#i will say i have fuck all idea what i'm doing gameplay wise

[mary34blog]

I'm like, 10 chapters into Fire Emblem Fates Birthright and Idk why I let the internet convince me that it's bad I'm having a pretty good time so far.

[trashcanwithsprinkles]

hi! I wanted to ask questions about how you proceed to write:

Do you have a general idea with plot twits and such figured out? like general guidelines and then go crazy and write these amazing fics or you just go with the flow?

How do you establish world building? Like, all the fics I've read from you (which are more than great) got lots of info in the world building though strangely enough (in a good way) I wasn't lost on it? Like Cyanide Narwhal has crazy lore to it with lots of characters and stuff going on but as you read you get what happens even though hundreds of stuff happen at once. HOW DO YOU DO IT :0

How do you write so smooth also? Like going from one scene to another makes total sense without there being a cut? (idk if i make any sense sorry ^^').

Finally, how do you explain feelings so well? Well not explaining directly but making us FEEL *looking at cyanide narwhal and i think you're so good (and i'm nothing like you)*. I think that the description of them interacting helps w it (like the way Zhongli looks at Ajax (i am melting please thats so cute-) but even the interaction between Ajax and the kids (big brother behavior)

oh god

i do always have a general idea on how the story is going to go, like what plotbeats i want to hit and what i want to happen. but since it's not a good idea to marry to one path, the details for how things happen or how we get from point a to point b specifically i usually come up with on-the-go, and i do leave room for modifications. like i have a million fic ideas and scenes i want to write but i never actually write any if i cannot picture two things: 1, what the point of it is (the main climax, the main mystery, etc), and 2, how it ends. (the reason why most wips don't make it past a couple chapters is bc i struggle to picture the ending accurately, or how to get there)

i genuinely have no idea how to explain the world building, i'm sorry lmao. if i really had to think about it, no joke, i think i'd say this was stardew valley's fault. yes you read that correctly. more specifically, the earmuffs item. now- it might not be evident as it is rn w the way i write, since it's been a while since i've started doing my worldbuilding like this and obviously it's evolved and gotten more complex w time, but- for those unaware, stardew isn't a game you play for the worldbuilding per se. for the deep world lore. especially pre-ginger island update (1.6?). but there IS worldbuilding, it's just you don't really see it, it's not the point of the game. you're there to grow crops tend to animals suffer in the mines and get a partner. that's it. but you know there's more outside the town and the valley. you know the biggest city nearby is called zuzu, you know what the sea is called, you know there is a war going on in the background, you know there is an empire involved, you know lewis might be the mayor of the town but he's still under the governor of the region. you know there's witches and spirits and elemental beings and aliens n shit. the fucking earmuffs were sort of like my epiphany years back bc their description says they're lined w artisanal velvet from castle village. what the fuck is castle village?? were you ever going to tell me about it outside of those fucking earmuffs? does it even matter? no. it doesn't matter. but just because it doesn't matter doesn't mean the earmuffs stop being an artisanal item from castle village. just because it doesn't matter what the sea is called doesn't stop it from being the gem sea specifically. the fact that you only care, gameplay-wise, about your farm and pelican town- it doesn't stop your country from being at war, from being called the ferngill republic. the world of the game exists outside of what matters to you for the plot. and so even if you're never going to find out some of these things if you don't look, they're going to be there anyway.

i don't know if that makes any sense. it probably doesn't LMAO a probably better way to explain it is like- write stuff the same way you hear our own world being talked about irl. does it matter for the 'plot' of your day if your mother says she's going to one specific supermarket? no. does she still call it by name? most likely. that's just how it works. you know it exists because this is the world you live in, regardless as to how much it matters to the actual 'plot'. it's not there exclusively to serve the purpose of aiding the plot, but because it's a part of your world and therefore must be connected to the world beyond you. the world will only read like it's lived in if the characters speak about it like they actually live in it.

i'm not actually sure that answers the question now that i think about it. it's just- i trully don't know how to answer it. i don't know what i'm doing that makes it interesting and not a complete mess to read even if it IS a complete mess. the only explanation i can think of is that: that i write the characters interacting with their world as though they actually live there. the plot is just something that happens to an already existing, already established world.

also i think you might be merging lore and worldbuilding with plot. yes, the worldbuilding and lore in my fics are absurd, but that alone i don't think would be hard to keep up with. it's the plot also being absurd what makes it seem like there's a lot going on at once (there is, just- in two different fronts). like there's not a million things happening at once in the worldbuilding - there's a million things happening at once in the plot. you're finding out a lot of stuff about the world at the same time, is the thing. anyway,

scene transition without the cuts being smooth i also am not sure how to explain. that's probably on me for not following scene structures properly tbh. so uh- no clue here chief, i'm sorry. i don't even have a guess as with the worldbuilding.

with the writing feelings i do have somewhat of a guess- it genuinely might be some undiagnosed brain fuckery i have. kinda like how the inside joke of asexuals being shockingly good at writing sex scenes goes. if you have a different-than-intended perspective on the stuff, it would probably lead to a different approach to writing it. but other than that i also am not sure

i think the main takeaway is i don't know shit LMAOOOOO

[rawliverandgoronspice]

Yeah, so... Just to clarify a specific TotK-related thing I haven't been super transparent about, or not enough perhaps? I'm not accusing Nintendo of being this machiavellian entity with TotK's storytelling. I mean, it's not impossible that some narrative limitations were put in place to avoid rocking the boat too hard (and some people actually are conservative and have conservative beliefs that they champion in the work they make/fund, it's A Thing too also that we tend to ignore or wave off because Surely nobody would actually think like that, buuut sometimes people do think like that also and it's really unfortunate but people do be conservative the same way people do be gay and try to inject gay stories in corporate settings that try to maximize profit and audience reach, conservatives also do that it turns out!!! not saying it's what happened because I have no idea but I'd hardly say it's impossible), but: I think the final result and what I criticize about it happened mostly because of carelessness and/or lack of power from the narrative department to make their case (I didn't even see a "Writer" or any mention of a narrative department in the credits btw, so I don't know what's up with that), and not from active malice.

I am a consultant, it's kind of my job to work with game companies to mesh gameplay and narrative together, and honestly an enormous portion of my job is to just... point out that some tropes and some "evident" writing shortcuts have Implications, or might end up saying the opposite of what the game wanted to say (not my favorite part of the job, let me tell you this). The game industry is really super fucking bad with themes and media literacy in general to be really honest with you, so sometimes this conversation goes over super well and lead to very interesting places where we get to define a clearer narrative purpose to collectively push, and sometimes people get incredibly defensive and reject all and any criticism before slamming the door on your fingers. It's a known thing in the industry (and everywhere tbh, like trying to get a guy who is "such a feminist" to admit that he's systematically torturing his female characters to give them character growth is uhhhh very veryvery fun as you can imagine)

So while I'm not blaming Nintendo for twirling their copyrighted Italian Mustache while secretely trying to inject imperialist propaganda in their good fun game, I do blame them for not spotting their biases during a 6 year development cycle and for not making their narrative ambitions a bigger priority given the subject matter, and I do side-eye them for addressing said biases in ways that reinforce the core issue, which is to create a fictional conflict that refuse to self-examine and will sabotage its emotional beats, its writing and its character arcs to preserve, at almost all costs, an extremely flat worldview that also happens to parallel really unfortunate real life propaganda stories in its imagery, themes and tone (and this is a criticism I only have for TotK, and not towards the entire Zelda canon which has historically been much, *much* better than this, even in entries that were pretty close plot-wise).

[spotsupstuff]

whats your opinion on the games scugs?

(monk, arti, enot, etc.)

which ones are your favorite lore wise / gameplay wise?

i don't have much of opinions! as one could... probably tell from my excessive iterator posting and extreme lack of scug posting

lore wise i will forever stick with my ultimate fav scug, Hunter. being a pre-Downpour fan has conditioned me into thinkin of the vanilla scugs the most and i'm most attached to them as well. Hunter is my fav of the three because of how unique they are compared to the other two, the amount of special lore and explanations their campaign offers to us. also i fucking love NSH endlessly so those two are a combo to open up my heart. they are actually the reason why i ended up hyperfixating on RW the first time around!

Survivor at the end of the day is the most basic scug, no matter what people say that's just a factual truth with her bein the first lil bugger peeps usually try out, but i've had a lot of fun playing with her characterization and my absolutely favorite thing to do is pair her up with Pebbles. Survivor is Five Pebbles' Cat to me. from the olden days

still up to present

even with Arti around now these two get to me emotionally more still. my old ass is cursed </3

i don't have much to say about Monk except the fact that i'm still quietly laughing about how on THEIR campaign i got more pissed than anywhere fuckin else except Gourmand i think. like this peaceful little sunshine parading around in the world and then there's me behind the screen cursing up a fuckin Storm truly embracing my inner Bitch... i had fun with that..... either way, the fact that he can see traces of Survivor in the shelters is So Fucking and the possible parallels between vanilla scug sibs n Pebs n Moons are eating my brain alive whenever i dedicate a braincell to the slugcats

the Downpour scugs are more in the bg to me and also offer a sort of like... not exactly completely 100% continuation of the game, but one of the possible canonical paths the story could've taken n i ain't gon lie i often forget or ignore some Downpour facts because of my ass bein so stuck with the vanilla game

either way, Arti's maul ability is the best thing invented for this game, Gour is Neat and i really gotta go and explore OE better with Surv cuz that place is Very interesting from the lore stand point (also that map Pebs flashes when openin the gate is SUPER cool). Spearmaster is prolly my favorite of all the scugs cuz of their mechanics n the whole uncollapsed LTTM structure is a delicious world-building, along with the first hint towards the climate, the shit with Seven Red Son-of-a-bitches and the broadcasts at large. i'm affectionate for Spear. that lil fella can climb up with the vanilla scugs i shall allow it. Riv was... the most notable things to me about them was The Rot/Pebbles condition/his last words and then their crack cocaine eyes. love headcanoning UI made 'em like that with actual crackies. the ending with Moon didn't... really hit me for some reason- but still, i'd rank the coolness of their lore on the third place because of The Rot kush

now Saint... Saint is a though nut to crack to me because of Two ✌ reasons. 1. i still haven't fucking finished playing this asshole. 2. there is a lot of room for interpretations. which is a GOOD thing, i Like when that happens, but it makes talking about the lore of the rat harder. ultimately without any brainstorming, Saint's lore is a confusing outta-nowhere mess that is so extremely far from the original ideas and themes of the vanilla game that my head spins. at first i legit thought that the lore of the thing would break what vanilla has already laid out, but thankfully i'm a person who likes to shrug so i shrugged and let it be n started figuring out my own interpretation of it all which has been a lot of fun. what i have going on for Saint in my stuff i adore all SO so so much n ofc shout out to shkiki's interpretation for being one of the coolest i've seen too

n Sain't mechanics have. made me stupidly daring with death jumps i don't know what's happening but that tongue has made me basically jump off a ledge without any preparation before that Sky Islands/Chimney karma gate n i didn't even flinch about it cuz the.. tongue... i don't fucking know what happened to me there but it was bizarre n i like bizarre in this game so i'm givin that shit 4 pats out of 5 you-tried stars. i also got fucking BULLIED BY A SCAVENGER IN FRONT OF A SHELTER FOR TEN MINUTES THATS GETTING A 5 MINUTE FROWN OUT OF GODDAMMIT THIS GAME

[least-sexy-man-competition]

Okay fuck it. If you want to know the storyline of Rain World, definitely check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roz9RSUdCoM

It's kinda long (like, 1.5 hours long), but I put it on while I was doing other things so I didn't have to constantly go back and change the video lmao, and it was very worth it.

