#in case one wants to speedrun the game or make it more challenging

[beevean]

Bosses in Harmony of Dissonance

Giant Bat (Marble Corridor A): mandatory for the Worst/Best Endings. The game allows you to skip it very easily, but it turns out that defeating the Giant Bat lowers the drawbridge that leads to the courtyard, in both castles. At the end of the game, you need to go there in Castle B to retrieve the Rib of Vlad: therefore, the Bat is only optional if you are going to defeat Maxim in Castle A, netting you the Normal Ending.

Living Armor (Shrine of the Apostates A): mandatory. It guards the Lizard Tail, which allows to slide.

Skull Knight (Skeleton Cave B): mandatory. It guards the Sylph Feather, which allows to double jump.

Golem (Luminous Cavern B): optional. It guards the Walk Armor (obtainable after getting the Griffin's Wing) and the Yellow Stone, which have limited utility.

Minotaur (Castle Top Floor B): optional, but highly recommended. It guards the Wind Book, which gives you some of the best spells in the game.

Devil (Sky Walkway A): optional, but recommended. It guards the Night Goggles. While it is hard, it's possible to traverse the dark room leading to the Aqueduct of Dragons without them. Speedrunners tend to skip it.

Giant Merman (Aqueduct of Dragons A): mandatory. You need to go through it to connect the Aqueduct of Dragons to the Clock Tower. This is important in Castle B, as you need to go through the unlocked gate to solve the puzzle that leads to the Crushing Stone.

Max Slimer (Clock Tower A): mandatory. You need to go through it to reach Death and progress the plot.

Peeping Big (Clock Tower B): mandatory. You need to go through it to exit the Clock Tower.

Legion (saint) (Sky Walkway B): optional. There is nothing stopping you from taking the long way and go through the Aqueduct of Dragons if you wish to circumvent it. It's inconvenient, though.

Shadow (Sky Walkway B): mandatory. It progresses the plot and gives you Maxim's Bracelet, with which you can access the Castle Top Floor.

Pazuzu (Castle Top Floor A): mandatory. It progresses the plot and allows you to connect the Castle Top Floor with the Chapel of Dissonance from the other side.

Minotaur lv. 2 (Castle Top Floor A): optional. It guards the Steel Tip, which gets soon outclassed by the Platinum Tip.

Legion (corpse) (Skeleton Cave A): optional. It guards the Cipher's Charm, which has limited utility.

Talos (Luminous Cavern A): optional, but recommended. It guards the Skull Key, which unlocks the two doors that connect the right and left sides of the castle (you need the Griffin's Wing to reach it, though). Personally, I found the Skull Key limited in its utility as it comes too late into the game, far less useful than the Lure Key, but it makes exploring easier.

Death (Luminous Cavern A): mandatory. It progresses the plot and he guards the Griffin's Wing, which allows you to high jump.

Cyclops (Shrine of the Apostates B): optional. You don't even need to connect Entrance B with Shrine of the Apostates B. While you need the Crush Boots that are found in the connected Wailing Way B (no matter the ending you want: either you destroy the ceiling of Castle Top Floor A to open the center of that castle, or you destroy the ceiling of the tower in Entrance B to collect the Rib of Vlad), nothing stops you from returning the way you came.

(Related: the areas that can be skipped are Aqueduct of Dragons B, Chapel of Dissonance B, a good chunk of Castle Treasury A, Room of Illusion B, and Shrine of the Apostates B. Marble Corridor B can technically be skipped if one enters the Wailing Way B from the Entrance and progresses backwards until the Crush Boots, but it's inconvenient)

[vitzi9]

I'll be patient, just for you.

Masterlist if you want to read my others things. Prequel of Patience is the key to sucess.

TW/CW: breaking in, voyeurism, ghostface

I feel like this is weird? Or cliché ? I can't tell but I don't really like it. (8/07/2023) (1678)

Ethan has always been a lonely man. Even in his own family, he wasn't loved. His father was talking about his lost son every hour of the damn day, his sister was too. Both of them had spent years trying to find the perfect revenge plan. It was the only thing in their mind. Their plan still wasn't finished yet and for the moment all he had to do was befriending some dumbs students for him to get closer to.

It was a long and boring process. Playing the embarrassed nerd every second, faking being insecure and everything. It was boring. Deadly so.

But it wasn't that much of a waste of time since it's then and there that he discovered his passion; killing and frightening people. In pair with lying. He always think: how many times can I lie to someone before they see it ? How big can my lie be and still pass ? It was his hobby now. The adrenaline he felt while taking the life of someone was exhilarating. He was Ghostface, now. It was beautiful !

So he joined a college and started to blend in. To others, he was the shy dorky nerd without friends, too stupid to hurt a fly. And it was perfect. Ethan was smart, incredibly so. And he was competitive. He was a genius and no one could challenge him, he was the first of every one of his classes. And if someone dared surpass him, he would get angry, really angry.

And no one was suspecting him, too ! Chad just wanted for him to get into a relationship, Tara, Anika and Sam weren't paying too much attention to him, sure Mindy found him weird but that was all.

His cover was perfect.

One day, paying attention to the lesson. He doesn't notice how his pen fell on the ground. Nor when you grabbed it for him. He felt someone tap on his shoulder. Turning his head, he's face to face with you.

You were plain, somewhat of a background character. You didnt't look like you'd be fun to play with, like you'd just cry if he'd chase after you. So he didn't really paid attention to you. Staying in his role, he smiles and thanks you. You smile back.

He didn't even know your name, in fact, he didn't know the name of the majority of people in the class. There were too much persons in this big room. He never noticed you, until now. Why were you seated beside him ? And when did you sit here ? One quick look at the room gave him the answer; there wasn't enough sits.

Chad nudges his side, Ethan moans from the pain. His roomate gives him a pointed look, smiling slyly. Ethan just shrugs. He was terribly annoying, not even funny. If he had any choice in the revenge plan of his father, this dumb guy would be his first victim. Seriously, his name is Chad ? What the hell ?

Ethan glances back at you briefly when he sees a pins on your pencil case; on it, the head of the puppet from the movies Saw. He was intrigued. He liked horror movie as well, and challenge even more. Saw could be really trash for some people, with physical and psychological horror. At first, it was just a game for him really.

He wanted to see how much time he needed to scare you off.

How much time he needed to make you cry, shake and beg for your life. He wanted to speedrun ruining you.

For that, he needed some material. Ethan was a theater kid at heart. He liked to make things dramatics. He grabbed a rope and a black spraypaint. That's all he needed for now. He went to the cash register and gave his 5 dollars note. The cashier told him thirty cents were missing. He was going to bargain, even going to break his character if he needed to, but someone was quicker.

One coin of twenty and one of ten had been put on the counter next to his hand. Surprised, he follows the arm that laid it until he sees the owner of it. You. You smiled at him politly. You, who was the reason he was buying this in the first place. You were nothing like the you from school. You were even pretty. He couldn't even proceed the information but he just stuttered something, a thanks maybe, he can't even remember. But he left with his articles, head low and cheeks red.

Two days later, (the time he needed for him to understand the reaction he had at the store), he was ready. He would follow you at school, for the sole reason he wanted to scare you, of course. He'd write threats to the sit you usually sit on. But you always brush them off, thinking it was just some aweful joke from another student. Even if he wrote your name on it, you wouldn't budge.

He hang up a doll to the ceiling once, to get a reaction out of you. Didn't work either. He tried a lot more things before he realized he had stepped down the creepyness. His creepy jokes were similar to one a kid do. The more he wanted to scare you, the less he was doing. But he was doing it on purpose.

He knew he was doing it on purpose, the pictures of you on his phone were giving him away. Pictures of you in your room, changing clothes, sleeping, walking. Everything. But everyone do that, right ?Every man his age had a crush, after all. But Ethan never had one. He didn't have a normal life after all, nor a normal family. So it's not surprising.

Is that what men feel ? Surely, yes. He couldn't, and wouldnt anyway, ask his dad on the matter. He soon realized it wasn't normal to obsess over someone this way. But at this point it was too late. He killed people, he could deepen in the uncontroversially. A Polaroid of you talking to you friend was well hidden in his nightstand. Your friend's face was crossed out.

This picture was his favourite because he got to be so so close to you that day he thought that wasn't real. You weren't even smiling on the picture, your friend was probably telling you sad things but he didn't care. He spent countless night staring at this picture.

He craved something else. He didn't know what exactly but the more he was looking at you, the prettier you were becoming. And you were nice to him too. Well, the two only times both of you talked, you were incredibly nice to him. And he discovered you had similar center of interest ! You had scary books in your room, you listened to artists he liked, or learnt to like, and like him you hadn't a lot of friends !

But there was that thing, you weren't scared. But on another side, Ethan is not sure he wants to see you just scared now. He wasn't satisfied anymore.

No, his need was stronger now. He wanted to scare you, but mostly detroy you. It was something really simple in his mind. Something quick to understand but hard to plan. Human is gregarious. Human needs to be in a group or in a pair, it's a fact. But what if an human is left alone ? Then, he'll seek refuge with someone else. Even if it's not truthful. Even if it's a fake relation, because human need compagny. It give them a sense of safety.

And that now, was more terryfing that any stupid movie. Because Ethan was controlling everything in this plan. Because he get to see you scared shitless, to see you cry and beg for you life, he get to destroy you and you'll still come back for him for comfort.

In this plan, Ethan was winning on every fronts. He had everything and you nothing.

Though, he had to control himself at some point. He couldn't act too quickly. It wasn't something you can do in a blinking of an eye. Plus, you still exerted a force on him.

That he wants it or not.

That persona he was sick of playing with his so called friends, weirdly enough, he was really getting into it when you were around. When you looked at him, even for a brief second, he was the embarrassed nerd. When you looked at someone else, he was insecure.

But he'd overcome that, eventually.

Often, you'd come to your friend's apartment and he would love these moments ! Because he could hide in the bathroom and listen to your conversation. At first, his audacity had him doubt about his plan. But your friend was so so stupid ! Since he already locked himself in the bathroom multiple times before, she was used to it by now. Just thinking that it was stuck sometimes and she wouldn't insist. Ethan was free to do what he wanted.

After that, he decided he needed more. He knew your bedroom window was giving to a little street below. And it became a habit for him to go there every night. You couldn't see him, less hear him. But he was talking to you, every time. Most of the time, he was seated on the ground, head glued to your room.

'You're so pretty' he'd whisper after a long day. 'Good night lovely' he'd say when you turn off the light. And once deep asleep, he'd enter your apartment. He already duplicated your keys; his most prized posession. He would just stare at your sleeping form. Sometimes, he'd watch the TV without sound on your couch. Wanting to create a domestic feeling in him.

But each time, once the night is over, you'd see each other at school and you would act as if you don't know him.

And he really, really hated you for it.

[bwobgames]

Previous First

Credits scene

It's been multiple months since the mansion incident

The legal case lasted a good while, but no evidence was found against any of the survivors, so they are okay now.

The blood did not leave their clothes. They got new ones.

Oliver Beebo wakes up another day in his apartment. While a lot of his nights have bizarre nightmares, this one was calm.

Even though they are no longer on vacation, Ángel still stayed on Oliver's apartment, but they plan on staying some time in the capital, just to see what it's like.

He uses all types of products he can find to heal his scar. Beebo doesn't mind much. it's part of the job, he says.

