#i would kill for a zelda boxing game

[brainlessbaguette]

Linktober Day 3, Zelda

Oot Zelda hit the gym and you cannot convince me otherwise

[ganondoodle]

this isnt as long as before but i just cannot stop thinking about this, why i dislike story and lore boils down to these main point

--the ending feels unsatisfying as hell even if i ignore everything i dont like about how the game treated zelda and ganondorf, the ending itself just feels, despite being presented as super epic an touching, incredibly empty to me and part of it is that it feels like an unearned return to status quo of course i didnt think zelda would stay a dragon and i actually wanted to help her, which is why i kept trying to hunt down impa since she said shes gonna search for a way for us to help zelda, bc i wanted to!! i was eager to help her!

i fully hoped and kinda expected that thered either be some kind of dragon dungeon (think, the water dragon from okami) tho that would be difficult since you can get items from her so i ended up thinking before going into the end thered be a mission with impa (or at least given to you from her) where she found answers in ancient scripts (that she told you she would look through) and that you need to find a special lil thing that will help zelda undragonfy, like some sort of ultra secret forbidden enigma stone able to reverse dragon transformations kinda deal (golden opportunity to make you go and talk to the yiga bc they might know or even own some ancient texts) that youd keep in your inventory until the very end and after you kill dragondorf (pretty mortal for becoming an immortal dragon huh) you take it out and use it, undragonfying zelda and ending in a similar epic falling and paralel to the beginning way

... and instead impa stays in the house and only has a few repeating dialog boxes and does nothing and you cant do anything bc in the end you just get randomly teleported (and stripped of your clothing AGAIN) into some weird ethereal plane somehow?? with the ghost of long ass dead sonia and apparently not as gone as i thought rauru (seriously i felt sad when he went poof at the end of the tutorial but i guess i shouldnt have) awkwardly blasting dragon zelda with some magic tm and its all reversed no problem (heck me for caring i guess) turns out helping her was killing an evil guy we never really knew and mineru just kinda says lol its bc time and light magic i guess lol as an explanation

like i really wanted to go and help zelda! i was motivated to do it and spent HOURS trying to find impa again but i wasnt allowed to do anything bc zelda gets saved by some deus ex machina bs in the end anyway, what a fool i was, of course killing the evil guy is the solution to everything >:( (and no i dont care if its meant as in uwu sonia and rauru wanted to help one last time uwu bc it doesnt change how unsatisfying it was to watch it all just kinda happen)

--point two is just how much totk feels like its trying to REPLACE botw instead of being a sequel, its not building on anything of it its ripping out the fundation and building its own thing in its place, like i was so excited to see what happened to the titans, and all the sheikah tech what they mabe had done in all that time now that theres a tech enthusiastic girl as the head of the monarchy, maybe even find out more about them and instead its just all ... gone with not explanation? theres isnt even a LAME explanation, its just gone?? you never find out what the ancient energy actually was, and why there were concentrations of it in the regions with the ancient furnace (well heck it didnt even have anything to do with ganondorf actualyl bc that would have been too interesting) bc that was so intrigueing?? like yeah where DID it come from and why is it there ?? and oh suddendly hey look theres an even MORE ancient and even MORE advanced civilization thats way COOLER and BETTER than the ancient sheikah now, they also built stuff everywhere and have been here ALL ALONG cant you see its everywhere!! and its the only thing everyone cares about all of the sudden, all evdidence of the ancient sheikah tech was scraped of the earth so there literally only being some guardian parts on top of the hateno lab feels like an oversight now bc everything lese was to thourohgly wiped of the map- for no reason even?? like im totalls fine with it being useless and not working anymore but .... why remove it like it was wiped from history?? and then they have the gall to mention the happenings of botw like, twice in the entire game but still just give you the most basic summary of it mentioned on a sidenote with again not even a hint what happened to all of it

wouldnt there have been the golden opportunity to use it to access the new parts and map points that changed?? like a shrine thats fallen into the underground, an access to caves and the underground in the broken and collapsed elevator tube of a sheikah srhine?? maybe even a broken interior of an old shrine, like the room you get put into with the puzzle and where the monk once were broken and half overgrown in the udnerground? some left over construction site where you can see oh thats how the ancient sheikah got all that tech underground, bc they all had access to it and built it there to then rise up when its needed? maybe even making use of the old sonau sites since they frequnetly built their srhines within those ruins?? that the ancient sheikah found em and put the ruins to use? to research it and built their own stuff from it? it wouldnt have to have any focus, literally just part of the enviroment even

really everything totk does is like -forget botw ever happend, look how much cooler and better i am, who cares about sheikah stuff sonau are the new cool guys that came out of nowhere but now apparently have been everywhere all along actually-

i LOVE botw and with it feeling much more like its attempting to replace botw instead of building its story and world further every reference to botw i found felt like a slap in the face instead, oh look where the shrine of life used to be isnt even a hint left of sheikah tech somehow, and also right under it is the lake of healing filled with sonau structure bc ACTUALLY they were here FIRST bc they are so cool omg you guys

dare i say it feel a little like they wanted to make an entirely different version of botw basically, but wanted to reuse the map and models so they just said yeah uhhhh its totally a sequel yeah yeha that makes sense, its not erasing botw and doing essentiall the same thing again but bigger cooler and better (tm) its just uuh a ...sequel ye.

[arecaceae175]

Hi I'm sorry if this is random but do you have any LU Sky headcanons that you like and would like to share? No pressure if you don't want to ! (/genuine)

YES HI HELLO I ALWAYS WANT TO DO THIS!!!! :DDD

I have two other asks in my ask box about LU Sky headcanons that I am saving for when I come up with more headcanons (from @taddy-cat and @majorproblems77 hehe).

In no particular order here are some of my favorite Linked Universe Sky headcanons:

He is bisexual and polyamorous and in a relationship with Groose and Zelda!! They're all dating each other. Groose is also bi, demisexual, and poly, and Zelda is onmisexual and poly. I love them your honor. Groozelink my absolute beloved.

When I feel like letting Sky be trans, I enjoy having him be bigender (man and woman) and use he/she pronouns interchangeably.

I like calling his Loftwing Crimson. They're best friends. They like to go exploring together!!!

Sky's mother died when he was too young to remember her. Sky's father was a knight and Sky inherited his love for flight tricks! Before Sky and Crimson were old enough to fly on their own, Sky would ride with his dad and they would do awesome tricks. After Sky's parents died, he was kind of collectively raised by Skyloft, which is why no one is surprised to see him just show up and use their beds in the game. He lived with Zelda's family before he was old enough to live in the Knight Academy, and he also spent a lot of time at Pip's family's house.

I Imagine the Sky islands are much larger and much more expansive than we see in the game. Skyloft is the biggest Island and the capitol, kind of, and there are a lot more islands with people living on them.

Chronic illness Sky my beloved. I enjoy seeing him with any disabilities, but I am partial to POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome). It would explain his low stamina and chronic fatigue and sitting to regenerate hearts :). And there's a whole lot of other symptoms involved too. The heartbreaking part about this though is as the condition progresses he would gradually lose the ability to fly with Crimson. The forces and the erratic movement would make him pass out and that is super very dangerous to do on a bird. I'm going to write a fic about this one day

Autism. Yeah. Sky has a Loftwing plush that's his comfort item and he brings it everywhere. He gets VERY easily overwhelmed on the Surface because there just so much stuff. The first time he went down to the Surface he pretty much immediately had a meltdown and Fi had to guide him to a safe place for it. When he's either overstimulated or understimulated and needs noise he tugs on his ears. Sometimes he accidentally scratches them and makes them bleed. He's used to the constant noise of wind in the sky, so on the surface when he doesn't have that and hears all the small sounds of nature he gets very stressed and shuts down a lot. His happy stims are flapping his hands or flapping his arms like a Loftwing!

He loves art and crafts!!! Woodcarving is the easiest to do on adventures, but he also likes painting and coloring. If he lived in modern times he would have so many coloring books.

Sky is squeamish :( Sometimes when he got injured during his adventure he would just. Pass out. Or if he stayed awake and had to deal with the injury there was a lot of crying and vomiting involved. Poor guy.

He thinks in statistics now, even after Fi is gone. It's comforting to him. <3 He misses her so much

He's the best swordsman of the chain. Sometimes he goes fucking feral and the rest of them are like o.o and it's awesome. He killed a god, he deserves to go bonkers mode as a treat. But after he does that he WILL need 2-4 business days to recover

HE LIKES BUGS!!! He and Wild and Twilight go and collect bugs together sometimes and its adorable.

Sky is claustrophobic! It causes a lot of problems. I've got a claustraphobia Sky fic rattling around in my brain rn :)

Sky is the heaviest member of the chain. He is not the tallest (Time) or the most muscular (Twilight). He is relatively tall and strong, but he's also fat and I love that for him. Skyloftians naturally have more bodyfat to stay warm, but even by their standards Sky is big. (Fat is not a bad word <3). Draw him fat and I will love you forever <3

Hmmmmmm that's all I can think of right now!!! I have an easier time answering asks about specific questions than I do general ones, so if anyone has any specific headcanon questions I will answer those much more quickly than the abstract ones (which i still love and appreciate) that have been sitting in my ask box for months lol (it's an autism thing).

BUT YEAH I love Sky. Thank you so much for this ask. You caught me in the right mood to ramble about him hehehehe <3. SKY

[dogtoling]

I mean, you quite possibly saw salmonid-ink die... I loved running it, but splatoon 3 pretty much killed my passion. I still love the stuff I made for splatoon on the whole, but man do I get it. nintendo had interest in worldbuilding for like five entire seconds, where it just STOPPED because they wanted to sell a product. salmon run is a popular game mode, so we can't develop little buddy THAT much... why explain mechanics when they can just HAPPEN because. idk, ~future~ or something

genuinely, I wish you luck with any projects you make in the future! I enjoy seeing your OCs quite a lot, so I'll continue to view them, splatoon or no. I hope things can look up for you a bit!

