#if they did do dlc i would want them to go to a different section of the rain world tho

[gay-artificer]

When they bumped up the price of RW they said it was because they wanted it to better reflect a game they were going to put more work into and like, people on steam keep being rude about that and like, implying its ‘unfinished’ now or that they should be expecting another DLC announcement as if one didn’t come out so newly that they haven’t even gotten it ported to console yet. Like im fairly certain what that meant is that with the DLC release they wanted to do some extra work on the game to address any flaws and other things people might want... Basically “we want to get this exactly how the community would like” kinda thing. Hell there was an accessibility survey posted to the discord and I assume the idea there is to add in a set of tools for specifically accessibility issues vs. the remix options more general controls

[ohno-the-sun]

Spoiler heavy fnaf ruin dlc rant up ahead

I am so fucking proud of steal wool they really took every criticism from the original game and fixed it and even added more

Like Cassie actually acts like a human being?? And like her knowledge of the original characters and cute little comments on every item are so endearing there is so much detail going into this.

The fact that they expanded on one of the fan faves Roxanne and giving her a great arc I’m in love I’m so happy

They honestly gave more depth to all the animatronics too like we finally see Bonnie’s design and get and get a taste as to what happened, also that poster Freddy gifted him I’m crying they are so cute and gay I love them

😭😭😭

Also the whole dark ride section with Monty is so fascinating like is that narrative kind of true or is it just fabricated by fazbear inc to cover up the decommissioning of Bonnie

Why replace Bonnie with Monty?? Why not make a new Bonnie model?? With the prototype label on Freddy it may be confirmed that they make multiple models (well we already kinda knew that with Freddies comments but oh well)

Also Freddy?? Like is that our Freddy or a different one?? They very clearly highlighted the prototype label so they want to emphasize it, but then the head is still missing like in the princess quest ending so what is the truth??

Feel bad for chica fans tho she really was sidelined hard

Aaaaa and my baby boys!!! There’s 3 now aaahaga

I was really not expecting eclipse to be the way they were, very… normal? Is that the right word?? Like obviously a little delusional on when the daycare is gonna open again, but in the right mindset of like this child needs to leave this place is not safe. It is interesting to me that both he and Roxy thought that it was Cassie’s birthday, maybe that was the last day before she left the plex? Or maybe that was the day the plex caught fire? Or maybe most depressingly we are playing on Cassie’s birthday so the animatronics have it in their systems what her birthday is and wish her a happy one (if they are in the right state of mind lol)

Some peeps are upset moon is a little too villainous

I think you can still say it was mainly the virus but I would argue even if it’s not the virus I feel like moon is kinda justified here. Like sun has been shutting him away for a long time before this (if the books are to be believed but also in general) so when he finally gets a chance to roam free of course he’s gonna take it. And idk about u but if my alternate personality was constantly trying to shut me out and I finally got control, I probably too would try and keep my control for as long as possible. Also from what I have seen so far, not even moon is all that aggressive? Like he grabs you at the beginning, but I think that’s just his very ineffective way to get kids to sleep and other than that he just kinda stays away

Poor sunny baby is stuck in the ar world 🥺🥺 I didn’t notice at first but yeah everytime you talk to him it’s only in the ar world. And the end part where you switch them out for eclipse if you do that in the ar world, he says not for me it’s for moon.

I will say though I noticed the voice acting for them changed a little this game, like both have a higher pitch and are more goofy sounding? Like more gremlin energy than evil villainy. I wonder if that was on purpose? Both of them sounded more like the other so maybe that was the reason? Interest interest

Also their mouth moves?? Sort of?? That’s so silly to me they have a whole working mouth system and their face mask doesn’t work with at all 😭

Does give me lore intrigue tho cause like why do their mouths move but not anymore?? Did something happen?? Are they just not maintained enough?? They also move outward instead of up and down (at least from what I saw) so is the mechanism different?

Also the way that sun and moon talk about eachother is so interesting. Like moon says the light hurts “us” and sun says “no the other me” like they seem to almost consider eachother more connected than we first thought, like they’re not just coworkers or strangers they are almost like two sides of the same person. It’s very interesting and I wonder where people will take this.

Overall great job I’m so excited to comb through the game and find every little secret (especially regarding the dca) aaaa

Ok ok update moon does have a jump scare but it’s ridiculously hard to get and I’d still argue he’s not as vicious as he was base game. I mention in another post but eclipse being as kind as he is and being (presumably) a combination of both AIs, gives even more evidence moon is supposed to be kind and caring like his posters suggest but something went wrong. Also Cassie’s comments on their plushes show that there were kids who truly liked the daycare.

[xitsensunmoon]

I am glad to know I'm not the only one who prefers Moon more as well

And if I can be completely honest, I don't like how Moon is constantly characterized in both the game and books. I can't stand how Moon is just written as 'he's just Sun's creepy and evil alterego' and that's it, I don't understand why they gave him no other character or personality beyond that. When they didn't do that with everyone else, Sun was only on screen for fifteen minutes, and you get a complete understanding of his character, personality, and story. But Moon gets nothing like that what-so ever and it hurts to see.

Because I have to ask, is Moon really evil? The games and books tell you he is, but we don't get to see how Moon feels about it or if he believes he is evil. Nor do we get a motive behind it other than he was 'programed that way' or 'it's the virus making him act that way' and no one seems to agree on which one is more likely. But I can't blame them since we have nothing to go on because the writers couldn't be bothered to give us any insight into Moon as a character.

And I was not happy with the daycare section in Ruin, It felt rushed and wasn't scary as the base game. But my biggest problem with the section was how we deal with Moon. The fact that we had to hurt Moon with the lights and hearing him crying out in pain made me extremely uncomfortable. And he clearly didn't want to merge Sun but we just ignore him and reboot him anyway.

Sorry for spilling this out on you, I'm just happy to meet someone who loves Moon as much as I do

I do agree with a lot of this, and yeah Moon is my fav, probably mostly because I can relate to him better.

That's a long post so I cut it

FNAF explanations for different things sometimes are very silly and don't make sense, but I don't agree that he's portraited evil in games, as in DLC we get very small amount of information that before virus he was okay?

Books and games are different universes as well, if I'm not mistaken and are not canon to each other.

The fact that we don't get to see his view on all of the situation is sad, yeah, but gotta be real, dca in general doesn't get enough screen time. Sun and Moon and Eclipse have a giant potential as characters but just never get that used, unfortunately. As FNAF is Freddy's game. Not dca's.

Ruin was harsh. It was supposed to be uncomfortable, as our favourite characters are hurt, crashed and forgotten. Everyone suffers there and DLC was much scarier (to me) just because of that fact, of how we literally hear our character cry and scream and save themselves.

My thoughts on ruin Moon are biased, as he's my fav but I do believe that he wanted to get back the control that he lost in the main game, as Sun was forced to lock him away. "Keep the lights on", and Moon was just going insane being locked away for so long.

That's why we see him not as angry in the main game, because Gregory turned the lights off, and Moon doesn't have any reason to be angry at him for that. All his actions after that, trying to catch Gregory, calling him a rulebreaker, as I think go from virus.

Meanwhile in the ruin Cassie tries to do the opposite, to turn the light back on, to try and lock him up again. Sun is crying about being trapped in an endless nap, but we just keep forgetting that Sun did the same to Moon in the main game. Moon just unlike Sun didn't have an opportunity to cry about it.

I also think that the more time passes the more broken they get. Light hurts Moon because he can't switch to Sun, as it would normally happen, because of the ar. That's why it hurts so bad. That's why they need a reboot. Sun was just the first one to realize it, while Moon is being consumed by anger, virus, and trying to regain the control that he lacked for years and years. He doesn't want a reboot, but he indeed needs it.

I don't think that he's evil. I think he's hurt. He's just another victim of the situation, unfortunately often misinterpreted as a villain. Unfortunately being the "angry" and "dangerous" and "scary" one, while he just wants the same things as Sun does. He doesn't want pain(so he tries to stop us from turning the lights on), he doesn't want being caged. He chooses the simplest for that moment solution, it doesn't hurt them to be in the dark, so he tries to keep the dark.

[amelias-zelda-calamity-quintet]

MoaH Dungeon Design Principles

I know I talked about this over on Wattpad, but I haven't talked about it here. I'm gonna copy paste a chunk out of the post-GoS update I did on why MoaH is absolutely massive first, and then I'll add more.

Ok. So. I might have been a little overly ambitious with MoaH. When I first drafted MoaH's arc, I was trying to offer a response to BOTW's dungeon design, which I, as a classic LoZ enjoyer, did not think lived up to reputation. TOTK also didn't really address this problem in my opinion, but was an improvement, that came out after MoaH was on hiatus. I have a lot of thoughts on how classic and Wild duo dungeon design differ and why I prefer classic design, but to summarize those thoughts, BOTW/TOTK design focuses on the world as an interactive landscape, classic design focuses on the importance of location. I felt like a reasonable compromise to the shrines vs dungeons discussion was to have a number of shrines working together to explain a dungeon's core puzzle before you did that dungeon, along with the smaller number making the dungeon locations more integrated into the settings they were in, bridging both location and landscape. The BOTW/TOTK tutorial sections do this and the Ballad of a Champion DLC also does this, and those were the elements I applied to MoaH's dungeon design. I also, quite frankly, wanted to see if I could do a bigger setting than BOTW, and now, TOTK.

I do want to expand on the nature of MoaH's dungeon design though because when this is being written, the second "shrine" is going out for book 1. And I want to discuss that some more. And I promise this isn't going to be a shit on the Wild duo hour, but I am gonna be critical of the design for a bit.

To expand on my thoughts on BOTW/TOTK dungeons, I know a huge part of why they are the way they are is because of asset limitations. Nintendo made 120 shrines and then the dungeons, and there's only so much memory the Switch can handle. And in looking at the Wild duo by design, so much of those games focus on the concept of "Ma," which is a Japanese concept on the appreciation of empty space. And that's so much of the Wild duo. Navigating the Wild duo is about experiencing the wilderness of Hyrule. In an example of the exploration of landscape, of the appreciation of nature and Ma, it excels, in spades.

But. I think that comes back to why it feels so strongly off from classic design. Because classic Zelda dungeon design is about the importance of place. About how this location being cursed/taken over directly impacts the world, on multiple levels (grand quest, regional quest, personal quest). To which you might say, that's there too in the Wild duo, and you're not wrong but the framing is different. Let me provide an example:

In Wind Waker, the first full dungeon you go to is Dragon Roost Caverns. Progressing through and solving the issue in Dragon Roost hits all three. Grand quest, you gotta get Din's Pearl. Regional/local, Valoo being upset means that the local Rito can't get the scales they need to get their wings. And then there are multiple personal levels in which that affects; Komali getting his wings, Medli being an attendant, and the relationship between the chief and his son.

Let's compare that to the regional quest in TOTK with the Zora. Seems like it would check off the boxes: need to get to the temple to find Zelda (grand), get the sludge to stop (regional), and help Sidon uncover his role as a Sage (personal). But, there are two other elements that I think these stories fail on.

One, the temple itself isn't impactful to the world because of how removed it is. This is better with the Divine Beasts, but they're still not quite the same kind of impact. The rain and the sludge negatively impact the Zora, absolutely, it's a hazard to them. But the loss of Dragon Roost Caverns impacts the Rito's culture, part of their identity. The temples in TOTK are all so ancient there are barely stories about them. Dragon Roost Caverns is part of the Rito's ongoing lives. It doesn't have that same impact. I get a few temples being like that, but all of the dungeons are like that in the Wild duo, removing some of that connection between the two. It makes it feel too game-y and less connected narratively.