They've been living a calm and domestic day to day life, with ups and down.

The downs are, very down indeed

But the ups are more often.

They got matching tattoos of a sunrise, it makes them feel better.

Oliver has started taking cases again, but he's going for simpler ones.

He has told his fellow detectives to keep an eye out for seemingly supernatural cases.

Ángel has declared that he will invite himself to any case that involves a haunted house. Oliver doesn't fight him on it

They both have gained new fears

Ángel gets very anxious when they're separated for too long. He's also terrible at guessing what time it is

Oliver makes a great effort in overcoming his fear of heights. It's a work on progress.

He's also afraid of developing any kind of memory affecting disease. He keeps an incredibly detailed diary

They are getting help. It's slow and nonlinear, but they can always go to a warm home with a cuddly cat and a tight hug.

Vivi invites Oliver for an exclusive 2-player session with Ángel, as a test for his dnd abilities, she says.

While he's not that good at the role playing, he's very good at strategy. He really enjoys lawful characters.

They have fun.

Marigold and Nina were also invited. It made for a very chaotic group.

Ángel wants to start a new game so he can upload it to his newly made youtube channel

He wasn't satisfied with a normal 9 to 5, so he decided for a more creative job.

He's slowly rising, with titles such as "Doing the 100 babies challenge in The sims 4," "RLcraft hardcore for 100 days", "Top 10 facts about Dominion the jewel thief", "Finishing Overcooked with all stars ft. Vivi", and his personal favorite, "Speedrunning Escape rooms with my bf ❤️"

He claims to be Dominion's number one fan and sells plushies of him. Oliver will never admit he bought one.

Apparently, he is considered a cryptid in Ángel's channel, which he appreciates.

The now officially named Iraola family invites them to events quite often, it's very nice to have a friend group

Game nights are... quite extreme

Turns out teenagers can be very competitive and capable

Nadia and Ángel have a scoreboard set up. The winner gets decided at New years.

Oliver has managed to keep his throne as the master of any and all card games, but for how long?

He can't wait for Christmas, he plans on giving Simon a cool anti-eye contact hat.

Even though he's still terrified of the concept of fatherhood, he really enjoys being an uncle.

Speaking of such, Ángel had to meet his parents. It was awkward at first, but he managed to win them over with his knowledge of old cinema and pretty boy charm.

Oliver met the Ronald Mcdonald statue by Ángel's childhood house. He has a picture with it.

Ángel's mother was sweet, hardworking, and strict. She was not afraid of telling her son how he should be a better gentleman towards Oliver. It was... an eventful night. It's a good thing the lady enjoys mystery novels.

They celebrated Nadia's birthday in spring, cordially invited.

Everyone was sure Ángel would give her a gag gift, like a cd to a boy band she doesn't like or an ugly shirt.

He gave her a key code to an expensive editing software.

She was grateful but refused to say so. She plans on retaliating with an equally thoughtful gift.

They are slowly learning to get along, like a pair of cats that need to be separated by a door when they first meet.

In other news, Oliver recently received an autism diagnosis. He was very surprised. Ángel wasn't. He baked him a cake for the occasion.

The biggest event had to be the wedding

On a warm spring day, in the middle of a flower field, Marigold Iraola and Nina Coli got married.

There was some bad press about it, but a certain reporter was very enthusiastic about how beautiful of an union this was, unlike the previous one.

Marigold decided to disband Coli's company, making a new one herself.

It specializes in medical equipment.

They saw the newlyweds say their vows, Oliver couldn't help but yearn for a moment like that.

He and Ángel danced the evening away

Between the multiple friends of the wives waiting for the bouquet toss, there was a determined man in white

And like a cat to a shiny object

He jumped and got it

They decide spring is a great season for a wedding.

They don't decide which spring though

That's for the future to know.

In a non-specific urban city like any other, an office awakes

Oliver Beebo is ready to start another day on his detective business

[yungvenuz]

Games I Played in 2024 #2: Animal Well

Genre: Puzzle (Passwords) Metroidvania

Where ->Here<-

Animal Well is an open-ended metroidvania game with a bunch of puzzles stapled haphazardly onto it. That probably sounds a bit dismissive, and I do mean it to be at least a little bit dismissive, but I want to establish up front that I've enjoyed games in this style before, most notably Environmental Station Alpha (by Hempuli, the genius designer behind Baba is You). So while I think these games usually don't work, and I haven't enjoyed other certain high profile examples of the genre (namely Tunic), I know there's promise here, and I'm going to try to be sincere in this retrospective.

First of all, to acknowledge the obvious, Animal Well is absolutely beautiful. The above screenshot is a room that is not even remotely special, just a corridor between two setpiece locations, the glue holding the metroidvania genre together, but it looks so nice. Every room in the game has had at least this much care or more put into how it looks. Sound design is excellent too, from the patter of rain to footsteps of rodents and dogs.

(don't look too closely if you're trying to avoid spoilers!)

Map layout and progression are great, too. There are four paths that can be followed initially, with each direction rewarding a new item that further aids exploration. Most of the routes eventually hit a point that requires items from other routes, frequently forcing exploration in other locations to progress. This works better than it might sound, as the tools gathered along the way improve exploration speed in new areas and allow for clever sequence breaks if they're used correctly. This initial exploration is by far the game's strongest suit, and it makes me very interested in seeing how speedruns and challenge runs develop.

(I looked up the speedrun after writing that paragraph. the current speedrun is 4 minutes long and uses a bunch of glitches and warps to beat the game without any of the interesting routing. c'est la vie)

Unfortunately, the experience fell short in the home stretch. There's a set of optional upgrades hidden behind convoluted secrets that open a few new paths and make exploration a bit easier, but there's a notable lack of interesting design in their implementation. In most cases, if you have the item that can solve a room, solving it is immediately trivial. Endgame exploration becomes a box-checking routine, a problem very much so shared with Tunic: visit area, do obvious thing, onto the next.

The problem is exacerbated by a refusal to expand the map or add any new puzzle areas in the endgame. Void Stranger is a good point of comparison here- its endgame sets aside the 256 floor structure of the main game to force the player through a gauntlet that makes full use of the optional tools collected throughout Gray's journey. Animal Well has no such climax, apart from an insultingly short sequence in which the four optional upgrades are used together to open a single door.

Overall, I think the good outweighs the bad. Animal Well won't be featuring in my GotY list, but the initial phase of exploration and note taking was still engaging enough to earn a solid recommendation. That said, it's a game that I would suggest engaging with only up to the limit of one's patience, with no shame in reading up on the rest.

[yuhawari]

Does Anyone Remember Polaris?

i'd like to say that i remembered it like it was yesterday, but yesterday was 2015 - in other words, falling apart by the second.

i was super bored while browsing through whatever singleplayer games there even were on my ipad, and one of them caught my eye. it was a story driven singleplayer first person shooter game that was constantly updating. i no longer remember the name of the studio that developed it or the studio that owned it, but the studio that owned it was a big name.

i downloaded the game and it was my lifeblood for its year-long lifespan. the plot went a little something like you waking up from a life pod in a spaceship that wants to kill you, so it sends what i think are either robots or aliens to try and pacify you. meanwhile, you went out guns a-blazing, beating the everloving shit out of the place while completing objectives as fast as possible, all while trying not to die. it was relatively unforgiving and death was part of the experience - stages were 5 minutes long give or take, but often felt like they took more than that. the environments sort of reminded me of Halo? they were incredibly detailed and had this very well-lit glow to them, just enough to trace out the shadows while still letting you see all the enemies. rooms would lock down until you defeated a certain number of enemies before letting you through; all you'd do is collect data chips from one area and insert them in another. it was cathartic.

near the end, you manage to get on an escape pod to a different spaceship controlled by a different ai. well turns out, the ai on that ship actually wants to kill you, meanwhile the ship you just escaped from just needed you to hibernate a little longer so it could make a proper escape. as the both of them start to bicker over your heads, you try to find a way out of the new ship you just got into, and the very last level the game gives you ends with you getting ejected into the nothingness of space through an airlock.

the game, as far as i can remember, was called Polaris. the app icon was the name of the game rendered in white with a large red star in the background. it was discontinued in 2015 or 2016, and was pulled from the app store shortly after. there is not a single piece of footage of this game, and i know for a fact it exists. this isn't some kind of tumblr bit or arg transition, no i shit you not this is a game that is real. my desperation to find it now is just from the fact that it has lived in my mind rent free because it was good, like really good, and i need to fucking know what happened to it.

each level had a very unique difficulty system in that the game was built to be speedrun. if you complete certain objectives in each stage, you'd get up to 3 bronze stars. bronze? yep. the minute you complete a bronze star challenge, the challenge would tighten its existing conditions and become a silver star, then a gold star, and then finally a platinum star. this effectively meant that the game had deep replayability per stage, as the stage conditions were not 3 stars - they were 12. each stage had its own kind of gun, from a rapidfire gun with limited ammo to a high-damage shotgun with limited range. they were tailor-made to the actual stage environments, ranging from very close encounters with enemies in tight corners to wide gaping bridges where you have less cover than you think you do. the game always allowed some level of pause to admire the environment, especially when you needed to heal, but they did nothing to forgive the incredible heights of difficulty the game had.

also, just in case you couldn't see the enemies with your grubby mobile fingers, every enemy was color-coded. i don't remember much outside of vehemently avoiding the purple-colored ones since they would hurt like a bitch, and that the enemies themselves weren't the ones with the coloration, but rather their attacks and their highlights. i'd show you footage but i no longer have access to a download of the game, which would've been my one hail mary.

if anyone can find even a MORSEL of this game, please tell me. it'd be an incredible challenge: it's a game from 2014 or 2015 which lasted only a year to basically zero fanfare, and i'm pretty sure the only footage that was out of that game was from the developer studio itself, which deleted the channel when the game lost all funding. i'm 90% certain they were owned by Ubisoft, but an uncertain lead could be the pitfall of any deep investigation into it.

i don't know how to plead to, but tumblr is a pretty cool place, so might as well plead here, eh?

[dreamteamspace]

We hit 400 so here’s a- ✨ DREAM APPRECIATION ESSAY ✨

(by Yours Truly. Much thanks to the one, innocent anon who just wanted to ask a small talk question but hit my serotonin-providing hyperfixation.)

1. Self-esteem

I love the way he’s confident in his abilities when it’s become such a “trend” to either be completely and utterly self-depricating about your own skills out of fear of being labelled an asshole or overconfident nowadays.

At the same time you can still tell he doesn’t want to pull anyone down ever, and will always be really careful with that and take every oppertunity to lift up the people around him. Dream has a very emotional voice that gives him away a lot, so you can really tell he genuinely admires the people around him and he’s never afraid to say that they could totally easily beat him in something if he doesn’t have practice with it.

He tends to be a bit too hard on himself, so his friends always encourage him in his abilities, and that’s just. So nice. He celebrates his victories! He gets so so excited and happy when he wins in the manhunts, and I think celebrating your hard-earned victories isn’t something that should be villanized.

He won, and we should KNOW by now that doesn’t mean he thinks he’s somehow better than everyone. He has a pretty good eye on his abilities, and that allows him to really use them to the max.

2. Morality

He isn’t afraid to change the game! His adhd picks out a Cool New Thing and he just goes, You know what? Why not! His adhd goes “do this thing repeatedly another 3847 times” and he’s like, yeah sure!