Yeah, I remember, it was a shame but I fully understood where you came from back then (and now, lol). For the record I think the developers DO have interest in worldbuilding and the series is a big passion project for at least a handful of people on board. I unfortunately also believe that when you're making video games in-house at Nintendo and half the business is just about the profit margin, you don't really get to decide to spend half the budget on story when the gameplay focus is on repetitive multiplayer that could as well take place in a box and it wouldn't matter for most people who are genuinely in it for the gameplay. Unfortunately, and i HATE THIS OBVIOUSLY, unless you have a game series that's a story game as its selling point, it's REALLY unlikely that the story will be good... indie games win in this niche because independent developers CAN pretty much do what they want a lot of the time, the industry has no such freedom. Hell, nintendo HAS a story-focused big series in Zelda, and i use story-focused VERY loosely because.... well. Lol. these are all reasons i went to school for video games and never want to work in the industry for the record. i hate everything about it

I started rambling but TL;DR falling in love with a product is devastation waiting to happen at some point I think. my expectations of future games USED to be "SURELY, expand on the world and adapt the gameplay to those settings, it ONLY makes sense". If literally anyone ever has played Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, that's the kind of world and level setup I could see Splatoon somehow realistically do and it would be SO GOOD and it's ALMOST THERE EVEN, they're just... allergic to actually letting you IN THE WORLD. Nowadays, thinking about the future of Splatoon, i'm HONESTLY more inclined to believe future titles will be "new random micro-setting, random one-time-use goop because we need an Evil Goo to combat our Good Goo, unconsequential supervillain causing unconsequental but supposedly world-ending events, and poorly done plot with forced climax". Which is Not Good but it keeps happening. My smile and optimism gone

ANYWAY, thank you! I'll post here once I do anything. Mostly whenever I get an account set up for whatever I get going with.

[sanchoyo]

just finished echoes of wisdom!! (MAJOR) spoilers under the cut for my initial, very fresh thoughts. Lots of them

the outfits were so so cute. kitty outfit was a big hit for obvious reasons but I also loved Silk PJs and OG princess fits (dress and traveling one... <3) theres apparently a blue version of the dress and black cat outfit you get from amibos but I wasnt 100%ing and im not buying amibos just for that (even tho I would really like 2 have it akdsfk) a+ accessory designs too!!

great character designs, insanely varied for the gerudo and goron designs between every npc!! (probably the best gerudo designs to date IMO)

fav echoes were Hoard of Crows (me siccing like 6 crows on enemies) gold wind up bird u get from dampe (btw fun new role for him!!) bc I Liked Fast Money, lv 3 lizalfos (BLUE BIG BODYGUARD FOR ME) and lv 3 darknut. also obviously teddy bear. was throwing it at NPCs i liked all game

really enjoyed how many enemies returned from previous games!!! and diving!!! diving finally came back!! (LOVED the zora area, had a lot of fun with the pirate ship area over there too)

what was up with that one optional boss that was like a sentient fart. that was weird and I suspect he was supposed to come back and then I missed him on the second go around LMAO

the hebra mountain storyline had me in TEARS i was spawning teddy bears at that dude to try to make him feel better rapid fire (this did not help. sad) i was hoping i could find his brother and make him go back ;_; (cant recall the dudes name but that was the same species as the ones from twilight princess, right?)

the way i leveled up my swordfighter form SO much expecting to use it in the final boss fight and then had to give link his shit back and was unable to use it in the final fight?? INFURIATING. docking points on the rating for this game just for that shit. why give me the option to level up my sword and energy if not let me use it again null??? AUGH!!! I WANTED TO FIGHT TOO!!! NOT JUST USE ECHOES!!!

link and zelda both having to fight evil versions of each other at some point was kind of slay tho (also us having to come rescue him from the crystal? also slay) fanfic writers please have them jumping at mirrors and also seeing each other for a while tho, great concept

the final boss had me really surprised, i was 100% expecting ganon to show up or be the final boss (HE WAS ON THE POSTER...AND COVER ART...) but he was just another echo?? so where did null get that echo, exactly? was the ganon at the start that kidnapped zelda the real one, then link killed him and null echoed him from there?? unclear

null was a great final boss conceptually tho and i 100% hope they use them for future games. eldritch horror wasnt what i expected but thats AMAZING (putting their disappointing, sort of chaotic, but not hard final boss fight aside). very scary. very cool. walking around in their insides(??) to get to them (??) was awesome. love when cute games get a lil dark. adds flavor. cool new lore!!! cant wait for the lore implication theory videos to come out (do we think null is stronger than demise?? I decided I Do think so, demise is a Demon and null is some huge cosmic horror, feels like the scales tip to null being stronger...)

why was everyone at the end so shocked at what link said. whatd he say that had them shook i need to know (was it that he could talk again?? wasnt that a temporary problem from being in the void lol??)

need more games to play as zelda now. loved it. best loz game to come out since botw, maybe actually ranks higher in my mind?? (could be recency bias ofc, but it checked so many boxes for me) really fresh concept, my only real gripes are how the final boss fight played out (GIVE ME MY SWORDFIGHTER FORM BACK!!! LET ME SLICE!!) and the dang echo menu being 234234 miles long...the sorting features were nice, but still, needed a better menu for that in general. i scrolled 30 miles in the snow uphill etc.

also barely any of the ost was super stand-out to me, which (like. it was FINE but given how good the music in cadence of hyrule was they shouldve brought those guys back to do this music tbh. that game had me spoiled on good loz remixes. I stand by the fact it has probably the best ost in ALL of the zelda games.)

i LOVED the puzzles and dungeons. missed them soo much in recent loz games. i LOVE PUZZLE!!!!!!!!! none of them were too hard and it also wasnt too hand-holdy. perfect level of makes me think but not Steam my Brain type stuff.

smoothies were cute and really fun to play with. the deku scrubs were SO cute (they all used they/them too i think. based) all the CATS!! WERE SO CUTE!! just really appreciate how cute everything in the game was in general. the fact i could chuck teddy bears at enemies. best game actually

cant say i was crazy about any of the mini games but none were super hard once you had the froggy item. it felt like cheating a lil bit to use it but that was one of the items I wore until the end (along with my cute heart bow of COURSE. cant be saving hyrule if you aint cute)

fav NPCS were hebra mountain guy (conte??) the gerudo chief's daughter (she really felt like zelda's sidon, but not annoying <3) and general wright surprisingly (I really enjoyed how loudly supportive of zelda he was!! he was like YEAH OUR PRINCESS IS SO STRONG SHE CAN FIX IT AND BEAT THOSE MONSTERS!!! LETS GOO i loved that energy for us)

saying goodbye to tri destroyed me. I was crying real ugly tears. (I started thinking about my dog and saying goodbye to him last month and how much tri's speech reminded me of what I told him AUGH. its still fresh and hurts but this was somehow really healing to play. like this came at the perfect time I think)

thoughts subject to change once I watch other people's playthrus and listen to theory videos and think on it for a while but rn? solid 8/10 game (and I only docked points for the dang end boss fight really, REALLY good game up until then)

[lindsay00000008]

About Me:

🚫 MDNI 🚫

Call me Lindsay 💚 ✍🏻 🎨 🌿

Howdy! I’m new to posting on Tumblr! I’ve got ramblings and story snippets for ya (and art!). I mainly enjoy writing whump and fantasy OCs, but I write some COD fanfic too!

She/her, bi (💍➡️🤷🏻‍♂️), ‘98 (👵🏻)

Posting since March 2024 / About Me updated October 2024

Pet Whump Masterlist (in slooowww progress)

Ghost x JustAFriend/Fem!Reader

Most unique posts are tagged #lindsay00000008

Fandoms:

Whump! The OA, Hannibal (NBC), Zelda, COD, Helldivers, JJK (only for the Suguru/Satoru discourse and also Sukuna is hot) any video game where I can use a bow and arrow or build a house, booktok

Genre interests:

Fantasy (historical, historical AU, original world, isekai)

If modern, would be an AU (omegaverse, magic, multiple worlds, post-apocalypse) OR have something interesting/dark enough to tide me over (serial killer, criminal underworld, etc)

Whump: 80% hurt, 20% comfort. But I love when they’re combined (e.g. caretaker witnesses or is even somehow responsible for the whump, or intimate whumper is comforting whumpee as they whump)

Fav authors: Diana Wynne Jones (whimsical!), C.S Lewis (fantastical!), my sister (who is my mirror and notepad!)

Interacting with me:

Writers…

✅If a post does not use character names, use the scene/prompt/dialogue/idea however you like! You can even continue a snippet in your own part 2 post or reblog (even if I end up continuing it myself). I like to see where different authors take a scene or inspiration. If you’re not sure you can hop on and continue a specific post of mine, drop a comment! Please credit or [link to post] if you’re inspired by something specific, but no biggie.

❌If a post does use character names, or is a reader x character fan fic with multiple parts, I have more of an investment and I’d like to keep those as my own.

🚫Do not put my writing into any AI systems

Readers…

Most story snippets with romance/smut will be hetero but I’ll keep ramblings, whumspo, etc nonspecific

I love any kind of feedback. I especially love comments! Feel free to tag me if you think I'd like something, or send me a request! (I yearn for a stuffed ask box)

Friends…

I’m currently learning Welsh 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (did you know theres a welsh translation of Manacled?). I have a degree in Chinese 🇨🇳 (and linguistics) as well as intermediate skill in Korean 🇰🇷 (though I’m way out of practice in those). You can message me in those languages too!

⚠️Blog Content / Trigger Warnings⚠️

General - Sexually explicit and/or violent content. 18+ MDNI.

Why do I like whump? (Link)

If there's a post you think needs an extra CW, no matter how specific, let me know! I don’t tend to tag CWs, so lmk if you’d like me to for a specific topic!

My posts may include:

Smump (Smut + Whump in the same scene/event)

Non/dubcon (I enjoy finding reasons my characters should smash other than because they desire to (e.g. sex pollen, appease a God, break a curse, share life force, etc) May include consent given without full understanding of circumstances or identity (e.g. sex with the man who killed their father, who then tries to kill them etc)

Omegaverse (including hetero)

MF pairings, MMF pairings, MMMF... uh... etc

Breeding, choking, BDSM (the usual)

Monsters (But I’m picky. Yautja is probably my limit. Mostly humanoids.)

