes her downstage as her desk gets set up, and we get to see jack's words weigh on her which is fuckin nice as hell.. like she just felt more grounded than she's been. she still got to be bubbly, but she was more aware of the situation than like... kara lindsay's katherine. she knew the stakes for the newsies i feel like, which is why the name reveal was more intense and the STBI pre-scene was... the best i've seen. she was embarrassed at herself for lying to jack- not telling him everything, and when she defends it she knows it's weak and doesn't try to back it up.. i just appreciate it bc that scene normally feels so superficial despite its context and what they're talking about, but kath and jack really did everything they could to save that scene's writing... they reeeeally fuckin tried LMAO. this katherine was more willing to put herself in the action for sure

her back and forth with jack in jacobi's was so fun, and the defining line of their arc through the show was definitely "this is entertaining...so far." because it's fun to flirt, until it isn't, and someone you care about his ruining his name at the city-wide rally, or revealed to be the daughter of the man sending cops to beat kids into submission. whew. they're really good together.

very quickly: THIS PULITZER IS >>>>>. HE IS SO GOOD. I CANT LIE LMAOOO HE'S SO EVIL I HATE HIM!! and MEDDA WAS SO. that's jack's mom. she also really does serve independence, and i love it so much.

anyway thanks for reading this far guys LMAO i now this is so extensive and i didn't even talk about the ensemble fr... but that's for the second viewing. the direction this production underwent took major precedence, since it's so different and so much more fleshed out.

hope this gave a clear picture on the vibe of the show and the principal characters/relationships!! more to come asf!!!

[katyspersonal]

I've made more SOTE progress!!!! And I MEAN progress this time! Damn that was fun but I don't know whether to feel happy or sad because like I said, I really don't want this DLC to end ;-;

1) So, I went in the direction of the ruins place..... and then turned around and decided to get back to whatever dragons business I still had left bfhhhvhg And started with that cave which I recalled had a Wyrm (and also a HUGE bowl of spaghetti sauce gfhyhh)

2) After I killed it, I actually went back to Florissax! Apparently this is the name of Dragon Communion Priestess that is revealed indirectly, much like Boggart's! By that time, @val-of-the-north woke up and I allowed him to take my hand here because he warned me that her quest is terribly broken. And, God... -_- You have no idea how much, but perhaps I am getting ahead of myself....... 🤦‍♂️

3) I heard that I needed to kill two drakes above first, and my reaction was just 💀💀💀💀💀 Because I am AWFUL at fighting them! ......Or I USED to be, but perhaps I am getting ahead of myself hfuhfhybj [2]

4) Found this item in a shack nearby!

5) So, I figured that my usual "strategy" was not going to fly, and finally bothered to upgrade a weapon (big katana) with the built-in anti-dragon effect! You know, a weapon you OBTAIN in this very DLC! HOOOOOO BOY AT LAST!! TWO WEEKS LATER, SHE FINALLY GOT THE BRIGHTEST IDEA TO USE THE TOOLS SHE'S BEEN GIVEN 🙄🤦‍♂️

6) So I proceeded to go above, and met a singular drake, so I decided to actually fight it normally! No pussy long ass distance dumbass Int user combat! Close combat and learning the dodging patterns only!!

And it actually worked. I actually finally adapted to the dragons' moveset and when to roll in and not away, and how to stay around their feet right and how to run from the fire! After two goddamn years of struggling with dragons (excluding SOMEHOW first-trying Borealis, the frozen dragon) I adapted 🙄🙄🙄🤦‍♂️

7) Cool lore:

These grow from the burnt dead bodies across the peak and don't respawn

8) So yeah, in the next place, there were two drakes fighting each other (sure guys whatever), and I figured the boss one can first kill the weaker one so I was just standing and watching them like 🍿 until one left!

9) After defeating THIS one, I felt so much power that I decided to side-track and go back to kill two other dragons (the undead ones in Scadu Altus and Cerulean Coast). I didn't need it, I just felt SUCH a strong urge to do that, you have no idea!!!

9.1) Well, first I actually talked with Igon, because after both of the fighting drakes were killed he laughs and praises us for being a great drake warrior xD He gave me an item (his cut finger) that opens a change to summon him against Bayle, which he really asked to do!

9.2) Okay ANOTHER thing I did was to finally jOiN cOvEnAnT to talk with Florissax that Val asked me to do, because according to him I needed to talk to her at night, which was only possible after defeating the two drakes + I could now ask about Igon

9.3) She also revealed the roots of Dragon fascism; turns out that Ancient Dragons are after Drakes not for some prejudice reason against their species being "diluted", but because Bayle was the one to wound Placidusax and HE is the drake. Argh, can ONE person in this DLC have motivation to be an asshole that is NOT revenge!

10) So I was running around for a bit longer, visited another mine not far away from previous dragon (saw the big rock dude petting the lava slime there), and finally returned to Florissax!

....so, first, she was not appearing during the night. I tried to rest at the grace, still nothing. I tried again, nothing. I asked Val what was going on, and he wasn't sure and went looking on forums, meanwhile I tried to restart from another grace and travel to her location before the night was over! She still did not appear. 🙄

At this rate I started to wonder whether I broke the quest by not talking to her earlier before getting to Igon, but just for the heck of it rested at grace again, but now I skipped time to the night even though it already WAS the night! And then she FINALLY appeared near the Altar at night!! ...only, no new options or dialogue appeared!

According to Val again, I needed to catch her praying to herself so I could give her an item I already had. I reloaded the area, no praying. Reloaded it again, still nothing. Reloaded it again, and she straight up disappeared 🤦‍♂️ I thought that was it, and quest got broken, but just in case I quit the game and started it again.... AND IT WORKED.

....I am WITHOUT WORDS. According to Val, Jarburg quest used to be the same on launch.

11) But yes, she was praying to Placidussax, saying she surrendered her sleep so he could rest, and we got the choice to use Thiollier potion, that did mention it'd merely make dragons sleep for a bit. Damn... to think of it, Elden Ring quests give enough hints.

12) Val reassured me that was it and I just needed to skip a few days in game, so I went to murder remaining drakes! Fast enough, I killed them! Both of them!! However, the one in Scadu Altus was fighting with a lot of Black Knights and it was just entertaining to watch for like 15 minutes until they all finally died 🍿🍿🍿

13) me before: NOOOOO WHY DRAGONS ARE SO HARD, Val I do NOT want to hear your yapping about how they're not """that""" bad, I don't care and I will just run past them ;-;

me now: NOOOOOO WHY ALL DRAGONS IN THE GAME ARE OVER ALREADY, they needed to put more of them in to kill!!!! ;-;

14) I talked to her, where she was very crashed by having fallen asleep:

"I have broken my pledge. I succumbed to the deep slumber... that was meant for my Lord. Twas a craven act! Of a foul and lowly beast! Forgive me, good warrior. My Lord will no longer look upon me. I have fallen from grace. An old dragon no longer. Go on, leave me be."