Nobody expected him to release a song, but he just went for it! He’s been speedrunning so much, but he isn’t afraid to stream it every day 5 days in a row for hours while his friends bicker in the background.

Dream genuinely does the things he finds fun, but at the same time puts in so much effort to make them good and entertaining to watch and never forgets about his viewers.

He’s kidfriendly because he wants to be! Fame-wise, at this point he could definitly swear more if he wanted to (and he does when in other people’s content who don’t care about swearing), but despite that he doesn’t swear on his main because he wants his content to be accessable for everyone.

Sure, on one hand it could be for clout/money, but consider: Dream doesn’t stream the DSMP because he doesn’t want to take attention away from other people. He participates in the videos of his friends. He lets compilation channels and the like do whatever they want and even monetize his content. He lets his friends stream Road Trip on twitch as much as they want for free.

Dream doesn’t not swear just for his fanbase, but he does it because he has so so much respect for people. No matter how high he goes, he’s always consciously focused on respecting and admiring the people around him.

He has genuine respect for creators so much smaller than him, and he has respect for people in his fanbase that are younger than him. He isn’t afraid to go against the norm and STAND for that, either (see the video where he defends his stans).

And he defends his friends so much too! So much so it could almost be a little bit of a flaw sometimes, but I feel like he truly wants to learn from his mistakes. He apologizes for things even when nobody asked him to, and that just shows that he does it out of genuine guilt and fear of hurting someone.

He’s always seemed like someone who is genuinely willing to change to be a better version of himself, who isn’t afraid to challenge what he thinks and what other people think and what the norm thinks in order to improve everything for everyone.

Dream also doesn’t let any of the fame get to his head! As I said before - he’s confident in the things he’s good at, but in a way that doesn’t pull other people down, and he still remains firmly admirable of other people.

And even when OTHER people let fame get to their head (it was a while ago, but there was a video he made about five block jumps, where he added in a clip of a video of another guy doing it complete with credit and link etc. The guy was 100% alright with it at first, but when his video started getting more views because Dream’s video blew up, he started accusing Dream of “stealing” his content (when dozens of other videos of the 5 block jump already existed, and Dream could’ve just put in a clip of himself doing the jump)),,, but he insisted in his reponse that fame gets to people’s heads sometimes, nobody should blame anybody, he genuinely was never upset at him and just said that this just... happens sometimes.

He’s a very forgiving person all around, in part due to being willing to challenge his own norms and give people the benefit of the doubt JUST in case he’s wrong. He lets people enjoy things so long as they aren’t hurting anybody, like allowing people to ship him w people who are also alright with shipping, but at the same time taking a hard stance on, say, how shipping minors is absolutely wrong and should not be done ever (and he’s right).

3. Fandom

He appreciates said fanart and fanworks as well! He thinks dnf fanart is cool and he even appreciates the fanfic part of his fandom, something many ccs wish to ignore or forget it exists altogether (and it IS ofc in their right to do so or be uncomfortable with such content!), but Dream sees the work put into it and how people find connections and friendships through the fandom and appreciates it all the same.

He loves his fandom. So much. But not in the overdone, fake-feeling way I’ve seen other ccs be,,,, he’s just. Quiet and shy and genuine about it but not afraid to defend it.

He’s said before - and I QUOTE - “If you send hate to people or have sent hate to people, in the form of hateful comments or DMs, you aren’t welcome in my fandom. You’re no fan of mine”, which is the HOTTEST take he’s ever uttered and I love that. He really just went and said that. And he’s right. I like that despite how he’s usually more held back and waits things out before taking a stance, he chose this topic to really take a hard stance on and not budge and stick to it.

Pmbata has also said that he believes his fans have his back no matter what!! And that he really loves them a lot!!! And I am!! Emotional!!!!

4. ND/Adhd

He has adhd which is something I relate to personally (I have it as well sdlkfj). He gets excited sometimes!! I love how he shows being fidgety in mc, always pacing and parcouring around,, the way that in manhunts you can SEE when he’s thinking or bouncing back and forth between two options,,, or the way he gets close to people in mc to laugh with them.... He shows so much with his movements by them being quick and daring and calculated (and it’s especially hilarious to watch other people react to it in the video “mc but three people control one player”, where he’s the one moving and Sapnap and George will gasp or go “Dream!!” in surprise when Dream was THIS close to falling off a ledge, but he just laughs sdlkfjsdf).

When he’s not moving around he stands perfectly, perfectly still (which, idk if thats what all adhd ppl have, but I know I have something similar? Like when I’m nervous I’ll sometimes just. Freeze in place. No movement at all). He’s just relatable sdkjf.

There was one Manhunt extra scenes where he,,,,, stims by clapping,,,,,, the lil excited clap in the background,,, I’m gonna cry. I’m so soft for excited Dream that one is such a comfort clip for me!

He also tends to stim by getting under trap doors and then jumping back out of them, or jumping up a block and then walking back down over and over (especially noticable in The Village Went Mad tftsmp episode, where they were all discussing who the murderer could be and he was the only one moving, hopping up the log and then running back down again).

Also it is. Really Soft when he starts rambling and overexplaining something. What’s even better is that George, who is usually present at such moments, will laugh a little at his antics, and Dream will automatically laugh with him.

5. Rp/Uplifting other ccs

Dream wasn’t all THAT into the rp at first, but his server has been so strongly supporting and giving attention to smaller creators that he’s since completely rolled along with it. Being a villain in the RP is a difficult role because you will, inevitable, as much as it is just roleplay and all scripted, always get some amount of dislike from people for it.

Despite that, he’s basicly the main big villain on his own server where he let a bunch of theater kids beat him up in character and imprison him on his OWN SERVER. He wasn’t as into the rp at first, but has obviously been practicing and joins every Tales of the SMP when he can, despite getting zero clout for it.

What Dream also tends to do is find small content creators, see their talent and lift them high. His entire discord server is dedicated to give smaller ccs a place to grow, and when he first found Tubbo, Tommy, Ranboo, etc., they were much much smaller than they are now. He truly wanted to help them make it big.

He’s also added Foolish Shark and Hannah onto the SMP, both much smaller ccs (not tiny, but you get what I mean), allowing them to grow. He doesn’t stream on his OWN SERVER. He let himself get imprisoned to let the good guys win on his OWN. SERVER. He’s willing to play the villain and everything.

An interesting thing though! A lot of people used to/still do clown on Dream a bit for his sometimes uncertain acting,,, but when he’s around people he knows well (Sapnap and George, Tubbo and Tommy) we’ve seen him go ALL OUT. I have the theory Dream might be genuinely afraid to accidentally be mean to someone in character and have them misinterpret it sldkfjsdf,,, so he’s rly careful when he goes into the rp, and sometimes even when he’s in it he goes quiet, especially with other people around.

But also the fact that he needs time to feel comfortable around ppl is,, a mood,,, and adorable,,, sdlfkjsdf-

Apparently he’s also shared his youtube algorithm secrets with Tommy?? Which he had only shared with Sapnap and George before?? Dream took one look at that chaotic kid and immedietly adopted him as his little brother. He literally got up super early to rp the prison visit. Idk about ya’ll but I would die for someone first and get up horribly early for them second-

6. Friends!!

Dream?? Considers so so many people his friends?? And despite having so many friends, he also has his few closest friends (George and Sapnap) whom he would absolutely die for in a heartbeat. He WILL defend them with everything he has and loves them so so much.

He listens to them and really, truly wants them to succeed. He respects them so much and will go OFF about how good they actually are and how talented they are and how important they are to him.

I can’t even COVER everything about how much he is SOULMATES with Gorg. They live in each others heads rent-free. He mentions him all the time. They get!! So happy when they’re around each other!!! Their voices get so soft,,

And I can’t even BEGIN to explain the energy of Sapnap and Dream just moving together permanently. Imagine moving together with your best friend. Like, permanently. Into one house. They’re best friends Your Honor,,,,

Also,, remember the Techno and Dream rivalry? And Dream has recently said that he’s hesitant to make a serious manhunt against Techno because he doesn’t want there to be any feud between them or have them be compared to each other. He said that while he absolutely wanted nothing more than to beat Techno at first, now that he knows him better he just wants to be friends with him. He wants to be FRIENDS. With his, essentially, mc RIVAL. Friendly rival, but still. He doesn’t even wanna fight Techno or have ppl compare them cause he,,, wants to be friends with him,,,,

7. Vulnerability

What I feel like really sets Dream apart from some other ccs for me is that he’s willing to be vulnerable. He will tell George he loves him. He defends his friends. He sounds so, so genuine when he tells his fandom that he loves them.

What’s just really rare to see, especially in male ccs, is that vulnerability. It’s becoming more acceptable as time goes on, but it’s certainly not easy, and a lot of people become and stay long-term fans BECAUSE they can see how genuine he is.

I know Dream looks up to Mr. Beast a lot, for example, but honestly? I think he’s a little better than Mr. Beast. Because he feels more genuine, more bound to what he believes is right. I’m sure Mr. Beast isn’t a bad content creator! But ultimately they have different target audiences and I’m very glad Dream is the way he is.

Less of that insecure masculinity and more willing to be vulnerable, to care about things, to get emotional and to encourage and uplift the people around him.

8. Pure Brainrot

Green boi has nice deep calm soothing voice. Little shy laugh. Wheeze laugh. Gorg live in his head rent-free. He lov friends. He lov block game. He good at block game,,, a little shy but confident,,, big heart,,,, soft voice,,,,, rambles sometimes....

He also Gender. He’s so gender. I don’t know how else to describe it. I want That. Whatever That is. My gender is Dreamwastaken

[enderspawn]

dream smp asagao au, aka the very specific high school au

also aka the post thats very self indulgent for me and maybe 3 other people.

in short: its a dsmp high school au based on the game asagao academy, where everyone is part of a gaming club and compete against one another in tournaments. more in depth info about the AU/Asagao itself, as well as more info about the plot and roles of the AU itself.

Asagao Academy Basics

So to start, let’s cover the basics: what is Asagao Academy. ….well, an old Youtuber dating sim game (which, despite unfortunately including some fairly questionable CCs, IS still really good and well written and I recommend it) But what is it for AU purposes?

Asagao Academy is a highly elite world-wide boarding school set in Japan for those who are either rich enough to afford it, or those skilled enough to get scholarships. Within the game, there are two main clubs: Normal Boots and Hidden Block. They’re both gaming clubs, and joining is seen as super exclusive since they’re ALSO the most popular people in the school.

The two clubs compete with each other in various tournament events with specific categories. For example: Satch (from NB) and Jimmy (from HB) both compete in the “Tech and Invention” category, where they have to create/invent something related to gaming and have it judged at the event like a science fair. Meanwhile, Jared (from NB) and Wallid (from HB) both compete in “Dance” aka DDR and the person with the highest score wins.

The other categories featured in game include: Puzzle games (like Bejeweled or Tetris), Video Game Trivia, Pinball, Retro Platformers, a three-person fighting game, and 100% completion speedruns. So tldr; the categories can be kind of fiddled with and be whatever you want them to be, because even the original ones are pretty wack.

Also, there’s no rules against competing in multiple categories— in fact, most of the HB members in game do! It’s more about balancing time and practicing for them alongside school and other activities.

The winner of the competition is the team/competitor(s) with the most total wins.