Two, in making the games open world in the way they are and taking out the metroidvania of Zelda games, it also takes out the interconnectedness of the world. One of the joys of Zelda is getting new items and then going back and seeing an area recovered. Better, it's seeing how the people once affected are engaging with the world now. Less in big identifiable NPCs, more in "Oh, we fixed the Dodongo Mines, now the Gorons are scattered around the map." The Wild duo made the peoples so regional that, outside of Lookout Landing, we don't see them interacting with each other as a kingdom. It made sense in BOTW why that would be. By TOTK, it made less sense. It also removes the impact of you as the player's successes in overcoming the dungeons. And personally, because I wasn't faffing with Korok seeds, after I got the shrines in a region, I found very little motivation to go back to areas because of how big the world was. The size of it all actively made the world feel more disconnected and there was no real reward in the world that made completing the dungeons unite it more.

Look, again, I'm not saying that it's bad design. I am saying that it is a hard shift from pre-existing Zelda design. And the series has done more open world settings before without this being an issue (both Wind Waker and A Link Between Worlds I think are better examples of open world Zeldas). I said this before, and I feel less strongly about it now, but if you took out the Zelda names, how easy do the Wild duo maintain their identities as Zelda games? How easy would it be to change them to a new IP? That doesn't make them bad games. It does highlight I think that the jump from where the franchise was to where the Wild duo games took it was a huge leap. All of that to say, this is where MoaH's dungeon design starts its iterations.

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

Break because that was a lot. I said in the earlier blurb that I thought a good bridge to that design choice was something halfway: a handful of shrines that teach the mechanics of a dungeon OR a bunch of buildings connected together to collectively make a dungeon. I'm leaning towards the former because of MoaH's scale and that would be tedious if it were gameplay for the setting.

I know technically this is spoilers, but also technically going into a Zelda game one will assume there are dungeons. The fun of it is seeing what they're like. The Hyrule arc/book 1 has three shrines, a dungeon, and a bonus dungeon/shrine (scale here is smaller than a dungeon but larger than a shrine). The three shrines (Farore's, Nayru's, and Din's) all serve as examples to the puzzle mechanics that will be in the main dungeon (for now, Hylia's Temple). For book 1, easy puzzles, it's the first dungeon. That's where we get to explore more in the further books.

I also wanted to change how the characters interact with puzzles as they go through the world. That's why each of the shrines has a mini boss and an item (side note, MoaH Link is gonna be kitted to the nines, there are over 40 dungeon relics planned, not counting ordinary items he gets too like the bomb bag and lantern). The expanding arsenal changes how the party is going to be able to tackle problems. I imagine that, fitting for the D&D comparisons, each of the characters have two item slots for relics they can easily carry on top of their own weapons. So the dispersement of that kit across the party changes how the characters are going to be able to confront puzzles and monsters moving forward as they get more. But more kit, more problems, bigger monsters. This is why the moblin comment is in the early chapter. I had to watch my power scaling early. Moblins are serious threats in this Hyrule.

You will also note that most of the shrine arcs are proceeded by chapters on how the situation in the shrine is troubling the locals. And there are always local named "NPCs" affected. Further, NPCs come back. Book 2 has an arc resolution that requires a character from book 1 to come back. The stories of people being affected are not forgotten for the main quest. Now, MoaH also has to balance the party's interpersonal stories as well as the three levels I already outlined, that's why some of the shrine arcs don't all have very in depth NPC stories, they're going on setting assumption that there is a monster there that needs dealing with (and they're right). But all of the temples are still attached or are places that losing directly affects a local area.

On top of all of that, I can't keep this stale. You'd assume after a bit, three shrines, one dungeon, bonus dungeon, that's the formula. You'd be wrong. Not only does the order need to change, but the number of shrines changes when we get into the local religions and how they choose to honor the pantheon (now that 40+ number is adding up).

Further, original mini bosses and bosses for every single one. My creature creating has never been more flexed. And so far y'all have only seen mini bosses. I'll let you ruminate on what that means for bosses.

Look, I'm not trying to toot my own horn here. I'm not saying MoaH is the perfect response to this problem I've outlined. It is a response, and I don't have asset limitations like a console does. But this is the basis for which MoaH design begins. I'll leave the rest for y'all to discover. That's part of the adventure too.

[saikolikes]

I Played Persona 5 Tactica, Here Is What I Think About It

I have long awaited Tactica since the first announcement trailer (yes, the one that got "accidentally" published by Atlus). After playing through the main story + DLC I needed to sort my thoughts & have decided to subject every other person on the internet to it.

First of all a few disclaimers: Did someone ask me to write this? No Do I care? No Do I need to sort out my thoughts out loud? Yes :D There will be spoilers for the entire game + DLC so read this post knowing that! Lastly, this post is highly critical but it comes from a place of enjoyment of the game and love for the series. If that hadn't been the case, I would've never spent literal days collecting all these words in one place.

So.

Let's start by: have I enjoyed my experience? Yes, most of the time. Would I recommend the game to someone else? Now that is a good question. Let's start from the theory.

What does Tactica want to achieve?

According to this interview by Business Producer Nomura, Director Maeda, and Composer Konishi, P5T had -- extremely summarized -- three main goals:

Maintaining the Persona 5 allure and imagery despite having a different gameplay and visual style

Making a strategy rpg accessible even to non-fans of the genre and non-navigated trpg players

Capturing "the straightforward and highly passionate feelings of the high school students, along with a slightly precarious, fleeting danger inherent in their straightforwardness" (Maeda, quoting from the Persona Central article previously cited)

If we hold what it said into this interview as our sole criteria for judging the game, Persona 5 Tactica aces most of it. I will go into each section deeper as this post goes on, but this game was clearly made with passion by people who have very clear in their minds what Persona 5 means, sounds, and feels like.

There is only one problem: it's not as clear who this game was made for.

Who's Tactica targeted at?

At its core, despite being a game that most likely only the more passionate P5 fans will buy, especially so far from P5's original release and so close to both P3:RE and the (plausible?) announcement of P6, Tactica's main story is so clearly made with the intent of being enjoyed by every possible P5 fan that the hardcore fanbase would probably be the last segment of players I would suggest that should play this game. Right from the start, it supplies you with practical notes about who is who, what key places you need to know, and other recap information from the previous game -- a nice feature, and very helpful... but clearly targeted at people who haven't touched P5 since 2017, or at least haven't been participating in some form of fandom in the past 6 years.

Don't get me wrong, there is nothing bad with wanting to appeal to every possible player -- Strikers, too, was purposefully designed to be enjoyed no matter your starting point for the series, the game, the anime, or the manga (or none of these things, actually). I find some form of contradiction, however, in the fact that not only the DLC, which acts as a prequel to Tactica's main story, technically has light spoilers for Royal, but also... of all the people I know -- irl, on the internet, among gaming creators -- who played P5 the majority of them still has only played P5. They haven't been interested in the slightest in all these spinoffs that have come out in the meantime, not even in Royal. (more about this on Reddit)

My point is: at this point in time, with the infamous cow-milking reputation Atlus has especially regarding P5, the people who have bought and are going to buy the spinoffs no matter what are the hardcore fans. But this game isn't made for them for the most part -- and that is something that can sour the whole experience.

I won't get into the debate about the canonicity of the P5 timeline, but Tactica seems to have a few ideas and well-confused about the whole thing. Because the DLC is Royal compliant, even touches upon "Kasumi"'s bond with her sister, and is technically set parallel to Sae's Palace. Which sort of makes sense since Royal and Tactica share their producer (Wada). But then there is no mention of Royal canon whatsoever in the main story (01.29.24 EDIT: I stand slightly corrected, as Maruki does get hinted at... but I also stand by the fact he's not mentioned in a way that truly matters, and my point about the Third Kingdom I talk about later on is still valid). Sure, much like Strikers, Tactica does not contradict Royal. But between not contradicting and actively enforcing there is a world of difference.

During the game, specific events of P5 are referenced, much more heavily than what happens in Strikers, with Shido and the political scandal being addressed more than once -- to the point where the December calling card is what prompted Toshiro out of his subservient attitude towards his father. Even Yaldabaoth is mentioned and compared to Salmael, the Big Baddie of Tactica, something that in Strikers was left much vaguer ("it's been x months since we fought a god"). And this does not happen for any of the Royal content. Despite the DLC, the Royal-compliant DLC, very clearly linking its story with the main one. Even more, the Third Kingdom and Salmael have an unmissable resemblance with the themes of the Third Semester and what Maruki was planning, parallels so apparent that you would expect someone to at least hint at what happened between January and February at some point.

Instead, there is silence. The themes are loudly there (and I don't know if it's just me, but the Hideout -VT- ost has interesting similarities to Ideal and the Real - End Version -) yet not once, not in the slightest does Maruki ever get mentioned or referenced or hinted at. (01.29.24 EDIT: as I added before, Maruki does get hinted during a conversation that takes place in the Thrid Kingdom... but it's no where near how deeply interwowen Tactica's story is with the ending of vanilla P5. This is what I meant in the following sentence where I say there is a disparity of treatment because there absolutely is.) It's clear to me, given the disparity of treatment, that Tactica's main story doesn't want to contradict Royal in the same way that Strikers didn't, but Persona 5 vanilla is clearly the game you're supposed to have played before starting this one. Which, of course, is also reinforced by Akechi and "Kasumi" being locked behind the DLC. And I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that, if you're a hardcore fan (= most likely to buy Tactica), this probably isn't what you would have wanted from this game.

What Tactica does best

Tactica is a good game for the most part. As I was saying in my introduction, 2 out of the 3 main goals for this game have been not only achieved but aced.

Gameplay-wise, the loop can become quite addicting, especially between the last portion of the First Kingdom and the first half of the Second Kingdom, where imho the story peaks. The development team has done a damn well good job in reducing the structure of a trpg to its core and mixing it with what makes Persona 5... Persona 5. Much like the base game, for example, getting the upper hand through chains of One Mores and All-Out Attacks is basically how you progress through maps. Each Thief has his own Persona + 1 equippable sub-Persona -- even Joker can only use Arsène -- but they made sure to translate each different element into a different mechanic. I adored that, exactly like it happens in the first game, despite the combat being turn-based the characters seem to dance on the battlefield, with each action flowing into the next one as the hype builds up and either Lyn's voice or catchy drums accompany you turn after turn. Don't expect something too complex, as the game is designed to be accessible even to non-strategy players -- and surely I was disappointed by having to play with only 3 characters at a time -- but the fun is there, and to an extent, you can build each character how you most like them through a minimal but very efficient skill tree.

The music is another thing Tactica does very well. By now (Strikers, Royal, and Tactica) it's clear that Konishi favors aggressive guitars over groovy basslines and I didn't mind it one bit, as this became kind of his personal signature. The first portion of the game especially is full of banger hits that get later reprised and remixed as you progress through the Kingdoms. Some of my favorites:

Maxim, like many tracks, has an excellent use of percussions that resemble war drums

Tension, with clear Life Will Change influences

Infiltrate, back at it with the Life Will Change vibes and an exceptional use of strings that resemble horse hooves running on the cobblestones of a medieval city

Master of the Castle, which plays during the Marie bossfight, is an excellent mixture of the Tension theme with the addition of a more aggressive guitar and... bells! Because she's about to get married!

