#is it clear Bloodborne is my favourite game ever?

[realalphasbechanginggenders]

Youwy and chat started slandering Bloodborne so I left. The slander of fromsofts best game is insane so I am going to list why it's the best game they've ever made:

The environments are beautiful, the gothic Victiorian setting, gorgeous architecture and views. The way the moonlight casts shadows on stuff, and you can see the shadows in the air if that makes sense.

Bloodborne also has the best poison swamp. The snake balls are funny and the way those guys' heads explode into snakes is so creepy and awesome.

The weapons are the best fromsoft has ever made. Original, unique movesets for every weapon (except for kirkhammer/LHB and saw cleaver/spear but those are intended to share movesets and they have some different attacks like the transformed ones) the trick weapon mechanic is peak too, there's so much depth to be had with it.

The chalice dungeon system is very cool too. If you know where to go and what to do you can have a maxed out weapon with perfect gems before beating vicar Amelia. They're fun to explore and a nice challenge. It also features unique enemies and bosses such as the bloodletting beast. I like the bloodletting beast, it is cool. Having the best gems locked behind them gives players an incentive to explore them, but it's not ultimately required, it's just an option for min maxers.

The general bosses are also amazing design wise, as well as gameplay wise. The One Reborn being an abomination made from the corpses of hundreds of yharnamies and yahar'gul citizens. Am attempt by the church to create a great one. A fucked up experiment. It is also a reference to Demon's Souls' Tower Knight, this is cool, and I don't think there are many other direct references to earlier bosses in the souls series (aside from dark souls 3, although they are obvious callbacks considering ds1 has the same world as ds3). Other bosses such as orphan of Kos, the clearest example of the many wrongdoings of the church. a ball of rage left behind to fester and rot in the wake of the church's experiments.

The world building is also great in Bloodborne. The yharnamites that perceive you as a beast, because prior to being infected, they were the ones killing and burning the beasts. Finding the amygdalae scattered across the rooftops, the games shift from gothic Victorian horror to straight up lovecraftian cosmic horror is done so so well.

The fashion - armour is mostly for looks, so you are free to glamorise your hunter as you see fit.

The vilebloods being a clear parallel to black people, lgbt people etc. they were persecuted by the church, who claim they threaten the "purity of the church", and were thus slaughtered based on purely prejudice.

The fact that you are much more involved in the story. Whereas in other games you walk through a bleak and post apocalyptic world, where everything has already happened, in Bloodborne the story is much more responsive to the players actions. The moon phase changes as you progress, the amygdala becomes visible after you kill Rom and break the filter over the world, and unleash the blood moon. The workshop burns after you kill the wet nurse. The cathedral ward becomes much more empty after you either kill Amelia or Rom. This is more subjective, but I personally prefer this.

The lore is also fantastic, I'm sure the lore of the other games is also great but I just love the story of Bloodborne. The greed of the church, the reckless experimentation of godhood. The whole concept of the beast plague is cool.

QUICKSTEP IS SO GOOD AND BADASS THEY MODDED IT INTO ELDEN RING

There is more, will update when I think of anything extra to add

ALSO I've heard people bitch about 30fps like it's a cancer to the eyes, fuck you it's not even a problem you get used to it after like 2 minutes

[l4v3nd3r-bl00d]

i thought i'd do an updated introduction post since i’ve been so inactive, so new mutuals/followers can know more about me!😊❤️

my name is kittie, i am 18, i have been diagnosed with autism & adhd since i was 15 (important to know because it explains why i am the way that i am lol) i don’t mind what pronouns you use for me, literally any are fine. i am just a person. 😁

i first started collecting violet exacts in 2019 however my collection has grown pretty slowly since i can’t hold down a job because disability.. disables. 🥲😭💔

i enjoy old things quite a lot, at the moment my main areas of interest are in: gothic architecture, silent film era (georges méliès films are my fav), skeleton keys, children’s books & toys from the 40s-70s, taxidermy, postcards, and vintage fashion/lingerie from the 40s-70s.

i also cosplay, i just don’t post it on the internet very much, my favourite anime are: kamisama kiss, vampire knight, nana, paradise kiss, love live, k-on, the future diary and chobits.

my main/oldest special interest is japanese fashion subcultures! (lolita, mori kei, fairy kei, dolly kei and cult party kei to be specific)

i don’t game regularly but my favourite games/game franchises are: american mcgees alice & madness returns, fran bow, sally face, little misfortune, stray, silent hill, elder scrolls, resident evil, skyrim, bloodborne, life is strange, the walking dead, the last of us and batman: arkham knight.

some of my favourite shows/movies: ahs (obviously), the office, dexter, the walking dead, its always sunny in philadelphia, lost, kamikaze girls, ghost world, sharp objects, wayne, a series of unfortunate events(both the series and the movie), gummo, ginger snaps, donnie darko, twin peaks, black mirror, and every wes anderson, tim burton and a24 project ever.

okay now here is a dump of all of my fav albums because i feel it’s very telling

blonde redhead - misery is a butterfly & 23

scarling - sweet heart dealer & so long, scarecrow

air - le voyage dans la lune & talkie walkie

oingo boingo - only a lad

brennan wedl - holy water branch

daniel johnson - hi how are you

teen suicide - dc snug film/ waste yrself & i will be my own hell

fox academy - luxury beverage

sidney gish - no dogs allowed

s.maharba - s.maharba

mcr - i brought you my bullets, you brought me your love & three cheers for sweet revenge

katie jane garside - lullabies in a glass wilderness

roar - impossible animals & i’m not here to make friends

candy claws - ceres and calypso in the deep time

imogen heap - speak for yourself

ricky eat acid - three love songs

dandelion hands - bleak week

catatonia - equally cursed and blessed

mort garson - mother earths plantasia

black box recorder - england made me

lady radiator - bounce energy hear me out

coma cinema - posthumous release

color filter - sleep in a synchrotron & i often think in music

jenny01 - jenny01 best & cluster

otto benson - songs before bed

marysgate - special memory

fear before the march of flames - the always open mouth & odd how people shake

the avalanches - since i left you

elysian fields - queen of the meadow & ghosts of no

leslie gore - i’ll cry if i want to

my bloody valentine - loveless

smashing pumpkins - siamese dream & mellon collie and the infinite sadness

jack off jill - clear hearts grey flowers

colour filter - sleep in a synchrotron

elliot smith - xo

panic at the disco - a fever you can’t sweat out & pretty odd

maple bee - chasing eva & home

nastyona - another secret

heartsrevolution - kitsune hearts japan

rasputina - transylvanian regurgitations &cabin fever

chris vrenna - american mcgees alice

queenadreena - taxidermy

bunny boy - Shelly & the bunny tree & did the angels come to kiss you

hole - live through this & celebrity skin

akira yamaoka - silent hill 2

hooky - something to look forward to

jack stauber - micro pop & pop food

satanicpornocultshop - arkhaiomelisidonophunikheratos

sparklehorse - its a wonderful life

susumu yokota - symbol

every album by the cure ever

i’m not very interesting so i don’t have a whole lot to say about myself on a personal level, i just like to share the media that i enjoy lol. don't be shy to message me if u ever wanna talk, especially about anything music, fashion or fandom related, just a heads up though that i sometimes really suck at replying(i apologise in advance)🥲

here are links to my other social media if you want to follow me elsewhere, though all personal accounts, not violet or ahs related.

tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kittiebot?_t=8pZwtHs5DjU&_r=1

instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kittiebot13621?igsh=MnFpbzlpaWo0enpn&utm_source=qr

pinterest: https://pin.it/4Rlko08SX

spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/qenp8br378218on2h77lzldq8?si=-sS3g8ATQECdosiCSmBVyw

- kittie😇❤️

[ohnoitstbskyen]

Reflecting on my work in 2022

As this official Hell Of A Year™ draws to a close, I guess it is appropriate to both reflect on what I've been doing this year, as well as do a bit of plugging for work which I am proud of.

So here's a list of some of the videos I made this year, along with some thoughts on their creation and how I feel about them, some self-criticism, some behind-the-scenes, and a little self-congratulation where it is appropriate.

I struggle somewhat with memory and a clear sense of time - to me, time is more of a continuous stream than a series of delineated moments. This is often frustrating - I get lost in it, and when I look back on a list of my work and activities, it is less an experience of "oh yeah, ha ha, that happened" and more of a "wait what do you mean that happened then? And before that other thing? But after that one? What the hell?"

Worst case scenario, it can be kinda distressing, honestly. It feels out of control, anxiety inducing, like I don't have a handle on my life.

... which is an absolutely fantastic tone to strike for a New Year's list of my favourite videos. 2023, woo!

The Boss Designs of Bloodborne Finale (February)

It took me nearly three months after the penultimate episode of the series to finally put this video out. My The Boss Designs Of series is some of the best work I've ever created, at least I think so. It's certainly some of the most creatively fulfilling work I do, and some of the most challenging too.

I try to walk a line between providing a fresh perspective on the games I've played for the series, but not getting contrarian or off-the-wall just for the sake of it. With Bloodborne, I do think I managed some really good critical contributions to the readings of the game, like my reading of the Blood-starved Beast as a self-sacrificing martyr for the beast community of Old Yharnam, which was apparently quite novel, or my crackpot Parasite Theory of Bloodborne's madness.

And I do think I've gotten better and better at editing gameplay footage too, I think I've managed to learn a good balance between joke-edits and continuity and story editing. I always kinda fret on the one hand that the gameplay footage and my live commentary is too boring to stand on its own, and on the other hand that editing in too many jokes and gags would just be obnoxious and tedious to sit through.

The thing Bloodborne nails more than any other horror game I've seen is the sensation of the nightmare. And not just in its visuals or its monster designs or the surface storytelling, but in the push and pull between extremely specific imagery and story beats and complete ambiguity the moment you scratch at the surface. Bloodborne is on the one hand a fairly obvious story about the abuses of organized religion and unethical science, but then underneath that there's also this deep obsession with the violence done to women's bodies specifically, and how that violence spills out and caustically eats into the humanity of everyone who is complicit in it.