Religious trauma / Purity culture / Cults / Grooming (sexual or otherwise - never physical, always evil)

Pet/slave whump, systemic or just for fun, conditioning, dehumanization

Dad/Mom issues, loud men trauma, narcissism, republicans, being a general disappointment to guardians

Medical whump & experimentation, time gaps/amnesia, seizures, drug usage, hallucination, general illness (although I’m not into bedside caretaker stories unless a whumper is still involved)

Mental illness (anxiety/adhd specifically from personal experience, ptsd, responding to triggers, flashbacks, panic attacks, dissociation, suicidal ideation (overt or casual), self harm impulses, etc)

Torture, gore, blood, scarring, noncon body mod or surgery, sensory deprivation, food restriction, self harm (not super mutilate-y, maybe limbs lost but I’m not too into disfigurement or like infection)

Fantasy violence, damsels in distress, generally un-feminist tropes (think those old comic book covers with scantily clad women being attacked by aliens iykyk)

Born-sexy-yesterday - magically mature bodies/minds (ex. Nymph born from a flower, magical artifact awakened to serve a master, someone was turned into a cat as a child and has just been returned to human in their twenties and is very unknowledgeable of the world)

Age gap (no minors, e.g. 32 y/o x 20 y/o, 500+ y/o creature x 20 y/o Human)

Death (including minors)

Content will NOT include:

Extreme whump/maiming to MC without reason or resolution (unless done by irredeemable villains who are later violently slaughtered).

I like my MCs to have a resolution to any trauma or injury faced. I like them to be saved before the breaking point, or at least have their pain acknowledged and healed. As a writer it helps me feel in control. If I would have a hard time giving my MC a happily ever after, I'm less likely to write it that way.

Changed my blurb about “no full-on noncon”, ‘cause apparently I’m totally down with dark COD fics with stalking/ kidnapping noncon and pet play… you live and you learn!

Poor hygiene in combination with whump, smut, smump, or general intimacy. Like infected wounds, bodily functions etc (unless plot or worldbuilding related - e.g., where do pet whumpees take a leak?)

I'm a bit of a weeny and like my MCs healthy and clean, even if they're getting tortured :) If they throw up they will quickly get cleaned up etc

Intense description of injury to toddler, infant, fetus or very pregnant person

Pregnancy body horror and writing children suffering gives me heebie jeebies. Also, will not write pregnancy as a happy ending because it terrifies me irl lol

Minors in sexual scenes

Reminder that this does not include grooming by villains. If I did write something like that, it would be verbal or implied only and never physical (e.g. a woman raised to be the perfect, obedient wife might have some groomy backstory scenes)

Terrible note to end on. Anyway, enjoy my stuff!

[braininatankwithalaptop]

As excited as I am for a Zelda game with her as the protagonist, I do have some concerns with the mechanics.

The core heart and beating soul of good puzzles and puzzle design (imo) is limitations. You have to maneuver through the maze in (x) number of steps. You can only use the torch three times to light five lanterns. You can only weigh the 8 pills 3 times to find the poisonous one. And looking at the gameplay we've seen in the trailer, I don't get any sense that there are limitations? Boxes and decorative trees are used in a cave system far away from the (presumed) town you first unlocked them. There is no sign of limitation of number of echoes you can store. My biggest concern with this is that with the high focus on options, it will kill opportunities to design good puzzles. I wasn't as much of a fan of TOTK puzzles because they were relatively easy to cheese. You see those videos of players permastunning lynel's by recreating rings made of unbreakable material around them? I don't want a whole puzzle game that has the same weakness in it's design. Just thinking about the game from a design perspective I can think of two things that would give me hope. 1) There is a limit of echos you can have out in the world at the same time 2) There is a limit to the number of echos you have stored in the tri-rod (this would be my preferred solution, as if you had all items ever recorded, it would be super annoying to scroll through in the method demonstrated in the trailer) 3) Some combination of the above two. These obviously aren't the only solutions, but they're the most obvious ones that come to mind. If there aren't any limitations to the echo power, I won't completely give up hope, but I'm going to be very skeptical until I hear of puzzles that are still able to be interesting/engaging with that freedom.

[worstvideogamesong-poll]

Worst Video Game Song Tournament Masterpost

The tournament has begun! We are currently in round 4, and each poll will be open for a week. I will also be reblogging each poll 12 hours after it is posted so that people in different time zones are able to see them more easily. If you don't want to see these reblogs, block the tag #12th hour reblog. There will be a total of 8 polls in this round. 4 polls will be posted a day for a total of 2 days.

When you vote, I would recommend listening to as much as you can of each song before voting, but how you choose is up to you. Remember to be civil in the tags and replies! Some posts will have propaganda included with the songs, but feel free to add more propaganda in the tags and replies, or send it to me in the ask box and I'll try to share it as soon as I can!

View the bracket, make predictions and more on Challonge here

View the spreadsheet of submissions here

View the original introduction post here

Read the FAQ here

Listen to the full playlist on YouTube here

Full list of polls under the cut:

Round 1

Match 1 - Lavender Town (Pokémon Red/Blue) vs. Vs. Odd Yo-Kai (Yo-Kai Watch)

Match 2 - K.K. Synth (Animal Crossing New Leaf) vs. Bad Feeling (Mad Rat Dead)

Match 3 - This is Where You Are Caucasian Destination Boy (Project Sekai: Colorful Stage! feat. Hatsune Miku) vs. Morpho Knight (Kirby and the Forgotten Land)

Match 4 - Track 6 (The Ring: Terror's Realm) vs. Fallen Down (Undertale)

Match 5 - Rodeo Time! (Yo-Kai Watch 3) vs. The Fade (Dragon Age Origins)

Match 6 - Rivers in the Desert (mito Remix) (Persona 5 Dancing in Starlight) vs. Birthday Cake (Jet Set Radio Future)

Match 7 - Let's Start the Killing Game (Danganronpa v3: Killing Harmony) vs. You've Got to Eat Your Vegetables! (Commander Keen 4)

Match 8 - Venus (Doom Troopers Sega Genesis) vs. GB Hunter Theme (GB Hunter)

Match 9 - Know What I Mean? (Mario Party 2) vs. Boss Theme 1 (Sonic Superstars)

Match 10 - Area 4, 8, & 13 (Santa Claus Saves the Earth GBA) vs. The Yoshi Clan (Yoshi's New Island)

Match 11 - Bomb Rush Blush (Remix) - Splatoon 2 vs. Mansion Basement (Resident Evil Director's Cut)

Match 12 - Monkeys (Nancy Drew: Ransom of the Seven Ships) vs. Vacation Music 1 (The Sims 1)

Match 13 - Hazy Lane (Yo-Kai Watch 3) vs. Central City (Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood)

Match 14 - Mumble Blues (Armed and Delirious (Dementia)) vs. Crazy Bus Title Screen (Crazy Bus)

Match 15 - Striptease (Persona 4) vs. Professor Birch's Laboratory (Pokémon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire)

Match 16 - Oppression (Cave Story) vs. Spookwave (Undertale)

Match 17 - Nocturne (Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood) vs. Ancient Chozo Ruins (Metroid II: Return of Samus)

Match 18 - Diggity Dog (WWF No Mercy N64) vs. YZAP (Yo-Kai Watch 3)

Match 19 - Versus (Sonic Eraser) vs. Neo-Opportunist (Mad Rat Dead)

Match 20 - 50m (Donkey Kong '94) vs. Black Tar (Xenoblade Chronicles X)

Match 21 - Shadow World (DE DE MOUSE Remix) (Persona 4 Dancing All Night) vs. Mushroom Road (Tales of the Abyss)

Match 22 - Fest Zest (Splatoon 2) vs. Survival Instincts Kicking In (Bravely Default II)

Match 23 - Drawbridge Dilemma (WarioWare: Get it Together!) vs. Fight Theme 1 (Omikron: The Nomad Soul)

Match 24 - Thrifty Megamart (Pokémon Sun/Moon) vs. Metal Gear MS DOS Soundtrack (Metal Gear MS DOS)

Match 25 - NLA (Night) (Xenoblade Chronicles X) vs. Spooktune (Undertale)

Match 26 - Namco Arcade 80's Retro Medley (Super Smash Bros. for Wii U) vs. I Love Beijing Tiananmen (Hong Kong 97)

Match 27 - Stage Theme (1942) vs Red-Green-Yellow-Yellow (Mother 3)

Match 28 - Din's Power (Harp) (The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword) vs. Wildfire (Honkai: Star Rail)

Match 29 - Midna's Lament (Remix) (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate) vs. Tired of Life (Lady of Beestmeel Bro)

Match 30 - Holy Orders? (Guilty Gear XX) vs. Burning Men's Soul (Persona Trinity Soul)

Match 31 - Built to Scale (Rhythm Heaven Fever) vs. Main Theme (Beverly Hills Cop)

Match 32 - Just Leave Me Alone (OMORI) vs. Denegul (Lagoon)

Match 33 - Now or Never! (Remix) (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate) vs. Crown Dungeon (The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages)

Match 34 - Heart and Soul (Cutscene) (Sonic Frontiers) vs. Dungeon Man (EarthBound)

Match 35 - Resetti's Theme (Animal Crossing: Wild World) vs. Rise & Shine, Ursine! (Danganronpa v3: Killing Harmony)

Match 36 - Belly Flop (Splatoon 3) vs. Lemon Jelly (The Sims 2)

Match 37 - mmm yess put the tree on my pizza (Pizza Tower) vs. The Moving Gigantic Ship (Tales of Xillia)

Match 38 - Comin' at ya, My girl (Yakuza 5) vs. Track 7 (Frozen Fruits)

Match 39 - Battle (Field) (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild) vs. Title Theme (The Adventures of Rad Gravity)

Match 40 - Emphasis on Scat (BattleBlock Theater) vs. Shipwreckin' (Splatoon 2)