Amusement Park of Trauma, a strong detachment from the general mood of the Second Kingdom that perfectly serves its purpose

Recollection, a melancholic theme that through its notes perfectly sets the mood for what the player is about to go through as soon as they set foot in the Third Kingdom, much like Gentle Madman before it

01.29.24 EDIT: as the beta version of Last Surprise was discovered, I was able to catch a bunch of notes between 0.18 and 0.30 that I am fairly sure are present, rearranged/with guitars only, inside one of Tactica's OSTs too. I just can't seem to find it so I will add the specific one as soon as I spot it lol

Along the new tracks, some very neat rearrangements like Beneath the Mask (which somehow they managed to make it sound even more lo-fi than it already was) and Disquiet make their apperance, as well as a version of Prison Labor.

Also, contrary to what happens in the hellscape of info dumping that is the first hours of Strikers, tutorials are actually paced wonderfully here, and you get to be introduced to each bit of gameplay with little steps, and nothing gets shoved down your throat leaving you with so many information you actually have no idea how to play.

Additionally, the story is quite captivating, especially if you pay attention to what can seem to be minor details. Right from the start, the sheer need to understand what the hell is going on is what drives you forward, and by the end of the First Kingdom and Marie's reveal as Toshiro's fiance, you start to understand that the scope of the entire thing is much more limited and personal -- which is something I appreciated a lot. Toshiro is a good character, his cowardice at the start isn't just a funny trait for the laugh, but a flaw that is deeply connected with his personal history and, much like with Zenkichi and Sophia, the team did a good job in tracing parallels with the other Phantom Thieves in order to quickly build empathy towards him -- with Haru and Futaba being the absolute best matches. The same thing happens with Erina, who shares the rebellious fire of the Phantom Thieves and leads the rebellion against Marie. What I loved about her is her goofiness, I was afraid she would be the nth Strong Female Character -- seeing as Kasumi was very much your Manic Pixie Dream Girl -- instead I found a lady with a sharp tongue and a strong heart, who's deeply loyal but doesn't hesitate to fool around. She's really valid, I admit I wouldn't have bet on her character to be like this but I'm happy they took this direction with her.

So... all is good, right? Why do I say that the game "is good... for the most part"?

Tactica's recycling problem

Fundamentally, and believe me it pains me very much to say this... Tactica doesn't have a lot to say, despite what its developers declared.

The game's themes, characters, morals, and climax are all heavily derivative of themes, characters, morals, and climaxes that have already been more than explored within the various iterations of P5. Past the final portion of the Third Kingdom, the repetitiveness of it all became seriously unbearable. No thing, big or small, gets spared: this is how you find yourself with Toshiro mathematically relating to all the Phantom Thieves, even when it feels forced; how you have the battle against Shadow Toshiro and then Eri that is 1:1 what we saw in Futaba's Palace with the fight against Wakaba; how you have the nth Deity Wished By Mankind that wants to rule over Free Will; how the "Fourth" Kingdom is nothing more than a recycling, reskinning, recoloring of what you already played through the previous Kingdoms -- mobs and bossfights included.

It really does a disservice to the game, the fact that so many of its final portions are stretched out to the point of exhaustion, I imagine only for the sake of justifying the cost of the game with more playtime, something that is deeply wrong, especially if we take into consideration that the game is actually sold at (less) than the current average market price (60€/$, compared to PS4/Switch games being 60-70 and next-gen games being 70-80). It kills the climax that Tactica so painfully had built up to that point, and it made me feel like completing the story was more of a chore I had to do in order to get to the final cutscene (which... is fine, I guess) than something I did with heartfelt conviction.

Moreover, the deeply derivative nature of this game causes more than some issues, character-wise. Because this is a game with the Phantom Thieves... but narratively speaking, they aren't the protagonists: Toshiro and Erina are. This leads to a weird situation where the group, who has by now 2 god killings under their belt, remains stagnant throughout the whole game, as they have nothing to learn or improve about them, and too often they become nothing more than the mask (ah-ah) of themselves, with characters acting just like their archetype -- Yusuke, the starving artist; Morgana, who gets angry when he's called a cat; Ryuji, the dumb guy who's the butt of the joke. Incredibly speaking, the one who feels less like herself is Makoto: in P5 she can be tough and confrontational, sure, but you have to provoke her, first -- she's usually kind and collected, with a sort of mom-friend attitude. Strikers played a bit more into her punk side, and Royal gave us her wonderful Showtimes with Haru and Ryuji... but in Tactica, she's straight-up aggressive and quick to violence, often excessively, often for no reason. I have no idea what happened with her honestly, the day of the wedding in the imaginary vignette she even accuses you, unprompted, of cheating on her. Are the writers Makoto haters?

Anyway. My point is, as much as Toshiro and Erina hit home and do their job as characters, and as much as it's heartwarming to have the whole gang together again... sometimes, especially near the end, it sure feels like everything is just an excuse to have more Phantom Thieves content. Which would not be bad! But it is the moment Royal gets ignored and all the progress and maturity they gained is erased.

Overall, I think Tactica has a great cast and great premises, but the final portion of the story has really been dragged for too long, and the amount of recycling between ideas, assets, plot points, and maps is... not great.

Tactica's mysterious mysteries

There is a whole lot that is never given clarification in this game, and well beyond the realm of plausible fan speculations.

So many things went unexplained or even unaddressed. The Metaverse should by all means be gone at this point -- yet it's still working, and the only comment you get on the matter is "I guess it can't be erased completely" which is fine seeing how it's so tied to the human subconscious but an element so important to the worldbuilding really is treated like Just A Thing That Is Said and never given more consideration. Additionally, it is said that Kingdoms aren't Palaces... but functionally speaking, we explore Toshiro's Palace. There are cognitive versions of his family and acquaintances, there are memories locked inside the maps, there is his Shadow... there is no formal reason for it not to be Toshiro's Palace! Except that they needed to market it like an Entirely Different Thing somehow! On this front, Strikers did a really better job in connecting to the canon worldbuilding of P5.

Another thing that goes entirely unaddressed is how exactly the Phantom Thieves have been summoned inside Toshiro's cognition. The game explains that Shido's calling card was what roused Toshiro from his complacency, and what generated Erina as the spark of his rebellion... but it's never explained how the Thieves got in, especially given that it's explicitly stated that they entered in a different manner than Toshiro, who was kidnapped by Salmael, Persona 4 style. All the weirdness of this new world, Personas not working as usual, the Velvet Room changing form... everything is addressed merely in passing, diverted back to Salmael's doing, or even straight up commented by Lavenza with "I have no explanations for this behavior."

Again, lastly, some things are brought up and never addressed again, like the fact Erina can plant the Flag of Freedom but the Flag itself, as a mechanic, only has relevance in the First Kingdom; or the fact that doors with a projectile on it are used to traverse Kingdoms and are what evoked the Phantom Thieves, but no one will ever explain to you what those are or why the Phantom Thieves don't traverse one back to return to the real world, instead they simply... *fades to white*

But what about the DLC?

The DLC is enjoyable but has, on a smaller scale, the exact same problems the rest of the game has.

Some bits of dialogue and character interactions sent me flying, like the way Joker can tease Akechi in a way he doesn't do with any other character or the fact that whether or not Akechi is a Phantom Thief is treated as a complicated matter, and you can trigger some interesting remarks about the whole situation going on outside of Tactica.

Aside from this, the DLC most than anything else suffers from being set in a pocket of time that needs to be wiped from memory, firstly because these three characters aren't exactly a trio yet and only had one interaction together before this moment yet they act like they're closer than that... and secondly because the whole Guernica situation is a parallel to Kasumi and Sumire's story. So it really hits the wrong way, and it even verges on horror if you have the hindsight, that Akechi, Joker and Violet have to save a girl that lost her sister and is being brainwashed to forget her... while Sumire is still "Kasumi."

I liked the setting and I liked the paint mechanic and I liked how frankly brutal and visceral some scenes are. That is exactly my jam! But I couldn't enjoy them to the fullest because I knew they would have amounted to nothing in the grand scheme of things. The memory wipe solution was in store, of course, I saw that coming, nonetheless I found it deeply unelegant, seeing as they didn't even try to offer an explanation as to why or how the trio had their memory erased.

Also, it makes no sense for Guernica to be active in the real world at that scale if only because there would be no reason for her to never be mentioned anywhere after, and I quote, "pulling a stunt like the ones from the Phantom Thieves."

On a final note, since I mentioned the base game's price... contrary to that, Tactica's DLC isn't worth the 20€/$ you pay it. Not only because it's very short (4-5 hours if you rush, 6-8 if you take some more time to maybe restart some maps or replay some dialogues and gush like I did) but because the experience is overall nothing memorable, and the additional maps aren't enough to cover that. I stand by the fact you shouldn't judge a game's price by its length, but length isn't Repaint Your Heart's sole problem, sadly.

My final thoughts

Overall, I enjoyed playing Tactica (save for the final part) and it gave me some really stellar content, like the fake wedding scenes, Ann's best characterization across the entire series, Erina as a character, and overall a new occasion to spend time with my favorite band of outlaws teens.

I'm glad I had more P5 content... but I still feel I could've gone by with no problems without Tactica. Which is a sad thing to say, but it's true. Because I loved Strikers and I would never want to live without having played that game. Tactica, well... despite me being hyped for it a ton, it made me come to the conclusion that I am done with P5 content, especially if it has to be like this. If I feel nostalgic, I'll just boot my PS5 and replay Royal for the second time. And for everything else, there is fandom.

Thank you for reading this far if you have. You can find me on Twitter, Ao3 and BlueSky!

[owlixx]

CoD Notes: Advanced Warfare Beat

This is, what, the 4th game I’ve beaten since the last time I took notes?

I again went into this game wanting to like it. I was rooting for this to be an underdog hidden gem, and honestly I think that’s what happened. It helped that Ghosts was kind of a letdown and this game picked up the pieces.

Hit markers are back! A solid start. RPG profession is back! Another solid return from features BO2 had that Ghosts was missing.

Obviously the big thing here is the exo suits. I kind of like them but there’s some issue. My biggest one is that making us switch between two different kinds of rigs and even then having different abilities for each mission meant that I never knew what my abilities were which meant I just never used them. There was a singular missions towards the end where I finally started using my sonic blast and stim. I was constantly trying to double jump in levels where I didn’t have it. I do generally appreciate the extra mobility though.

I also really like the switchable grenades. It would be overpowered in multiplayer but this isn’t multiplayer so kudos for this feature. I also really like the invisible HUD in campaign where all the ammo/grenades are just visible on your gun itself.

Also the writing in this game is so much better than Ghosts! It’s pretty cringy to see Kevin Spacey so much but he does turn in a pretty great performance, as one would expect. I’ll admit that the “are we the bad guys?” mid-game twist is a little too obvious and happens a little too clumsily but it’s still more entertaining than anything Ghosts was doing. Gideon in particular started to really grow on me by the end.

Oh, also I like that getting stronger is tied to kills, headshot kills, grenade kills, and intel collected. I found the most intel in this game by far and felt actually rewarded for it. I also maxed out headshots like halfway through the game.

The best part of this game is the giant mech suit parts at the end, plus the section where you can’t use your robot arm so you have to just pick up a new gun every time instead of reloading. That section was genuinely such s great idea and is so fun to play through.

It’s not perfect, but AW feels genuinely so much more ambitious than Ghosts. I didn’t connect with his game as a kid but now I’ve really started to develop a fondness for Sledgehammer after being something of a MWIII defender. You can even see kind of connection between “smart grenades” and breacher drones, plus the AMR9 is in both.

Now, I did only play one multiplayer match, and I kind of hated it. I’m sure I’d get used to the movement over time, but I felt like I was just hitting buttons and dying over and over. I have zero desire to revisit this game’s multiplayer.

Also did one exo survival match, it’s fine. I like that it tries to evolve the MW3 survival formula, but both feel so basic compared to anything zombies. At least it means there’s something to do on the multiplayer maps eve when the servers go offline.