15) So, I did gfjgffhg And proceeded to go above! Honestly, when I was looking at this area in the world's map, I was SURE it wasn't explorable...

Also, my complaining about no longer having dragons to kill was met!! There was another dragon, an ancient one now! It gave me a bit of a challenge for several times, but I remembered that rocky things are all weak to magic damage so that + defending myself from bolt more helped x)

15.1) This dragon is named Senessax... Sigh... Remember my theory about Placidussax? Zullie (the youtuber) datamined that he had 2 male heads and 3 female heads (1 male and 2 female missing), so I speculated that those heads turned into Granssax, Fortissax and Lanseax? Now that there are more dragons named with -sax, I feel like this theory aged like milk ;-; On the bright note, I recall King's Field (?) had a pair of white and black dragons siblings, so since Fortissax is black and Lanseax is pale and they're siblings, maybe it is return of the trope?

15.2) Fingers in the Ruins are rocky creatures with gold (AKTYALY amber) sewn into them, and ancient dragons are rocky creatures with amber sewn into them... I guess the ancient life is just like this?

16) I finally met Bayle!!!!!! And I actually laughed when Igon INSTANTLY started screaming curses at him upon being summoned XDDD The most character ever! Also cute that he said Bayle was going to face "the true drake warrior and him" gfhhbv He doesn't acknowledge himself as one anymore because of his fear, but acknowledges US!

Took me a few tries, but like I said, I finally adapted! 😎

17) Returned to his corpse:

(He also dropped his bell bearing, need to check the item it gets later just in case)

18) I talked with Florissax about the victory! She gave dialogue: "Ahh, finally, our wish is granted. Our dream, long yearned for, has come to pass. My Lord was blessed with great insight. He saw in the insatiable hunger and fierce spirit of man, the very things that would fell Bayle, our wretched nemesis. Warrior, you soar with the strength of dragons. Whereas I am fallen. Leave me be."

And gave this item! Sooooo that's how her name got revealed!

19) There was an option to tell her that we put her into sleep ;-; I was a bit nervous to pick it but felt like I should jtythhhgb

"Never, in all my years... How could you inflict such cruelty? No, that is not for me to judge. Whatever your hand in it, it was I who succumbed to the sweetness of slumber. The fault lies with me. I may be fallen, but I need not surrender my honour."

Arghhh shut up girl, you talk like an abuse victim :/ Not even a slap in the face?

20) So, she continued:

"On the second thought (? not certain, I forgot to write the starter), I believe you do owe me something for the transgression. On a mere whim, you've stripped me of my one and only Lord. As such, I require another - you. One day, may you become a dragon whole, a Lord of your own making. Lead me, and I will follow. My good Lord."

.....well, "now you have to adopt me" is sure one way to solve the conflict, I guess hfhgfnh

21) This way, I got her spirit ash:

So yeah, I ASSUME that her set is available, and I am not 100% sure whether her head piece is just the mask or simply how her head is supposed to look! She does have a face data, but she would need to since her model uses NPC mechanics, so it could be ignored?

I just haven't seen the description yet, but ER logic does let us adopt to appearances of others (like getting hair of other characters for example), and her body appears to be very black and shriveled, with sharp inhuman features! I sure hope that her look IS how ancient dragons in human form are supposed to look! It would offer an insight on how Lansseax used to look when communicating with the Dragon Cult!

(Besides I am still biased since I wss cursed with boring portrayals of Godwyn x Fortissax where the latter was a basic bitch yaoi bishounen without even the slightest monstrous features 😔 Even horny Lanseax waifu artistd had the basic dignity to at least add some horns and scales hfhyghj Okay that was my monthly voucher of being a petty bitch used, until the next time when my mask of respecting all type of creations cracks hdhhjgfhhnhh)

______________

Conclusion: character development if I've had one lol

[gladoswantscake]

Yakuza - Kiryu Kazuma Dating HC's

Warnings: None

Available on AO3

💗 You were being taunted and harassed by a group of men on your way home from the store. It wasn't long until Kiryu stepped in to dismantle the group. (literally)

💗 The one badly beaten remaining man crawled to you, pleading for help, and profusely apologizing only to be dragged away by his ankles. The man lets out a high pitch scream as he gets swung and thrown into a vending machine.

💗 They took off. Cursing amongst themselves became faint the further they made distance between you and the man who saved you: Kiryu. He helps pick up your dropped food items and returned them to you. The paper bag filled with fresh food products was destroyed all thanks to the delinquents. He felt terrible, so he offered to buy you dinner.

💗 Later that night, you hand him your phone number and invite him for some lunch as a way to thank him. Even though Kiryu assured you that you did not need to pay him back, you still insisted.

💗 A warm smile from you was enough to get Kiryu flustered. He wasn't sure if the strange warm fuzzy feeling he was experiencing was normal. A day later he musters up enough courage to send you a text. Within several exchanging text messages, the two of you establish a date.

💗Kiryu manage to slowly break out of his shell to become more comfortable being around you. And over the course of time, the two of you establish an official relationship.

💗 Kiryu really wanted to spice things up with the next date. He figured a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant and a gift would be perfect.

💗He scouts out a few stores in town to find the perfect gift. Nothing too expensive or too cheap.

💗 In this mind, he was freaking out. He honestly had no idea what gift he could get you. Were you more of a jewelry person? Necklace or bracelet? Or maybe flowers? Would if they don't last long? What about sweets?

💗 His patience was wearing thin and his anxiety was creeping up on him. He didn't have much time left before he picks you up. Then suddenly an arm was thrown around Kiryu's shoulder.

💗 "What is my 'lit-tle' Kiryu-chan up to?" A huge grin plastered on Majima's face. "It's unusual to see you wanderin' around the shopping mall." Kiryu hesitates. "I'm just looking around is all." "Now I know that ain't the truth." Majima wags his finger in his face. "You've been walking around here for a while now. What are you really up to?" "I-I um... I was-" "You've got a special person in mind, don'tcha?" Majima interrupts him. Kiryu responds with a nod. His face was starting to feel hot. Majima wipes away a fake tear from his eye. "I can't believe my Kiryu-chan has already grown up! He rejoices. "I've raised ya well!" "Majima-san can I ask you a question?" "Of course! You can ask me anythin'." "Well, I'm taking them out for dinner, and I really want to give them a good impression, but I don't what gift to get for them. "Ya know I have an idea or two up my sleeve!" He playfully elbows Kiryu. "You can fight me so that way you can impress em'." He suggests. Kiryu shakes his head. "I don't think I would want to scare them." "Oh nonsense! They'd be fallin' harder for ya if they saw someone protecting them."