(sidenote: the voice acting is so good T-T. The in game dialogue is just text boxes, but the dude who made the video had the lines said out loud. And I nearly cried like twice. And I've seen all of this before T-T)

It does assume you know what's going on and have a general idea of what the game's like, so you might (ie definitely) need to find another video first lmao. Idk a good one, but I'm sure someone else out there has one. (if you want more long videos that involve some amount if background knowledge, check out Jimmy McGee. Their videos are pretty good too)

Also like. That video is just for the story.

There's so much more to the game than that.

Like the worldbuilding is fucking fantastic T-T (both environment-wise and enemy-wise and lore-wise and "vibe"-wise and not everything necessarily makes sense but not everything needs to cuz mystery can be fun).

And the enemy design is actually so good T-T (the're overwhelming at first (and they never stops being overwhelming tbh) but eventually you get a handle on it and if that isn't a metaphor for something idk what is).

And the procedural animation is fucking pioneering T-T (just watch a seasoned player do backflips and tricks and shit like goddamn it's actually (mostly at least lmao) so smooth).

And the way they programmed the AI for the creatures makes it feel so realistic T-T (bro they fucking make natural mistakes do you even know how hard it is to do that without making it seem forced or intentionally programmed in???).

(if you want more about the worldbuilding, check out the two videos Curious Archive did, idk about the rest of that tho off the top of my head so oh well)

It's so good T-T. Like, I'm absolute ass at playing it (but I'm ass at videogames in general lmao), and there's a really large difficulty curve that you might not enjoy, and there's barely a tutorial before you're on your own, and it takes a while for you to get to the actual storyline. BUT if you can get past all that (even before you get to the storyline), it's so easy to start thinking like the slugcat, to anticipate its needs, to get a feel for if something's going to attack, etc. Once you get a handle on the mechanics (which takes a while tbf lmao), it kinda feels like you're actually moving rather than just initiating an attack animation or some shit.

And I haven't even brought up the philosophical shit the lore delves into. Very fun to think/talk/theorize/brood about.

Basically all to say I highly recommend and you should check it out. Maybe not the game itself (cuz the gameplay, despite it being good, isn't for everyone XD), but at least the everything else.

And sorry for the very long ask. I only meant to anonymously send the video link with little bit of context, and then the context turned into this so........ yeahhhh........... Sorry again T-T.

mods kinda goin thru it so i cant. like. properly respond to really long asks but... rw sounds REALLY REALLY interesting!!! especially the thing about the ai making mistakes? that's REAlly cool

[hoodlessmads]

Who wants to read a long ass review of FFXVI?

I would give this game a 6/10. Here’s why. (seriously, it's long, I'm warning you)

SPOILERS for late game (I don't spoil the ending but I do mention characters and events through basically the beach scene - if you know you know)

First, I've seen a tendency to dismiss and/or mischaracterize people’s criticisms of FFXVI as them saying “I don’t like that it’s not turn-based” or “it’s not like other Final Fantasies” when that’s not at all what I’m about to say. Those aren’t my issues with the game. At all. So just getting that out of the way. Kingdom Hearts II is one of my favorite games of all time, so I am not at all adverse to this game having action combat. Final Fantasy XII is different from other Final Fantasies too, but that’s in my top 3 FF games, so that’s not my issue either.

To be honest, I haven’t actually seen anyone criticize the game for not being turn-based except in memes, so I can’t help but feel like fans are blowing this particular criticism out of proportion, unless I’m just in the wrong places online. Who is actually saying the game isn’t Final Fantasy because it’s not turn-based? 90% of people seem to love the game.

Moving on.

This is not...professionally written, by the way. I kind of wrote it in one sitting. Also, please try not to take my extreme language too seriously - that's just how I write. praying emoji

Credit where credit is due

The presentation is great – graphics, cinematics, voice acting, cutscenes. Some of the cutscenes in this game and some of the cinematic QTEs were actually insane. Completely bonkers. The game reaches extreme high points with its story and spectacle that had me yelling. I’ve never in my life cared about graphical quality or spectacle, but this game got me, and I think part of it is the way they successfully integrated the story’s most dramatic moments with the grandest spectacle possible gameplay-wise. Virtually all of the big story moments were dope as hell. I hope this integration helps these spectacular moments stand the test of time when they eventually become graphically outdated. (Because they will. Who cares about the FFVII motorcycle chase anymore? But it blew minds back in the day.)

Things I didn’t know I needed in Final Fantasy: Ifrit hanging off a crystal going, “Fuck.”

The combat is pretty good. It could be better, but it’s pretty good. Action combat-wise, it’s a huge improvement from FF15. I didn’t love it, personally, but I enjoyed my time with it sometimes, and would definitely count it among the game’s strong points. I like that you can control Torgal; it added a nice layer to the combat. I did find myself skipping most mob fights, though.

The story, like the combat, could be better, but overall I think it’s pretty solid. My issues have more to do with the execution and storytelling than the core concepts, which I think are really good. There are some really compelling and interesting ideas here. The story feels very “Final Fantasy” in a good way. I enjoyed it for the most part. I had one MAJOR issue with it that I’ll discuss in the negative section of this review but other than that the flaws in the writing, while there (especially the writing of some of the characters and the ending), aren’t huge detractors for me. I hated the moments I call “Game of Thrones bullshit” which is where I felt the GoT posturing got a little too on the nose, but otherwise, I’m a sucker for political storylines and the political machinations and such in this story were some of my favorite moments, along with the epic confrontations, of course.

Some of the characters: I like Joshua, Cid, Mid, and Dion. Joshua....what can I say. I’m obsessed with him? I’m hyperfixated on a character that is trapped in a game which I think is otherwise mediocre, and that sucks.

Overall, I'm actually really frustrated by all the things I like in this game, because similar to the last mainline entry, I feel like Square almost made one of the best games in the series, if not the best. Truly. But they kind of shat the bed instead.

Gameplay negatives

I could nitpick forever, but the main gameplay element that fully ruins this game for me, if I’m being honest, is the fact that there is no permanent party.

You have your dog, and sometimes you have Jill, but for most of the game Clive is alone. The game’s story preaches a lot about bonds with other people and togetherness and how that is humanity’s strength, but the gameplay doesn’t match up with that message at all. The gameplay sends the opposite message: that this is Clive’s sole journey. As a result, a lot of the story’s themes don’t land well. Also, because you are playing alone as Clive for most of the game, the game is pretty much made or broken on how much you like him. For me, I don’t like him. I’ll get more into why in the story negative section. But because I don’t like him, I have a hard time really enjoying my playing experience because I am forced to spend all of my time with him, and only him. This isn’t about not being able to play as other people, though that would be nice. It’s that the other people aren’t even there.

Final Fantasy XV is a broken mess of a game that I did not enjoy, with a messy story, but even that game understood this most basic principle of building a sense of camaraderie with the main character’s friends by having them all in a permanent party together all the way through until the very end of the game. When that game talked about Noctis’s bonds with others being his strength, it landed because of all the time I, as a player, had spent with the party members. I bought that. The game had earned it.

This sort of leads into my other big issue with the game, which is the virtual lack of RPG elements. Even when you do have temporary party members, they are (relatively useless) AI bots that you have no power to affect whatsoever. You can’t even change their equipment. In the menu, the only character is Clive (other than some cute sprites). It makes you feel even more alone in the journey. So there are no party members to outfit – what can you customize? The game’s customization options are limited to picking and choosing which abilities to give to Clive using earned ability points and an extremely bare bones crafting system. As for the abilities, I will admit there is potential to customize your combat based on which Eikon abilities you choose to outfit Clive with. But it pretty much stops there. The itemization and crafting system are utter dog shit. I don’t feel like I need to justify saying that...even fans of this game have to admit how tacked-on that shit is. In addition, there isn’t even something as simple as elemental weaknesses that might be affected by said tacked-on crafting system. This is a game where the story centers around eight Eikons for eight magical elements and yet there is no elemental affinity baked into the gameplay. I have to ask, what the fuck?

Some Zelda fans would probably get mad at me for saying this, but even though Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom also feature a solo journey without any party members, they legitimately feel more like RPGs than Final Fantasy XVI. Those games have elemental weaknesses and systems that force you to put some thought into your approach to combat, and they have a more worthwhile and involved gear upgrading system. It’s crystal clear that the developers of FF16 put a lot of effort into the presentation, the story and the combat and I applaud those efforts, but it really feels like they put zero effort into ANYTHING else outside of that because there is NOTHING to this game outside of the main story and combat. I would almost rather they hadn’t even bothered to try to pretend this was still an RPG instead of the linear character action thriller it wants to be.