And then underneath that there's an exploration of birth trauma, where the Great Ones are parental figures as incomprehensible to the player as parents are to a newborn child, pushing you here and pulling you there and inflicting incomprehensible violations of your bodily autonomy out of apparent sympathy.

And underneath all of that... it's also about how cool it would be to transform into a werewolf, actually. The themes of self-creation and transformation and claiming monsterhood as self-empowerment are incredibly queer and especially apt for trans readings.

It all flows together in this soup of imagery and meaning that I cannot crystalize into a unifying Theory of Bloodborne, no definitive reading, no comprehensive hot take. Which is frustrating when you're trying to create a video essay, but infinitely compelling when trying to think about it.

I don't know that I managed to capture all of that in the The Boss Designs of Bloodborne finale, but I do know that I tried to, and I'm proud of that.

Melina, the Maiden - Boss Designs of Elden Ring #1 (March)

Staying with The Boss Designs of, here's a video about which my feelings have become decidedly mixed. Not because of anything that is in the episode, mind you, but out of a certain disempowered bitterness I've developed about Elden Ring over the course of the year.

I cannot overstate how excited I was for Elden Ring, and how desperately I enjoyed finally getting to play it back in March. It's a brilliant game, an incredibly immersive world, and one which I badly want to return to.

... and then I didn't get to play the game for nine months. It was partly my own mistake - I tried recording an absolute ton of footage for episodes early, playing as much of the game as I could while it was still fresh, hoping to put out a lot of episodes of the series early while the game was fresh and Relevant In The Algorithm™, and also just out of sheer excitement. In so doing, though, I ended up shooting myself in the foot, because as I began to edit episodes together I also found myself feeling more and more distant from the experience of playing.

The pile of footage in front of me, begging to be converted into episodes, became a roadblock of work looming over me, a source of guilt and stress and frustration, that put extra stress on my mind every time I tried to make any other video and which stood between me and getting to play more of the game I have anticipated more than any other for years.

In 2023, I will get back to Elden Ring, I swear to god I will, but in the meantime I am quite happy with how the three episodes I've made of this series so far have turned out.

Also, the new intro song I commissioned from @trewatsonmusic absolutely slaps.

What's the deal with Zeri and Neon (June)

My ambition for the What's the Deal videos has always been to expand them beyond League of Legends (and I have done videos on characters from other things), but being a YouTuber is also my job, and League of Legends is the moneymaking subject on my channel, at least for now.

Not that I resent that. For all that League deserves the criticism it gets, I still insist that it has one of the greatest casts of characters in modern gaming, underserved and ignored though most of them are by Riot Games. There's so much to talk about once you get even a little bit under the surface, and I do feel like I've been doing a better and better job at doing that in the What's the Deal videos over 2022. Zeri, for example, is a fantastic addition to the class warfare dynamics of Piltover and Zaun, especially in her conflict with Renata Glasc and the themes that could be explored through that conflict. And it's not lost of me the extent to which she was a direct response to the xenophobic attacks on Asian-Americans that have surged out of American politics in recent years, either. There is value to proclaiming that someone like Zeri belongs in the worlds of big pop culture institutions like League of Legends, even if (as always) it is the workers at Riot Games making that proclamation, and Riot Games Inc. allowing it because it serves their commercial goals.

I brought in Nickyboi for an assist on this one as well, which is something I want to do more. I want to do more collaboration. First of all because it's nice to offload work to someone else, but also because this job is fundamentally kind of lonely. I'm just a guy in his office making videos 99% of the time, and collaborating with a fellow creator feels like being part of a creative community in a way that solo work and shitposting at each other on Twitter simply doesn't.

And I am proud of the little fanfiction snippets I've started writing in the The Future segments. One of the points of the What's the Deal videos is to communicate to an audience why I'm excited about a character, why I feel like they're worth giving a shit about, and I think those fanfiction segments have done a better job at getting that across than almost all of my character design and animation chatter. Plus, it's nice to flex a bit of creative muscle in that way now and then.

Speaking of which, I still need to write that happier ending for Kai'sa and Taliyah, don't I? I have A Plan™ for that, it's just about finding the time to make it real...

The 15 Most Beautiful Splash Arts in League of Legends (September)

This one is easily the biggest surprise of the year for me. In the latter half of 2022, I took quite a lot of sponsorships - first of all because they were offered (good lord there was a rush of them in August!), but also because I really wanted to save up and pay down debts.

One of the consequences of that was the extreme delay of Elden Ring, but another was that all of a sudden I had to get content out on a very set schedule. Most of my work is done on the steam of Whatever Catches My Creative Attention At The Time, but with a deadline hanging over my head, suddenly I had to find video ideas whether they presented themselves naturally or not.

I feared that a list-video would be a turn-off for my audience, I feared that it would be seen as shallow and tacky, like a 2010s Buzzfeed listicle. I feared that people just wouldn't be interested in the kind of art analysis I like to do, or would find it pretentious to seek meaning in what is - let's be real - commercial artwork meant to promote game cosmetics.

The benefit of a sponsorship is that the video has already made a profit, whether it does well or not, and I thought that in making this video, I was being self-indulgent and "ignoring" the desires of my audience.

Instead, it's one of the best performing videos ever on my channel, and people have cited it as a favorite among my videos quite a number of times.

Which was really... encouraging, honestly. I didn't expect it, but this video really did give me a confidence boost that the things I care about and find interesting do have an audience, even extra-nerdy rambling about League of Legends cosmetics.

Building a Better Soraka (September)

Building a Better is a series title I sometimes regret a little bit, because no matter how much I try to explain in the videos themselves that there is no such thing as a perfect character design and that my revisions and ideas are not meant to be definitive in any way, I always get comments from people accusing me of declaring myself The God of Character Design and sitting in holy judgment over the work I'm critiquing.

To an extent, I guess that's unavoidable on the internet, but... maybe the series title was a bad gamble on that front.

I do stand by, though, that my designs have a reasonable argument that they are improvements over the originals. Arguments that can be interrogated and criticized, but valid, reasonaed arguments, not mere polemics.

Building a Better Soraka was an experiment in creating the series, as instead of working with a single artist to iterate on design improvements, I ended up commissioning more than a half dozen people for artwork and using different renditions to make my argument. It did hurt the coherency of the video a little, I feel, but it did open me up to a much more flexible way to produce videos like it in the future, which I'm happy with.

Plus, I really do like what I came up with here, and I adore the ways that @sabtherobot, @sinizade and @lekyrin executed my ideas and brought their own visions of the character. Soraka is a character who deserves a lot better than the basic design she's stuck with, and whose story can do so much more visually than Riot is willing to allow it to do.

"Not Without You" - the story of Nasus and Renekton (November)

Of all the writing I did this year, this is by far what I am most proud of.

The video itself did not perform very well, nor did I expect it to, but the reactions I saw from the audience on this piece... yeah. That filled a very hungry part of my heart, I'm not gonna lie.

Writing a novel is a life ambition for me, as it is for many people. Actually writing it is a lot more elusive, though, in part because I struggle to feel confidence that my writing would ever hold up to the scrutiny of an audience. I struggle to feel that I would ever be able to connect emotionally with people, that I would be able to make what I feel sensible through writing.

This story proved that I can. Not to a big audience, perhaps, and I certainly don't have any delusions of genius or grandeur. I do not ever expect to be a famous or fêted writer, nor an important one. But... I do feel like with this story, I proved that I can at least be a competent one, which is frankly all I want.

And Nasus and Renekton were grateful subjects, too. Their story is naturally deeply emotional, albeit strangled by Riot's chronic indifference towards their most compelling narratives, and a lot of what I ended up exploring in there did come from a very genuine place in myself. It was nice to touch that part of my soul, and make something out of it, even if it's only silly fanfiction for a silly video game.

I am cautiously optimistic about 2023

Looking back over the videos I made this year, while I have a lot of work that I am proud of, I also see a lot of videos that I think I made less out of a desire to make them and more out of a fear of not making them. Videos that I made because I felt like the audience expected it, because the algorithm demanded it, because rent is always coming due and I am petrified of ever being broke again.

This is normal and natural, it is to some extent just the nature of the creative process under a capitalist market system where your work must always have some sort of price tag. But... I don't want to keep doing it. If I have an ambition for 2023, it is to make more of the videos I want to make, more videos that I only I can make. To give myself a little bit of a break and ease up on the self-recrimination and stress.

I have so many projects I want to get to, and being in my 30s I am becoming more and more conscious that while I (hopefully) have something like twice my current lifetime left to create the things I want, time is a finite resource, and spending it trying to please a website algorithm probably won't do me that much good in the end.

Anyway, some other things I did which I am quite proud of:

Played through God of War: Ragnarök while telling stories about the mythology of my childhood.

Ran around the world of Eorzea, accompanied by some of the funniest, silliest and most generous FFXIV players a man could dream of.

Finished a Pokémon HeartGold Nuzlocke with possibly the most nerve-wracking finish I have ever had to a Pokémon game

Reviewed every single Gen 1 Pokémon

Finished Great Ace Attorney Chronicles 1, probably the let's play with the most voice acting I have ever done. Some of it is even good!

If you've read this far, thank you so much for your time, your attention, your interest and your indulgence. Your 2023 be a good year, and may the tides of history wash gently over us all.

[tothepointofinsanity]

Generic favourite video games list (new favourites + all time) because my friends (and Twitter) enticed me into doing it. I feel as though looking at this, it's pretty clear I don't play enough games. Luckily, I got some recommendations, so I'm excited for the holidays where I can Do Nothing and Game again. Below are some of my notes, but there is one mention of child death and some spoilers for these games, so please be careful.

Notes:

• There were some others I didn't add but also liked, such as Alice: Madness Returns, Little Misfortune, Nun Massacre, Babysitter Bloodbath, Mad Father and Paranormal HK.