💗 Majima would honestly be the last person to seek advice from considering how creative and wacky his ideas have been in the past. But within certain times where Kiryu needs help and doesn't have anyone around, he may cautiously ask Majima under condition.

💗 Majima will most definitely tease Kiryu about being head over heels for you. He only does it to poke fun at him for being so sheepish around you.

💗 If you just so happen to like pocket circuit, he's going to be giddy. If you're new to it, he'll help you out with upgrades and give you tips on how to win races. If it's the two of you racing, he'll purposefully lose just to see you smile.

💗 He really likes bringing home knick-knacks that he found in lockers. You had no idea how much he can carry in his pockets.

💗 Since he has relations within the Tojo clan and has enemies, he makes it his priority to keep you far from the Yakuza. He's lost people he deeply cared for in the past and doesn't want to make the same mistake again.

[ivaalo]

I feel like Nintendo forgot how to make Zelda games rewarding.

That's kind of a sad thing that I said "I like this game, but I don't feel I'll be playing it again" at the first 5 hours of it.

When you find a hidden path, it's very satisfying. When you upgrade your stuff with what you found, it's feels even more rewarding.

You don't get that anymore. Where the feeling of satisfaction when you can do anything from the start?

BotW was a huge nature exploring game, it was relaxing and challenging, even if it was very repetitive. Still, I replayed it at least 5 times, and got one thousand hours on it. TotK was... meh, never replaying that ever again. And sadly, same for EoW.

The puzzle are nice if you find the intended solution (otherwise you're just regretting of not finding a satisfying way to solve it), and dungeons are great.

But the menus feel like a chore. They took one of the worst part of TotK and made it into the game. Like why aren't there multiple rows instead of only one big? Why isn't there a folder for echoes of the same specie? Why are the buttons so confusing?

The worst part of it is that they already did it right: A Link Between Worlds. A fast "slow" selection, a good way of doing a "fast" selection, a way to sort all of your items. Everything that can be improved in EoW is in ALBW. That game was the best compromise between open world and having restricted areas of exploring, for me.

Also, the fact that you can heal whenever you want is a huge downgrade. It kills the rewarding aspect of the game.

I recently replayed Link's Awakening 2019 and Four Swords Adventures. These games are GREAT! These games are fun, these games are very well done!

But this one... it's okay. 70%

[kirbybaker-the-alch]

man ive wanted to talk about this for a while and have a whole script in my head- unfortunately I don't know how to make videos so hey! text post! WHY TERRARIA'S DUNGEON ITEMS SUCK, AND MY TAKES ON IMPROVING THEM So I wanna start at the core of this issue- and that is the underworld.

Re-logic when designing Terraria 1.0 made the dungeon supposedly the final area (Skeletron was the last boss at the time), and as such, the underworld was left earlier in progression- hellstone is able to be mined with a Nightmare Pickaxe. (Deathbringer for all the crimson fans but that didn't exits in 1.0) Despite this, Shadow Chests require a Shadow Key to open, found in the dungeon. Post-Postgame content???

This leaves a few issues with Terraria being unable to decide progression- First off, Blue Moon and Magic Missile. They are ok weapons, except for the fact they are instantly outclassed by the Sunfury and Flamelash from Shadow Chests- weapons that function identically with better stats. It makes them viable for about 5 minutes- when you are exploring the dungeon and when you are looking for Shadow Chests.

But worse off is the Muramasa, Valor, and Handgun. These items usually see NO use. Why is that? They can all be upgraded BEFORE OR THE MOMENT THEY ARE OBTAINED. While Muramasa's upgrade, the Night's Edge, is pretty costly, it's such a significant upgrade with all other materials required being obtainable before, that Muramasa doesn't see use ever besides being carried to the nearest Demon Altar. Handgun is more sad, only requiring hellstone- the resource you can get much earlier with only a post-evil boss pick- into the Phoenix Blaster, literally just a Handgun with better stats. Valor is the saddest of the 3- Cascade is obtainable any time in hell, and hell enemies aren't too tough right before the dungeon, you may as well go for it, or the equally strong Hive Five over Valor. Valor is genuinely as used as the Pearlwood Bow by even yoyo only players.

Quick shoutouts to Aqua Scepter- its not only unique, it's designed well for the WoF fight and isn't directly upgradable or outclassed by a functionally identical statistically better weapon. So how would I go about fixing this? Well, when @aurora--spirit was discussing her weapon revamps mod with me (also cause I later had the idea for an alternate dungeon mod I work on and off on), we discussed a few ideas that she wrote down. One such idea is to make the counterpart weapons to their dungeon variations, giving them their own unique functions that make them an optional counterpart, allowing players to pick either or, depending on preference. Another idea is to shift progression of some weapons- make upgrades require slightly later materials as to allow their un-upgraded counterparts a chance to shine, or make some dungeon weapons weaker but earlier game outside the dungeon.

Anyways thanks for reading my huge tangent, I just love discussing this so feel free to ask me about stuff on this game or even specifically dungeon stuff

[saffronaa]

Clearing up some misconceptions about Overwatch 2 and its "Overwhelmingly Negative" reviews

Okay I just wanted to write something 'cause I saw a lot of misinfo and some confusion about what Overwatch 2 (OW2) even is, especially now that it's getting more (negative) attention again. Starting with what OW2 even is and how we ended up with such a hugely negative reception.

What's the difference between Overwatch 1 and Overwatch 2?

OW2 is free-to-play

OW2 is 5v5 (1 tank instead of 2 tanks)

OW2 has a different monetization scheme. It has a new buyable currency used to purchase cosmetics (mainly skins) from the store and to buy the battlepass

OW2 purchases are all cosmetic items EXCEPT when a new hero is released. Purchasing the battlepass will give you immediate access to a new hero. Otherwise, you will need to play enough games to unlock them.

Everything else in OW2 is either standard update stuff (new heroes, new maps, new gamemodes, etc) or carried over from OW1 (Yes, you keep all your cosmetics from OW1)

Why did they create Overwatch 2?

The original vision for Overwatch was a PvE game:

The Overwatch team, especially at its inception, considered itself an MMO development team. As we transitioned away from that original concept and started creating Overwatch, we included plans to one day return to that scope. We had a crawl, walk, run plan. Overwatch was the crawl, a dedicated version of PvE was the walk, and an MMO was the run. (Source 1)

Overwatch originally intending to be a PvE game was brought up in a Tweet 2 years before as well (Source 2).