Even in that sense, it’s not particularly outstanding. The combat’s depth is questionable...I would have preferred if you could at least use ability points to, say, modify the base combo, which never changes. Shake it up just a little bit. Instead, the modifications to Clive’s combat as the game goes on come entirely in the form of Eikon abilities that are on timers and you can cycle through them as you want. I don’t get the feeling that Clive himself is growing stronger or better, persay. Each ability has a unique utility, but that utility is limited in any given boss fight due to the lack of enemy variety, and they mostly served for me as extra damage dealers rather than relating to any sort of strategy. The lack of combo modifiers and also the lack of a dedicated block mechanic other than the one Titan ability makes the combat feel a bit clunky and outdated to me. I don’t know how to say it, I guess, because Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom also don’t have combo modifiers and that combat isn’t particularly deep but it doesn’t feel nearly as clunky to play, so I don’t know what I’m saying...but FFXVI’s combat just feels clunky to me sometimes and you’re gonna have to believe me. (I'm not trying to compare these two games, I just feel like since I compared them in the last paragraph I should at least mention I'm not trying to make a double standard about the combat here.)

Lastly, a big issue I have with the gameplay is the exploration. It’s shit. Really. You get a couple of big maps but they’re empty. The coolest locations in the game are ones you either only get to visit once or ones you only see in cutscenes. This does a lot to alienate me from the world the game is trying to build.

I've seen a counter-criticism amounting to basically, "You shouldn't bring franchise expectations to the game!" when people criticize the lack of a party or the lack of RPG elements but I have to ask...why shouldn't I? Any game that carries a series title is going to draw comparisons with other entries in the series, and why shouldn't it - otherwise, what's the point in carrying the title? Every Final Fantasy game has always been "new" in many ways, but there has also still always been a thread connecting them, even a thin one. For me, this game just frays that thread a bit too thin. Through 12, 13, 13-2, Lightning Returns, 15, you name it, I've still always felt like "This is Final Fantasy." When I'm not even playing an RPG anymore, it's gotten too far away from the core of the series. I'm sorry, but it has.

Now here's the story negative section:

Final Fantasy XVI has a slavery problem

There are other story negatives, but for me, this is the big one. I haven’t seen people talking about it much (yet) and I don’t really understand why, because for me it was glaring and cast a pall over the entire story and many of the characters.

There’s nothing wrong with featuring slavery in your fantasy story and/or world; far from it. I think it can add stakes and a dark, realist tone to the narrative (as we know, unfortunately, slavery is a disgustingly frequent part of human history and still exists even today) as well as set up some political commentary. It just has to be done right. It’s obviously a sensitive, heavy topic. FFXVI completely bungles its handling of said topic and betrays that its developers seemingly did not have the historical comprehension or tact to appropriately handle it.

In the narrative of FFXVI, there are good slaveowners and bad slaveowners. (You can see where this is going.) The bad slaveowners are people like Clive’s mom Anabella, who view Bearers (magic users) as vermin and treat them abhorrently. Like, clownishly evil and violent treatment. The good slaveowners are people like Clive’s dad Elwin, who claim to want to make life better for Bearers and treat them relatively well by comparison—see them as human beings (theoretically)—but still keep them as slaves.

During the game’s prologue, you play as a teenage Clive who was raised as a prince of Rosaria in a slave culture where Bearers are branded and are forced to work in service to his father’s duchy. We are shown that Clive is nice to the slaves and wants to make sure they are treated well; however, he doesn’t see that there is much wrong with them being enslaved and is perfectly fine with the status quo. Clive idolizes his father, who is otherwise an evenhanded, astute ruler who truly cares about his people (at least the ones that aren’t slaves). I like Clive during these first few hours. He shows a bit of personality: he is earnest and loyal to a fault, he is fiercely protective of his brother, he is focused on what he sees as his duty to his father and his country, he is secretly devastated that his mother doesn’t love him and wants to earn his place so he has poured his entire life into making himself worthwhile in his own way, i.e. becoming the best swordsman of all time. He’s kind of giving a jock but with a sensitive side.

It’s uncomfortable that he is so comfortable with slavery, but that is exactly how a kid who grew up in a slave culture under a father he admires might think and behave. That’s why there is massive potential here to have his worldview shaken up in a big way – we know that Clive later becomes enslaved himself.  As an adult, how might he look back on his interactions with the slaves in Rosalith? How might he reevaluate the man he thought his father was, compared to the man he actually was: a benevolent father but a man who owned and sanctioned the owning of slaves?

There is one scene where, as adults, Clive and Jill are in Martha’s Rest having just witnessed some awful treatment of slaves, and they comment on how it’s crazy that they never saw anything wrong with slavery as kids. That’s it. The commentary begins and ends there. Outside of this moment, not once does Clive come to terms with his complicity in slavery as a teenager, and not once does he ever think to criticize his father for it.

On the contrary: throughout the game, Archduke Elwin is revered by everyone, and we the player are supposed to revere him too. There is one part of the game where Clive returns to a village in Rosaria and the mayor, recognizing him as the prince, offers him his father’s old Bearers back in a chillingly casual tone. Like, offers to give him his father’s old slaves back who have just been hanging out in this village ever since the country was taken over. Clive of course declines, but we don’t get any indication of how Clive feels about this reminder that his dad was, you know, a slaveowner. Clive also never confronts the mayor’s assumption that these people are things to be owned, just lets him keep on as he was. Clive then meets one of his father’s old kitchen slaves, who has become senile. The old former slave thinks he is still waiting for Elwin to return and take him back to the kitchens, where the former slave apparently enjoyed working. The old man apparently has no idea what to do with himself in the mean time and just hangs out by the well waiting for Elwin, day in and day out. The old man thinks Clive is Elwin returned to get him, and Clive plays along, but says the old dude should just chill out in the village until he’s done with his journey and eventually he’ll come back and get him.

Now...it’s not super clear what we’re supposed to get out of this scene. It’s not entirely clear if we are supposed to take the old man’s ravings about how great it was working in Elwin’s kitchens at face value. Obviously, that would be horrifying. I have to assume that we are supposed to sort of see this as a really dark and sad look at a Stockholm Syndrome-type situation. But the uncertainty that I feel is just the problem. Does this quest exist to show how great Elwin was and how much everyone loved him, including his slaves, or to show how fucked up slavery is? This shouldn’t be a question I’m asking. And the reason I’m asking it is because our viewpoint characters give us nothing to go off of.

Assuming for everyone’s sanity that it’s the latter, why doesn’t Clive have some sort of emotional reaction? This is his father we’re talking about. The great Archduke Elwin. And here is a devastating reminder of the horror Elwin wreaked on a man’s life and psyche. Nothing. We get nothing from Clive. If a normal person suddenly realized that the food they ate growing up was always prepared by slaves, you’d think they’d have some kind of reaction.

And like...is Clive serious? Is he actually planning on coming back to “get him” when he’s done with his journey? Does Clive literally just own slaves in this game? (I don't actually think so, but I'm just saying, the scene was weird.) In any case, it is clear that most of the current and former slaves in this game are completely helpless and will just keep being enslaved through inertia if someone doesn’t save them or at least come and explain to them that being enslaved is wrong, actually, and they should be free. (A portrayal of slaves that is more than patronizing...it’s revolting. Certainly many real life slaves were victims of this sort of brainwashing, but it just feels like...way too many of them are like this in the game, and there are almost no rebellious slaves to provide an alternative portrayal, so it feels very one-sided. The Hideaway folks don't count - I'm talking about current slaves that you meet in the wild.)

After the events of the following section, where a village is massacred, Clive and Jill are upset and suddenly decide they want to help Cid free all the slaves, even though up until this point they have been pretty lukewarm on the idea of joining the liberation effort. I don’t feel like the threads between events are clearly drawn to show how the characters changed their minds. Instead, it’s sudden. They see a massacre (that includes non-Bearers as well as former slaves) and decide slavery is wrong.

Normally, you’d think that since Clive and Jill have, you know, been slaves themselves for the past thirteen years, that alone would be enough to give them a new perspective on slavery. But apparently not. Apparently they had to go through a journey in Rosaria to come to the conclusion that all the slaves should be freed, and even then it doesn’t feel like a perspective change that is earned or that makes sense. The scene with the mayor could have been a great opportunity to show that transition – just have Clive be like “oh, fuck...my dad did this too” – and boom, his character arc starts to make a lot more sense.

Instead, Clive proudly wears his father’s old clothes and later goes so far as to claim that he is carrying on his father’s ideals. At one point, when viewing the atrocious crimes against humanity that Anabella’s men perpetrate against former slaves, Clive mutters something along the lines of, at least in Elwin’s time Bearers weren’t “spit on as slaves.” Fam, what in the world are you talking about? We literally just talked to one of Elwin’s former kitchen slaves? We talked to a man in the Rosalith courtyard in the prologue named “Slaveowner?” It would be one thing if he was in deep denial, but the game doesn’t play it like that. The game plays it straight, like we are supposed to take what Clive is saying as truth. Later, Clive tells Byron that he won’t take back rule of Rosaria, because instead he’s fighting for the world his father believed in, where all people can live freely. Clive explicitly tells us that his father’s beliefs and the goal of ending slavery are one and the same. This does not make sense at all.

I spoke with a friend about this who argued that Elwin did believe in ending slavery, but he didn’t outright do it because he would have had revolts on his hands and so on – it would have been too sudden of a change for the free people to accept since the hatred of Bearers was so entrenched (my thoughts: oh dear, not the free people having hurt feelings, not the revolts! Better keep those people enslaved to avoid such a horror), so he was trying to change attitudes over time. According to my friend, this is what Clive meant by following his father’s ideals - moreso in spirit than in actuality. I think this is a bit of a stretch to assume this is what Clive was thinking since the game doesn't really make it super clear, if I'm being honest, and it's still a very unflattering portrayal because he's essentially excusing his father's policies of slavery. I agree with my friend that such behavior makes perfect sense for Elwin as a character, but owning slaves is still 100% wrong, Elwin was wrong, and the problem is the game’s narrative never really acknowledges this. It's obvious to us, but the game needs to acknowledge it, and it doesn't. (Also, if the reason he didn’t end slavery was truly because he was afraid of the chaos it would cause (eyeroll...it’s giving Northern liberals in 1850s United States...), then why did he himself also own slaves? Surely that wasn’t required if all he wanted was to avoid revolts. It's because he needed to use them as resources and he'd rather use free human beings in forced labor than use up the meager supply of crystals they have, right? Isn't that the real reason?) I bring this up not to discredit this friend, who is great, but because I hadn't considered this perspective before and it helped me understand Elwin's thought process a bit more, so I thought it would be helpful to mention.