• Detention and Devotion both had immense impact on me back then because it was the first time I saw others interact with a Chinese game on mainstream media. It was interesting to see how others reacted to the cultural aspects and storytelling of these two games, and it was actually my first ever look at something that made me feel represented, in a way. Detention also helped me learn about Taiwanese history. On this list, Devotion is the scariest horror game to me. It wasn't about monsters or evil spirits that scared me. It was the protagonist's desperation and obsession tied in with religious themes that ultimately killed his child which made me upset and haunted until even now. Horror based in reality feels tangible. It's very real. I've seen such incidents occur in this culture. Even now, I relate to the child of the story: a girl with panic attacks overlooked.

• Nowhere, MI is a demo game that is still continued being worked on by the developer. However, the demo was fulfilling and very fun. Also, the protagonist is a weirdo that wields a cool sentient gun.

• Underworld Capital Incident wasn't really that old of a game, but the graphics make it seem that way. It's quite niche, but has a unique premise where you play as one of Hell's escort demons. I wish it was more popular.

• Bloodborne is on this list but not Dark Souls solely because Bloodborne has Micolash.

• Taylor Swietanski games (caged bird don't fly; that night steeped by blood river) are pieces of media that will be projected onto a sloppy PowerPoint slide on the day of my funeral. My threshold for what constitutes as boring is very different from the common soldiery because while I may not know what these games are about, the music is nice and it makes me feel something.

• Pearl grabber (made by yatoimtop, the same dev behind Greener Grass Awaits) was sadly not in the database because if it had been, I would have added it.

• Gohome was a weird weird game that combines surreal and horror elements into the familiarity of walking back home. This is similar to "Walk" as well. In both games, strange eldritch beings stalk you. I think I like games that are based on how a home is no longer a home once invaded by your own presence. There's something ironic about it.

[iain-games-firstperson]

Environment research

Genshin Impact: I know very little about Genshin Impact, but from what I can see, the environments look like they were designed to look and feel like a fantasy European city, along with grassy plateaus and forested areas highly reminiscent of Breath of the Wild. This could lend itself to a feeling of freedom and openness which, depending on the style of game they were going for, could really aid with a sense of freedom and being on an adventure. Without having played the game myself, it’s hard to say for sure. I’ll definitely give it a try go, given that it’s free and reviewed pretty well.

Anthem: I personally really dislike the level design in Anthem, and actually Anthem in general. It feels like EA took Bioware, looked at what they were good at and then forced them to make the exact opposite. Everything takes place in one big, empty open world. The world itself is pretty beautifully designed, but you’re never really looking at it. The actual game is just following one glowing yellow icon through the big environment, eyes locked on the next checkpoint. The terrain feels underutilised and thoughtless. There are roads and empty buildings with no thought put into who would be going to them or why. The world doesn’t feel like a living world for the player to explore, it feels like the questing area in an overhyped and underwhelming online looter shooter, which is really disappointing given what the game could have been.

GTA V: The level design in Grand Theft Auto is a little difficult for me to talk about because I’ll quickly get derailed talking about the open world or how the company has an outdated design formula. However, if talking exclusively about the closed ended missions, the environments used in those (outside of commuting to missions in the open world) are curated specifically to railroad players through a specifically curated experience. The environments are tightly focussed and beautifully hand crafted, ending up feeling rich with detail and deliberately believable. I still physically wince whenever I think about the enormous amount of work that must have gone into so much of this game. The environments in the open world, however, can feel a little lacking at times, with large swathes of the map that are hardly used for anything at all, and although they do make the world feel big, it also just serves to put a commute between interesting areas on the map. However, some people would argue that that’s not the point, and the more space there is on the map, the more room you have to incite chaos and make the lives of the NPC’s hell. I would be loathed to argue with that because it sounds about right. I will always say that the minimap and yellow/purple line telling you exactly where to go at all times isn’t great though, as it takes the player out of the immersion, and makes a lot of the finer details in the world disappointingly easy to miss out on.

Subnautica: The environment in Subnautica is excellent for encouraging the player to explore. Most of the game is driven by player curiosity and wanting to conquer the hostile planet they find themselves on, almost out of spite towards it’s sheer hostility. The map isn’t randomly generated, so none of it is ever wasted. Everything has a purpose and something for the player to gain. Generally, the further out you explore from the starting zone, the rarer the resources you discover are. This incentivises progression on the player’s part, because they have to push further out in order to get the next cool bit of tech. This also ties nicely into the games progression, but I won’t talk about that here. The exploration element is also aided by the lack of an in game map, encouraging the player to learn the layout of the world in order to be able to get around. There are pings that get added to your HUD, which are used to push the player in the right direction, or lead them to the next clue in the mystery, but you never get pings about resources or blueprints, so you have to choose to explore and look around to find them. 

Firewatch: Firewatch uses a semi-realistic approach to it’s exploration. You are given a destination by Delilah, and you have to use your map, compass and signs on the trails to find your way there. This is a lot less exploration based, but that works because Firewatch is a very story focussed game. The game does very well at using foliage and lighting to make it clear where the player is supposed to go without holding the player’s hand or coddling them, so when you find your way to somewhere correctly, you do feel like you have successfully read a map and traversed somewhere accurately, which is pretty satisfying, and shows a fair bit of restraint on the part of the developer. 

It’s very easy for developers to worry that the player won’t be able to find their way around and add a bunch of markers and tutorials every step of the way, but both Subnautica and Firewatch are pretty good at just letting the player go and having confidence in them. As a result, these games were a small, but noteworthy influence on me in this project, as I really want to do things like this in my games. I want to strive towards giving the player a genuine feeling of achievement, of having overcome something simple, but tricky, such as reading a map and compass with nothing but landmarks, or choosing to step into a new, scary area and overcoming a fear. The feeling I was hoping to achieve with the first person project was a feeling of having solved a problem with deductive reasoning, but I don’t think I had enough time to fully carry through on that. 

My personal favourite environment I’ve ever experienced in a video game was in Dark Souls. Dark Souls’ world design and cohesion are legendary, and for good reason too. There’s nothing quite like the feeling when you first emerge, blinking at the sunlight, from Blighttown, turn left and take the lift down to the New Londo ruins, and realise you’re at the bottom of another elevator which takes you back up to Firelink Shrine, and after hours of slogging through The Gutter and trying to just get passed those god damn poison dart spitting guys in Blighttown, you’re finally safe. It’s a wonderful feeling, and one of the first times you realise just how truly interwoven the world is. I remember being utterly dumbfounded when I finally beat Havel the Rock, opened the door that he was guarding and stepped out into Darkroot Basin. My favourite thing about Dark Souls’ environments, and this carries through the sequels and Bloodborne, is the way the worlds feel so incredibly correct. It never seems like a stretch to believe that this giant, gleaming palace would house two gatekeepers who would have smashed me into smithereens if I hadn’t stolen one of the weapons the guards were wielding. Yet, it somehow still maintains this painfully oppressive atmosphere of near torture at times. Dark Souls relishes in futility. It will beat you into a tiny, squishable pulp, and you feel it in the environment. It always seems to be when you’re having trouble with a boss that the grunt enemies you have to avoid as a formality on the way get super strong and just start pummelling you, and frustration hits you hard. It’s almost like the game knows. Almost. But then, just as you hit rock bottom, almost ready to give up and go play something else, you finally overcome that challenge. You land that final blow, you swing that perfect parry, or you perfectly time that dodge roll, and it’s all you needed to overcome that obstacle. Once again you’re on top of the world, and the environment has opened up behind the boss to mirror your feelings. You’re on top of the world, so here’s a whole new section of world for you to conquer, but just before you go down there, here’s a shortcut back to your previous bonfire. “Oh that’s where I am!“ You say excitedly, and hurriedly spend your souls so as not to lose them, Dark Souls’ environment amazed me, not only because of they way it twisted and interconnected together, but also in the way that it managed to subtly mirror my own feelings.

[videogametim]

My Top 10 Games of 2019

It was pretty hard to narrow down the list this year. 2019 was a lot stronger for video games than 2018 and I feel a LOT more confidant about my picks and GOTY choice. In addition, there were also a lot of indie games not mentioned here that I think I will highlight in another post a bit later. For now, here’s the Top 10.

10. Sayonara Wild Hearts (Simogo)

Sayonara Wild Hearts is something special. Although clocking in rather short at just under an hour long, I would best describe the game as an Album Video Game. Each of the game’s 23 or so levels has its own song. The actual gameplay consists of mostly on-rails segments where you have basic movement and avoid obstacles and collect pickups to boost your score, but every level has a unique take on that concept with major climax levels being full tracks with vocals. It’s incredibly stylistic and tells a heartwarming story about dealing with heartbreak. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys musical games.

9. Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Intelligent Systems)

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is the first game in the series that managed to grab me. It’s a very competent tactical RPG with one of my favourite casts of characters this year (especially the Black Eagles house). I was consistently impressed the most with just the sheer amount of content and detail that went into it. An unnecessarily large amount of the dialogue is voiced, the second half of each of the three selectable house’s routes are totally unique, and each route takes around 60 hours to complete. I really never thought a Fire Emblem game would be my new most played game on the Switch by a mile but here we are. 

8. AI: The Somnium Files (Spike Chunsoft)

Kotaro Uchikoshi’s (creator of the Zero Escape trilogy) latest work might be his finest. AI: The Somnium Files is the game on the list this year with the most heart put into it. Consistently funny and over-the-top, a wonderful cast, and a really well executed sci-fi murder mystery. It makes me hope that Uchikoshi continues to make the kinds of games he wants to make, because you can definitely tell he had the most fun making this one.

7. Resident Evil 2 (Capcom)

Resident Evil 2 is the new gold standard for game remakes. I could go on and on praising it for how good it feels to play, the sound design, and the painstaking detail of recreating the original game from the ground up to be a third-person shooter. Quality of Life changes like the map marking items and telling you when a room is cleared and telling you when it’s okay to throw away key items are such fantastic additions. It gives me really high hopes for the RE3 Remake next year. Capcom’s hotstreak continues.

6. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (From Software)

Sekiro rightfully earns its spot as my second favourite FromSoft game. The Souls formula is still there, but the gameplay is fairly different now. Taking Bloodborne’s aggressiveness encouragement another step forward, Sekiro rewards not giving the enemies a chance to breathe more than ever. Boss battles are a tug-of-war of trying to break each other’s posture and perfect blocking to mitigate it. The dodge button pushes you forward by default and you often hope to have your attack blocked more than a it be a direct hit. Some of my favourite FromSoft bosses reside in this game with the final boss perhaps being my favourite overall. Level design is also at its best with the game finally giving you a greater range of movement and verticality with jumping and grappling. There’s even decent stealth mechanics. Sekiro was a really pleasant surprise and I hope they continue The Wolf’s story.

5. Judgement (Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio)

Judgement is a Yakuza game in all but name, and RGG Studio’s first one set in Kamurocho without Kiryu as the main character. After giving up being an attorney, Takayuki Yagami becomes a freelance detective and investigates a series of murders in the city with the help of his former law office and ex-Tojo clan friend Masaharu Kaito. Substories are framed as side cases that Yagami can take on to earn some extra money, and new mini-games like drone racing and the Paradise VR board game are incredible additions. Anyone who is a fan of the Yakuza series should really check this out, and newcomers can jump right in without prior knowledge. 

4. Disco Elysium (ZA/UM)

Disco Elysium has some of the best writing I have ever seen in a video game. As an amnesiac detective, you explore the rundown post-wartime district of Martinnaise trying to find who was behind the lynching of a mercenary before the situation gets out of control. What sets Disco Elysium apart from other RPGs in terms of gameplay is its character builds. As there is no combat, the 24 skills that you can put points into when you level up are all social skills. The higher you have various skills leveled, the more you will hear advice from them during conversation trees. A high Authority level will constantly remind you to tell people you are The Law, where a high level in Inland Empire will let you talk to inanimate objects to gain new perspectives. I also feel I have to give a nod to your partner throughout the game, Kim Kitsuragi. I’d rather not give anything away but they could not have written a better character to support you throughout your journey. I’ll likely be thinking about this game for a very long time.

3. Control (Remedy Entertainment)

I think Control flew under a lot of people’s radars until the publicity from the overwhelming number of Game Awards nominations. Control is a game for people who like SCP, psychokinesis powers, cool architecture, and a bit of Alan Wake. It wears its inspirations very blatantly on its sleeve and wraps a very cool story and even better side quests around them. It’s very stylish and has phenomenal lighting. Perhaps this is my Remedy bias but I really really adored this game and featured the coolest moment of the year for me. Please check it out if you get the opportunity.

2. Kingdom Hearts III (Square Enix)

Kingdom Hearts III has been a long time coming and what I think it nails best are the size and scale of the worlds. Olympus is the best its ever been with how much of the area outside the Colosseum you get to explore. The Caribbean is more expansive with boat combat that’s better than it has any right to be. Monstropolis has a great original story with some incredible tie-ins to the Kingdom Hearts plot. There’s a ton of incredible fanservice moments too for everyone waiting to see their favourite characters again. I still think a lot of it is really hype albeit cheesy, and it finally puts to rest an arc that has been going since the very first game. Kingdom Hearts isn’t over, but KHIII wraps a lot of things up in as satisfying of a way as they could for a story so expansive and often times convoluted. It’s very rare when a game that has been anticipated for so long not only doesn’t fumble it, but delivers on what I had hoped for, so I’m really glad it got to finally release this year.

1. Devil May Cry 5 (Capcom)

Speaking of games that I’ve been waiting a very long time for, DMC IS BACK! Every moment of DMC5 is a treat. Dante and Nero are at their most fun to play in this game, and V is a very cool addition both story-wise and gameplay-wise.This is the game from this year that I’ve kept going back to the most whether it’s for getting good at harder difficulties, or playing through bloody palace until floor 70 and give up ,or practicing with different weapons. It makes me happy to know that Platinum haven’t just been relegated to being the character action studio and that Hideaki Itsuno’s still got it. There’s no question that this is my Game of the Year and anyone who loves action games but hasn’t ever jumped into this series really needs to address that because DMC5 alone is worth it. 

That’s all for my GOTY 2019 Top 10. If you’ve read this far, thanks for doing so. I really enjoy writing these and there’s a lot to look forward to in video games next March year, so please join me again next time when we can do this all over again!

[mrslittletall]

Don’t tell me where to go.  Earlier I watched a video about the flaws in Pokémon Sun/Moon. One of them I heavily agreed with, that annoying red flag that indicates where you should go next. In an already very linear game.  Imo, it is just unneccessary. I barely am able to explore the world and even when I am allowed to go exploring, sooner or later I have to go back to the part where the latest roadblock was. I probably haven’t forgotten about it, because I am stuck in a small area. Also, Rotom Dex is reminding me constantly where to go anyway. So why is there this red flag on the map? It’s pointless.  Thinking about this, I started Trials of Mana to get the last spirit. The remake, not the original. And just like in Pokémon Sun/Moon, I got annoyed. There is always that glowing big star on the map, telling me where to go even though this game is as linear as Sun/Moon! The elfin elder told me to go the mana goddess statue in the northwest of the forest, I can press on minus and see a map with this exact same statue on it and still, a shiny glowing star points on it! It is unneccessary!  I played the original, the original didn’t had a map, the map was also divided in screens because old game and guess what? I still was able to found this mana statue! In fact, even just two weeks ago because I like to play the original with my husband.  Why are games so adamant to tell you where to go? Heck, even one of my favourite games, Okami, did it. Not often, but at a few points, mostly when you have to hurry (but actually have all the time in the world), a glowing red arrow shows in which direction you should run. This actually gets me out of the immersion. That giant red arrow doesn’t make any sense, especially when Okami normally never tells you where to go with a marker, you just can look into your log and normally get Issuns latest hint where to go, but you have to find out yourself just how to get there. And mostly, in this “hurry to a location” events you already know where the location is, because you have to run back to it!  I am getting more and more annoyed by this... do the game developer think we gamers are stupid? That we can’t find our way? That we have trouble when there isn’t a giant marker on the map, especially in linear games? Alright, now let’s talk about Open World games. One example I play atm is Death Stranding. That game actually TELLS me where I need to go, BUT, while I know where I need to head, the way to the location isn’t clear at all. Often you can’t just cross in a straight line, the world is in your way and you are just a basic human without any superpowers (ok outside of the whole BT sensing thing and not being able to die thing), but you get the gist.  The thing is, you have to go from point A to point B and have to figure out HOW you get there. Do you pack a bunch of ladders to scale the mountains in your way? Do you try to find a way around the mountains? Do you pack weapons to take out the MULE camp in your way or do you try to sneak through it? Do you try to avoid the timefall and the BTs or do you take them head on?  You have a lot of choices in this game how to handle the situation and it is beautiful. Moreso, the game profits from its online features. When you are alone, you can see and use structures of other players, you can see signs that warn you and you can see footpathes that have been created by other players. It really makes it fun to reconnect the world and connect with the other players you never see but know are there.  Alright, different game. Zelda Breath of the Wild. That game has a huge world. You are in a tutorial arena in the beginning, but after you got all your shieka stone apps, you are free to leave.  And that is meant literally. Once you are done with the tutorial, BotW lets you do WHATEVER you want. You can literally go straight to Hyrule Castle and defeat Ganon and it is a common speedrunner thing.  But you don’t have to defeat Ganon. The game gives you several objectives, like tame the titans or find the shrines or the memories.  Now, the only thing that downright points to where to go are the titans and they are actually pretty easy to spot from a hight point, because they are HUGE. Everything else? Find it on your own. You get a sensor for shrine and you get quests for them. Nothing ever points to them with a marker, you have to solve the hints and find the shrine yourself. The same for the sidequest of the game. You get pointed to who gave you the quest, which is a good thing because it isn’t easy to remember where they were, but the actual quest? Read the text and figure out where to go. Normally it is near the quest giver, so just exploring a bit will help.  And the memories! You have twelve photos and have to find the places they got shot at. So how do you find the needle in the haystack?  There is this painter in each main town and a few stables and you can show him the photos, he then gives you a hint just where to search! I pretty much found every memory with his hints, I just needed to look up the last memory that wasn’t on the shieka stone because it had been three years since I visited that area and I forgot where it was (I still remembered that it existed, so iconic did it look).  BotW gets praised a lot for his sense of freeness and I totally get why.  Ok, now let me talk about the last games for now...  Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Sekiro.  When I started Dark Souls, I was really upset. Why? Not because the asylum demon crushed my sorry ass five times, not because I thought I had to beat him with the sword hilt, not because of the boulder trap that killed me.  That game had no map! I would get so lost! I am HELPLESS without a map!  To my surprise... I was completely fine without the map. Sure, in the beginning I got awfully lost and stumbled to the skeletons, but then I found the Undead Burg. I fought myself through it, explored, remembered where which enemy was when I was running back to Taurus the 20th time (I really struggled, ok?) and the gameworld... just made sense.  It became a really aha-moment when the shortcuts clicked into place. Granted, the shortcuts aren’t a big part of the game anymore after the lordvessel, but the first half is beautifully done! Finding the shortcut back to Firelink, finding the back exit out of Blighttown, seeing how Anor Londo opens up, the shortcut in Sen’s Fortress, beautiful. That was what let me thought about Dark Souls as Metroidvania. That game is a Metroidvania. Sadly, Dark Souls 2 and 3 don’t have it as much anymore, especially Dark Souls 3 is a lot more linear, but still has loads of optional stuff to do for me and most importantly, never tells me where to go.  Bloodborne is a lot like the first Dark Souls and also different. Bloodborne has a lot more areas that are disembodied, but they have that beauty of the Metroidvania in them. One of the most mind baffling things was finding the back entrance to Iosefka’s clinic... coming from the Forbidden Woods! And the finding out, HEY, that is that gate I saw at the start of the game and couldn’t open!  Slowly, you open up Yharnam and even the other areas like the nightmares have cool shortcuts to find. It feels like your exploring got rewarded, that you don’t have to fight through all this enemies anymore, only a few, to get back to the boss.  Now let me talk about the last game... Sekiro.  This game opens up at a certain plot point and your only hints? You talk with Kuro and Emma and they tell you a few things they found out about. I was SO confused. I had no idea what they were talking about and where to go. So I decided to check the areas out they talked about and try to make sense of the riddles they told me.  I couldn’t find a lot at first and went back often to listen to their riddles, until I just went full risque and jumped into a pit only to find out that this indeed had been the right solution!  One by one, I found out how to find the other locations.  The game never pointed them out for me, I followed the hints and found them myself.  So, to conclude. Video games, please don’t tell me where to go.