Overwatch 2 was meant to be a major sequel with the focus on PvE.

What happened to PvE?

I recommend reading the full blog post, but I'll try to summarize.

Essentially the original vision of PvE was:

Story Missions (co-op gameplay with cutscenes)

Hero Mode (skill trees for each hero to upgrade and play in PvE)

When you heard the news that "OW2 PvE was cancelled", what was actually cancelled was Hero Mode. Story Missions were just released this season. This is still a major blow to PvE, because Hero Mode was the piece meant to give a reason for replaying the PvE missions over and over again.

PvE was cancelled because ultimately it was too much work, and they were not making enough progress at the cost of the original PvP game. (More on this later)

Why is Overwatch 2 receiving so many negative reviews?

I'm gonna give bullet points but I wanna address something first: A lot of people have mentioned the lawsuit against Activision Blizzard for sexual harassment and discrimination (More info) when talking about why Overwatch 2 is being reviewed poorly. While this is obviously a serious issue within the company and the game industry at large, the truth is that if this was the only problem, we would not be seeing reviews this bad. Unfortunately, the average gamer does not care about how game developers are being treated. See Epic Games crunch culture and the lawsuit against Riot Games for sexual harassment and discrimination. Fortnite and League of Legends/Valorant are doing just fine now.

Here is a list of some reasons why I think Overwatch 2 is being reviewed so negatively:

The original PvE vision with skill trees was not realized

Preferring the old monetization scheme of "buy the game once, earn cosmetics" instead of "game is free, buy cosmetics"

Believing the current cosmetics are overpriced

Not having immediate access to new heroes unless you pay

Preferring 6v6 gameplay to 5v5

Frustrated with content delays (Like Hero Mastery)

Expectations for more content on release

Misinformation (like PvE being completely cancelled)

Bandwagoning on the Overwatch hate train

Other pretty standard reasons to dislike a video game (game balance, don't like the lore, etc)

Distrust in Blizzard/the development team

And the last one is one I want to talk about a little more

Why is there so much distrust between the development team and the community?

While Overwatch 2 was in development, Overwatch 1 was abandoned. And the community largely felt that the content brought by OW2 was not worth the time lost for OW1.

OW2 was announced at Blizzcon on November 1, 2019. Since its announcement and until OW2 was released, Overwatch received 1 new hero and 0 new standard maps in 3 years. It previously was getting 3 new heroes and ~3 new standard maps each year.

If OW had kept its release schedule, we would've had 8 new heroes and 9 new maps when OW2 released. We got 3 new heroes and 6 new maps.

When OW2 released, lots of people wondered why they abandoned the game to make a sequel nobody asked for and with not enough changes. The developers are already aware that they made a mistake:

When we launched Overwatch in 2016, we quickly started talking about what that next iteration could be. Looking back at that moment, it's now obvious that we weren’t as focused as we should have been on a game that was a runaway hit. Instead, we stayed focused on a plan that was years old. Work began on the PvE portion of the game and we steadily continued shifting more and more of the team to work on those features. (Source 1)

This was especially frustrating for the people who were only interested in PvP.

But some people did hold onto the hope that the eventual release of PvE would make up for the lost development time for PvP.

And then the scope for PvE was cut in half, and once again the community felt that they were being served half-finished content.

It's been a continuous cycle of:

Overwatch announces a new feature

Everyone gets their hopes up that this new feature will fully deliver on everyone's expectations

The feature does not meet expectations (and is sometimes less than what was originally teased) or is delayed

IMPORTANT: And while this is all frustrating for players, and it makes sense to negatively review for these reasons, please never harass individual game developers. 99% of the time, game developers are just as passionate about the game as you are. You don't know what kinds of hells are going on behind the scenes that are preventing them from doing their job well.

Does Overwatch 2 deserve all of the negative reviews?

Obviously it's subjective, but I just want to throw it out there that I still think that Overwatch at its core is a good video game. I still play and have fun playing both ranked and quick play. I think the gameplay is very good. Everything else surrounding it is very frustrating and discouraging at times.

[starsbegantofall]

Bernette 79 sewing machine and embroidery machine review - initial thoughts

I doubt anyone reading this has "embroidery machine" money in their bank account, so it would be helpful to no one, but I appreciated other people putting in their honest reviews when I make big purchases, so I will post mine in case it would be relevant in society.

First, I got this machine because I wanted a computerized machine with more options than my Hello Kitty Janome sewing machine which has 5 stitches, no ability to sew a zipper, and the button hole function/zig zag stitch no longer works properly, making it useful only for sewing straight lines. Most people would advise, stick with the antiques or non-computer ones because of planned obsolescence with newer technology, a statement I would normally go by except my mom finally messed up her retro machine built into the table, and I felt the Hello Kitty was relatively cheap so I got more than its money worth out of it sewing costumes and such over several years. Time for a big upgrade. Also I have the money and still plan to do a lot of sewing if society doesn't break down into a post-apocalyptic Mad Max dystopia.

However, I didn't need an embroidery machine at all. I do embroidery by hand if needed for costumes, my mom taught me the basics, and hand embroidery looks perfectly fine from a distance. But what I do want is a good deal, and reviews stated the combo machine is an excellent bargain bundled with the super expensive embroidery designer software and extra doodads in the Yaya Han version. Not too big or complicated, but versatile especially for costumers, which I am.

So far, after using it for sewing some skirts and two costumes, lots of mending and simple embroidery, I would say I made a good decision. There is a bit of a learning curve in the sewing machine itself and a huge learning curve for the embroidery part, which I expected. The computerized machine does some things that are inconvenient to me, although I suspect this inconvenience is to prevent you from sewing over your fingers by accident. I do like the semi-automatic needle threader, it only works like 50% of the time and seems to shred the thread when it does work, but at least I don't have to struggle to see the hole to thread with my elderly eyes. The automatic thread cutter and the semi-automatic bobbin winder is also great once I figured out how they worked. And the variety of stitches and machine feet is reassuring, though I've only used a few stitches and two feet lol. I already used the buttonhole maker, works just as I had hoped. The sewing is smooth and fairly fast compared to the old machines, and seems to not have much problem with thick fabric, although I haven't tried really thick fabrics yet.

The embroidery function requires taking several parts off the sewing machine and switching out with other parts, which is a bit of a pain if I ever want to switch between functions quickly. Embroidery machines are noisy and require monitoring because sometimes the thread tangles over nothing, like molecules of air are too big sometimes. But I like the possibilities of embroidering tougher materials that would cause me pain in my fingers to try to push a needle through, or perhaps making multiples of identical items, like patches with text. The auto digitizer is not bad for simple designs, and if I had a really cool design to digitize, I think I can wrangle the software into working without too much trouble. Currently trying to think of original designs to digitize, though.