What we get, as a result of all this, is a main character who comes across as extremely putzy and tepid. Sure, Clive thinks slavery is wrong, generally. He definitely thinks treating slaves badly is wrong, at least. He probably thinks having them at all is wrong...probably. (Unless you’re his dad, Archduke Elwin.) But at the same time, he doesn’t bat an eyelash when he comes across random NPCs that are in the process of abusing their slaves. And I mean including after he takes over Cid’s role as the international slave liberator and removes his brand. He doesn’t even have an emotional reaction. He just moves on like it’s to be expected. Clive is the most powerful man on earth by this point and he doesn’t lift a finger to help any Bearers he comes across in the wild. Cid the Outlaw, everybody, Clive the great liberator of slaves. What a stand-up guy. If I were a slave in Valisthea, I wouldn’t want this guy to be the one advocating for me. Personally.

It is incredibly difficult for me to emotionally connect with this character when this is how he is characterized, and when the slavery storyline is handled so tactlessly. Like it’s just tacked on to make the world more dark and fucked up, but the developers didn’t care to follow through with exploring it.

FFXVI’s portrayal of the badness of slavery is mostly limited to the cheap, low-hanging fruit of showing horrific atrocities and abuse being perpetrated against slaves by awful slavemasters. But it mostly avoids the true insidiousness of slavery, which is how normal it could be, and has been. How normal, otherwise nice people, could and have been complicit in it. Slavery doesn’t need horrific treatment to be bad. Owning other people is inherently bad. And FFXVI somehow doesn’t seem to get that.

There’s a fun, interesting, comedic relief type character with a lot more personality than most of the other main characters: Clive’s uncle, Byron. He’s wonderful. I wanted to love him.

Except - nagging at the back of my mind from the second we met him was the thought that this guy probably owned Bearers as slaves back in the day, and even if he was somehow the only noble in Rosaria that didn’t, he was close with his brother and could have made an effort to convince Elwin to end slavery, but didn’t.

You can’t have the fun quirky comedic relief uncle character also be a former slaveowner (or, optimistically, a guy who used to help maintain the system of slavery). Tonally, it just doesn’t work.

It would be one thing if Byron ever addressed his past, or his failure to act, or ever somehow recanted his former beliefs and complicity in a way the player can see. But he doesn’t. The slavery in Rosaria thing goes completely unaddressed. Byron easily slides into his role as the benefactor of the Freeing the Slaves Group as if he was one of them all along. It’s confusing and distressing to see the insidiousness of “good” slavery in Rosaria go totally unaddressed.

There’s also this uncomfortable feeling when you go around as Clive after he removes his brand and suddenly no one treats you like shit anymore, and you can’t help but thinking, “Are all of these NPCs actually racist assholes and the only reason they’re not showing it is because they think I’m not a Bearer?” Steph Sterling (The Jimquisition) has a great video where she talks about how everyone in the world of Valisthea comes across as an irredeemable bigoted monster and it makes it hard to care about saving the world. I agree. Like, saving the world is obviously still the right thing to do. I know this logically – but I don’t feel it. I don’t feel any attachment to this world or the awful people in it. This makes it even harder to connect with the “role” I’m supposed to be playing in this “RPG.”

Then the slavery storyline is forgotten halfway through the game for more Final Fantasy-like and less complicated nonsense like killing gods. (Probably for the best.)

There’s also the obvious issue of there being very few people of color in the game, and many of those being white passing to boot, but I feel that has already been touched on elsewhere better than I could say it. It’s obviously stupid and it makes their bungling of the slavery storyline even worse.

There are other flaws with the story, but I can’t even pay attention to those because the slavery thing overwhelms all the comparatively small writing problems for me. I feel like one of the 2.5 people on the Internet who is actually bothered by the portrayal of slavery in this game and it’s making me a little insane. Are people really not bothered by this?

Listen. The slavery storyline had a lot of potential. Episode 2 (or 3?) of Resonant Arc’s FFXVI analysis podcast series on YouTube goes into a really great deep dive about the portrayal of slavery in Valisthea and it made me realize it was more nuanced than I had initially given it credit for. Particularly, the fact that the reason people treat Bearers with such comic book villainy and abuse is because they have to buy into the idea of Bearers being sub-human in order to justify enslaving them and slowly murdering them, and they have to buy in hard. This is extremely true to life. In order to justify treating people like objects, they dehumanize them. There is probably guilt and shame involved over taking advantage of Bearers as a resource, which they have been brainwashed into thinking they must do in order to survive, so they channel that shame into hatred and abuse. Even many slaves themselves have been brainwashed into buying into this system, and as a result they value the “good” slavemasters compared to the “bad” ones. The system has been so entrenched for generations that there is buy-in even from the lowest rung. It’s realistic and true and I definitely get what the developers were going for, I think. But there’s still a problem:

The game never does condemn the “good slavery” in Rosaria. That coming-to-terms, that realization that it seems like the game should be building up to within Clive – it never happens. Clive never has the character growth he needs in order to make the slavery storyline land properly. By the end of the game, Elwin is still a great, admired guy, Rosaria’s slavery is still good, and it is presented as fundamentally different from, say, imperial slavery. This is really just...wrong. So all of that potential for nuance that I just discussed in the previous paragraph ends up falling flat.

Anyway, I don’t like adult Clive. I think he’s a loser. For all the game’s talk of strength of will, I don’t see much strength of will in Clive. He comes across as uncommitted and wishy washy in nearly every instance, with a side dose of angst. He doesn’t compel me in the slightest; in fact, he outright disgusts me at points, and I’d have given my left arm to play as his twinky brother instead.

The women

Okay, so I’m just gonna touch on it briefly. The women in this game...could be better. Like, they’re not bad, but I came out disappointed. Especially in Anabella.

Benedikta’s storyline has already been criticized a lot for being too short and not giving her enough depth so I won’t rehash all that, but we have to talk about Anabella. Clearly, the woman’s inspiration is Cersei from Game of Thrones, unless there’s another beautiful blond traitorous kingmaker who is a total monster that I’m forgetting about. But Cersei is a great villain because in spite of all the horrible things she does, she still feels like a real person. A fucked up person, but a real person nonetheless. Her past is carefully explored so we understand the institutional misogyny, insecurity, horrible monster of a father, and toxic relationship with her brother that led her to grow up into this person. On top of that, Cersei shows a glimpse of humanity – in spite of how she may feel about everyone else, she truly loves her children. She isn’t really a monster – she’s actually just a really fucked up, evil human being.

On the other hand, Anabella is a total monster with no redeeming qualities. We get an indication at the very end that she did genuinely love Joshua and Olivier in...her own way, perhaps...but it’s just a glimmer and then she gets killed off immediately. We watch her commit horrific act after horrific act with no idea why she would do such a thing for tens of hours, and we only just manage to learn what her motivations were the whole time when she spews it out in a rush right before she dies. And the motivations are surprisingly shallow. She was just tired of people gossiping about her behind her back in Rosaria, so she had them all killed. Cool. Why is she like this? I guess we’ll never know.

I love evil women, but Anabella doesn’t even feel like a real person. Such a missed opportunity. I still kinda love when she’s being deliciously evil, though.

*tiktok autotune voice* and I’m not saying she deseeerved it – but god’s timing is aalwaaays riiiight

Oh, you want me to talk about Jill? How did they do? You mean other than her entire life revolving around her love for a man? (Just kidding...sort of.) Well, she’s fine, I guess. Personally, I find Jill to be kind of bland as a character, but that’s just me. I think we needed to get more from her backstory than what we got. As it is, she’s too Clive-focused. She’s giving Dollar Tree Tifa but not in a good way...Tifa definitely still had her own goals and motivations independent of how she felt about Cloud, and she had much more personality. (I also don’t really understand how Jill had the patience to wait for this dude for 18 years, but we don’t really get to see how she feels about that. Or was he the one waiting for her to make a move, and she was the one hesitating? Unclear, but unlikely.) Jill is just totally gung-ho to go at Clive’s pace, in all things. The Hideaway’s goals, their relationship, talking about their feelings, anything and everything is whenever he wants and no sooner or later. I don’t necessarily have a problem with that if it makes sense for the character - We’re just never in her perspective, so we don’t know why, and I find that a shame. But I do love Jill’s design, her voice acting is great, and I like that the narrative treats her like an equal to the men when it comes to combat prowess and general agency. My problem with her giving up her powers to Clive isn’t unique to just her – I hate it in every case that it happens – it just happens to sting a little bit more since Jill is the only female party member in the game.

I like the Jive ship, by the way, even though I'm not very fond of them individually. Like many people (especially fellow adults lol), I appreciate the refreshing maturity and healthiness they have. Not exactly common in Final Fantasy (as much as I love other FF ships).

So close and yet so far from greatness

For those thirsting after Clive and Cid, I raise you, Barnabas? He’s weirdly hot, right?

I feel like fixing FF16 wouldn’t be hard. Not nearly as hard as fixing FF15. It would take some redesigning the way the story plays out a little bit to give us a permanent party, but it would be worth it. The party could include Clive, Jill, Gav, and Tarja for the duration of the game. Characters like Cid could drop out when it’s their time to drop out, and characters like Dion, Josh, and Mid could jump in after crossing paths with the party, and then stay there. When the characters go off on their little quests, like when Dion sneaks off and goes back to the Crystalline Dominion, instead of having them go alone, have the whole party accompany them. This would help organically build the bonds between the characters instead of just having the game tell us that they have bonds.

There are even classic FF archetypes to work with, if they wanted to balance the party accordingly. Clive is a knight/jack of all trades, Jill is a black mage, Gav is a rogue, Tara is like a white mage or an alchemist, Cid and Mid are machinists, Dion is a dragoon, and Josh is a red mage. See? Not that they have to be called this, but I’m just making a point that balance-wise, the party is RIGHT THERE. Then allow the player to outfit them with unique gear and maybe have a couple options for how they want the AI’s playstyle to be, like offensive, defensive, attack Clive’s enemies, attack enemies other than Clive’s enemies...just simple options (if I wanted to be really greedy I’d say add a gambit system but I’m trying to keep it “easy” here--).