I also tried exo zombies since you are forced to get the “gold edition” with 1 DLC if you buy digitally. Here, it actually makes sense since you get a whole new game mode. I had never realized just how similar this mode was to treyarch’s zombie maps, but with everything shifted off a couple degrees. I ended up dying because I got infected and racing to the cure chamber got me killed, but overall this mode impressed me. This is the last one without any meta progression though so I won’t be likely to revisit.

Rankings wise, it’s not better than any of the “golden age” games (MW trilogy, BO 1/2) but it beats even BO3 in terms of raw campaign.

[banana-milk-enthusiast]

beat Forspoken, and while I probably will write an in-depth review down the line cuz i have many thoughts, I'm just going to pointform my basic thoughts while it's still fresh.

PROS

Great designs all around, the Tantas look so breathtaking with their extravagant designs and yet it doesn't take away from their world, it fits just right in. Absolutely love it.

Good world building most questions i had were answered either through the main story or extra archive stuff. Nothing felt too weird yknow

Gameplay gameplay gameplay. The magic system is literally amazing. I dont think I've had this much fun fighting in an rpg in a long time. Theres so much fun variety so you can focus on whats comfortable for you while also looking sick as fuck. Have i mentioned how good the battle system is cuz i avoid playing mage in every game because its such a slog but here its so fast paced and hits hard. Perfect for me.

The music is soooo good, I love the main theme and find myself humming it literally all the time.

Great graphics but maybe a lil too many particle effects but otherwise really pretty.

The story is technically a pro. Like its good, not bad, not great, just good. Basically something you'd find in the YA Fantasy section, thats the kinda quality it was. Which isn't a insult I did enjoy the story and characters. It just needed polish, fix up the dialogue and trim some of the story fat and i wouldn't have any complaints tbh. Probably would do better as a book series tho ngl, not sure what game format would have saved it.

Shoutout to the accessibility options. I'm glad more games are including these. I'll never understand complaints about them though, like just dont use them if you dont want/need to thats it.

ALMOST FORGOT THE COOLEST THING. THE NAILS. I'm sorry but the idea of using nail art to inscribe magic runes to give you buffs is the coolest fucking idea ever, why has this concept not been used till now. We always see rune tatoos or written on gear and stuff im fantasy media but this is such a neat ideaaaa and im forever thankful for it. Her capes are cool too I guess, with there was more variety rather than recolors tho. Kinda wish we could also get different outfits for her tho. Those jeans probably chafe.

CONS

THE OPEN WORLD IS SO BIG FOR NO GODDAMN REASON. I honestly wish this wasn't an open world game tbh, its so unnecessary. Halfway through the game, i got so frustrated and ignored everything that wasn't story points cuz getting everywhere takes so damn long, especially early on when you dont have fancy parkour or stamina. Easily its biggest fault for me.

I understand they thought it'd do way better than what happened but planning out a story as a trilogy in the gaming industry is not a smart move. I've yet to play the dlc so idk if we get closure but the loose ends werent a great way for the game to end.

Oh, the dialogue. Its easily one of the gamest weakest points. Like the type of dialogue i was writing in my original stories when i was 13 (not that ive gotten any better tbh). Basically, it's not what you expect from such a vaunted company. Frey is great when shes excited or angry, which is most of the time, but occasionally, they'll hit me with the cheesiest line I've heard in years, and idk how to handle it. Like the stuff she says in the final chapter is honestly so robotic, there is no natural flow present. Which is a pity cuz the actress was killing it tbh, like she definitely carried the lines with her emotion. Unfortunately, it couldn't save them. Like if it was something they dropped on ps3 or wii, it honestly would have done fine. What i mean to say is the dialogue is very outdated in this age of gaming. im actually surprised how out of touch it feels. Especially since otherwise its a solid game all around. Regarding Cuff and Frey banter you do have the option to make it less frequent or just turn it off but i never really found them annoying regardless.

Maybe its just me but the control scheme feels so weird, the games makes you feel like you should be gliding most of the time but holding O while spaming all those trigger buttons feels so awkward to me. But then again I also didnt care enough to change the control scheme so.

[dragon-tamer-1]

I just finished the Ruin DLC, or at least one of the endings(?). While I want to do all endings, I can't say I know how to get them. (That is if there are multiple endings, I've heard there are, but at the same time idk. But I'm definitely in the clear to watch playthroughs of it now.)

My thoughts and spoilers beneath the cut

This was fun and scary at the same time. A fun scary, to be sure, but at the same time I don't think I got that scared. I died a few times, sure, but half(or more) of them was because I fell off a ledge to my death lol. Eclipse was fun, but it felt too short a section. But hey, he's cool, no longer attempting to kill you in the dark. At the same time, he didn't really feel like a threat, in my opinion. The Moon section in the base game definitely seems scarier than what happened in Ruin. But that's not to say it was bad, I enjoyed it a lot. The atmosphere was really spooky, and overall a good time.

Next thing, finding out that Roxy is Cassie's favorite animatronic was cool. Sure, you can argue that it was obvious, but Cassie picks up the Roxy Talkie(the name of the thing she uses to communicate with Gregory) inside the Pizzaplex, so it wasn't with her prior. Also there's one scene where Roxy actually remembers Cassie, mentioning the last time she had a birthday there, and that was so sweet. Kinda heartbreaking cause I had to deactivate her. And that one scene that was shown in the trailer when Roxy grabs you, she lets go and says sorry after Cassie yells 'Let go!', possibly when she recognized Cassie's voice?

Poor Monty, didn't really do much beyond showing up a couple times, one time pretty much submerged in water, that was cool. Guy doesn't even talk anymore, just growls and stuff.

Chica, though. She's had better days, man. Missing half her head(or at least the exosuit(?) covering her endo head) and partly melted.she barely seems to move, but in the sections where she's active, she has killed me a couple of times.

They definitely threw me off a bit with Freddy, missing his head and his chest cavity now has teeth(it definitely looks like that). So that possibly means that it's going off the Saving Vanny Ending in the base game, where you beat all three Princess Quest games and Gregory repairs Freddy's head and Vanessa is no longer Vanny(unless you headcanon Vanessa and Vanny as separate people). He's barely there though, only a short chase scene then he's gone. Kinda feels like they just went 'Oh, you know how he was always there in the base game? Well now he's there for like, 5 minutes and disappears forever.'

The mini Music Men were a bit creepy, and have a different jumpscare, they pretty much swarm you. Granted, there wasn't a whole lot of them, but definitely more than I would think there would be. No DJMM though, bummer. Big guy is one of the cooler ones.

The whole AR stuff they did in the game was really cool, too. And trying to avoid Glitchtrap was interesting in itself, which kept me from just having the Vanni mask on the whole time. It also let me turn off the Wet Floor Bots for some reason, maybe that's tied to something? Or it's just a weird thing that they added, who knows.

That ending though, what a ride, but also kinda confusing in a way. So in finding "Gregory", we actually find a robot mimicking Gregory's voice, revealing that Cassie was tricked into freeing it. Now, I have heard some predicting that this was a possibility, so not too much of a surprise, but it was still interesting. We then hear from "the real Gregory"(probably, the reveal that it wasn't Gregory that was telling us to come save him already happened, so it might be him) that he was trying to reach Cassie from the beginning to tell her not to go down there or something. But as she escapes, Gregory(or maybe the fake Gregory) shuts down the elevator and she dies. Oh, but before that, Roxie comes back and saves Cassie from the robot pretending to be Gregory(though how she found her way down there when she's blind is a mystery to me).

Overall I had a good time. Also from the few actual collectibles I found, it seems like Gregory doodled some of the endings from the main game. One comic doodle was of the fire ending, and one was the Burntrap ending. There was another one but I forgot what it was. There were likely others as well, but I didn't find those.

Oh, also Candy Cadet was there, and some gifts that had Faz Tokens that you gave to Candy Cadet to let it tell you a story. Which was basically a metaphor for you being lured down there to let the monster out.

The DLC felt like it was a bit short, but then again, it's free and honestly that's fine with me. As for any glitches, there weren't really any, except for maybe the one mini Music Man in the one vent that somehow killed me when I had escaped the vent, but whatever. There was quite the long load each time I had to respawn after dying. And a bit of a load to new areas, but honestly not that bad. None of it negatively impacted my experience with this DLC. Definitely going to play it again, it was definitely fun. Good job, Steel Wool Studios, you did good with this one. Especially since it's not a buggy mess Security Breach was when it came out(still kinda a buggy mess, but not as bad. And I still enjoyed playing it when it came out and recently).

Now to watch others play it and see what they think about it.

Also now debating on whether or not to have some of these points explored in my fnaf au with the animatronic ocs. I guess it depends on 1. If I can make it blend together with what I already had planned, and 2. If I like the result of seeing if they can be somewhat combined.

[dany36]

sooo i finally finished sonic unleashed. the main story parts, anyway. there's still a bunch of act 2 and act 3 stages i still have to do but from what i've seen, they're way shorter than their act 1 counterparts so it's fine. some junk thoughts below about this game!

now that i finally have a ps3 i'v been catching up on a bunch of games i missed out on when i only had the wii :y when i first started playing this game i was like wow, this isn't really that bad compared to what i had been hearing online about it! sure the werehog portions were kind of tedious sometimes, and the fact that they're twice or three times as long as the daylight sections isn't great, but i mean sonic adventure 2's eggman stages sure were slower and more tedious than the sonic/shadow stages, so i was like eh sure, fine, whatever. some of the later werehog stages were a pain and fighting the same type of enemies over and over was really starting to get on my nerves, but again, is this any different than the slow stages of eggman/tails in sa2? if i was able to A-rank all of their missions, then getting through the werehog stages isn't the worst. some of the platforming sections were actually entertaining but yeah, the fighting? not so much.

the daylight stages are hella fun to play through, although i don't know if it's the ps3 version but they seemed very ummm glitchy at parts, and the frame rate would slow waaaay down in certain portions of stages too. it obviously isn't as smooth as i would have wanted, but that was kind of my experience playing through sonic generations. i'm playing with a fat ps3 so i don't know if the experience is better in the slim version lol, but yeah, i'd love to come back to it eventually and try to S rank the stages since they're so fast-paced and just a blast to do. i don't think i'll ever bother getting all of the medals and 100% completing it since this game is just PACKED with content. on top of getting the medals, S-ranking, and the sidequests you get in the hub world, apparently there's hot dog missions too?? oh and there's DLC on top of that. so yeah, i'm ok with not 100% this like i did with sa2 or colors or generations lol. teenage me would have loved to do it though.

sonic games might not be your cup of tea but the music never disappoints. i had heard the unleashed OST way before ever playing the game and man, it was so good to finally hear the music along with the game. while i was out trying to collect enough medals to unlock the stages i don't know why but hearing the apotos night theme made me get all sentimental and nostalgic lol even though i didn't even grow up with this game at all. idk i guess it's just something about sonic games and their music that always hits home.

i know in my last post i was extremely pissed off at the last stage in unleashed and i said it brought the game down to a 5/10, but maybe i was a bit harsh lol. like i still think that level is atrocious EVEN FOR a last level, which you always know it's going to be a harder-than-usual level. but seriously that level design was just ridiculously long and stupid in every shape or form--the part that pissed me off the most was when you have to walk on these pipes as a werehog and in some parts you have to jump, but when you jump sometimes the fucking camera changes directions so because you're tilting the control stick a certain way, that would cause you to fall off the pipe and die. seriously, i don't think i've ever played a last stage in a sonic game that was as bad as eggmanland, so it's always interesting to see the comments on the youtubes defending the stage and how it's actually a great level. like ok sure lol.

i still say that the game forcing you to collect a ridiculous amount of medals to unlock stages was just not necessary. i thought i was doing a pretty good job at collecting them but i still had to look up guides to unlock the stages from chuu-nan onwards. like, just let me play the stages and get through the story, maybe make the act 2 and act 3 harder to unlock that way but not the main ones!

i actually have the wii version of unleashed that i had bought waaay back when but i never bothered to finish it once i learned that the stages are like watered down versions of the ps3/xbox360 ones, so i'm glad i waited to play it how it was meant to be played. the wii one also doesn't have the hub worlds i don't think, which i mean the hub worlds are actually pretty bad and add nothing to it gameplay wise: they will never be station square or mystic ruins. the way the camera moves around them is actually pretty bad and would make me feel dizzy at times lol. but still, i'm glad they exist because otherwise, we would have never gotten the absolutely gorgeous music that the night stages have (spagonia night theme is absolutely lovely and holoska night is the perfect listen for winter time).

overall, i'm glad i finally got a chance to play unleashed and see how this was the start of the sonic team getting the 3D sonic formula right (minus that terrible drifting mechanism, sorry!). generations is still one of my ultimate faves and frontiers brought back the sonic fever in me, so i'm excited to catch up on the rest of the 3d sonic games i missed out due to me being either a poor college student or poor fresh out of college lol. i'm thinking about buying sonic boom next, it looks very platform-y from the gameplay i've seen of it, so yeah! full on sonic mode and loving it!!