Another thing to note: despite competing as clubs, they’re all actually pretty good friends. It’s all lighthearted and fun in the end, hell the leader of the opposing club even helps the main character join the main club just because he wants a decent challenge.

Speaking of… the main character! Hana Mizuno! I don’t have any current plans to include her in this AU (a la new dating routes), but I wanted to mention her for a few reasons.

For the main reason: her hair. Even as soon as she shows up, Mai (her best friend and roommate, who can break the 4th wall) immediately calls her out for her hair for looking like a main character which as we learn… isn’t an exaggeration. She’s literally a born protagonist, thus being born with naturally pink hair and a tragic backstory. Not only that, but other people are also born protagonists with pink hair as well— she isn’t an exception.

About the AU -- Revolution Era

A few things to note: in this au, when I first drafted it I… wasn’t looking to include 20+ people. I cut a lot of characters, but instead working with the idea that they’re still THERE, they just… don’t compete? Either they aren’t in the club and are just friends with the members, or they’re members who just don’t compete professionally. It’s nothing personal against those CCs and tbh as times goes they may get added more, but for now they’re just in the BG vibin.

It covers a really basic retelling of s1 for most of the planned au. It starts with One Club: the Dream Team. Members include: Dream (sophomore), Sapnap (sophomore), George (junior), Wilbur (junior), Eret (junior), and Fundy (freshman).

For reasons, possibly just as a goof or spite towards their American counterparts, Wilbur declares independence from the Dream Team and makes his OWN gaming club: L’Manberg. He takes Eret (a close friend from his grade) and Fundy (the freshman he immediately adopted) with him, causing the two teams to be 3v3.

But Wilbur’s got a dastardly surprise up his sleeve: TOMMY, HIS YOUNGER BROTHER (bc I am nothing if not a dedicated crimebros stan), AND TUBBO. They’re both too young to actually attend Asagao yet, but theres no age rules in the actual competitions so its fair play. They’re Wilbur’s secret weapon. After all, a 5v3 where the team with the most wins wins the competition? That’s a massive advantage.

… we all know how this goes though don’t we. Wilbur’s day be so fine, then BOOM, Eret betrayal 😔

In this case Eret feels it’s a LITTLE unfair to blindside them like that, plus Dream promised to make him the Leader of the Dream Team and, yknow, that kind of stuff DOES look good on resumes, so…

TLDR; Eret rejoins the Dream Team crew, as well as informing them of Wilbur’s plan with including Tommy and Tubbo and becomes leader. They’re still letting Dream and Co. basically actually do the leading, they don’t care that much, the title is just nice. L’Manberg cusses her out and promises to hold a grudge, but it’s all in good fun. After all, they’re just teens goofing around and playing. The clubs are again 4v4.

Dream tells the L’Manberg club that they can separate, sure… under one condition. They have to win the competition. If they lose, they have to rejoin the Dream Team club.

L’Manberg accepts, but come competition day… they lose. Tommy outright challenges Dream post awards to a speedrun competition for L’Manberg instead. …which Dream professionally competes in, and Tommy DOESN’T.

He loses, but he puts up a good fight despite having little to no actual practice put in, so Dream “grants” L’Manberg their “Independence”. (In this au, instead of being like… weirdly obsessive over Tommy, it’s a lot more “he sees himself in Tommy and wants to support/mentor him” and a “friendly rivalry” kind of deal bc its a damn HIGH SCHOOL AU)

So L’Manberg can be it’s own club! …Next year, when Tommy and Tubbo actually attend, since Wilbur and Fundy aren’t allowed a two person club.

About the AU -- Election Era

SO time skip! Congrats, everything up to now has been BACKSTORY. It’s now the next school year, with two main clubs (I’ve tried to keep them fairly balanced, which is why not all CCs are featured, sorry!)

Dream Team club:

Dream - junior

George - senior

Sapnap - junior

Eret - senior

Punz - junior

BBH - senior

Awesamdude - junior

Ponk - junior

L’Manberg club:

Wilbur - senior

Tommy - freshman

Tubbo - freshman

Fundy - sophomore

Schlatt - senior

Quackity - junior

Niki - sophomore

Jack - sophomore

(Also fun fact! Their grades are loosely based on the CCs actual ages! …Except Fundy, who got Baby-fied to fit the “Wilbur’s Kid” joke, and Eret bc it fit better to be the same age as Wilbur I thought. Oops HEKANDNSN)

So, for whatever Reason (listen this was an au I made in like one night when plagued with brainrot, it’s not all figured out), L’Manberg holds an election. Maybe it’s related to Wilbur wanting L’Manberg to be meaningfully different from Dream Team, maybe it’s a joke, idk!

…. SOMEHOW, Schlatt wins. Which ticks off Wilbur a lot. It’s his damn club, and the whole point was to avoid Americans, tf?? The two start to feud a lot and it threatens to split the club entirely via ppl taking sides. Worse, it means people aren’t practicing for the competition.

All while this is happening, there’s a new intrigue building. Dream catches word of an infamous player in the area, someone known to win entire competitions against teams of people all by HIMSELF. A man with bright bubblegum pink hair called Technoblade. That’s right, literal universe-assigned protagonist Techno. If Dream could enlist him, there’s no doubt in hell they’d be able to beat L’Manberg.

L’Manberg hears of him too and works to try and enlist him as well, so he basically gets courted by both clubs trying to get him to play for them to mixed results. He’s pretty chill vibin by himself, so what’s in it for him? (….I don’t know, remember how this is a WIP au I worked on once?)

Eventually, a teacher named Phil (who’s been the honorary sponsor of the L’Manberg club) gets pissed at Schlatt and Wilbur’s fighting and bans both from competing (aka this AUs version of them dying). Which fucking SUCKS for L’Manberg. They’re now going 6v8 with a wildcard player who’s undeclared on which side he’ll join, if at all.

… honestly, that’s as far as I got. Theoretically, Techno joins L’Manberg to reflect Pogtopia and they win. I never had plans to go into s2 due to its darker theme, but there are definitely changes that could (and might?) be made for the s1 plot just so it flows better.

I already had to shift Wil and Schkatt’s “deaths” to fit, unless I were to have them LITERALLY make a new club. Maybe Schlatt uses his power as Club President to make them work with Dream Team (to the point it basically merges the clubs). Sure, they might be guaranteed to win now but it removes the competition and fun as well as the spirit of OG L’Manberg. So then Wilbur rebels and makes his own club AGAIN, calling it Pogtopia with the intent to get L’Manberg back. Then Techno, intrigued with this group of like 2-3 ppl going against a team of like 13ish people, decides to join them. Idk! Alternative possible plot based more closely on s1 I guess!

I’m gonna add a list of characters in full with their age, their club, and what they compete in (if it’s already brainstormed, most ppl are unknown) below

Character List

dream (DT) - junior - speedrunning

george (DT) - senior - coding/tech and invention

sapnap (DT)- junior -

eret (DT) - senior -

wilbur (LM) - senior - rhythm game/guitar hero-esque

tommy (LM) - freshman - (possibly pick up speed running during election arc?)

tubbo (LM) - freshman - chess

fundy (LM) - sophomore - coding/tech and invention

schlatt (LM) - senior - he never actually declares what he plans to play and then gets banned anyway, aka no game kekw

quackity (LM)- junior - dance

niki (LM) - sophomore -

jack (LM) - sophomore-

punz (DT) - junior -

bbh (DT) - senior -

awesamdude (DT) - junior -

ponk (DT) - junior

technoblade (SOLO) - junior - multiple categories

FINAL BIT

here’s some scraps for ppl who know Asagao already as well as small bits I didn’t bother to write up any further

- Karl, much like Mai, is ALSO aware of the 4th wall and has time travel powers because of it.

- Purpled (undecided if he’s a solo player like Techno or has his own team he competes with that’s not a formal club) plays Literally Bedwars in competitions

- Callahan is the Dream Team club sponsor, Phil is L’Manberg’s club sponsor

- Karlnapity is real and canon bc I say so

- both for balance/laziness, every person only competes in one category. also bc it makes Techno that much more Protagonist-y that he does

- I made this AU in like February man idk I’m just vibin

- Fuck I never even included Ranboo huh

[phoenotopia]

2020 October Update

So... we've launched. And our launch was... actually kind of... bad...

This is a dev blog, so I'll speak on it. But before that, we do have the game's steam page up. If you're anticipating the PC release, please do visit the steam page and add it to your wish list. It would help us a lot.

VISIT STEAM LINK

...

So what didn't go so well?

1. We launched in Nintendo's Americas and Europe territory. If you've been following the release, you'd know that America got the game first. We didn't move to launch in Europe at all since I thought the EFIGS languages (English, French, Italian, German, Spanish) were pre-requisites for Europe. By the time I learned that this wasn't necessarily the case, and attempted to course correct, the damage was done. We had half the allotment of keys to do outreach, and maybe some European outlets that would've covered us, did not.

2. When the game launched, rather than a victory lap, what we experienced was more of a public lashing. We did get some reviews that praised the game highly, but just as many reviews lampooned the game for its high difficulty or other failings. I've since released two patches (or 3, depending on how you count it) to address the difficulty. A lot of overnighters. If you recall in the last blog post, I thought it'd be a good start if we got 20 or so reviews on Open Critic. But we've only 8 as of this writing, and the aggregate score isn't so hot. So that's a fail by my metric.

3. A publisher reached out to us because they were interested in physically printing the game! Yay! But... to advance our talks, they wanted to see the game's sales numbers to ensure that there's a good chance their investment could be recouped. And unfortunately, the game's sales numbers are pretty low. They backed out :(

Some hard lessons were learned. The biggest lesson for me concerns how well we playtested the game. Looking at the original playtester list, it's a short list. You may recall from a previous blog post that our ability to test was severely hampered by technical limitations. Add to that, a lot of people on this list are objectively really achieved players. We're talking power ranked in Smash Bros, regular tournament goers, and people who've played and bested every Souls game. And as the maker of the game, I am most blind to the game's challenges.

Now, I'm definitely more of the opinion that you prioritize PC development first. I still have some reservations about some stages of PC development. But if you do PC/Steam first, you have the great benefit of being able to do Early Access, which gives you access to a greater testing pool. I now view it as an invaluable part of the equation. If we had been able to do Early Access for 1 or 2 months before release, we probably could have ironed out most of the game's difficulty and balance problems. Hard lessons, indeed.

There were a lot of other notable events that occurred over the past 2 months - the travails of press outreach, realizing my own limits as a developer, feeling defeated and getting back up again, etc. There's too much stuff to chronicle or go into detail. But it wasn't all bad.

Some good things did happen...

We got a publisher to publish for Japan! It came as a huge relief, because clearly, we don't know what the heck we're doing.

The publisher has been an invaluable source of information and feedback. They've recommended some changes to the game to improve user experience. Some of these changes I was hesitant to do at first because they concerned systems I thought integral to the identity of the game. But after trying it, I have to admit, they're good changes.

So a Japanese version of the game was moving ahead. And it looked like that'd be it. I wasn't planning to move forward with any other language translations due to the game's low sales and our funds being depleted. 

But, I was approached by a translator who urged me to move ahead with translations. He told me he was willing to work for only a small price initially and then be paid the rest after from a percentage of the game's sales until the cost of the translation was paid in full.