But if I can be a bit greedy – how about you allow us to return to the areas featured in the one-off missions and, more than that, how about you actually let us roam around in the fantastical set pieces we only get to see in cutscenes, like Oriflamme? It wouldn’t have to be a big area. Just give me like one little town square. One tiny itsy bitsy little town square per city. Nothing too graphically intensive. Something, anything to help me feel more immersed in this world, because the game desperately needs it. The world is so cool, conceptually, but I can’t really immerse myself because I can't explore most of it.

For the story, just include some deeper revelations for Clive, Jill, Josh, Byron, even Dion, where they regret their complicity in slavery in the past (well, Josh was basically a baby so I wouldn’t necessarily call him “complicit,” but you get it, his family owned slaves, that’s a lot to swallow). Instead of having the boring ass side quests that exist now, create some side quests that are like Clive and gang actually going out and freeing more Bearers on the side, even while they’re dealing with the Mothercrystal shit, so that the freeing the slaves storyline can continue even after the plot shifts to be about the crystals. Have the quests be about unique, fleshed out characters where they have agency in freeing themselves and building a better life for themselves so it’s not all about helpless slaves with Stockholm Syndrome who need to be saved (because that’s both historically inaccurate and gross).

Of course, I think the RPG elements need to be fleshed out, but I think if you just change these two major things (a permanent party and improving the slavery storyline) the game turns from being a uncomfortable and often dreary slog into an absolute banger.

Demake

Okay hear me out – a Switch demake in the pixel art style of, say, Final Fantasy VI (like the sprites we see on the menu). The party that I mentioned above exists. I don’t care if it makes sense with the story or where the characters are supposed to be located in the world. If you’re fighting, you’ve got the party. They’re just there, get over it. If you want it to make sense, you can play the original or watch a Let’s Play of the original. You can choose four of those fuckers at a time. It’s turn-based, for the hoes (I’m the hoes).

The Eikon battles though – the Eikon battles are a 2D side scrolling brawler. How fucking sick would that be? Hell, if they really wanted to keep it entirely action-oriented even in a pixel art demake, the regular combat can be a 2d side scrolling brawler too, and maybe you can control your other three party members with, like, their own assigned buttons. Kind of like TWEWY. So it would be chaotic but in a fun way. And maybe (also for the hoes) they can insert some of the epic cinematic cutscenes as FMVs.

Have I mentioned my emphasis on having a party?

Would this not be sick as hell?

Conclusion

I needed somebody to scream at about this and my only friends who are playing this game are still early in, so I turned to the Internet instead. I welcome discussion if you for some reason actually read all of this and feel so inclined. This isn’t a comprehensive review (in spite of being this long) and there’s room for debate and there are certainly more things that could be touched on.

I wrote all this about a 6/10 game because I love Final Fantasy that much – if I didn’t care, I wouldn’t have this much to say about it. Ultimately, I love all Final Fantasy games, even the ones I don’t like. If you get it you get it.

[mooshs-crack-headcanons]

Do you have any gameplay ideas for Lucia (Devil May Cry)?

Oh okay, that's a new type of question I've never been asked before. People on here don't tend to talk about gameplay aspects on here that much and tend to just talk about the characters - or at from what I've seen my three years on this site. But I'll take it sure!

Well, I'm not the best person to ask since I'm not really a game designer but I think I can think of at least a couple ideas to put her in more on how modern dmc 3-5 characters play with more complexities than Dante/Lucia/Trish had in dmc 1 and 2.

Okay to start off if Lucia would ever be hypothetically playable in a future dmc game she doesn't necessarily need new weapons, pretty much everyone else who isn't Dante with his ridiculous amount of weapons that only gets larger and larger with each game, specifically Nero, Vergil, Lady and Trish in dmc 4 proves this that small arsenals and tools you can work with like the devil bringer which you can throw in a buster whenever in a combo you like to add a little ✨️style spice✨️ A small rotation I find easier to work with and even so everything in that small rotation has a long list of moves and combos that you can steadily form your patterns you can strategize certain take downs for specific enemies.

But that's not saying you can't add anything new for her though, however including all the unlockable blades and knifes she could get in dmc 2 I think she should be okay as long as maybe you change some of their move sets to moreso differentiate them and make them each more unique instead of same knife/blade but reskinned and stronger. Again while you don't have to change anything like what she comes with, just look at Vergil the guy has had the same 4 weapons (counting summon swords) and basic play style since he was more formally introduced in dmc 3 and therefore being playable. However if they do go down this route with adding new things I hope they pull a dmc 4 revamp on us because playable Vergil from dmc 3 and playable Vergil from dmc 4 are very different beats. Dmc 3 Vergil is very, very simple and basic in his move set, similar to current day Lucia actually but - and this is true about every single version of Vergil since he's been playable - he is very overpowered. Like I don't know if this is because I've been playing dmc 3 since almost day 1 that it came out and I'm old but I don't know maybe it's just me but even in very hard and dante must die he makes the entire fucking game feel like a joke. Dmc 4 however (and don't get wrong he is still fucking overpowered as shit compared to everyone else in the game, he can absolutely break the entire game like he can in 3 if you know how to properly use him) I think he's less as OP in higher difficulties (I'm going to be 100% real here enemies in dmc 4 on human and devil hunter are like punchable paper once you play those higher difficulties just once and its veeeery noticeable) however to compensate for more heavy tankable enemies (Vergil in every mode is still a boss deleter no matter what) they they completely revamped his 3 moveset, keeping the all the simplicities and they MEGA built off it in literally every way; new moves, new combos, the motivation concentration meter and mechanics, new summon sword abilities, playable executable judgment cut end 💀, ect. But Lucia doesn't have to be as overpowered and game breaking, I think personally that should stay with just Vergil as like a gimmick afterall he has been that OP since day one and no other characters except Dante in a good several amount of occasions (dmc 4 and 5 particularly) have been able to be on that same level. But in a way story wise her being more strong and confident in her abilities moreso than in dmc 2 would show off more character development and being able to show that off in gameplay would be just perfect.

Sooo learning from that take her simplistic moveset and just revamp it in a similar fashion and that way she could still feel like better dmc 2 version of herself but she'd get more unique moves and combos and maybe build up her older playstyle in a way that feels more in tune with modern dmc without disrespecting her original playable debut despite the unfortunate game she came from, which I always thought anyway that out of the main two out of box playable characters (so not counting Trish who is better out of all three of them by miles) that she always felt good and better to play than the clunky, sword useless, Dante in that game.

Devil trigger gameplay? Since 2 and besides Dante's sin trigger in dmc 5 which is its own can of worms mechanically and runs off its own system very different then how it was dmc 2, no one else really has had a flying form and how it worked in 2 so if they just kept that exclusive to Lucia and modified it where A. It'd feel comfortable to play in modern gaming standards B. Expand on it, maybe make her airborne like 99% of the time and incorporate that into trigger exclusive moves maybe she can switch between the elemental moves that where in dmc 2 just you can switch between them on the fly without having to go through subscreens and menus and it doesn't cancel out your trigger gage and maybe each one has its own pool of moves besides being just that element boosting already established attacks, making it when you do trigger you do have more options and moves to integrate into your combo chain each time ect.

Uhm and I think that's all I have to say about it? Sorry if this was rambled and I didn't explicitly give much ideas this was just the way I think if Lucia ever were to be playable again (which honestly I really do hope, it fucking sucks she's chained down to such a "Yes it is actually that bad as everyone says it is." of a game) this is the technical ways I think Capcom should go about it.

Tldr: Take Lucia's very simplistic moveset from dmc 2 and treat it with a make over like they did with Vergil's from dmc 3 going into 4. Devil trigger should be mostly the same taking in the flight mechanics from dmc 2 and making it Lucia's own while incorporating the element mechanics that would also give her new moves to work with while in trigger.

Thank you for the ask btw!

[erigold13261]

If you could fix ONE or more plot point(s) from NSR/Psyconauts, what would it be?

Oh absolutely the ending of NSR. I'm sorry, but I fucking HATE that stupid hand they did at the end. It makes me so mad. All that buildup just to have a giant hand make a rock symbol and blow up the satellite. Like I am okay with some stupid things to happen, but that is way too much for me.

Especially by the fact that Tatiana specifically states she is going to clear out the tower in case the plan doesn't work, only for all the surrounding buildings to run up the tower and make a hand. What about all the people in THOSE buildings? Huh Tatiana!?

Also like, they make it VERY clear that the naval force of Vinyl City is a big one, with flying submarines/battle ships and regular battleships in the water. They could have easily done something with those!

Or even like some kind of powerup or something that allowed a beam to shoot from the tower to the satellite would have been fine! (though the implications of either beam or hand of the tower becomes dangerous considering that would mean NSR could literally just kill people in the city if they wanted to).

Like I GET they needed some super big bad to give power back to the charters and fix Mayday and Zuke's mistakes/actions, but they could have thought of something else that wasn't so ridiculous. Like do something with the main qwasa in the center of the city or something.

Also, a small thing, I would have liked to see 1010 and Mama in the end. I know it would have been a bitch to somehow add 5 more bodies to the already busy scene, but it would have been nice to see them. (though I do like the implications that 1010 get repaired later. I just wish they could have represented their own district instead of just Neon since Sayu is representing mer own district. But the devs/game is being ambiguous on how sentient 1010 are so I understand that, but at least let Mama be with her kid).

As for Pyschonauts, I think this is more gameplay than story, but I wish the first game made it easier to get down from the tower. Or at least tell us earlier there is no going back because I couldn't 100% the game afterwards and didn't want to go down the tower a 4th time. Otherwise with that first game I have no real complaints about plot or story. (other than not having Augustus screaming RAZPUTIN over and over every second in the last fight which got annoying quick).

For the second game though, I wish the interns were more prevalent in the story. Give them some side missions or something that INVOLVE them, not just us doing their work. Or make them do more in the scenes we see them in. Maybe each intern could help up with one of the Psychic 7 when we are recruiting them (I like the idea of Lizzie helping Compton). Just SOMETHING.

I've seen a lot of people say that you could take the interns out of the game entirely and not have to change much to get the same story. And honestly I see that as pretty true. I just wish they were more involved because you could completely ignore them if you wanted to once you get out of the mother lobe (pretty sure you can).