[eggoreviews]

Playstation All Stars 2 - Dream Roster! (PART 1)

I love Smash a lot. And I really wish that PS All Stars was a bit, you know, better. A few mechanical tweaks and the addition of some sorely missed character could turn All Stars into a genuinely awesome fighter, so here’s my dream roster for if Sony did ever attempt to clean up the slight mess they made the first time.

Note: I’ve cut a few from the first game. I’m keeping it to one character per franchise. There’s 42 altogether (because I don’t know when to stop) so here’s the first 21!

Aloy (Horizon Zero Dawn)

Here’s a fairly obvious pick, with Horizon being one of the Playstation’s most recent flagship RPGs. The star of Sony’s answer to Breath of the Wild but with added machine animals, Aloy’s tale of discovering her place in her beautiful, post-apocalyptic world is certainly a heartfelt one and it’s easy to get attached to. Plus, she has her bow, spear, traps and focus chip, so the moveset just sort of makes itself.

Astro Bot (Astro Bot: Rescue Mission)

The arguable mascot of Playstation VR, I think Astro Bot would be an unusual fighter, yet a perfect fit into an All Stars sequel. I’m sure they can think of a cool moveset from Rescue Mission and his brief cameos in the VR Playroom! I mean, if Nintendo can weaponise the Wii Fit Trainer, Sony have it easy with Astro Bot.

Big Daddy (Bioshock series)

The first character I’m carrying over from the first game, I think Big Daddy is just such a surprising character that I didn’t have the heart to cut him out. He’s a cool looking robot and I really liked Bioshock Infinite. So Daddio stays.

Cloud (Final Fantasy VII)

In an act I can only describe as ‘big oof’, Nintendo managed to swipe up Cloud to appear in a certain other fighting series, despite the fact that Cloud is most heavily associated with Playstation. And his home game is the most iconic game on the PS1. Hey, I’m not saying I don’t want him in Smash (he’s my main I love my big sword twink), but can’t they share? He’s gotta be here too, come on.

Colonel Radec (Killzone series)

Being 100% honest right now, I know basically nothing about Killzone. But what I do know is this guy has a cool helmet and probably uses a lot of guns. So he can stick around I guess. Plus, I’ve been meaning to try Killzone out for a while.

Crash Bandicoot

As the previous mascot for the PS1, Crash was one of the most glaring omissions from the first game. He’s got enough different ways of jumping around and riding motorbikes to make for a cool moveset, so if they’re doing another one, Crash really does need to be onboard.

Dante (Devil May Cry series)

Dante is heckin cool and his moveset potential is awesome and that’s kind of all there is to it, so I think he kind of needs to come back. In terms of design, it doesn’t matter too much, but it would be REALLY cool if they either went back to the original PS2 design or to his new DMC5 model. Either way, Dante would be one people would miss.

Deacon St. John (Days Gone)

The protagonist in Sony’s upcoming zombie thing Days Gone seems like he’d pretty cool in a crossover fighter, that is if they can make him unique. I doubt having him run everyone over on his bike would quite cut it, but it seems like Days Gone is gonna be pretty good, hopefully good enough to justify his place here. Bring on the bike dad.

Delsin Rowe (InFAMOUS: Second Son)

I’ve replaced Cole MacGrath with the series’ most recent protagonist, Delsin Rowe. I feel like this chaotic rebel with big ol superpowers would fit just as well as Cole, but seems a little more recognisable due to him being a little more recent.

Doom Slayer (Doom)

A lot of people have been speculating that we could be seeing Doomguy in Smash, but I think there’d be much less need for censorship if we saw him in a PS All Stars. They wouldn’t even need to tone him down at all, he can just go full out gun. You can’t tell me that wouldn’t be fun.

Ellie (The Last of Us)

I mean yeah, there’s Joel, but I think Ellie would be the much cooler pick, especially now she’s all grown up in Part 2. Not the most obvious choice for an over the top crossover fighter, but The Last of Us is Playstation royalty, and by extension, Ellie. And hey, she has enough usage of cool weapons to keep her place on the roster so I would be more than down for this.

Emily Kaldwin (Dishonored series)

I think Emily is pretty much my most wanted character. I love Dishonored and I toyed around with Corvo in my head for a while, but ultimately settled on Emily because I think her powers are a bit cooler. Such an obvious fit if you think about it, with her cool shadow reach thing and all her weapons. Basically, she needs to be here.

Fat Princess

Who is Fat Princess? Does anyone actually know? Because I don’t. The pure enigma around her keeps her on the roster.

Geralt of Rivia (The Witcher series)

Monster hunter by trade. Wields two swords and a crossbow. Has access to several magic signs that allow to create magic traps or set things on fire. Plus, he’s the protagonist of one of the best RPGs of this console generation. Put him in pls.

Heihachi Mishima (Tekken series)

Another veteran I’m keeping, as I think the sequel would still need its representation from an actual fighting game. I mean, Nintendo got Street Fighter so it’s only fair Playstation get to keep Tekken. And no one’s gonna be mad, he’s from a fighting game so of course his moves would be cool.

The Hunter (Bloodborne)

It was either this guy or Solaire of Astora, so I thought I’d stick with the one that’s the PS exclusive. I imagine the Hunter as a fast-paced fighter who’s a bit jumpy, which would be a good contrast to some of the other heavier fighters. He’s got plenty going for him and he’s from a great game, so he seems an obvious choice.

Isaac Clarke (Dead Space)

Everyone’s favourite janitor who’s in way out of his depth, Isaac Clarke, is here to stay. Access to fun weapons and would probably be a nice break for him to fight Fat Princess rather than the necrofuckery he normally has to deal with. Oh, but don’t make him DLC this time.

Jak and Daxter

The poster boys of some of the best platforming on the PS2, these guys were clear picks for the first game and it’d be a little sad if you cut them from the sequel.

Joker (Persona 5)

I am BEYOND excited for my best boi to get into Smash, but it also makes a little too much sense he join in for an All Stars sequel. After all, P5 started life as and still is a PS4 exclusive, though I suppose that’s likely to change soon. Still, let him and Cloud join the fun too!

Kat and Dusty (Gravity Rush)

I have never played Gravity Rush, but I’ve heard that it’s pretty much amazing, so I thought I’d leave a spot for these two and carry them over. Plus, their designs are cool so I’m here for it.

Knack

Yeah, yeah, I know. Knack was kind of rubbish and Knack 2 was more rubbish. But how cool would Knack be in a fighting game? He could be a really technical fighter, switching between two separate movesets for his bigger and smaller forms, a bit like Pokemon Trainer in Smash. And he’s owned by Sony so he’d be easy to slot in. Sure the games weren’t great, but as a character concept, yes please.

So there’s the first half! Curious as to my other 21 picks? Drop in next week to see who they are! If you’ve got characters you’d like to see, let me know down below and we can all talk about a game that will probably never happen. Have a gr8 day.

[themonsterblogofmonsters]

Monsterblog Recommends: Aviators (Musician)

Previously - Monsterblog Recommends: Super Hexagon

As you’ve probably noticed from the last few I won’t just be recommending books and films and TV series for you guys. I have a lot of sections to my list of things to rec and I’m constantly adding to it.

I’ll say here and now that I have only one musician on the list.

[source]

1. What WHO the hell is Aviators?

Aviators is a musician. He started out on YouTube making fansongs for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (yes, I was in that fandom a while, no, I do not give you leave to judge me). A lot of his earlier stuff tended more dubstep and electronic, but as time went on he played more with rock music, alternative, and even some symphonic. As the MLP fandom kind of faded he moved more away from it, writing songs inspired by all kinds of things, from simple ideas, to other pieces of media - he did songs based on the Avengers, on Five Nights at Freddies, on Fallout. More recently he’s done songs based on ASOIAF/Game of Thrones, on Bloodborne, Dark Souls, Stranger Things. He’s done medleys and acoustic songs, he did an entire album of 80′s neon inspired synthwave about an uprising in a dystopian future (it’s called Stargazers, it’s fantastic) and some years he does Halloween-themed EPs in October.

And just about every single one of his songs is a) fantastic, b) fun and c) worth a listen to.

2. Why I’m recommending it.

^^ because of that. Aviators dabbles in a lot of genres and styles and a lot - and I mean a lot - of his songs have a decidedly cinematic feel. If I had to pick one album for you all to try it’d probably be Stargazers which is possibly my favourite thing he’s ever done, but his Fading Light single or the Aeterno collection of instrumental atmospheric stuff are both fantastic.

[source]

No matter what you like there is a good chance there’s at least one of his songs you’ll like, because he manages to give songs of one genre qualities of another. I personally tend to like songs with a strong beat but also a clear melody - slower paced stuff isn’t particularly my jam, which is often a problem for me, but Aviators’ reliably has one or both and it pulls me into songs I’d otherwise not particularly consider listening to. While there are other musicians who started out in MLP fandom before going their own way Aviators is one of those which I think has branched out most.