I was surprised translators were willing to work under such a model since it's entirely likely the game's current low sales trajectory would continue and they wouldn't earn back the full cost of translation. But I was also flattered they were willing to take a risk with me. After that, I approached some others with the same hypothetical deal, and long story short, we're now moving forward with French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian translations. As for why these languages in particular, they were languages for whom I had contacts (because they reached out to me at some point in the past). And also because they were deemed more likely to be profitable based on their home country's gaming market/buying habits. I'd be personally happy to have my native language be represented, but it's not expected to be a profitable territory. But if the game does better in the future, it may justify the costs of translation. There could be a chance!

The plan right now is to get the game supporting these first round of languages and then to patch that into the Switch version as well as launch the PC version with these languages - all in December. A lot of things need to align for this to occur, so a delay isn't out of the question. It'll be busy... I'll update the blog again in latter half of December, probably near the game's PC launch date... OR to announce a delay. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Fan Support

While the past two months have been grueling, one good thing remains constant - fan art! Thank you everyone who submitted. It means a lot to me and the team!

Big thanks to Pimez who's taken on watching over the reddit community as moderator. He also combs the other communities and makes sure I see every new art piece. Despite juggling his own life and all these tasks, he still found some time to draw.

Pimez's piece reminds us that just because the new game's out doesn't mean we can't still celebrate the original flash game. The jail dog is a dog found only in jail and only in the flash game. I imagine Gail is just tossing a stick, and they're playing fetch.

A new artist to this scene æv draws both the Phoenix logo AND a super cute picture of Gail playing the flute. So precious, you want to pinch her cheek. Even the Sand Drake is enthralled!

Another new artist, beet4ppy arrives on the scene with two pictures! One features a no-nonsense battle-hardened Gail looking stoic and tough! Kinda reminds me of Vinland Saga actually. The other, a more cheerful group composition - I must say I'm a big fan of Fran's classic anime-style eye!

A returning artist, Cody G, returns with a picture depicting the tribulations of cooking. Gotta love Gail's frantic expression! I've heard the complaints, which is why we've added an option to slow the cooking mini-game down. An improved button font is also on the way.

Gamesing with two undertale x phoenotopia crossovers. Thomas being a robot builder makes sense taking a role similar to Alphys. But why is Alex dressed like a clown? Perhaps there is a hidden meaning here... 

A new artist, Warotar, draws both a pooki wearing Gail's clothes and Gail wearing pooki clothes. Awww. The pooki is a bit scary - it kinda reminds me of a tragic event in a certain anime. But the Gail is adorable!

POL#5655 submitted this one to KM's discord which made its way to me. Here, a stylized Gail appears unnerved by the dark red eyes stalking her in the background. Are they bats or something more sinister?

A new artist, MilesCPW, arrives on the scene with three rare well-vectorized arts! Love it! One scene depicts Gail balancing a bomb on her head - that's a speedrunning trick I only learned about recently after someone emailed me a video O_O

The other drawing gives us new insight into Katash - he could actually look cute if he wasn't trying to kill you.

And the bees... Okay, this one got a chuckle from me :D

A returning artist roccy_chair draws this heart-warming scene from the beginning of the new game. Aww. Mika doesn't get much screen time for story reasons, so it's nice to see her represented.

UnrealWorld_32 returns with another drawing of Gail in Panselo, this time capturing a more idyllic time. I like the tranquil nature of this piece. And Gail does in fact play the guitar, denoted by the guitar in her room.

Returning artist shafiyahh draws a nice portrait of Prince Leo - looking regal and princely. I like the storybook art style of this piece. It made me immediately think of "the Little Prince" - one of my favorite books actually!

Negativus Core returns with a beautiful group composition of Gail and the gang - flying from a Switch shaped window - totally sensible considering the game is only Switch right now. As usual, I'm impressed by Negativus Core's use of challenging angles to frame a more dynamic shot of the characters. Great job!

And it wasn't only artists bearing the banner. I'd like to give a big shoutout to everyone in all the game's little communities (from the reddit to the discords to this tumblr). I've seen this community help newcomers with gameplay and walkthrough advice, discussions, updating the wiki, and so on. It does bring a smile to my face. Thank you everyone!

[bltngames]

Review: Super Mario Sunshine

Super Mario Sunshine is a weird game for a lot of different reasons. It was among some of the first game reviews I ever wrote for the internet, for one, all the way back in 2005. I was proud enough of that review that when it came time to relaunch TSSZ News in 2008, it was one of five archived reviews I transplanted on to the site. It was also a strange case where I became convinced it was a game I’d never play, originally. I was 23 years old, with no job, no money, and no prospects. I was desperate to play the game that was being sold as the sequel to Super Mario 64, but I could not envision a future where that would ever be possible.

Eventually, I reached my breaking point. Earlier that same year, somebody had linked me to something called “Quake Done Quick.” It was attached to a relatively new site, called the “Speed Demos Archive”, a hub for videos of people finishing games as fast as possible. The site was small, updated manually, and featured a list of roughly 100 games -- maybe less. This was before Youtube, so these were downloadable video files, usually in AVI or MPG format. And it was here that they had a Super Mario Sunshine speedrun. Even on my fledgling broadband internet, it took a considerable amount of time to download. But, with nothing more than two hours of raw, unedited, uncommentated gameplay footage, I watched a user named “Dragorn” play through the entire game (his old run is still viewable on the Internet Archive). Watching a speedrunner flip, spin, and trick his way across levels, I became convinced that Sunshine was incredible.

A few months later, I was surprised by my brother with $200 for Christmas, stuffed inside a greeting card. He said it was for “all the Christmases he missed” since moving out, years ago. Combined with other money I’d received in gifts, I headed to a Gamestop and purchased a Gamecube with my own (used) copy of Super Mario Sunshine. In my mind, it did not matter that I had spoiled the entire game for myself only three months earlier with the speedrun video. Watching someone else play is no substitute for a controller in your own hands. I needed to play it for myself.

In the modern context, Super Mario Sunshine is one of the games attached to the recently released Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection. Full disclosure: I will not be buying this collection, and I have not played the version of Super Mario Sunshine it includes. It’s not that these games are bad, but even from the outside looking in, the collection looks underwhelming. It’s full of basic, bare-bones ports of games that deserve more. But it does mean that these games have been on my mind, particularly Super Mario Sunshine, which I finished replaying, separately, a little more than one year ago. It was the first time I’d finished the game since that fateful Christmas of 2004, and it provided a refresh in perspective.

The truth of the matter is, brushing aside everything else about it, Super Mario Sunshine is an easy game to hate. Nintendo was trying a lot of new things with the Gamecube, struggling to figure out what could be done with the leap in horsepower over the Nintendo 64. Their pitch was a Mario that was subtly more serious and realistic. Sunshine is a game with a surprisingly large number of cinematics, and a considerable amount of narrative setup. It sounds like a joke, but it’s true: the game opens with Mario taking a long-deserved vacation on a tropical island, only to be arrested and wrongfully accused of crimes he did not commit. He is sentenced to community service, forced to clean the island of a paint-like substance its residents claim he has used to vandalize their resort town. This is accomplished with the F.L.U.D.D., a backpack-mounted squirt gun perfect for washing down walls and floors. It was the first manual labor he’d been shown doing since the NES version of Wrecking Crew in 1985.

It’s odd territory for Mario, but it leads to the game’s first real problem: Plot. Sunshine is not a game that’s packed with story -- there aren’t a lot of named characters, and there aren’t a lot of genuine story arcs to get hooked in to, but it’s way more than you got in most Mario games. Regardless, the influence of a narrative structure is definitely felt within its levels. One of the benefits of Super Mario 64 is that there was no set order to anything; you might drop in to a level with a specific goal in mind, only to accidentally stumble on to something else. You were encouraged to follow your curiosity, collecting stars more through natural exploration. Even though it’s not always obvious on the surface, the objectives in Super Mario Sunshine are following a specific plotline, which means flat, rigid linearity.

So you might reach an amusement park area, but you can’t go inside until you finish the mission where you open the front gates. Even once you re-enter the level for the next mission inside the amusement park, exploring its various rides will be a moot point, as the game will want you to focus on a specific goal instead. Want to ride the rollercoaster? Too bad, the story dictates it’s not available yet. Though you still have that go-anywhere, do-anything world design from Super Mario 64, the current mission is the only thing that’s ever active. Another example: at the beginning of the game, you open up the first stage -- Bianco Hills. Even though you have a whole village and a sizable lake area to explore, there’s little to do out there, because your mission is about reaching the bottom of the windmill. The second mission, again, doesn’t involve the village or the lake, but now asks you to reach the top of the same windmill in order to fight the game’s first boss, Petey Piranha. And so it goes: big zones to explore, but most of it useless as Sunshine slowly trickles out objectives one at a time, following a barely-visible narrative that drags everything down.

Nintendo had other intentions for the game, too. The company was known for taking its time with game releases -- Super Mario World released in 1990, and it took six years for Super Mario 64 to follow it up. Even once a game was announced, there were often months or even years of delays as the game got pushed back, and back, and back, as with Ocarina of Time. Similarly long waits happened for many of Nintendo’s other flagship franchises (Super Mario Kart, Super Metroid, etc.), and the peanut gallery was getting restless. With the release of the Gamecube, Nintendo made a vow to explore other avenues to release more games, more quickly.

The problem was, all of those delays are exactly what lead to Nintendo’s extremely high bar of quality. Rushing these games out the door meant cutting corners and finding easy ways to tack on extra play time, skipping necessary fine tuning. In The Wind Waker, this notoriously led to the last fourth of the game, wherein you must find and decode maps to dredge up half a dozen pieces of the magical Triforce. For most, this meant hours of sailing out to random, completely featureless areas in the middle of the open ocean hoping to find a single golden tortilla chip. “Tedious” is putting it kindly, but it saved Nintendo from having to delay the game too many times in order to add more in-depth content.

In Super Mario Sunshine, this manifested in a degree of repetition that is difficult to ignore. In both Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy, most mission objectives are unique. There are occasional repeated missions, like finding 8 red coins, but by and large it's things like rescuing a baby penguin, opening a pyramid, assaulting an airship, or finding your way through a gravity-bending maze. There's enough variety that you don't notice as much when you're asked to do yet another one of Galaxy's purple coin comets.

Sunshine still has unique goals like that, but they are much fewer and farther between. Instead, the bulk of the game is filled with doing the same four or five missions over, and over, and over again. Finding fruit to hatch Yoshi or hunting red coins can be fun occasionally, but Sunshine often makes you do this stuff multiple times per level. Most bosses also must be faced at least twice, sometimes up to three times, and very little changes from fight to fight. And then there are the races -- a man named Piantissimo is waiting for you in most stages, looking to race you to an arbitrary landmark, and every single level has one penultimate mission where you must chase down the hero's evil doppelganger, Shadow Mario. It’s padding, basically, and thanks to a tenuous grip on narrative, there’s few ways to skip the things you don’t want to do.

This isn't even touching on the game's blue coins. They're one of Sunshine's rarer collectibles, and ten blue coins can be traded at the shop for a single Shine Sprite (the main item central to the story). The majority of blue coins can be found by hosing down graffiti found around the island. Spray a circle-shaped pattern on one wall, and a blue coin pops out of another circle-shaped pattern on the opposite side of the level, which you must run to and collect before it disappears. Then, the opposite: spray down the second pattern, and another blue coin will appear back where the first graffiti used to be. In a game full of rerun objectives, this is the worst offender. Rarely are these blue coin graffiti spots interesting or challenging; they primarily exist to fill space and fluff up the Shine counter.