But yeah, other than that I don't have any real problems with the plot of the game. I only played them each like once compared to me playing NSR about 5-6 times, so I might not be as experienced in the game to give my take on the story. But from what I remember the story was fine. Fine enough I have no outstanding complaints in my head to change something other than gameplay/mechanic wise.

[creepy--claws]

[● I've said it once and I'll say it again. STOP PLAYING THE TRANSPHOBIC ANTISEMITIC WIZARD GAME AND PLAY MY FAVORITE VIDEO GAMES DO IT DO IT DO IT this is because I'm biased and I do not care what the differences between them are I'm literally just here to shit on Joanne, her fans, and their disgusting views, and promote games that I personally like for video game reasons.

Portal 2 is great and people with common sense know this but it's fun gameplay wise and the environments and story are fuckin amazing. For a game from 2011, the graphics look beautiful, better than some recent games I've seen. The soundtrack is also wonderful and I am in love with "Want you gone". The storyline, while told throughout several different games (including those in the Half Life storyline but Half Life is also really good but don't take my word for it because I've never played Half Life before I am indeed a fake fucking fan) is intriguing and the characters are great. The mechanics are really neat and they let you experiment a little with how you play and it makes you use your brain and really think about how you'll utilize two portals to get you around places. You know a game is good when it really challenges your intellect, and you may get stuck sometimes, but with enough thought and dedication, you'll pull through. Also the voicelines and humor is amazing, I still find myself thinking about lines from even the turrets! Also the final boss is really good and the reveal is excellently portrayed. It genuinely sent shivers down my spine. I think this is one of those games where you should avoid spoilers as much as possible and just experience it for yourself.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is more than just funny meme game. It's got good graphics, a beautiful story, an even better soundtrack, and fun mechanics. I got an achievement for being a huge fucking dumbass and not utilizing the mechanics until my second playthrough. I went through the broken elevator level and had no idea I could use enhanced AI to get through that and went in completely blind. I didn't know that was impressive I just thought that's how the game was. I love how the soundtrack is used to tell the stories of the antagonists and help you understand them a bit more. They're cruel, ruthless, and unjust (except for Blade Wolf, he can do no wrong), but they have reasons for what they do and the music tells you this while also being A FUCKING BANGER. THE INSTRUMENTALS GO SO HARD OH MY GOD. Also they give you the ability to cut anything and everything you want (except for the cat who does backflips and avoids getting hurt) and it is so much fun. Of course the game isn't perfect and has flaws, but it's not antisemitic or transphobic. Overall a masterpiece and the ended did make me feel things. Also play the DLCs, they're really fun and flesh out two major characters and also let you do more cool shit that you can't do as Raiden.

Sonic Adventure 2 is probably my favorite game of all time currently despite how ancient it is and the flaws it has. I. Don't. Care. What's wrong with the game. I adore it. You bet your ass I'm explaining why. The graphics hold up surprisingly well even today despite the low poly count (it's higher than Metal Gear Solid 1 and Resident Evil 1 don't worry) and the character animation isn't bad by any means. The environments for each level are beautiful despite how they vary. Radical Highway is my favorite level in the entire game and it's so much fun for no reason whatsoever. Like they put their whole developussy into this one stage and I dig it. I also really like a lot of the Knuckles/Rouge stage designs, Pumpkin Hill looks very spooky (but my worst fear is falling off the hills AAH). I also like the soundtrack, it differs depending on which character it's focused on. Knuckles has more of that lofi rap thing going on, Rouge has some nice jazz going on, Shadow has that alternative "I'm cool shit" rock going on, meanwhile Sonic sounds like that type of rock where a middle schooler finishes school and now it's summertime, I don't know how to portray it in words. I also like the Chao Garden, I love all 4 of my children they are beautiful and I love them. I also like the replayability value because you may go back to certain stages not only because they're fun, but to be able to collect animals and toys for your Chao to play with. Not to mention the activities the Chao can engage in, such as karate and racing. They also let me into hot topic I am very happy. The most I'll knock it for is the security hall voice acting, it's not awful but it's not perfect. Rouge specifically, her screams don't sound realistic at all, but I can't be too harsh because it's not like I can do better.

I guess Scott Pilgrim vs The World doesn't suck either but I'm not gonna go too far in depth with it because y'know, that's really biased and there are problems I have with it but if you like Scott Pilgrim, check it out, it's actually pretty fun tbh.

This has been Shrimp is a biased motherfucker who hates JK Rowling and Harry Potter as a whole for deep rooted personal reasons aside from the horrible shit within the book, and can't shut up about things they like and they are horrible at masking! Thanks for tuning in, if you also like these games, you are very cool. In short, play my games, boy! Don't play the bigoted wizard game. I must go, now.]

[zehecatl]

2024 media thread PART DECEMBER

5th December: Smushi Come Home

extremely cozy and adorable little adventure, where you play as a cute little mushroom, and have to find your way home by travelling through three (and a half, really, plus a post-game one...) distinct overworlds. honestly, this was just such a chill, nice time. like, i had fun the whole time, and thinking back on it now (because of course i'm writing these up the 30th, lmao), all i can think of is how nice it was to play

like, it's nothing ground breaking, but it was a nice five hours, and that's worth something, i think :]

14th December: Bat Boy

i've had my eye on this since it came out two years ago, and finally caved and just bought it, and, yeah- it's a solid little retro throwback

i was primarily interested in this due to the pixel art (gorgeous, by the way!) and how compelling i found the idea of a baseball themed protagonist- and i do think they very much Do something with that theme, even if it's not like, a huge groundbreaking thing. like, it's fun! i liked it! if you like these types of games, this is absolutely an underrated gem, but it's also not another Shovel Knight, you know?

14th December: The Amazing Digital Circus 4

oUGH, TADC... I LOVE YOU TADC...

honestly, what can i say about this episode, except that they somehow keep raising the quality? that it's genuinely so much fun to watch, and that thinking back on it makes me so excited about the upcoming episodes, and being able to sit down and watch the whole thing in one go...

like, TADC is phenomenal. genuinely. and episode 4 is, somehow, the best episode yet, perfectly managing to strike a balance between focusing on Gangle, keeping Pomni in play, and letting us hang out with the other characters still. it's so frickin' good, and i cannot wait to see what the rest of the season brings us. like. i am so hype for episode 5, and every episode afterwards

15th December: Little Kitty, Big City

being honest, i wish i liked this game more. the premise is right up my alley, and i do think it manages to nail the fantasy of being a little cat in a big city, but it's just... not quite there, for me

the gameplay is kind of janky, and while it is fun to run around and be a cat, thinking back on it... there's not a lot there, substance-wise. i did like it, and i think it's a deeply charming game, but, eh. it didn't quite land as gracefully as it could have, and that does sadden me a bit, because i really did want to love it

28th December: Sonic 3

i feel like i need to write an essay here, but being honest, i kind of just. really liked this movie? and the whole Sonic movie series in general?? and i think that's more or less all i can really say???

like. yes, i came out of this a Shadow fan, a character i, genuinely, have never cared about. yes, i'm sure every fan who knows the Lore can, and has, criticised the way this presented the lore, and i'm sure that's very valid criticism. but as someone who hasn't played Adventure 2 (yet!!! OKAY!!! YET!!!) this was such an excellent introduction to Shadow. i love him now. i'm buying the new game, solely because Him, and that's all thanks to this movie

Sonic 3 isn't anything new, but it's such a genuinely fun movie, and i had a blast. and sometimes, that's all you need! also the after-credit scene had me HOLLERING, and i CANNOT fucking wait for 4. like. i will NOT be normal about Sonic 4

[theeeveetamer]

oh man, you into dmc too?! you even did a shit ton of achievements too. i'm looking forward to see if you have any mpreg/omegaverse head-cannons about the series. i always thought maybe dante should get pregnant with twins lol.

my favorite games in the series are dmc1 and dmc3 (dmc4 is okay i like nero but it's flawed in some areas gameplay-wise). i'm a huge fan of dmc, and i just get easily obsessed with these dysfunctional idiots lol. although the sparda bloodline isn't the most dysfunctional and fucked up family i've been obsessed with, that title rightfully belongs to the original dysfunctional family that i've been in love with since my childhood the Mishima clan from Tekken (Jin is one of my first ever crushes lol).

Oh yeah! I even named my cat after Dante (he's orange). Got into it initially around 2014 or 2015? It was sometime after the reboot was out, but not too long before 4 SE released.

I saw a review of the reboot (which included some footage of DMC1) and was like. Oh yeah. That series looks cool. I'd probably like that. Found the HD collection for PS3 at my local GameStop for like ten bucks and tore through all three games (yes, even 2) in like a week. Probably snagged the reboot on a Steam sale for cheap shortly after. Sadly dropped off after that until about a month ago when I finally got back around to 4 and played 5 for the first time (currently replaying 3 and 2, gotta get around to 1 soon). That's probably why it hasn't come up before now (I was intentionally avoiding the fandom for years because I didn't want spoilers for DMC5)

I'd say my rank order goes DMC3 = DMC5 > DMC1 > DMC4 = DmC and then DMC2 is in hell. Love 3 and 5 because I think they have the strongest gameplay and the strongest storytelling. DMC1 is just a good time. DMC4 is very fun and Nero is a silly lil guy, but the lack of development time really shows. Reboot is really solid as a game, though since I've played it so much I do wonder if there might have been some development issues as well. I think if they'd just decided to make it a spinoff (and rename the main characters) instead of a reboot then it wouldn't have gotten half the hate it wound up getting. I'm replaying 2 now just to see if it's more redeemable than I remember, but it deserves every bit of shit I gave it ten years ago lol. Though I will say I never bothered with Lucia's campaign before, and she's much more bearable to play compared to Dante. Wish they'd bring her back for an actually good entry

Dante and Vergil's dysfunctional AF relationship is definitely the biggest draw for me too! I've been talking people's ears off about it for like a month straight now. The moment that broke me and made me like Vergil is the bit at the end of DMC3 where he does that little smile after Dante reminds him of how they used to yell "jackpot!" all the time. What a dumbass, pretending like he doesn't love his little bro (then why do you say jackpot when you combo in 5 hmm hmmm HMMM!?)