[less-than-three-3]

spiderman remastered is amazing

before going on a ramble I should say I have not played the DLC (I will soon, but I just really wanted to write about this game!) or Miles Morales (purchased and raring to go) and will probably write about both later if there is anything particularly interesting to write about. I’ll start off without spoilers

let me get this out of the way first: this game does make you feel like spiderman. this is probably something that a million other people have said, but I swear I’ll add something interesting! let’s step back and look at another game that I loved: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (review here)

probably one of my favorite things about fallen order was that it felt like a star wars movie through and through while still being like a game. the music, the presentation, the “cinematography”, the dialogue. it’s interactive, you play as cal for sure, and it feels really fluid, but the overall game presentation feels cinematic

spiderman is... sort of different? the music is very marvel but it doesn’t feel like a movie bgm, it feels like the bgm of swinging through new york, which you are. you don’t get those wide establishing shots or as many of those tense standoffs, but you do get a lot of spidey action and peter parker... action? this sounds kind of like a poor tradeoff but where I think it really shines (besides in gameplay, which I’ll talk about later) is in the character moments. without getting into spoilers, it adds a layer of personal connection that I think is incredibly central to the progression of the plot and everyone’s arcs, peter’s connection with may, martin li, MJ, dr. octavius. it also helps that the VA’s give an A+ job, especially aunt may and otto, and without all of this I think the conflict and resolution would not have hit nearly as hard as it did, but it did, and as a result the story is probably one of my favorites in all of gaming.

of course, yeah, you are spiderman swinging through nyc. that’s fucking awesome. I really don’t think it can be understated how cool swinging is, and how even the minor upgrades you get to movement add to how fun it is. I would actively not use fast travel to just swing around and listen to JJJ’s podcast (which is hilarious, btw) on my way to do things. I really think this is the biggest and most obvious gameplay highlight. it’s spiderman, that’s what he does.

the combat also has spiderman flair, with a variety of gadgets, combos, and throws to weave together. figuring out different ways to use the gadgets and powers mid-fight is pretty satisfying. this is kind of where the compliments end for this though, since by the end of the game it does feel kind of worn out because it’s still fairly simplistic (I am on that platinum games brainrot), and enemy variety does not improve too much. having different challenges and stealth helps, but not enough by the endgame that I just kind of ended up skipping side challenges to just complete the main story (I unlocked what I wanted then just beelined the msq). there’s definitely plenty to do between challenges, research, side combat missions, though, don’t get me wrong. it just gets a little worn thin by the end, if that makes sense?

speaking of low points, I just kind of really did not care too much for MJ and miles sections. just kind of boring stealth that I just ended up ungabunga hold forward and getting through. maybe I just wanted to get back to being spiderman but I just really thought they weren’t necessary. they aren’t very frequent but when they do happen I do roll my eyes.

last negative point I promise, and this one’s a nitpick, and really no one will care, but I just kind of laugh any time an enemy speaks chinese because it’s noticeably “chinese american” pronounciation. maybe all of the goons are 2nd gen or later lol. I think the voice cast for them is probably chinese american based on credits (feel free to check me on this, I have been wrong about this before :x ) so nothing against them. just something I’ve noticed also being 2nd gen.

oh another nitpick is just that it’s really funny as a chemist to hear video game characters basically spew out science word salad talking about things. not a bad thing, just kinda amusing. not gonna be That Guy lol

anyways time to get into spoiler stuff. 

I really have no complaints with pretty much any story beat until maybe the very end. it was incredibly compelling from beginning to end. like I said before, every single character connection felt super meaningful and only makes the tragic clashing of the final confrontation and peter’s decisions all the more gut wrenching. I won’t summarize the story obviously but I’ll mention the highlights.

my one complaint is really that I empathize far too much with doc ock and martin- they have very legitimate beef with osborn and I feel like spiderman’s “killing is bad, actually” kind of lets osborn get off scot free. I really wished to see, yknow, repercussions, for the person who essentially started every single conflict in the entire damn plot. but I am going to guess that will be addressed more in miles morales, and the sequel(s). just felt kind of empty to let him go. I get spiderman’s anti-vengeance spin but I don’t know how justified it is at the very end. we’ll see for the future I guess.

but like god fucking damn what a tragedy these character arcs are. martin’s farewell letter and backstory and otto’s treatment of peter and expressed vision and talents really humanize these characters. the other supervillains yeah whatever. even going in knowing these turns are going to happen (despite not really being a comic nerd) because yeah martin li and otto octavius oh boy I wonder what’s gonna happen to them, their confrontations with peter are built up excellently and just so damn good. I would be lying if I said I did not tear up at his final dialogue with doc after the final fight.

speaking of tearing up, aunt may is a fucking treasure. her VA fucking killed it and every time peter goes to FEAST it’s a joy. which makes her rapid demise to the devil’s breath and peter’s decision to save the antidote at the end so heart breaking. 

I’m really looking forward to digging into the DLC and miles morales, from what I understand the former is kind of just “more spiderman” and I actually don’t know too much about miles morales beside it being relatively short compared to main game. Like I said if they’re interesting to write about maybe I’ll do another mind dump. but for now, wow. what a great game. 

19/20. (November 2022)

[flameraven]

Misc Thoughts on Pokemon Scarlet/Violet

-The opening was definitely slower than I'd like, I was a little bored, but once you get let out to explore the world it's really fun! Very similar to Legends: Arceus but much improved. Key detail: you can pick up items while mounted! This was really annoying to not be able to do in PLA.

-I've been pretty lucky and not run into any major glitches. Sometimes the background is a little wobbly but the overworld has run okay. I definitely noticed some major lag as the game tried to load each item when I was shopping. -The world is big and exciting but still feels awfully empty. The towns have these huge wide streets and giant houses, but there's not really anything to do in them. You can't even go inside NPCs houses, there's only the shops -I feel like they split up the clothing shops in the main city to make it seem bigger and more full, but it just made shopping inconvenient. What's the point of a giant castle/city if there's nothing THERE? -I'm still not thrilled with the school uniform but it's not as ugly as I feared. Still hoping that we get some real clothes post-game, or possibly as a DLC option. (Why does the new kid get to wear her Eevee hoodie and I can't??) -that school is definitely not ADA compliant, wtf are all those stairs -I'm enjoying riding around on my giant motorcycle dragon a lot more than I thought, and Koraidon running with his legs looks a lot less stupid than it did in the trailers (he tucks his tail in to make the back "wheel"! What a cool detail!). Cannot wait to climb up walls. -Your dragon making a catlike "Brrrp!" noise when you summon it is perfect, A+, 11/10 -I do find the map a bit hard to navigate, it can be hard to find the bridges to cross rivers and such and figure out how to get to different areas. -I really really wish we could mark places on the map like BotW! I found a cool glowy sword in the ground I couldn't reach, and I know I won't remember where it is later. -The variety of pokemon available and how many new pokemon you can find are really cool. I do like that they didn't show most of the new mons because it makes them more fun to discover. I think there's also a good balance of Pokemon spread out in the grass, sometimes they clump up, sometimes they're single, but it's not obvious "sections" the way SwSh Wild Areas were. -I love that the game is like 'BTW the crater is SUPER DANGEROUS, don't go there!!' so we all know where the plot is going to end up. Spoilers on Pokemon/Evolutions below:

-I got spoiled on the starter evos and... yeah honestly not a fan of the final forms. Giant spooky crocodile is okay but not as cool as the idea I had in my head, Grass Cat is just kind of boring and similar to Delphox, and Quaxly is just... WTF. I heard "fabulous" and "peacock" before I saw the images, and I think an actual peacock would have been cool, but instead we got... that. D: Nintendo, please stop with the anthro starter evos, they're not good. -Paldean Tentacool is a horror show, I hate it. X) -Pawmi is ADORABLE, I love him. Although the 2nd and 3rd evolutions are awfully similar, seems like it could have just been a 2-stage pokemon. There are SO MANY new pokemon I want to try out, though, I keep switching things in and out of my team, it's really fun. So far my team is: Clodsire, Azumarill, middle stage Fuecoco, Pawmot(? the third one), the tiny fire megaman, and the Flamingo, which is WAY stronger than I expected. Bulbapedia says it has a base attack of 115?! That's huge! Also working on evolving the little floaty psychic thing because apparently it becomes an ostrich?! There are a lot of new bird pokemon in this game, I approve. May need to do another run someday with an all-bird team.

[recalcitrantbeetroot]

Look, I still don't know how to use Tumblr correctly, but this seems like the place to put late night, rambling, fanfic planning, head cannon-y, speculative brain rot. Normally, I just put this in the notes section of my phone, but I'm... I dunno, I'm trying this blog thing or whatever.

Sorta, kinda spoilers for my ME3 fanfiction that I absolutelywillwriteandpostsomedayIswear. If you don't want to know my Shepard too much ahead of time at least.

So I have gone "on record" about loving all my Mass Effect squad members and team mates and other NPCs before, and largely that's true. I don't even hate Allers, though I think they did Emily Wong dirty and I'm still mad about that. But there are definitely characters who I rarely pick for missions and because my fanfiction is going to follow pretty closely to how I play my ideal ME run (because it makes me happy damnit), I have been trying to understand why my Shep picks who she picks and why she leaves certain characters behind a lot.

Enter Javik.

I think he's an interesting character, but I personally find him an Oscar the Grouch and there are squaddies I would much rather take because I enjoy their banter and personalities more. But why would Shep not take him? Especially when his experience with actually killing Reapers would probably be pretty useful. (Side note: wasted character potential here not having Javik be more useful with Reaper killing advice. I know he's a DLC character but still.) Working with difficult, stubborn people isn't new. Neither are vengeful teammates or overly violent aliens that she has no real authority over. And my girl is more than stubborn enough to lock horns with him regularly over their moral differences, so that's not an issue. I think it really boils down to the fact that he makes her really effing uncomfortable because she feels like she could have BEEN him.

Erin didn't want to wake him up on Eden Prime.

At all.

Here is someone who really should be dead, about to be brought back into a galaxy he won't recognize, without any prior knowledge of his beliefs and without his consent. In that moment, Liara is all giddy and Shepard is experiencing the ghost of what would be flashbacks if she remembered her death and the Cerberus experimentation that followed. On top of having her brain hijacked by those terminals with Prothean data on them.