The level concepts themselves also suffer from this repetition. In any other Mario game, “tropical island” would be one theme among many other level types, like deserts, volcanoes and frozen lakes. Sunshine tries to stretch its one theme out to last an entire game, and in practical terms, this means that even after 18 years and two complete playthroughs (three, if you count the speedrun video), I still can’t remember most areas in any kind of specific detail. I remember a couple stage names, maybe a few environmental traits (like the hotel at sunset or the amusement park), but anything beyond that and it all starts blurring into homogeneous beaches, docks, and villages. Even the music -- beyond the iconic acoustic guitar of the Delfino Plaza hub world song, absolutely nothing about Super Mario Sunshine’s soundtrack stands out as memorable in the slightest. Every part of this game plays, looks and sounds like every other part in the worst way possible.

And yet, through some miracle, Super Mario Sunshine does not come out the other end being a bad game. It’s not necessarily good, either, mind you. But when I finally managed to get my hands on this game back in 2004, it made me angry. Super Mario 64 was a tough act to follow, and rather than build on those concepts, Sunshine felt like a massive regression. Nowadays, it’s easier to see the bigger picture. Super Mario Sunshine was a stop-gap as Nintendo slowly pushed Mario back to a more linear, level-based structure. Super Mario Galaxy was another step in this direction, doing away with the open worlds in favor of traditional, straight-forward level design, something that would later be perfected in Super Mario 3D Land and Super Mario 3D World.

That makes Sunshine more of a curious black sheep than anything else. It’s definitely not a game worth hating -- its biggest offense is simply being dull, and there are worse fates. For my replay, it became the sort of game I chipped away at, bit by bit, over the course of nearly three years. As it turns out, the best cure for repetition is to forget everything you were doing the last time you played. It’s even fitting on some level that a game about Mario taking a vacation is best served in lazy, slow, indifferent chunks. Make no mistake -- there are better, more polished, and more engaging platformers out there for you to play. It is in no way a stretch to call Super Mario Sunshine the worst 3D Mario game, but it speaks to the franchise’s high bar of quality that even the worst 3D Mario game really isn’t so bad.

[blubberquark]

Implicit Guarantees in Game Design

I got to this concept by thinking about learning game rules: People can learn a game incrementally while play play it, gradually expanding on an incomplete understanding of the rules. In my view, it is more important to make sure that a player will not learn the wrong thing than to teach everything at once. Correctness of the learned material trumps completeness. If the player doesn’t know how a unit, a spell, an item works in a certain situation, that’s better than if he thinks he knows, but he is wrong. Incorrect assumptions sometimes are hard to unlearn when they inform player decisions so they are never tested again. Gaps in knowledge are easier to fill because they are known unknowns, and they don’t lead to inadvertent bad gameplay decisions.

But these ideas of correctness and completeness are only applicable to hard-and-fast rules, to a given game state or incomplete knowledge about that game state.

It does not make a lot of sense to think about the “correctness” or “completeness” of knowledge about what might happen on the next level, two screens over, or twenty moves from now.

Yet the content of single-player games often follows unspoken rules about things players can expect not to happen. For example in Hearthstone, a player might not know how two cards would interact, but knows that he does not know it. This is a case of incomplete knowledge. In the Flash version of The Binding of Isaac the player might incorrectly assume that an item affects the chance for a Deal With The Devil without a way to check if it’s actually the case. That is an incorrect assumption. Incorrect assumptions like this one can stick around.

The unspoken rules of game design are less about how game mechanics play out in a certain situation, and more about the situations the game designer would put into the game in the first place. They are usually guarantees about content or level design, not mechanics.

These are some implicit guarantees I found in games:

There will never be a neutral vanilla 5-mana 7/7 minion printed in competitive Hearthstone. At least, you can’t put such a card into your deck. Maybe it can be created during gameplay, from a spell, battle cry, or quest reward.  

You cannot get stuck without a chance of winning in most twine games.

An enemy in Slay the Spire will not attack with its strongest attack on the first turn.

A group of enemies in Slay the Spire will not buff or apply vulnerability and damage on the same turn in that order. The damage numbers you see will not be altered by buffs. (Applying one stack of vulnerability before attacking is the same as attacking 50% stronger)

Players understand these rules as separate from game mechanics, and store them differently. If an assumption about implicit guarantees from the game designer is refuted, payers don’t feel the need to revise all of their beliefs about game mechanics.

Many implicit guarantees are not even consciously accessible to players, because certain interactions between game mechanics just never happen. Players do not learn rules from situations they never see.

This distinction between mechanics and implicit guarantees becomes very apparent in mods, rom-hacks, user-generated levels, and fan games. It takes some skill and foresight in level design to make levels feel fair. But in the context of a one-off level, or in extra challenging bonus content for people who beat the regular game, these constraints can be relaxed - and they often are, because level editors do not and cannot enforce good game design. Users can use level editors to make levels that are still playable and beatable, but lack the fairness, consistent difficulty, and visual language of the original game.

In Super Mario World, there is a power-up in every level, usually two. The player has a chance to end the level as the big Mario, even when entering the level as the small Mario. When there is a new type of enemy introduced, the first time that enemy is on a platform or behind a wall so that the player won’t get hurt by just standing and observing. There are no deep pits the player can get stuck in. It’s either instant death or a way out. Although the level design and game feel of Super Mario World can sometimes feel unfair compared to modern games like Dustforce, Celeste, and Super Meat Boy, the game is fair in its own way. Super Mario World was not designed for speedrunning. The levels are longer, take longer to learn, and are hard to get a good look at. It’s much harder to sight-read a Super Mario World level compared to Meat Boy.

And now Mario Maker 2 was released for the Switch, which made all this blatantly obvious. You can make SMW levels in MM2, but most of them play nothing like SMW. People like to make Meat Boy levels in the SMW engine. You have high horizontal speed, not many enemies, small platforms, large open gaps, and bottomless pits. There are few power-ups, many ways to die, and only one correct path. When power-ups are there, they are necessary to complete the level, and losing them means failure.

And that’s fine. If a level is not embedded into the overworld of a Mario game, there is no need for breathing room, extra mushrooms, and second chances. Players can just try the level again, like in Super Meat Boy, until they get it right. In endless mode, however, this often means players will lose lives trying to figure out what the level actually wants you to do. Good levels sometimes introduce “safe” obstacles first, to show which elements of Mario’s move set will be used in the rest of the level, but again, that’s not guaranteed.

The original I Wanna Be The Guy is full of the opposite of implicit guarantees. Cruelty is implied. The game mechanics can and will change in the most unfair ways. Fan games of IWBTG often omit the cruelty and focus on difficult but “fair” platforming.

StarCraft 2 maps are all supposed to follow certain rules about the placement of bases and resources: You have your main base, natural expansion, natural third, then two more bases (one to the side, one to the centre), and some gold bases either right in the middle or on islands. Again, these rules are not enforced by the game mechanics, but by the people at Blizzard making the maps and promoting user-generated content into the official map pool, or by third-party tournament hosts. If a map has too long or too short a rush distance, too many or too few ledges, too many or too few resources, then the multiplayer balance of the map would be off. Maps can change these things, but they can’t change build times, units and costs. These parameters were all tuned so games on maps that follow the standard conventions are balanced.

The takeaway for game developers and level designers: It is easy to accidentally create the impression that certain situations never happen or that certain guarantees always hold, even though such guarantees are not enforced by the game mechanics. If later levels start violating such guarantees suddenly and without warning, the game will feel unfair.

If you make mods, fan games, or user-generated content, you need to study the source material, and look for these rules and patterns in level design and content in general. Be careful to either follow these rules, or if you don’t, to clearly communicate in advance that you will break them.

And please, put more mushrooms and fewer bottomless pits into your Mario Maker levels.

[pinlc-candy]

i was watching a DOOM speedrunners video about cheaters and someone in the video made a response to being called out that’s so funny

You humour me greatly with your arrogance and contempt, a flood of accusations born from the poison of envy and smite of disrespect. I feel both disappointment and flattery these thoughts would originate from another player who has demonstrated one of a kind talent and has accomplished the impossible, yet is apparently immune from judgement owing to their reputation, do not think your words hold more credibility just because of who you are, being more well known and what you have accomplished in breaking world records and setting ones never previously accomplished, such as with TNT and Plutonia Nightmare. With that being said I will divulge my thoughts on the serious accusations you have set forth. I won't address the individual gameplay scenarios you've highlighted, as the foundation of your argument arises from jealously, this is clear when you contrast my success with your failure, being deluded into thinking you should have surpassed these trials yet cannot absolutely comprehend how someone else can claim victory on a consistent basis, instead I will address my playing ability. You know nothing about who I am or my history with this game, I am exceptionally talented not only at Doom, but other oldschool FPS along with videogames in general. I make speedruns and partake in Ironman out of passion for the game, it is a personal challenge in testing my playing ability to overcome arduous odds, I play for fun, it's about me vs the game and I hold no strong competitive urge or desire to be known as the best, reputation and status are not important to me but having fun is essential. Are you serious when you can't believe someone can beat an Ironman consistently? It's just playing the game without saving or loading, do you not have a fundamental understanding of the core gameplay and how to the play game correctly? Am I the only one who can play aggressively, with an intuitive and innate ability to bend the game to their will and not panic when in a dire situation, but with tactical genius aware of my surroundings and dexterous reflexes can act in the heat of battle and overcome arduous odds? When you highlight cases of RNG, I honestly don't think about it that deeply, I'm confident in what I'm doing, I'll make a risky move and hold strong with faith. I laugh at your baseless accusations of slowdown in reference to Stardate, I'm sure other skilled players such as Mrzzul and Nevanos could playthrough Stardate casually withour prior practice or saving and get just as far. Also bear in mind that I have died in several Ironmans before, do you honestly think their was demo manipulation there? You also demonstrate your ignorance very clearly when you admit you haven't watched my Ironman demos in full, and by watching I do mean actually studying them and assessing each scenario, bearing in mind my experience and ability at Doom which is extradonary, not skipping to a random moment and making up fabrications based on your own failures thinking oh it's impossible, their is no way any player could accomplish that. I do make mistakes, sometimes crucial ones, this is also reflected if you studied my speedruns which are far from perfect and have flaws such as missing shots, awkward movement and poor dodging, however a key skill I have is not panicing when low on health or when the circumstance is dire. Well guess what, I'm one of a kind, no one can play the game like me, every talented player and speedrunner has their own strengths and weaknesses that make them stand out. I am deluded when you suggest someone must have prior knowledge to stand a chance of victory at Ironman. Well look at Demon of the Well, he's not a speedrunner but is known for making FDAs both blind and familiar, he has an exceptional ability at conquering maps on his first attempt, the most prominent example I can think of is rdwpa's MuMe.wad. Does that mean he cheats? Certainly not, he's a talented player who obviously has a high level of playing ability. You also have j4rio and 0xfooba who have accomplished amazing demos that haven't been set before, with the former tysons that should be impossible and the latter UV-Maxes on some the hardest maps devised and speedrun movies of Sunlust. So why would you think my speedruns are cheated, when their are fellow speedrunners who have demonstrated extraordinary playing ability, do not stream and have surpassed my demos? As I certainly have never accussed anyone else of cheating, but respect their accomplishment and admire their tenacity at conquering very hard maps and goals. I have not shown jealously or malice towards fellow speedrunners who have surpassed my demos but silently congratulate and admire their accomplishment, in some cases publicly such as when Ancalagon went back and re-ran Combat Shock in response to when I beat his old runs. I do not look at speedrunning with a competitive eye, thinking I must have the record and surpass my competitor, instead my view is a cooperative one, it's us speedrunners against the game, building on one another's ideas and talent when a new record is set, complementing each other's unique strengths and weaknesses. My question would be why are you accusing and targetting me specifically? I can see from the depths of your arrogance, you believe with absolute certainty you are correct and I must be a cheater with any form of rebuttal being null and void. Well let me state clearly I have nothing to gain, why would I cheat at Ironman when I have pubically stated previously I do not care about winning or if a fellow player surpasses me, this is just fun to me. For speedruns, what would be the purpose in cheating as it's a personal challenge to me, I want to demonstrate to myself I've got the skill and talent to conquer very hard maps, it's about me against the game and I don't feel jealously at a fellow speedrunner who has beaten my record. I make speedruns out of passion and love for the game and not for admiration or self flattery, as long as Andy accepts the demo for DSDA that's all I care about. I am not going to stream as I do not care for an audience and am not influenced by the accusations of an envious stranger. I only streamed briefly for a short time in the past out of curiosity, but it does not interest me nor do I feel passion for it. I haven't watched Twitch in over a year, I was drawn to it in my spare time during the short period prior to my first full time job after finishing my studies. My life has changed a lot in the past two years and their are far more important aspects in life which draw my attention, I have little free time as well. Also you must be very self-conscious if you honestly think one has to stream their demo to demonstrate they aren't cheating, that just indicates your disrespect and distrust towards other players with exceptional playing ability, you'll never be a talented survivalist like me :) Let me make it clear I don't give a damn what you or anyone else thinks of me, when I am passionate about a subject I will speak my mind truthfully even if it means being brash at times, both online and in real life, I won't be intimidated by anyone and will confront them with assertion and confidence. I'm here for fun, making speedruns and commenting on subjects once in a while which capture my eye. Thank you for revealing your true colors, seething with jealously and enveloped by arrogance, you've lost what respect I had for you. If you've come to your senses you will offer an apology, take a good luck in the mirror before you make such a disgusting accusation against a fellow Doom player, who has not caused strife and discord but shows humility and respect with a care free attitude, or will you continue this charade and repeat history, replicating the case of Okuplok? If you do continue to accuse, it will be solely for my amusement as I will not take you seriously and will likely ignore you. Choose wisely.  