I’m also gonna tell you just how many Aviators songs I have on my iPod right now: I set all songs onto shuffle and of the last six songs playing three have been Aviators. So like... maybe I’m biased because I’ve listened to his stuff for years and its my go-to when I want stuff for a playlist to listen to when writing but also: I have so much of his discography - some of it physical some of it just MP3′s - that it takes up roughly half of the music I listen to on any regular basis entirely on it’s own.

3. Less Good Things / Trigger Warnings

I can’t really think of many to be honest, or what there are applies to very specific singular songs. The only general thing I can think of is the way that Aviators will sometimes play with how his voice sounds when editing his songs together, which for some people can be unnerving or just not to their taste - my friend, the mod of the on-hiatus @thepostmodernpottercompendium, finds Aviators hard to listen to for this exact reason - but this doesn’t mean his instrumentals and some of his acoustic stuff isn’t worthwhile.

As for any other warnings....

Aviators likes to write songs either based on a piece of media or about incredibly specific subject matter. One of the strongest hitting ones for me was “I Could Believe You”, a song about someone confronting the literal ghost of their abusive ex who died under mysterious circumstances (I did say incredibly specific):

But even this one, with the conflict over trust and whether you can or should believe someone who hurt you, the touch of warmer and more uplifting tone during those confrontational chorus parts but retaining a quieter tone throughout...

I don’t know. Something about it helped. Even his ones about dystopian futures and uprisings tend to have enough hope and uplifting tone to them that it mitigates the darker nature of the song’s topic and they tend to flow in a way that works.

4. Spoilers and Further Points

Uhhh N/A really, ha. The most spoiler is that he’s probably already working on the next album!

5. Further Reading

RIGHT. 

Aviators’ YouTube channel is over Here, you can find many but not all of his songs there. He also posts a good chunk of his remixes there as well, and even has a whole hour-long compilation of remixes he’s done titled Dusk (It’s really good). If you follow his tumblr, @aviatorsmusic, he sometimes posts songs and announcements over there as well, though he’s more active on his Twitter feed.

You can buy most of his songs on Bandcamp, including physical CDs in many a case. You can also listen to the songs there as well, before buying, if you want to see if you think it’s worth it to get the whole CD or just the songs you know you like. He is also on Spotify, for those of you using that platform.

Additionally, over the years Aviators has taken down some songs from Youtube, and even whole albums from Bandcamp. The Aviators Archive channels on YouTube - Here and Here - upload a lot of his old songs for those interested, as well as small samples and suchlike from his livestreams; things he played with but never ended up using.

Lastly, if you give Aviators a try and decide you like his stuff, he does have a Patreon, which you can find over Here.

[iain-games-term1]

Wednesday home study: Part 1 Review 3 games

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night: Castlevania Symphony of the Night is one of the two games that lends its name to the genre of Metroidvania, The other being Metroid Prime. In Symphony of the Night, or SOTN as it shall now be known, you play as Alucard, the son of Dracula. You return to Castlevania to face the returning evil. The game is a sort of open world in the same way the Dark Souls is an open world. It’s a labyrinthine explorative experience in which you make your way down a series of corridors, fighting enemies and jumping over things and collecting loot. Eventually, you stumble into a boss room and get flattened for a while. If you find you actually can’t beat that boss, you can follow a different path and go try another one. It’s all of my favourite things about Dark Souls, ostensibly my favourite game, except 2D, and therefore significantly easier to slide under the crack of a door to an unsuspecting victim. The combat is smooth, the music is genuinely terrific and the atmosphere, although not Dark Souls oppressive, is still pretty great. The one problem is that you can moonwalk everywhere and it’s faster than walking. But that seems like a pretty minor problem when faced with the rest of this game, which now that I’ve played it through properly, has ascended my ranks to my top 3 games, alongside Dark Souls (interchangeable with Bloodborne) and Subnautica. 

The Binding of Isaac: The Binding of Isaac is a randomly generated rogue-like dungeon crawler game, in which you play as Isaac, a boy neglected by his very christian mother and sent into a symbolic dungeon to fight demons. It’s a very simple game, but do not confuse that with easy. It’s very very hard. What with being a rogue-like and all, you get sent back to the very start as soon as you die, with a brand new dungeon being generated for you. You explore around these dungeons finding upgrades to make yourself stronger, killing enemies and trying to keep enough health or find enough health upgrades to get through the boss at the end of the dungeon. If you can beat it, you move onto the next dungeon. Being randomly generated, it doesn’t have the opportunity for environmental storytelling, which isn’t a problem, but means that there’s very rarely any opportunity for story of any kind, with the exception of a tiny bit of context at the very beginning. 

Hotline Miami: Hotline Miami is, without a doubt, one of the most fun games in the world. It combines a thumping 80′s synthpop soundtrack with gameplay so fast it leaves one’s brain behind. Hotline Miami is a top down, 2D violence ‘em up, set in Miami in the 1980′s. I feel like this may have been clear from my original description, but you can never be too clear. The core gameplay loop of Hotline Miami is that you start a level, your answering machine tells you to go kill a lot of people, so you go to a place and start killing lots of people. It’s all done through an implied psychedelic haze of drugs and synthpop, all expertly mixed with insanely high difficulty to make a beautiful, energetic challenging game. The high difficulty is countered by the fact that when you die, you mash the “r” button to restart almost immediately. The story is a largely light presence, but really comes together in a satisfying way towards the end. It’s not a very long game, but when you’re retrying a level for the eleven hundredth time, can really start to feel like one. Although not one of my favourite games ever, definitely worthy of recognition for the viscerally satisfying combat and, quite frankly, upsetting levels of pixel art gore. In fact, if it wasn’t so heavily stylised, I’d worry it was a little messed up in the head.

[raeofalbion]

11Qs meme

Tagged by: @littleblue-eyedbird (thank you so much! ^^)

Rules: Answer the questions, provide new questions and tag!

Gonna put it all under the cut!

1. What life-altering thing should every person get to experience at least once?

I’m torn between 1) having a friend who accepts you for you and doesn’t judge you, and 2) having the revelation that what other people think about you doesn’t matter in the long run and that the best thing you can do for yourself is to do what makes you happy.

2. In your opinion, what is the funniest word in the English language that you know?

I was going to say “gauche” because I love it and it’s one of my favorite words and it’s really fun to say, but, considering the current state of US politics, “honest politician” is funnier.

3. What never fails to cheer you up with you are in a funk?

Stilts, my cat. ^^

4. What movie or TV show title best describes your life up to this point?

Probably The Day After Tomorrow because procrastination and tragedy.

5. What are you afraid people see when they look at you?

That I’m a terrible person, not worth knowing or being around.

6. Favorite day of the year?

HALLOWEEN.

7. What character (from any series, book, movie, game etc) do you most relate to and why?

Oh gods. Oh no. Like...half of the people I’m going to tag know this character and that he’s a pain and you’ll never talk to me again after this, but: Reaver. Mainly because I, too, have been pretending to be someone for so long that the act has become the real me and looking back at who I was before inspires nothing but dread and guilt and the urge to run as far away as possible. We both also have great hair, a wonderful (terrible) sense of humour, can be hams for attention, don’t sleep 90% of the time, are too sarcastic for our own goods, can clear a room in seconds when we’re angry, and no one can agree on our eye colour. I also don’t answer to my real name and am exactly the type of dumb ass that would sell their soul for something and end up ruining everything on accident. I might be...like...5% nicer, though. There; my deep dark secret is out.

8. What genre of music would you describe yourself as?

Probably jazz. Can be sleepy and calm but also warm and relaxed but also SUPER LOUD SUPER ANXIOUS GOTTA GO FAST HIGH ENERGY.

9. What is a video game you’ve been meaning to play, but haven’t gotten around to yet?

Bloodborne!

10. What is something you have tried to get yourself to like but you can’t seem to stop hating/disliking?

First person games. I’ve tried really hard to play them and enjoy them, but they always end up making me dizzy and migraine-y and I just never quite feel like they’re worth it, even if I enjoy the story.

11. Grossest food you’ve ever eaten?

Under-cooked eggs. I have sensory issues and I love eggs over easy (even though they make me sick the rest of the day) and oh, gods, taking a bite out of the whites and assuming it’s cooked through but instead it’s raw and my mouth is full of cold slime and I’m gonna stop there because I feel sick just thinking about it.

New questions:

1. What’s your favourite hot drink?

2. What’s one thing about your fandom(s) that you would like to change and why?

3. What’s one thing about adult life you wish they would have warned you about before growing up? (If you’re not an adult: what’s one part of being an adult that frightens you?)

4. What’s one piece of media (ie: books, shows, movies, music) you recently have discovered and how do you feel about it?

5. Would you rather have 1 goblin-sized bee or 10,000 bee-sized goblins?

6. If you could have any animal, real or not, what would it be?

7. What’s one thing that frustrates you about reading/writing?

8. Do you think fandoms have a right to force censorship on content-creators? Why? (Note: censorship =/= asking for things to be properly tagged)

9. If there was a candle inspired by you, what scent would it be?

10. What’s one thing you’ve always been creeped out by even though, logically speaking, you know it shouldn’t unnerve you?

11. What is, to you, the perfect living space? (Describe in detail, if possible?)

Tagging:

@canadian-riddler @ancientofaeons @pouncethehunter @evaoswald @grimlock1972 @qisms @balverine @kiramartinauthor @lozzlogan and anyone else who wants to do the thing.

[entergamingxp]

Streets of Rage 4 review

If you ask me what it is that made Sega’s games really sing when they were in their 90s pomp, I’d settle on just one thing. It’s the swagger, that cocky self-assuredness backed up with an impeccable sense of style. Any doubt that Streets of Rage began life as a Final Fight clone is soon erased if you look at the similarity between the two leading men, but could Cody Travers ever match the sheer attitude of Axel Stone as he piled through neon-slicked streets full of hoodlums in step to Yuzo Koshiro’s searing techno beats?