Alliance Command gave her orders to pick up the "artifact" and Cerberus will do goodness knows what with an actual, living Prothean, so in spite of the moral implications, waking him up to at lease give him a say in what happens to him seems like a halfway decent choice. But those implications weigh heavily on Erin, someone who spent all of ME2 not dealing with the fact that nothing she knew was the same as before her death and really wishing she hadn't been brought back.

Eden Prime really puts her six months of intensive therapy while incarcerated to the test.

And then Javik wakes up and he's an imperialistic, genocidal, vendetta bound weapon of vengeance ... and it all hits a little too close to home. Because if a few things had gone a little different in ME2 ... if Cerberus had been able to wake her up properly and spent time brainwashing her ... maybe she would have been the same.

Not that it actually would have happened, because she's Commander Shepard. And while her perspective is suggestable, her moral compass is not. But Commander Mothereffing Erin Shepard is still just one woman who now has to save the whole damn galaxy and is also madly in love with a man who still thinks she's a Cerberus puppet and it's throwing her for a bit of a loop so she spends the first part of ME3 having a crisis of confidence. *deep breath* She hates waking up Javik and mostly leaves him to brood until Thessia. Maybe I'll have him be more involved earlier, because you know I'm not sticking to the two squad mates only bs on every mission. But so far that's all minus some finale stuff and on ship interactions obviously.

If you made it this far. You're super cool and I love you. And I'm sorry for the inherent weirdness that will continue to be a constant presence on anything I touch on this platform.

[elena-fishr]

If they do remake 5 (which I feel like is potentially coming), I hope they beef up every single personal arc/storyline. Go more into Sheva's backstory, give Jill WAY more to do and her own arc, focus more on Chris grieving/expand out his arc, show more of the relationship between Chris and Jill, show us more of the build up in Chris and Sheva's partnership/friendship etc etc. IMO there's a lot of room in the og for more story, so I hope they utilize that in the remake.

💯���anon!!

the way they could destroy me emotionally if they get it all right 😭😭😭 re engine versions of those heartbreaking scenes, just imagine the re engine clarity of Chris and Jill’s eyes bro….

I ranted on below the cut way more than I should’ve, sorry anon! I think re5 did great with the story but we know capcom has the power to do even more now and much more experience to fine tune everything, so I hope they put as much love and care into re5r as it looks like they gave re4r

I firmly believe they’re gonna remake all the games up to 6 now, these remakes are like capcom’s guaranteed success no matter what else they do lol

I think they’re beefing up the AI in re4r, friendly AI like Ashley and Luis seem to help more than they did in the og, that focus on AI bodes very well for a re5r and we can get a lot of character building stuff during gameplay too.

I love re5 and how it handled the heavy emotions of the story, I would actually be afraid of them dialing it down. The way my heart breaks EVERY SINGLE TIME TO THIS DAY at the specific way Jill cries “NO!” And then takes the fall for chris in Lost in Nightmares. That line delivery was so powerful. Having it be different will be hard

(I can’t wait to see if re4r will be doing the separate ways dlc because then I can rest easy knowing lost in nightmares is secured for re5r😌) I can’t imagine them not doing LiN tho, it will even work if it’s a section in the main game like in the original concept of it.

ANYWAYS I agree anon!! This game is about not having to do things on your own, not giving up on one another, partnership, teamwork, the relationships HAVE to be solid. It’s the core of the game and the story. I’m feeling insane for even saying this but I feel like capcom can pull thru 😭😭😭 (this re4r excitement really has me like🤡)

Everything you said I want lmao! Particularly with Jill. If they could find a way to have a jill playable section or something that’s not separate dlc. I want her actually in the game.

[everygame]

Dave The Diver

Developed/Published by: Mintrocket / Nexon Released: 28/06/2023 Completed: 24/07/2023 Completion: Completed the main story and the Godzilla DLC.

Well, if there’s something that’ll get me to pick up your game, it’s going to be the magic words “Godzilla shows up in it” and with the addition of some (time-limited!) DLC I was driven to finally try Dave The Diver, the game that famously competed for “Best Indie Game” at the 2024 Game Commercials (sorry, did I say commercials? I meant award... no, I can’t keep a straight face saying that) a decision which Geoff Keighley tried to defend by asking the kind of questions that make you wonder if he’s capable of spooning food into his own mouth (before he fobbed the blame off on his selection jury, anyway.)

Anyway, it’s not an indie game, but I understand why in our current, low-literacy culture, people think it “feels” like one. It’s got the high concept of your classic indie games (“You dive for fish during the day and then you sell them at a sushi restaurant at night!”) with 2D pixel art, and it’s also got the endless amount of fucking content of the “one lunatic worked on this for a decade” indie games.

Except, of course, in this situation it’s not the result of one lunatic, but an entire team of staff employed, ultimately, by a multi-billion dollar corporation who seem to have been determined to take something with a clean high concept and keep piling more and more shit on it till you lose sight of what it originally was entirely. It’s the equivalent of those restaurants where you order a bloody mary and it’s got eighteen cocktail sticks with like, entire burgers and deep-fried pickles attached. Like at that point you’re eating a meal, not drinking a bloody... bloody mary.

But let’s not get ahead of myself here. Dave the Diver is, at it’s heart, an extremely solid video game. Now, it’s a bit weird in setting, because I think we all accept that we’re over-fishing and fucking up our seas, and you certainly shouldn’t be eating endangered tropical, fish, but this has you leaping into a pristine lagoon and fucking murdering everything you see, including things like sharks, which is–if you’ve any knowledge of what has been done in the name of shark’s fin soup–pure fucking evil. So I have to admit I felt conflicted immediately, and I think if you’re vegetarian, or just generally sensitive to this sort of thing (i.e. like me every time you see a “rabid” wolf in a movie or something, you’re angry because wolves aren’t like that) you probably don’t want to play this.

I sucked it up–in fact I played this mostly just killing the fish that attacked me, trying to treat it as a “kill or be killed” sort of thing, and trying to get to the point where I unlocked the farm so I could switch to serving vegetarian sushi (which takes a while, unfortunately.)

Anyway. Swimming around feels good. The music is good, the setting is beautiful even if you turn it into a charnel house, and the loop of slowly increasing your ability to go deeper and see more is tip-top. I can’t pretend I liked the sushi section as much however. The game has so many fucking dishes that you actually can spend forever upgrading them or selecting them, and then when you open the restaurant it’s kind of a Diner Dash thing which… isn’t that fun? It’s just stressful?

But if this was all you did, it would be a nice little loop. It would make sense: you get the restaurant in order, maybe there’s a bit of story attached, you max your abilities, boosh. Video game.

Dave The Diver, charitably, can be called extravagant. You can sort of tell from the beginning, when you see a lot of big, bespoke pixel art animations that would, frankly, take fucking ages to do, but which are tossed off almost casually. Then as you play it, and you unlock more and more, you realise that they simply added every idea they had in a way that, frankly, doesn’t even make sense. There’s a stealth level that’s in a completely different style from everything else. There’s a rhythm action game that’s very funny, but so competently done, that you’re like “but this is a whole video game you made for one joke.” There’s a tamagotchi. There are systems after systems after systems. You’re not just catching fish, you’re performing ecological missions. You end up with three farms. You manage and upgrade sushi staff! There’s a casino!!!

There’s a story to work through, too, and it, combined with everything else you’re doing, takes as long as a mid-sized RPG to get through despite being… no great shakes in the narrative sense. It’s all simply just too much.

I suppose for some, who really love everything in this, there’s no such thing as too much, but for me, I was absolutely bored of this game by the time Godzilla even showed up (for me, about half-way through the game.) Every system quickly becomes busywork and you end up so far from the original loop of swimming around–or at least, the time between swimming gets exponentially longer as you have to manage this, or that–that it start to feel like a huge chore to play.

I think Dave the Diver is, actually, kind of the best example of how to make a game that everyone thinks is “indie” while being something that really doesn’t understand the spirit of indie at all. You’re trying to make something you love, not simply pound people to death with endless signifiers. 

Maybe they did love this when they started it–but can they even see what that is any more under all the cocktail sticks with grilled cheeses and sparklers in the way?

If you put down games when you’re bored of them, you’ll get a brilliant five or six hours out of this, I guess. But it’s like a dive mission itself–stay down too long and you’ll drown.

Will I ever play it again? I will not. I’ll avoid any sequels, too. But I’m interested to see what Mintrocket would do next. I suspect something as brutally expansive.

Final Thought: Oh! I never talked about the Godzilla DLC. It’s… fine. It’s nothing very much, to be honest, adding a kaiju battle that isn’t much of anything. The main joy is that once you’ve done it the world is littered with kaiju models, and you can find a MINILLA. Minilla forever!!!

Support Every Game I’ve Finished on ko-fi! You can pick up digital copies of exp., a zine featuring all-exclusive writing at my shop, or join as a supporter at just $1 a month and get articles like this a week early.

[dragonflight203]

Mass Effect 3 replay, part one of the Citadel DLC:

-I normally do the Citadel DLC right after picking up Tali, but I wanted to do the Rannoch arc in one go so I put it off.

Now seems like a good time – after Rannoch the Normandy probably needed repairs anyway, and the asari Councilor’s called me back to the Citadel.

Meeting Joker

-In the Grissom Academy mission, Anderson and Kahlee haven’t seen each other for years.

At the start of this mission, Anderson says Kahlee had wanted them to settle down in the apartment. In one of the audio logs he speaks to her directly.

So, retcon?

-How does Anderson connect to the apartment? Or to Shepard in general?

I thought QEC worked so one point connected directly to another point. So you can’t pick another point to connect to; it can only connect to a preset transmitter.

Ergo, Anderson should not be able to wander around Earth and connect to the Normandy or his apartment whenever he happens past a QEC transmitter. That QEC transmitter should only be able to connect to its pair.

It’s entirely possible I’m misunderstanding how QEC work, but that’s what I take away from the Codex entry: “the system’s exclusively point-to-point nature precludes peer-to-peer networking and data dissemination through the galactic extranet.”

-The audio logs in the apartment have excellent information, but needing to listen to them is painful. Just present a text entry that I can choose to read or listen to. I can read much faster than Anderson can speak. Easier to reference, too.

-I can understand why this apartment is huge; admiral or Councilor, I’m sure Anderson brings in a nice salary.

But why the hell does it have three beds? Two upstairs, one downstairs? Did Anderson have roommates?

-The turian pointing at the fish at the sushi place is so, so cute.

-This place must do both levo and dextro food. I see a mixed crowd eating.

-I wanted to complain that the mercenaries are all human, but we learn later Brooks is a human supremacist so that adds up.

-As a power user, this section should be easy. I normally don’t use my gun at all.

However, the M-11 suppressor during this section is heavy, so my powers recharge much more slowly than normal.

That makes this section very frustrating.

I don’t know why they did that; the M-11 you receive later is light.

-The attack on the sushi place is odd.

It’s extremely public; if Shepard died there, everyone would know. Clone Shepard doesn’t want that – they want to replace Shepard, and there would be too many questions if Shepard died at the sushi place. This is before they’ve replaced Shepard’s fingerprints.

They also want to kill all of Shepard’s close friends; they would not be able to fool them.

That’s presumably why Brooks saves Shepard at the sushi place.

But why attack them there at all? Why give the mercenaries kill orders and risk one getting off a lucky shot?

There must have been an easier means to lure everyone into a trap and obtain Shepard’s Spectre code. Some method that did not result in everyone in full combat gear.

-As usual in ME3, I have a hard time making out the broadcasts and background chatter. It’s not subtitled because fuck you if you having hearing problems.