[baeddel]

really, really long reply, under the cut

So like, I think the correct answer is definitely “no” fdgsdfgdfgs and the reason is like... Since returning, over the past month and a half, I’ve put about 350 hours into the game, and I’m still at the beginning. like... the very, very, very beginning. I haven’t even got going. I’m still doing everything I need to do to get set up for doing things in the future. So the answer is like, no, you don’t have time. The only people who can really play Runescape are NEETs, who in all cases cease playing when their situation changes, and people with serious disabilities with more time than energy. I fall into the latter category and I still feel like I don’t have enough time to play Runescape.

But yeah it has... a lot going on lol. Like... a LOT. Its an open world sandbox CRPG that has undergone continual development without cessation for over twenty years. Right now its updated weekly, and thats a relatively slow pace compared to its history. No other game has the same immensity of size, scope and scale, and every single dimension of the game interacts with every other part. Its a game of such combinatorial complexity that it takes years to really even begin to understand. I have.... kind of a handle on it, and I started playing in 2003. Players three times my level with, probably, ten times my playtime, regularly add me to ask me questions because I seem to know a lot about the game.

There are definitely more complex games, but they’re rare. My gf always talks abt EVE Online as like a similar game in terms of the enormity of scope and systemic complexity, which I think is definitely the bigger game, and I think most bigger & more complex games are going to be space traders & space simulators and shit like that, some of which require knowledge of real-word physics. Dwarf Fortress is more complex due to the level of its simulation and possibly infinite outcomes, and some roguelikes definitely get close. But Runescape isnt just enormous on the macro-level, but also on the micro-level, like...

Runescape is all ‘grinding’, but the grinding is like... for the most part, very high APM. You can do less intense methods, and not everyone plays the game like this, but if you’re playing the game seriously, it looks something like this:

(crafting lava runes - video is 1hr long dont watch it all lmao)

(catching black chinchompas - this is btw located in the ‘wilderness’ where players can attack you, and this spot is camped heavily by player-killers, so doing this method involves pvp!!!!!!)

(mining granite)

(woodcutting at teaks)

Apart from the first, all of these involve a technique called ‘tick manipulation’, which is almost like an animation cancel - other techniques (like telealching and stunalching) do involve animation cancels. In the last video, he’s manipulated two birds to attack him at slightly different intervals so that it interrupts the woodcutting animation, allowing him to attempt to cut wood every 2 ‘ticks’ (units of game time) instead of the usual 5. The APM is really high compared to most games, although obviously theres no or relatively little decision-making involved; the closest gameplay experience I can think of is practicing combos in the training mode of a fighting game.

And this is just ‘skilling’! There’s also bosses that have pretty complex mechanics, a very complex economy, multiplayer minigames that can be anything and everything, theres PVP, theres... yknow... a shitload. There’s stuff like this:

(speedrunning the ‘fight caves’)

and also like, quests, which are - mostly awful, but the good ones are awesome, they can be like little Sierra adventure games with really bullshit puzzles dfgsdfgs. And quests can take anywhere between 4 and 10 hours to complete.

There’s so much shit in the game, most of the game is like... ‘routing’, the logistical challenge of working out what way you want to do things - to minimize expense, risk and time spent - since its totally open world & free roaming... its easy to succumb to analysis paralysis; having any one thing helps a lot to do some other thing, and vice versa. So it can be really hard to decide on what you want to do and when. It has a kind of suffocating level of freedom & its the combination of the immensity of scope & the absolute level of freedom that makes runescape really unique, as well as its weird hardcore gameplay that isnt like anything else.

Anyway, I love runescape a lot. Like, a whole whole whole whole lot. But I don’t know that I could inflict it on anybody fkhgsdghdfhgfd

[cynthiaandsamus]

Game Blondes Crystal Clear Nuzlocke Part 3: A Gooey Situation!

“Hey I’m blonde!”

“…I’m also blonde.”

“AND WE’RE THE GAME BLONDES!!”

“Welcome back to Game Blondes! Last time we got a shiny Eevee, and two, count ‘em TWO badges out of sixteen, though the game’s gonna start scaling up the more badges we get so we gotta be careful not to lose any more pokemon…”

“Don’t worry I’ll be fine, I’ve only lost a rat so far, now that I have something to work with I’ll be able to do stuff a lot easier.” Samus grinned confidently. “Went back to the Professor and got a Togepi (named Sunnyside) which immediately goes in the box, no way am I risking taking a literal newborn on this death journey.”

“Probably a wise choice… don’t want to tempt fate.”

“Well now that I have two badges I guess that qualifies me to operate a squirtbottle… you’re world is weird Cynthia.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Well now I’ve annoyed some living trees and gotten Cut from the dude. Guess it’s up the Sprout Tower now, not sure if it’s at all necessary but couldn’t hurt to get up there and see what’s going on.” Samus shrugged. “Oh… apparently they just give you the HM now as soon as you enter if you have the badges… Well is there anything at the top or not!?”

-One Encounter Later-

“YEAH FUCK THAT! It doesn’t count if I reset before anything faints! Nopenopenope I’m out!”

“I don’t think anyone can blame you, the run would just be over now if you didn’t.” Cynthia chuckled.

“…we may or may not come back to that later but more than double my level is not great, should’ve guessed when there was a “are you sure you’re up for the challenge?’ guard at the bottom of the tower… Still I wonder if there’s something good up there to make it worth it…”

“That’s a challenge for another day.” The Champion smiled.

“Well I don’t wanna just go through the game like normal… Even if I can do the badges in any order I still need to walk all the way there, so I don’t wanna just skip through gyms when they’re right there…”

“Why not go fuck around in Kanto for a bit? The train drops you off in Saffron so you can get to most of the region from there and pick badges at random.”

“Good idea! To fuckery!” Samus cheered. “Alright, in Saffron now, whole different country to fuck up with my sequence breaking nonsense.”

“Now that I think about it, it’s probably ironic that a Metroid protagonist is playing the pokemon game where you can sequence break…”

“SPEEDRUNING BABY! FUCK THE INTENDED ORDER!” Samus hummed. “Well most of the houses here are closed but I did get the Psychic TM, gonna teach that to Polly so my starter has a little more firepower.”

“Wonder if Silph Co. is another unstoppable hell gauntlet.“

“They don’t even let me go up… but I got a free Up-Grade for Polly! Okay, next badge I’ll go back to that kid in Goldenrod and evolve her. Might as well go kick Sabrina’s ass while I’m here…”

“HA! The guard in the normal games tells you the Up-Grade can’t be bought anywhere else. But since you can buy it in the department stores here, they added dialogue so he gets upset about not being told it was already in department stores, that’s cute.”

“Good lore for the changes I guess.” Samus snickered.”There’s two gyms but one’s empty, so guess the other’s Sabrina’s.  Well Danny’s in charge here, wiping out these Psychics with a Ghost-type should be easy. See? That Channeler went down easy!”

“…and Danny’s dead.”

RIP Danny the Gastly  Route 31-Saffron City, Lv. 5-Lv. 13

“Eh… I was NOT expecting that guy to have a level 18 Kadabra and I kinda forgot Gastly was a Poison type in addition to a Ghost type… well there goes my whole plan for this gym…”

“You’ll make it through, see? You’re already at Sabrina.”

“Yeah but I feel like she’s gonna be a higher level, I mean one of her minions killed one of my pokemon and I’m down a main teammate and my main strategy, think I’m gonna grind a bit and fill that empty slot before I come back, not taking any chances…”

“Better safe than sorry I guess… even if it is a bit cheap.” Cynthia sighed.

“Let me go back and bury my dead ghost and go out into one of these fields and catch me a new dude. Which way should I go? I can go pretty much anywhere from Saffron… any of the cardinal directions anyway.”

“Well you know what they say, Go West, Young Meowth.”

“…who says that?” Samus grumbled. “West it is then. ..and immediately who the hell is this guy?”

“Oh shit he has a Porygon too! Time for a Mirror Match!”

“Awww yeah, there’s no beating Polly!”

“Oh wow he has a Shiny Togepi too. I mean it’s still an egg baby but it’s a sparkly egg baby.”

“That was surprisingly tough for an egg baby, must be hard-boiled. Still at least it’s not another casualty and he gave me a bunch of money and five level balls. So that’s nice of him, speaking of which this is a new area so I can catch a new pokemon~!”

“Oooh an Abra, good luck with that!”

“Trying out one of those new Level Balls then, here goes nothing!”

“Heck yeah! Since it’s a Psychic that just wants to be left along I’ll name it Mob. Looks like it’s close to evolving too so I may use it for a bit.”

“Well might as well have a look around Celadon while we’re nearby. Erika might be a better fit for your next gym battle since you have a flying type and a few psychic moves that’ll do well against her grass and poison types.”

“Yeah… wait… the game corner here sells the Berserk Gene!? What the hell!?”