Match 41 - Tem Shop (Undertale) vs. Character Select (Marvel vs. Capcom 2)

Match 42 - Title Screen (Tagin' Dragon) vs. Path of Pain (Hollow Knight)

Match 43 - What's Your Name? (San Fransisco Rush) vs. Pathetic House (Undertale)

Match 44 - Mine: Zew (The Void/Tension) vs. Chocobo Theme (Final Fantasy 2)

Match 45 - Versus Giegue (EarthBound Beginnings) vs. Dragon's Den (Pokémon Gold/Silver)

Match 46 - Great Bay Temple (The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask) vs. Sagat's Theme (Street Fighter 1)

Match 47 - Chocobo Theme (Final Fantasy X-2) vs. Honeylune Ridge (Super Mario Odyssey)

Match 48 - Close in the Distance (Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker) vs. Shrimp Shuffle (Rhythm Heaven Fever)

Match 49 - Desert (Super Mario Bros.) (Super Mario Maker 2) vs. National Anthem (Double Dribble Arcade)

Match 50 - Dubble Bath (DIY Remix) (Splatoon 2) vs. Fun House (Spider-Man the Animated Series)

Match 51 - Options (Sonic Spinball) vs. Welcome to Mario Cars 2 (Mario Cars 2)

Match 52 - Twilit Battle (The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess) vs. Confusion (Digimon World 3)

Match 53 - 25m (Donkey Kong) vs. Buying Goods at Palmira (Evergrace)

Match 54 - Crazy Shuffle Theme (Action 52) vs. Joke's End (Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga)

Match 55 - Treasure Caves (Wild Woody) vs. Long Elevator (Undertale)

Match 56 - Conspiracy (わるだくみ) (Muv Luv) vs. Opening (Sonic Blast 3D 5)

Match 57 - Digital Roots (Deltarune Chapter 2) vs. Lying in the Darkness (Tales of Graces)

Match 58 - Victory Road (Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver) vs. Title Music (Manic Miner)

Match 59 - Donut Plains (Super Mario Kart) vs. Nightclub (Sabotaged) (Payday 3)

Match 60 - Credtrap (Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill) vs. Cole Train Rap (Gears of War)

Match 61 - Tragic Prince (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night) vs. Theme of Stardust (Yakuza 2)

Match 62 - Vital (Fornite) vs. Title Screen (Ballz 3D)

Match 63 - Emblem Engage! (Fire Emblem: Engage) vs. Sub-Tree Area (Kirby Super Star)

Match 64 - Maximum Power (After Burner (Amiga)) vs. Imp's Song (DOOM)

Round 2

Match 1 - Lavender Town (Pokémon Red/Blue) vs. K.K. Synth (Animal Crossing: New Leaf)

Match 2 - This is Where You Are Caucasian Destination Boy (Project Sekai: Colorful Stage! feat. Hatsune Miku) vs. Track 6 (The Ring: Terror's Realm)

Match 3 - The Fade (Dragon Age: Origins) vs. Birthday Cake (Jet Set Radio Future)

Match 4 - You've Got to Eat Your Vegetables! (Commander Keen 4) vs. GB Hunter Theme (GB Hunter)

Match 5 - Know What I Mean? (Mario Party 2) vs. The Yoshi Clan (Yoshi's New Island)

Match 6 - Mansion Basement (Resident Evil Director's Cut) vs. Vacation Music 1 (The Sims 1)

Match 7 - Central City (Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood) vs. Title Screen (Crazy Bus)

Match 8 - Striptease (Persona 4) vs. Spookwave (Undertale)

Match 9 - Nocturne (Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood) vs. Diggity Dog (WWF No Mercy (N64))

Match 10 - Versus (Sonic Eraser) vs. 50m (Donkey Kong)

Match 11 - Shadow World (DE DE MOUSE Remix) (Persona 4 Dancing All Night) vs. Survival Instincts Kicking In (Bravely Default II)

Match 12 - Fight Theme 1 (Omikron: The Nomad Soul) vs. Metal Gear MS DOS Soundtrack (Metal Gear MS DOS)

Match 13 - NLA (Night) (Xenoblade Chronicles X) vs. I Love Beijing Tiananmen (Hong Kong 97)

Match 14 - Stage Theme (1942) vs. Din's Power (Harp) (The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword)

Match 15 - Tired of Life (Lady of Beestmeel Bro) vs. Holy Orders? (Guilty Gear XX)

Match 16 - Main Theme (Beverly Hills Cop (PC)) vs. Denegul (Lagoon(SNES))

Match 17 - Crown Dungeon (The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages) vs. Dungeon Man (EarthBound)

Match 18 - Resetti's Theme (Animal Crossing: Wild World) vs. Belly Flop (Splatoon 3)

Match 19 - The Moving Gigantic Ship (Tales of Xillia) vs. Track 7 (Frozen Fruits)

Match 20 - Title Theme (The Adventures of Rad Gravity) vs. Emphasis on Scat (BattleBlock Theater)

Match 21 - Character Select (Marvel vs. Capcom 2) vs. Title Screen (Tagin' Dragon (NES))

Match 22 - What's Your Name? (San Fransisco Rush) vs. Mine: Zew (The Void/Tension)

Match 23 - Versus Giegue (EarthBound Beginnings) vs. Sagat's Theme (Street Fighter 1)

Match 24 - Chocobo Theme (Final Fantasy X-2) vs. Shrimp Shuffle (Rhythm Heaven Fever)

Match 25 - National Anthem (Double Dribble Arcade) vs. Fun House (Spider-Man: The Animated Series)

Match 26 - Welcome to Mario Cars 2 (Mario Cars 2) vs. Confusion (Digimon World 3)

Match 27 - Buying Goods at Palmira (Evergrace) vs. Crazy Shuffle Theme (Action 52)

Match 28 - Treasure Caves (Wild Woody) vs. Opening (Sonic 3D Blast 5)

Match 29 - Lying in the Darkness (Tales of Graces) vs. Title Music (Manic Miner)

Match 30 - Nightclub (Sabotaged) (Payday 3) vs. Credtrap (Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill)

Match 31 - Theme of Stardust (Yakuza 2) vs. Title Screen (Ballz 3D(SNES))

Match 32 - Emblem Engage! (Fire Emblem: Engage) vs. Imp's Song (DOOM)

Round 3

[lastoneout]

Is it really accurate to call what happens to Zelda in TOTK fridging? I was under the impression that fridging meant “villain hurts or kills character to motivate MC.” But Zelda’s sacrifice feels like the opposite of that to me since she makes a choice of her own agency right at the end of her character arc. Also, while it’s true she has absolute love for and faith in Link, she’s also making her choice for the sake of the kingdom she grew to love (she would be leaving behind the schoolchildren she loved and taught too). It actually really resonated with me, considering how she had spent the previous few years living her life and forming connections with the people of Hyrule.

I've been mulling over this question since I got it and like, it's frustrating bcs I do think overall thematically and in terms of Zelda's personality and fate and powers and stuff that this choice makes sense, and I actually really like it in a lot of ways, but like...just because this was well written and thematically made sense and was supposed to be a tragedy doesn't mean it was the ONLY way a sequel to BotW could have gone, and it really shows a lack of creativity on Nintendo's part that they cannot seem, or are unwilling, to tell a LoZ narrative that does NOT feature Zelda getting shoved in a box for a significant portion of the game.

I'm also less willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one, if only bcs you have to use parts from the light dragon to upgrade your armor. It might make sense to some degree, but Zelda just feels very much like she exists to sacrifice her entire body and mind and soul to help Link ~fight better~ and the fact is that is a role a lot of female characters get shoved into, where their very bodily autonomy is treated as disposable bcs it's To Help A Man, and it adds to the feeling that they didn't like, think of how it's kinda maybe a little yikes to use a female character for her body like that.

So idk...it may work in this narrative, but it's been over 25 years of Zelda being put in a box for whatever reason, it's starting to get...suspicious, that Nintendo can't manage to imagine a narrative where she isn't.

Also I guess fridging might be the wrong word in this context, but this is essentially what I meant by that.

[majorasnightmare]

Please elaborate on the Ganondorf Au(s), I gotta know, lol I my immediate first thought was this weird/elaborate Coffee Shop AU where Zelda and Link are running some small-time locally owned franchise (like two, maybe three stores)... and Ganondorf rolls up in some Super-Starbucks trying to take over or push them out of business... why did that come to me so quickly, lmao

OKAY S O

jesus christ this is long

i find ganondorf to be a deeply compelling character. this is in part to the way pre botw zelda games utilized him as both a villain and as this symbolic culmination of evil.

now other games may have done this, but none immediately come to mind, as one of the most compelling aspects of ganondorfs character is that before botw? every instance in every game was the SAME dude (except skyward sword but ill talk about that later). that allowed games with stronger narrative focus to flesh him out in greater detail, while a game with a more cut and dry story but flashier cinematics could really sell his menace, and future iterations could carry the boons of both.

now the zelda timeline is a mess, and the games themselves were not built around that concept. at most youd get direct sequels like majoras mask, or games directly referencing an older title as part of their history, like twilight princess. one should not take the timeline as Word Of God Canon (even though there are multiple official books that reference it), but they all kind of work together to give you a bigger picture. this is especially true for the 2d zeldas, as Ganondorf The Character wasnt really an explored concept back then. you instead had dark beast ganon (who once took human form as dude named Aganhim but hes. separate. like hes canon and important but most of what he contributes to Ganondorf As Character is the dark evil wizard vibes).

in general, when looking at ganondorfs character youll mostly be examining four titles: Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, Windwaker, and Skyward Sword. skyward sword is unique in a lot of ways because it IS made with the "zelda timeline" in mind, and is the timelines official beginning. here we get the forging of the master sword, the first imprisoning war, and! a guy that is NOT ganondorf! demon king demise is the end game boss here, and while i could dedicate a post to analyzing his limited screentime, whats important to this convo is that demise lays a curse upon his defeat. those bearing the soul of the hero (link, who reincarnates), the blood of the goddess hylia (zelda, who does not and instead has descendants inheriting power) will be caught in a cycle of war and blood with the bearer of demise's hatred (ganondorf!). and THERES the money. that last part there helps contribute a LOT to further analyzing ganondorfs character throughout these games because, as mentioned before, they build on each other!

the plot of ocarina of time is not deep. its an enjoyable game, but like most zelda entries, its a paint by numbers tale of a good hero overcoming an evil villain who kidnaps a Notable Woman as the final build towards the climax, wherein you kick his ass free the girl and kill him. (kind of. ganondorf never really DIES) HOWEVER. twilight princess, windwaker, and skyward sword, by virtue of focusing on this SAME DUDE, end up giving a LOT of retroactive depth! its a really fun phenomenon!

that tears of the kingdom throws in the fucking trash! for!! some reason!! WHY. why the hell would you spend 25 years making a layer cake piece by piece and then throw it in the trash in favor of box mix cupcakes??? I DONT GET IT MAN.

totk isnt. a BAD game per se. theres a lot to enjoy about it.

narrative is not one of those things.

tiptoeing around spoilers here but discussing them generally

the dragon tears are, among other things, about ganondorfs rise to power, to reach his current end game boss state. despite this. he has a grand total of three scenes before he GETS that power. one of which is him laughing, one of which is a poorer retelling of a scene from OoT, and the last one is his introduction where he does fuck all. WHERES THE MOTIVE HERE????