Streets of Rage 4 review

Developer: Lizardcube/Guard Crush

Publisher: Dotemu

Platform: Reviewed on PS4

Availability: Out April 30th on PS4, Xbox One, PC and Switch

There might have been better Sega games in the 90s, but there’s no better 90s Sega games than the Mega Drive’s Streets of Rage trilogy. From the soundtrack to the set-up to the styles that characters wear – this is stonewashed denim through and through – Streets of Rage and its two sequels embody so much of the 90s spirit, something backed up by the fact that this is a series that never saw beyond the decade.

Until now, that is, but Streets of Rage 4 is more than a belated sequel. Like Sonic Mania before it, this is a fan-made game that’s at once a faithful and fully-endorsed follow-up to a Sega classic as well as a little more besides. And as with Sonic Mania before it, Streets of Rage 4 proves that, sometimes, the fans really do know best.

Streets of Rage 4 in all its glory.

And here, with the retro filter applied, with a look more in keeping with the originals.

These are some seriously qualified fans, mind. Lizardcube is on hand to help with the visual side, bringing a style and approach you’ll find familiar from its previous – and quite remarkable – touch-up job on Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap. This is, like Wonder Boy, a traditional 2D experience served up with exquisite hand-drawn artwork, and for any early misgivings about how well-suited the approach would be to the scuzzier world of Streets of Rage, I can say that it most definitely works.

An optional ‘retro’ filter places Streets of Rage 4 more closely in line with its forebears, and when viewed this way it’s clear the aesthetic of the originals has been nailed, filthy streets and all. It’s as if Streets of Rage got a follow-up in the late-90s on Capcom’s CPS3, with screen-filling sprites and gloriously detailed backdrops that are up there with the sublime Street Fighter 3. Really, though, it’s a shame not to experience Streets of Rage 4’s artwork in its full unfiltered glory.

It’s where you’ll get to see artist Ben Fiquet’s work at its best, and where you can appreciate a take that’s sympathetic to the originals while having its own spark. See how Axel Stone has piled on a few pounds of middle-aged bulk, or how Adam Hunter has been revived and redesigned for his first outing since the very first game, or how even lowly grunts like the Signals with their bright mohawks and hunched shoulders are not only perfectly preserved but lovingly updated. Which is to say nothing of the locations that are revisited, the characters that are returned to, the countless cameos and… Well, I think it’s best you uncover a lot of this yourself.

It’s worth pointing out that Streets of Rage 4 isn’t an exercise in hollow nostalgia. As divisive as the new artstyle proved at first look, it also suggested that Streets of Rage 4 isn’t afraid to forge its own path, and really it’s that willingness to push the old formula into new territory that makes this project sing. On a surface level, you’ve got two new characters joining stalwarts Axel and Blaze in the opening line-up, with Floyd an analogue of old heavies such as Max with a little bit of Streets of Rage 3’s Zan thrown in with his bionic powers, while Cherry is a straight-up replacement for the nimble, combo-friendly Skate.

Except Cherry is better than Skate ever was, partly because – and apologies if you think this is sacrilege – Streets of Rage 4 is simply a better game than its predecessors. Everything feels just as you remember it – the hit-pauses are the same, your favourite attacks are in the right place and pack just as big a punch as they ever did – but they’ve been polished up and and built thoughtfully outwards.

It wouldn’t be Streets of Rage without a banging soundtrack, and this more than delivers – veterans Yuzo Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima deliver some brilliant paranoid techno, and they’re joined by a handful of guest composers who are clearly relishing the chance to score such an iconic series.

Combos are extended, in glorious excess in Cherry’s case as she bounces between enemies before grinding out a crunchy power chord on her guitar for wider area-of-effect move to buy some more space for the next run of attacks. Specials eat into your lifebar, as they did before, but now you can win back that health by keeping up the aggression, Bloodborne-style, while enemies can now be juggled and bounced off walls. And good god the sheer amount of attitude that’s been squeezed into the frame as she goes in for an aerial punch, and the resulting cruuuuuuuunnnncchhh. It feels as good as any beat ’em-up ever has.

For all that you’ve got to thank Guard Crush Games who’ve dealt with the nuts and bolts of Streets of Rage 4, and who proved their credentials in the genre with Streets of Fury, a grotesque but gripping spin on the beat ’em-up that cropped up on Xbox Live Indie Games before it was polished for a PC release. There’s a reverence for the source material, and with that a deep understanding of where there was room for improvement. It’s small, subtle things such as how enemies no longer disappear off-screen when they’re in play, or how when things get busy you never lose sight of where you are and where the threat is coming from next.

Couch co-op is, of course, a thing, and it’s fairly straightforward finding an online match too.

There’s imagination and flair in the stage designs and set-pieces too – skirmishes on airborne freighter planes that occasionally drop a few thousand feet and render you weightless, fights on building sites where you can set wrecking balls in motion and have them wipe out entire mobs and plenty more besides. It is, by the genre’s nature, a short game – there are some 12 levels that can be seen through in a couple of hours – but it’s bolstered by online co-op and battle modes and plenty of secrets to uncover. And, quite honestly, Streets of Rage 4 feels so good that a single playthrough is far from enough.

It’s a brand of action that’s eminently readable, and perhaps the very best thing isn’t just how it picks up the baton from a series that’s been abandoned for too long – Streets of Rage 4 does such an effective job it recontextualizes those original games and makes it that much easier to understand what it is that makes them so special.

For too long I used to think the beat ’em-up genre died a death all those years ago for good reason, and that this was a brand of game best left alone in the 90s. With its improvements, embellishments and above all reverence for the originals, Streets of Rage 4 makes me realise the error of my ways as it reframes the beat ’em-up as the forefather of the action genre that lives on today in the likes of Bayonetta and Devil May Cry – games born from the same mentality, and with that same swagger. Streets of Rage 4 has all that and then some. This is more than a mere revival of a once-loved series. Streets of Rage 4 is quite simply the best of the bunch.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/04/streets-of-rage-4-review/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=streets-of-rage-4-review

[mrslittletall]

Title: A Storm is coming (Chapter 12) Characters: Chosen Undead/Dragon Slayer Ornstein Word Count: 2.998 AO3-Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16603610/chapters/46854775 Previous chapter: https://mrslittletall.tumblr.com/post/185911951349/title-a-storm-is-coming-chapter-11

Summary: It's the last night in the cathedral.

(Author's note: Again, I can only thank your continued support for my story. Ornstein and Tempest will go back out into the action soon. Means I need to do some more research about the game areas, so updates could be slow, sorry. Along with me having two other WIPs and being in a large Bloodborne mood lately.)

When Ornstein returned to the cathedral after Gwyndolin had dropped the illusion of the sun and the moon rose, he decided to stop by at the old silver knight ask box. It wasn't possible that there was any message in it, Smough had been the last one to ever use it and... Ornstein didn't want to think about it. Regardless, he felt like he wanted to look into it one last time before he would be on the road for some while and felt a flush of surprise when he indeed saw a note lying in it.

Slowly, he grabbed the note, unfolding it, facing an unfamiliar handwriting.

“Thank you for the training and to be willing to stay around me. I made me feel so much more secure and happier. I am looking forward to our quest.”

That could only be.. the little storm. Ornstein read the note again. And another time. There seemed to be some warmth blooming in his chest. Finally, he folded it back together and slipped it into his armour.

After Ornstein had looked at the box, he made his way to the kitchen and was greeted with a mouthwatering smell. Tempest appeared in the door frame, cheerily smiling at him: “You have been out for quite some time. I even waited for you.”

“We are going out tomorrow and I wanted to take a look at Anor Londo again.” Who knew when Ornstein would see it again.

“I have cooked your favourite food and even prepared a surprise for later.” Tempest put a bowl from which the mouthwatering smell came right in front of him. Ornstein determined the dish in it as a fish-vegetable-stew. With trout and carrots. Some of his favourite ingredients.

“Thank you.”, Ornstein said, starting eating. And having trouble to keep his face straight. The dish was so extraordinary well made, that his face automatically wanted to turn into a smile. It even reminded him of... Smough's cooking.

“How do you like it?”, Tempest asked, both hands on the table, his upper body basically laying on it, voice shaking with excitement.

“It's... good.”, Ornstein answered. It wasn't just good. It was fantastic, tasty, probably the best meal Tempest had ever cooked. But Ornstein couldn't get himself to admit it. He apparently didn't need to, because Tempest already smiled brightly at the rather lackluster compliment.

“I am glad.”, Tempest grinned. “I gave it my all for this meal.”

That was more than apparent. Ornstein didn't answer anymore because he was too busy with eating, he even asked for seconds, which made Tempest even vibrating more than he already had. It turned out to be... a comfortable silence. Ornstein didn't mind that Tempest was staring at him while eating, it even felt... cozy. It was nice to have some company. That was what the little storm was. Ornstein thought back at the note that had made him feel warm. No, he wasn't attached. He was company. Just company.

Once Ornstein was finished with the second serving, he wanted to get up to retreat to his room, already a lecture on his tongue for Tempest to go rest too, when the small Undead gestured for him to sit back down.

“I have a surprise prepared, remember?”, he said and Ornstein swore he was vibrating even more. If this would continue, it wouldn't surprise Ornstein if Tempest would become a literal storm and just fly away. His excitement was unmissable and also kind of... cute. He shouldn't find him cute. He wasn't attached. No, Ornstein was indeed not attached to the little storm.

Ornstein still was questioning himself what kind of surprise Tempest had for him, he surely hadn't trained himself to master spear techniques when he had been busy cooking, when he came back with the plate full of cookies.

Cookies in sheep form.

Ornstein stared at Tempest aghast. “What... I have literally told you that I like sheep only this morning. How did you manage to prepare this?!”

Tempest sat down opposite to Ornstein while the dragon slayer picked one of the sheep cookies up, eyeing it curiously. Tempest even had used a sugar coating to give the sheep cookies a woolly look.

“I grew up in a tavern. It was usual that we got requests to make a meal and dessert in a short time. It had to be done in a few hours so we didn't had much time to think about what we did. I decided to make these cookies these mornings, when you told me about liking sheep and because of the cookie book I found.”