I could probably keep going but I will restrain myself (for now)

As for omegaverse ideas, I haven't really developed that many of my own. I think all the Sparda boys should be omegas tho. But if one must be an alpha I think it's Vergil, just because I think it would be very amusing if part of his complex was due to not wanting his omega twin to be stronger than him (and then getting his shit kicked in by his omega son at the end of 5). We could get into some good toxic masculinity (alphalinity?) territory there. And uhhhh Kyrie should get Nero pregnant. That's basically as far as I've gotten on my own

I have been reading a LOT of fanfic though and people do come up with some interesting stuff I'd probably use. Like blood drinking being an explicit part of the dynamic/ritual of mating/pregnancy process, the hardcore possessiveness, and power hierarchy stuff. Good shit

[foxingpeculiar]

Okay, so fuck it, we ball. I started my replay of FF7R. Specifically the Intergrade version, so I'll get to see Yuffie this time, which I did not, on my first playthrough.

I have not quite gotten back to Sector 7 yet, but I'm on the train there, having reconnected with AVALANCHE after meeting Aerith. And I'm probably gonna do a little more tonight, since--for the first time in a while--I have nothing particularly pressing to do tomorrow.

My first thought is to really wonder at the experience of someone playing this who is not familiar with the original game. It seems like it would be bewildering. Or at least, wouldn't have quite the same impact. And I'm thinking about Sephiroth in particular, when I say that.

In the original game, you hear whispers of him for a while, but he does not actually appear until the death of President Shinra. And when he finally does show up, you find him by following a trail of blood (which, IIRC, this game doesn't do? I remember being disappointed by that). His introduction here is sinister in kind of a theatrical way, but it... I dunno, it doesn't feel as menacing. He doesn't emerge from the story, he's just there, at the heart of it from the beginning. So like.. how intriguing is that mystery, if you don't already know the answer? How does he land as an antagonist? I can't tell.

Although, it's clear this was designed with the original audience in mind, which is part of why adds the story dimension that it does. I forget exactly how that works, though. I was kind of caught up in the experience the first time (that opening cutscene got me again), but this time I think I can think about it more critically, so I'm looking forward to that. So far, in that vein, I'm intrigued. The whole thing with Nibelheim being introduced as early as it is (like, right when Cloud gets off the train, I think) and then Sephiroth showing up is already cuing me up for the fact that this story is doing something very different. And then with this new introduction, it suddenly actually becomes a different story. And it's connected to Aerith. He didn't see them until he touched her. How is it going to follow through with that across... certainly at least both these two games, if not the third? (I'm very excited to get to Rebirth. I haven't looked into it at all. No idea what happens there. Don't ruin that for me, please.) How far afield are we going to get, here? What's sacred?

I'm interested in the ways they're fleshing out the Avalanche team, especially Barrett and Jessie. Barrett has a difficult vibe to nail--he's like a really aggressive hippie, peace and war kind of raging inside him, and it seems like they're doing that well. His "I got you" speech actually did get me a little.

Jessie, I feel, is more complicated. Her open flirtatiousness with Cloud, given that I know how that ends, how they choose to use the fact that she kind of makes you like her, very actively. And the original game... just wasn't that nuanced. Especially when I first played it, I was not the kind of audience that focused on the emotional/relationship/touchy-feely part of the story, and you didn't really have to because the storytelling itself was less sophisticated than this is capable of being. So I don't really know how I feel about that dimension of it. But I am very aware that I'm being emotionally manipulated and I'm curious to see how that pays off in the end, you know? Like, what story they choose to pull out of what I remember.

Gameplay wise, I'm still kind of reminding myself that this is neither an open-world game, nor a Soulslike. It's not hiding from me--the best way to experience it is just ride it. And also, it's not that hard. (At least not yet--I remember the endgame being a little more frustrating.) I do like how they're scaling the combat. Simple enemies that orient you with the fundamentals first, then they throw the party system at you and let you get used to that for a second, then a boss fight to see if you can handle that, and then more complex enemy types that you actually have to move around and strategize for. It all feels very smooth. Buttery, even.

It feels nice to sink my teeth into something fun.

[freakshowrefugee]

Spoilers for Bayo 3 ahead!!!

Aight I'm playing Bayonetta 3 rn and I have some thoughts that I HAVE to share for the sake of my mental health. In no particular order:

LUKAON??? Bro the entire Luka plot in this game is almost impressively cringy. Who the fuck plays Bayonetta 1 & 2 and thinks—hmm, this Luka fellow should DEFINITELY become central to the plot for this game to REALLY work. Also, they somehow managed to write out any sort of endearing characteristics of the Luka from previous games?? New Luka's entire personality until now seems to be "uhhhh, me man find woman pretty". I won't even get into the masterclass in bad writing (and bad design tbh) that is "Lukaon" (henceforth named Whiter Luka in this rant). If they were going for a "mysterious stranger" kind of vibe, personally I think they fucking failed miserably. B3Luka is only Luka in name and (arguably) appearance. He has the depth of a blank piece of paper.

I fucking HATE playing as Viola, and this colors my opinion of the character too. No shade to the voice actress, I'm sure she did her best with what she was given, but I have audibly groaned almost every time she appeared on screen. I was okay with the idea of her being an edgy, cringy teen, but she eats up SO much fucking screentime that it becomes jarring. Her gameplay is painfully monotonous, even though I find Cheshire adorable, and her controls are stiffer and very limiting in comparison to Bayonetta herself. Gameplay-wise, Viola is everything a Bayonetta game should NOT be (in my opinion)—LIMITING.

Speaking of limiting, the Jeanne levels. Now, anyone who knows me knows that Jeanne is my queen, but HOLY FUCK those levels. Again, controls do not feel right, level design is atrocious and it all feels like a slog to go through. Why did they think we needed more gimmick levels for the love of fuck?? Why can't I just play Bayonetta in my Bayonetta fucking game? They did my queen dirty, on God...

Why the FUCK are we not exploring the Bayonetta alternative selves more??? There is so much fucking potential, the Egyptian version seems genuinely fascinating to explore, but NOPE!! Why should the Bayonetta game be about Bayonetta when it can be about new character we don't give a shit about and comic-relief-side-character that the writers PROMISE is srs bsns bro, I swear. Ask yourself this, if you were given the choice, would you follow the Viola storyline? I'm genuinely fucking curious.

Ngl, I'm not crazy about the gameplay. It's too much, too fast, nothing seems to matter and nothing is special. They constantly throw enemies at us with no sense of pacing or progression. Same for weapons. Remember the Grace & Glory entrance cutscene from the first game? Remember how memorable that was? Well, hope you DIDN'T like that, cause Bayo 3 will likely never give you that feeling. It's the DEFINITION of too much, too quickly. When everything is meant to be special, nothing is really special. Bayonetta 3 is flashy, for sure, but it feels shallow, at least on the first playthrough. I fucking hate saying this, but I'm genuinely disappointed. I think there are some good bones. I would love to be able to use the new weapons and techniques in a better designed, petter paced game (like Bayonetta 1), but as it stands, playing 3 feels cheap. When I got hit in Bayo 1 I never felt frustration, because most enemies and arenas were designed to allow you to experiment and figure out your own play style. With Bayo 3 I have literally dropped my controller out of frustration (usually when playing Viola). Listen, if be okay with Viola if she was an optional character, like King Zero from the first game or Rosa from the second. As she is, she makes me NOT want to fucking play the game, which is insanely frustrating.

The Crow and Cat umbran tears illustrate the weaknesses of Bayonetta 3's controls VERY fucking well. Why so many fucking gimmicks?? Who plays Bayonetta for the Route 666 and beginning of Isla del Sol, WHO??? Because they would probably love Bayonetta 3.

The world is sadly also quite poorly designed. Everything which shares an aesthetic blends together and orientation without a map of some sorts is a logistical nightmare. Again, it seems like they took the worst parts of Bayo 1 and filled 3 to the brim with them. Gimmicks, backtracking, the fact that you can MISS verses because of the poor map design.

It bears repeating, but this is very personal thing and less of a critique. I don't care about Viola. I don't care about Luka or Whiter Luka. I don't care about the Singularity or Sigurd. I'm. Or even curious about them at this point. Why was Bayonetta relegated to a side character in a game that is NAMED AFTER HER?? I care more about Ed and Edna than I do all previous individuals mentioned. The story of Bayonetta was never great, even in 1, but it was held together by memorable characters. You can't TELL me that a character is memorable, you have to show me. Even the character of Bayo herself has suffered as a result of the poor writing. The depth of her personality is nowhere to be found in 3. And no, it's not the voice change, I love Hale's work and she is doing a great job. We overlooked faults in the story in Bayo 1 (and arguably 2) because the gameplay loop was satisfying. Bayo 3 doesn't have that. And it makes me really fucking sad...

[muffinrecord]

You've speculated before that Akuma Homua would be a sign the game could be coming to a close. But what is Akuma Homura-CHAN a sign of? lol

I have no idea tbh.

I don't really like that we've had several dark units in a row now, all of them catering to hyperwhale stuff (isabeau for damage-dealing in kimochi, kuroe for mp building in kimochi, and now akuma homura-chan for high-tier ranked stuff [and nothing else lol]).

To be fair, Perenelle was in there too, and I liked that her gameplay respected her lore while also making her terrible to actually use in a fight.

Hmmm. man my thoughts are scattered.

Okay, so like: we've had a bunch of limiteds in a row after a period of non-content for a monthish. So I'm trying to think like a company that wants to make money-- generally (and I am speaking out of my ass here) you want there to be downtime in between the limiteds so that people can "recharge" their wallets. This was a problem on NA. There were so many limiteds in a row that dolphins and whales were running out of money to get who they wanted and then lost interest in the game.

Releasing GOOD limiteds back-to-back can be effective at generating money because you force people to spend their initial savings on the first limited, then they need to spend money to get the second one. However it has diminishing returns and it's not good for the health of the game. What I'm trying to say is that you're borrowing money from the future when you do it.

The thing is, I feel like the game has had good sales recently. I saw lots of Isabeau in my supports, and a shitload of Kuroes. So I feel like Akuma Homura-chan is... unneeded? money-wise.

Then again, I also wonder if that month of non-content was due to scheduling issues. Maybe Tart was supposed to come out earlier than what we had, and these limiteds are just an unfortunate pileup. After all, you'd expect an anime limited tie-in for the third season's release, and you also expect an april fools limited too. so really it's just the tart limiteds that are throwing things off.

I'm getting way off track here lmao. okay so homucifer...