OoT is my least favorite entry of the 4 games listed above. it has a lot of dated narrative elements and systemic issues that continue to plague nintendo to this day (misogyny and racism as per usual). despite this, i find myself returning to OoTs narrative and characterization REPEATEDLY in totk because in so many aspects it just storytells better! yes totk is an open world game with a hands off narrative approach. but botw has that concept down pat and is a more satisfying experience. totk is a more narrative focused botw, and yet its storytelling sucks WORSE than botws and doesnt even measure up to OLDER TITLES. more detailed rants on that are for another time.

so what is a bitch with a special interest in zelda and a fixation on its most charismatic villain to do when presented with an otherwise enjoyable game that is deeply unsatisfying in regards to aforementioned autistic bitchs favorite villain?

obviously make an au thats TotK But Better For Me And My Bros Specifically (thanks @villalunae ily forever)

but if your gonna do that, might as well go full self indulgence, right?

due to aforementioned Ganondorf Characterization Layer Cake, theres a LOT of fun Implied Nuance to play around with, of most importance is ganondorfs relationship with the gerudo, and the gerudos relationship to hyrule. demises curse and the elements of destiny and fate add some fun compounding factors to really amp the tension up, but in my opinion only really ever serve as The Last Straw so to speak. its important that ganondorf is someone who chooses to be this way! but choices arent made in a vacuum, and prying those circumstances apart gives you so many potential ways for this to End Differently.

so seeing that TotK Ganondorf is NOT the OG OoT Ganondorf, the idea here is to further explore the concept of like. WHY is he a villain? villain is a socially constructed category afterall. how do you focus on those circumstances and their effects on a person? how does the political situation of hyrule play into this?

a personal favorite interpretation of mine (and other ppls judging by the plethora of fan content in a similar vein), is this idea of a Redeemed Ganondorf, a variation where ganondorf is NOT the final boss, but instead an ally of link and zeldas. wrt this particular au, that looks a lot like locking everyone in a room together and see who starts throwing things first.

so with that in mind, i just ended up going through scene after scene in totk and thinking of how a redeemable ganondorf would play out. what kind of personality would he have, how would he interact with these other characters, what are his relationships like? whats his driving motive, how committed to these ideas is he, whats his breaking point and why? and then playing with those ideas and throwing them against other characters, how does he interact with the sages, how does he interact with rauru, how does he interact with ZELDA?

a lot of that informs the baseline of how we ended up going through making the au (alongside a hefty dose of writers worldbuilding dilemma lmao) and also serves as the foundation of subsequent sequel aus that as of right now exist solely as amvs in my head.

so in summary theres two?? maybe 3??? that im just marinating in.

the main unnamed totk au, where the triforce trio work alongside each other to put an end to demises curse of hatred once and for all, with a large focus on character dynamics and their relationships to each other (and also plenty of self indulgence. ghirahim got tossed back in there. and fi)

and then, after that, a kind of hypothetical sequel game to totk au. set 100 years after the ending events of totk au, the trio + co navigate a world where the threat of ganondorfs rise to power is no longer the primary problem hyrule suffers, but instead a power vacuum in the realm of demons, leading to a slowly rising threat of demon incursion. focuses on how your "party" (ganondorfs reincarnation, links reincarnation, and a non-princess zelda, alongside naboorus reincarnation, and impa (neither a reincarnation nor a descendant but once again paying homage to impa as a recurring character)) gets along with each other and how, as the years go by (i have. TWO seperate time skips so far), their relationships to each other change, and how their goals and ideals grow and change in response to the shifting landscape of threat in hyrule

the last one, technically, is a modern au that mostly works as background context for triforce trio shitposting.

(ur idea for a coffee shop au is fuckn FANTASTIC btw i love it)

GOD this post got long. thanks for holdin out so long for all this! i can definitely make long as fuck posts about. p much anything in totk and how it gets changed or reinterpreted in totk au, or ganondorfs relationships in that au, because they live in my brain rent free.

[thegeminisage]

much as it pains me, i only have an hour or so before bedtime so i've decided to press on to gerudo town...i want my snow boots before i try to get that memory and i KNOW they are there

omg this stable has boxes everywhere?! my buddy is here too. where to even begin

YOOOOO evil zelda has been at work here.........telling them not to go near the WELL in a DESERT?

cleaning up thi hoarder junk lol just like real life

man...it's so SAD to be their final customer :( it's sad they have to close up forever...

oh!! he wants art for the stable's final days 😭

geez, those are some tough pictures to get...i'll do my best, but not tonight lol

evil zelda saying stay away from the well is why it's shutting down!!! noooo

girl why does everyone obey her like that, like against logic...the monarchy barely means anything anymore. shes my babygirl but like if my stable was closing bc of some nonsense order i would simply violate the order

DONT TAKE ME OUT OF THE WELL I NEED THAT LOOT........

OMG yessssss FROGGY LEGGINGS!!!!!! god at LAST...only ONE MORE PIECE TO GO............

if i cleaned the well out does that mean the stable can open again 🥺

oh, when your meal pouch is full addison gives you rupees twice lol

im in the desert and i HATE. SAND. anakin skywalker was right about everything

oooh but it looks so different...the bazaar...what IS that tall thing...how do i sneak in this time lol

this poor korok will have to wait til i get my fucking sand & snow boots

oh cool you can rent a sand seal with a CARRIER now...love it

ah, i see. i guess i can take the korok after all lol. one less for later!

this sand shroud business seems SPOOKY...wild weather in real life fascinates me, and so too does wild video game weather

damn this old lady is fucking jaded. begging me not to drop dead in front of her lol

oh FUN this gerudo is teaching me like, gerudo language, and she's trying to teach me how to make the "v" sound...which i know, because english, but in japanese they don't have that i don't think. COOOOLL

lol a rito just named guy

ah, the updraft is to fly over the shroud...very good. i remember the map not working in botw and it was scary lol

but i still wonder how i get in??

just like when i did the story in the other areas i activate the shrines and leave them behind...smh. at least this time i have the excuse of "it's almost bedtime"

WHAT is this big mushroom thing with the bud in it??? looks almost like a lightroot

i've officially hit 999 brightbloom seeds lol. the game won't let me pick up anymore

oh wow the map going fuzzy is just as bad as i remember lol. it's bedtime but i just GOTTA get to town first...i think i remember an npc saying something about zombies i WANT TO SEE THE REDEADS (or do i)

okay. so.

i got. in. like by just. walking in.

saw a redead. immediately froze in terror.

it's not moving. i'm not moving. alright. alright

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I SHOT IT AND IT GOT BACK UP KILL IT WITH FIRE

killed it with fire. don't like that

GIBDO BONE..........................it is literally not a gibdo. it's not a mummy. it's a redead!!!

shit fuck this looks. so bad. hudson's poor daughter...where even IS everyone

riju's not here...but i found her diary

my friends link and zelda are in hyrule and they'll take care of it 😭

geez she is so young to be dealing with all of this...older now but still

SNOWSHOE DUDE????

oh my god he's FINALLY in........but to what avail..................

so, everyone is hiding in the wells...

wow, even the bar is fucked up......tragic

where tf are the wells?

OH i found one!!! a square well!

message in a BOTTLE!!!! JUST LIKE OOT

oh lol it's a love letter from a gerudo. girl.......you can't just put love letters in bottles...you and finley both...enough

oh i found the way in but i don't have the girl clothes :( idk how to do it!!!

BULIARA WITH THE STEEL CHAIR

omg i get the special exception rule <3 i guess thats better than the last game...?

man they arent even allowed to talk to me lol

oh, these guys don't seem to know the trick - killing them with fire lol

another heroines quest! i'll be honest i didn't really understand the first one...

omg they put a guy in JAIL for coming in here...they're serious!!

ok the last thing i wanted to do before bed, which i am late for, was get my shoes. i had to look up the location but AAAA theres two redeads in my way!!!!!!!!! literally kill with fire

i am so tense and hypervigilant walking thru this town. my eyes sweeping everywhere between steps. i am NOT gonna get jumped by one of those motherfuckers this close 2 bedtime

oh god FINALLY made it

those brightbloom seeds just paid for my desert vai armor! of course i had enough for the boots and bought them first lol

well it's more than half an hour past the bedtime i wanted

but i unblocked the door and walked out

saw a redead shambling towards me. went back in.

that's a sign. that's for future liz to deal with tomorrow. eugh

[chellyfishing]

okay let’s do the videos game i played this year

uhh obviously as per i played a stupid amount of ffxiv. like i don’t think i have a record of hours played this year nor am i interested in knowing. i did my first current tier savages this year though??? (right? that was this year? or late last? i think it was this year.) also farming exes while they’re still new and not crying the whole time?? who is SHE??? i was going to say this is the year i became a whm main but i think that personal tragedy happened last year actually.

i finished until dawn in april. i actually did... pretty well without a walkthrough, i did restart after i got the dog killed bc i felt so so bad about it (this is the kind of thing i think is understandable and acceptable) and then i had some ehhhh struggles with those final hold still QTEs to get everybody out before things exploded but otherwise i mostly made... okay choices?? FOR THE MOST PART??? i discovered later that there aren’t as many places you can get people killed as i thought tho so tbh i don’t think my performance was that impressive. anyway i enjoyed this game, the further along i got in it the more i had to play it in short bursts cause it’s uhh kinda stressful? and listen i don’t mind explaining to you that for me the fear is not in the monsters or the jump scares the fear is in messing up, the stress of getting someone killed because of my mistakes and my wrong choices and my inability to play the game right. horror means different things to different people and for me the real horror was in the imperfections we revealed in ourselves along the way.

okay i nearly forgot that i did play my switch for more than piddling around in zelda and mario and i did actually play another new release besides stray (see below) this year which was the stanley parable ultra deluxe back in april (or may?). i never played the original so i was happy to grab this and just spend a few days exploring it. i watched the ox kids play it and was amazed that with how thorough i thought i was i STILL missed a bunch of stuff! but they also missed stuff that i did. incredible. so fun and funny and when i had the bucket for less than ten seconds i already knew i would both kill and die for it. i think this is the only switch game i finished this year which, come on, self.