There is an extra cost of having to buy multiple colors of machine embroidery thread which is different from regular thread and more expensive, and lots of stabilizer which is required for smooth results. But I managed to get a bargain lot of new threads from a reseller online, and I found advice on how to sort of reuse stabilizer scraps (though I still have to buy rolls of it especially for larger designs.)

So far I haven't broken anything except one needle. I'm happy with my investment, and look forward to several years of sewing, assuming the world doesn't destroy itself by then. If you are interested in perusing sewing machines be sure to check @20dollarlolita !

[neptuniadoesstuff]

ASGD Cast Facts #01

Subject Name: Christian Locke aka the Stargazer guy with the strange diary.

While yes, Chris' body is fragile due his issues (mental & physical), but due to his fast speeds, his albiet very concerning anger problems (bcs he literally stabbed someone with a sleeper agent out of nowhere but again they were speaking racist things-), & the fact he armor created SPECIFICALLY FOR HIM makes him a prompted killing machine (if he chooses to, he doesn't really like killing though unless it's nessary)

While the Diary he has is called "A Stargazer's Diary" he doesn't only use it to talk about the stars she seen in the night (he's a bit nocturnal bcs horrible sleep schedule from the past which stayed with her), He also talks about their life in it & some research things. Luckily, she does have bookmarks for each item in his diary. It's unknown how may pages are in the diary, but it's a pretty long one, so there must be a lot of pages. (Now, before you ask, no, Chris does not show his diary to ANYONE! It's meant to be a diary for a REASON!)

Chris has a set of water-repellent boots that are a part of his work suit. This is bcs in a certain test these boots actually seem to only work with him & not anyone else, so yeh they were upgraded to be for her only & anyone who does wear his suit won't have the water-repellent effects of the boots. (Chris can swim, but since he is weak, physically dood can't really swim for that long).

Chris actually has their own little weapons given to them by the company (Stellowbark Corp). One of these known weapons is the Soulwiper, a one time use gun which can be only used under certain circumstances (primarily in a fight with a very powerful figure). It's often used by Chris as a finisher. How it's used is it uses Primal energy (a rare material which is only common in GodHome) as its main bullet & when it's facing the person it's gonna target (Although weakened bcs that's how it works... at least according to the rules), it turns the target into a pile of dust while a strange colored spark which is actually their soul fly up into the aether. Chris never actually owned this gun first bcs it was highly regarded as a "tool no one should ever use" due to how dangerous it is, but now Chris owns it. (But since he is a good boi, she only uses it when finishing a powerful threat off bcs that's how it was intended to be use) (Spoiler: Yeh he used this to finish the Serpent King off in the royal arena but with the help of SK's eldest son, Tenmore)

Chris never really was able to indulge with his culture at a young age. Yes, he did live with his gramma (who was also Filipino), but she was more westernized (bcs this gramma of his was his dad's mother who was actually born in America). Now he did eat a few foods from his culture, but some tweaks & in some much, much smaller portions bcs clearly due to his pretty thin body at the time.... he couldn't eat much even if he wanted to (trust me, his gramma wanted to feed him alot like a lot of gramma Stereotypically do, but DOOD WAS SO THIN, WHICH ISNT NORMAL FOR A YOUNG KID!) But slowly & steadily he's kinda getting into the spirit of his culture bcs of Stellowbark. (Bcs I don't how to say this, but Stellowbark's food court (which is huge btw) has a lot of ethic foods from different cultures from earth & other planets. He'll they even have often for ppl who have allergies & even have lactose/gluten intolerance.)

He & Konn'a might share the same braincell- no I'm not kidding these 2 will often share a braincell for no reason bcs idk while they are smart they can also be idiots. (& both of them do have problems but if you KNOW Chris... he has more of them-)

Chris's fave food is... Cheesy hot dogs & rice. All bcs he got it hot at a vending machine in the food court which he weirdly enjoyed bcs it was truly the first time he had good good food. (Minus what his gramma & his adopted family made, those were good too but most of his life after his parents divorce yeh he.... he didn't do so well) (Now you gotta add some veggies & a egg & boom, you have longsilog but with cheesy hot dogs instead of the normally small soosages. Not traditional but eh Chris doesn't care about traditional HE ONLY WANTS TO EAT!)

When Chris isn't working (bcs she works part time due to his... pretty serious issues..) he is often cooking, going to the store/going on a slight walk. But for the most part it's either his caretaker doing the going to the store/cooking part bcs Chris can't be up for a few hours or so. (Idk bro might have low iron in her system as well) Also bcs oil scares the ever living frik out Chris (like me-) DO yeh... the only things Chris really does is either stay in his room & write in his diary, hang out in the food court (bcs she likes the vibes there + since it's so huge she can just be whatever she wants by himself) or just being near the only ppl they can literally trust. (Chris also enjoys drawing but is pretty self conscious about it)

Chris can play a kazoo, that's it. No other instruments just K A Z O O ! (Bcs no actual effort is truly needed if yur playing a K A Z O O )

Chris sleeps like if he was a wood plank on the ground. No one knows why she does this, he just do. Like he literally lays ON HIS FACE WITHOUT MOVING A INCH OF HER BODY WITH NO NOISES AT ALL! (This is not how a human should sleep but Chris is obviously unhinged & no, this is not trauma based, this is just one of Chris's extremely weird quirks that no one understands)

So yeh that's all of the facts I have for Chris. (Who's also the protag of ASGD)

[finnhc]

Sakura Valley Review~

So since I'm always trying to find new Minecraft servers to play and there's far too many to pick from so! I have decided to start making proper reviews for different servers. Now these reviews will look at multiple things such as their webstore for in-game things, ranks, unique features, builds, community etc.!

Now onto the review for Sakura Valley!

So upon spawning into Sakura Valley you are greeted to a rather large and gorgeous temple like building! The building itself i very colorful and welcoming!

Along with that is a lot of NPC's and text. Now there is nothing wrong with having a lot of NPC's or text to guide a player with all of it being so close together it can be a bit overwhelming to look at when you first join. A better option would be to make specific rooms or buildings for things like the leader boards and some of the NPC's to increase the desire to explore spawn while also not cluttering it with to many entities which can get laggy with some lower end computers.

Now one of the more unique ways they handle AFKing is by having an AFK pit where you can "Earn 5 coins every 15 minutes" So for those who might need to step away for a bit and forget to close their games and warp here and earn coins! which is honestly a great way to handle AFKing without the usual "Kicked for AFKing for to long"

Another great feature Sakura Valley has is custom items! They have unique and cute swords and objects that you can collect, some of which will yield some special effects like night vision!