...

What I'm about to say doesn't line up with what I was saying previously, but I don't see Homucifer-chan as a sign that the game is coming to an end soon.

I watched Raz Anime's news video and he pointed out that she's going to suck for general gameplay. Like, I still think she will be stupidly strong for ranked, but yeah, she's gonna be awful for regular stuff.

Okay, rambling again, but you can kinda treat a new unit a few different ways:

--

Karin & Alina: people are going to roll for them no matter what, so they don't need to be "good" units. (they're not bad, but they're not kimochi bait).

Kushu: she has a cool design, but also she's an unlimited and she's new so no one is going to have attachment to her. Make her a beast in gameplay so that people want to roll for her.

Asahi: people need time for their wallets to recharge. give her atrocious gameplay. maybe her main character status is enough to convince people to roll for her, but she's just a break inbetween limited banners.

madokami: extremely wanted character with (at the time) fucking amazing gameplay. everyone is going to roll for her and want her, because she's a fav and also because of her gameplay.

----

okay so with all of that out of the way, if the game is in trouble, they're gonna release a madokami and not a Karin&Alina. Does that make sense?

Akuma Homura-chan is great at one specific thing, but a joke character in every other aspect. people are going to roll for her based on her being a fav and hyper-whales will roll because she's good at a very gameplay thing that tbh you don't actually need her for anyways.

The last thing I want to say is that PAPA played the long game with darawhatever mana, so that devilmura would be a shocking swerve.

You might argue that mana was supposed to be the april fools character, but I don't think so. The leadup to her was a little bit too obvious, especially with the livestream. I think that it was a deliberate attempt to make people lower their guard.

to me, that means that devilmura-chan was planned waaaaaay in advance. waaay in advance. so this wasn't a "oh shit we're dying, break the glass and get out devilmura to make us money." this was planned a long-ass time ago

Anyways so i hope this rambling helped.

[agent-cupcake]

Thoughts on three hopes gameplay? I’m not super far into the demo but im not rlly vibing w/ it tbh

I've finished Azure Gleam and am mostly through Golden Wildfire so my opinion is incomplete but I like it so far! It's fairly typical Warriors gameplay as far as I understand, although I've never been invested in any other Warriors games outside of spectating because I am, in fact, a phony. All of my opinions thus far are, of course, subject to change and probably bad. It's just a demo, so everything could immediately change.

As far as pros, the limited number of sword users makes a big difference, and incorporating a functional weapons triangle is fun considering how lackluster that was in Three Houses. I enjoy being able to strategize by directing other units while also getting the satisfaction of dumb, button mashy mass slaughter. I'm not particularly good at combo based combat but playing on normal difficulty hasn't been punishing, although since there's not much variety and the units are all fairly simple that could change because I am, in fact, terrible at video games. If things get too rough for my pathetic skills, there's always easy mode. Dimitri and Felix have been my favorite to play as so far. Dimitri because he's a beast and I love that they used his crit attacks where he's just a hulking kingly meteor and Felix because his edgy dodge/speed ability making him Fast As Fuck Boi is satisfying.

As far as cons, my most immediate complaint is the tutorial. I understand that a lot of the information is important but big text dumps seem like a messy way to communicate things. The horse combat is about as lame, both in gameplay and stat-wise, as I thought it would be based on Three Houses+other Warriors games so I'll probably just run Sylvain with an axe to make him usable. I'm not fond of playing as an archer, but Claude is fun because he's on a wyvern. I think I still like the melee units more. Buuuut, they also require a bit less of the player so that could just be my lackluster skills. This will (probably) change as classes advance, but the lack of unique animations is a bit disappointing. It was the same in Three Houses though, so I guess it could go either way. It's tough to say on a lot of these things though because it's just a demo and my opinion is far from reliable because I don't play games like this.

As for the other section of gameplay, I like the camp. I truly dislike the monastery in Three Houses. Although it's fun at first, going through it at least once a month exposes the flaws, namely how unfinished and pointless it all is. As far as I understand, it was an idea of Insys that they had to bring Koei Tecmo in to finish, so seeing the changes makes me think that maybe they thought it wasn't a stellar idea either? I don't think they got it to function the way it was imagined. BUT that's just conjecture. Either way, I think the fishing is tedious, the gardening is mid, and most of the tasks feel like they would function just as well if you selected them through a menu instead of having to run around this visually uninteresting map of nothing. Although the camp is doing the same thing, I appreciate the more thoughtful training, smaller scale, and design elements. At face value, I find it more visually interesting and it takes far less time to navigate. AND it serves a more grounded purpose. For a game about a military campaign spanning three countries, the fact that your units return to the monastery every month is laughable. It chugs like a mf, but I haven't noticed much of that during the combat gameplay sections so I don't mind that much.

Anyway, yeah, I like the gameplay quite a bit right now. I'm looking forward to getting more interesting combos and maps and seeing what they're going to do with it. I'm sure you're sorry for asking now, but there ya go.

[bigblueoctoling]

"I felt this theme was weak and could’ve been utilized better" is literally what I said. Are you even reading my posts? Or, again, are you just ignoring my criticism because it's negative? Like, I literally went out of my way to explain my thoughts on the matter specifically in a constructive angle.

Just because the Octarians aren't the focal point of the story doesn't mean they're irrelevant concepts the game doesn't need to explain. I'm complaining that the game doesn't explain them. I'm not saying they need to be the focal point, but the game needs to justify it better than "Mr Grizz stole them because he needs test subjects for the fuzzy goo" when the octarians are nowhere fucking near him. This isn't even my main gripe, for the record, it's just one of several things the game neglects to explain.

To proceed further with this criticism, I'll give you this: Octavio barely has any presence in this story. He's there for the first five minutes to hock the same dynamic that we already know he and cuttlefish have, disappears for the rest of the story, and then flies in to be the deus ex machina for the final boss. If this is meant to be some sort of redeeming moment for Octavio, they completely failed to communicate that- nothing about this act feels selfless or different from the status quo for Octavio; preventing the planet from being destroyed is already in his best interest.

"I’m not saying you’re interpreting it wrong. I’m saying you’re not interpreting it AT ALL."

Yes, and I'm saying you're being willfully ignorant of my opinion by saying that. Like, you're literally doing what you're claiming I'm doing to RotM- you don't like my opinion so you're not actually listening to the explanations I've been giving for my opinion the entire fucking time.

Would you like me to treat you as if you aren't even reading my posts? Because that sure is what it feels like. I'm not sure why you keep responding to posts you aren't actually reading.

Let me try to sum up my point succinctly so that you actually read it:

The overarching theme of "nostalgia" feels lacking because there message isn't very strong. I think the message isn't very strong because...

Octavio is barely in it and what's there is very standard behavior from him.

We don't learn anything about Cuttlefish we didn't already know, nor does Cuttlefish really change his attitude about anything.

Callie, Marie, and Cap 3 primarily feel like they're just present to commentate on the gameplay.

We get a very basic rundown of what Deep Cut is about, but frankly, I don't think "not being nostalgic because we don't know who they are" is a meaningful contribution to the narrative.

Mr. Grizz feels less like a character and more like a walking business pun machine. We get an extremely bare-bones justification for his goal- that mammals are "more efficient"- and his plan in itself is extremely nebulous. There isn't really any explanation on what exactly Cuttlefish's essence is or why Mr. Grizz needs it, and the only thing I can postulate from what's given is that he needs Nostalgia Itself for some reason, which isn't really an interesting idea to me, it just feels arbitrary.

I actually really like Alterna itself, I appreciate what it brings to the table thematically and lore-wise; I adore that humans and inkfish have this sort of connections, that there's this sort of subconscious shared trauma of struggling to reach the surface.

However, I dislike RotM as a whole because nothing feels connected to Alterna itself aside from the fact that O.R.C.A. gives you memos- Mr. Grizz is only really connected by the fact that he was around when humans were, and I don't feel like the fact that they both, in general terms, want things to go back to how things used to be, is an interesting plot thread because there's not really anything I can posit with this information beyond a basic conclusion that Mr. Grizz wanted a bad thing to achieve his goal (to destroy the world) and that humans wanted a good thing to achieve their goal (freedom). Octavio, Cuttlefish, Callie, Marie, 3, and Deep Cut, don't connect to Alterna in any interesting way. None of them have any interesting or meaningful thoughts on humanity. All in all, Alterna as a setting feels completely disconnected from the actual plot, like everyone just sort of showed up- the only one who's really here because of Alterna itself is Mr. Grizz and that's only really because there's a rocket.

Additionally, a large part of the appeal to Splatoon to me is its diegetic nature and the way that I feel the game usually makes an effort to make details be meaningful parts of the story. This in itself isn't damning, but it's something I dislike as compared to what I usually like about Splatoon's storytelling, and I think that makes it a valid part of my criticism of the story.

If you still think that my criticism is vapid and thoughtless then I don't know what to tell you, I think you're just kind of being an asshole because I don't like something you like.

I’m really disappointed in CosmicCloud. He made an amazing video about why Octo Expansion was such a good DLC story and about nostalgia… but then he turns around and does THIS.

I have been so confused with why so many game theorists have refused to engage with media lately. From Tears of the Kingdom to Splatoon 3, there seems to be this rejection from fans for ambiguous storytelling.

See the way Nintendo often works is that they don’t give you concrete answers for anything. Instead the details are more abstract. There are hints, and clues, and inferences you can make to draw your own conclusions from sprinkled throughout their games.

And that’s where the FUN of lore theorizing comes from! It’s FUN to take these weird seemingly inconsistencies and explain why they exist!

But for some reason fans are refusing to do that now. They had no problem doing it for Splatoon 1 and 2, but ever since Octo Expansion came out they’ve been VERY resistant to engaging with this style of storytelling and wordbuilding. The most infamous being fans reacting poorly to the reveal that Mr. Grizz was actually a bear.

Throughout this whole video CosmicCloud just uses terms like “for some reason” to dismiss anything that’s even remotely out of the ordinary in Alterna. And every time he does it I wanna scream at him because he’s not even TRYING to engage with the media in any way!

What happened that made lore theorists give up on theorizing? What changed between then and now? I don’t get it. I feel like I’m going crazy. Why doesn’t anyone want to have FUN piecing together the pieces anymore? Isn’t that the whole point of being a theorist????