The small Undead carefully laid a book down on the table. Ornstein recognized it instantly.

“Artorias...”, he said, finally taking a bite of the cookie. That was it. That was the taste of Artorias' cookies. Not even Smough had been able to recreate this exact same taste. Ornstein had a hard time to not break out into nostalgic tears.

“I... have to apologize. I shouldn't have taken it. I should lay it back to where it was. I just always enjoyed making sweets the most and wanted to try out one of the recipes.”, Tempest said, but Ornstein quickly shook his head.

“No, keep it... I am sure Artorias would have loved for someone to take over his recipes.”

Even though Tempest would eventually become fuel for the first flame, Ornstein still felt that it would be better to give the cookie book to him. To a person who appreciated it. In the cathedral it would just lie around and get more and more dusty.

“These are... very good.”, Ornstein said once he was done eating the first cookie. “You are surely better at cooking than at fighting. Speaking of... did you mention that you grew up in a tavern?”

Tempest nodded. “Yes, just me and my mother. I always helped out with cooking and serving. I always thought one time I would take over the tavern once my dear mother retired.”

“Then... how did you die?”

Tempest face fell at the sudden question but brightened up instantly. “Oh and here I thought you would NEVER ask this question!”

He straightened himself up in his chair. “You know that I am from Astora. One day there was an attack from a giant beast.”

“The beast of the evil eye.”, Ornstein nodded. “That is well known, the story even made its way to Anor Londo. Is his how you died?”

Tempest shook his head. “No. But a lot of elite knights and soldiers died that day. So when there were rumours about a rivalling country invading, the young folks of Astora got recruited into a hastily constructed army. They gave us a brief course how to wield a sword, some armour and then we were thrown into battle.”

Tempest smile looked sad when he told the next part: “Of course I didn't stand a chance. I died before I could even strike down one single foe.”

“... And then you came back...?”

A nod. “Yes. Turned out I was cursed by the dark sign. Felt kind of strange, getting up after having died. Have been very confused. Of course I knew about that the Undead are all shipped to the Asylum. So I went to my best friend back then. I probably also did had a crush on him.”

Ornstein felt a pang in his chest about the mention that Tempest did had a crush once. That.. that wasn't right. Of course he could have a crush. It wasn't like they were attracted to each other.

“But what do you know, when I told him everything and asked for help, he turned traitor and I got caught and shipped away.”

Tempest put both hands into the air and shook his head.

“Needless to say I didn't had my crush on him after that. And here I thought we were friends.”

Why was Ornstein feeling relieved hearing this? Just why?

“I don't even know how long I have been in that cell, long enough to almost hollow for sure. Until this Astora elite knight dropped me the key to my cell. On a corpse. Shocked my mind right back into my body.”, Tempest finished his story.

“An elite knight at the Asylum?”, Ornstein asked. “How curious, must have been an Undead too. But why did he free you? I mean, you don't feel like the, uh... right choice.”

Tempest had gotten a few more muscles in their training, but even with a bit of military armour on, it must have been apparent how thin he was. He wasn't a fighter. Ornstein suddenly had a newfound admiration that he actually made it this far. Which turned into shame instantly when he remembered that he indeed lost to the little storm.

Tempest shrugged. “If I would have known that. Maybe I was the only one left with a clear mind? When I explored the asylum, all I could find were hollows. A lot of them didn't even move anymore. Even that elite knight was going hollow. He gave me his Estus flask.”

Tempest fell silent for a short few seconds.

“Before I got crushed five times by that demon before I saw that there was a door I could run through. Back then I almost already lost hope. How should I be able to get past this thing only having a sword hilt with me?”

“I am astounded that you even tried to fight a demon with a sword hilt alone.”, Ornstein said.

“Look, I thought I had no other choice!”, Tempest replied with a heated voice. “It was either going forwards or going back to that cell and hollow for good. I preferred to go forward.”

“And you eventually made it.”, Ornstein stated. Tempest just nodded.

“I still feel like I wasn't the right choice. Chosen Undead? I don't feel chosen.”, he laid both hands on the table and placed his head on them, sighing. “Maybe being chosen just means that you are the one who made it...”, he murmured and Ornstein froze at how close Tempest came to the truth with this assumption.

“Anyway, I better prepare for tomorrow.”, Tempest said, raising his head. “Enjoy your cookies!”

And with that, Tempest ran off and left Ornstein alone with the cookies. The dragon slayer picked another one up, thinking about what Tempest had told him before taking a bite.

He better should prepare for tomorrow too.

---

Tempest was back in his room, looking at the different armour sets he had picked up on his journey. He probably could have kept wearing Ciaran's old clothes, but for one, he felt a bit disrespectful wearing them and for the other, they actually were a tiny bit tight in his crotch area and a bit too wide in the chest area. It just was apparent that these clothes originally had been made for a woman, even though their size must have been roughly the same.

Tempest remembered that Ornstein had told him that speed came before protection, especially because he was such a small target. So Tempest decided to discard any plate armour or chainmail out at once. This left any sets made out of cloth or leather.

Inspecting the ones made out of cloth, Tempest decided that he still valued a bit more of protection. He settled on a set he had picked up in the lower undead burg. A black leather set, probably once having been owned by a thief. It looked very close to Ciaran's old clothes, but it fit him better, probably once had been belonged to another male.

He even put on the mask, but when he looked into the mirror, he found that he looked too much like a delinquent, so he decided to take it off. It didn't matter if anyone saw his face anyway. And he didn't had to fear scars, because he could heal any wound with Estus.

Still, having his head not protected at all... He looked back into his belongings searching for a suitable helm. After he tried on a few, Tempest decided to go with the Gargoyle helm. It was made out of bronze and fit just right over his head and it even looked pretty good without hiding his face completely.

It probably wasn't the best defense wise, but it was light enough to not feel uncomfortable and it would at least prevent his head to be split open.

Now he needed to pick out a weapon. It didn't take Tempest long to decide, he had a newfound fondness of the silver knight straight sword, mostly because they had trained with it a lot. Even though Ornstein had trained him to not rely on a shield, he still felt more secure with one and picked out a simple knight's shield.

Tempest felt secure in his outfit, so he could put the others back in the bottomless box. Would be a few trips back to the bonfire. Sighing, he picked up what he could carry at once and got on his way.

After a few trips, Tempest was damp with sweat, but at least he had put every armour set back into the bottomless box. Now he only needed to wait for the night to pass.

Maybe he should take another bath? Who knew when they would get back into the convenience of the Anor Londo cathedral. But what if Ornstein was in the bath?

Tempest technically could just enter the woman's bath, it wasn't like there was anyone, but... he even kind of hoped he would run into Ornstein again in the bath. So he quickly got a towel, some soap and a basin along with a light night shirt he wanted to put on later, it was more comfortable running around in these at night and made his way to the bathroom.

When he entered, Tempest had to realize with disappointment that Ornstein wasn't hear. Maybe he already had bathed. Maybe he didn't want a bath today. Maybe he would come in later. Whatever, Tempest mainly came here to clean himself up. Still, after he had made sure to clean every last corner of his body, the small undead decided to stay a while longer but the dragon slayer never came. Tempest eventually left the bath and decided to wait out the rest of the night in his room. He didn't need to sleep anymore, but laying down and closing his eyes helped him drift off and that made the nights pass faster.

The next morning Tempest prepared breakfast. It was the last time. He knew they would go back into the archives. They would go back fighting. He would probably die again. Tempest would have loved to just stay like this. Forever. But he knew that it wasn't his fate.

“When fate means having to die again and again and again, then it can suck my ass.”, Tempest murmured while cooking, slightly turning his head to the site only to see that Ornstein had appeared in the kitchen door staring at him.

“Would you have been one my silver knights, you would have needed to pay in the swear jar.”, he casually said while strolling over to the table. “But you aren't and I feel you. Fate can indeed suck my ass too.”

Now it was at Tempest to stare. “And you don't need to pay in the swear jar?”, he said while while stirring the pot. “Besides, you have said that Seath is a pain in the ass back in the archives. Shouldn't you pay double?” Ornstein chuckled.

“I am the captain. Besides, there isn't any use for hard coins anymore.”

“Fair.”, Tempest said, watching the soup swirl. “So... why do you think about fate... like this?”, Tempest asked.

Ornstein sighed. “Just look around you. This ghost of a town should tell you everything you need to know.”

Tempest didn't need any further explanation. Once Ornstein had been a legend, a hero. The dragon slayer. A respected knight with countless more knights under his command. Now... the city was empty. Ornstein's companion were all dead or had left. The person he shared the most special bond with was no more and had fallen to Tempest's own blade.

“I am sorry.”, he simply said. Ornstein waved with his hand, as if saying “Forget about it.” Tempest finished the soup, filled it in a bowl and brought it over to Ornstein. He had decided to cook a simpler meal today. Maybe Ornstein was nervous.

Why should he be nervous? That man is the freaking legendary dragon slayer? A voice whispered in Tempest's head, but he still wanted to take this into consideration.

After all, in these past few days he had learned that the dragon slayer was softer than he let on.

While Ornstein was spooning the soup, he asked: “So, tell me how we should tackle our mission at the archives.”

Tempest took a deep breath and the spoke: “The archives is littered with crystal hollows, so we split up to take care of them one by one and only move on when we cleared out a room. I won't wander off on my own. Seath is a dirty hoe and we should only face him when we have found out how we can hurt him. I will obey your every command, but in return you will listen to me when I have a request.”

Ornstein nodded at the end of the tirade of words. Tempest had noticed that Ornstein had frowned when he called Seath a dirty hoe, but he remembered that one day Ornstein had told him all about the paledrake.

“Very good.”, Ornstein simply said. “We will leave 30 minutes after I finished eating, so get your things ready.”

Tempest nodded and was on his way. Next chapter: https://mrslittletall.tumblr.com/post/186932649499/title-a-storm-is-coming-chapter-13-fandom-dark