They are all very colorful and bright, which helps make them eye catching and attract people to collect them, with that being said they are also very flat which can lose a bit of appeal since people want more 3D textured collectables or custom items since then they feel more "Minecrafty" I'd highly recommend switching from PNG to 3D using Blockbench along with using Optifines CIT (NBT data) feature so you can actually have custom items that you can place and sometimes if coded right you can interact with them!.

Now along with custom items it's important to have a way for players to trade with one another whether that be with an auction house /AH or with a physical shopping district! and luckily this server has both!

Which allows for a variety of trading options among players! Now although they aren't as active as on another servers they have really good infrastructure in place for when they do have more traffic. But is important to keep an eye on these markets in order to stop inflation! Once numbers start hitting 10k it can be very hard for servers to lower that to regular and fair rates!

Another thing this server does right is adding tool tips into the chat that rotate! This is a fantastic way to help introduce both new and old players to features! It especially helps when there is a lot of commands or features on servers that some get forgotten.

But now we need to talk about one of the most important elements of any server. Monetization it's something all servers must do in order to keep running, unlike what some may think. Running a server isn't free, you have to pay for the server host, plugins, devs, builders, artists all kinds of things in order to make a good running server.

So monetization is very important, but what is more important is how the monetization is implemented! If it's implemented wrong those who have the money to buy a rank or in game currency it can ruin the economy, fun and fairness of a server.

With that being said how does this server implement Monetization? Well it is average.

The Ranks which have around 5 different ones. Starting at a price point of 6.99$ USD and goes up to 65.99 USD. Which have your typical features like ./fly, backpacks, a custom kit, and more set home slots. Which is all fine they don't give any one player to huge of a disadvantage.

But that is just when you buy the ranks out right! But if buy lets say the first rank V.I.P at 6.99$ you can buy rank upgrades which are cheaper then buying them outright. The pricing for that starts at 6$ USD and ends at 25$ USD.

Next thing they sell after ranks are Coins which are priced at 5.50$ USD which isn't outrageous but selling any type of currency is a recipe for disaster, since that can easily kill a servers economy and make things feel rather unfair in game.

Along with that thought they also sell a Crate Key priced at 3$ USD which gives you 3! Ranks are a fine thing to sell but similarly with coins selling Crate Keys can also make the game feel unfair. It also promotes gambling like its a slot machine, it's one thing to have crate keys collectable in game or via voting but selling them is not favorable. It can cause quite a bit of toxicity with players and have them fighting with staff with accusations of rigging the Crates in order to make them buy more keys. So in conclusion it's best to just not sell them in the first place!

So in conclusion! Sakura Valley while still in its infantsy, it has a lot of room to grow and become a great Survival Server! It has a lot of positive things going for it and I think in the next year it'll grow into a rather great and strong community! But don't take my word for it! go play the server and see how you like it.

at Java Server Ip: 158.69.156.131:25565

Just know these reviews aren't personal or anything and don't take anything I have to say for law, its just my silly opinion! So with that being said don't send any hate towards the Owner, Staff or the server of any that I review! Lastly if there is a server you wish for me to review feel free to drop me an ask and I will try to review it as in depth as I can! Thank you for reading!~<3

[shmowder]

SO I was about to say that we never spoke on your BG3 blog, but I actually found one question by me, asking if you were playing the original Pathologic or P2 😂 By the time I found that blog you'd already pretty much moved on to this one (which is fine!). But I rb'd a couple fics to my sideblog. Certainly never imagined myself reading about a giant half-spider woman but here we are ♡ The thing about Minthara is that I adore her but I don't know anything about the rest of the game and it's too expensive for me to commit to right now - and I'm always hearing about her romance being bugged anyway.

Yuria <333 And Sister Friede but more importantly, Yuria! I love that you love her too! I confess that I never got past the Abyss Watchers but tbh I'm amazed I got that far. And at least my Ashen One got to meet Yuria (and heard her best line "And I, of course, am also thine" hehe). Good for you for getting through it! Bloodborne is the one Fromsoft game I've beaten and it was rough getting used to the Dark Souls combat, so I watched a walkthrough of the rest. And I've also watched a ~90 hour walkthrough of Elden Ring, which did put me to sleep occasionally lmao but I just don't have the willpower to play huge open world games anymore.

I almost finished a NG+ playthrough of Bloodborne recently, until I started the DLC and promptly got my ass handed to me and I was like hmmmm actually now is the perfect time to start a new SDV farm 🤔

But, I'm taking a little break because I've indeed started Patho 2 again!! It's the beginning of day 5, I'm using super easy settings again and I found my old notes of where the Dead Item Shop is every day and which items to save for upgrades etc. Despite that, I seem to be missing more than ever. I may have focused a little too much on trading and collecting herbs and caches. Forgot the bell rang on Day 3 and didn't gather the Apple Basket Gang rip :( (I noticed that Lara and Artemy both have dialogue about not being 30 yet, so there's that question out of the way) But on the bright side I have more eggs than I could ever need (maybe…) and I'm on my 3rd inventory upgrade.

Haha, based on that anecdote I'd say you know more Russian than I do. I know a lot of people listen to other things when playing games but I've never tried that except when hatching Pokemon eggs. I love hearing the in-game sounds and music. Victor and Yulia have the same theme playing in their houses!

Yes of course we can be friends! Requesting from writing blogs is what originally got me interacting with others, so, kind of like you, just the other way around 😅 Then I discovered it can be nice just to talk sometimes. It seems like you're having a good time on this blog! Chill is good. Part of me is still flabbergasted that there's a Pathologic x reader blog that exists and it's run by a great writer who obviously has so much love for the characters which is a huge plus <3 But I like the memes too :) I can't speak for other anons, but I always check my entire dash until I'm completely caught up.

Moving on… WHEN I TRANSLATED THE TITLE OF THE VICTOR X READER FIC!! Hooo boy, I'm a simple girl and the "You're good, my little dove, you're good. Despite it all, you're good" quote is one of my favorites. It's like you read my mind with the description - SOFT, TENDER, and UNSTABLE? Three of my favorite things 😇

So!! I am the human embodiment of this emoji while reading 🤭🤭🤭 Honestly so galaxy brained of you make it into a fic, I could never be upset about that. There's such an atmosphere to this from the very beginning, I don't know how to describe it but I want to bite it. Playing house with slightly off vibes, "Like handling a stray cat" OUGH. (I agree that'd he'd want to play at domesticity.) The way he notices everything, his solicitousness. Reader as sacrificial lamb imagery. "He takes and takes like you're the cure for his morose soul."