-Why does the walk sign consist of a turian, hanar, and human?

That’s an odd choice. Turians and humans have very similar body types; you could easily switch either out with an asari.

The hanar makes sense, as they have a very different body shape.

Instead of a turian and a human, I think it would have been better to swap one out with an elcor.

-Finally, the much spoken of Fishdog Food Shack makes an appearance.

Seriously, where did that name come from? That does not sound like a human name. Did some other species start it up and advertise it as selling human food?

-I hope the skycar place has good insurance. They’re going to need it.

(I bet Citadel policies exclude acts of Spectres, the way many policies exclude acts of god.)

-It’s a nice touch that you can read the descriptions for many of the skycars for sale.

-I need to look up how this plays out if Wrex is dead; it must be very different.

-When Brooks says Shepard took out 100 guys with a pistol, Shepard does not deny it.

Well, even if they didn’t take out 100 today they have over the years.

Casino

-Elijah Khan’s name is very close to Elias Khelim, from Thane’s loyalty mission. I initially thought they were the same person.

Were they perhaps intended to be at one point, and it was changed later?

-You should have the option to take Cortez with you. He’s a love interest and there’s no combat this mission, so it wouldn’t take that much more work to include him.

-Javik should have had a new set of clothes for the Casino. We were robbed.

-Why are all of Shepard’s dresses awful?

-I love how Elspeth Murrain attracts every shady person to contribute to her campaign funds. Even Aria’s involved and she operates out of the Terminus Systems.

-At least the consort’s a bit warmer this time. Still not tremendously helpful though – is “win” really the best advice she can give?

-Columbia Rios is glorious. She reminds me of Helena Blake from ME1. Very pragmatic and straight to business.

-Hmm. I deliberately avoided speaking to Aishwarya Ashland so I could speak to her father first, but I still told him that I’d met her. Is it because I overheard her say a line? Or does Shepard always say that?

-The turian by Aishwarya is wearing a suit. Every other turian except Rolan is in other clothes. Is he her date?

-Javik dances when you speak to Jonah. It’s beautiful.

-Huh. I swear I remember some dialogue about the Patriarch, but I’ve circled the casino twice and can’t trigger it.

-Brooks, have some patience. I’ll get to you.

-You get credits after the mission. Rather amusing – the implication is that Shepard robbed the place. Hopefully just Khan’s personal funds.

Citadel Archives

-Javik says protheans did not date primitives… Except for asari.

Ah, asari. The writers screwed you over so badly. You deserved better than to be best known as the species everyone wants to fuck.

-How did the volus delivery person get into the apartment?

Even if it was unlocked – and I hope not! – I presume they would not waltz right in.

Unless James gave them the code and told them to? But why would he do that?

-And why is payment for the pizza not required before delivering it?

Everything’s digital anyway; or at least I haven’t seen any references to cash. I’d expect payment before delivery to be standard.

-Brooks makes sure everyone goes to the Citadel Archives by saying it’s a shame that not everyone can come.

If she hadn’t brought it up, someone may have stayed behind to secure the home base.

Reverse psychology at its finest.

-There are multiple biotics in the squad. Dropping weapons doesn’t disarm them.

-The archive holos are not subtitled, because I cannot emphasize enough how many fuck yous Bioware has for those with imperfect hearing.

-Of course the holo about the First Contact War would consist of two male turians and one male human, despite the species supposedly being gender equal.

The Omega DLC had already been released. They had no excuse for not including a female turian. Or at least making the human a woman.

-One of turians explicitly says he intends to conquer Earth.

I do love the Hierarchy being a low key empire in the background. They must pull this bullshit all the time. If they snatch up a new client race, no one will protest because it’s more work than letting it go!

The asari and salarians must be sick of it.

The real reason they were so firm that the Hierarchy couldn’t conquer humanity and had to pay reparations: They’d already aquired two other “clients” this century.

-Why is there only one image of the krogan ambassador attacking the asari and salarian Councilors at the start of the Krogan Rebellions? Is the implication supposed to be the rest of the recording was damaged in the fight?

-Why does Glyph desire combat abilities?

He’s not a full AI, so that must be part of his programming. But where the hell does it come from?

-Liara apologizes that Glyph keeps mixing up the two Shepards by saying he’s not a combat model.

What does that have to do with being a combat model or not?

I suppose combat models may have greater recognition ability because that’s extremely important in a fight, but you’d think that’s a function also critical for the Shadow Broker.

The former Shadow Broker was cheap.

-And we learn in another holo that the Council did accept that Sovereign was a Reaper. They just kept it quiet.

Interesting retcon, since the writers explicitly acknowledged and rejected this possibility earlier on by having Joker state he had hoped the Council had been denying it to Shepard because of the Cerberus connections and was disappointed to learn it was not the case.

So why retcon it now? Did the writers realize how absurdly bad it made the Council to deny it? But why would they care? They’ve always portrayed the Council in a negative light.

I suspect this was another case of “Wouldn’t it be cool if…?” and not much more thought was given to it.

-I love that the first Spectre was selected because he used civilians as bait and was fairly confident that they’d survive.

The Spectres have always been shady as fuck. I suspect paragons are more rare than renegades.

-Glyph says it’s a pity the scientists perished because he wanted to discuss the elcor mating totem with them.

Does he mean in the past? Or current day in the Archives? I don’t see any bodies.

-I suspect the Council will be pissed at the amount of damage the Archives is taking.

Here’s to hoping their backups are up to date.

-Clone Shepard is dressed the same as the Shepard in the Archive holo where they’re considered for Spectre status.

That can’t be coincidence. Someone is feeling insecure.

-In Brooks’ flashback, the signs by the door Shepard uses their Spectre code to open have text rather than the cute picture of turian/hanar/human they do in the game.

-When Clone Shepard replays the portion of the Council meeting where Shepard was made Spectre, only the asari and turian Councilors are shown. Where’s the salarian Councilor?

-Clone Shepard: The Normandy needs its captain.

Very out of character for the real Shepard. When the quarians called them captain in ME2, they specifically rejected the title since they had not reached it in the Alliance.

-Is it just me or does anyone else get the impression that Brooks seduced Clone Shepard?

Give Clone Shepard’s chronological time span, that makes me feel icky.

-The inability to open vaults from the inside is a huge safety concern.

The real contribution of humanity to the galaxy will be minimal safety requirements.

-How does Joker know about the other Shepard?

They don’t learn about that until they’re in the Archives, and Joker doesn’t join them there.

Normandy

-Clone Shepard may have changed the biometric logs, but they don’t have Shepard’s memories. They will not be able to fool anyone for long.

Also, I hope the Archive system has an audit trail that tracks when changes are made. Even better, what changes were made.

-At the start of the mission, Joker referred to the Normandy as “his” then quickly backtracked it to “ours”.

As he takes Shepard and co to the Normandy, he and Shepard refer to the ship as his repeatedly.

Nice touch.

-Javik: Don’t be stupid, human. It was clearly a clone.

Considering Javik’s been expressing incredulousness this whole time about it…

-The clone letting go of the Normandy because Brooks abandons them is tragic.

The clone’s been alive six months. Brooks is the only person they really know. Once Brooks leaves them, they’re alone in a world they barely have any experience with.

They’re a shitty person, but they’ve had barely any time to be a person. And they’ve had just about the worst guide the whole time.

I feel bad for them.

-The Normandy probably needs more repairs than when it started. Oops.

[siaanme]

So this year I made the questionable decision to try and play (and beat) 52 different video games that I hadn't beaten before.

I managed.

And so I thought I would do a quick little summary of the games I played and what I thought about them.

Knight of the Old Republic - I really enjoyed this game, as I suspected I would since it's one of Sarah's favourites. Despite some early learning difficulties (hey turns out picking the Overload Terminal options when you're at the terminal is Bad actually), I had a great time. At some point I might play it again with a different build. Or maybe I'll find a way to play the sequel with the restored content mod. Point is, I'm a fan.

Li'l Gator Game - This game is just very wholesome and fun. Great characters, great story, fun to run around the world in.

Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart - I'm a huge fan of the Ratchet and Clank games, and this one was my favourite since Tools of Destruction. I don't think it quite reaches the peaks that my favourite entries do, but it's very solid, and at the end of the day, it has fun guns. What more could I want? Oh, other than Rivet getting her own full spinoff. That'd be nice

AI: The Somnium Files: nirvanA Initiative - Uchikoshi you crazy bastard, you did it again. This is one of two games this year I played where I basically had to take a lap after reaching a key twist revelation. Just recontextualising everything. Oh, it's so good.

Tinykin - Very good, Pikmin like vibes, though without any time pressure. Although if I remember, it does have the issue that collectathons often have when you're missing just a few small collectables and no way to easily locate them in game. That always sucks.

Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion - As this was a pretty short game, I don't have a super strong memory of it. I enjoyed it I think, and Turnip Boy destroying everything that had anything to do with money or bills was pretty good, but I don't think it's one I'll go back to

Stray - Game where you get to play as a very well realised kitty, what's not to love? Other than when the kitty gets hurt of course. Also I think I felt it was a bit more of a slog than I expected? Still fun, but another one I probably won't go back to

Theatrhythm Final Bar Line - This is probably one of my most played games this year. I've loved the Theatrhythm games since the first one on the 3DS, and they just keep making more, and having more Final Fantasy (and other Squenix games) music in them! I honestly would keep buying DLC packs if they kept making them. I am part of a problem.

Octopath Traveler 2 - I love me a good RPG, and Octopath 2 is a damn fine RPG. It improves on the formula of the first one a great deal, with plenty of character and class options to play around with. The main issue is that towards the end, some bosses tend to be a bit easier than others, simply because you've probably become overleveled at some point. It makes me wish all RPGs had a level slider, where you could voluntarily undo some of your levels temporarily. This is not the last time I'll have this problem.

Metroid Prime Remaster - Okay, yes, I've played the original before. Many times. One of my favourites games. So why is it on the list? Because it's my list, I get to make the rules, so shut up. Then go play Metroid Prime. It's a classic for a reason.

Superliminal - Very inventive puzzle game, lot of fun twists. I did get a headache from it though, which is something that I find can happen with first person games. Can recommend.

Klonoa: Door to Phantomile - I had previously played the demo for Klonoa 2, but never had a chance to play either of the first two games properly. I'm glad I got the chance to, fun little 2.5D platformers. Though screw going for completion on this. If they didn't have the x2 gem sections, maybe I do it, but with them? Nah.

Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil - Basically take what I said above and repeat it. Though also, I've listened to the soundtrack for Klonoa 2 a lot, so it was fun to finally see the levels the music came from.

Bugsnax - This was an incredibly fun time. I love me a good collecting game, I love inventive creature design, I love body horror... no wait, I don't love that last one. But it's done so well in this it barely registers as body horror. Candy coated body horror. 100% completed this, though I wish I hadn't done some of the letter challenges. Some of those were a bit tedious.

Pyre - Despite being a huge fan of Supergiant games, Pyre was a notable gap in my experience. And while I think it's still the weakest of their games, it's still a really good game. An interesting take on a sort of sports game (basically fantasy basketball), and I do like that you don't strictly have to win all your games (though I definitely did, except I think the very last one). Can recommend.

Marvel's Spider-Man: Mile Morales - I enjoyed Insomniac's take on Spider-Man the first time, still really enjoyed it this time. This coming year I hope to get around to Spider-Man 2, since people seem to have really enjoyed that. Definitely some annoying challenges though. I'm glad I allowed myself to kick my completionist habit early this year.

Rhythm Sprout - Okay, it's fine? It's fun? But I don't think it's quite for me. I don't even fully remember what about it I wasn't fond of, but it definitely wore out its welcome by the end for me.