“Yeah that’s… strange…” Cynthia quirked a brow. “Rather cheap too…”

“I mean I guess it’s not super useful but still… Weird placement. Those Leftovers might be good to save up for too, but that would require more gambling… Oooh! Heracross!”

“Can I get it? Please Please!?”

“Well I guess Celadon City is a new area, so if it’s the first pokemon you encounter you can get it, sure… but just this once…”

“Whoohoo! Time for a gambling montage!”

-80’s Music-

This is a gambling montage~

Samus is gambling all her money away~

We’re not allowed to show this part in Europe~

She’s Gonna get that Heracross~

This is a gambling montage~

-montage end-

“Well since it’s blue and armored I’ll name her Gravity like my suit, looks like she’ll need a bit of grinding but should be fun to use~”

“Well a couple of training battles in Erika’s gym later and Gravity has a few levels and Hooters evolved into a Noctowl.”

“These levels on these gyms are starting to get high though, I may have to do some grinding… hopefully I’ll be able to beat Erika at least… Still, a little training won’t hurt. This guy says he’ll give me Fly if I can get one more badge, so that’ll really open things up, all the more incentive to grind up for Erika.

“…well fuk it’s a Muk. And it’s like ten levels higher than anything I have.”

“Still, Muk are mostly defensive pokemon and you just have to weaken it, give it a shot.”

“Holy crap I caught it… wasn’t expecting that, guess I have a new teammate… I’ll name it Goo since that’s what it is. Doubt it’ll help much with Erika or Sabrina, but it’s always good to have a big tanky pokemon like that, I’ll think about adding him to the team somewhere…”

“And this is why we carry Antidotes… you were almost in trouble there.”

“Meh I’ll be fine, guess I’ll switch out Shimon the Poliwag for Goo the Muk since he’s my lowest level besides the new Heracross, we’ll see if this pile of sludge comes in handy soon.”

“Holy crap look how weird it looks when Goo follows me.” Samus laughed.

-One Grind Later-

“Okay a little bit of grind and Gravity is up to level with the others and all of Erika’s support trainers are gone, I’ve got Goo and got him an Ice Punch TM, I’ve got a Noctowl, got Polly knowing Psychic and got Gravity being a Bug type, and just in case I’m buying a couple Antidotes so I think we have a decent shot at this battle, here we go!”

“If worse comes to worse you could probably just lean on your overpowered Muk now that it has a move that’s great against Grass types…”

“Well I’m gonna try not to do that if I can help it, let’s start out with Noctowl vs her Tangela! Ha! Even if it puts Hooters to sleep, that Giga Drain does next to nothing against her! That was an easy first KO. Way to pull your weight Hooters! “

“Oooh Bellsprout next huh?”

“That’s part poison right? I’ll try Polly next then and hit it with some Psychic! HA! A one hit KO! Don’t mess with Polly!”

“Another OHKO from Hooters on that Hopip… you’re really tearing through this boss battle. Though to be fair grass-types have a lot of weaknesses to exploit and usually have to use status ailments to keep up.”

“Last pokemon’s Oddish, let’s go Hooters, make this a clean sweep! Well it managed to take two hits but it’s still no match for my awesome owl thing! Great job Hooters!”

“That’s awesome, three badges down, but you realize Sabrina will be even stronger now that you have more badges, right?”

“Crap… Well the Pokemon League called again and basically just told me to go get Fly, since I’m right here I can do that pretty easily, guess we’re set up for that. I can teach it to Hooters as a reward for winning that gym battle.”

“…wow so you can just fly to any city now huh? You don’t have to have visited any of them, guess you can hop around as much as you want now.”

“True, though I’ll probably be in trouble if I just go directly for the badges each time, the walking will help me get more levels too but if I wanna go somewhere I can just drop myself off and see what’s up around there. I can continue that sidequest with Professor Oak at some point too since I can just fly to Pallet Town and see what’s going on, and I feel like I can safely evolve Polly too, which I may do… NEXT TIME ON GAME BLONDES!”

Samus’s Journey So Far (Kanto Side):

Samus’s Current Team:

[veebs-hates-video-games]

I just remembered I had a couple codes for 3DS games from several years ago because I paid a dollar for one of those rare Humble Bundles that had Wii U and 3DS games in it on the off chance I ended up with something to play them on...and it turns out I do have something now. Well, for the 3DS ones. Odds of getting a Wii U and redeeming anything on there are pretty low, considering there's only really one game on it I want to play that isn't on anything else, and it's fairly easily emulatable (Xenoblade Chronicles X, which I already set up on my desktop before the eShop closure announcement, just in case they did announce they were closing it soon).

So since I guess I didn't have enough puzzle platformers already I now have Mighty Switch Force! too (but not Mighty Switch Force! 2, which is also a thing). It's...fine? I like the idea behind how it works and some of the puzzles in the first ten or so levels I played, but wow is it skewed so far to the opposite end of twitch reflexes vs puzzle solving compared to BoxBoy! and Pushmo that I had been playing before that (also I finished BoxBoy! earlier and it's good, although I'm not going to bother with the bonus challenges because some of the last few puzzles already felt less like I had come up with one of the clever intended solutions and more like I was brute forcing something clunky into working).

Can you tell I didn't take my Concerta today?

But yeah, it has a lot of very precise timing required for a lot of stuff that doesn't really add to the puzzle side of things, and the timer and goal times for each level are at best neutral for me and at worst make me enjoy myself less. I'm sure someone out there wants to speedrun a puzzle game after having already memorized the solutions to all the levels, but it's not me. Also you have health and lives and can die and have to start over? For some reason? Which I also don't want in a puzzle game?

Basically it's fine and I probably got my dollar-several-years-ago out of it, but I don't see myself finishing it or playing any of the others in the series. Also the main character is a cop, and therefore a bastard.

Also the art style looked familiar so I checked who made the game, and it's the Shantae people, which makes sense. What does not make sense is that the same people made Microshaft Winblows 98 in 1998, which I never realized was a real thing. I thought it was just like a bad boomer joke or something, but no, it's a bad boomer joke in "comedy" "game" form that you can actually play. Wild.

[aion-rsa]

Psychonauts 2 Invincibility Option Brings Out Video Game Difficulty Gatekeepers

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The reveal of Psychonauts 2‘s upcoming invincibility toggle has reignited an increasingly frustrating debate over video game difficulty.

In case you missed it, the Xbox team recently sent out a tweet that simply read “Beating the game on the lowest difficulty is still beating the game.” While that tweet proved to be controversial enough with those who strongly disagree with that seemingly simple sentiment (more on that in a bit), things really got interesting when Psychonauts 2 developer Double Fine decided to weigh in on the topic.

If you beat Psychonauts 2 with the invincibility toggle on, you still beat P2. https://t.co/OinBv1nuNr

— Double Fine (@DoubleFine) July 9, 2021

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Interestingly, that happened to be the first time Double Fine mentioned that Psychonauts 2 will include an invincibility toggle. While Double Fine later joked about their response to this tweet, they did confirm that Psychonauts 2 will indeed have an invincibility option and that using the feature won’t even prevent you from earning achievements.

Well, that’s where the “trouble” started. You can probably imagine what some of the more heated responses to this statement look like, which is helpful since we won’t be amplifying them here. Let’s just say that there are some gamers who don’t like the idea of people playing a game with invincibility turned on rather than playing it the “intended” way. It’s the same old song and dance that we see pretty much every time this topic comes up.

There are a couple of interesting new wrinkles in this particular argument, though. The first concerns the suggestion that this is actually a “games journalist mode.” While that’s obviously kind of a joke, there has been a lot of debate lately about how journalists play games, especially since a Days Gone voice actor suggested that game’s low review scores can be partially attributed to reviewers not playing the game properly. Here again, we see some people suggest that this is just a way to make it easier for journalists to play through games, which, they claim, will prevent them from being able to properly experience it and then relay that experience to others.

First off, that argument kind of falls apart for the same reason that most arguments about game journalists tend to fall apart: it’s based on the idea that game journalists are some kind of collective entity. There are thousands of people who work as what you may call “game journalists” across various websites and social platforms. In case you’ve never looked at a Metacritic or Rotten Tomatoes page, journalists tend to disagree (sometimes wildly) regarding the topics they cover. At the risk of disappointing someone, there is no secret game journalist collective. Some people who cover games actually do enjoy playing them at higher difficulties, and they’ll usually let you know that’s the case. Others prefer a different kind of experience, and they also get to have their say.

More importantly, the idea of an intended experience becomes significantly more difficult to accept as we move into a new age for game difficulty. Whereas game difficulty options used to boil down to “Easy, Normal, or Hard” (at best), many modern games include a variety of difficulty options designed to please more nuanced difficulty desires.

Game developers are working harder than ever to ensure that their games are designed to be balanced across much more nuanced difficulty settings, which makes it harder to argue that only one of those settings somehow constitutes the intended experience. While it makes sense that someone may criticize a game if they feel like the difficulty of one setting upsets the balance of another, that’s not what we’re dealing with in most of these cases. A greater variety of games can be enjoyed in a greater variety of ways than ever before, and it just sometimes feels like we struggling to really take a moment and appreciate that.

The other, more interesting, debate at the moment focuses on whether or not playing a game with invincibility (or similar) options enabled actually means that you “beat it.”

That discussion is a little more complicated. As someone who loves difficult games (we’ve been celebrating them on this website quite a bit lately), I do understand how the idea of someone saying they beat a game while removing as many challenges as possible could initially be frustrating. I can even sympathize with the idea of wanting credit for beating a game at higher difficulties. In some cases, that credit is honestly arguably deserved. Just look at the speedrunning community and the incredible things they accomplish.

However, there are some who say that playing Psychonauts 2 with invincibility on means you beat it as much as someone who watched a playthrough of the game “beat it,” which is really where this whole argument falls apart.

While there is certainly nothing wrong with watching a playthrough of a game to see the story (or even see what all the fuss is about), the fact is that someone who decides to play a game with invincibility (or any other difficulty assistance features) enabled still decided to play that game. They bought it, they invested time in it, and even with certain difficulty assistance features activated, they managed to overcome various challenges along the way.

They put the time in to experience a game at the difficulty level they chose, and they managed to see it through to the end at a time when completion rate is reportedly one of the biggest reasons why we don’t get more of these kinds of games in the first place. Most importantly, they decided to play this game (just like you did) when they could have done any number of other things in a world of pretty essentially unlimited entertainment options.

That’s the thing I’ll never understand about gatekeeping. When someone says “I played X game,” how is your first response “What difficulty did you play it at?” rather than simply enjoying the fact that you’re interacting with someone that you clearly have a shared interest with? Even if you wanted to convince them to play the game at a harder difficulty, how is that kind of fundamental hostility supposed to help you?

Of course, that’s the thing about video game difficulty gatekeepers. They don’t want people to share things with; they want to be able to feel like they’re better than someone else.

At a time when gaming was far more niche and often a source for ridicule, the promise of everyone becoming a gamer was one built on the idea that you no longer had to feel this lingering social shame for just liking the thing you like. That makes it all the more tragic we still seem to be dealing with so many people who seem so insistent on creating these artificial barriers when we should be enjoying a golden age of simply being able to say “I like video games” without having it feel like someone is shining a light on your face that’s brighter than ever before.

The post Psychonauts 2 Invincibility Option Brings Out Video Game Difficulty Gatekeepers appeared first on Den of Geek.

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