(i did play a lot of botw and mario odyssey this year i!!!! just haven’t finished them!!! DON’T LOOK AT ME!!!!!)

replays of resi 2 and 3 remakes as well as 7 and 8 in june because they all got ps5 upgrades and i got a ps5! i am like one or two trophies away from plat on all of them and i hate it!!! for 3 and 7 they’re the hardest mode (inferno and madhouse respectively i think) trophies bc there’s this stretch before you can get your good items from the item box that are just So Hard and you have to actually be good to get through them and i am not!!! for 2 it’s the stupid 4th survivor mode, again you have to actually be good. and for village it’s a couple of mercenaries mode trophies that i could probably get if i would just sit down and play mercenaries mode for a bit, i said i would do it when the dlc dropped and it has and yet here we are.

in july i played titanfall 2! wow this game was a lot of fun and a lot more emotional than i expected!!! if you followed me on twitter at the time you got to witness my emotional breakdown. i might revisit this someday to get more trophies but for me the fun i had in this was just kind of jumping into a short campaign and blitzing through it in a weekend without trying to be good or complete. i didn’t even really mess around with the collectables and i kind of don’t know who i’ve become as a person.

control also got a ps5 upgrade so i replayed that also in july to get the plat again. while i was at it i 100%’d both dlcs as well. i love this game!!! i love the setting, i love the story, i love jesse, i love the sense of humor, i love the other characters, i love how weird things are sometimes, one day i think i’m actually going to sit down and read all the documents because i HAVE THEM ALL (except like... one that you could only get with a ps4 preorder or something?? idk i forget, it’s not important) and i love the writing! this year we also got confirmation on the sequel and man. MAN. GIVE IT TO ME I’M SO READY.

i played journey to the savage planet... also in july! i had a lot of opinions about this game and i remember going over them a lot on twitter. i loved so much about it but there were just some things i kinda haaaaated. like there are some things about the way the game is mechanically that are so SO frustrating (there’s no MAP in the EXPLORATION GAME??) and i really just wanted to explore this weird planet and eat goo and look at new critters with one brain cell. i dunno! also no plat bc there are like 3 or 4 co-op only trophies. i think i got almost all the others, i’m missing like one in the main game, one in the dlc, and i think you’ll catch me dead before i try old game minus if i was already frustrated enough with the normal version of the game.

i played town of light in (checks notes) july and uhhhhh. this game is a lot! there’s not a lot to it mechanically, it is more or less a walking sim, and there are some aspects of the gameplay that don’t feel great, i remember being unclear on where to go at times and the game is not always great at letting you know. but the story. i was an absolute sobbing wreck at the end. like, so many trigger warnings, you guys, and i don’t think this is right for everyone, but if you think you can play it you should, or maybe watch someone else play it. it is... gripping, heartbreaking, very hard to get through in places, especially for people with certain lived experiences.

i played wytchwood in uhh mumblemumblejuly which is easily a new favorite game. it’s like a fairy tale where you play as a witch going through different areas and the main gameplay loop is finding items and recipes, crafting them to get more items to craft more to get more to solve story and environmental puzzles to progress the plot. the story is so fun and well-written, the graphic design and animation are beautiful, it is really the kind of game i picked up and INSTANTLY went “i love this already so much.” just so good and cozy and wholesome, i would recommend to everyone honestly. whitethorn is a new favorite developer. oh also if you like trophies this is an easy plat as you get all of them just playing the story.

i played tacoma and it was still the month of july. this is from the same people who made gone home, so if you liked that you may also like this. it is another walking sim, all though you’re in space so sometimes it is a floating sim. i loved the characters and the story, plus there is a cat that you can find for a trophy. it’s really good! however, fuuuuuck steve gaynor, and to my knowledge he still works at fullbright, so up to you if you want to give them your money.

obviously, i played stray when it came out in (checks) are you kidding me?! july?! this is the other new release besides stanley parable (and resi8 dlc if you count that) that i played this year since i usually wait for stuff to drop in price but this wasn’t that expensive since it’s an indie game and uhhh i wanted to play it!!! also it is goty! you play as a cat! you have a robot buddy!! i loved the world and the characters, and i cried so much at the end!! if you haven’t played it yet why!! what are you waiting for!!!

in some month that’s not even important at this point i played teacup which is another whitethorn game. it is a very very short cute little narrative game about a frog who wants to have a tea party with her friends. like this is just a game you sit down with when you want something so cute and cozy and you’ve already played wytchwood so many times. the kind of thing you could play with a little kid if you have one of them lying around. very pleasant and cleansing. also another slam dunk plat.

in OCTOBER the resi 8 dlc dropped and i played that, like stayed up all night when it released kind of played through it. i’m surpised that i haven’t already replayed it twenty times because i did like it a lot! i like rose and you know what some of the stuff in this is... genuinely kind of scary!! i can’t even look at the face-sucking animation it is so unpleasant. a lot of things in this game were doing a number on my trypophobia tbh. maybe that’s why i haven’t gone straight back to it. also the mannequins are scarier than the fetus monster, i said it and i meant it.

and last but not least this month (tbh started nov 30) i played tales of arise. my longer post on this game is still in the drafts haha. i guess i can talk about it a bit here tho. i... loved this game. i think my expectations were... neutral at best, ofc i didn’t love zestiria and while i liked berseria at the time i’ve never felt any particular desire to revisit it (this actually may be due to other factors that i’ll not get into atm), and i normally log literally hundreds of hours into tales games, so i guess i just wasn’t feeling optimistic about being impressed by it. and i was wrong!!! i really think this has some of the most mature character writing of any game in the series. normally the characters are like one half assorted disparate lol xd random quirks and one half trauma without the two sides melding very well but i felt that much much less in this game. there were things in the story writing i thought were pretty typical for the series and things that i really liked and appreciated! i ended up loving the characters, loving the way they grew as individuals, in relation to each other, and as a group, and i actually remember what happens in the plot which is uhhhhh a bit more than i can say for the last two games. also? voice cast was flawless, no notes, yeah even papenbrook, yeah i’m as surprised as you.

aside from that, i actually played my first real matches of both among us and overwatch this year and had a lot of fun. LOST BIG HARD in overwatch every single time sorry team i was drunk and wouldn’t have known what i was doing sober. oh but i did get most damage blocked as reinhardt (had to look his name up) in one match!!! also winning a mungus match with @foxxxy--mulder as my co-imposter against a team of hardened vets who ate each other alive for us is one of my most cherished gaming memories of the year. i hold it close to my heart and think of it often.

stuff i’m looking forward to next year: 

resi4 remake obviously!!! i pre-ordered it immediately i’m SORRY i know pre-ordering is BAD i never do it but resi is an exception!!! and it comes out on my BIRTHDAY!!!!

oxenfree: lost signals! i know it was supposed to be released this year and has been delayed a couple times which is... not a great sign. like i am PRO-DELAY don’t get me wrong!! i’m glad to hear it for a lot of reasons!! it’s just usually when you hear stuff get pushed back... more than once it’s a little worrisome. however i’m still excited for it and hope for the best!

horizon forbidden west--yes obviously this doesn’t come out next year, but i will almost definitely be playing it in 2023. in fact it’s on sale right now for a price i don’t hate and i’m contemplating picking it up after i get paid, since ofc i’ve been aching to play this for months and months now.

hmm it seems there is a grimgrimoire remaster coming out next year. i will consider that seeing as i am a simp for vanillaware. (13 sentinels is another game i actually might get my hands on next year finally.)

OBVIOUSLY LOZ? when am i not looking forward to loz?? i am never not looking forward to loz.

MAYBE ffxvi. i’ve still not played a non-xiv ff game (YES I WILL PLAY IX AND WHATEVER THE OTHER ONE I HAVE IS EVENTUALLY SCOUT’S HONOR) but. they kinda got me with the primals in the teasers. i don’t know though. and actually even if i do decide to play it i won’t be surprised if this is a thing like forbidden west that takes me a year to get to because new AAA games are just so goddamn much money and i need to really really want something to pay that much for it.

while it has no release date and may not be coming out until at least 2024 rest assured i will be spending 2023 looking forward to hadesgame 2.

oh and pretty unlikely to be released in 2023 but that new IP from the bioshock devs?? i’m already in line for it.

with a special shoutout toooo all the games i have that i haven’t played yet. when i’m feeling less anhedonic (dare to dream) i will once again try to get back to my goal of doing short games on weekends, at least.

[fragments-of-despair]

Finished chapter 4. I'll keep my thoughts brief. Don't worry. They're mostly positives this time.

Of course, trying to keep it vague enough, but spoilers ahead.

First, the positives.

This was by far the most interesting mystery out of the entire game. The intricacies, the careful planning, the mastermind reveal. All of it worked perfectly. Even when I figured out where it was going, I was still surprised and impressed with the overall solution.