The immortality vs mortality thing! That's when I really got why this works so well as a fic instead of hcs. I love that it feels like a character study as much as a smut fic (and ofc I appreciate all the little details about time). TOP TIER SMUT ALSO. His endless patience while also being in emotional/spiritual/physical agony, him praising the reader's patience, he does seem like the type to draw it out a while - "He'll hide you from the world and everything dangerous outside" 😳

And the end!! What a beautiful, brilliant mind, what a sensitive fragile heart, what a lovely soul. My goodness. Just - [keysmash] [disintegrates]

That was AMAZING and you should be proud. Thank you for taking my request and running with it <333

If my overzealous reaction to the froggy chair birthday pic never made it through, thank you for that too! It's delightful.

Happy birthday!! 🧁🎉 I hope you enjoy the day.

🐿️ anon

You remembered my birthday! I love you!

God I was refreshing my notes waiting for your reaction over the fic. I'm so happy you liked it <33 Especially how you qouted your favourite lines and your reaction to them, that's literally the highest of praise I could receive. You understand the underlying themes, the whole playing house but something seems off, Victor's inner fits of monologue occasionally completely going off-rails and showing how lost in his head he tends to get. How his brain switches focus between topics constantly before snapping back to reality and vice versa.

Conflicted in everything. At times, he appears as if he's pleading with you, below you as loyal as a guard dog. At others he appears above you, pulling your strings with sheer authority and nothing else.

The whole turmoil of deciding to let Reader die a natural death, to be selfish and never allow them into the Kains grand scheme of immortality, to know you'll only exist by his side before your soul is lost to the cosmos forever.

I avoided bringing Nina by name but her presence is heavy in each line of the story. How much he would let you hurt him and others as much as you want like she used to do, how he lets your sins slide and sweeps your wrongs under the rug. How he clings to your mortality because part of his resents humanity for taking his wife away, for stealing his own life and future away.

The whole wings and feather symbolism. Immortality is the wings the Kains are sewing together one thread at a time, each feather plucked being a brilliant person's soul. That eventually, maybe they too will ascend past the larva stage and be able to live freely with no fear of death much like Icarus flew above the seas without regards to his father's words. They're flying straight into the sun and they mistake its blazing fire for the heavens above.

His little dove petname fitting perfectly with the Icarus symbolism, with you being a beautiful bird he wants to keep caged in the mortal real out of selfishness, out of the desire to finally call someone his own. All his life he has give for the future of humanity, both his wife and two kids turned into chess pieces to be sacrificed in times of need.

And that's fine that's okay. He can handle it. His family may belong to the future, they may belong to mankind and the utopia they're slowly shaping. He is strong and pragmatic, he can more than understand why heavy costs and live with the consequences. He will carry that burden of guilt indefinitely.

But you, oh you.... He won't allow it. You have to slip away from their clutches, from his own sharp claws. You won't belong to the future, you will belong to the present forever with him, forever to him.

I enjoyed writing it so much. I started as Headcanons but the words piled up and the sentences started weaving themselves on their own. It was so beautiful, I didn't have the heart to trim the growth and force it back into the headcanons mould, so i let it blossom into a full story even if it meant more work.

Headcanons are usually effortless, stories are not. I had several open tabs by the end of writing it searching for various idoms, symbolism and word synonyms. Looking through Victor's qoute then remembering the latin endearment term for dove.

I really wanted to paint the picture of how he makes loving you a form of self-flagellation, but I had to keep the message subtle so it shows how well he hides it. How on the surface you can easily mistake his infatuation for any adoring partner, but deep down he's completely unstable behind the calculated hardened face. I'd argue that he was as crazy as Nina if not even more. He just happened to be better at hiding it. It was an elaborate plan for him to play the role of the reliable soft-hearted self-sacrificing leader to win people's favour, to paint the Kains in an angelic light so their women may be as cruel as their hearts desire.

Again, thank you for leaving such a sweet message afterwards. People rarely do, you get accustomed to fulfilling requests then throwing your writing into the ocean after posting it. The reblogs and likes are good and all but I just want to hear another human's words at times you know? Another soul's opinion, something that proves that this exists and was read by an actual person rather than a number counter going up.

Although oh my god you read THAT Minthara fic?? A beautiful webbing?? IT'S ONE OF MY MOST PROUD WORKS! One of my most ambitious too! The descriptive scenery in that fic took a lifetime out of me, so much blood and tears poured onto the layout of the garden, of the sussur tree and blood rose. Writing it felt like my magnum opus at the time, although now I'd say Lingum Vitea holds the spot for the amount of Latin I had to research for that Burakhovsky fic.

I'm so glad you liked that fic! They're my favourite children <333 I like the rest too but sometimes I write things purely out of passion and they shine brighter than the rest in my eyes.

You've already started your P2 playthrough hell yeah! I hope it goes well and it's fun! I actually missed the apple basket gang meeting too in my playthrough- I thought it was scripted to be missed because it directly coincident with the Bachelor calling people to town hall and proclaiming quarantine so I thought oh, it must be cancelled duh! I didn't realise you could still walk to it ah-

You can never have too much eggs, trust me.

Being a trader hoarder is good! you'll eventually learn which people overpay for which items and look out for them. Usually trading is rng depent on which npc you meet on the road to your current mission because straying from the path means losing precious time.

Good for beating bloodborne and going on ng+! Hell yeah! I've never played it but it seems hard bc of the parries and no shield. I miss my shield in ds3 :( During the end of the game, my brother was watching me play and he tricked me into going to the end boss unprepared. He claimed it was just another npc for a quest and I didn't know it was the end boss bc I didn't watch anything about dark souls before playing it- I just walked to the soul of cinder all like "omfg hiii bestiee :3 " then got stabbed.

BUT I FUCKING BEAT HIM IN ONE TRY! EVEN WHEN I WAS TRICKED AND ALMOST DIED. I managed to clutch with my trustyyyy shieellldd.

But also I died to that weird balls tree 90+

I am not exaggerating, I genuinely couldn't handle that lame mini boss tree. I killee the abyss watchers in two tries and the soul of cinder in one but a fucking tree is responsible for 70% of my deaths through all of the game.

I'm celebrating my birthday today. it's not going well but at least I have a lot of cake and will buy myself flowers in an hour after the shops open. I got cheesecake! I love cheesecake! I think Yulia would like cheesecake or is she more of a dark chocolate person? I still have your request for her nsfw hc so don't worry it wasn't swallowed by tumblr.