Deathloop - Arkane is another game studio who I generally quite like the output of (Dishonored series my beloved), and Deathloop was a fun take. Early game is definitely a bit weak, but once you start getting more fun powers, it's a treat to play around in this world as you try to figure out how to break the loop. It's just a shame about the multiplayer though. Asymetric invasion multiplayer just isn't for me, which is fine, it was optional-ish, but because of it's inclusion they definitely had to reduce the number of toys you could have at once, which was more frustrating.

Wario Land 4 - I really like Wario Land 2 and 3. I like the first one as well. But something about this one doesn't work for me. I think it's getting rated at the end of each level? Another one I don't think I'll replay.

Sackboy: A Big Adventure - So you're saying I can have the charming aesthetics of LittleBigPlanet, and in a 3d platformer? And not in a game super focused on user made content? Sign me up! Shame about the 2 player only levels, I never got to try them due to a tragic lack of a second controller. Otherwise, great. The musical levels remain a standout highlight.

Knight Witch - Oh I wanted to like this one more. A bullet-hellish metroidvania, but sadly the difficulty was tuned a little too high for me to really enjoy it towards the end. I had to turn on invincibility to beat it.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed - Yes I'm including a DLC campaign here. Get used to it. Anyway, as a big fan of Xenoblade games, this one definitely delivered for me. I'll basically take any chance to spend some more time with Xenoblade games.

Lunistice - Another quite fun 3D platformer. Movement felt fun, and I appreciate that there's some more variety for me if I go back to it in the form of other playable characters. Maybe I'll do that someday.

Souldiers - Another one I wish I liked more. It starts quite strong, and the idea of having three playable classes is nice. But the second major area, the pyramid temple... I don't know what it is, but it was a SLOG. Probably because it's a very vertical level, which is way more annoying to navigate. Also another one where I feel the difficulty was tuned a little too high for me to enjoy (and yet I love Hollow Knight).

Tears of the Kingdom - Okay, look. You've probably played this game. You've probably seen other people play this game. You don't need me to tell you this game is fantastic. There are still problems to be sure, but it's a really good sequel to an already great game. At some point in the new year I will be a madman and collect all the Korok seeds, but not yet. Not yet.

Pokémon Scarlet - Yes I played Violet when it came out. Yes I'm counting this anyway. My list, my rules. Anyway, As much as pokémon occupies my waking thoughts, there are lots of things I don't like about this one. I'm setting aside the graphics for now to focus on gameplay things. So. Most of my issues with the game stem from it being open world. I'm not opposed to this being the direction pokémon goes, but there are things I am opposed to. For one, I think there are too many pokémon spawns. The spawners should have been fewer and further apart, as well as more unique. Maybe not all the time, but more often. If I climb to the highest peak in Paldea, I should find a pokémon there that I can't find anywhere else. I shouldn't find the same five pokémon I encountered while climbing it. And navigating is terrible too. I'm of the opinion the game shouldn't have had climbing or gliding. It actually makes trying to find a path through everywhere less enjoyable. Look, I could go on, but this is the halfway point of the list so I'll hold myself back for now.

God of War: Ragnarok - Mechanically, this game is really really good. It takes what was good about the previous God of War game and polishes it further. Storywise, this definitely feels like it was two games smushed into one. What's there is great, the characters are fantastic, but some things felt like they needed room to breathe. Also I'm still really impressed by the trickery used to keep this game as a oner, shot wise. Also also I don't think I've ever cried after hearing the solution to a riddle before, so props for that.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective - Everyone go play Ghost Trick. Now. I'm serious. This game is one of my favourites of all time, so of course I was going to get the remaster. Yes I'm counting it, much like the Metroid Prime remaster. Go play Ghost Trick.

Picross 3D Round 2 - I got this game before the 3DS eShop closed, and it was a solid little puzzle game. I think I actually prefer it to regular Picross, though overall I still prefer the kind offered by Hungry Cat Nonagram. Not sure the technical name for that kind. Anyway point is, good game.

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code - I like Danganronpa, so I was pretty interested to check out Kodaka's latest offering. It plays very similarly to Danganronpa, for better and for worse. In fact, maybe the default gameplay is a bit less good than Danganronpa's? Anyway, this is the second game on the list where I had to take a lap after a certain late/end game twist (in a good way). Kodaka you crazy bastard. I still can't believe it.

Pikmin - Despite having played Pikmin 3, I'd never tried the series' roots before. I was surprised at how well it held up, even without some of the quality of life changes from 3. I could see myself replaying it again, though it does still take 3rd place in my ranking of main Pikmin games.

Pikmin 2 - This on the other hand. Look, the core gameplay is still there, it's still fun getting your army of little guys and taking on the world. But there are two things that put this on the bottom for me. One, no overarching time limit. I honestly thought I'd hate the time-limit in the Pikmin series, but honestly I think it's a great thing to have. Two, the randomised dungeons. Oh I don't like these. I feel like it removes or downplays the strategy aspect of the games that I enjoy. It gets last on my ranking of Pikmin games.

Pikmin 4 - Sidenote, I did replay Pikmin 3 after 2 and before 4, but I've done that before so it doesn't get a write up. Anyway, Pikmin 4! This is a strictly better version of Pikmin 2. The caves are now always the same, which means they could actually design interesting challenges/puzzles into them. My main complaint about this game is actually that Oatchi is perhaps too powerful. My other complaint is the Dandori battles. I like the Dandori trials, but something about having an opponent to play against made me not enjoy the battles. Second favourite mainline Pikmin game.

Dishonored: Death of the Outsider - I already said I like Arkane studios and the Dishonored series. This game might be shorted and more limited (and thus a bit more frustrating for the way I like to play these games) but it's still solid.

Fire Emblem: Engage - I was expecting to not like this one as much as I did. And to be fair, I think I still like Three Houses (the only other FE game I've played) better, but the gameplay of this one is pretty solid. A few weird complaints about it, but overall quite solid.

Marble it Up! Ultra - There is a lot of joy to be found in marble platforming it turns out. The best way to sell you on this game is to just get you to watch it, so here you go, go watch Dan Floyd of New Frame Plus and PlayFrame play it.

Vampire Survivors - How do you judge when Vampire Survivors is beaten you ask? Well, firstly when you get credits. Easy. Also if you complete every challenge in the game and first 2 DLCs plus free update I think. This game is A Lot, but for me it's a good A Lot. Now to continue waiting for the Vampire Survivors x Among Us DLC on Switch.

Doom (2016) - This game has convinced me I'm not a huge fan of FPSs. Okay look, it's fantastic. It's high energy, fast paced, aggressive, it's great! But it's also headache inducing for me. I probably need to mess with camera settings some more in future FPS games.

Kirby: Return to Dreamland Deluxe - I don't have to keep justifying putting remasters on this list. I love Kirby, it's just always a good time. That's really all that needs to be said.

Sea of Stars - This is one of my games of the year. I backed the Kickstarter for this on the strength of their previous game, The Messenger (also a fave), and I was not disappointed. The gameplay is a fantastic blend of Chrono Trigger's battles and Mario & Luigi RPG's active hit system. The soundtrack slaps, the art is so pretty (who allowed them to make the cooking feature in this game look SO GOOD). It also receives the prestigious honour of being the only game that I wanted to immediately start another playthrough of right after beating it.

Frogun - This was a pretty cute little throwback platformer. I did give up on getting everything in it toward the end, but maybe one day I'll go back and finish it. Also look, it had Frog in the title, how could I say no to it?

Time on Frog Island - Okay look, it has Frog in the title, how could I say no to it? That aside, it's mostly pretty good, though there's definitely some mysteries I didn't have the patience for, so undoubtedly there's more I could do. Probably not for everyone, but an enjoyable little distraction.

Baldur's Gate 3 - Is this game perfect? No. Are all the complaints I have about it pretty much nitpicks? Yes. Again, this is a game you don't need me to tell you it's good. Plus it gave me an excuse to play as Fargrim Stonecleave, my 5e dwarf ranger again. And I got to have a pet owlbear cub! And I got to pet him! I have named him Owliver Cupcake Stonecleave, and he is my son.

Into the Breach - To clarify again, I considered this game beaten because I reached credits. There's still more I can do in this, but it's a great little tactics game that I will definitely be spending more time with in future.

Super Mario Wonder - Another game that I probably don't need to tell you is good. But I will anyway. This game is wonderful. Except for the Final Badge Trial. Anyway, I thought I wouldn't find the online option interesting, but actually having Dark Souls style ghosts online, playing beside you was really fun. I think this might be the best 2D Mario game. All this game is missing is the ability to play as Rosalina, but it is nice that Daisy finally gets a turn in the spotlight.

Suika Game - I consider this game beaten because I made a watermelon. But yeah, this is a simple but fun and tricky puzzle game that is nice to play while I'm watching other things.

Unsighted - This is a really good top down Zelda-like. Challenging in places, sure, but really good. The main thing I didn't like was each character having a ticking clock, so I did disable that with assist features first thing. I would be interested in replaying this and sequence breaking it.

The Forgotten City - I don't really want to spoil this one too much, but it's a game that scratches the same itch that Outer Wilds does. That should be all you need to know if you've played Outer Wilds. It's not as long as Outer Wilds, but still good. This is the best Skyrim related thing* I've ever played, and that includes actual Skyrim.

*the game started life as a Skyrim mod before getting turned into a standalone game

Persona 5 Tactica - I like Persona 5, I like tactics games, so this was a natural fit. And I really enjoyed it. It wasn't overly challenging, sure, but I found a lot of fun in trying to complete missions efficeintly. The DLC was more challenging, and yeah it's frustrating that it's pre-third semester of P5R, but it was a nice addition. A shame I couldn't get Kasumi and Akechi in the main game until New Game+ though.

Neversong - Oh yeah. This. Okay, it's not terrible, but I guess it's just not my thing storywise. It was at least short though.

Fe - I wish I liked this more. It's got a similar, no-words vibe as Journey, a game I love, but it doesn't quite nail it I think. Plus it does that thing that some games do where it has stealth sections in a game that's not really made for it. Again, it's at least short.

Pokémon Violet: The Secret Treasure of Area Zero -SURPRISE IT'S MORE POKÉMON! YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE FREE BUT NO! Okay, anyway. The Teal Mask was okay, basically just more of the same from ScarVio. Also my reaction to Ogerpon is very much that Rosa Diaz with a puppy gif. But more importantly, the Indigo Disk is fantastic. There's still a lot of problems that come from it being attached to these games, but it does one thing very right - constant double battles. I am not super involved with the VGC scene (complaints for another time) but I do think that if it's going to be the official competitive scene, the games need to ease players into that more. I thought Raihan's gym in SnS was a good start, but I wanted more of that. So a whole expansion where every battle is a doubles battle? Allowing certain moves and abilities to actually get use in game more than just the two double battles in the main campaign? Actual competitive strategies getting used by the NPCs? Music to my ears, and such a refreshing change. I want the next mainline pokémon game to lean into this even more. The only thing I want more is A BATTLE TOWER IN THIS GAME WHY DON'T WE HAVE ONE!?

Anyway, that's my 52 games I played this year. This was an interesting exercise, one I will not be repeating, or at least not to the same extent. Also, shout out to the following games which I also replayed: Shovel Knight (Plague of Shadows, Spectre of Torment, and King of Cards), Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak, Pikmin 3, Kirby Planet Robobot, and The Messenger.

Next year, my gaming goal is to play through a minimum of 12 different RPGs, ideally ones I haven't beaten before, but I'm not going to be as picky because I want to replay Xenoblade 1-3