Also, Vivia Twilight?

BEST BOY BEST BOY BEST BOY BEST BOY BEST BOY BEST BOY BEST BOY BEST BOY BEST BOY BEST BOY BEST BOY BEST BOY BEST BOY BEST BOY

I adored his development this chapter and loved how his Forte and personal convictions and worldview influenced the investigation. I can't really describe anything about it without spoiling too much, but like, damn, he's worth the $60 price tag. I can see why the one side NPC fell in love. Vivia is just AMAZING.

Also, this was probably Shinigami's best outing. She was still her usual self, but she also met her match in Vivia, and the overall story really started getting to her in a way the other cases didn't. So when the culprit reveal happened and she reaped the soul, it made sense why it went the way it did. And I found myself getting a bit emotional over this culprit along with all the detectives.

That being said, I'm still rather disappointed in the lack of true comradery between Yuma and the other detectives, as well as the lack of character conflict between the Nocturnal Detective Agency and the Peacekeepers. Most of the characters still feel like they're just kind of there, especially the villains. And that leaves everything feeling rather bare bones without even scraps to nibble on.

It might sound weird, but I think what hinders this game is the fact that you don't really interact with anyone outside of the main mystery and the Gab mechanic, and that mechanic is easy to pass over if you don't find all the statues and don't actively go out of your way to find them all. If they had made Kanai World more of an open box to explore like, say, a Legend of Zelda or Assassin's Creed game, where you unlock certain cases and interact with certain characters based on certain conditions and are encouraged to explore the world, I think I would have found the emotional core of this chapter more hard hitting.

Give me side quests where you go undercover with Desuhiko more and master a relationship meter or something similar.

Give me side quests where you and Halara take on cold cases and you work on paying off your debt to them you incur in chapter 2.

Go on more adventures with Fubuki to unlock certain districts in Kanai Ward and learn more about the outside world.

Give me lore based adventures with Yakou and Vivia, who are supposed to have this strong bond based on the emotional core of this chapter.

And make it so that your choices can affect how you go through the Mystery Labyrinth in the main story chapter. Have the Master Detectives come with you and actually have them help more with the investigations in there because as it stands, the only ones who really justified being there were Vivia and Halara, but that had to do more with the story rather than the gameplay.

I really, really want to love this game, but overall it feels empty. It easily could have been an 80-120 hour game if given the time and resources, and I feel like it would be all the better for it.

Hopefully chapter 5 sticks the landing because from my understanding, it's the final chapter, and I'm really hoping that it keeps improving where chapter 4 left us.

Overall, if I had to rank all of the chapters so far from best to worst, it'd look something like this:

Chapter 4: The Imperfect Insider

Chapter 2: A Silent Curtain Call

Chapter 0 and Prologue: Massacre on the Amaterasu Express/the WDO vs Amaterasu Corperation

Chapter 1: The Nail Man Killings

Chapter 3: No Longer a Detective (Chapter 3 curse lives on)

To be honest, I think I would have gladly waited another two or three years for Rain Code if it were filled with more than what we got.

As of right now, the only reasons I would say to get this game as is would be because of Yuma, Halara, Vivia, and the music. Otherwise, it might be better to wait until it's on sale.

Here's hoping chapter 5 stays on the upward trajectory and sticks the landing.

[sunnidaydreamer]

Hyrule Warriors

The game came out in 2014 for the Wii U, but we all know that.

I’ve written before about Hyrule Warriors, a thing I brought over from my old account, but I have more.

We know the gameplay is repetitive, not for everyone, and after a while makes my thumbs hurt.

But mowing down so many enemies, taking out GIANT bosses, especially since they’re bosses we know from the series…

So much dopamine(for me at least).

But I get where people are coming from, the combat could have more nuance to it.

I never had a chance to play the games before Breath of the Wild, I’d love to some day, and while I know it isn’t canon, Hyrule Warriors is canon to me!

There are so many things the game does right, I think.

It’s a love letter to the series, and it shows.

They only have five characters that were made for the game(Lana, Cia, Volga, Wizzro, and Linkle), and the rest are characters from the various games.

The original characters feel like characters you might find in the games, depending on the style of the game.

But that’s where we start to run into some problems.

I’ve seen it all over: the story is not that good.

I’ve also seen people say ‘Well, it’s a spin-off’, ‘Well, it’s a Warriors game’ ‘What do you expect?’

And I say, no. Spin-offs, Warriors games, they can have good stories.

A little more effort could have gone a long way.

Cia could have had more depth to her than she had. They could have dug deeper into the war element. Gave us little interactions in between levels. Maybe even interactions between characters not in the storyline(I’m not sure how this would work but I’d kill for some meta between Volga and Young Link since Volga is based on Volvagia. Maybe some manga references? Eh? Maybe?).

Flesh out the story more.

Maybe even do more things like Cia and Linkle’s Tale. Do Volga, do Sheik, do anyone. Give us more story. Flesh it out.

I want to know MORE.

What was Volga’s life like? What happened to make Wizzro? What the HELL was Zelda thinking, abandoning her soldiers who looked up to her and leave them and Impa to worry and think that was a good idea? Girl what were you thinking?

(You were gonna add Sheik to the roster anyway, how could you not, no need to shoehorn Sheik into the story mode just to have them there)

Adventure Mode is HUGE there are SO MANY levels. I saw a video where it took someone over A THOUSAND HOURS to 100%. Holy shit. Did adventure mode need to be so big? There are so many maps.

Also why does Link get so many alternate weapons and everyone else gets bupkis? Zelda and Lana each get three, Impa and Ganondorf get two, everyone else gets nothing.

Some characters I guess I get it; Wizzro I can’t see using anything else, or Zant.

But come on there are surely other things you can give other characters.

Give Volga a war axe! Give Ghirahim double swords! Something!

Also some of these alt weapons are, in my humble opinion, shit.

The dominion rod for Zelda makes no sense to me. The spear and summoning gate for Lana suck, and the spinner and great fairy for Link are just bad. Great fairy’s hit box is just too big, the spinner is hard to get good damage on.

Lana’s summoning gate makes no sense to me, I can’t figure it out even with guides.

I just… some of these weapons.

And why does Link need so many?? Who was asking for Link to be bottled by the great fairy? Or for Epona to become a weapon?

Also, other Warriors games have mounts, why not this one? The owl statues are a little too far apart to really work, and with so much ground to cover mounts would be so helpful. Maybe even have different styles depending on characters(Link, Zelda etc get horses, Ganondorf get his horse and not an Epona recolor, Ruto has someone carry her).

Let’s look at other stuff.

The fairy system. It’s cute enough. Is it ever explained in depth anywhere and I just missed it? I know for Young Link the fairy power thing is broken, but is it really useful anywhere else? You can get through story mode without it, was it just put in for adventure mode?

And skulltulas! Oh my god I hate skulltulas! I get they’re a reference to the series(Ocarina of Time having them and I think another game) but why are the conditions to get them so difficult? Why are their locations sometimes so obscure?

Let’s talk Bosses.

The Imprisoned. Oh LORD the Imprisoned.

I hate it, I hate it so much. I hate how when you knock it down it chases you. I hate the red lightning thing it does when it walks. I hate its big squishy toes. Whenever there’s a timed mission that it’s in it feels like it takes so long to kill it, like it knows you’re on a crunch.

Phantom Ganon

Can anyone tell me how to do the deadmans volley? I can’t pin down the prompt or when to hit it back. I hate when it splits into four, and for me, it seems like that’s its favorite move it’s all it does!

Ganon

He’s alright I guess. Final boss, lots of health, makes sense. What is the move where he barrels across the field and starts to glow, does anyone know what I’m supposed to use for that move?

Manhandla

The most irritating, aggravating thing I have ever seen.

The way it runs around while laughing, the FUCKING BULLET SEED NO MATTER HOW FAR AWAY YOU ARE.

I hate it.

Gohma

Eh, it’s fine. Not too hard, easy tells.

King Dodongo

Once again, it’s fine. Sometimes takes forever to open it’s dang mouth, and that’s annoying for timed missions but whatever it’s fine.

Argorok

Annoying, but not terrible. Can be trouble if it catches you in the flamethrower stream though.

Helmaroc King

Another that can be annoying but like Dodongo has easy tells and isn’t too hard.

I don’t really like the upgrades system, all the item grinding. It makes sense, but some of the items associated with character power ups kinda confuse me.

Volga needs Zelda’s Crown for one of his, why? Cause dragons like shiny things? There are a couple others but that one stands out to me.

RUPEES.

Is there a way to grind them good? Because you need SO MANY for character leveling. And it always seems like there are characters that need grinding.

Yes I know, that one corner in Master Quest Map, but there have to be other ways.

Characters. Let’s talk about the original characters, shall we?

Cia. Oh boy.

While I’m sure it was not meant with malicious intent, making her dark-skinned when evil is very poor taste. Same with over-sexualizing her. We see in her Guardian of Time that she’s pale, Lana’s skin tone in fact. Yeah, her top has cutouts showing the tops of her breasts and clavicle(and a very dumb looking hat but so is her other hat).

Her evil outfit shows so much skin, and I don’t think Nintendo would let this slide in a canon game(Great Fairy is about the most we get, but I’m not an expert on Zelda character models).

And what was her goal? Was it Link(as in the in game incarnation of Link), or was it the Hero’s Spirit in general? Add the triforce(for some reason. I think I need to replay Story Mode…).

She and Lana are two parts of a whole, yes? Lana is Good Part, Cia is Bad Part. Lana explains this, saying ‘I am the good that was pushed out of Cia’s heart’, give or take. So how, unless I’ve missed something, how is Cia good again at the end of the Wind Waker storyline?

And I know that Ganondorf was influencing her, but isn’t she a little too easily forgiven? She started a whole war! Countless people died(as is the nature of war)! She brainwashed two people(does Wizzro count as people?), maybe more! I know Ghirahim did, and he was working for her at the time.

How does she even SURVIVE? Didn’t she dissolve/disappear/evaporate at the end of the main story?