Honestly I can't believe I'm the only pathologic x reader blog- Seems almost blasphemous tbh. I hope more pop up in the future, this fandom is surprisingly chill and nice. Especially for such a hardcore game.

I hope your day is amazing <3

Oh and I did receive your froggy chair submission! I just wasn't sure whether to reply to it publicly or not in case you wanted to stay anonymous to others on this blog. I'm glad you liked the meme I threw together and my other memes on this blog hehe. I like making them, it's like visual storytelling.

[beevean]

I think Frontiers has such low replay value for a few reasons:

While you can traverse the islands non-linearly, there is legit just very little that rewards your curiosity. There's no cool hidden items that you can find if you search for them, at most a few pretty places you probably would have gone to anyway if you want to complete the map for 100% each. So once you've gone and fully completed each map, you've basically seen it all already.

The game can be rather rail-roading: on Chaos Island, for example, there's a few smaller islands you can basically only ever go through in the same one or two ways. Picking the wrong way will bring you to a place where you don't need to go to anymore. Good luck if you can't find the correct paths, though, because it is very difficult to make out just where the heck rails and the like lead you.

Talking about the items: there's like... five, six of them total to be found on the map? You've got the attack and defence fruits, the Koco, the memory tokens, Experience Points, rings... and that is basically the gist of it, even if I feel like I'm forgetting stuff (which is not a good sign at all, since that means it is forgettable). It gets very boring very quickly to have those be the only things you ever find. To bring back BotW, if you went out of your way to go explore the game usually rewards you with a strong weapon or useful item... because it's got hundreds of weapons and items you can collect. Not just a mere six or so on the islands, who eventually become moot anyway if you've fully upgraded Sonic and his skill tree.

The world is just empty. There's legit nobody interesting to talk to, other than perhaps Sage and Sonic's friends, who disappear afterwards from those spots. And furthermore, they have the problem that you can go through their developments completely unhingedly depending on where you find them, so you can easily have Sonic and Sage chat cordially on the final island and then go back to the first and have her be blunt and rude instead. I would have liked a 'good ending' where Sonic helped his friends and Sage through taking the time to talk to them fully on each island before going to the next and a 'bad ending' where he did not do that, but alas...

So yeah, overall the replay value is low because once you've put in some effort on your first run, there is nothing that rewards you for doing more. Everything you get is the same constantly, and if you went and 100% completed the maps and talked to everyone the first time, there's just nothing new to be found on new playthroughs.

Btw I should add that the game has such poor replayability to me that I haven't even picked it up despite the various updates throughout the year already, so maybe things have become better and I just haven't noticed them yet. Maybe😅

As always, huge W for ShTH, King of Replay Value ❤️

I'm starting to think that it's not my issue if I can't watch a playthrough of the game without getting bored lol. But more seriously, it's a shame, because Sonic games have usually high replay value, through their level design with multiple routes or the ranking system, or exceptional cases like Advance 3's gimmick.

Sage was really wasted. Her interactions with Sonic are 99% "you will die" "how?" "go fuck yourself I'm not telling you", until we're supposed to care about her and her NANANANANANA. A sidequest where you have to make the effort to befriend Sage? Teach her what a loving relationship is, making her realize that Eggman doesn't actually care about her like she hoped to? And maybe unlocking her as help during the final boss? It would have been something new and interesting! oh well.

(also yeah I read that part about Khaos Island. It doesn't sound fun. Why rail road part of your open world like that?)

[samusique-concrete]

some thoughts on dark souls 3

i've been playing dark souls 3 for the first time these last couple of days and it's quickly become one of my favorite games visually, ever. which is a weird thing for me to say because i could also name among those games a game like yoshi's island, whose artstyle i love and appreciate, but that is so ingrained in my brain that i don't think about it that often, since i grew up with it (and also to be fair i kinda fell of from new-at-the-time games after the 360/PS3 era, so i haven't had that many experiences with AAA games after that). with ds3 instead every new area has me taking screenshots of many a nook and cranny. it's stunningly gorgeous: every pathway and courtyard and tunnel has been art directed to heck, with lighting and terrain and colour and framing playing such huge parts. i've played basically all there is to play in elden ring already and that game also has its own moments of breathtaking beauty, but ds3's advantage is that it's smaller, tighter, and the designers could treat it almost as a diorama in which every single step the player would take would be one where the environment around them has been handcrafted in great detail, which obviously would have been impossible for a game of elden ring's scale. the game's still big though, but in comparison to what came after it, and frankly also what came before with dark souls 1, it inevitably feels like a condensed version of the fromsoft fantasy soulslike, like a greatest hits even. i also think it's way easier, but in a complimentary way. obviously now i know what i'm doing in a soulslike, as opposed to when i first picked up ds1, but i feel like the devs took this into account when making it. players most likely came to dark souls 3 after having familiarized themselves with 1 and 2, and a bevy of new players probably lept right over to ds3 after the franchise had established itself with its previous entries, so when you play the game with a decent build it feels almost like a rollercoaster or a victory lap, with the emphasis being placed on making sure the player gets to experienced the whole game and have a reasonably good time enjoying themselves while being wowed at every turn. it's almost as if the team had already had their fill of punishing players brutally, so they made this game with a veneer of that but this time helping the player along, as if they recognized that it is the player the one on the driver's seat as opposed to the enemies of the world they're exploring. it's not like the player is a badass terminator-like being that can demolish their adversaries from the start, like in games such as bayonetta or god hand, but more like you're being put on a costume by the devs and they're pushing you along the way in this play that they've put on for you to wave your sword at things. oppositely, the feeling in ds1 was that there was no play but rather a very real and very cruel world and there was no one around to help you or, at least, no guiding hand. this new intention also may or may not have had something to do with ds2 not being as well received as ds1 and the team, with miyazaki now at the helm again, wanting to show the fans 'what's what', so to speak. bonfires are more frequent, upgrade item drops are far more generous, and hollowing is an entirely optional thing now, which, honestly, thank god for that. the embers as a mechaninc are a friendlier alternative to the more obtuse humanity system from before, and you can get a lot of embers really easily. this ends up making ds3 feel like a smoother, more seamless experience for the player in terms of what they want and how they can achieve it. ds1 instead basks in its friction, and has a more robust identity because of it. i'm not saying one is better than the other however. i still think that dark souls 1 is the far more interesting game out of all of the fromsoft soulslikes, and i'll always prefer something interesting over something that's just nice, but man, it is nice to have this other, more laid-back option available for when you just want to cruise and see the sights.

anyway; i'm having fun, i love the game, and here i wil post some screenshots of places that caught my eye. might update later with more as i keep playing.

(this is where i started having my HUD show up on auto so that i could enjoy the scenery more)