Lana

She’s Cia’s Good Part. She’s sweet, and supportive, and kind of a third wheel to the obvious Zelda x Link action. Because it’s obviously implied over the course of the story that they have some sort of growing feelings, and Lana sees it. I think they were going for love triangle, but it might have been cut down, either for time or for other reasons.

I would have liked to know more about her, aside from the Cia connection. Make her more of her own person, since a lot of it seems to rely on the connection between them. I would have loved to see her first days separated from Cia, finding out about her new sense of direction, what drew her to Faron.

There are so many directions they could have gone with her, and I wish we’d gotten more.

Her outfit also stands out, seemingly more appropriate for a magical girl anime than a Zelda game. With a little more work it could have fit better, but I think they really wanted her to stand out from Cia. The problem is, she stands apart TOO much. I’ve seen multiple people say they didn’t understand the big reveal, when Cia’s mask is knocked off. That they apparently have the same face, but that was too little.

Why’d they change Cia to be taller, why’d they give Lana bright blue hair? There are ways they could have made them similar but different. Maybe give Lana a closer hair color, make them the same skin tone, same eyes! There are ways to make them different, but still make the reveal more of a reveal instead of a what happened moment.

Volga

We know very little about Volga, and he’s supposed to be Cia’s General, her right hand man. Couldn’t we have gone a little more into him, both before and after brainwashing? For as strong as he’s supposed to be, for all the fear shown by the normal soldiers when he appears, shouldn’t we see more of him? More of him devastating the army or being otherwise well known as a fearsome enemy?

I’d have loved a Volga’s Tale, where we see his point of view leading up to Cia, maybe more of his breaking through the brainwashing as we see near the end of Cia’s Tale. More of his relationship to the Dinolfos and Lizalfos he leads.

There was so much they could have done to give us more, but like with Lana I think they had to cut stuff for time.

His design is peak, though I would love a helmetless skin. Or maybe an armor-less skin. Also some of the recolors are shit, like for real. I get they are referencing past characters but some are so ugly.

Wizzro

Wizzro, if I recall, is a cursed ring. Like the ring is the Real Wizzro, the form he takes is just the culmination of souls he absorbed. And it was Cia’s magic that gave him form. But he was hidden in Volga’s caves by the Gorons, who somehow got hold of the ring. And they kept their eye on it hard, like they KNEW when Cia was there and automatically assumed she was there for the ring.

But, maybe because he’s made of so many different souls, he’s a backstabber even when brainwashed(as much as a spirit can be brainwashed). Like he even tries to ditch her for Ganondorf in one mission(and I think Ganondorf tells him to fuck off).

And couldn’t they do more with his shapeshifting? Like I know he pretends to be Zelda and Lana at one point, but there’s so much potential there.

He’s also supposed to be many spirits in one right? Wouldn’t it be cool to see them, I don’t know, have different personalities? Like maybe speaking through the main body somehow? Or separating and being used for an attack, like Cia has the Dark Links?

Linkle

Linkle was designed as a female Link. I can see why they steered away from that idea, maybe too much too soon. But they could have connected them, like making them siblings or something. That could have been a whole story! Maybe have Linkle’s Tale intertwine with the main story somehow. Like, have Linkle’s Tale, then have her join the main party at some point.

But I guess that would have meant more stages, and maybe they didn’t have time for that. But they could have connected them somehow. Give a Link a family! The only one that had one is Link from Wind Waker, that I know of. I guess Twilight Princess Link had Rusl and his family as a sort of adoptive family, but it’s not a confirmed thing.

Wouldn’t it have been cool, having siblings Link and Linkle, fighting side-by-side?

Also, maybe a different name? Linkle sounds like a throwaway name, like they weren’t even trying.

Her weapons are fun, the crossbows at least.

Her sense of direction issues, and insistence that she’s the Hero are kind of annoying, to me at least. I’m sure others find it endearing though.

That’s about all I can think of for now, but if anyone has anything to add feel free! And please no discourse or arguing. This is just my feelings.

[stormcrow513]

So I grew up on this

We had that Mario/duck hunt and super Mario bros 3 we didn't have the second one,

We had like a stack of games, we still have em it's one thing I never allowed to leave my sight in the moves which saved em,

But there boxed away right now, need to get a TV converter to see if they still work,

Anyway I don't remember all the names but I played all of them, though I had a few favs

Super Mario bros 3

Bubble Bauble

A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game

Ah and Zelda

We're the ones I really really wanted to beat,

Never beat any of them

Though one time on Bubble Bauble I got past a level no one in my family had ever gotten past,

and my parents bought these for themselves partly cause they both fucking love arcade games, so they played it together my sister's played together,

I'd played together with everyone on this game no one could get through, we'd make plans we'd coordinate, my sister would pause at the beginning and flex our hands shake our shoulders prepared for battle,

This one time ma's sitting with me watching me wasn't in the mood to play but liked watching me,

So I'm on there no second dragon to help me, knocking through levels, used the chest sheet to put in codes for the harder levels,

I get to the level,

We both take a deep breath,

I begin,

I'm doing decent,

Then I'm doing great,

I do zoned in mas getting so excited she's holding her hand over her moth to keep from yelling incouragment not wanting to fuck my focus,

I'm getting the fucking boss, I've never lived this long no on has,

Ma starts going get him, get him

I do it I kill him,

Ma and start screaming mas thumping my my back,

I hurtdly write down the code for the next level,

We both anxiously watch The Brand New Never Seen Level load,

We gasp,

Later I show everyone what I did,

I'm fuckin Odysseus back from fucking Troy

Like literally everyone was treating me like the best fucking thing

For the only time in my life I was momentarily the family darling,

It was incredible

So anyway yes I like these games a totally normal and not obsessive amount as a kid,

[perpetual-fool]

-

This one is particularly ramble-y. I've noticed that my thinking is disorganized.

I had a moment of feeling pretty good. Was watching someone play this game, Lunacid. It's uh, an action RPG, not quite like anything I'm familiar with but the closest comparison I have would be Demon's Souls. Anyway, I think the deal was that what I saw all made sense? The world is sufficiently fantastical and nonsensical that it didn't create any expectations to be betrayed, and the path of progression was very straightforward. There's a lot of standard RPG mechanics: there are enemies which respawn, killing enemies gives you XP and sometimes loot, leveling up makes your character stronger. But in particular, weapons level up too. (Not really how it works, but it seemed like it based on the first few minutes of gameplay.) And I feel this is significant, weapon XP is also gained from destroying breakable objects. So for instance, you could load into an area, break a few boxes lying around, reload the area and repeat until you've maxed out your weapon XP. That is, things are allowed to work the way they appear to work; no big list of exceptions because the consequences didn't work out the way the developer intended. ('Intent' is something I'll get to.)

But yeah, I was feeling uncharacteristically good. And I was having a wave of reasonable thoughts about some issues I had been ruminating over. Like, a lot of the stuff I feel about about, I shouldn't, because it was a direct response to how I was being treated. (Which is tangentially related for reasons I don't know how to explain.)

So I bought the game. I feel okay, but it's not the high I was hoping for. Largely, the game does actually 'make sense' by not having enough structure to be 'wrong'. Like, their isn't enough (explicit) lore to be inconsistent. And it's somewhat rewarding to be playing for an experience that doesn't feel like you're supposed to win. Verisimilitude. Say, there was this.. magic combination maze* with this mysterious book at the end. And I'm not sure what the issue was, maybe my character didn't have high enough INT to read it? But I just couldn't read it. I didn't have whatever it was I needed to unveil this secret, so the game just wouldn't tell me. It kept its secrets. (*combo maze: there is a room with multiple paths, each path leads you back to the same room, if you take the correct sequence of paths then you will be led to the exit instead. For instance: Zelda 1 lost woods) Similarly, there are enemies immune to physical damage, and there's no guarantee that you'll have a weapon which deals non-physical damage. The game will happily let you get in over your head and drown. Though granted, they put up a sign to warn you and gave you a couple 'teleport to safety' crystals for free. But there are things you can't do and fights you can't win. Which brings me to the inciting issue.

I can't beat the final boss. Straightforward explanation is that I built my character poorly. The problem is that the bosses regenerate heath. I think that's a brilliant game design choice for unrelated reasons, but my character just doesn't have the DPS. I went all-in with Dexterity to use bows, but the bows aren't particularly good.

Now I'm confused. And it's not really the game that I'm confused about. Like, it's pretty clear the developer didn't ensure every build was equally viable, and I just need to make a new character. And it kind of seems like what I'm really confused about is my default assumption that the game is right and I am wrong. If I think something is bad, I must just not understand it. (Which is a nasty bit of corrupt logic probably taught to me as a child.) But I think really really what I'm confused about is 'intent-result conflation' gaslighting. Like, it's been relatively common that I'll ask someone why they did something, laying out how they specifically took actions that would ensure that the bad thing happened, and they give a non sequitur non-defense like "well it's not like I wanted the bad thing to happen". Implicitly, "that wasn't my intent, therefore it didn't happen". So, 'surely the developer didn't intend for bow builds to be completely useless on bosses, potentially luring players into wasting 50+ levels on Dex and wasting 12 real-world hours of time for the actual human player, so it must not be happening'. Except, it's not laid out like that. The misfiring in my head is because intent and result is considered the same thing. Not that that's a new concept to me. But at the moment it's like my brain won't accept it unless someone else also confirms it. And I've literally never heard anyone admit something like "I wanted X, but I was wrong about Y, so Z happened'. Or heard any sort of discussion about making sure intent and result are aligned.

I dunno if needing others' approval for my beliefs is something I can fix on my own or not.

And tangent, I did some sorting of my computer files. Once I worked out where everything should go it's very fast. There's no going item by item pondering where each thing go, I just look at the type of thing it is, it goes with the other things of that type. Any my thinking should be equally fast, equally straightforward. But this simple problem spins into a tangent of a tangent and I don't even know what problem I'm trying to solve. And while that's happening there's three different things that need doing and I have no idea how I'm going to transition to that. And why anything?

At the least, I presume fixing my mental health is the most important thing right now. whatever that means.